Sermons of Charles Fillmore

The realization that man is Spiritual Being, is the highest point of consciousness. Man never realizes what he is until he knows within himself that he is spiritual. This is the resurrection, the conscious knowledge that

"I am a spiritual being, and that all things are in essence spiritual."

This realization brings man into absolute Being. This is the effective prayer, the creative prayer, the prayer that brings about the evoluation, the consummation of all evolution, the union between God and man.

Now, this morning let us enter into this Supreme Consciousness, founded upon the understanding that there is but one Life, one Substance, one Intelligence, and that all things express that Life, that Substance, that Intelligence; that they express and manifest it according to their understanding ef themselves as that Life, that Substance and that Intelligence.

Now, we will enter into the consciousness of this great Life by holding silently, in the secret place way down deep in the soul, this:

"I know Him, for I am from Him, and He hath sent me".

This is the Great Mind itself that we are communing with: "I know Him, for I am from Him, and He hath sent me". Let us all enter into that silent communion.

(Silence).

The life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is viewed and taught from two diametrically opposite standpoints. The first teaching, and the most popular, is that of the Orthodox Christian church, that Jesus was the son of God; that he was crucified, died, was resurrected, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father as one of the judges of men, and that his death was to save our souls. The other teaching is that of the unorthodox Christiana, the mystics, those who see from the standpoint of logic and truth. They teach that Jesus was crucified; that he died; that the life was put out of his body, but he had developed that power which resides in every man, until he resurrected that body, and that he refined that body until it was invisible to the eye of sense, but that it resides here in our midst; that it is the seed of a new life for all those who believe in it, that is, who enter into it with faith, striving to make their consciousness its consciousness.

Now, the two, great viewpoints of these teachings, succinctly stated, is this: One teaches men how to die; the other teaches men how to live. Following this out, we would say to you, if you want to know how to die and go to heaven, take the first viewpoint. If you want to live and reap the rewards here and how, of your efforts, study the second statement. One is the result of the teaching of Christianity from the beginning, which was that death came into the world as the result of sin, and that it was to go out through the overcoming of sin. This is the conclusion of the prophesy, according to the statement of Jesus Christ, that he was the fulfillment of that promise made 'way back, at the beginning of man's dereliction from the one viewpoint, from the one law, and that, in this fulfillment, he was carrying out the law of salvation for man; that that law was that man should be a perfect being; that there should be no lapse in that perfection; that he should continue in that perfection until he realized his unity with his Father.

Now, we all accept that man must be from the Universal; that something could not be made out of nothing; and if there is a Universal Father, there must be a Universal Son; that man must be of the same essence, the same life, the same substance as his Source. This is good logic. It is good philosophy. It is the doctrine set forth here in this Scripture; and the logical conclusion is that man is the fulfillment in Christ of this doctrine.

Now, it is said by insanity experts that a man is insane who logically carries out a concept of truth, that is, that allows no intervening conditions to interfere with his Absolute statements. Now, if that be true, all Christians that follow Jesus Christ are insane, because they, if they follow him to the ultimate, must do away with a "whole raft", I might say, of intervening limitations, deflections from the One Absolute Life.

Now, this deflection of man from the One Absolute Life is sin, and it is from this sin that Jesus came to save us. He came to save us from the limitations of our own minds. Everything is in the mind; everything comes out of the mind, and when you find the power resident in your own mind, then you have begun the solution of life; then you will arrive, if you follow your own mind to its ultimate, - raise it to the Jesus Christ degree, - you will find the solution of every problem that presents itself to you, and, above all, you will find yourself.

Now, man never knows himself until he finds himself in mind, in Spirit, and that's where the truth of man's being is; and when this truth of man's being is unfolded to him, he sees that he is in power; that he has authority and dominion over himself.

Now, what is man's self? Why, he is Spirit, Soul, Body. Well, does this mean that man has dominion over his body? Yes, perfect dominion, in the Christ consciousness. But there must be that lifting up; there must be a resurrection of man's thought before he can have true dominion.

Now, we come to this realization of our power to resurrect the mind and the body through various steps or degrees. Some have called it unfoldment; others, education; but it is properly concept upon concept; a little of the law here, and a little there, until the whole horizon is illumined with the understanding of Spirit; spiritual understanding dawns upon the mind, and man sees himself a spiritual being, from soul into body. The body itself must become spiritual, and, in essence, we all know that our organisms are made of pure elements, and that the only impurity is in the muddy mixtures that we have infused in them, just from what source, our men of science do not tell us. It is spiritual understanding, it is the metaphysical insight that reveals the creating power of mud.

Now, mud comes from a muddy thought, and some say, "Well, if man is the image and likeness ef God, and God is perfect, where did he get any muddy thoughts? That is a good question. It is a question that people are asking everywhere, and it is a question that you can find answered in this Bible. In the very beginning, God gave man everything that he had. Well, what does that involve? Why, perfect freedom. Freedom to do what? To make things. What kind of things? Every kind of things. You can make a thing, or you can make a no-thing. You can say yea, you can say no; you can be good, you can be evil; and this gives man the power to make the angel, to make the man; to make the clear light of the Spirit, or to make the darkness of ignorance; to make the sun-light, or to make the mud.

Now, these privileges come unto man through his freedom of action, his freedom of will, and it it a logical and a good explanation of how evil comes into man's life. It has ne real permanent being, we know that; but man can, through his power of thought, through his power over the elements - the Garden of Eden in which he is planted - he has the power to change and make any condition that he sets his mind to, remember that. And don't confine the activity of the mind and the power of the mind to those things that you see before you; don't confine it to your concept of its capacity; don't confine it to this realm in which you at present think. No. It is broader and wider than anything that you can conceive, and there are points of perception, there are points of activity, there are fields in which the mind acts far beyond what you now can see. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy" (Hamlet Act 1, scene 5). Your philosophy is confined to the mere material, physical world.

Now, I tell you there is another quality, - there is a mind that moves things. And what does it move? It moves everything - the mind that moves the hand, the mind that moves the eye, the mind that moves the lineaments of the face, is an intelligent Mind, and a powerful mind, remember that. Jesus said to his disciples, after that resurrection, after he had come to a consciousness of himself as a spiritual tfceing, "All power and authority is given unto you. Go forth and proclaim this power and authority, this mastery over all things" (Matt. 28:18) [Editor's note: this is not a perfect quotation from scripture].

Now, we don't have to go through, every one of us, a crucifixlon as out-pictured in the life of Jesus Christ, but we have our crucifixion in the mind, we have our deaths of old thought, and our resurrections of new. And every time you come into the resurrection, to the understanding of your spiritual being, you lift up the whole man.

Now, the "I" in us is spiritual, and "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me" (John 12:32), when you lift up your I, (that is, the I in you, that single, I which, if it be lighted up, will throw light into the whole body) when you lift that I up, you lift everything up. When you see yourself as a spiritual being, and affirm that spirituality, the whole substance of your body goes through an elevating process. You levitate. I tell you you can feel the power of the resurrection, and you know that you are in Eternal Life. You don't have to go away; you don't have to go to heaven. Heaven is within. It is here and now, and, as Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always" (Matt. 28:20). The Father and the Son will come unto you; they will commune with you, and you will know the real history of the life and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ when you commune with the Spirit, when you firmly lay hold of this wonderful truth that man is now a spiritual being - not that we will at some future time become spiritual beings, no; but we are now spiritual beings.

Now, this will result in an entirely new race-consciousness. These material fleshly bodies will rob the cemetery; they will become the abiding places of man. They will become the temples of the living God. But, in this process of becoming, you will have to meet the old thoughts, and especially these sacerdotal thoughts, the thoughts that have been taught to the spiritual mind by orthodox Christian teachers. You remember that in the life of Jesus Christ it is pictured that he was accused by the Pharisees and the chief priests, and they were the ones who cried out, "Crucify him." And when he was on the cross, they were the ones who said, "Why, this man said he could build that temple in three days. Now, why don't you build your temple? why don't you carry out your high statements?" That Pharisee and that high priest is within your mind. It is speaking to you, when you get into your Christ Consciousness, and saying to you, "Why, that is all foolishness; that is your imagination. You can't do what you imagine you can do. This teaching about man being in dominion, having power over his organism, is all 'moonshine'".

Now, I say that this you will find within yourself. That is the old state of consciousness; that is the inherited teaching, and it is the popular teaching, but it isn't true. No. The truth is that man is a spiritual being, and that he has all power over this temple, and when the Spirit of God enters into this temple, and you know that you are sent of God, and you get the power of God within you, you can lift the temple up; you can resurrect it, and you can make it whatsoever ye will, and you can say to the Lord Jesus Christ, "I can lay it down; I can take it up" (John 10:18).

Now then, don't be afraid of what those high priests, and those Pharisees, those who believe in the mere letter of the law tell you. Don't listen to them for a moment. Believe and affirm the truth of your spiritual being; hold to the power of man, in Christ, over all things, and then you shall fulfill the law. I don't know when. I don't know how long a time it may take, as men count time, but I do know that the law is sure, I know that there is a logical outcome. I know that there is a sure sequence to every thought; and if you have the thought of the indwelling eternal God-life in you, it will fulfill itself for you. There will he no failure.

Then, let us be true to Jesus Christ's teaching. In spite of all appearances, let us enter into that spiritual resurrection, and not confine it to the spiritual either, but hold that this body is now lifted up; it is resurrected. It is resurrected from disease into health; it is resurrected from limitations of every kind, into the fulness of God-power. It is resurrected from ignorance into understanding.

Now, this resurrection will bring you, if you make your affirmations, if you come forth in the spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will demonstrate the proposition. We are demonstrators. We are here for the purpose of carrying out the Life instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would say to you every one, you can be that which you desire to; you can fulfill this law, or you can ignore it, but your true life, the life designed for you by God in the very beginning of your being, is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must not only resurrect this body, but you must ascend into the pure spiritual consciousness with it. Then you can spread it abroad. It will become a seed in the heart and in the soul, and in the very flesh of all men, and you will know what it is to abide in the Christ Mind.