THE MYSTERIES OF THE FOUR GOSPELS
Lesson Two. Luke 13.
Unity Interpretation of
Healing the Woman Bowed Down Eighteen Years
CHARLES and CORA FILLMORE
January 22, 1942
CHARLES FILLMORE: OPENING SONGS
The subject today is based upon the healing of a woman who was bowed down for eighteen years. Jesus said: "Women, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." And we are going to sing No. 81: "Hear the Words of Wisdom Calling":
Hear the words of wisdom calling
In the fullest, sweetest tones,
Clear as sparkling waters falling
O'er flowers, and precious stones.
List the holy inspiration
Floating down the heav'nly plains.
CHORUS-REFRAIN:
Truth has come to save the nations,
Free her slaves, and break their chains.
Truth has come to crown the nations,
Free her slaves and break their chains.
2. Everywhere her armies rally.
Everywhere sin's victims wait,
Thronging avenue and alley,
Hovel door and palace gate;
List the holy inspiration,
Floating down the heav'nly plains.
3. Truth in Christ, the white and holy!
First-born heir to heavens innate!
Pure and sinless; meak and lowly
Likeness of the uncreated!
List to love's inspiration,
Floating down the heav'nly plains.
We will not sing that last verse with its flowers and birds and so on — June hasn't come yet, so we will pray the Lord's prayer! (In unison). Amen.
CORA FILLMORE: MEDITATION:
This is the second lesson in the course: MYSTERIES OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. Today our lesson is based on the 13th chapter of Luke, 10 to 17 inclusive. In the Bible we read:
13:10And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath day. 13:11And behold, a woman that had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bowed together, and could in no wise lift herself up. 13:12And when Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.13:13And he laid his hands upon her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 13:14And the ruler of the synagogue, being moved with indignation because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, answered and said to the multitude, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the day of the sabbath. 13:15But the Lord answered him, and said, Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 13:16And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the sabbath? 13:17And as he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame: and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
Now we know the woman with the infirmity, bowed down, bowed together, or bent, represents a sick thought in us, does it not? Perhaps a thought made ill by making itself open and receptive to what we would call the feminine quality, and thus has taken on too much humility, and has gradually lost the positive, masterly, "I am" power and dominion. Often one bows to outer authority because that one does not possess knowledge along a certain line, because one is ignorant in a certain way. Therefore, we say, let each one largely do his own thinking. To be sure, we get knowledge from without. But take that within and meditate upon it, then go ahead. This is better, even if we do make mistakes.
It is up to every soul to assert its God-given authority and to declare in the name of Jesus Christ that we are divinely balanced, and that we are self-poised, realizing of course that the one Great source of Wisdom is ever open to us and that the ability is forthcoming to determine our affairs accurately and with power. In this way we unfold inwardly. We apply our own ability and thus we unfold.
Now we often hear of the women being bowed with grief, or with burdens. She has grieved and she has been burdened until she is bowed over to the very earth. Now in this case we have Jesus representing the Indwelling Christ, with his strong word of authority. He has only to declare that soul is strong, fearless, free spirit, and IT IS SO.
Of course we hear often, anyone to oversome grief, it has to be done by the one who really has it. But today, we know the way of the silence, as [we] know from whence our help comes. We know true silence is a healer of burdens. Let us go about then getting soul illumination, filled with light and filled with illumination, and unfold new avenues of illumination.
Again, shafts of criticism directed against a sensitive soul sometimes hurt that unconsciously, or thoughts of criticism leveled at us cause one sometimes to be sort of [unreadable]. However, [unreadable] to know only the good is true, even under adverse criticism. Is that not so? It has no grief whatsoever when we work from Principle; and when we stand on our own convictions and work from Principle, it has no grief.
Now Shakespeare said of these paper bullets of the mind, these criticisms: Happy are they that hear these detractions and put in them two meanings. In other words, if we are criticized, there must be some cause for the criticism. See if there is any truth in it, then is our time to demonstrate and that's that in regard to criticism from the Truth viewpoint.
In the last part of our lesson, the ruler of the synagogue being moved to indignation says, "There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore, come and be healed, and not on the day of the sabbath!" Thought he was very smart, did he not? But Jesus saw the truth and made the ruler of the synagogue realize the Truth. Of course, the ruler of the synagogue realized. Of course the ruler of the synagogue is a high, intellectual thought, very wise, following the letter of the law instead of being ruled by Spirit.
Jesus taught on all occasions that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath, then real healing takes place. In this place, Jesus no doubt spoke the word of authority to this intellectual thought so that a new concept was brought into that thought, broadened and unfolded, thus giving soul and body a chance to go forward spiritually.
Now is our time for silent meditation.
Above all and in all and though all is just the One Presence, the One Power and the One Intelligence. We hear the voice of Jesus saying: "WOMAN, THOU ARET LOOSED FROM THINE INFIRMITY." We are loosed — loosed from the thought of old error. We are able to lift our eyes unto the hills; able to walk at liberty and each soul may go deep in the silence and realize the freeing, healing, power of Spirit. Take the thought:
I AM LOOSED FROM MINE IMFIRMITY. I WALK AT LIBERTY.
Together (repeat). Very softly again: (repeat). In His Name. Amen.
LESSON: CHARLES FILLMORE:
I think the main point of this lesson is that we should be more active in our demonstrations and expect results. This woman who was healed after eighteen years of subjection to some idea, was immediately healed, she was made straight and glorified God.
The followers of Jesus Christ in this day are not living up to their privileges. They are not realizing the power of their healing words. We often think, "Well, if I were in the heavens, I would have great power and my words would count." Jesus laid down the law that the healing word that you speak in the earth, that is from the material plane, would react upon the heavens, or the mental plane. He told Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt loose in the earth, shall be loosed in the heavens, and whatsoever you bind in the earth shall be bound in the heavens."
Now the fact is, this so-called earthly or formed state is as fully subject to the power of the word as the free mental state. But we don't realize it. The fact is that every cell of our bodies is in action. They are qualified free. We look upon them as solid. This "solid flesh" Shakespeare tells about, it isn't solid at all. Nothing is solid.
The word we speak, and when we speak that word, something occurs, but we may not always know. We may not observe it, but in this lesson today, this woman was immediately straightened up. Well, what was it that Jesus understood in the power of the word that accomplished this that had taken this woman eighteen years to fix in her mind and body the idea. It has gradually probably been family, or under burdens of some kind, family burdens, mental burdens of her own, confusion, but whatever it was, it was fixed in the mind and gradually translated into the body.
We find we don't realize how wonderful this power within us is to free us from burdens. All we have to do is to know the connection. That's the great question in the metaphysical world today — is to get the right relation between ideas and the manifestation. However, when we have even a small clue, we would be alert in applying it. Now Jesus got demonstrations. He expected his followers to have demonstrations.
There is a constant harping on things that have been built up by the scientific world, what the medical world has accomplished. We find the talks of popular commentators are full of them. I am going to read you a little extract from Ida Tarbell's Bible (?) because this is brought out here in line and gives us a clue to external things, things that are of the outer mind altogether. She says, "God's will is health and not disease. But he may not want us to get that health as a race by the slow process of learning His laws and obeying them rather than by the short road of personal petition." !!!! "God's will is health ... but He may want us to gain that health as a race by the slow road of learning the law and obeying it rather than by the short road of personal petition. There is the keynote.
Really all comments we see in our Bible Commentaries ... There is the keynote in nearly all comments we see in our Bible commentaries when it comes to the question of health ... Giving secondary thought to renewal from Spiritual healing, instead of credit for all progress in the world.
Here's another now. George McDonald is considered an up-to-date follower of Jesus Christ and many accept him as almost a litany of metaphysicality. Here's what he said in detail from his last book. "Everyone by temperance and self-restraint seeks to defend his body from the effects of belief. Every doctor who studies his science with the view of fighting disease. Every community which creates and maintains hospitals to keep holding (?) the poor in their advanced diseases, far more attention to drainage, ventilation and pure water. Every landlord who takes good care that his house is scientific and sanitary. All these in their measure and degree are walking in Christ, taking up Christ's work and saying: Be thou made clean." ...
[McDonald is essentially saying] Jesus Christ went around as a sanitary engineer and said "Be thou made clean in various houses ... He went to all hospitals of Nazareth, you know. (Laughter) (?) Christ blended many explanations creeds and lots of doctrines. You can see these arguments, that all this work of building hospitals and education of doctors and all that sort of thing ... they don't have anything to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ! It is good for the people living on that plane, but when you come to apply the REAL TRUTH of men, the overcoming power of SPIRIT! You have got to get into men. YOU HAVE GOT TO GET HOLD OF HIS MIND. That's where our respondence is. That's where repentance is!
Now in this lesson for today Jesus Christ gives us another illustration for what is called the kingdom of heaven. He said, "What shall I liken the kingdom of heaven unto? It is like a mustard seed which a man plants in his garden and which becomes a great tree and the birds live in it and build their nests.
Again, what is he likening it to? Why, the kingdom of heaven is like the little yeast a woman takes and puts in a lump and leavens her whole lump of dough. That (Reporter's note: the teaching of Jesus Christ) hasn't anything to do with that kind of thing at all. It just refers to what idea, those ideas, are in the mind of the people. And it is here that you must bring forth this consciousness of Jesus Christ. When you get a man clean, then it will soon be a matter of cleansing his outside affairs, and he won't spend so much time wondering how Christianity has done this and that which Jesus Christ taught — what is meant by the healing of Jesus Christ.
What is meant by the healing of Jesus Christ? We might say the real hub of his work was around healing, — the teaching, in other words, of demonstration, and as he taught healing, they must demonstrate their healing. Healing the mind must heal the body because we can't separate this "I will. Be thou clean" ... "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmities" ... it meant LOOK FOR THE DEMONSTRATION. We must LOOK FOR DEMONSTRATION. We mustn't overlook it. We mustn't sidestep this thing.
Jesus Christ healed. That's true. And a great deal of the healing being done in the medical world — they are telling us they have shortened (lengthened ?) the lives of the whole race some twenty (2?) years through their discoveries of how to do away with plagues, do away with disease mowing down people by the thousands. They say isn't that Jesus Christ healing? Isn't that healing?
WELL, WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST REALLY TEACH ABOUT HEALING! He said, "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, you will never see death." These people the doctors heal, have they overcome death? Shall we say for a little while they renew people claimed to be dead; they go on living ten or twelve years; and they finally die. ... Then, they are not teaching what Jesus Christ taught. He said: IF YE BELIEVE IN ME, YE SHALL NEVER SEE DEATH." THAT IS THE CLIMAX, THE BIG IDEA of the whole thing, that this teaching we are putting forth is not to lengthen your life a little while. If you are not going to give up your miseries, you better die early to get rid of them! (a couple of gasps) ... If I didn't know the way to overcome my miseries, I wouldn't care to continue to work on. But we know the way to carry out the original purpose, and God has through Jesus Christ, shown us how to overcome death ... And to do it — TO DO IT! That's it.
Now, we are right now in — well — I might say the process of accepting a whole lot of burdens [of] war. Accept them, give up to them — they will bow us down! Burdens of what? Serving our money to pay taxes ... we have big taxes ... be careful! ... save all your money! or — well — Spend your money!!
[TruthUnity note: This lesson was given in January 1942, one month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Charles Fillmore's position on war is also given in Unity Magazine, December 1937, Can Christ Prevent War?]
What are we going to do about it? It is the crossword puzzle of the world. We have got something to do about it. We can say: You can't impose upon us this war-minded thought. They tell us in America we are not war-minded enough! They sent their great representative, Winston Churchill to talk to our President, to get our people more war-minded. What does that mean? War-minded? What does that mean? More war-minded, according to Winston Churchill — remember, it is a war of blood, sweat and tears. You have got to burden yourself with that idea! Do we want to be war-minded like that? Do we consent to take that, to take on that burden?
I think it is better to be free from those ideas of war going on and we have got to be burdened with it — like "the little man who wasn't there" (referring to Snuffy Smith in Barney Google comics) — when thinking about the burdens of war, free yourself! When they talk to me about it: You have got big taxes to pay in a little while. Be saving. Recoup. Save your money. ... When it comes to paying big tax burdens, I am becoming "the little man who isn't there!" (Laughter). I am not going to talk about it at all. The Lord has provided, hasn't he? He will continue to provide.
Winston Churchill, the great man of today, the great leader on the Islands might prefer — when I look at him, I think bout a bulldog got down with the other dog but just holding on, holding on. He isn't getting anywhere. If he could only free himself of that idea he has got to teach and direct his creed of tears, blood and sweat toward free America! You know Jesus Christ endured the blood for us, and he sweat bloody sweat, and he wept bitter tears. He went through all that. What was the object of it? To free us. Through Him we are freed from blood and the agony, of sweat and the tears and the sorrow — and if you allow these to come in, you will be bowed down like this woman. We want, through Jesus Christ, to be made free, and we will be made free as we accept this freeing principles, the power he put forth to free us from that. So I say, we must give ourselves more and more of this spiritual freedom and realize that "There is no burden upon me of war. There is no burden of the army, there is no burden on us that is going to continue this war five or ten years by my accepting it will last." It will last indefinitely if we depend on an army and arms and all that. Don't give yourself up to that. ... You are opposing the government? Not at all. We are sending our young men out. The young men are going knowing they carry the power to free from the burdens of war, to show other people how to accept this freedom. I was thinking of our young men going out to war.
As an illustration, one time Jesus Christ said about this war — he undoubtedly talked about this "end of the age" — we all know we are at the end of an age, an age of burdens, an age in which the whole race is bowed down with material facts, material science. We have come to the end of this age, and Jesus Christ here told how in Daniel's prophesy, about this time, and he said that there would not be anything brought forth unless the elect got in. It would be when the elect got into this thing. I take this to mean through these elect this period of preparation for war can be shortened by the spiritual impact of entering into the kingdom. These young men going out as missionaries and sowing the seed among the multitudes of people that are in arms and what to fight.
I want to tell you something — mark my words; put it down — revealed to me by Spirit: Inside this year of 1942, this war will come to an end, ending in an unusual way, not through arms, not through armaments with its conditions and barriers and burdened down with debts we have heaped upon ourselves by fully accepting the forces of war. But through prayer, something will happen. I don't know just exactly what it is, but something is going to happen outside this great preparation, and the war will come to an end like that!!!! (indicating). It is going to happen by prayer, through the spiritual prayers of the elect.
We are the elect. We have elected ourselves to pray and pray for the manifestation of the law. Of course, I can't say how it is going to come about. I haven't been told. I know it is coming. We are not going to have a five or ten-year war. Some people prophesy a thirty-year war with all kinds of burdens. We don't have to have any of this, or any war at all if we get rid of the war in mind. That's the burden of war.
Since Winston Churchill was here, our people have been talking it up, saying we have got to be more war-minded. We have got to realize all the burden upon us. If we don't look out the boogie-man will catch us!! ... We don't have to do that. Follow Jesus Christ and eliminate all that. Straighten up. When he says to the world: Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity", think of it! "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity" ... we miss a lot of things in this world, as I said about the "little man that wasn't there", just by absenting your personal thought from it.
I told you about the two little children that covered themselves with their mother's vanishing cream, and thought they had disappeared. Well, that's the illusion which the child had. But when you make up your mind, you can release yourself from a whole lot because these things that exist in the mind don't exist at all in reality.
What we want is a great release of this mighty truth: we live in a free world; we are free from — well — these things. Here in the air, the atmosphere is just filed with burdens. "There is such a burden upon me — in my home — in my family." They just have to give up something. That will throw you over. You'll get round-shouldered like Winston Churchill. Did you ever see more rounded shoulders? He is bearing the burdens of the whole English nation. We could give Winston Churchill a few lessons on freedom from burdens and this idea of sweat and blood and tears. We don't believe these things, do we? We are the elect. If we pray aright, we free ourselves from this thought we have any burdens. We are helping the whole human family, and after the war is over, we may be able to tell some others about how to rehabilitate. That's where the great need of Jesus Christ's doctrine is coming. After this outer war is over, the commercial war starts — we have to bring truth to bear upon the commercial war in some way they don't think about as having any power.
It is just not what you see, what you read in the family paper telling you to back the government, and backing up the government. ... I am for the government in all ways. We are sending our young men into it. We are asking them to enlist instead of being drafted. Several are doing that. They are going out in great masses to war, letting us back them up with prayer, with the spiritual power of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing none of the hairs of their heads shall be harmed. Remember the law. Tune in with the law. That's what these lessons are for, assurance of protection in the great truth of the law.
I read the other day where the rich man got in this with the poor man. (?) There is something in it. I told my wife coming down, how I am going to quit listening in on the radio and getting to quit reading the comic strip because right in the midst of some spiritual discussion, I'm copying down something from the radio. I heard it on the radio last night. If I don't tell these things, they keep bubbling up in my mind and I have got to tell them to get it out of my system! (Laughter).
Where are we? We were going to unburden ourselves. If I get off and told you how serious it was, we wouldn't get the lesson. If we go out in a solemn and serious condition of mind, very soon we get round-shouldered. If you find yourself getting round-shouldered, it is because you are holding a burdensome thought. Get rid of it.
I find out what that thought is causing me to bow down and become so weak and round-shouldered. If we have the reputation of being meek, we must get out of it. Don't let them burden you with some form of federal debts, with taxes, and war, or what's coming to pass in the outer affairs. Just know, I AM AM ONE WITH THE ELECT AND THROUGH ME THIS WAR IS COMING TO AN END BECAUSE I BELIEVE ALL WHAT THE LOVE AND THE POWER OF GOD DID FOR JESUS CHRIST. In all of his teachings, everything must come to an end. Now the war is at an end when people cease warring in the mind. We are setting the pace. We know the law. We begin by declaring this infirmity of the race is now loosed.
CORA FILLMORE: OFFERTORY:
We now have an opportunity to give our love offering. Let's realize today whatever we give, we give with the express idea of carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every soul open and receptive to that message. Let's take our offering in our hands and repeat together our usual word: DIVINE LOVE THROUGH ME BLESSES AND MULTIPLIES THIS OFFERING ... Lord, we thank Thee for this generous outpouring of Thy substance. We place upon it our word of blessing and increase and know a just law blesses all those who have given so freely. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
HEALING MEETING.
CHARLES FILLMORE: Now we are ready to take up our healing. First we give attention to the healing of these names that have been sent in. We are going to use today for our healing word, that word that Jesus used in healing the woman of her infirmity: WOMAN, THOU ARE LOOSED OF THINE INFIRMITY. You know Jesus said, "Keep my words. Do as I do." Well it is a powerful word, when we realize we are in the Presence of that same Mind. So we will say:
THOU ART LOOSED OF THINE INFIRMITY, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
Realize that Jesus Christ is here, according to his promise, and that this power is part of our words; that the words that proceded are empowered by the Mind that first uttered them. "THOU ART LOOSED FROM THINE INFIRMITY." This is a great denial thought. Sometimes we need denials. Again we need affirmations.
Jesus dissolved: that woman was burdened with the idea of a burden like that bound Atlas. The world over, shoulders are bowed down. Now the dissolving word, the word of denial is a loosening word. So that we realize we are right now in the Presence of this All-powerful Word. We can dissolve and break up these burdens of any kind.
We ought to have some word in mind. We all have some burden. By using this word, that burden will dissolve in our mind and soon be followed by a physical manifestation.
Let us realize first we are right in the Presence of this Christ Mind, the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Backed up by that ideal Christ, the Messiah is here right now, and we are speaking His word in His Name.
Now these names which we have here, let's have them read. "THOU ART LOOSED OF THESE INFIRMITIES, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. Let's speak that a little stronger. (repeat). Now that word is dissolving the burdens that are carried mentally and physically by all these whose names have been presented. Now for all those present, who have the thought of a burden in any way of any kind. Present that burden now to Spirit, that's in the mind, in the mentality of the personal. We are speaking in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will say silently to ourselves: THOU ART LOOSED OF THINE INFIRMITIES. And then FEEL that dissolving in the mind. Speak it to your own mind now (repeat). It is dissolved. All here are letting go of the burdens that they have, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now we can reach our friends anywhere, by speaking the word, from any of their burdens. THOU ART LOOSED OF THINE INFIRMITIES, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
Now any others? Again speak these words: (repeat). Now let's speak the word for all these people the world over who are burdened with the feeling of war, the fear of war, the burden of war. Speak the word for them: (repeat).
Now let's all give thanks to the Father for we know how to unburden ourselves. The world is burdened and Jesus Christ is come to free us, free all people from all their burdens. Let's go farther in that thought: WORLD, THOU ART FREE. THOU ART LOOSED FROM THINE INFIRMITIES. WORLD THOU ARE LOOSED FROM THINE INFIRMITIES. Let's all speak that aloud for the world. Silently. Again, again.
BENEDICTION: Now let us go forth until next lesson, let us all carry that thought that: THE WORLD IS BEING LOOSED FROM ITS INFIRMITIES ... ITS INFIRMITY OF THE BURDENS OF WAR. Amen.
Transcribed by Mark Hicks on August 24, 2016.
