. . . It is vividly alive, glorious as the sunrise.
She tells of numerous instances in which she saw hands and feet and other parts of her body lighted or really transformed by the flame invisible.
This convincing confession of Miss Morgan prompts me to tell of my development of the radiant body, during half a century's experience. It began when I was mentally affirming statements of Truth. Just between my eyes, but above, I felt a "thrill" that lasted a few moments, then passed away. I found I could repeat this experience with affirmations. As time went on I could set up this "thrill" at other points in my body and finally it became a continuous current throughout my nervous system. I called it "the Spirit" and found that it was connected with a universal life force whose source was the Christ. As taught in the Bible, we have through wrong thinking and living lost contact with the parent life. Jesus Christ incarnated in the flesh and thereby introduced us by His Word into the original Father life. He said, "If a man keep my word, he shall never taste of death." I have believed that and affirmed His words until they have become organized in my body. Sometimes when I make this claim of Christ life in the body I am asked if I expect to live always in this flesh. My answer is that I realize that the flesh is being broken down every day and its cells transformed into energy and life, and a new body is being formed of a very superior quality. That new body in Christ will be my future habitation.
I have found that the kingdom of God is within man and that we are wasting our time and defeating the work of the Spirit if we look for it anywhere else.
Chapter III - Spiritual Obedience
I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me. — CHARLES FILLMORE
ZEAL is the great universal force that impels man to spring forward in a field of endeavor and accomplish the seemingly miraculous. It is the inward fire that urges man onward, regardless of the intellectual mind of caution and conversation.
Paul, the zealot whose name was first Saul, metaphysically is a symbol of varied significance. He was born of Jewish parents in Tarsus, Asia Minor, a city of considerable culture and refinement. He was reared as a Pharisee and educated as a rabbi in schools in Jerusalem. His one conception of salvation did not go beyond that of obtaining it through a perfect performance of the works of the law. But in truth he was a man of deep religious character and worshiped the living God.
He was on his way to Damascus to persecute the disciples of Jesus, no doubt in one instant "breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" and in the next swearing allegiance to the living God whom he worshiped. "As he journeyed ... suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: and he fell upon the earth." Because of the great blaze of illumination he was struck temporarily blind.
Thus through the spiritual power of his own mind, apparently by accident, he broke into the ethers where his consciousness was flooded with spiritual light, and he heard the voice of Jesus saying: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? . . . and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus." This experience illumined, expanded, and enriched his whole being, and eventually led him into his life's work: preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole Gentile world.
Paul presents a tremendous outpouring of zeal; first on the intellectual plane as champion of the law and the prophets, afterward as a disseminator of the freeing doctrine of the Christ. He was a "chosen vessel" of the Lord, and "not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Yet on several occasions he allowed his zeal to run away with his better judgment and as a result suffered many things.
Zeal should be tempered with wisdom. It is possible to be so zealously active on the intellectual plane that one's vitality is consumed and there is nothing left for spiritual growth. "Take time to be holy." Never neglect your soul. To grow spiritually you should exercise your zeal in spiritual ways.
As children of God our place is at the right hand of the Father. When man really realizes this, he calls down upon himself the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He soon learns that obedience to Spirit increases his power to control his thoughts and thus make his world conform to the divine standard.
When man is obedient to Spirit he will not suffer burdens. To trust Spirit he must know of its guidance by experience. By those who have not learned the guidance of Spirit, that experience must be acquired. Man is spirit and must find himself before he can communicate with universal Spirit.
Paul had his weak points, but he was a great apostle and made Jesus' doctrine live. No doubt the light of spiritual understanding with which his consciousness was flooded at the time of his conversion carried him a long way in his ministry. His fearlessness was the strong point of his character. To him the gospel came first and the things of the world second. This is what made him a great apostle of the Lord. When will and understanding are joined in consciousness man is equal to any emergency.
Without doubt the secret of Paul's great illumination at the time of his conversion is that in previous lives he had built up a spiritual consciousness, and on his way to Damascus he "stirred up" the gift that was within him. The new race that is now being born on this planet will develop these unused resources of the mind by realization, audible prayer, and thanksgiving and bring to the surface the riches of both the subconscious and the superconscious mind.
Above all other Bible writers Paul emphasizes the importance of the mind in the transformation of character and body. In this respect he struck a note in religion that had been mute up to this time; that is, that spirit and mind are akin and that man is related to God through his thought. Paul sounds again and again in various forms this silent but very essential chord in the unity of God and man and man and his body. All Christian metaphysicians are indebted to him for many quotable Scriptures that fortify their position that the mind is the center of man's world around which, to him, all things revolve.
Spiritual realization changes things. In scientific prayer realization is the high point of attainment. With concentrated spiritual attention man can affirm in faith that God Spirit is present and that he, man, is one with the God presence.
That there is a certain unity also between the mind and the elements, mystics contend, and this is borne out by the power exercised by Jesus when He stilled the wind and stopped the storm.
The question is often asked, Does the race mind affect nature and to what extent? Some geologists surmised that exploding bombs might have been the cause of the Japanese earthquake following World War II. Science cannot verify this surmise, although it does teach the unity of all things.
When the scientific world investigates the so-calledmiracles of religion and discovers that they are being duplicated continually, the power of mind over matter will be heralded as of great importance to both religion and science.
Prayer gives spiritual poise to the ego, and it brings forth eternal life when spiritually linked with the Christ. "If a man keep my word, he shall never see death."
Jesus understood the realm of divine substance, and it was obedient to His word. He will continue to draw upon this omnipresent source of power and also include us in its life-giving energy if we will abide with Him in the Spirit. When we understand the innate capacity of the mind raised to spiritual dominion we cannot but have an increase of faith equal to doing the works of Jesus, and even greater works, as He promised.
Machines that measure the energy used by the mind acting on the brain cells have already been invented, but there is no account of the brain voltage of a person in prayer. When such measurements have been made we shall know something of the capacity of the mind in its highest range of expression. Jesus also called attention to the power of a group praying with Him. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
The first mention of this dynamic power of the Spirit is found in Acts 1 and 2, when the early followers of Jesus were gathered in the "upper chamber." They all became spiritual dynamos, as revealed in the Greek word translated "power."