No Word of God is Void of Power

The Power is always there. When man comes to realize this he will see how he has brought so many unhappy experiences into manifestation through misinterpreting the Power, thus seemingly causing it to act in a negative instead of a positive way; but he has misinterpreted the Power, and the Power always works.

We see, then, that anything in the manifest world is held there by the Power, God—the One Power—although the results, through misinterpretation, may seem to be evil. God is impersonal. Power falls on the just and the unjust alike. It is the one power of the universe, irrespective of how it is being interpreted. It takes as much energy to sustain the image and likeness of sickness, poverty, and in harmony in your universe as it does to bring out the opposite.

As long as we see two powers in the universe, one which must be destroyed by the other, we will have a constant battle, and we will work in a maze, searching to find the cause of evil, and its cure. A thousand inconsis­tencies will confront us and argue against the chances of life. But when we recognize the fact that there is but one Power operating in and through the universe, we will easily see how and where we have misapplied this power and brought out the so-called evil conditions.

It is quite plain, then, that we are not allied to the army of “over-comers,” for they are all fighting against that which they are holding into being by accepting it as something to be destroyed. Is there any­thing in a God-created universe that needs to be destroyed? And could you destroy anything that was created by God?

Time after time we are shown the Truth, but our eyes are veiled by the belief in two powers, and we cannot perceive the principle which is given to us. The Power that seemed to make Moses’ staff a serpent, a fearful thing, caused him to pick it up and turn it into a rod of support and guidance. No one would be so stupid as to think the rod he cast down suddenly became possessed of the devil, or a separate power, and then became charged with the God-power when picked up. Every evil condition can be caught up, as it were, and when the Power is recognized as good the appearances of evil depart instantly, just as they disappeared in the case of the serpent.

Recall to your mind the story of Jacob, struggling in the darkness with two powers, holding on to his projected thought as a personal problem, and fighting it with his so-called God-power, thus allowing no chance of ever getting rid of it. But the morning finally came to him; he perceived what was taking place and so he loosed it and let it go. It was not holding him, he was holding on to the belief in it, and he had to “let”it go. Everything must finally be accomplished by the “let” process, even the getting rid of the so-called evil appearances in our uni­verse. Who has courage to dare to “let” a thing go before he has fought against it all night as Jacob did? See the contrast of fighting all night, and “letting go “in the morning. “Awake thou that sleepeth.”

After we have spent years of fighting, how very sweet and peaceful comes the command to us, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Where is this Me?

“God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes.” All the struggles you have had which have brought endless disappointments shall be forgotten when you come to the under­standing that you are Spirit, belonging to a universe of one Power.

The Kingdom of Heaven is made up of little children, not in years, but in conscious­ness, who are able to “let” a thing take place instead of “making or fighting” to bring it about.

“All foolishness and talk,” say the wise and learned, and so it is to them; but what is that to thee? Never mind. If you have seen the light, walk in the light, and “fret not yourself because of evil,” nor yet, because of the lack of understanding of another. Works are more priceless than words—by the works shall they be convinced, so con­tinue in the works.You shall reap when you can forget yourself enough to care naught about the reaping.

“Of much learning there is a weariness,” and nothing is more wearisome than the thought that we must constantly seek God, or constantly affirm good, or constantly be doing some sort of meditation to get in touch with him. Are we never going to drop the belief of being separated from God, and begin to be the thing? If we are Spirit, and Spirit is God, the knowledge of this is enough. The very power that is reaching after God is God, if God is all.

We need to be more consistent. Thou­sands will say, “God is all,” and then pro­ceed to give ways and means of finding him. Some diet to find him; some do exercises; some reel off yards and yards of affirmations and denials; and some recognize him as the one Power and are at peace.

Being blown to and fro, like a feather in the breeze, man can find no peace until he comes to a full acknowledgment of the all good. When he comes to this clear realiza­tion of the one Power, he can see how the transformation takes place and understand better how the “wrath of man shall bless thee,” and how he may “entertain angels unawares.”

“Awake thou that sleepeth.”

Gradually man sees that his universe is controlled by his attitude toward it. If he judges from appearances he finds everything wrong; but the moment he comes to the righteous judgment, he sees God in every­thing—hence heaven—here and now. And this very seeing through the mystification of his false conclusions causes the good to appear where formerly appeared evil.

Then you glimpse the plastic nature of the relative universe in which you live, which is constantly in a state of change, and which is held there by thought. What you release in consciousness is released in the manifest realm. Why is one man able to go into a lion’s den without fear and another frightened at the mere thought of it? Change your attitude toward a thing and the thing changes toward you. Your attitude will determine what it will be, and how it will re-act to you.

The person whom you consider your best friend, someone else may consider his worst enemy. The man is the same man, but it is your attitude which determines what the reaction shall be, so that the person that you like exceedingly someone else cannot even tolerate. Why is this?

A child may play fearlessly on the hole of an asp, but you probably would not. Why? History and legend are full of stories of children being cared for by wild and ferocious beasts. What you have in thought is pictured forth in your universe, without a question of a doubt. False education in the belief of two powers has brought you into a con­sciousness of fear. Yes, “a little child shall lead them,” because he recognizes only good.

Our outer world is only the out-picturing of what we conceive God and his universe to be. We do not like to accept this state­ment at first, because we are sure that we have a very high idea of God and his king­dom. Those that hear the Voice will “leave their nets.” Why stay longer by them when you have fished all night and caught nothing in waters which are proved to you (in the morning) to be filled with fishes. Having eyes we see not. Until the morning light of the isness of all comes to us, we do not know that we stand in the midst of plenty, where (in the night) there appeared to be nothing.

We are glad to leave our struggles when the light comes, and follow after the Master into the Kingdom of Good. No matter what the sense testimony says, we have seen the light, and the former things have passed away. As within, so without; as above, so below, look to the realities of the all good (God) and turn not back again to the beliefs and appearances of the mist which watered the whole face of the earth.

“If God is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity,” how can you perceive it? Why waste any time trying to get rid of that which God does not know to exist? Why will you grovel in the dust at the feet of a tyrannical God, calling yourself a poor worm, begging for mercy, when you as a Son of God should come boldly to the Throne of Grace? “Throne of Grace” is a glorious expression and one which needs much contemplation.

Do not approach your God with fear, but with reverence and with joy. The Father comes part way to meet the soul which ap­proaches him in joy. The man of Spirit has never fallen, but has always been upright and perfect. The Persians say: “Until you have forgotten that you, or your brother, has ever sinned, you cannot be a Master.” It does not say, “until you have forgiven the sin,” but it means you must come to the clear understanding that the man of God (the real, or spiritual man) is incapable of ever having sinned.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every man’s mouth is the mouth of God, in one sense of the word, and when man comes to know this he will see the truth of the statement, “ye shall eat your own words.”

Many people spend much time dieting, thus hoping to become spiritual; but the withholding from material food accomplishes nothing, because they eat a million negative words at the same time. “Fasting” is not watching what comes in, but what goes out of the mouth. “Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out defileth or maketh a man.”Many times have we heard excuses made for an irritable, quarrelsome, childish fit of temper, with the explanation that the person displaying these qualities was on a fast. If you talk to such people they will tell you they are building up a new body by fasting from the grosser foods. Do you suppose for one moment that a mind full of irritation and anger is any more able to build a spiritual temple than a stomach full of the grossest foods?

The Mind within knows perfectly the food it has most need of, and man has only to listen and he will fast or feast in accordance with this inner guidance; this does not in any sense condemn or condone the benefits of fasting. What might be effective for one might be harmful for another. We are all wonderful temples, but how can I tell you what the temple of your body needs, or insist that you follow my way of attaining spiritu­ality. “When the blind leads the blind they both fall into the ditch.”When you come to heed the Voice within, you will have wonderful seasons of fasting, but these will be seasons of newness and freshness of soul; they will be seasons of singing and joy-giving, for you will then be feeding on the heavenly manna.

 

Walter C. Lanyon