THERE ARE A great many people who have experienced spiritual healing, the only real and lasting healing, and know how it came to them. There are others who have experienced it, or who have seen others healed, and do not understand it. But there are many more who are suffering and unhappy, who know nothing of spiritual healing. Others do not believe in it, or are entirely indifferent to it. But it is a gift for all humanity; it is no respecter of persons, and can be proved by each for himself, if he earnestly and consecratedly sets himself to work to learn, and to cooperate with the one Presence and one Power which does the work.
Healing is God-presence. God is omnipresent; so where God is, there healing is also — omnipresent. Our original perfection, that of the day of creation, is rediscovered by us when we again, in mind, enter into God-presence, for in God-Mind there is no thought except of a perfect creation. The moment we see ourselves as God created us, and as He still sees us, we are healed in mind, body, and affairs.
Sometimes it takes weeks or months or years for us to raise our consciousness to its original state of "very good." Again, it may take only a moment for us to see our perfection in God, and instantly to be healed of the inharmony that is besetting us. Every moment just as much of God perfection as can find entrance into our life is manifesting for us. Many are the ways in which we limit our capacity for receiving God (good). Every thought of doubt, fear, worry, hate, jealousy, intolerance, or impatience bars out God. If we are really seeking spiritual healing we shall seek to eliminate entirely all negative thoughts from our mind, and allow only creative thoughts of love, trust, freedom, and opulence to fill our mind to the exclusion of all else.
Healing is always everywhere present. The law of healing is quietly, surely, and constantly at work, whether we recognize it and let it do its perfect work in us or not. It is always doing for us just as much as we will allow it to do. Without constant renewing and restoring, man would destroy himself and his universe. We see this healing going on all about us, and we call it nature. We can call it nature, or we can call it God. It is the healing presence of God that repairs the ravages of a storm; straightens up the little plants laid low; seals up and effaces the scars in vegetation; renews burned forests; wipes out much of the disorder and inharmony caused by the carelessness and thoughtlessness of human beings.
Everywhere we see the activity of the healing mind of God. A strong wind or a flash of lightning tears a limb from a tree, and at once nature begins to repair the damage; eventually the bark grows around the wound, perhaps another branch grows out to take its place and restore the tree's symmetry, and almost all evidence of the storm is effaced. A sick or wounded animal seeks some secluded place, and desires to stay alone until it is healed. We know, perhaps without recognition of the omnipresent healing power, that in the human body new skin forms over burns and cuts, blood coagulates and seals wounds, bones knit even when they are splintered and when ligaments are torn. The fibers on one side of a wound reach across and unite with the fibers on the other side, and even if the wound is pulled apart again and again, patiently those fibers reach toward one another and reunite. The omnipresent healing power, whenever it can find entrance, is continually restoring man and his world to their innate perfection. This same power, that is ever present in nature, effacing scars and restoring animals to health, the same power that renews and rebuilds the body, is just as usable today as it was in the days of Jesus Christ.
If man were more receptive, the healing power would find quicker entrance into his mind and his body. If at the first sign of inharmony he would go apart and quietly and fearlessly relax his body, inviting the omnipresent healing power and submitting himself to it, it would possess him to the exclusion of all physical inharmony. To lie down in the stream of healing, to become submerged in the river of life, and to remain there, relaxed, expectant, is to feel the thrill of new life flowing into every cell of the body. Jesus, crucified son of man, remained in the tomb three days and came forth the Son of God, the resurrected Christ, triumphant over the mortal appearance that had placed Him in the tomb. If we, seeking to erase an appearance of inharmony, will lay hold on the omnipresent Christ and remain in the silence with our Lord until His life fills us, we too shall find the stone rolled away, the grave-clothes laid aside, and our bodies renewed, free, triumphant.
Wherever we can see life, there can be more life; wherever there has been life, life can return. This was fully taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ. With all of His wonderful works, He said,
"He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do." Do we realize the power that is ours through faith? "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, 'Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
Is it not easier to say to an unholy, impure, or negative thought, "I will not entertain you, for I think only God thoughts"? Is it not easier to say to an inharmonious condition in the body, "You have no place in the body of a son of God, and I am a son of God"? Is it not easier to speak to poverty or lack in the affairs, "There is no reality in lack. Plenty is my divine inheritance"?
Sometimes the process of healing seems very slow to us, but we can always speed up the action of the law by recognizing and giving thanks that the work is already done. If we hold in our minds the thought of any condition as real, fearing it, even recognizing it, we hold that condition in our bodies. There it will stay until we mentally let go of it and form in its stead the perfect picture of our spiritual likeness, the indwelling Christ. All instantaneous healing comes through an instantaneous wiping from mind the picture that has caused the condition, and letting in the God-Mind with its outpicturing of perfection. To see the self as God sees it is to be healed instantly.
We know that healing of all conditions of inharmony is the will of God. Jesus Christ said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." It is written: "And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the throng wondered." We are told that when the multitudes came to Him "he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured those who had need of healing." He did this work not through any power of His own but through His recognition of the omnipresent healing power, the Father within. Today Christ is just as powerful to heal as He was then. He is omnipresent; He hears every heart cry, He is beside every sufferer, in the midst of every inharmonious condition, saying, "because I live, you will live also."
The supreme remedy for the healing of any inharmonious condition of mind, body, or affairs is in attaining consciousness of the Christ within. When we have made ready our hearts through love and forgiveness, when we have put aside selfish desires and do service for His sake, then is fulfilled in us the time of His coming, and the Christ of God is born in our consciousness. When we are conscious of the Christ within, inharmonious thoughts have no place in our mind, disease has no place in our body, poverty has no place in our life.
With His coming every dark cell in the body becomes light, every dead cell enters into resurrection, every weak cell becomes strong. With His coming the life stream flows out from His throne in the heart, carrying its cleansing and vitalizing power to every part of the body, and everything along its course is healed. With His coming the drooping head is lifted into a halo of glory and the eyes gaze on heights that they have been continually seeking. With His coming bent shoulders are straightened and all worry and care cease, for the Burden Bearer has taken the load upon Himself. With His coming weak hands become strong and steady to do His will. With His coming tired feet are freed from stumbling and from heaviness, for they have entered the path of service; they go on His errands and are not weary; they walk beside Him and faint not. With His coming every cell in the body receives life more abundant, and the perfect man is restored to his kingdom. With His coming the whole being sings because it is resurrected from the dead, is redeemed for eternity.
