"We
did not make Life and we cannot change It, but we can use It, and the
use of Life is through the imagination; because this faculty has, at
its roots, the very well-spring of life and action. Imagination
carries with it feeling and conviction, which means life and action.
It awakens within us all the inner forces of nature and stirs into
action latent powers which otherwise would never come to surface.
Will power may be necessary in its place, as a directive agency, but
as a creative agency, it is non-existent. Imagination brought
the world forth from chaos. "The worlds were framed by
the Word of God." Imagination is the power of the word,
while will is the directive agency, denoting the purpose for which the
word is spoken. Man reproduces the power to create, and in his
own life, controls his destiny through the activity of his word.
This word cannot be willed, but it can be imagined or imaged
forth into expression." -
Dr. Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind
Our
imagination is a wonderful faculty of mind that allows us to truly
realize what we want in life. We are always using our
imagination, but we are not always using it effectively to bring into
expression that which we desire to experience. Too often, we
begin to use our imagination, but we don't expand on what we are
imagining. I believe this has something to do with the idea that
imagining is sometimes thought to be the same as day-dreaming.
It is not. Day-dreaming is "thinking of something"
while imagination is allowing something that has caught our attention;
an idea, a thought, or a desire, to be fully realized in our mind.
In other words, we allow our mind to image that which we are directing
it to imagine. As we consciously allow our imagination to expand
upon the idea, the thought, or the desire, we can image the thing from
something better, to the best. As we use our imagination to
bring forth the best about something, we can consciously choose what
it will be by dismissing the images that do not appeal to us and
strengthening within our mind a conviction for the images that really
appeal to us.
"He
(Jesus) discovered something in
himself, which he believed was fundamental to all persons. His
teaching was that the Kingdom of God is within you – that this
dynamic potential to achieve and to overcome is a level within
yourself that the Apostle Paul called, "Christ in you, the hope
of glory." [Corinthians. 1:27] Jesus said, and mind you, he said
this: "...the works that I do shall he [you] do also; and greater
works than these shall he [you] do...." [John 14:12] That is the
key.
Surely, Jesus has a message for
us today. But we must see the difference between what I call the
religion about Jesus and the religion of Jesus. Theology, the religion
about Jesus, talks of the Divinity of Jesus and that we must believe
in him to be saved. On the other hand, the religion of Jesus, as found
in his teachings, emphasizes the Divinity of man, and that if you
believe in your innate unity with God, you contact a Dynamic Power,
then you are one with the flow of the means by which you can change
your life. This is the fundamental that I think has been grossly
understated, if not lost. I believe that this is what Jesus was all
about." -
Eric Butterworth, A New Look at Jesus
I
have found that using the imagination as part of affirmative prayer or
spiritual treatment, gives me the advantage of having a greater
conviction that the thing that I desire is mine. In spiritual
treatment, we always speak our word as though we have what it is that
we desire, and our effective use of imagination works in the same way.
Don't imagine that you "will have" or "will be" or
"will do" something ... but imagine what it looks like and
feels like when as you "have it" or "be it" or
"doing it" ... now. When we have created the perfect
image in our mind and are completely satisfied with what we see, then
we speak the words that describe what we see and feel, perfectly as
though it is true for us right in this moment. What we see in
our mind and affirm with our words, expresses in our outer world of
affairs according to our belief that it is so. Our words have power,
even without using our imagination, but what we imagine requires our
word to be powerful.
I believe that the Master Mind Jesus imagined
the multiplication of the loaves and fishes before they were
multiplied. Einstein tells us that "imagination is more
important than knowledge" ... knowledge gives us what is already
known, imagination takes us into the realm of the unknown ... even
that which has been believed to be impossible. Jesus was not
moved by the impossible, for he declared and demonstrated that
"... for G-d, all things are possible." And as Saint
Augustine stated with profound wisdom: "Miracles
are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about
nature."
Everything proceeds from "what
is" ... we can increase the good we have, or we can create
something new from what we have gained knowledge or awareness of.
The Master Mind Jesus did the same with the 5 loaves and 2 fish ... he
multiplied them to feed a crowd reported to be 5,000 people. "...
the miracle of abundance is not the multiplication of loaves of bread,
nor the specific filling of a cruse of oil, not the drawing in of a
mammoth catch of fish. The miracle is the all-sufficiency and
ever-availability of Infinite substance. This was Jesus' great
idea: that the Kingdom of Heaven is an opulent kingdom of
substance, of creative ideas. And the supply to meet our demands
is right where we are - and what we need.
In the story of the miraculous feeding, Jesus told the people to sit
down and then He "looked up to heaven and gave thanks."
Right away we might find ourselves "straining out the gnat,"
for we return to the old concept that heaven is somewhere "out
there." It would seem that Jesus was looking up into the
skies and saying, "God, you have abundance up there. We
need some of it down here." But that isn't what is implied
at all. He looked away from the appearance of lack and
emptiness, from the human feeling that "you cannot possibly feed
all these people with one boy's lunch." He closed His eyes
to the lack and opened His spiritual eyes to abundance.
There is no absence of God in the Universe, and there is no shortage
of God. The only lack in life is the thought of lack. You
are always as rich as you think you are, and the only poverty is of
the spirit." - Eric Butterworth, Discover the Power Within
You
Imagine for a moment that your imagination is powerful ... then
realize within your mind that since G-d is All-Power, our imagination
is aligned with the One Mind, the One Intelligence, which is G-d ...
and this is what makes it so very powerful ... and so we can take into
our mind that which we desire to experience within ... that is the
kingdom of G-d within us ... and soon enough in what may appear to be
a miracle for others ... as within, so without ... and so our life
experience shall be on earth as it is in the heaven within us ... and
this is not just my imagination ... this is the truth.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the
faith!
Rev.
Henry Bates
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