VII — Heirs Apparent
There is a tremendous significance in this conclusion: Jesus has changed something in me—Christ to Christ Jesus.
A great difference exists between our having within us an idea of a chair to be made, and our having the realization that the chair is already objectified as a piece of furniture on which we may sit. If we try to sit on the unobjectified idea, we all know where we shall land—on the floor.
A great difference exists between having in us God’s perfect Idea of man, Christ, and having in us the realization that the Idea is objectified, in any good form that we desire, Christ Jesus.
In the secret place of the Most High within us, we now contact consciously not just the Idea, but faith that the Idea is manifest as the blessing we want. This highest spiritual enlightenment is: “I have done all things desired through Christ Jesus within who has strengthened me. ‘I have overcome the world.’ ”
If Jesus is conscious of having “overcome,” and if we, in the silence, enter into His knowing, this must then be our knowing too. In the words of Thomas, at first the doubter, this (the ascended Lord (Law) ) is “my Lord and my God (Good).” Jesus has changed something in me—the Christ to Christ Jesus.
Between these two acceptances, that of the Idea, or that of the Idea objectified, there is all the difference between accepting a business in difficult process of being built up to success, or accepting the business already established and successfully flourishing. There is all the difference between accepting the blueprint for the desired new house and building it ourselves with the “sweat of our brow” or of moving into the completely satisfying home already erected.
Of course this does not mean that, if we enjoy building up a business, or enjoy erecting a home for ourselves, we shall be Grace-less. It means that the work will not be labor—that that satisfactory expression in itself will be the manifest fulfillment of desire.
The real satisfaction of desire in every true creative worker is not the finally produced work of art, but the joy he experiences in expressing his talent or genius. An artist who paints a picture may not do it with one sweep of the brush across his canvas; each successive stroke, when satisfying to him, is in itself an attainment reached.
Through realization of Christ Jesus within, each of these progressive accomplishments will give the artist joy. He will be motivated by divine, not human, desire.
Human desire has been defined as an “urge to experience in the outer a perfection not felt within,” while “divine desire is an urge to express in the outer a perfection (ability) that is first realized within.” (Sharlee Thompson)
The artist, or worker of any kind, who engages in some activity because of the wealth, worldly acclaim or other personal benefit he expects will result from his work, is moved by human desire. Jesus said, “. . . seek ye first his (the Father’s) kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The kingdom is ability to express some gift or talent—the power to be active in some satisfactory way—in short, the power to live. It is not “earning a living.” It is living a life. The material rewards are the “things added” as incidentals to seeking the kingdom.
Included in the kingdom manifest is health. Necessarily it must be, for who can accomplish to the best of his realized ability if he is shackled by illness? Yet the perfect way to health is not so much in accepting the outer form of bodily well-being as it is in having faith in expressing God’s perfect life. Health is the “thing added” when expression of life is realized.
“Is not the life more than the food and the body more than the raiment?” Jesus asked. Also, is not the life more than the body? Is not the soul activity more than its embodiment in visible form?
So it is in “demonstrating” friends, the evidence of being beloved. Friends are the “things added” when the desire is to give forth from ourselves a selfless love.
The Comforter is the perfection, or ability to live and love, first cognized within the soul, which can be brought forth into expression and so into objective form, easily, quickly, enjoyedly, in perfect ways—under Grace.
A thing is “finished” as it gives us joy.
When speaking of “unfinished business” we mean incomplete accomplishment or retarded answer to prayer that is delayed because of lack of faith in ability to express and so to experience. Otherwise it would be outpictured in actualization now. We should also understand that, having realized one desire, we shall have another and another and still another good purpose to fulfill.
In Unity’s magazine Progress, we read these perceptive words by its contributing editor, Ernest C. Wilson: “As long as life endures, it is ‘unfinished business,’ because something new is always happening to modify what seems fixed and to improve what seems imperfect. And life is eternal”
So we see that while in one sense life is “finished”—when blessedly we believe in Christ Jesus in us—in another sense it is forever unfinished. Always there are new, and what seem to us at the time of their presence in mind, better imaginations to be lived in tangible form.
In the light of Grace we see that these need not be “vain imaginations,” substanceless daydreams, nor even blessings long delayed. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” In Jesus’ Name, we see that our “house” of consciousness about any fruitful expression we desire awaits our recognition of it as being “finished,” a realization in us of our actual ability to perform, to achieve, to accomplish with joy; we perceive that it has been “finished” for nearly two thousand years. Perceiving, shall we not accept it?—the Grace which is completeness?
Let us think of this ascended Law in this way:
Suppose a man had been shown Rockefeller Center in New York while it was in process of being constructed, and someone said to him, “That’s Rockefeller Center.” Suppose he went away with that picture of it in his mind, never saw the structure again, and kept that mental estimate of it ever afterwards. Today, to him, Rockefeller Center would be an unfinished project.
But today, that uncompleted development is not Rockefeller Center at all.
So it is with us and our belief in the Law of life for us. We should not, and need not, say that this Law (Lord) is one still to be crucified, or, one still to bring delay and suffering—as far as we are concerned. It is not, and has not been for nearly two thousand years. For that length of time it has been the Law glorified, for all men. It required only one man, Jesus, to change that Law for all men; to contribute to all men the realization of God’s Idea of man—the Comforter to be found in the secret place of the Most High.
“For,” as we read in St. John 1:17, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”— the Man who became the Christ incarnate.
Under Grace, we are not only heirs to the kingdom of God; we are heirs apparent, manifest. The blessed activity we desire appears in tangible expression with its resultant visible form.
It may not manifest always in the exact way, shape, manner or form that we have visioned, but assuredly it comes in one as satisfying or even more delightful. It is the answer that is perfect in every way at this time. The desire is satisfactorily fulfilled.
For example, one person wanted to use an ability to write and had in mind as specific activity composing copy for advertisements. The opening that appeared was editorial and columnist work—a different manner of exercising the ability but one that proved extremely satisfying.
When we know the Comforter within, the desire always is divine desire, the urge to express perfectly, accompanied by the comforting knowledge that perfect expression inevitably brings perfect experience—”things added.”
When in our living we let flow forth from within us the life, intelligence, power and love of the Father, we are the substance of our tangible good, and experiences of health, joy, ability and plenty automatically result.
When we express these divine attributes in the Name of Christ Jesus, the flowing forth is quick and easy and the things are added speedily, in perfect ways.
If our desire is for experience rather than for expression, we may know that we have not yet found the indwelling Comforter and our first purpose should be to find Him.
Yet desire we must have or there can be no expression.
In this explanation of Grace some variant of the words “desired good” appears repeatedly. This is because desire is the beginning of all answered prayer, whether the request is granted quickly, under Grace, or after long delay. It is because we make God (Good) tangible according to our desire; not according to our wistful wishing; not according to our longing that still will put up with not receiving what we want; and certainly we do not make Good manifest according to what we do not now want. We may feel that we ought to pray for courage to bear up under some disaster but what we really want is disappearance of the disaster. We may think that we ought to pray for many things, but the dutiful prayer is never the effective prayer of deep desire. Jesus said, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.”
Regarding this entering into the finished, perfected consciousness of Jesus, the question has been asked, “Does it mean that when we do, we shall become as He is—so completely spiritualized in body that we shall be invisible to human eyes?” No, not until we want that. We ascend according to our desires. Until we desire continuous, conscious life, we shall demonstrate, in His Name (consciousness) whatever really we do desire. Again, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Note the connotation of the word “mansions.” It signifies clearly magnificent satisfaction in the outcome, the actualization, of the particular thing for which we pray. “How lovely are thy dwellings, O Lord my God!”
Jesus did not manifest eternal life in the spiritualized body until He first had proved God here and now as peace, life manifest as health, wonderful ability in a chosen work, and abundance of material supply as required for others as well as for Himself. It is not likely that we shall desire strongly enough to follow Him into the superb “mansion” of conscious, eternal life, until we have done the same; until we have comprehended that true eternal life is joyous existence unmarred by trouble of any kind.
Few people, probably, really desire continuous conscious life here and now. Very simply, this is because few people wholesouledly believe in, let alone have faith in, life as “a thing of beauty” and “a joy forever.” Subconsciously, if not consciously, most people have a picture of life as partly, if not wholly, a thing of strife and struggle about one thing or another.
They are like the woman who had had a hard day, with more than the usual problems cropping up. When her door bell rang, and an evangelist distributing pamphlets trumpeted, “Do you want to live forever?” she replied ironically, “Thank you, no, not today.” After he had gone his dumbfounded way, she remarked to a friend, “Never have I wanted eternal life so little. He certainly came on the wrong day.”
The Grace of God, the Holy Spirit expression of the Christ Jesus, Son manifest consciousness—the Comforter promised by Jesus—enables us to find the solution to present problems quickly, perfectly, so that we may begin to be ready really to desire the ultimate gift of conscious eternal life. Every time a present problem is solved, we are more nearly ready to desire eternal life, full immortality.
We do express a degree of immortality whenever we ascend above an imperfect race belief, such as the belief in colds. When this happens, we are “immortal” about colds.
Thus we see that immortality is progressive attainment according to our desires. When we understand this we shall not regard it as a useless commodity as far as immediate practical benefit is concerned—as Bennet Cerf apparently—although wittily—considers it. He tells of being asked why copies of the works of Shakespeare, Dante and other famous authors, now dead, could be obtained for ninety-eight cents or one dollar and ninety-eight cents each, while copies of his book, Try And Stop Me, were “three dollars a throw.” “Those boys,” he replied, “have immortality. I have bills to pay.”
We should understand that immortality (although probably not exactly the kind Mr. Cerf had in mind) does pay bills—and pays them now, in perfect ways.
Under Grace, we are not only heirs to the Crown of joyous living. Through the Son Apparent Comforter, we are heirs apparent to that Crown.
© 1947, Crichton Russ Boatwright
