1. Every thought of the mind becomes a center around which a state of consciousness or state of mind is built. If a right thought has been dwelt on regarding, say, life, the Individual has a right outlook on life; a right state of mind or consciousness concerning life. On the other hand, if a limited thought of life has been held in mind, the Individual has a limited state of mind or consciousness.

2. Our power to "think" is a gift of God, but how we use this power is determined by our understanding and use of it. Once we have thought about any subject, we have, in a sense, put ourselves into it and endowed it with power. There is, therefore, a "secondary power of thinking" given to our thoughts in that they have to express "after their kind." Charles Fillmore states in Christian Healing, page 50:

"There is, however, a difference between the original thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating center in Spirit; the other, In thought."

3. First, we think consciously through the thinking faculty or the conscious phase of our mind (also termed the "intellect"). This thinking then is taken up by the subconscious phase of mind or the feeling nature (often termed "the heart") and becomes a "secondary power of thinking" in that thoughts carry out according to their own character. The body and affairs are both influenced by whatever predominant thoughts are held in the mind, for they can only express at their own level of activity. If we do not rightly use the power of our I Am (Son of God) dominion and allow discordant thoughts in the subconscious to rule us, a multitude of discords in mind, body, and affairs will result. Then an appeal to a higher understanding to set right this "wilderness" of mind must be made. "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matt. 4:1). The "devil" here would refer to any false states of mind that we are holding which can tempt us to believe that we are separated from God, or that the only way we can have the good we desire is by our own human power.

"It is possible for man to take I AM power and apply it in external ways and leave out the true spiritual law" (Jesus Christ Heals, p. 123-4).

4. The joy of living is manifest in the body as sensation, which is experienced through our senses. If, however, the senses are allowed free rein without spiritual education, without the guidance of Spirit, then Adam, the intellect or thinking faculty, is represented as listening to the serpent (sensation). He eats "of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden" (Gen. 3:3); that is, he takes into his unfolding consciousness a belief in two powers, "good and evil" (Gen. 2:9).

5. We read these words in Mysteries of Genesis, page 24:

"Underlying all these ideas related to sensation, which in their original purity are simply ideas of life functioning in substance, is the divine idea of life. When life is expressed in divine order it is pronounced good. What is termed 'sense consciousness' in man is not to be condemned but lifted up to its rightful place."

6. Every bodily act should be under divine guidance. A yielding to uncontrolled appetites and emotions will produce a slackness of mind which permits some false thought-habit to take control of the consciousness to the exclusion of every other thought. This results in "obsession." Obsession is giving undue attention to certain beliefs, usually of a negative nature. This means that there is an imbalance in the mind. If the conscious phase of mind (intellect) has accepted some belief that has taken the whole attention and passed this on to the realm of feeling (the subconscious), then the belief becomes "fixed" in the subconscious as an obsession. Because the subconscious is endowed with "secondary power of thinking," the obsession or error belief can influence a person's whole life. The word obsess comes from a root word meaning "to sit before"; thus, in a sense the mind "sits before" some belief to the exclusion of other thoughts. A yielding to uncontrolled appetites, desires, or emotions produces a slackening of the functions of the mind so that one thought is allowed to take possession of the mind, and thus to gain control.

7. Obsession must be "unreality" because only what God created can have reality. That an "obsession" is unreal may be observed by the ease with which it is cast off when the mind really wants to let go, or gets so clear a realization of its unreality that it can release the thought that some evil spirit or "demon" could gain possession of a person. Now we are coming to the understanding that the "demons" that have so obsessed the minds of men are the unbalanced thoughts produced in their own minds. Ill-health, the distress of poverty, unhappy human relations, a guilt complex, tyranny, theft, perversion, can all become "obsessions" so that our mind is closed to the truth of our spiritual nature and our divine heritage.

8. The thoughts that we are thinking constantly fill our mind with some type of belief—pure or impure. In both the conscious and subconscious phases of mind we are continually building thought-structures and our body and affairs will show forth the projection of these thought-structures. The body Is the burden bearer for it is influenced by our thoughts and it will manifest imperfection, disease, if the thoughts are not true. On the other hand, it will manifest health, vitality, strength if our thinking and feeling are based on Truth. Our affairs, too, will show forth results of our negative or our positive thoughts. As an example of negative thought action and its results, we only need to observe those who constantly dwell in an atmosphere of material thought. Their souls are as heavy as their bodies with earthliness. Where is there room for the entry of spiritual thoughts? They need to have the excess of materiality washed away.

9. The function of denial is to disintegrate materiality and wash it away. We must be willing to deny that our sins and shortcomings have reality. Truth is not substance for us until we make room for it in the very character of our mind and body. The first step is to unload, to let go, to give up—this is termed "denial." If we were just beginning to build a new body, had new material, and understood how to build, the construction of a perfect body would be easy. However, we have erected our body without understanding and so we find that it is faulty in appearance. The plan for the body is held in Divine Mind as a perfect body-idea. Through ignorance we have failed to build according to the divine plan, so it becomes necessary to reconstruct. By denials we remove our faulty mental and physical construction, and by affirmations we build anew so that the outer appearance of the body is like the new mental picture we are holding. (See annotations for Lesson 4, Lessons in Truth,)

10. Though we might desire to do so, we could not erase all error states of consciousness at once without putting a heavy burden on the body. Little by little under the guidance of Spirit, we can tear down (deny) and build (affirm) again until the whole structure Is in accord with the divine plan.

11. All this work is carried on under a law of mind. The mind has the ability to reject what it does not desire—this Is "denial." The mind also has power to receive or accept what it desires—this activity we call "affirmation." Every time we say "yes," we accept; when we say "no," we reject. In this ability to accept or reject lies the power to thought control, and it is necessary that we assume and exercise this control before we can build in accordance with Truth principles. (See Annotations for Lesson 5, Lessons in Truth.) In substance, or Mind essence, "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). This substance fills all space and is free to all. By our thoughts we produce mental patterns, and it is the nature of substance to pour in, to fulfill (or till full) the pattern offered. It is, however, very necessary that we release the old pattern and produce a new one in mind before there can be any change in the outer manifestation, in the appearance. As this lesson has already brought out, the beliefs that one entertains are the thought-structures that sustain manifestation; the error beliefs must be removed, by denial, if the manifestations are undesirable.

12. "Denials may be made in many ways. It is not al-ways necessary to say specifically, 'I deny so and so.' The conscious acknowledgment that you have been Incorrect In your conclusion is denial." (Keep a True Lent, p. 64).

13. Denials and affirmations, therefore, are a necessary factor in the spiritual growth of man. Mind must have expression through thinking, feeling, speaking, in either denial or affirmation. Every thought denies or affirms something. Through ignorance, man has fallen into the habit of denying Truth and affirming error. His mind must be trained on new lines, and the process of denial and affirmation is vital in this training. Through understanding, man can take advantage of the love of mental action and turn it to good account, instead of allowing it to work out on the error side.

14. We do need to remember that denials and affirmations are primarily attitudes of mind. The spoken word may be silent or audible. There are times when our silent denial (or affirmation) is more an attitude than actual words, yet it is a "spoken word" from a meta-physical standpoint in that it conveys some idea and is therefore more than random thinking. (See annotation one of Lesson Nine, How I Used Truth.) Entering the Jesus Christ consciousness is in itself" an affirmation, the mightiest one that we could make. Jesus lifted Himself into the high consciousness of divinity by His use of the spoken word. He continually made the highest affirmations for Himself:

"I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18).

15. He uttered other statements equally strong and positive, and we know that during His ministry His silent "spoken word" must have been just as strong and positive for "he went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God." When we analyze our mental states, we see that every upward step in spiritual consciousness is an "affirmation," whether or not it is expressed in audible words, whether it comes to our recognition in a flash, or dawns on us gradually.

16. There is a standard of thinking to which all the thoughts of man should conform. This standard is Truth, the Absolute—the Jesus Christ standard. In the first three lessons of this series we learned the truth about Divine Mind, about the Son, the Idea or offspring of Divine Mind, and about manifest man, the expression and manifestation of that Idea. All thinking must harmonize with this Truth, or the thought-structure in manifest man will not be perfect, and what he builds (mind, body, affairs) will also be imperfect.

17. Students sometimes listen to remarks about right thinking and accept them because they appeal to their reason, but they go no further. They do not use the law to change thought-structures that have been built into the organism through ignorance. The ability to make and to unmake thought-forms is within every individual, and all those who desire to follow Jesus in the regeneration must begin the work and complete It as He did. The mind should set right every function of the body, and not allow error thoughts to rule in circulation, in digestion, in assimilation, or in any other process or organ of the body. Every error should be cast out of both the conscious and subconscious phases of mind.

18. Denial is the cleansing of the human consciousness of belief in evil, but the effect of denial is only temporary.

"But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first" (Matt. 12: 43-45).

19. A denial should always be followed by an affirmation so that the mind will be filled with Truth and not be subject to the return of the error beliefs that were denied. The quick way is to deny reality to the ~ false belief, leaving the mind cleared for a realization of Truth to be received through affirmation. Right affirmation heals the mind because it is the right use of the creative process of Being (God). God said, "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). This creative law at the center of man's being, when allowed free rein, raises both soul (mind) and body to the Christ standard. This "lifting up" is accomplished by the process of affirmation bringing one to the realization of Truth.

20. Some persons have said that they do not believe in denials—that affirmations are sufficient. It is true that every affirmation contains an implied denial, but usually we can get better results if we make specific denials to prepare the way. If the mind is full, it must be emptied before it can take in anymore. We read in the Scriptures that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus. Denials wash away or cleanse the mind of erroneous beliefs so that there may be a place in which to plant Truth. The thinking phase of the mind cannot hold or consider two thoughts at the same time; one must make way for the other. Man cannot expect to establish a consciousness of Truth in his mind when he believes in evil as having reality. Denial is the cleansing, freeing process which we may use to purify our thinking faculty and to cleanse the subconscious or feeling nature of untrue beliefs that have been allowed to become established there. Limited or error beliefs must be uprooted If man would put on the consciousness of immortality or eternal life. So, we let go, by denial, of what we consider to be error; then by affirmation we may lay hold of that which we perceive to be true. A simple denial will remove mountains of limited thought.

"Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it" (Mark 11:23 WEB).

21. Denials become obsolete, so far as actual statements are concerned, as the soul goes forward to perfection. When we have attained the Christ Consciousness, we shall joyously realize that "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

22. To say, "I believe in the power of Jesus Christ," because we have truly accepted the Truth, will produce a substantial state of mind that will lead to a great unfoldment of faith. Faith is primarily a spiritual principle, but a consciousness of faith is the accumulation of many affirmations. Not until an idea is firmly fixed in the subconscious does it become a habit of mind, a producing mental law for us. Only by repeated affirmations of it, by persistence in thinking about it, does the idea become so firmly fixed as to become an activity of faith. Error race thoughts are not displaced Immediately when the conscious phase of mind accepts a new thought of Truth, even though the new thought seems to be fully accepted by the reasoning mind. How-ever, any negative belief in the subconscious can be changed through steadfast denial and affirmation.

23. It would be a fine thing if one could instantly enter into a full realization of the Absolute, but as yet no one has done it. Only a few have ever known what it is to take even some of their steps in sudden flashes of inspiration and demonstration. Probably these steps were the result of faithful affirmations of Truth, perceived and declared with such wholehearted conviction that instantaneously the living word of Truth shed its blaze of glory throughout the conscious-ness. Undoubtedly this had been preceded by much building of Truth Into the consciousness, which was then released by the affirmation. We should not wait to declare Truth until It comes to us in sudden inspiration. It would never come to one thus waiting, because the mind is constantly expressing itself in denials or in affirmations of some kind—if not of Truth, then of error—and the manifestations will be of like nature.

24. Affirmations do not have to be made in set terms. For instance, men seldom say, "I affirm my body to be merely flesh and blood," but the general trend of their thought, their mental attitudes, affirms their belief. Continued thinking on the lines of such an affirmation of error fixes the thought of limitation or error in the subconscious, the thought then becomes a state of mind or mental picture and crystallizes into cells, which eventually merge into the body form. In this way the appearance of imperfection manifests in the body, even though it is primarily the temple of the Holy Spirit. The first step in doing away with this appearance of error is to deny the belief in Its reality. This denial, made in the understanding of the truth that the body is essentially spiritual, will reach the subconscious, break up the error states of mind, and make way for the new state of consciousness which is to be built by affirming that the entire man— spirit, soul, body—is spiritual.

25. The process of denial and affirmation is vital if we are to overcome the wrong beliefs held in race consciousness. In many instances we may find that each error belief needs to be taken up specifically. Among these race beliefs are belief in the reality and power of evil, belief in sickness and disease, belief in old age.

26. A dominating personal will (i.e., use of the will faculty in a limited way) is a form of negative affirmation, producing in mind and body a tense, rigid condition. Where the "no" phase of mind is too much in evidence, the consciousness becomes negative and relaxes to such an extent that weakness and ills of a "letting go" and wasting character result.

27. Jesus Christ thoroughly understood the law of thought back of affirmation and denial. He said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). The "self" which Is to be denied is the aggregation of false, limiting beliefs that we have had about ourselves, resulting in a thought-structure or self-linage that does not measure up to the God standard of man as a spiritual being. The "me" that is to be followed is the Christ, the I pi, the real Self of each of us. We must deny reality to all false beliefs and wrong feelings If we would come into the Christ consciousness.

28. Jesus overcame "the world, the flesh, and the devil," as mentioned in Matthew 4:1-11. We also find reference to the temptations of Jesus in Mark 1:12, 13, and Luke 4:1-13.

The "world" that God created is a good world for

"We are cited to the trees, flowers, suns, and stars, as the work of God; we are told that it is God who sustains and governs, controls and directs them in every minutia" (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 563).

29. There must, then, be some inner meaning to the belief that one is to "overcome the world." When we look more deeply into the subject, we find that "the world" thus viewed is the state of consciousness in us that has been built upon a wrong concept of God's creation. When one has such a state of consciousness, he has not come to know the reality back of all creation; so he looks to the forms he sees as being the real, rather than seeing them as the visible expression of the real, or divine ideas.

30. By consciously or unconsciously ignoring the Truth (idea) back of all things, a person becomes bound by the limiting traditions of men; too much emphasis is given to custom so that a person is bound by custom rather than finding through it an avenue of expression for the real, or some divine idea or principle. By this we do not mean to imply that either tradition or custom have no part in our life, for they have, but they are symbolic of the Truth back of them. The days in the year that are honored (many called "holy days") bring to our remembrance the ideals that lie back of them—i.e., Christmas Day, New Year's Day, days honoring the freedom of a nation, important events in a city or state, days that honor great people in government, education, religion. When we come into an understanding of what lies back of all life, then the freedom we seek for ourselves we desire for all men. This is freedom from the foolish, ignorant, limiting standards of living that have been set up in "the world" through lack of understanding. Because we desire this freedom for our self, we may need to make a sweeping denial on this order:

I am no longer in bondage to limited beliefs.

I am free to think, to speak, to dress, to eat, and to live in all ways according to my highest spiritual understanding.

31. By such a denial, there is no condemnation of the world in which we live, but rather a clearing of our own consciousness about the world, so that we become more worthy to be citizens of God's world.

32. When a person speaks of "the world" in a disparaging way we may be sure that he refers not to the world we see about us, which shows evidence of being the handiwork of God, but to the errors that spring from the unenlightened consciousness of man. In The Revealing Word, page 214, we find this consciousness referred to:

"The world—A state of consciousness formed through the belief in the reality of things external. It leads one to follow standards of living based on man's opinions rather than on Truth. The world is overcome by our denying that it has any power over us and affirming freedom in Christ."

33. The next temptation all of us must meet is termed "the flesh." This is symbolized by Jesus' temptation to turn stones into bread. As with "the world" we must come to see that this is a state of consciousness formed by man's wrong concept of substance that clothes the soul, that forms the outer visible structure of man we call the "body." If there is but one substance out of which all creation is formed, then what we term "the flesh" must be this same substance.

34. However, when we connect "the flesh" with the thought of temptation we know that it is not the flesh as we see it, but the error beliefs about it that we are dealing with. When a person suffers imperfection, disease, illness in his flesh body, he feels bound and he may think that he desires release from the body itself. With under-standing he finds that it is not release from the body he desires, but release from the limitations he has imposed on the flesh. It seems to man, in unenlightened consciousness, that the appetites of the body are his master; but once illumined to the truth that his body is "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Cor. 6:19), or as we often term it "the temple of God," he realizes that appetite is not really physical but spiritual. The desire for physical food has back of it the urge of God to give man spiritual food, the "bread of life." When first tempted, Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4)

35. If a man seems to be in subjection to wrong appetites or habits of the body, it is because he has not been spiritually educated to understand and control these appetites. When the soul is not given opportunity for legitimate expression, then the body finds wrong ways of expressing the misunderstood appetites. Medical science has found evidence that a child or an adult who has an uncontrollable desire for food actually feels rejected, unhappy, or frustrated. There can, therefore, be no condemnation of one who seems not to be able to control appetite for food, but rather a prayer for enlightenment so that balance may be restored. Even insatiable desire for intellectual knowledge can be a type of "mental appetite" that Is indicative of the soul's desire for the spiritual food that alone can satisfy. Any imbalance in the body can be traced to imbalance in the mind. So, the overcoming of "the flesh" must be recognized from its meta-physical symbolism, and the true overcoming thus takes place in the mind with the raising of the consciousness to the Truth that we are spiritual beings.

36. The third temptation Is "the devil." What is "the devil" which Jesus overcame, and which all men must overcome? The Greek and the Latin words from which the word devil came into our language meant the slanderer, the original or root significance of which is "to throw or let fall across," indicating delusion, a veiling. As with "the world" and "the flesh," we find that "the devil" Is also a state of consciousness built by man when he has forgotten that he is a child of the living God. This state of mind is built because a person is ignorant of the true use of divine laws (ideas), and when he reaps the unhappy result of misapplied law, he thinks there is something outside of himself causing him unhappiness. The state of consciousness that is "the devil" functions contrary to divine good; thus, it has accepted belief in separation, belief in the power of the outer world to harm him, and so it ignorantly rejects God. When man is lost in this "wilderness" of his own thoughts he is tempted to bow down to this seemingly powerful "devil," giving it control over his faculties.

37. The forces personified as "the devil" are not real or reality, for they are man's own formations of wrong beliefs. Our Father-Mother God gave to each of us freedom of will, so that we may use our God-powers as we choose. When we are guilty of unrighteous use of the will faculty, we bring into our life by the mental law of cause and effect results that cause pain and distress. The many perverse and degrading practices that have grown up with mankind in the childhood of the race have all come through the ignorance that has been carried on from generation to generation. When the light dawns and parents begin to educate children to spiritual truths, all of the accumulated error beliefs that make up "the devil" will be erased from the world consciousness (race consciousness).

38. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament we find the Hebrew word Abaddon, the Greek form for which is Apollyon. Both of these words mean destroyer. In II Corinthians 6:15 we find "the devil" called Belial, meaning worthlessness, lawlessness. In Matthew, "the devil" is designated as Beelzebub, meaning lord of the flies. We find the word Satan, another word used for "the devil," „ occurring in both the Old and the New Testaments, meaning adversary.

39. In Genesis the "adversary" is described as a serpent, representing a subtle state of consciousness that uses the life force with-out wisdom and through ignorance refuses to obey God's laws. This adverse state of consciousness in man stands aloof from God, desiring to be independent, believing in its own sufficiency. Even after Spirit begins its quickening work in the consciousness, the adverse state of mind or "the devil" is in evidence. As a matter of fact, it often seems more active than it was before, seeming to rise in rebellion against Truth. It has its own ways and does not want to be disturbed. This state of mind comprises all forms of fear, selfish-ness, ignorance, and must be denied, while the Christ love is affirmed. When a "housecleaning" takes place there is to all appearances an upset until the house is cleansed, and everything put in order. When Spirit begins its redemptive work in our consciousness there seems an upset while the cleansing (denial) goes on, but when this is accomplished the consciousness is put in order by affirmation which replaces limited beliefs with eternal truths.

40. Since man has shown that he can be a producer of conditions that he terms evil, it is time for him to realize this fact; time to recognize what his freedom of will means; time to recognize his power to determine to produce only good instead of appearances of evil. On man, created in the Image and after the likeness of God, has been conferred the power of choice, and he must choose to be selfless and universal instead of selfish and personal; must choose to live by knowledge of wisdom and love instead of by undisciplined sensations.

41. There is no personal devil any more than there is a personal God, in the sense of a personality separate and apart from one's self. Just as "Lord God" means an embodiment of law, order, and justice in man, so "the devil" represents an embodiment of anarchy, evil, and injustice in man.

42. All efforts at social cooperation, such as have been tried in colonies of various kinds, will prove a failure until the law of Jesus Christ is put into operation and selfishness is eliminated. Many times, as is proved by history, men or groups of men have come to the realization that more good can come into the lives of individuals and nations through social unity and cooperation. This is very good. Every step in progress has begun with the nucleus of someone's thought of service. Sometimes, however, the outer organization of such social reform has not lasted or has not been as effective as it should have been, for the reason that no true unity is possible until God’s laws, as taught by Jesus Christ, are made the foundation of any such organization. This means, of course, that love must be predominant for love precludes selfishness. "Love ... is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10). Jesus Himself emphasized love as the basis of universal unity when He gave as the first commandment our love for God, and as the second commandment our love for our neighbor.

43. Jesus went into the "wilderness" of His own mind, and there met and overcame the Adversary. So must each evolving soul meet within himself this "wilderness" or undeveloped state of mind. The answers which Jesus gave to the "adversary" or adverse state of mind indicate the nature of the error thought that is to be met and overcome. We are not very familiar with this "wilderness" or undeveloped realm into which Spirit drives us. The untried powers of this realm await our directive hand. In the visible world we see all about us opportunities to make profit, and the adverse state of mind, the devil, suggests that we use the divine law for material gain - "Command that these stones become bread" (Matt. 4:2). The higher understanding declares the necessity of affirming the Word as the real life-giving substance—"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). We must speak words of Truth every day about the wonderful possibilities of God as our supply and power, and we will prove the law of abundant supply in our affairs.

44. An exalted consciousness lifts us up to the very pinnacle of the "temple" in the "holy city" (Matt. 4:5). Unillumined personality says that we are so high in our spiritual perception of divine law that we are not subject to natural law; that we can—right now, without further experience with our untried forces—do marvelous things to astonish men. The possibility of using divine power in sense ways is the temptation. This is tempting the Lord (the Christ or I AM) or seeking to bring into manifestation the divine law before we know how to handle it.

"As soon as a person attains a certain degree of intellectual understanding of Truth he becomes self-righteous ... he is inclined to think that he has all of the fullness of the kingdom in his outer life. However, he must learn to use aright the beginning of Truth that has been revealed to him, that he may become worthy of a place in the kingdom" (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 523).

45. When unenlightened by Truth, the personality says that we can trust to angels, or to forces outside ourself, to guard us and protect us from the results of our ignorance. Spiritual man (Christ, I AM, Lord) says that it is not wise to attempt to do marvelous things before understanding the law; when we understand, then the ideas of God (angels) will minister to us and become our servants. "Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God" (Matt. 4:7).

46. The "high mountain" referred to in this lesson is the exaltation of the outer man or personality, in the belief that through such exaltation dominion can be attained. A person with a strong desire to rule the minds of men can take advantage of the power that lies in spiritual thought (in the basic desire of all men to worship) and by exploiting it gradually build up a system of beliefs not based on spiritual principles. This state of mind might find expression through governments, educational systems, religious organizations. It is through this misapplication of spiritual power that dictators and tyrants are produced. History proves that attempts have been made to exalt personality in the name of God, and rulers and their people have been made to pay homage to personality under the delusion that they were worshipping God.

47. Man must continually recognize and work in harmony with Divine Mind through the Christ consciousness within himself. The man of spiritual understanding says to the Tempter: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10).

Life is a constant learning,

Never the lessons end;

And the more we learn, the further

The bounds of our life extend.

Life is a constant journey.

Never we reach the goal;

But the higher we go the greater

Is the reach of the living soul.

Life is a constant growing

Up from the nourishing sod

Into the better living,

Nearer the fullness of God!

--Claude Weimer

1. Man should be in conscious control of all his thoughts because what he has in his experiences depends upon this control. Man thinks, also his thoughts have, as the lesson brings out, "secondary power of thinking." The predominant thought becomes a nucleus around which other thoughts of like nature revolve, and the final thought pattern continues to work in the subconscious phase of mind. If we have our conscious thinking under control and are inspired and governed by the higher Power within us, then the "secondary thinking" (the activity of our subconscious phase of mind) will be governed by the conscious phase of mind inspired by the Superconscious or Christ Mind. The result will be good in all areas of our life.

Thought can reproduce itself along the general line with which the chief thought has identified itself. Consciously or unconsciously this thought goes on reproducing in its own image and affecting the general body of thought on all subjects.

Thought can be positive or negative, constructive or destructive. The first thought is conscious, but then it may become unconscious and influence action and bring about unforeseen results. One hears a person say in apology, "I never thought for a moment"; "I did it without thinking." This is not strictly true because the action of the subconscious phase of mind is spontaneous; what a person means by such statements is that he acted without conscious thought. The subconscious thought, or feeling, is reactive; sometime, somewhere, a conscious action of the mind took place In order to set the "mental equivalent" in the subconscious.

If we do not take control of our thinking (conscious phase of mind) and our feeling (subconscious phase of mind), we are actually giving the control of our formative power of thought to something less than that which we are — a son of God! The mind (conscious and subconscious) is our instrument of expression — not our master. It is necessary to keep our thought power strictly under control in order that the ensuing subconscious thought or mental habit may be established In an upward or positive direction.

2. Denial is the attitude of mind which says "no" to that which is undesirable and unwanted, first in our consciousness to error beliefs, then to the manifestations that resulted from those beliefs. It clears from mind the wrong mental pattern, and the undesirable condition, having nothing to sustain it, is dissolved.

"Denial is the erasing, cleansing, or releasing from our consciousness all beliefs, thoughts, and concepts that are contrary to Truth" (Lessons in Truth Lesson 4 Annotation 1 on "Denials" ).

Affirmation is primarily the attitude of mind which says "yes" with both our thinking and our feeling to the good and desirable. It establishes realization of this good in our consciousness; then the good is made actual in every phase of our life.

"An affirmation is a statement of Truth by which we establish in our consciousness the truth about God, the universe, ourselves, others, or about a condition or thing" (Lessons in Truth Lesson 5 Annotation 1 on "Affirmations").

Both of these processes, which actually form one process related to the cleansing and rebuilding of consciousness, may be in the form of audible statements or silent assertions. We see Jesus' use of these processes in these three verses of Scripture: "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; nay, nay" (Matt. 5:37); "Get thee behind me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23); "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).

In the Scriptures the act of "fasting" represents denial — the emptying out of depleted or inadequate states of mind (and abstaining from their return) in preparation for the laying hold in consciousness of the ideals that make up our divine inheritance. John the Baptist advocated "water baptism" as symbolic of the washing away of sins. Even Jesus Christ submitted to this baptism of John in order that He might observe the "letter" of the law, having already observed the "spirit" of God's law through His own realization of and consecration to His mission.

"Water baptism indicates a letting-go attitude of thought, denial. Spiritual baptism is positive, a taking on, an affirmation. All growth takes place through these two attitudes — a letting go and a taking hold, or denial and affirmation" (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 96).

3. In order to reconstruct the body by affirmation and denial, man must first reconstruct his consciousness by affirmation and denial. The body is composed of pure spiritual substance, for it is "the temple of the living God" (II Cor. 6:16). However, its appearance is subject to the thoughts, feelings, concepts, beliefs, and acts of man. The body may be influenced also by the race consciousness, the total of mankind's thoughts, both good and bad.

Included in the divine plan for man is the idea of a perfect physical body, but man has interfered with the perfect manifestation of that body-idea by wrong thinking and wrong living. Thus, our body often outpictures inharmony in the form of sickness or malformation. By denial, the false beliefs about our body are dissolved, and eventually the negative condition in the body is erased.

By affirmation of the truth about our body, we lay hold consciously of the ideas of life, strength, health, order, and perfection that are our divine birthright. Then the power back of these Godideas begins to reconstruct the physical body so that it may manifest as the perfect likeness of the inner body-idea.

"When man realizes that there is but one body-idea and that the conditions in his body express the character of his thought, he has the key to bodily perfection and immortality in the flesh" (Christian Healing 30).

4. The process of thinking is controlled by the conscious phase of mind (thinking, reasoning realm), and the process of denial and affirmation becomes a vital factor in exercising this control. In one sense, we can think of the conscious phase of mind (thinking) as the "control knob" for it is here that the decision is made either to change established thoughts in the subconscious (feeling) or to allow them to continue to bring forth "after their kind." It is through our power to reject (denial) or accept (affirmation) that we have control of thought.

If the subconscious phase of mind (realm of feeling or "secondary thinking") is holding thoughts that are not consistent with the image God created for our mind, body, or affairs, it is the conscious phase of mind that can (by exercise of the will faculty) produce a new pattern. To control thought, then, is to fill the mind with an idea, an inspiration, and concentrate our whole attention upon it. Before this can be done there is often much mental work to be done in cleansing (by denial) the consciousness of the old negative concepts that would be obstacles to the new inspiration. When the denial (spoken silently or audibly) has done its work, the next step is also through the conscious phase of mind — it is the work of affirmation, or "planting" of the seed-ideas of Truth that we wish to replace the wrong concepts. (See Lessons in Truth Lesson 7 Annotation 7)

5. The one true standard of thinking is the Jesus Christ standard based on absolute Truth. The Jesus Christ standard of thinking is thought that is unclouded by doubt, fear, or distrust, but is luminous with love, faith, and understanding.

The Christ pattern is the one true, perfect man — spiritual man — created in the image of God, and is the real Self of every man. For us to observe and practice the one true standard of thinking is to know that we have in us the same Mind which was in Jesus Christ, so that we may express and manifest outwardly the likeness of God's image.

The daily prayer of everyone who would conform his thought patterns to the one true standard of thinking should be in the words of the Psalmist:

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalms 19:14 A.V.).

6. Specific denials are not always necessary, because at times man may not be aware of the line of thinking that has brought him to the error state of mind and the undesirable manifestation that he is faced with at that particular moment. In such cases, the prayer of the Psalmist, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults" (Psalms 19:12 A.V.), serves as an effective, sweeping denial.

John the Baptist came before Jesus Christ and prepared the way for His coming. Since the work of John is symbolic of denial, we can see that denials are frequently necessary to prepare the way for the infilling of the good we are seeking. The ministry of Jesus represents affirmation or appropriation of the God-ideas that we must use in order to unfold spiritually and grow "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52) even as the child Jesus did.

Even to turn one's thought away from an erroneous belief or condition constitutes a denial (without a specific word of denial being spoken), for denial, like affirmation, is primarily an attitude of mind.

We do not plant a new garden over the rubbish of last year's growth, neither do we keep our outgrown garments in a closet and continue to add new clothing. Often the four denials learned in Lessons in Truth are all that is necessary to cleanse the mind of erroneous or limited beliefs, in preparation for the infilling of new ideas. However, in cases where specific denials seem necessary in order to handle such beliefs and the resultant appearances of illness, poverty, or inharmony of any kind, we should be all means use specific denials, spoken either silently or audibly according to the need or circumstance.

"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work" (II Tim. 2:21).

7. It is important that we make the right use of our power to affirm and to deny because the results that we will experience in our life depend on this.

Essentially man is all that God is, and has the same freedom. We have Scriptural authority that man is created in the image and after the likeness of God. All the God qualities are ours to use; there is nothing but God, so we have only God-substance as the material with which to work or build. This substance is perfect, but we have been given freedom in the way we combine the ideas that mold substance. We may use ideas in any way we choose. However, it is the wrong use, or our inability to rightly combine the God-ideas, that brings forth imperfect or inharmonious results. Charles Fillmore has this to say:

"Man cannot corrupt the inherent purity of any of God's attributes, but he can unwisely combine them in states of consciousness that bring dissatisfaction and incompleteness to him" (The Twelve Powers of Man 131-32).

In order to make the right use of our power to deny and to affirm, we must understand what qualities or ideas we desire to make active; how to combine them in right relation, and thus express them righteously. Heretofore, we have thoughtlessly denied our divinity, our Godlikeness, our good, and have ignorantly affirmed weakness, poverty, ignorance, limitation of various kinds. Now this must be changed. We must deny or disclaim that which we do not wish to manifest, and claim or affirm that which we wish to demonstrate in our life. In this way we are being wise in the right use of the creative power that is within us as our formative power of thought.

8. Affirmations have a great deal to do with making our thoughts substantial. It is only by repeated affirmations (spoken silently or audibly) that we can by faith establish thoughts of health, prosperity, harmony, peace in our subconscious so that these positive thoughts may become a habit of mind. When thus established, the reaction of the subconscious will always be one of faith in the good.

Error thoughts are not always immediately displaced when the thinking faculty (conscious phase of mind) has accepted a new thought. This subject was clearly covered in Annotation 10 of Lesson Four of this Series (Series 2 Lesson 4 Annotation 10). No one phase of mind stands by itself; the entire consciousness has to go through a process of unfoldment. Even though the thinking faculty has accepted the Truth, often it takes some time before the subconscious has been cleansed sufficiently to accept the new thought. It takes much faith to persist in the work of cleansing (denial) the subconscious of unwanted beliefs and impressing it (affirmation) with the Truth.

No matter how strong a hold a negative thought may appear to have in the consciousness, we are able, by clear-cut denials, and by affirmations spoken in understanding faith, to build substantial thought patterns in the mind.

9. As the lesson material brings out, when Jesus said these words He was speaking from His Christ or I AM Self. He meant that if anyone desires to come into the understanding, freedom, and abundance of life which the Christ consciousness affords, he must drop from consciousness ("deny himself") all error beliefs and accept the truth of himself as the beloved son of God with a divine inheritance.

Because "deny" also means, according to Webster's dictionary, "to disclaim connection with" [something] we realize that the denial to which Jesus is referring is our "disclaiming connection" with anything less than God's plan of perfection for us in mind, body, and affairs. We fulfill Jesus' command to "follow me" when we raise our consciousness to that of the Christ standard; when we are willing, if need be, to pray as Jesus did "all night in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12).

To "follow me" is to live the laws of God in every phase of our experience. We seek to know God as the source of life, so that health, vitality, strength, wholeness may manifest in our body. As we recognize God as the source of abundance, we are able to manifest prosperity in our affairs according to our special needs. Jesus saw God, the Father of us all, as the source to which every man must turn for fulfillment in his life.

By following Jesus' injunction, we are not denying good; we are refusing or erasing error concepts so that we are able to open our life to a greater inflow of God's good. So long as we are bound by misconceptions of ourself, other people, God's world, we cannot follow Jesus on the path of overcoming and freedom. We can discover the method that is best for us individually to follow only as we turn in prayer to our own Christ presence — God in us. The Christ within is the "me" to which Jesus refers, as the lesson material pointed out.

10. The lesson material has already stated that "the world" — when referred to in connection with the temptation of Jesus — is the state of consciousness in us that has a wrong concept of God's creation. This state of mind builds up many beliefs and habits of thought that bind us to outer forms and customs so that we cannot claim our true freedom. Jesus knew how to meet this temptation because of His consciousness of God as the source of His life.

Each man actually forms his own "world." If it is based upon the truth of God as the creator of all, then he finds fulfillment in life. Every moment becomes to him an adventure in living. He sees his world peopled with others having the same goal he has: seeking to unfold the divine nature within. On the other hand, if a person does not have the right concept of life, then his "world" will be one of limitation, hardship, unfulfillment. Such a belief gives attention to poverty, — unhappiness, war, sickness, old age, and death rather than to realities such as abundance, happiness, peace, health. It is the temptation of this latter "world" that we are to overcome, and this can be done only by understanding God and our relation to Him.

11. What is termed "the flesh" is also an error state of consciousness which has been formed because of the wrong thought about the substance that clothes the soul — that which forms manifest man. If there is but one substance out of which all creation has come forth, then what is termed "flesh" must be this same substance in the form of the physical body. However, men have tried to blame things outside of themselves for their failures, for their inability to meet many temptations, and it has been easier to blame "the flesh" for their own shortcomings. As the "temple of the living God" our body could not possibly tempt us to do wrong. With understanding we are able to correct the state of mind that prompted the body into wrong habits.

When we suffer imperfection in body through illness or false habits, we cannot blame "the flesh" for the condition. With the wrong attitude about "the flesh" we may become negligent in the care of the body, even to the point of the self-mortification of the ascetic. With the right attitude toward the body, we make the changes in consciousness that will enable It to manifest as the temple of God rather than something to be denied and looked down on. We are able to overcome our wrong concept of "the flesh" only as we seek for understanding of the relationship of the phases of our threefold nature — spirit, soul, body.

12. The lesson material has brought out that "the devil" is a state of consciousness built by man when he has no explanation for the negative experiences in his life, and when he feels that there must be something outside of himself that caused them. In such a state of consciousness we are apt to view "the world" and "the flesh" as part of the outside forces that are causing us unhappiness.

"The devil" in our life is the will faculty being used in the wrong direction, resulting in adverse states of consciousness that in turn produce inharmonies in our manifest life. Jesus' command was to "resist not evil" (Matt. 5:39 A.V.), but we also read in James 4:7, "resist the devil, and he will flee from you." If we attempt to fight conditions that are not good, we only succeed in binding them closer to us. On the other hand, if we do not do positive mental work to handle the adverse states of consciousness ("the devil") we will find ourself letting them rule our life. The "resistance" referred to in the quotation from James is the firm stand that we take in refusing to allow wrong beliefs to become our master. Through denial of them we prepare the way for the Truth in the same way that Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan [our adverse thought] ... Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). Overcoming "the devil" is only possible through understanding that the only presence and power in our life is God. "To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (I John 3:8). Only as we show forth (manifest) our Son-of-God self, the Christ, are we able to remove the error conditions that have been set up by our own adverse states of consciousness ("the devil").

The lesson material states, "There is no personal devil" and we find these enlightening words in The Revealing Word, page 54:

"God is the one omnipresent Principle of the universe, and there is no room for any principle of evil, personified or otherwise."

13. The basis of universal unity and cooperation is love founded on the understanding of God as the one Source of all life, as the Father of every man. No matter how man may strive in the outer to build organizations for unity and peace, these cannot stand unless they are based on the premise of the one Presence and the one Power. With this understanding comes the love that eliminates selfishness. "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11). All of Jesus' teaching and ministry was pointed Godward, and this is the only safe foundation on which mankind can build the organizations of peace and service that are part of God's kingdom — "in earth as it is in heaven" (the Lord's Prayer).

Love has to be the basis of universal unity and cooperation by its very nature for "Love ... is the fulfilment of the law" (Rom. 13:10). Love is the unifying, harmonizing, attracting, cementing quality or idea of Spirit that holds all things together in right relationship. As the attracting idea, love, draws all mankind together, making us realize that we are all one in Spirit, yet it gives individuals freedom to act according to their own inner leading and convictions.

Unity is oneness, and universal unity is the oneness of Spirit based on a common Father, the one Mind, the one substance, the one love, the one life, inherent in all, governing all, sustaining all. Cooperation implies working with someone or something. If man's standard of living is governed by the Jesus Christ standard of loving, man works harmoniously with God, with himself, and with his fellowmen, thereby establishing the "kingdom of heaven" here and now.

14. The "place" of man's overcoming is in his own individual consciousness or soul (i.e., the conscious thinking and subconscious feeling phases of mind). Our consciousness has within it a "wilderness," or states of mind as yet unknown, and it is only as the Spirit guides us that we are able to handle the mass of subconscious thoughts that must be erased or put in order. There are in this "wilderness" beliefs that do not accord with the Truth standard, so it is in the consciousness that the work of erasing these beliefs and replacing them with Truth is to be done. Our consciousness is the "garden" that we are to tend, or as Gen. 2:5 puts it, "to dress it and to keep it."

Overcoming is the "coming up over" into the Christ consciousness, or into Truth. From this vantage point we are able to view all false beliefs that have been harbored in the subconscious and to deny them, at the same time affirming that which is true. The overcoming is done first in consciousness (mind); then a change takes place in our outer affairs, and the undesirable conditions brought about by adverse states of mind ("the devil") are dissolved.

After denial of error thoughts, affirmation of the truth that we are spiritual beings with a heritage of good becomes a vital process in overcoming. In reality, overcoming is the exercise of our Christ mastery in thinking (conscious phase of mind) and feeling (subconscious phase of mind), so that the ideas of the Superconscious or Christ Mind are handled in the right way. When this is accomplished we have the true "atonement." Charles Fillmore says of "atonement" in The Revealing Word, page 18:

"Reconciliation between God and man through Christ; the uniting of our consciousness with the higher consciousness."

15. There are three beliefs that must be overcome — "the world," "the flesh," and "the devil." The lure of these is shown in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, which represents the untrained, uncultivated states of mind in each person who has not come into spiritual understanding.

Jesus was physically hungry; so He was presented with the thought that He could turn the stones into bread and thus satisfy appetite, the call of the body. This temptation is symbolic of the attempt to use God-power for a selfish purpose. However, Jesus' response was to the effect that the body and its appetites should not rule — that there are other things essential to life. This is not to say that the body should not be fed, but that uncontrolled appetite is not to dominate. One can spend too much time and effort in catering to the appetite, the feeding of the physical, as if it were the most important part of man. Sometimes we forget that time must be spent in quietness and prayer to feed the soul with spiritual food (God-ideas). The false beliefs and undisciplined thoughts and emotions in the consciousness of man must be overcome, just as we cleanse the body so that good food will fulfill its purpose.

Jesus was then presented with the thought that if He would deliberately cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, no harm would befall Him. In other words, the temptation was to make a show of power and ability; to prove what can be done through spiritual powers to win the world's acclaim; to succumb to the love of applause; to cater to the opinions of others; to attempt to get the world's approval. The answer was, "Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God" (Matt. 4:7). This is "overcoming the world" or ceasing to base one's standard of thoughts and feelings upon the world's approval or disapproval.

Next came the temptation on the mountain, that exalted state of consciousness when one feels that he has all the power and ability of God, that anything and everything can be accomplished. Then came "the devil" saying, "All these things will I give thee, if thou shalt fall down and worship me" (Matt. 4:9). In other words, we seek to use the power of Divine Mind (God) to bring to ourself worship and dominion in the outer realm; we can use it to exalt the human self instead of exalting God and serving our fellowman. The "devil" (false beliefs) has to be overcome, so that God-consciousness may predominate.

At each stage of our unfoldment we must meet and overcome temptations. We then stand forth as victorious, triumphant sons of God!

"Stamped on my heart is the impress
Of heaven — shall I aim at less?"
    —Be! by James Dillet Freeman