|
Twelve Powers of Man
Chapter 6
[<- Go back to Chapter 5]
[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Power--Dominion--Mastery
MAN DOES not exercise the power of his spiritual nature,
because he lacks understanding of its character and of his
relation to the originating Mind in which he exists. From
Divine Mind man inherits power over the forces of his
mind--in truth, power over all ideas. A quickening from on
high must precede man's realization of his innate control
of thought and feeling. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a
quickening of the spiritual nature, which is reflected in
intellect and in body. When one understands the science of
Being, one is prepared to receive this baptism and to
utilize it along deeper lines of thought. Jesus had taught
His apostles and followers, and they were prepared for the
baptism that they received on the day of Pentecost.
"Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon
you." Power is essential to the work that Jesus Christ
expects His followers to do in the great field of humanity.
The command is: Go to every nation and preach the gospel.
Man should apply the power of the word to his individual
redemption, and he should speak the redeeming word of
Spirit to the multitudinous thought people of his own soul
and body.
Page 62
Among the apostles of Jesus, Philip represents the power
faculty of the mind. The word "Philip" means "a lover of
horses." In physical activity the horse represents power;
the ox, strength. Each of the twelve fundamental faculties
of man has an ego that reflects, in a measure, the original
man idea in God. In the body consciousness the twelve
apostles, as egos, have twelve centers, or thrones, from
which they exercise their power. The will expresses its
dominion from the head; love, from the breast; and power
(the ego whose character we are analyzing in this writing),
from the throat. Power is one branch of the great tree; in
Genesis it is named "life." The body of the life tree is
the spinal cord, over which the motor system, with branches
to every part of the organism, exercises its nervous energy.
The power center in the throat controls all the vibratory
energies of the organism. It is the open door between the
formless and the formed worlds of vibrations pertaining to
the expression of sound. Every word that goes forth
receives its specific character from the power faculty.
When Jesus said, "The words that I have spoken unto you are
spirit, and are life," He meant that through the spoken
word He conveyed an inner spiritual quickening quality that
would enter the mind of the recipient and awaken the
inactive spirit and life. When the voice has united with
the life of the soul, it takes on a sweetness and a depth
that one feels and remembers; the voice that lacks this
union is metallic and superficial.
Page 63
Voice culture may give one tone brilliancy, but every great
singer has the soul contact. But higher and deeper still is
the voice of one who has made union with Spirit and who can
say with Jesus: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away."
When we understand this power of the word, we have the key
to the perpetuity of sacred writings. According to
tradition, all the writings of the Bible were destroyed but
they were restored by Esdras, who, "remembered in his
heart" and rewrote them. Modern discoveries in the realm of
mind in a measure explain this mystical statement. We know
now that every word that man utters makes an imprint in the
astral ethers, and that, when there is consciousness of God
life in the mind of the speaker, all his words become
living identities and are perpetuated. Anyone who develops
sufficient spiritual power may enter this book of life
within the cosmic mind and read out of its pages.
The mind and the body of man have the power of transforming
energy from one plane of consciousness to another. This is
the power and dominion implanted in man from the beginning.
According to Scripture, "God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness; and they shall have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26;
Lesser translation). Paul corroborates
Page 64
this statement by calling attention to the glory of man's
inheritance:
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the
exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe,
according to that working of the strength of his might
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the
dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come.
In the kingdom of God within man's consciousness, the power
faculty plays an important part in controlling the
expression of the many emotions, inspirations, and
thoughts. The voice is the most direct avenue of this
expression, when man has dominion over the emotions and
feelings from which the original impulse arises. The power
of love makes the voice rich, warm, and mellow. Man can set
love free in his soul by cultivating a loving attitude
toward everybody and everything; he may add strength by
silently speaking words of strength to each of the apostles
sitting upon the twelve thrones within. Power swings open
all the doors of mind and body. When one feels vital and
energetic, the voice is strong and vibrant and brilliant.
When one is sorrowful, the body weakens and the voice
betrays its lack by its mournful intonation. Through the
vibrations of power in the throat, one can feel the power
of unity with the higher self more quickly than in any
other way. This reveals that ideas rule
Page 65
the man, Jesus affirmed: "All power is given unto me in
heaven [mind] and in earth [body]" (A.V.). When Jesus made
this affirmation He undoubtedly realized His innate
spiritual dominion, and when He consciously attuned His
spiritual identity to mind and body, there was a conscious
influx of power, and His hearers said that He "taught them
as having authority, and not as the scribes."
In the process of regeneration the consciousness of power
ebbs and flows, because the old and the new tides of
thought act and react in the conscious and the subconscious
realms of mind. However, when a disciple realizes his unity
with Omnipotence, he is but little disturbed by the changes
that go on in his mind and his body; he knows that his
spiritual dominion is established, and that firm conviction
expresses itself in firm words. Jesus said: "Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Here is the evidence of spiritual power united with the
idea of eternity. This union destroys the thought of years
and declining power, and when awakened in those who have
believed in age it will transform them and make all things
new for them.
Every great vocalist has had inner spiritual power as an
abiding conviction. This is strikingly illustrated in the
indomitable persistency and power with which the famous
singer, Galli-Curci, overcame obstacles. In the early
stages of her career she was discouraged by opera critics.
They told her that she could never make a success, but she
persevered; and so she finally mastered every defect of her
voice. This
Page 66
is a wonderful lesson to those who are apparently meeting
with discouragements, who are tempted to succumb to
circumstances and conditions in body and in environment.
Take the words of Paul, "None of these things move me"
(A.V.), and make unqualified affirmations of your spiritual
supremacy.
Some metaphysical schools warn their students against the
development of power, because they fear that it will be
used in selfish, ambitious ways. It doubtless is true that
the personal ego sometimes lays hold of the power faculty
and uses it for selfish aggrandizement; we can readily see
how what is called the Devil had origin. To be successful
in the use of the power of Being, one must be obedient in
exercising all the ideas that make man. If there is an
assumption of personal power, Lucifer falls like "lightning
from heaven," and the adverse or carnal mind goes to and
fro in the earth. The casting out of these demons of
personality formed a large part of the work of Jesus, and
those who follow Him in the regeneration are confronted
with similar states of mind and find it necessary to cast
out the great demon selfishness, which claims to have power
but is a liar and the father of lies.
No disciple can do any great overcoming work without a
certain realization of spiritual power, dominion, mastery.
Without power, one easily gives up to temporal laws,
man-made. The psychic atmosphere is filled with thoughts
that are not in harmony with Divine Mind. These psychic
thoughts are legion, and to overcome them one must be
Page 67
on one's guard. Jesus said, "Watch." This means that we
should quicken our discernment and our ability to choose
between the good and the evil. "And why even of yourselves
judge ye not what is right?" This wisdom of Spirit is man's
through the all-knowing and all-discerning power of Spirit
within him, and he need never fear going wrong if he
listens to his divine intuition. "Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free." But man can never be
free until he declares his freedom. Jesus said "I am from
above." It is the prerogative of every man to make this
declaration and thereby rise above the psychisms of mortal
thought. Then do not fear to develop your power and
mastery. They are not to be exercised on other people, but
on yourself. "He that ruleth his spirit, [is more powerful]
than he that taketh a city." Alexander cried because there
were no more worlds to conquer, yet he had not conquered
his own appetite, and died a drunkard at the age of
thirty-three. Today men are striving to acquire power
through money, legislation, and man-made government, and
falling short because they have not mastered themselves.
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world," yet He set
up a kingdom in the world greater than all other kingdoms.
In its beginning His kingdom was a very small affair, and
the wise and the mighty laughed to scorn the proclamation
that He was a king. Yet He was every inch a king. His
people have been slow to follow the laws that He
promulgated for His kingdom, but men in every walk
Page 68
of life are beginning to comprehend the vital integrity of
His edicts, they are seeing that there can be no permanent
peace or even civilization on earth until the Golden Rule,
laid down by Him, is adopted by nations in commercial and
in all other relationships. Businessmen are teaching the
precept of Jesus, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them,"
as fundamental in commercial success. Everywhere we hear
them talking co-operation instead of competition.
Commercial seers are discerning the dawn of a new day, in
which good service instead of big profits will be the goal.
Here we see the coming of the Christ "as a thief in the
night." The night of ignorance and destructive competition
is being burned out.
It follows that every kind of human industry must be
carried forward by a power that recognizes the divine law.
Man is the power of God in action. To man is given the
highest power in the universe, the conscious power of
thought. There is a universal creative force that urges man
forward to a recognition of the creative power of his
individual thought. This force is elemental, and all its
attributes come under the dominion of man. When he
co-operates with divine principle, man sits on the throne
of his authority and the elemental force is subject to him.
But the power and the authority that are to rule in the
kingdom of heaven are dependent on man's authority and his
rule in the earth. Jesus said to Peter: "Whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall
Page 69
be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven." If man binds or controls
the appetites, passions, and emotions in the body (earth),
he establishes ability and power to control the same forces
in the realms universal, out of which the heavens are
formed. When he attains a freedom in the expression of the
qualities inherent in soul and body, he expands in power
and can set free the elements universal and restore
equilibrium between heaven and earth, or Spirit and matter.
When enough people have attained this power, the "new
heaven and . . . new earth" (described in the 21st chapter
of Revelation) will appear. It will not be necessary for
anyone to wait for the full complement of overcomers, the
mystical 144,000 who are to rule the new world, but each
individual who complies with the overcoming law may enter
into power with Jesus. It should not be overlooked by the
elect that the Scripture reads: "He that overcometh shall
inherit these things." To overcome and sit with Jesus on
His throne means that man must overcome as He overcame.
Jesus overcame the world, the flesh, and the Devil. To
overcome the world one must be proof against all its
allurements of riches and honor. To overcome the flesh one
must spiritualize the five-sense man until material
consciousness is raised to spiritual consciousness in
feeling, tasting, seeing, hearing, and smelling. This
change will ultimate in man's complete mastery of the body
and in its final redemption from death.
The Devil is the personal ego who has in his freedom
Page 70
formed a state of consciousness peculiarly his own. When
man lives wholly in the consciousness that personality has
built up, he is ruled by the carnal mind, which is the
Adversary, or Satan. In the mystery of the cross is hidden
the overcoming of Satan. The crucifixion of Jesus is the
symbolical representation of the crossing out (destruction)
of the carnal mind (Satan) in the redeemed man's
consciousness. Christ was not killed on the cross, neither
was the body of Jesus destroyed. The "ghost" that Jesus
gave up with His last breath was mortality. It was the
personal, mortal consciousness that cried, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" (The god should be spelled with
a small g.) The personal-concept God fails to save its
worshiper.
When the I AM identity, which is man, becomes so involved
in its personal affairs that it ignores God, I AM lays hold
of the body and rules all the bodily functions. When this
rule is broken by the power of the Christ or supermind,
there is a crucifixion. It may seem that Jesus is being
crucified, but this is seeming only. Death comes to the
Judas consciousness, which "hath a devil" (A.V.), but the
body, being closely connected with this usurping mind,
passes through suffering and apparent death. This is no
more than appearance, because the higher principle, the
Christ, resurrects the body and transmutes it into higher
spiritual substance, where it enters into harmony or
heaven. The climax of man's power and dominion is set forth
in the resurrection and ascension of the type man, Jesus.
Page 71
[Go forward to Chapter 7 ->]
[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
|
|