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'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.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.


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.

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."

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 -
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.

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."

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 ©

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