Jesus Heals a Centurion's Servant (Rabel)

(Back) Father-Son Relationship The Message From the Baptist (Next)

Matt. 8:5-13 Luke 7:1-10, Page 55 H.G.
pp. 69-73 of transcript.

(Ed reads the Matthew's version and he makes the following remarks along the reading):

Verses 8:7, "And He saith unto him, I will come and heal him." Please remember that Jesus spoke those words, you can quote Jesus as saying, "I will come and heal him."

Verses 8:8: "I am not worthy, that thou shouldest come under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed." The centurion is, of course, a Roman, high in military rank and here for the second time we have somebody totally depending, totally believing in the power of Jesus to heal. Very interesting.

"For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth." This is illustrating the power of denial, "and to another, Come, and he cometh." This illustrates the power of affirmation. The centurion understood, "I am under authority and I have under me those who obey my word which is my given authority." (Remember, "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.") "and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." This illustrates the dominion and authority of man when he recognizes under who he has authority and over what he has authority. "And when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Very I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." And Jesus could have added understanding, faith and understanding, "no, not in Israel." In other words, not among the Jews but in a Roman who wasn't so high bound to the letter and Spirit was able to work with him.

Here Ed skips by now the reference comprised between verses 11 and 12.

"And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." Do you notice something strange here? He is not talking about the sick servant; Jesus knew his healing was inevitable that the centurion's state of consciousness which was connected to his servant's healing need had already brought forth the healing, had already brought it forth, now he is only up to one more factor if it was to be a fact or not, it was the servant's willingness, that is all, and the servant must have been killing because he was healed, "And the servant was healed in that hour."

The centurion of the incident displays an understanding of a metaphysical principle which he may or may not have been educated to. In those days there were many secret societies which taught metaphysical principles very similar to the way we teach, only their own terminology, with their own sets of symbols; but in those days to come into spiritual awareness such as we today think of it, required something which seems to have disappeared because of our particular level of evolution as a family, and that is the initiation. We don't go through that in the same way that they used to. But I think we all undergo a private, personal, secret kind of initiation that we either pass or fail, but instead of being unlookers to conduct it and judge the outcomes, we ourselves are the unlooker, the participant and the judges; but somehow this centurion had caught an understanding of this process of spiritual healing, what it really is, and what man’s part is in it as a healer. To me, this is very significant; in fact, this is the first Bible interpretation which came to me which started the process of freeing me from worrying about the patient's state of consciousness, and once I got over that hang-up, my healing work became a thousand times better than it used to be without this new understanding.

We go through all of the healing works of Jesus and we find that he only refers in one manner to the cause of sickness and he uses not a personal blaming diagnostic word but a generic word, SIN, just sin. Not, you did this sin and you have to cleanse that sin out of you or you can't get any healing. He never did this; it was always, what is the attitude concerning healing? That is all. Do you still begrudge a person a physical healing because his mental state isn’t perfect? Then you are outside the Kingdom. We must be willing for all to be healed even if the originating sins have not been overcome by that person, otherwise we will not be effective healers after the manner of Jesus Christ.

In other words, God's divine idea of Health must come first, all other factors which enter into the complications must be secondary. This centurion and Jesus never discussed why that servant was sick, what sin needed to be overcome, what error was he entertaining in consciousness and all that stuff. It was just that the centurion described his understanding of the healing process. He said, "I also am a man under authority," he is comparing his position with Jesus position as the great spiritual healer of that moment. "Under authority." He saw that this was an important thing to realize. I am authorized to do good in my world, I am authorized to be instrumental in offering whatever help is being requested of me, not whatever help he deserves to get, but whatever help I am being requested to participate in, I am under authority to do this. Folks if that wasn’t our authority for having existence on this planet, what in the world’s authority would you want? If it isn’t the authority of being instrumental and helpful wherever you are, and in whatever situation is brought to your attention, what authority can you think of would you rather have? It is the one we all want anyway and that is the one we've all got, we are under authority. Then the centurion begins to say that under him, in the military chain of command there are soldiers and servants but there is always the authority about the centurion; and the centurion by accepting his authority, his commission, his rightful place in the scheme of things, then has the power, the right to speak the word and get results from subsidiary agents within the process. I hope you are all equating this now with the healing process. We are under authority to express and help bring forth healing wherever it is needed, but that higher authority under which we are is the divine idea of health and God's will, and the Father, Spirit; but then we accept this, a need is brought to our attention, we are asked for help, then we can extend that authority which we are under to parts of the process which come after us.

In the chapter, "How to Control Thought," Mr. Fillmore says, intelligence is a divine idea and divine ideas are omnipresent, therefore, there is an all pervading intelligence in every human element, atom, everything in the universe. However, most of that intelligence is expressing in a state we would call subjective; it is intelligence, it knows itself, but that is about it. It is subjective. Man has a unique place. He has not only that same subjective intelligence that all the rest of the universe has, but he has a dimension of intelligence unique to him, objective intelligence; that is, he is not just intelligent but he knows his own intelligence, he knows from whence it cometh and he knows what to do with it, and he can make choices. Therefore, when man speaks the word from his level of awareness or Superconsciousness, the I AM, then his objective intelligence directly activates it to carry out that word of intelligence. In the case of healing we use our objective intelligence which is of the Superconsciousness, we are under that authority or even higher than that; Divine Mind, who is our real authority and then, by speaking the word of Truth for the purpose of healing we cause the soldiers and the servants which will further carry out the healing process to become activated and they will so even in the body of other persons. Then that has fulfilled our authority, we have obeyed the command to heal.

But there is still a factor that is not mentioned here but we know does exist within this process which has to do with the patient. "I do not have authority to force you to be healed whether you like it or not.” because “I have a divine commission,” nor do I have the authority to refuse to allow you to be healed because “you haven't cleared your consciousness yet.” I have only the authority to speak the word through my objective intelligence and my divine motivation. From then on it is up to the soul of the one who may or may not have this healing. It is interesting that in the Gospels there is only one reason attributed for a person not getting healed when Jesus made it available; and it was not anything other than unbelief, he won't accept it, he won’t have it - that is all. It is not, "Oh he didn't make up for the karma that he caused when he threw the virgin to the lions three incarnations ago; it simply says, because of their unbelief. Now, their unbelief, their unwillingness could, of course, be connected to a karmic factor that that person felt he or she had not atoned properly, had not made it up enough yet and that could have been behind the refusal to believe or to accept, but, you see? That is not our job to figure all that out; we carry out our divine commission, we are under authority to do this, we speak the word from Objective Intelligence or Superconsciousness and we have the healing consciousness which we will talk about later. Then the servants and the soldiers that I hope you all understand what they stand for, the further extension of activity in the healing process in the patient, and then the patient's activities and then the decision. The opportunity for choice has been made available and the soul may choose.

I have a question and I would like you to answer from a personal point rather than from an academical point of view. What do you feel should be the attitude of the healer when he realizes his efforts are in vain? (students give their different expressions)

Ed comments,Yes I think all of your contributions were correct, you caught the real thing. You have to know that the soul, just as you do, has its right to make its choices; and while we would like that his choice is my choice, nevertheless, if it be not thus, let the Father's will in him be done as he sees it. Somebody suggested we keep praying. Yes, let's keep praying, and let's keep the availability for the choice alive in the relationship between the Father and the patient.

Text of the original transcript from the last paragraph of page 69 through the first paragraph of page 73.
Transcribed by Rev. Jill Andrews on March 6, 2014