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Teach Us To Pray
Spiritual Unfoldment Makes Man Master
[<- Go back to How to Handle the Psychic Forces of Consciousness]
[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
ACCORDING to Genesis, Elohim God planned that man, created
in His image and likeness, should have all the qualities of
his Maker. At first glance this man created in the
beginning seems the equal of God man or God son.
Further insight into the creative process however reveals
that man has a work to do in developing his innate
abilities, the "image" and "likeness." Following the
paragraph "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness" we read: "And let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created
he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed
them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds . . . and over
every living thing."
In modern language we would say that God imaged a man like
Himself who would fulfill the law of his being when he had
gained the mastery
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over certain forces in his field of activity. These forces
are symbolically described as "birds," "fish," "cattle,"
and "creeping things," through which man replenishes the
earth.
The whole Bible tells of man's experience in striving for
the mastery. In addition to the Bible, all the history of
man is a record of how the human family has struggled to
fulfill the creative ideas implanted in it from the
beginning. The "birds of the heavens" are their high
ideals, the "cattle" or "beasts of the field" are of a low
order, the "fish of the sea" are their generated or
accumulated impulses, and the "creeping things" represent
the micro-organisms of modern science that are claimed to
be the cause of most diseases. It has been assumed that
man's dominion was to be exercised through aggression,
through physical mastery. This idea has instigated man to
wage war and rule by tyranny, all of which his higher
thoughts tell him is in direct violation of divine law.
Our higher reason, backed by experience, forces us to look
to another source than the physical for a solution of the
problem of "dominion."
As the great example of one who became a master through
spiritual unfoldment we point to Jesus, who became the
Master of all masters. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh.
Today Jesus Christ is the realized, ideal Master. He is the
full, perfect expression of the superman. In Him "dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." To Jesus Christ God
was a being of infinite
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goodness that He was to realize and express. So today
through Jesus Christ God is a being of infinite goodness
that we are to realize and express. Today the name Jesus
Christ is called "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Jesus Christ is the
Master, majestic yet simple. His relation to man makes His
tenderness toward humanity exquisitely touching. When we
think of the mighty revolution that has taken place in the
consciousness of the race through His teaching, we realize
at least to a degree what He has done for the race.
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
And he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city."
Jesus ruled His own spirit. Through Christ we are learning
to rule our own spirits, to gain the mastery over every
word and thought, yes, over every impulse of the whole
being, not only on the soul plane but on the physical plane
as well. His presence right in our midst is teaching us
control. His presence right in our midst inspires us with
new ideas, incites us to go forward to achieve.
In the world of affairs a master is one who can enforce
obedience, but the Master of masters did not "enforce."
Through His spiritual ability He inspired obedience.
Jesus attained mastery over sin, sickness, death. He
attained a permanent state of consciousness where mortal
weakness cannot enter. Emerson says
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that the measure of a master is his ability to bring all
men around to his opinion within twenty years. Today, as
never before, two thousand years after Jesus closed His
ministry here on earth, He is bringing men around to His
opinion or rather to His truths as never before.
But Christ is also a servant. We follow Him because He
serves best; because He bears with us as we strive to
overcome our sins--He bears our sins with gentleness and
patience. As we work in prayer with Him, He leads us into a
high state of spiritual consciousness where we realize the
allness of God and His laws.
When Jesus was asked by a crafty lawyer to name the
greatest commandment He quickly answered that all the Law
and the Prophets could be summarized thus: "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the
whole law hangeth, and the prophets." This is a test, a
challenge, to all those who would unfold spiritually. This
attitude of mind brings us in tune with Divine Mind so that
we are prepared to receive its blessings. When our thoughts
are established in love, a divine synchronization takes
place. Divine Mind has a fixed rate of vibration to which,
through Christ, the mind of man is synchronized, just as a
radio receiving set is synchronized to the frequency of a
broadcasting station. In order to
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tap Divine Mind we must bring the rate of vibration of our
mind up to the standard, for it is only when our mind is
vibrating at its most accelerated rate that God can make
Himself known to us. The efficiency of the radio receiving
set depends upon the number of its tubes and their
adjustment to the electromagnetic field in which its
kilocycles function. By this same law the perfect man must
have his twelve great powers developed, operating in
perfect tune with Divine Mind, in order to bring forth the
image and likeness man.
In the silence when his mind is fixed steadily on God and
is functioning in the consciousness of infinite love, the
activities of man's brain cells synchronize with those of
the very brain cells of the Master. Even the intelligent
principle of the love center responds, and thus man becomes
a spiritual radio with power to receive radiations from
Divine Mind as well as power to broadcast them throughout
his whole organism. He even is able to broadcast them
throughout his environment near and far, an ability that is
limited only by the spiritual power he has developed.
Humanity must bear in mind that it is traveling the road of
spiritual unfoldment and hold its eye on the goal. Right
here in our midst, in the mind realm as well as in the
manifest world, will be developed a mighty neutralizing
power that will render all destructive powers null and
void, that will dissolve disease, and resurrect the
consciousness of peace, health, and abundance.
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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