Healing the Human Body

Healing the Human Body

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

How do we reconcile the practical needs of our human body with TRUTH's demand to understand that we are spiritual?

The Apostle Paul provides effective guidance.  He tells us in I Corinthians (6:19, 20) that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and that we should glorify God in our body. 

Scientific and Christian metaphysics reveals that matter cannot be a temple for the substance of SPIRIT-GOD, so Paul must be referring to the body as a condition of thought.  Well, individual consciousness can definitely be turned into an expression of SPIRIT-MIND. 

The starting point for converting the human body into an expression of sinless joy and harmony is to recognize it as thought.  The human body -- that is, the skin-casing of organs, blood and bones,--is only a mental phenomena.  It does not exist independent of thought, it is thought.  The human body is first and ultimately thought.  It will continue to be thought as long as we are aware of it.

So let us not be fooled into believing that we are stuck inside a physical body with an independent will.  As a mode of consciousness the human body is dependent on the human mind for its feelings and actions.  That is why we do not need to go any further than our thought to heal its troubles.

Christian, healing metaphysics empowers us by teaching that all physicality is subjective--in other words, it is subject to one's mental, spiritual corrections.  It is improved by obtaining more spiritual knowledge. 

Outstanding healer and theologian, M. B. Eddy, explains that healing our human experience demands translating objects and conditions back to its mental elements, and then “exchanging the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul” (S&H 269: 14). 

The infinite, transcendent and glorious ideas of SOUL correct and purify our matter-trapped, mistaken concepts of life.  This divine influence, known as the Christ, transmutes our physical misconceptions and we discover the majesty and excellence of SOUL-based being. 

The vulnerable, sickly, sinful and death-spiraling distortions of self and body are supplanted by our SPIRIT-designed, eternal, supersensible identity/body.  While it remains unseen by the mortal senses, this supersensible self/body is our ever-present reality.  It is perceptible to our Christ-sculpted thinking.   It is our beautiful, supernal, LOVE-derived being.

A child diagnosed by medical professionals to have asthma was healed by applying our understanding of his supersensible, LOVE-effected body/identity. 

This declaration by M. B. Eddy was most helpful in producing the healing: a "lie takes its pattern from Truth, by reversing Truth” and “so evil and all its forms are inverted good" (Un. 53:1-3). 

We understood that the asthma was an attempt to present an inverted view of the child’s supersensible, SOUL-effected self.  The original and irreversible reality for the child -- and for everyone -- is infinite, spiritual health. 

Our spiritual ponderings and conversations affirmed the child’s embodiment of innumerable spiritual elements.  We cherished him as the unfolding of SPIRIT-LOVE’s harmonious authority.  Because the dynamic “breath” of SOUL reigns in all of us, we were convinced that this divine breath was imperious over the asthma. 

After one particular phone conversation that I had with the child he never suffered from asthma again. 

These divine concepts represent alterative laws of healing.  Their deeper value, though, is in how they morph our complete humanity.  Our character, behavior, relationships and body are improved. 

SPIRIT-TRUTH’s revelations cause us to understand, in a greater degree, our excellent, healthy and bountiful nature. 

We are the dynamic expression of supersensible LIFE-GOD. 

 

 

 

SPIRIT-ignited Revelation, Reason and Healing

SPIRIT-ignited Revelation, Reason and Healing

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

 

Revelation, reason and demonstration make the supernal forces of SPIRIT-MIND tangible to our daily existence. 

 

According to 19^th century metaphysical theologian M. B. Eddy they connect us to SPIRIT’s preeminence and to our matter-transcending, immaculate selfhood. 

 

Revelation.  Spiritual revelation comes from superlative MIND-TRUTH.  It is MIND’s solipsistic, unbounded SELF becoming perceptible to human thought.  When we discern that our non-physical individualities belong to MIND, that we are MIND’s own SELF-cognition, we escape somewhat our material vulnerabilities and hindrances.  We experience small and large healings.  

 

A man with a large tumor saw it melt away when our joint prayers opened his mind to new revelations about LOVE’s subsuming perfection and his LOVE-engineered selfhood.

 

Reason.  “Come let us reason together” declares eternal TRUTH.  We take MIND-SOUL’s revelations as our new premise for spiritually-based problem solving.  Now we can reason from a perfect, empyreal PRINCIPLE.  By starting from infinite SPIRIT-REALITY we are able confront and defeat its opposite --material suffering, illness, failure and fear. 

 

SPIRIT-ignited revelation and reason translates Biblical Scripture into the language of spiritual understanding.  We interpret beloved stories, parables and passages from an inspired, matter-subduing standpoint.  Our metaphysical, SPIRIT-glorifying cognitions induce amazing results. 

 

A man with a damaged vertebra was diagnosed by doctors to need surgery.   But he experienced full healing without the surgery as a consequence of our enlightened prayers.  Our spiritual reasoning regenerated his thought and vertebra. 

 

Demonstration.  The healings described above evince how spiritual revelation and reason generate outstanding transmutations of our human condition. 

 

SOUL-LOVE’s health, beauty, energy and power conquer obstinate material problems and we can prove this for ourselves and others.  A spiritual outlook manifests the beautiful, spiritual forces of love, joy, grace, strength, vitality and peace. 

 

 

            Jesus’ communion with superlative TRUTH-LOVE made revelation, reason and healing a daily occurrence.  His empyreal insight and foresight swept aside the matter-dependent illusion of sin, illness and death.  He was able to recognize every person’s divine self.  He rejoiced in and evinced man’s celestial elements. 

 

A Christly disposition summons SOUL-propelled health, love, intelligence and resources.  We become more certain that we are LOVE-MIND’s eternal, loveable, and endowed expressions.  This conjures creative and effective answers to complicated human dilemmas. 

 

Even small glimpses into TRUTH induce spiritual mutations.  They morph us completely, just like the one Saul (the New Testament character) underwent to become Paul. 

 

Everyone and everything becomes new to our refined spiritual acumen.  Pain, guilt, downfalls, restrictions and suffering vanish.  TRUTH makes health, joy, love and plenty flow more naturally. 

 

Revelation, reason and demonstration place us in the “New Jerusalem” of immortal unity with LOVE-GOD and with one another’s spiritual identities. 

 

    

Forgiveness Liberates and Heals

Forgiveness Liberates and Heals

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

            Jesus Christ’s forgiveness of sinners was a spiritual call for transformation.  Those who answered the call were made new. 

His forgiveness of those who crucified him did not exculpate them, but it freed him.  By this act he expressed the power of LOVE-MIND and this exalted him beyond the reach of evil and death. 

When the apostle Peter asked Jesus Christ how many times he should forgive those who’ve harmed him, Jesus said, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”  Jesus’ admonition reveals that forgiveness exudes divine power, not weakness.   

Forgiving those who’ve harmed us takes away resentment, hatred and vengeance, which are poisonous.  Holding onto them can eat away at our mental, emotional and physical health. 

LOVE’s mighty grace is found again in the Lord’s Prayer.  This cherished prayer connects God’s forgiveness of our failures with our ability to forgive others.  19^th century religious reformer M. B. Eddy describes the treatment of forgiveness by the Lord’s Prayer as “Love reflected in love.” 

Our expression of SOUL-LOVE neutralizes evil temptations.  It instigates spiritual purification which is exonerating.  We can then appreciate how forgiveness is its own reward because it conquers evil and leaves us feeling whole and in concord with SOUL-GOD.

Forgiving ourselves and forgiving others are interchangeable and both are the result of giving ourselves to illimitable and omnipotent LOVE-GOD. 

When we calibrate our mind/heart to superlative LOVE-GOD we experience absolution and it disables evil targeted at us.  The statement “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” imparts spiritual power.  Think of the statement this way: “My alignment with LOVE-GOD destroys my sins and the evil others have done or plan to do to me.” 

LOVE’s supreme might is our liberator and protector.   

Sometimes people are tempted to forgive themselves without having uprooted and corrected their human failings.  This is not genuine forgiveness but self-justification and self-delusion.  We should know that LOVE-illumined forgiveness replaces personal foibles and fault with higher intelligence, right motives and stalwart character. 

            People suffer when they confuse forgiveness with trusting evil doers.  They set themselves up to be hurt again.  This is evidence of poor judgment, not of MIND-directed forgiveness.   The results are disastrous because it is acting from a position of ignorance, insecurity and dependency.  MIND-directed forgiveness is intertwined with wisdom, discernment and authority.  It disables evil aims with perceptiveness, alertness and intelligence.

Another common mistake is approaching forgiveness as a means to negotiate a better deal with GOD.  Those who do project human elements onto God and end up disappointed and frustrated.   

Because God is TRUTH-LOVE it does not haggle with mortals.  Freedom and might belong to us when we submit ourselves to TRUTH’s boundless and ever-flowing grace, wholeness and power. 

Divine metaphysics teaches us that SOUL-MIND, who is superlative harmony and intelligence, has constructed us of its own divine substance.  Our supernal nature, being SPIRIT’s eternal and magnificent manifestation, is exempt from material conditions such as sin, self-condemnation, suffering and death. 

            By cognizing LOVE-GOD’s preeminence we feel defined by divine wholeness, and sheltered by infinite goodness.  It activates our Christly purity and authority.  Personal failings are overcome, guilt is elided, and others’ malice is defeated. 

MIND-impelled forgiveness obliterates whatever attempts to corrupt or harm us.  It exudes supernal wisdom, love and might. 

             

MIND’s Supernal Forces

 

MIND’s Supernal Forces

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

There are those instances when one cannot find any escape from suffocating problems.  It may appear like we are being destroyed by fear, difficulties and malicious enemies.

The Prophet Elisha’s experience can bestow hope and salvation.

One time when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, after consulting with his officers, he said, "At such and such a place I want an ambush set."  ⁹ The Holy Man sent a message to the king of Israel: "Watch out when you're passing this place, because Aram has set an ambush there." ¹⁰ So the king of Israel sent word concerning the place of which the Holy Man had warned him. This kind of thing happened all the time. ¹¹ The king of Aram was furious over all this. He called his officers together and said, "Tell me, who is leaking information to the king of Israel? Who is the spy in our ranks?" ¹² But one of his men said, "No, my master, dear king. It's not any of us. It's Elisha the prophet in Israel. He tells the king of Israel everything you say, even what you whisper in your bedroom."  ¹³ The king said, "Go and find out where he is. I'll send someone and capture him." The report came back, "He's in Dothan." ¹⁴ Then he dispatched horses and chariots, an impressive fighting force. They came by night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵ Early in the morning a servant of the Holy Man got up and went out. Surprise! Horses and chariots surrounding the city! The young man exclaimed, "Oh, master! What shall we do?"  ¹⁶ He said, "Don't worry about it—there are more on our side than on their side." ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed, "O God, open his eyes and let him see." The eyes of the young man were opened and he saw. A wonder! The whole mountainside full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha!  (The Message, 2 Kings 6: 8-17)

It is imperative during such desperate conditions that we commune with MIND-GOD.  This has to be first and foremost. 

By taking stock of MIND’s omnipresent, intelligent and loving mental forces we will be calmed and renewed.  MIND will sharpen our mental capacities.  Our analytical, perceptive and creative capacities will go into full gear.  MIND-generated insight, perceptiveness, foresight, creativity and courage will flow into us. 

The painful, scary and destructive conditions of before will be seen as impotent deceptions.  We will realize that GOOD-GOD is superlative power, intelligence and action.  Our spiritual vision will be sharp.  Then we will see the throngs of life-health-love asserting ideas. 

These “angels” eliminate the paranoid delusions of matter-entrapped thinking.  Then we experience LOVE’s all-grace and all-presence.

The “armies” of LOVE-MIND are with us and they exceed and excise the lies of evil. 

Boundless, supernal forces of MIND’s goodness, love and ideas are always at hand to raise us to victory. 

 

I Am SOUL-blessed Now

I Am SOUL-blessed Now

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men.  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ….”

For LIFE-LOVE’s redemptive and generous kindness can liberate anyone from foibles and mistakes.  As long as we are willing to engage in an inner spiritual battle and accept Christ’s transformational changes (like Jacob did), then even invidious and insidious sin will wash away.  SOUL re-makes us with its purity, and it annoints us with its wholeness and bounty.

Our SOUL-imbued innocence conquers personal weaknesses, foibles, guilt and setbacks. It even nullifies others’ treachery.  LIFE’s wisdom and guidance will guard and exalt us.  We can conquer any problems with TRUTH-sense.   

 

Jesus declared, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then he saith to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.  And he arose and departed to his house.” 

The keener is our Christly sense the more formidable is our ability to defeat troubles. Christly wisdom acts like a brilliant light uncovering and erasing evil’s perfidious machinations.  SOUL’s effulgence eliminates the darkness in a person’s character, as well as mental and physical illnesses.  Our mind, character and body are re-engineered by the health and intelligence of SOUL. 

 

“Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and the same thing in Christian Science.  Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth” (M.B. Eddy). 

Character deformities and physical breakdowns are produced by mistaken, material concepts.  The only difference is that character faults demand uncovering them before they can be uprooted and eliminated.  In either case, spiritual enlightenment --- Truth’s revelation – is the healer. 

 

We Are LIFE-actuated

We Are LIFE-actuated

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

“’Down the road a way in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, ‘Gazelle’ in our language. She was well-known for doing good and helping out. During the time Peter was in the area she became sick and died. Her friends prepared her body for burial and put her in a cool room. … They showed Peter pieces of clothing the Gazelle had made while she was with them. Peter put the widows all out of the room. He knelt and prayed. Then he spoke directly to the body: ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He took her hand and helped her up. Then he called in the believers and widows, and presented her to them alive.”

Eddy: “The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.  This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality.”

We obtain from LIFE-SPIRIT a healthy, vigorous, fruitful, bountiful, and joyous life-energy.  PRINCIPLE-LIFE holds our divine essence outside of time, birth, sickness, failure and death.  Eternal TRUTH commands and capacitates us to rise out of the confines of material difficulties.  SPIRIT has fastened the Christ-spirit to us and we can employ it to express more life, health, accomplishment and freedom. 

We too can feel the assurance that in expressing LIFE-TRUTH we are raising ourselves and humanity from the sepulcher of mortality.  Knowing and feeling the energy of LIFE obliterates aging, decay and death. 

Our expression of LIFE-MIND’s resplendency enlightens the world.  It heals us and others in an effortless way. 

When we are wrestling long and hard with illnesses, sins, betrayals, disappointments, losses and failures, we can remind ourselves that LIFE’s perfection undergirds our very being.  One fresh insight of our spiritual unity with SOUL, one strong conviction of ever-present GOOD-GOD can wash away all our troubles.  Right now and always our spiritual essence constitutes SPIRIT-LIFE’s celestial, immaculate, eternal opus.  This is our uncompromised reality.  

The metaphysical interpretation of biblical stories and parables reveals TRUTH’s universal and timeless laws of health, love, peace, and bounty.  Metaphysical insights represent a spiritual salve which heals humanity.  They are the biblical, healing “leaves” for all people.  They heal individuals, families, societies and nations.

Divine insights promulgate intelligence, health and power.  Every man, woman, and child throughout the world is armed with Christ-sense.  It is imbedded in their actual, incorporeal essence. 

No one is too old or not old enough, too clever or not clever enough, too intellectual or not learned enough, too righteous or not righteous enough, to manifest LIFE-power.  But one does need an open and generous mind.  Then we can know LIFE exempt from materiality, feel LOVE without limits, and experience the rivers of SPIRIT’s blessings. 

Although SPIRIT-TRUTH is everyone’s heritage, to live it successfully demands honest-self-analysis, correction, persistence and consecration.  Self-examination and humility uncover hidden sins, and spiritual correction releases our celestial wholeness.

Many sincere followers of Christ have been healed of longstanding physical difficulties when they released erroneous patterns of thinking. Willfulness, pride, criticism, lust, resentment, envy, deceit, and revenge are some of them.  But they all vanish when TRUTH lights our thought. 

Material confusions/sins are eradicated by MIND’s continual revelations to every receptive consciousness.  LOVE-given insights and the transformations they produce solve family problems, meet professional challenges, heal fissures within organizations, and resolve community and world crises.  

LIFE’s excellence is our immortal, spiritual reality. The abundant flows of goodness from superlative LIFE-LOVE magnify health, resources and solutions for everyone. 

 

 

 

LOVE-TRUTH Expunges Fear and Evil

LOVE-TRUTH Expunges Fear and Evil

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

 

Most of us have known moments of great fear when rational reasoning seemed to be useless.  During such moments we can try to remember that our fears and extreme suffering cannot usurp LOVE’s sovereignty and infinite care for us.  LOVE holds everyone safely inside its divine ALL-BEING.  Also, the core of our being is spiritual and it is blended with LOVE-TRUTH’s sovereignty.   

 

Divine comfort and assurance are felt when we accept LOVE-GOD’s preponderance.  TRUTH recognized instills spiritual authority and confidence.  This eradicates our internal storms and brings us spiritual peace.  The rationality of spiritual understanding takes over and we find solutions to what ostensibly were impossible problems.   

 

Fear is common to everyone, even if they do not want to admit.  It is a part of being human.  There are so many things that can make us afraid.  In spite of the prevalence of multiple and aggressive fears we experience spiritual lucidness when we glimpse the ALL-IN-ALL of LOVE-SPIRIT. 

 

Some fears are considered rational and others irrational.  But boundless MIND’s intelligent ideas defeat all fears.  They assert the absolute power and control of TRUTH-SPIRIT.  The eternal fact is that man and the universe are the outstanding, spiritual opus of PRINCIPLE-GOD.  We live inside the safety of PRINCIPLE’s harmonious all-inclusiveness. 

 

Fear can serve a beneficial purpose when it restrains us from engaging in foolish acts.  It is more rewarding, though, to yield to MIND-GOD’s wisdom.  Then we not only cancel fear and danger, but our actions advance our lives and reap excellent rewards. 

 

Materialized thinking breeds evil, fear and confusion.  But to a SPIRIT-attuned consciousness spiritual goodness and intelligent solutions are supreme.  SPIRIT-MIND is the fountain of incalculable health, progress and goodness.  Moving in synchronicity with MIND we can obliterate evil and fear. 

 

The prophet Paul declared that in SPIRIT-GOODNESS we "live, and move, and have our being.”

 

In the infinity of LOVE-SPIRIT there is only a glorious man and a glorious universe.  MIND expresses teeming health, talents, intelligence, riches and love in the spiritual composition of everyone.  We can defeat disease, pain, downfalls, obstructions, and malice with this spiritual conviction. 

 

When we are conscious of divine reality it becomes obvious that there exists no moment, condition or place separate from omnipotent GOOD-GOD.  Thinking made ignorant and obtuse by material concepts imagines that it is in various types of “hell” – in extreme trouble, pain and despair.  But TRUTH rights our thinking and situation.  It assures us that LOVE-MIND includes all within its glory.   And that abundant health, resources and love encompass us. 

 

The most fearsome circumstances give way to MIND-LOVE’s corrective ways.  We may be lost and in danger -- as the psalmist says that we are “in the uttermost parts of the sea,” but spiritual sense confirms that MIND protects us -- even “there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:7-10). 

 

To accept LOVE-MIND as preeminent substance, wisdom, action and power, and to recognize that we are MIND’s incorporeal expressions, fills us with confidence, abilities, courage and might.   

 

So let us place less weight on the deluded testimony of physical reasoning.  Let us employ our Christ-sense which confirms that we can conquer all adversity.   

 

Admirable metaphysician and spiritual healer, M. B. Eddy wrote, "In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master.  He enters into a diviner sense of the facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking over the wave.  All these deeds manifested Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance, that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any form of existence" (S&H 369:5).

 

 Our Christ-sense is that profound awareness of divine reality which Jesus proved so well.  Spiritual education makes it available to everyone.  Even in the most trying circumstances, Christly reasoning can replace panic with the ever-presence of GOD’s goodness, supremacy and victorious solutions. 

 

A young woman who had suffered all her life from water phobia was healed by immersing herself in these spiritual concepts.  She took to heart Job's declaration that it was Spirit and "the breath of the Almighty" that gave her life and sheltered her (Job 33:4).   She even dove in the ocean with her instructor to a depth of 80 feet to swim with sharks. 

 

A man diagnosed with terminal heart disease submitted himself to the alterative effects of these spiritual facts and was restored to health. 

 

LOVE-SOUL is holding everyone within its excellence, grace and bounty.  We are safe.  We are also endowed with its illimitable, spiritual abilities.  All difficulties, however scary or extreme, are conquered by these demonstrable, celestial facts.    

 

SOUL-anointed With Health and Talents

SOUL-anointed With Health and Talents

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

SOUL-GOD is infinite intelligence and goodness, actively expressing its spiritual riches in all.  SOUL imbues us with confidence, inspiration, vitality, health and power.  With LOVE driving our best thoughts and actions we can be a triumphant contributor to family, friends, profession and society. 

 

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him,” states Acts.  This divine anointing is everyone’s ever-active, spiritual inheritance. 

 

Paul, the apostles, others taught by them, and people down through the centuries have proven the spiritual power we draw from SPIRIT-GOD. 

 

Malicious, insidious, manipulative, beguiling and traitorous evil cannot penetrate our synchronicity with MIND-LOVE.  SPIRIT-TRUTH is the divine EGO who shelters and augments our lives.  SOUL-INTELLIGENCE is the “who” and “what” of our incorporeal, uncontained, spiritual essence.  MIND-given success impels all our intelligent, creative, expansive and generous objectives and efforts. 

 

LIFE-MIND is expanding our lives with new discoveries, joys, adventures, relationships, opportunities and accomplishments.  All our just endeavors draw on the boundless health, abilities and energies of SPIRIT.  Our best motives and actions are the effective thrust of LOVE-INTELLIGENCE. 

 

SOUL’s excellence, perceptiveness, vigor, flexibility, adaptability and audacity fuel our lives. This morphed a medium-sized business from bankruptcy into a thriving enterprise.  Owners and top management obtained a wider-scope of vision, the boldness to implement radical changes, and unexpected, plentiful means of financing them. 

 

Spiritual cognition can also fill us with health and vanquish illness.  It turns our bodies into MIND’s healthy structures.  It makes the organs, functions, nerves, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and cells subject to SPIRIT’s harmony-enforcing, divine laws. 

 

A man on the verge of death recovered his health by submitting every ounce of himself to these alterative laws of divine TRUTH. 

 

Healing proves our matter-transcending perfection.  Our always spiritual, healthy, and SOUL-engineered self reveals itself as human health.  Matter, which is a discordant, human illusion, is swept aside by our realization of SPIRIT-MIND’s preeminence. 

 

Everything we truly are is the product of SOUL.  We can eject whatever wants to oppose our MIND-sanctioned health and abilities. 

 

LOVE has anointed us with all its intelligence, wealth, power and love.  With LOVE’s endowments we can live whole lives and achieve everything good.

 

    

 

 

SPIRIT’s Healing Currents

SPIRIT’s Healing Currents

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

There are outstanding healing ideas to discover when we apply a metaphysical understanding to Biblical stories.  Water, for example, has healing symbolism in the Bible. 

Revolutionary, metaphysical thinker, M. B. Eddy, provides an inspired interpretation of the Biblical rivers.  She writes this about one of them: “Euphrates (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness.”   

Let us apply inspiration to this story from Ezekiel 47:1-9 (New Century Version).  First let us review the story. 

“The man led me back to the door of the Temple, and I saw water coming out from under the doorway and flowing east. (The Temple faced east.) The water flowed down from the south side wall of the Temple and then south of the altar.

The man brought me out through the outer north gate and led me around outside to the outer east gate. I found the water coming out on the south side of the gate.  The man went toward the east with a line in his hand and measured about one-third of a mile. Then he led me through water that came up to my ankles.  The man measured about one-third of a mile again and led me through water that came up to my knees. Then he measured about one-third of a mile again and led me through water up to my waist.  The man measured about one-third of a mile again, but it was now a river that I could not cross. The water had risen too high; it was deep enough for swimming; it was a river that no one could cross.

The man asked me, "Human, do you see this?" Then the man led me back to the bank of the river.  As I went back, I saw many trees on both sides of the river.  The man said to me, "This water will flow toward the eastern areas and go down into the Jordan Valley. When it enters the Dead Sea, it will become fresh.  Everywhere the river goes, there will be many fish. Wherever this water goes the Dead Sea will become fresh, and so where the river goes there will be many living things.”

To put the story into its historical context we need to know that Ezekiel was one of the thousands of Israelites captive in Babylon.  It is essential to appreciate that he is imparting vision, hope, direction and resolve to his fellow Israelites. 

The vision confirms to him that LOVE-TRUTH’s eternal covenant with its blessed creation is ever-active.  He assures his people that wellness, progress and freedom are in their future.  He adds that their freedom will appear as they dedicate themselves toward living their covenant with TRUTH-LIFE (GOD). 

His vision advances and liberates us when we understand its deeper meanings.

The temple in Ezekiel’s vision represents incorporeal man’s uninterrupted spiritual unity with SPIRIT-TRUTH.  Everyone’s genuine and eternal make-up is the unfolding magnificence and wholeness of LOVE’s preeminent being. 

The gushing river symbolizes the abundant, transformative, spiritual currents that emanate from SOUL.  When we cognize and live our oneness with SPIRIT-TRUTH we experience these divine, healing flows.  These gushing, yet gentle, illuminating and inspiring currents will expand until it we feel saturated by LOVE’s grace and altered by them.  There are moments when we feel that we are swimming in LOVE’s unstoppable and superlative goodness. 

Ezekiel says that the restorative waters from the temple will enter the Dead Sea and morph it into a body of fresh water where life can thrive.  This means that spiritual inspiration and understanding restores anything ostensible hopeless and dead.  SOUL’s influx enlivens our lives; it enriches and compounds our wellness. 

A Christian hymn assures us: “For the love of God is broader than is seen by human mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.”

Indeed, our spiritual essence dwells in SPIRIT-LOVE’s spiritual environment, where material constraints are void.  Our actual life in SOUL is teeming with love, health, and goodness.  

A man hospitalized with a disease that was taking away his life asked me to pray for him.  The doctors had done what they could and they expected him to die shortly.  His family was also praying for him. 

I visualized his identity as wholly spiritual, without a trace of corporeality, and moving in synchronicity with preeminent and immutable SPIRIT-SOUL.  In fact, his celestial essence was part of the divine, timeless and harmonious flows of LIFE-GOD.  I also saw that his human body was subject to the enlivening and restorative currents of ever-flowing LOVE. 

Two days later he was released from the hospital as a healthy man. 

SPIRIT’s divine currents define the universe and man.  When we apprehend that we are a part of the perfect, eternal, incorporeal flows of SPIRIT we experience renewal, we experience fruitful transformation, and many amazing, rewarding things occur.