'Show Me How Love Is' - The Key to Extraordinary
Affection
One day, I made this request: 'Show me
how Love is.' As is my usual practice, I got mentally still.
When I was ready, I picked up my Bible and Science and Health,
opening them as I felt impelled. (I always expect the answer
to my query to be in the verses that spontaneously present themselves.)
This particular study lasted for three days. Here, I present
my experience: This is the way the text opened to me and the
way the answer was revealed.
I first opened the Bible to the book of
Psalms.
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I am poured out like water, and all my bones
are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst
of my bowels. (Ps 22:14) |
Notes
Self-worthlessness; utter humility;
malleability; listlessness; inability (no muscle strength or
control); no will; no agenda; no inner drive; despair of sense;
the verge of losing sense; agony; powerlessness to produce; the
body as a lost cause without help; worthlessness of all personal
and sensory connections with others. "Matter can afford
you no aid" in reaching the mental state that is required
for spiritual receptivity (SH 492:21). Abject humility allows
the mental door to open and the bridegroom to enter: "Be
silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out
of his holy habitation" (Zech 2:13).
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Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come
in. (Ps 24:7) |
.
Notes
In silence, meekness, and joyful expectancy, we see Mind
move upon our waters, lift up our heads, and open our spiritual
eyes to behold Mind's Son: Christ, the spiritual and intelligent
presence.
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These things saith he that is holy, he that
is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and
no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy
works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man
can shut it. (Rev 3:7-8) |
Notes
Intelligence, being wholly spiritual,
is omniscient and omnipresent. No physical attribute or characteristic
can identify or mimic one Mind because the finite cannot comprehend
infinity. Matter and Mind are unrelated in basis and form. Spiritual
intelligence is the door that cannot be shut and no mortal man
can open.
Request
'Evermore give me this bread' -
divine intelligence.
Response
'Take it, but you will have to
be as one poured out, ready to move at the impulse of divine
intelligence. Choosing whether or not to listen is not an option.
There must be no choice, no chance of not complying with Me,
no possibility of effect from separate self.'
At the end of the day, as I prepared for
rest, one of Mrs. Eddy's verses came to mind (Mis 398:1).
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I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way. |
With this prayerful promise, I went to
sleep.
In a night vision, I appeared as another
man. I was an employee of a bank, the son of the president, observing
its operation. It appeared to be lucrative and busy. I entered
the president's dark richly appointed office to see him with
a large portfolio of holdings in his hands: cash, certificates,
and credit cards. Upon seeing me, he quickly closed the portfolio
and hoarded it in a drawer. He then handed me a new portfolio
case with slots and pockets, but it was totally empty. He disappeared
along with all the room furnishings, leaving me in an empty,
undefined space. The scene shifted again. Now there was a gentle
light everywhere with no specific surrounding details, and I
was observing this man from a distance. He and his wife decided
to explore the city in order to inspect their holdings; one went
first and then the other. They discovered that everything that
they had thought they owned did not exist. There were no holdings!
There was some discussion between them. They were now basking
in a brighter light. (He was sitting and she was standing.) She
looked at her husband, went to him, smiled, and kissed him, embracing
him joyously. The scene reminded me of Jeremiah's prophetic saying,
"A woman shall compass a man" (Jer 31:22).
Notes
As he first appeared, the bank president stands for false fatherhood,
lust, greed, malice, secrecy, false security, selfishness, ingratitude,
and unhappiness. "Stripped of its coverings, what a mocking
spectacle is sin!" (SH 241:11).
In this vision, I had witnessed a change
of base from a belief of material prosperity to the beginning
of the affections: this spiritually responsive couple found substance
as love without substance as matter - a place for the affections
without trappings or compromise.
Request
Does divine Mind, itself, possess all association and connection
with its own ideas?
Response
Yes!
Request
Are these ideas lovely? Show me!
I then opened the Bible to Ezekiel.
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Thus saith the Lord God; The gate of the inner
court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working
days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of
the new moon it shall be opened. And the prince shall enter by
the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by
the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt
offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the
threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall
not be shut until the evening. Likewise the people of the land
shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord in the
sabbaths and in the new moons. (Ezek 46:1-3) |
Notes
The east gate, opening to the prophetic
star and the prince, refers to Christ, who said, "I am the
door of the sheep" (John 10:7). Jesus was known to the wise
men of the East by the star that "went before them, till
it came and stood over where the young child was" (Matt
2:9). When we work within our own limited mental range, we are
unaware of the spiritual guides available to us, so our spiritual
potential is blocked. Six days of labor illustrate phases of
a mortal's mind thinking itself. The consciousness of seventh-day
rest is full-bodied - all intelligent. At the new moon - the
darkest night of mortal mind - when we have given up our artificial
cleverness, again the door to Mind is opened wide. We own the
door to our own mental barriers. Love continuously knocks: "The
darkness and the light are both alike to thee" (Ps 139:12).
Total surrender, as one poured out (bones dangling), allows our
mental door to open of its own accord, freeing us to leave the
barriers of time and space. Divine intelligence knows its own
perfect ideas in perfect form: all knowing and known, all good
and acknowledged, all harmonious and loving.
Next, I opened to 1 Samuel (9:16 ?10:9),
where Samuel prophesies that Saul will become king and that he
will be given another heart and be turned into another man.
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And it was so, that when he had turned his
back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart. (I Sam 10:9) |
Notes
The advent of divine intelligence
turns us into another kind of man: a fearless leader among men
who has directness of heart and singular purpose. With the doors
of consciousness open, today is filled with light and grace,
for grace is the natural expression of intelligent man.
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But let none of you suffer as a murderer,
or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's
matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (I Pet 4:15-16) |
Notes
When the awareness of Christ's
presence changes your heart, do not look back or expect others
to believe what you are. Their doors are shut, and in their ignorance,
they will shut you out. Jesus said, "For judgment I am come
into this world, that they which see not might see; and that
they which see might be made blind" (John 9:39). "Out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which
defile a man" (Matt 15:19?20). Jesus illustrated how adherence
to the light of divine intelligence recompenses material losses
with spiritual gain. As the things of this world fade into oblivion,
they are replaced by imperishable glories - from better health
and morals to the form of divine grace.
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The incarnation of Truth, that amplification
of wonder and glory which angels could only whisper and which
God illustrated by light and harmony, is consonant with ever-present
Love. (SH 501:10) |
Notes
Jesus illustrated Life and Love
without the confinement of self-conscious matter. Intelligence
that originates from above must be seen and acknowledged here.
Question
Is Jesus the best example of God-derived, God-animated affection?
Jesus said of himself, "I am not of
this world," but what was seen with human eyes appeared
in this world (John 8:23). To behold that which is derived from
and animated by God, we, ourselves, must have the awareness of
God: we must be like him. Otherwise, we will misinterpret his
statements, hang him on a tree in an attempt to forget how guilty
he made us feel, or worship an idol in a mystery. Idol worshipers
are ignorant, blind, and dead to "the incarnation of Truth."
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Wherefore henceforth know we no man after
the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh,
yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.
(II Cor 5: 16 - 18) |
Notes
Christ must defeat a belief of
limited intelligence in matter, must waken the dreamer to the
divine manifestation of Love living love. Spiritual consciousness
is direct communion with Mind, independent of material form and
function. Where there is spiritual consciousness, ignorance cannot
reside. Where there is life, death cannot exist. Where there
is love, "all things are of God."
As the day dawned on the third day, I awoke
with the following realization.
To be satisfied, to feel loved and to know
it, everyone must receive love from the divine source, not from
each other. We must be Love-indulgent, not self-indulgent. "Wait
patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind,
and form the perfect concept" (SH 454:22). The Love that
inspires us to love one another does not originate in separate
self. Love is the grand condition of infinite All, requiring
our full engagement and participation; we cannot miss it, and
it cannot escape without us. Christ's love abides with us "even
unto the end of the world"- even unto the end of our rebellion
against infinite good.
I then opened to these messages.
Why a flower fades -
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So are the paths of all that forget God; and
the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Whose hope shall be cut off,
. . . He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand. (Job
8:13,15) |
Notes
The allure of vain appearances
loses its appeal as their lies are exposed. Mortal efforts to
mimic the divine ideal must prove futile.
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Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also
to love one another. (I John 4:11)
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear him, and delivereth them. (Ps 34:7) |
Notes
"The angels of His presence
- the spiritual intuitions that tell us when 'the night is far
spent, the day is at hand' - are our guardians in the gloom"
(SH 174:11). Divine Love's embrace forever companions us; "we
ought also to love one another."
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Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to
keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which
I have prepared. (Ex 23:20)
Patience must "have her perfect work."
(SH 454:24) |
Conclusion
This study brought new insights
for understanding God as manifestation. If infinite Mind were
inert, it would be unknown: unless it does something, there would
be no evidence of its existence. What does Mind do? It thinks!
The ideas of Mind confirm it to be causative, and the understanding
of all things is called man. Ideas reflect the divine infinite
intelligence, and you are the compound idea. You only exist as
Mind thinking you. That is all you are, and that is enough. To
be conscious of matter is to lose your Mind.
"Principle and its idea is one"
(SH 465:17).
George Denninger © |