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Twelve Powers of Man
Chapter 3
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Strength--Stability--Steadfastness
WHEN the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his
goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come
upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole
armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
Jesus gave the foregoing illustration of a strong man's
being overcome by a stronger. The incident is mentioned in
three of the Gospels, those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It
is usually interpreted as illustrating in a general way the
overcoming of evil, but the peculiar identification of the
strong man in his court (or house), and the necessity of
overcoming him, hint at a deeper significance. One who has
studied man as an aggregation of personalities readily
identifies the "strong man" as one of the twelve foundation
powers that make up the manifest man. Among the apostles of
Jesus the strong man is designated as Andrew, brother of
Peter. The Greek meaning of Andrew is "strong man."
The development of the natural world from coarser to finer
types in vegetable life and in animal life is paralleled in
many respects in the unfoldment of man. The source of
everything is in the realm of ideas; a knowledge of this
fact, coupled with faith
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in the working power of the unseen, makes man greater than
all other expressions of Divine Mind. However, knowledge of
the law of mind evolution does not relieve man of the
necessity of refining and transmuting the various types of
man that he has brought forth, and of which he is the
epitome.
The Jehovah man is constantly making the Adam man and
breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. The Adam
man exists in the subconsciousness as a multitude of men:
The wise man and the foolish man, the kind man and the
cruel man, the loving man and the hateful man, the stingy
man and the generous man, the hungry man and the full man,
the happy man and the troubled man, the weak man and the
strong man, the good man and the bad man, the live man and
the dead man, the poor man and the rich man, the timid man
and the courageous man, the sick man and the healthy man,
the old man and the young man, the erratic man and the sane
man--these, and a thousand other types of man as active
personalities, occupy the consciousness of every human
being. Every male has within him the female and every
female has within her the male. This fact is admitted by
physiology, substantiating the Genesis record of the ideal
creation of man as "male and female," and his expression in
Adam and Eve as the male and female in one man. The fact
was corroborated by the Great Teacher when He said, "Have
ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made
them male and female?"
The "strong man fully armed," referred to by
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Jesus, is the strength and stability in man. In the natural
man he is manifest as physical strength, but in the
regeneration he is overcome and his possessions are divided
or given to the other faculties as a nucleus around which
the higher forces gather. The "stronger than he" who takes
away the "whole armor" in which the strong man trusted is
spiritual strength. The overcoming of Goliath by David
illustrates the mastery of the spiritual over the material.
Goliath trusted in his armor, which represents the
protective power of matter and material conditions. David,
spiritual strength, had no armor or material protection.
David's power was gained by trust in divine intelligence,
through which he saw the weak place in Goliath's armor.
Direct to this weak place, with the sling of his
concentrated will, he sent a thought that shattered the
forehead of the giant. This incident shows how easy it is
to overcome the seemingly strong personal and material
conditions when the mind of Spirit is brought into action.
David was sure of himself, because he had slain the lion
that had killed his sheep. The lion is the beast in man;
when overcome, or, rather, transmuted to finer energy, this
lion becomes a mighty soul strength.
The life of Samson, as set forth in Judges, shows the
different movements of strength in human consciousness, and
its betrayal and end. Samson did all kinds of athletic
stunts, but was finally robbed of his strength by Delilah,
a Philistine woman, who
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had his head shaved while he slept on her knees. Hair
represents vitality. When the vital principle is taken away
the strength goes with it. The body is weakened by this
devitalization and finally perishes. Eve took away the
strength of Adam in like manner, and every man who gives up
the vital essence of his body for the pleasure of sensation
blindly pulls down the pillar of his temple, as did Samson.
Supreme strength as demonstrated by Jesus can be attained
by one who trusts in Spirit and conserves his vital
substance. The strength of Spirit is necessary to the
perpetuation of soul and body and to the overcoming of
death. "For there are eunuchs, that were so born from their
mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, that were made
eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, that made themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."
The body has many "brain" and nerve centers, through which
the mind acts. Consciously we use only the brain in the
head. We should think through every cell in the organism,
and consciously direct every function in building up the
body. When one has attained the mastery of these various
bodily functions through thinking in the brain center that
stores the vital energy of each particular faculty, then
all deterioration ceases and the body is perpetually
renewed.
The strength here discussed is not physical strength alone,
but mental and spiritual strength. All strength originates
in Spirit; and the thought and the word spiritually
expressed bring the manifestation.
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"The name of Jehovah is a strong tower."
We grow to be like that which we idealize. Affirming or
naming a mighty spiritual principle identifies the mind
with that principle; then all that the principle stands for
in the realm of ideas is poured out upon the one who
affirms.
"Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might"
is a great strengthening affirmation for ourselves and for
others. Be steadfast, strong, and steady in thought, and
you will establish strength in mind and in body. Never let
the thought of weakness enter your consciousness, but
always ignore the suggestion and affirm yourself to be a
tower of strength, within and without.
The development of man is under law. Creative Mind is not
only law, but it is governed by the action of the law that
it sets up. We have thought that man was brought forth
under the fiat or edict of a great creative Mind that could
make or unmake at will, or change its mind and declare a
new law at any time; but a clear understanding of ourselves
and of the unchangeableness of Divine Mind makes us realize
that everything has its foundation in a rule of action, a
law, that must be observed by both creator and created.
Man's development is not primarily under the physical law,
because the physical law is secondary. There is a law of
Spirit, and the earthly is but the showing forth of some of
the results of that law. We begin our existence as ideas in
Divine Mind; those ideas are expressed and developed and
brought
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to fruitage, and the expression is the important part of
the soul's growth.
Evolution is the result of the development of ideas in
mind. What we are is the result of the evolution of our
consciousness, and that consciousness is the result of seed
ideas sown in our mind. When Froebel, the great teacher of
children, began his primary school, he thought a long time
before he gave it a name. One day the name came to him, "a
children's garden"; so he called his school a
"kindergarten." Froebel may not have seen the connection,
but in naming his system of educating the children of men,
he was true to the plan given in Genesis 2:8. Humanity is
the garden of God, of which the soil is the omnipresent
thought substance.
Jesus says that the seed is the word; He gives
illustrations of the various places in which the seed is
sown, and the results of the sowing. The seed, or Word of
God, is sown in the minds of men; these seed ideas go
through many changes, and they bring forth a harvest
according to the capacity of the receiving soil. If you
will to do the will of God, the exercise of your will in
God-Mind strengthens your will power. If you have faith in
things invisible, the faith seed is growing in your mind
and your faith will be increased. Every word or idea in
Divine Mind is sown by man in his mind, and is then brought
forth--according to man's receptivity. "Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap." So all the faculties that
exist in Divine Mind (the twelve pillars of the temple of
God) are in this way
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expressed through the mind and the body of man.
Some have claimed that the Bible is a work on physiology.
So it is, but it is far more; it treats of spirit, soul,
and body as a unit. That is the reason why those who have
studied the Bible from a merely physiological standpoint
have not understood it. They have looked for descriptions
of flesh and bones. In truth those things have no active
existence without accompanying life and intelligence; and
the Bible sets forth this fact in many symbols.
Jesus, the Great Teacher, who knew what was in man, began
His evolution with Spirit. He is the "only begotten Son of
God"; He is the type that you should strive to follow, not
only in spiritual culture and in soul culture, but in
physical culture. If you would bring forth the very best
that is in you, study the methods of Jesus. Study them in
all their details, get at the spirit of everything that is
written about this wonderful man, and you will find the key
to the true development of your soul and your body. If you
will carry out His system, there will be revealed to you a
new man, a man of whom you never dreamed, existing in the
hidden realms of your own subconsciousness.
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
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