Lessons In Truth - Lesson 11 - Annotation 8
Is cultivating a cousciousness of our oneness with the Father more important than demonstrating things?
8. Cultivating a consciousness of our oneness with God the Father is much more important than demonstrating things. Jesus said, as recorded in Mathew 6:33,
"Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
We can see from this Biblical statement that Jesus was not repudiating things; He was putting them in their rightful place -- as the forms that "shall be added" to us as an automatic result of obedience to divine law. The condition of this promise is first of all to "seek . . . his kingdom." Because God's kingdom is the realm of all spiritual qualities or ideas, it is reasonable to seek the idea first. No matter what we do in the mental and physical worlds we must have an idea with which to start. Whether we are aware of it or not, it is always a God idea seeking expression that impels us to pray to God for the solution to a problem.
Our text points out that it is possible for us to bring (i.e. demonstrate) things into our life by holding to them mentally, but that the
"highest ... first ... thought should be ... to seek the knowing as a living reality, not as a finespun theory that He abides in you" (Emilie Cady Lessons In Truth 11:31).
The highest motive in seeking God should not be just to demonstrate things; it should stem from our love for Him. As we seek our Father-Mother God because of this love, then "all these things shall be added unto you," which includes the power to heal, the power to prosper, the power to harmonize, and all the myriad things that go to make up the "abundant life" of which Jesus spoke.
Many things are necessary in our daily living: food, clothing, housing, right work activity, financial supply, and the like. When we demonstrate these things without first turning to God for ideas, there is little to sustain the outer forms. The "things" follow in sequential order when we consciously seek God and the ideas inherent in Him. When we understand this truth we have learned the law of true prosperity, or the law that produces good in our life. If we attempt to demonstrate things just by mental practice alone, they will have no roots in divine substance and may not long satisfy us. There is danger of our becoming their slave instead of their master. The parable of the Prodigal Son is an illustration of man's willful attempt to use the substance of his thought in "riotous living" away from the Fattier, his divine source, in the "far country."
Something wonderful happens when we seek a conscious oneness with God as His sons and heirs: our whole approach to "things" changes. We have a greater appreciation of them; we do not waste them; we take better care of them. With the new viewpoint we see clothes, appliances, homes, machines as divine substance that has taken form according to the ideas God has given to meet all our needs. Some forms may lose their importance to us, while others will increase in value. Simplicity and divine order will be our goal, producing the beauty of life that each man craves.
Our text points out that when we abandon or yield ourselves to God's will, there is a merging of our faculty of will with the divine will so that God may have a clear channel through which to carry on His work. Through building a consciousness of oneness with God, we automatically yield to His will, and the result is an inflow into our life of the "gifts of God"; we will demonstrate them without making them our primary objective.
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Preceding Entry: What is the Holy Spirit?
Following Entry: What is the grace of God?
