Negative conditions are the raw materials out of which the enlightened man builds. If one is thankful in all things he recognizes no negation. He knows that all things or conditions are but blessings in reverse. He knows also that with the proper understanding and the right attitude they can be immediately transformed into their true, beneficial purposes. Every little nerve-wracking irritation, every resentful thought, every discordant vibration can be instantly converted and transformed into released power through the stilled reflection of a calm and love-filled mind.
To the enlightened one, even the loss of all his wealth and possessions holds no bleak dismay. He comprehends that seeming misfortunes and reverses are blessings in disguise, if he accepts them as such. He understands fully that the removal of his physical, worldly holdings is but the discarding of his worn-out apparel. As his outer trappings are removed he is prepared to be clothed in holy raiment and arrayed in Light.
So it is that the enlightened one can rejoice in what may completely destroy another. This is because the enlightened one uses every incident, every condition, every setback by transforming the negative powers contained with them into good and into blessings. If the enlightened one is stripped of every tangible thing he possesses he knows that the power contained in such reverses can be immediately used for the sanctification of his soul as he uses them to release the infinite powers contained within. Every loss that is met by an individual in this attitude contains illimitable power.
It is impossible to comprehend this indescribable power unless one is willing to let go of every possession and every tie and hold of mortality and live by the knowledge of the inward working of the higher law. "Live it and you will know of its truth" -- and of its power.
There is no evil condition to the awakened one for he knows the law and uses it aright. No resentment or negation can touch him, no calamity disturbs him. Thus he converts the energies contained within the adverse conditions into the powers of fulfilling glory. These energies could be likened to entities. They are forces of power and are subject to command. They are the "legions" which go instantly to work for the man who has purified himself by bringing forth that Divine Christ Light from within.
There are many types of losses. All may become blessings if they have not been brought on by deliberate wickedness, stupidity or callous rebelliousness. And even then these negative forces can be converted and transformed when one is ready to open his mind to comprehend.
One of the most difficult losses to sustain is the loss of one's own deeply embedded ideas or accepted beliefs. Those who are big enough to face the loss of their own set opinions when proved erroneous are prepared for speedy advancement. Usually the loss of one's faith in some embedded idea is quite shattering at first. It is the man who has the ability and versatility to gather up his forces and rebuild upon new truth who is prepared to walk in Light.
The individual who is true enough and advanced enough to be willing to give up some personal, petty want or selfish desire and turn it over to the mind and will of God places himself upon a higher level. This is the level in which the fulfilling powers of God can become operative in his life.
As one advances into this state of loving acceptance, or becomes willing to accept adversities and meet vicissitudes and negative issues with gratitude and love, such conditions will be transmuted into power and blessings almost instantly. This one has "learned obedience by the things he has suffered" and for him all suffering ends.
All negative conditions and even the most undesirable things imaginable are the materials of unutterable glory to the individual who recognizes them for what they are, the raw materials of life which are placed in his hands. These are the materials the wise man converts and uses as he builds the visions his soul aspires to. These seemingly harsh, raw, unwieldly materials are the materials of unspeakable power and ineffable blessings when they are transmuted by the glory of His Light, which is always expressed in superior understanding. Ignorance is darkness. Understanding and knowledge are Light.
Any individual who uses his negative circumstances and reverse conditions with this knowledge will become glorious. His very ability to accept and give thanks and praise and honor and glory to God for these conditions will release the glorifying, fulfilling powers of God and set those powers into immediate action. And that individual who uses his troubles in this manner is making the "right-use" of the laws of God's Kingdom and will himself become glorious. The "right-use" of these powers is true righteousness!
These higher powers and blessings cannot be used by the self-righteous, nor can they be used by the weak, resentful individual, or the one who dully accepts his burdens as the will of God. Sorrow, failure, misery, distress, darkness and suffering are never the will of God! And only the weak individual is willing to permit such conditions to mar and destroy his life. To the enlightened, understanding one no condition is a burden. It is an opportunity. To the enlightened one no difficulty or adverse condition can possibly become a weight of paralyzing hopelessness. It is those who writhe in helpless self-pity who not only live in the negation of their seeming reverses but who actually open up their arms to such conditions as they gather them in. To such the burdens of dismaying evils are accepted and falsely acclaimed to be the will of God. Such acclamations are blasphemy. The will of God holds naught but beauty, loveliness, power and glory. And he whose life contains none of these things is out of tune with the divine will of God. His eyes have never been lifted to the heights to behold the glory of God, nor has his vision been adjusted to become "single to that glory"!
All that is required to release these transforming powers of Almighty God into one's life is the willingness to accept the loss of all that one might possess, whether it be just decaying, worldly possessions, corroding negation, destructive hates, dismaying worries, intolerable suffering or annihilating fears. As these powers of negation and darkness are released, or let go of, they can be transmuted, transformed, converted or translated into their rightful use. These powers, when converted and refined, are the divine powers of construction -- not destruction.
There are only two requisites necessary in order to be able to use these great powers of transition. The first requisite is the power to believe. The second is the ability to use, or LIVE by the use of the higher law.
"He who is thankful in all things shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him a hundredfold; yea, more!" Whatever one sustains in his losses, as he takes hold of the higher laws, will be returned to him a hundredfold -- and more. The conditions will be lifted from darkness and negation into glory and light and power. Man's own singing song of gratitude truly has the power to make him glorious, if he will only use it in released thanksgiving.
The individual who lives these higher laws and who uses them correctly is no longer the pawn of destiny or the creature of circumstance; he is the master of them.
To such, all things and all conditions "Become subject unto him; both in heaven and on earth; the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the Will of the Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son".
Every tiny, irritating condition or personal inefficacy, as well as every calamity or major tragedy can be thus transformed into inexpressible power and glory as one becomes transmuted, translated by his own attitudes into a new creature, love-filled and glorious.
"He who is thankful in all things" opens up the fountains of joy right within his own soul. This is the source of contact with the "Fountain of Living waters".
"The Fountain of Living Water" is the permanent, flowing, joyous ecstasy of the Spirit. It is the released glory contained within the Great Christ Light. As one learns to contact and use this great inner source of singing gratitude and joyous life all negation and darkness is transformed into blessings. In this singing gratitude and joy the Christ Light is contacted and released and one is prepared to receive even "A Fullness of Joy" or a "Fullness of the Father". And this joy becomes a permanent factor as one becomes filled with Light, or knowledge and understanding -- hence, power.
All sorrows and negation, all misery and distress, all pain and suffering are but the fruits of the "Tree of Good and Evil", rendering its "good" as "evil" to him who either breaks or ignores the right use of the law, or who remains ignorant of it. Within man is the power to transform the evil into good, transmute the bitter into sweet and exalt the darkness and negation into Light and glory and divine power.
Man is either the master or the slave, according to his attitude, his ignorance or his degree of enlightenment.
Man is the one who decides how he will use the raw materials of life that are placed within his hands. This ancient scripture expresses it beautifully: "I gave men weaknesses that they might become strong." In the weaknesses is contained the energy to become not only strong, but mighty. Within the weaknesses is contained the raw material, the stored energy of illimitable power. He who uses the raw materials of life correctly will soon be given only the pure, refined, glorified materials of God and they will not require man's energies to re-process and refine them. They will be the direct forces of God, "The Light and the Life, the Spirit and powers of creation in their fully glorified state". As man overcomes the darkness, his evils and jealousies and becomes humble, these divine forces do become subject unto him, even as God promised they would be.
The powers of fulfilling are timed by man's ability to turn belief into faith, which is always power in action. This is accomplished when one is able to transfer his hopes for the future into the reality of the present. This is entirely within the hands of the individual and will come to pass whenever he is ready.
Man contacts the powers of God through the superconscious mind. Anything that has been placed within the super-conscious mind through habit, belief or fear becomes a reality. Because of this God-given factor within man to choose whether he will use his divine forces for good or evil, the world is in the condition that it has reached today. The super-conscious mind has been fed upon negation and hates and it has returned the darkness thereof into the lives of men. No one has desired this condition. It has been created through ignorance and a rejection of the great Christ Light.
The things one thinks, feels or does release the creative forces of this super-conscious mind and they become realities. Negative thinking and feeling habits bring forth negative conditions into one's life and into the world. Whatever thoughts or emotions one sends into his super-conscious mind become the living factors and the realities of his daily life.
The Light of Christ, as it is developed and brought forth, contains the power to cleanse and purify the super-conscious of its accumulated negative gatherings, its hidden fears, jealousies, resentments and lusts that have been compressed into its recesses from the time the conscious mind became active. Within the Christ Light is the power of regeneration and redemption for man as both the conscious and the super-conscious minds are filled with Christ's purifying, redeeming, glorifying Light.
It is the right and the purpose of the conscious mind to direct and use the unspeakable powers of that divine superconscious mind at all times. When the conscious mind knowingly and with awakened understanding directs the super-conscious mind, all the great, indescribable promises of the Almighty must be fulfilled in all their perfection. This is the method that brings all things and conditions as well as all powers into subjection. And "All things will be subject unto him, both in heaven and on earth; the Life and the Light, the Spirit and the power", etc. But it must be understood that the powers contained within the great super-conscious mind "doeth the works", or contact the direct powers of God to accomplish all things. This divine mind, when purified, is always in direct contact with God at all times -- and with His powers. So it is that "all that the Father has is yours"!
Within this great super-conscious mind is contained the keys of this glorious passage of ancient scripture: "It is given to abide in you, the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, and maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power."
"The Light of Christ has also been given to abide in every man who cometh into the world" . . . . . "Yea, all that the Father has is yours!"
When the Light of Christ is no longer a rejected factor the hardness of the heart will be completely melted and love and tenderness, goodness and mercy will fill one's being. With that redeeming Light active the blindness of the mind will be removed.
These higher promises and laws are completed and fulfilled in that first and greatest of all commandments.
To love God with all one's heart opens up that divine heart-center to love and to the great Christ-Light, which IS the Fountain of Life.
To love God with all one's soul is the process by which the physical body is quickened and renewed. The cells are regenerated and spiritualized and the whole being is quickened and redeemed and glorified.
To love God with all one's mind is the power which unites the conscious mind and the super-conscious mind and they begin to function as ONE. As they are thus united by love there is nothing either in heaven or on earth that is impossible for love is established and its pure perfection resuscitates and makes alive all things.
In this released, perfected, divine love man himself is the benefactor. It is in this great love that the "Atonement" for which Christ gave His life is complete. This is the great "At-one-ment" when the Light of Christ, the conscious and super-conscious minds of man blend and become ONE in a new and divine power of functioning.
When man comprehends the illimitable powers contained right within himself, when the conscious mind knowingly and with its Christ enlightened understanding opened, works with the great inner, spiritual mind of infinite power, nothing is impossible.
One's progress always commences with his ability to believe. Doubts are the released powers of determent, negation and destruction as they hold back and retard the forces of Light. Ignorance is the imbecilic child of doubting. It is a creature of darkness and is often completely blind. It is usually bigoted and often cruel. Belief, on the other hand is the child of divine power and will grow into faith when it is nurtured and fed. Belief must be cared for in order for it to grow and mature.
When belief is established, doubt is banished and its evil, malformed degenerate spawn, Ignorance.
Belief, however, is still an imperfect factor. It is but a child. Its one purpose and function is to counteract and overcome doubt. In this capacity it is perfect and beautiful. After belief has fulfilled the purpose of its childhood it matures into faith. Belief grows into faith. Faith matures into knowledge -- and knowledge is power.
Faith contains the power to develop into know. It is in faith that the active forces of fulfillment are established. Belief is an immature child, though very desirable and very beautiful and very necessary. Belief is not too powerful. It is almost inactive, except for its ability to keep doubt from becoming established in its place. However when belief matures into Faith it develops the power of action. Belief is the small child learning to walk. Faith is the child matured into youth as it enters eagerly into active service to release dynamic powers.
In faith is the power of fulfilling brought forth. This is the nature and manner of faith.
Paul understood the truth behind the powers of God when he stated simply and humbly, "We believe all things!" There are very few who have even that infant power to believe. These are the ones who question and rend all truth and who have no power within them except to doubt.
Belief, the child, places all fulfillment and hope out into the future. Faith establishes it in the NOW. Belief extends the prayer or the hope into the realm of "becoming". Faith establishes it in the present. The become is transformed into the HERE and NOW. With the power of this transformation faith becomes knowing and knowledge is power -- the power of all fulfillment.
The super-conscious mind always works in the NOW. When the "at-one-ment" is established between the conscious and the great super-conscious minds one steps into the NOW -- the eternal PRESENT. The fulfilling power is always in the NOW. The vague, distant vision of belief or hope for the future becomes completed in the great, living, dynamic, all-powerful NOW!
The great, ever-present NOW is the eternal. It is the point of power. He who continues to hold his hopes out into the future for fulfillment is still using but the infant child, belief instead of its mature, powerful expression, faith.
Nevertheless the one who holds steadfastly to his power to believe, who refuses doubt admittance, will himself grow into the power of faith. He who holds to belief with determined tenacity will soon cease to abide in the lesser phase of power but will advance automatically into the dynamic, fulfilling glory of faith. In this growth and transition one's vision is drawn in from the distant view and is focused upon the powerful, ever-present NOW.
This great, living power of the NOW is what Christ was seeking to reveal when He said, "Take no thought for tomorrow."
NOW is as much a part of eternity as all the yesteryears of the past and the great tomorrows of the future. But it is only in the NOW that the powers of eternity are active and of benefit. And it is only in the NOW that one can ever have contact with the great Light of Christ and the Almighty power of God.
The fulfilling power of every hope and every worthy desire is waiting in the NOW. As one re-focuses his vision for the future upon the glory of the present, belief is transformed into faith. Faith is always an active power and establishes the fulfilling ingredient that completes and brings forth. Faith always grows into knowledge. And knowledge is power. When one knows, he has the ability and the understanding to do! The power to do is always contained in the NOW!
Whatever can be, already has the power to be. All perfection, all glory and goodness and beauty and abundance is in the divine NOW.
When one can lift his vision and his prayers from the plea, "Let me become love" or "Let me become this" or "that" or "the other" into the NOW, he can say "I am love! I am filled with Light! I am endowed with the powers of Almighty God, my Father, as God performs His works through me!" . . . . . "And it is so! Even as he saith!" . . . . . "Yea, all that the Father has IS yours!"
This truth has always been so. Because man could not lift his "eyes" or vision to the glory of God he could not behold it except "through a glass darkly" or dimly, or off in the future. By faith that veil is removed and the dim vision that was extended out into the future becomes the reality of the NOW!
NOW is your appointed time to take hold of these blessings and to become powerful!
Think it NOW! Live it NOW! Know that it is NOW and the great veils of darkness shall be dissolved before your eyes.
It may take a little time for one to re-focus his eyes to this great, perfect reality. But he who can learn to adjust his eyes and thoughts to abide in the Eternal NOW of fulfilling power will no longer be subjected to either time or space. In these three steps, from belief to faith to knowing, learn to place your petitions, not in the future for fulfillment, but in the NOW. Your hopes and requests and noble desires must always be held in the NOW! And you must live as though they were already fulfilled. The NOW is the point of contact! The NOW is the place of power! The NOW holds the keys of all fulfillment and of glorious completion! The NOW is the point where the hope of the future becomes the established fulfillment of the present.
Live NOW as though you already had the complete fulfillment of your worthy desires. Live NOW as though you were this love! Live NOW as though you were arrayed in LIGHT and verily it shall be according as you yourself designate. You are the one who sets the time. It is established according to your belief in the future, or your active Faith and its powers contained always in the present -- the eternal NOW!
ASK, then immediately give thanks that your request has been heard! Then leave it to God to work out. This principle is best portrayed when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. "And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth!"
Note that Christ gave thanks to God for having heard His prayer before it was fulfilled. Giving thanks and praise establishes it in the NOW!
Just know always that your prayer is heard. Hold yourself open and in ready preparation to receive the answer. And It will come. Give thanks always for the answer to your prayers, the fulfilling of your holy desires, the nearness of God and for His power being released into your life. As your requests are established in love the great fulfilling laws of God are put into operation. These holy, divine laws of God are irrevocable and cannot err or fail. Release all you have hoped for into the great ever-present NOW and give thanks and it will return to you fulfilled in a more beautiful way than your greatest hope ever envisioned, your highest dream ever imagined or your most intense yearning ever conceived.
In using this power remember to walk humbly, for these powers are the powers of God as He begins to do His works, through you. And God will not be mocked. Worship and adore and give thanks and as you send out love humility will be exalted. Humility, purified and contrite is the power of reception. Humility is a vital force. It is the irresistible point of contact when one learns to let go and let God take over. The little strident, pride-filled mortal self, that has caused so much suffering learns the perfect obedience through the superb gift of divine humility. It is when pride steps aside that God is permitted to step forth with His healing powers of perfection and infinite joy and exalting glory.
Let love become the pulsebeat of your existence. Let singing gratitude and praise and adoration vibrate out from your soul continually and you will never become blinded by the brilliance of His Light, nor be singed by the Cosmic Rays of His fulfilling powers as they become visible to your eyes.
Through the singing song of love in your soul, through gratitude and adoring contrition of heart the keys of all power will become operative in your life. And you will be glorious!