We Are Intact In Spirit-God

We Are Intact In Spirit-God

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

 

“And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever.”

 

This passage means more than trusting in the help of a “god” up in the sky.  Such a “god” is constructed of superstition and blinds us to infinite Good-God.

 

All glory belongs to infinite Spirit-God.  The comprehension that Good-God is the “I AM ALL” is our protection. It places us within Love’s imperial, harmonious atmosphere. 

 

In Love’s universe there is perfect order and peace.  Love is the only energy and intelligence, encompassing us with goodness, health, joy and success. 

 

Spirit-God keeps our spiritual self overflowing with permanent health, intelligence, beauty, might and vitality.  This understanding rescues our human experience from evil’s prevarications.  The preeminence of Spirit makes all material conditions delusory. 

 

Our immaculate celestial identity is endowed with the magnificent attributes of Mind-Spirit.  It is blended with Soul, and expresses its limitless diversity and uniqueness. 

 

Harmful, material conditions are empty of Life and Soul.  They vanish when consciousness absorbs spiritual reality.  Even years of illness and damage have no reality in Truth.   Long-term physical, emotional and financial damage vanish before our spiritual identity. 

 

A woman I know was born with curvature of the spine and it kept her from being able to stand and walk uprightly.  We had been discussing her spiritual wholeness for several weeks.  Suddenly one day, as we talked and prayed about man’s God-asserted wellness, her spine straightened out.  The healing was permanent.

 

Scripture declares, “… so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day” and “I will feed them in a good pasture” and “bind up” the broken, and “strengthen” the sick.”

 

Truth-God’s spiritual facts connect us to overflowing harmony, peace and love.  Spiritual enlightenment eradicates illness, sin, ignorance, failure, bad luck, bad heredity, and others’ malicious attacks.  By superseding material convictions with spiritual apprehension we discover our healthy, magnificent self in the “ALL-IN-ALL” of Mind-Love. 

 

Salvation, or healing, takes place when we are convinced and altered by divine knowledge.  When Old-Testament character Jonah finally took in the wisdom of Mind-God, he discovered his divine abilities and was able to save others from their misery.  When New Testament character Saul yielded to perfect Love, he became spiritual empowered by wisdom and grace. 

 

Jesus lived in communion with empyrean Truth.  Spiritual knowledge made him what brilliant theologian, M. B. Eddy, describes as “undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses …”   He was armored by Love’s wisdom. 

 

Truth filled him with spiritual power.  His lucid, spiritually-anchored consciousness awakened receptive minds to their Love-given health, life and bounty.  

 

By enthroning divine knowledge in consciousness we jettison material obstructions and launch ourselves into superlative wellness.   Life-Love’s inexhaustible energy metamorphoses our lives.

 

 

Saving Children from Evil

Saving Children from Evil

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

Most teenagers are creative, intelligent and caring.  Only a small percentage of all children are living on the streets.  Still, the absolute number is in the multiple thousands.  It is the ignorance, stupidity and un-challenged evil within adults that derails the lives of teenagers. 

 

Often children/teenagers who are suffering abuse, who are burdened by materialistic pressures, or who are deceived by predatory adults, do not know how to interpret what is happening to them.  They also do not know if they need help and how to get it.  What ensues is confusion, desperation, hurt and emptiness.  This makes them even more mentally and emotionally vulnerable to malicious influences. 

 

Most runaways come from abusive homes.  Leaving their homes is a matter of survival.  There are also the few who leave home because they are attracted to what they think is the freedom of the streets.  Once on the streets, they become the target of predators.  They often end up prostituting themselves, addicted to drugs, and committing crimes. 

 

While conducting Bible classes at a shelter for teenage runaways, I had the opportunity to teach and counsel many children who had been living on the streets.  I have witnessed how the immensity of God’s love pulls teenagers out of desperate circumstances.

 

Transformational, Love-filled moments can wash away pain, hurt and confusion.  In one case, when we had been engaged in a spiritual conversation for over an hour, several teenage girls sensed the influx of spiritual grace – the Holy Ghost.  Their suffering and suicidal struggles were superseded by the desire to live and better their lives. 

 

The freeing and regenerating power of divine Love, God, excises the social and familial factors that drive teenagers to live on the streets.  Their home in God’s love is irreversible because Spirit-God encompasses all existence.  Soul-God is the fountain of everyone’s spiritual identity.  Our attraction to God’s good is weaved into the fabric of our spiritual being. 

 

Evil attempts to drive a wedge between God and man.  But because spiritual wholeness is intrinsic to our genuine self, evil can only hide our inseparability from Spirit-God.  As the first chapter of Genesis says, we are constructed of the excellence of Spirit.  Physicality and all the troubles that come with it represent a material delusion. 

 

19^th century writer and spiritual healer, M. B. Eddy, uncovers evil’s inveigling machinations when she writes, “Material theories tend to check spiritual attraction--the tendency towards God, the infinite and eternal--by an opposite attraction toward the temporary and finite.”   But she also adds, “Truth, life and love are the only legitimate and eternal demands upon man ….”

 

Jesus Christ, who proved man’s God-given dominion over evil by destroying sin, disease and death, regarded evil as a “lie” and “liar.”  Jesus said this about evil: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is not truth in him.”   Through his victories over evil’s illusions, the great Master proved to us the freedom and joy that can be derived from knowing the supremacy of God’s grace.

 

 We can reverse the obnoxious materialism of modern society which attempts to confuse and distance everyone from their spiritual relationship with Love-Spirit.  By anchoring ourselves on the premise of Spirit’s all-substance, all-intelligence and all-science we place ourselves on an amazing journey of spiritual discoveries and rewards. 

 

Open, respectful and supportive relationships and communication between parents and children can protect them from abuse, contagious materialism, and predatory evil.  The supreme intelligence of Mind-God infuses us with wisdom.  It creates a spiritually fecund and sheltering environment in our homes. 

 

Young people need close, loving and trust-filled relationships with parents and other caring adults.  But they mostly need an intimate relationship with Soul-God.  When Truth-God is regarded as the head of every household then everyone can feel spiritual security.  Each family member’s communion with Mind-God engenders resolution to the biggest fears, confusion and troubles.   

 

            We should never give up on anyone, even when he or she appears hopeless.  If we believe we have already done everything humanly possible to help someone, our clear recognition of man’s Spirit-given, spiritual oneness will continue to nudge him in the right direction. 

 

As the 23d Psalm reminds us, even in “the valley of the shadow of death” the power and presence of divine Love is there to protect and to bring anyone back to a God-centered life. 

 

Love’s all-presence includes and blesses everyone. 

 

    

 

Creative SPIRIT-LOVE

Creative SPIRIT-LOVE

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

            LOVE-GOD is inexhaustible creativity.   LOVE’s creative expression is understood through a spiritual interpretation of the physical universe and man. 

 

Physical life begins, develops, falls apart and dies.  But the spiritual man and universe are limitless and beautiful.  They are exempt from aging, breakdown and finality.  

 

We are the ever-unfolding masterpiece of SPIRIT.  Scripture says that we are the “manifestation of Spirit” and that this understanding is “given to profit withal.”  We are in whom “God worketh … to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

 

When we are convinced of this our hearts echo Isaiah: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord” – in the majestic workings of Spirit.

 

            LOVE is unfolding spiritual goodness in us – it is creating health, supply, love and success. We exist as LOVE’s creative and interminable expression.   Our spiritual essence is independent of decay-prone, organic matter. 

 

We gain more health, intelligence and character by accepting our spiritual self – by de-materializing our views.  In defiance of physical evidence, we can celebrate our magnificent, celestial substance. 

 

Great fruitage is obtained by affirming this with conviction: “LOVE ‘hath clothed me with the garments of salvation … with righteousness.’   I am blended with MIND-GOD, emitting divine health, endless life, integrity, intelligence, and dominion.”

 

            The writer of Acts explains that “as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”  An updated version of this would read this way: “We are the offspring of pure MIND, transcending physical limits – beyond bio-chemical, genetic, molecular and atomic restraints.” 

 

Sometimes the media reports that it has been proven by mind-body researchers that intercessory prayer is effective.  At other times they report that it is not.  What we do through metaphysical prayer is not “intercessory prayer” because we are not pleading with God to intervene in material events. 

 

Our MIND-based prayers heal because they align us with superlative spiritual reality.  The eternal facts of divine TRUTH correct material problems because the latter are merely misconceptions.  Our prayers begin and end with spiritual perfection as the eminent reality.  This kind of spiritual cognizance erases material impediments, sin, illness and suffering. 

 

            The creative, renewing and expanding force of MIND-LOVE can correct/heal anything wrong.  Careers, businesses, families, friends, neighbors, churches, cities and the world can be made congruent with GOD.  TRUTH understood is just supplanting distortions with divine facts. 

 

We are the immortal outcome of preeminent and ever-creative LOVE-SPIRIT.

 

 

A Family Prayer

A Family Prayer

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

 

My family and I dwell in the holy protection of LOVE-GOD, way beyond the reach of fear, illness, distress and any other impotent claim.

 

“I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust."

 

Mental, emotional and physical discords cannot disrupt our family’s MIND-designed perfection.  We are teeming with spiritual opportunities and joys.  Trust in MIND allows us to receive and enjoy its superabundant blessings.

 

“Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.”

 

Day and night, we are safe, stable and flourishing within LOVE’s prolific kingdom.  LOVE jettisons failure and propels our wellness and success.

 

⁴He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

 

We lean on you, Holy ONE and ALL.  We welcome your goodness-proliferating forces and we trust in your thorough, precise, healing intelligence. 

Biblical passages employed as healing prayers

Biblical passages employed as healing prayers

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

“…The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”  Love-God is omnipresent and it shelters me wherever I am. 

 

“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you ….” Divine Truth understood acts as omnipresent, efficacious and comprehensive healing power. 

 

“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Divine Science reveals that we are subsumed by Love, and empowered with divine abilities.

 

“Thy faith hath saved thee.” Spirit’s preeminence is my anchor and might.  This apprehension cancels every antagonistic, material lie.  It generates health, bounty and love in me and in every welcoming heart. 

 

“He that dwelleth in God dwelleth in love, and God him.” Christ ignites me with the radiant fire of divine Love.   This holy fire burns away all material arguments against Spirit-given health, fulfillment and advancement.  It elides jealous, fickle, possessive, selfish, fearful and prideful temptations. 

 

“Go -- wash in the pool of Siloam.”  Christ anoints us with spiritual sense and courage.  It rights our minds, emotions, bodies and relationships.  It cleanses us of fear, doubt, guilt, self-condemnation, illness, lack and personal sense. 

 

 “… as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ….”  When we receive Truth’s ideas we are blessed with its healing wisdom and authority.

 

“… and “of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.”  We can feel and impart Love’s all-subsuming grace. 

 

Our spiritual comprehension is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God (each of us) may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”  Our spiritual self is of Spirit, and it reflects the riches of Spirit.

 

“Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  The magnificence and purity of Christ turns us into witnesses of divine grace.  We rejoice in how the “… sick healed, the sorrowing are comforted, and the sinning are reformed.” 

 

 

 

The transformational Christ

The transformational Christ

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

Christ Jesus tells us that "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the  flesh profiteth nothing."  (John 6:63)  Christ is SPIRIT’s manifestation to our human understanding and it induces revolutionary changes. 

The term "flesh" implies calcified thinking, a matter-confined temperament.  A Christly spirit illuminates consciousness and liberates us from flesh-bound traps.  We experience the divine, alterative energies of SPIRIT.  Currents of health, grace and wellness flow into us. 

Jesus was radical.  He went against the mental tide of materiality.  Revolutionary theologian, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote that “Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death.  His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man.”

The Christ-spirit is given to everyone by LOVE-GOD.  It is ours because our spiritual essence is the product of SPIRIT-LIFE.  It is imbedded in the spiritual fabric of our being. 

The Christ-spirit is holy, healing grace and might.  We release it via growth in understanding and grace.  Once activated it overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. 

The Christ-spirit elides is the “spirit that quickeneth.”  It elides willfulness, ego-centrism and pride by making way for spiritual grace, dominion and triumph.  It transforms mere personal effort into divinely empowered activity. 

To infinite GOOD-GOD, who is omnipotent SPIRIT, no human condition is too difficult to resolve.  As the Bible says, "he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth" (Job 23: 13).

The answers to the problems facing us — whether large or small — are at hand.  Our Christly spirit causes us to hear MIND’s brilliant solutions and to implement them successfully. 

Our Christly understanding compounds our health, fulfillment and substance.  It honors LOVE-GOD and it embraces and blesses everyone we come into contact with. 

Raising our Expectancy of Good

Raising our Expectancy of Good

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

            Good expectations induce good outcomes; bad expectations induce bad outcomes. 

Researchers have confirmed this truism many times by administering a placebo and a nocebo.  A pretend medication or procedure is called a placebo when patients are told to anticipate a positive outcome; it is a nocebo when they are told to anticipate a negative result. 

Subjects have been relieved of ill symptoms, like pain, swelling, and depression, when administered a placebo, and they’ve experienced suffering from a nocebo. 

In one instance a person attempted suicide by swallowing 26 tablets of what they believed were medicinal tablets though the tablets were a nocebo.   Even so, the person’s blood pressure dropped dangerously low. 

These experiments help us to understand the importance of raising hope and our expectancy of good.  The positive repercussions multiply when we communicate this to others. 

We should not ignore problems and dangers, but when addressing them we can emphasize hope, possible solutions, and the expectation of good outcomes. 

Jesus Christ gave hope and healing to those in need.  The frail, pained, failed, confused and sinful were transformed and liberated when they assimilated Jesus’ spiritual wisdom and love. 

The enlightenment and grace Jesus communicated had divine might because it was the result of his synchronicity with perfect TRUTH-LOVE-GOD.  We belong to GOD and have access to the same redemptive power and love. 

We gain confidence and might over human problems by understanding that SPIRIT-GOD expresses spiritual wholeness and freedom in us and throughout His infinite, spiritual universe.   LIFE-SPIRIT debars matter.  Furthermore, because our SPIRIT-given substance is excellent, we can eliminate illness, failure and obstacles by asserting these divine facts. 

The great spiritual healer, M. B. Eddy, says that we will generate the best outcomes by being on fire with GOD’s hope and love.   She wrote, “The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.”

I was praying over a sick and crying baby in my arms when suddenly I felt engulfed by GOD’s sovereign love.  In that very moment my anxiety and the baby’s illness were vanquished by perfect LOVE.  We can expect healing because LOVE is our reality and material problems are mental deflections from TRUTH. 

The list of difficulties, including fear and distress, may be long, but prayer ignites hope and expectancy.  As our prayers synchronize us to LOVE-GOD spiritual understanding and certainty take hold.  Suddenly healing gushes in. 

With gratitude bursting in our hearts for the healing received, our temperament adopts spiritual reality.  These are rare and special moments in which to be still and commune with ultimate TRUTH.  We will be rewarded.  Everything and everyone will come into sharper view as the resplendence of SPIRIT-SOUL. 

The Spiritual Peace that Heals

The Spiritual Peace that Heals

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

            “… the God of peace shall be with you” wrote  Paul to the Philippians.  Yet, there is much conflict in the world: among nations, and within nations -- among interest groups and individuals. 

Human peace does not come easily.  Most people experience plenty of disappointments, setbacks, betrayals, anxieties, losses and tragedies.  When we do experience peace it can be short-lived.  Sometimes, peace is deceiving because it hides insidious evil.  

So, what is peace?  Is it a lack of conflict?  Is getting along with one another the top priority?  Is there more to peace than the absence of discord?

            As a desirable human condition, peace includes amity, harmony, order, agreement, rest, stillness and contentment.  But spiritually speaking it is Mind-God’s active, harmonizing power.  A “God of peace” manifests concord everywhere – in man and throughout the universe. 

Jesus Christ said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and over burdened, and I will give you rest – I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.”  He meant that by communing with Mind-Love we gain spiritual renewal and peace.  Christly wisdom produces resolution of internal and external conflicts. 

Mind’s peace is a divine law that harmonizes our minds, bodies and relationships.  It has the power to still a hurricane of troubles. 

The superlative and absolute nature of Spirit-Mind makes peace an omnipresent, spiritual reality.  The non-material, divine “I AM ALL” provides peace, security and certainty. 

The All-Spirit leaves nothing outside of its spiritual comprehensiveness.  Therefore, Spirit is the substance of everything.  We derive from Spirit a matter-transcending, empyreal nature and this nature is peaceful and whole.  Everyone’s spiritual identity is exempt from discord.  A glimpse of this divine truth enforces Soul’s harmony in multiple ways – financially, psychologically, physiologically and in our associations with others. 

Our divine self has unity with Mind and expresses Mind.  This apprehension improves the quality of our choices and decisions.  Because of this understanding we manifest a higher caliber of intelligence, ethics and morals.  This induces confidence and peace.

Sometimes we deceive ourselves.  We convince ourselves to believe there is peace when none exists.  The prophet Jeremiah advises to not pretend and proclaim “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”  Instead, says Scripture, we should heed, “Be corrected, reformed, instructed and warned, O Jerusalem.”  This means we must address those issues calling out for healing, even if they represent painful wounds and we’ve covered them up for a long time. 

Mind’s wisdom will “overturn, overturn, overturn until he come whose right it is.”  This is a biblically poetic way of saying that Mind’s intelligent guidance will replace mistaken ways with successful ones.   

To a resistant attitude, Love’s intelligent ways of giving us peace may feel at first like the strike of a sword.  To a receptive attitude, peace is experienced as divine comfort, hope and guidance.   As a sword it cuts through and removes adamant fear, pride, self-righteousness, ignorance and selfishness.  As a salve it closes old wounds and alleviates hurts.  Its intelligence directs us away from failure-prone ways and places us on productive pathways.

Soul’s spiritual pathways to peace restored the life of a man whose business and family were crumbling away.  His health was also waning.  Spiritual communion opened the mental door to Love’s brilliantly effective answers.  Old and ingrained mental habits were replaced by Mind’s intelligent and productive ones.  His business, family and health were saved. 

Love-God’s peace is always enthroned.  Love’s pacifying messages speak to us all the time and in ways that heal us.  Outstanding early 20^th century author and healer, M. B. Eddy, wrote that Love is “… unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious divine Principle, -- is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.” 

God’s spiritual love, peace and power are supreme.  Spiritual understanding proves it.

Liberated by Christly Wisdom

Liberated by Christly Wisdom

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

The lyrics of a hymn declare, “The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking, unloosing bonds of captivity.  He comes to bless thee on his wings of healing; to banish pain, and wipe all tears away; … O captive, rise, thy Saviour comes to thee.”  

Christ represents the continual flow of MIND-GOD’s healing wisdom and grace.  SPIRIT-MIND’s intelligent, inspiring messages remove negative conditions, like disease, calamity, fear, hurt, anxiety and despair. 

Every aspect of our spiritual essence belongs to SPIRIT-GOD.  We are the outstanding oeuvre of SPIRIT.  Excellence describes SPIRIT and our spiritual essence.

When we think and act from a standpoint of Spirit’s preeminence we surpass whatever would impede our health and progress.   

A man I know was liberated from painful arthritic conditions by Christly wisdom.  The lyrics, “He comes to bless thee on his wings of healing; to banish pain, and wipe all tears away; … O captive, rise, thy Saviour comes to thee” had such a deep impact on him that he felt pain and stiffness drain out of his joints.    

St. Paul advises us to “… tear down arguments and every lofty idea that is raised against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obey Christ.”

Brilliant theologian, M. B. Eddy, adds, “Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength.”

Healing occurs when we have clear moments of spiritual inspiration.  These transformational instances can happen even while we sleep.  Whenever we internalize Christly wisdom we experience wellness-inducing effects. 

Spiritual apprehension brings consciousness in line with Christ, Truth. It makes us victorious over ignorant and obstinate issues.  It removes diseases, conflicts and obstructions. Any and all difficulties – even the worst kind – surrender to a TRUTH-anchored consciousness.

Currents of health, resources, and wellness flow into us from MIND-TRUTH.

     

  

Enlightened Faith is a Gift from MIND

Enlightened Faith is a Gift from MIND

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

“Thy faith had made thee whole,” said Jesus to the man he had healed.   The man’s expectancy of healing bore fruitage.  The man welcomed Jesus’ illuminating and redemptive teachings and his trust in them healed him. 

The New Testament describes faith as being a state of conviction in what we don’t see, but hope for.  People live by faith in more ways than they acknowledge.  This is true even among those who do not believe so.  Merely getting up every day and doing what is required of us expresses faith in improved outcomes. 

What about faith in the power of SPIRIT-GOD to heal us?  There are many who do not have such faith but wish they did.  Even those who have experienced the healing grace of LOVE have instances when they need to rekindle their faith. 

Enlightened faith rushes into us when we welcome it as a gift from MIND-GOD, and not as something we have to manufacture.  It confirms that we are inextricably linked to LOVE-GOD. 

LOVE’s compelling “spirit” kindles faith.  It transforms into understanding which produces healing.  But even more rewarding than healing is the profound sense of oneness with the allness of SPIRIT-LOVE that one gains.

 We can anchor ourselves in the realization that SPIRIT is preeminent substance and that man is its incorporeal and consummate outcome.  When we do this, we feel confident in SPIRIT’s restorative and wellness-amplifying effects.

 SPIRIT-LOVE is showering us with immaculate, non-material wholeness.  Exuberant abilities and means are bursting in our spiritual composition.  No material distress can debase or compromise our SPIRIT-designed-and-enforced magnificence.  

As a volunteer chaplain at the county jail in my city I often met with inmates for prayer and counseling sessions.  It was quite common for many of them to believe that their personal failures prevented them from meriting GOD’s healing love.  Therefore, faith in LOVE’s fidelity to them was too much of a stretch. 

But this changed for some when they learned to accept faith and healing as the outpouring of LOVE’s irrepressible and infinite nature.  They experienced meaningful healings.

One young man, suffering from a liver damaged by excessive alcohol and drug abuse, suddenly found he had a healthy liver, and it stayed so.  His new-found faith catalyzed spiritual changes in him.  After experiencing this healing, it was communing with LOVE that produced his “highs.”

MIND-fed, illumined faith can pulverize a “mountain” of doubts, fears, diseases, and other impediments.  It releases a torrent of love, wisdom, and energy.   

This kind of faith honors GOD, makes evident our spiritual nature, and fructifies our lives.