Spiritual Solutions

Beginning in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, we read how Abraham was guided by Spirit to leave where he lived to journey to a land which God would show him. He set off, taking with him his wife and his nephew, Lot, and they ended up in the land of Canaan.

Along the way they had prospered greatly, but then the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot quarreled and since they now had so many herds the land couldn’t support them. So Abraham suggested they go their separate ways, and being a generous man he gave the fertile Jordan valley to Lot, and Abraham went up into the hilly country.

It was there that God spoke to Abraham, with these words: “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.”

This is a great message for us all today, for we tend to be limited in our ability to see a greater horizon and all its possibilities. So, “lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are.”

In a sense, this is what we do in inner prayer and meditation. We climb to the heights of spiritual consciousness, get a larger perspective, a cosmic vision, see ourselves and the world around us with a wider sense of what we might call far horizons. We are lifted up out of an illusion of separateness, consciousness has a direct perception of awareness and we experience what the scriptures call the “grace of God.”

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, once said, “Man can never discern more than a segment of the circle in which he moves, although his powers and capacities are susceptible to infinite expansion. He discovers a faculty in himself and cultivates it until it opens out into a universe of co-related faculties. The farther he goes into mind, the wider its horizons until he is forced to acknowledge that he is not the personal, limited thing he appears, but the focus of an infinite idea.”

In other words, it is not man’s geographical or material horizons that have held him in chains through the centuries, but the limited horizons of his mind. He has looked out to a limited horizon and has beheld a picture of evil and limitation and frustration, old age, certainty of death.

The great message of Truth which Jesus brought changed all this. He said, “Know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” You shall see with a wider viewpoint, and you shall see more broadly. You shall see with a loftier insight from a cosmic perspective of Truth. We need to extend our horizons, add to our faith with the positive knowledge that there is more good for us, that there is more good within us. So how do we push back the boundaries and extend our horizons? Long ago the instruction was given. Isaiah put it this way, “A highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.”

Jesus was a pioneer in the way of holiness. And in the early days of Christianity, the followers of Jesus were called “followers of the Way.” It is the way of wholeness; it is the way of Truth; it is the way of the cosmic perspective. Jesus went on ahead so we could follow the path, showing us how we too can deal with certain fundamental spiritual laws. He went over the obstacles, meeting the challenges in the midst of life, so that the way could be clear for us, the way of holiness, the way of demonstration, the way of going beyond the horizon to an expanded life. “Abundant living,” he called it.

So, resolve today that you will constantly lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, that you will cultivate a sense of far horizons and expanded vision, that you will see reality in spite of appearances. And the way will open before you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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In praying for oneself or another, first there is the awareness of a need. Not a sense of lack that implies a limitation, but the concern of a need and the concern of its fulfillment. The concern you may have over someone you love or about conditions in general is a step in the direction of demonstration, but we cannot stop with concern alone or else we settle into the dead-end street of worry and despair.

If you are concerned about another, nothing can be accomplished in prayer until we overcome this concern. Whatever or whoever you are praying for, remember this first step. Lay aside your concern and dwell in the consciousness of your Oneness. It is your attunement with power. Then you are ready to pray.

The next logical step is faith in and awareness of the principle. First the concern, or the awareness of the need, then the healing of the concern, or the awareness of God’s all-sufficiency in all things. The thing for us to do is to realize the Truth of the promise, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” (Ps. 138:8)

By nature the average person is concerned about the health or the welfare of those about him or her. The most helpful step that we can take, in the interest of that with which we are concerned, is the step in faith from the thought of concern to the dynamic idea of Truth.

You can pray about the situation and pray for the welfare of the one who concerns you, but your prayer must be based on right thinking and right seeing. To hold the problem in negative thought or to see it in anxious concern is, as Paul would say, seeing “in a mirror dimly.”

The most helpful thing you can do for another, regardless of his or her need, is to think positive thoughts about the person. Positive thinking might actually be a synonym for prayer. You may define prayer in many ways but essentially it is the act of changing our thought from the limited to the limitless. “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” we have been told in Romans 12:2 and this must be the starting point of all effective prayer.

Certainly, almost unbelievable, wonderful demonstrations of health and guidance and success through prayer can be observed all the time. However, we must clearly understand that prayer is not begging God to do something for someone or something that concerns us. When you pray about something, if there is any action as a result of prayer, you help in the action. But God can do no more for you than God can do through you. You are a channel for the expression of His wisdom, love, substance and power.

Often we are urged, “Let go and let God.” This means to let go of your tense, anxious concern over a situation and let God express His omnipresence through your positive awareness. True prayer is the stirring up within you a sense of God-power and turning the full force of this power, like a powerful searchlight, on that which may concern you.

When you desire to help someone else, the starting point of that help must be within yourself. You may say, “But it’s my husband (or wife, or friend, etc.) who needs help.” Yes, but it is you who are concerned and, as long as you feel anxious concern, you are giving life and substance to that about which you are concerned.

Your thought of fear, your image of some terrible possibility, or your gnawing anxiety is really a very powerful and continuing prayer in reverse. No matter how great may be your desire to help or bless someone or some condition, your negative concern may effectively completely negate your successful wish and prayer for healing.

No matter what you may be concerned about in the life or experience of another, if you really want to help, you must change your thought from fear to faith; you must correct your faulty vision in which you are focusing your attention on that which is disturbing. You must heal your thought of concern.

When you feel a release, a sense of freedom from fear and concern, then the work within you is done. At that point, in the consciousness and with a positive declaration of Truth, speak the word of healing, harmony and peace, and know that “it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Is. 55:11) It is in this way that you fulfill the assurance which is “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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There may be many times in our lives when we become discouraged and disheartened, but there is a way out of every limitation that never fails and an infallible method of achieving personal happiness and harmony.

Whatever you might want or need from life, you can find the solution in the midst of any conflict that is holding you back. You can be confident and secure as you participate in all that each day holds in store for you. You can be fearless in the face of seeming obstacles or challenges.

As a starting point, we might understand the universal availability of the answers that we seek. For ages on end human beings have let themselves be frightened or awed or confused by what has been called a mystery, the mystery being the universe. We have chosen to view the universe as a vast, unknown system.

This basic mystery has given rise to the belief that most of our questions are unanswerable, that the right answer in most instances is something that people are not supposed to be able to discover. From this idea has sprung the kind of thought that our destiny is in the hands of a mysterious, unknowable deity whose purpose and ways are naturally unfathomable.

Of course, there is a force, a universal creative energy. We generally call this force God, but it‘s up to you what you call it. I think of God as Spirit or Universal Mind, a vast, unending sea of awareness in which I live and move and have my being. God is my ever-present help, my source of strength and comfort in every situation.

There is no greater power than the power of God at work on my behalf; therefore, I need not be afraid of any person, circumstance, or condition. God’s law of order prevails, and I am confident that I will see it at work in my life and in the world.

The right answer to any problem does exist because this is an ordered and orderly universe, not a haphazard system governed by chance and whim. It is not a cold, disinterested universe. One of the finest, most encouraging truths you can know is that the answer you seek is seeking you. It is meant that we should find the right answer to our problems. God, the force that moves this orderly universe, wants us to find the right answer. Remember well these words of Jesus: “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

There are, I believe, four basic steps to finding the right answer to any problem: Willing, Allowing, Trust, and Surrender.

First, get still in mind and body and be willing to experience that state of being you desire. Just the willingness will bring the experience to you. Try it for a moment by being willing to experience a state of peace and serenity. Immediately the Divine Flow will bring that experience to you through your intention and your willingness.

Eric Butterworth called this step the invitation, making yourself open and receptive, believing the answer already exists for you.

Second, allow yourself to experience the outcome or state of being you desire. This cements your willingness in place, in consciousness. To use the analogy of a telephone call, willingness makes the call and allowing picks up and answers the phone.

This second step Eric Butterworth called inspiration, something that comes to you, often just a quiet reassuring kind of knowing in some indefinite form, a feeling that you are approaching a solution.

The third step, trust, contains within it several elements: your ability to open yourself to all possibilities, the earnestness to take the steps to bring about any needed change, courage to move beyond what you previously thought, certainty that everything is all right even if you do not have proof, and a sense of safety underlying everything.

Eric Butterworth called this third step ideation, an idea or series of ideas that flow into awareness from Divine Mind that are yours to work with to put into use or expression. You may have to choose and sort the ideas, to link them together in such a way as to work toward your right answer.

The fourth step, surrender, means letting go of imaginary boundaries and allowing greater flow, which creates greater clarity of who we really are. This step, Eric Butterworth identified as an incubation period which calls for patience, wisdom, and confidence in the right outcome.

If the solution does not develop in your affairs immediately, remember it is already done. What you need is ready for you. Its complete manifestation in your life and affairs may be delayed a bit for various reasons, but there is no need to despair or become despondent. Of course, you must not expect delay; very often a solution appears quickly. But if the answer does not come at once, then be wise enough to accept the incubation period, for such times often give rise to good in even greater measure than when ideas come full blown.

You can be confident that you will see God’s law of order at work in your life and in the world. With God’s power and strength supporting you, you will be successful in all your endeavors. Know right now that you are opening the door to greater good.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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In the drama which is the book of Job, we can learn a valuable and transforming lesson for ourselves. You will remember that Job had a recurring series of trials and problems, and his three friends were all too ready to come up with reasons for his difficulties.

Yet it was constantly emphasized in the narrative that Job was a good man, and thus his trials could not be the result of sin. But one thing was overlooked, as it often is today, that the laws of life are exact and exacting, and goodness covers a much broader area than those connected with conformity to religious practice.

As the drama goes on, in a moment of despondency the Christ-light begins to shine within Job’s soul and a few wonderful, quiet words of Truth cleared the way for his eventual full acceptance of the power of God within him, the power to help and heal, because they pointed to his true problem, his manner of speaking.

The words that blessed Job were these: “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: Thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth and lay up His words in thy heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up . . . and the Almighty will be thy treasure, and precious silver unto thee. For then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He will hear thee; and thou shalt pay thy vows. Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and light shall shine upon thy ways.” (Job 22:21-28)

The implication of this fruit of Job’s inspiration is so great it opened the way to a complete overcoming for Job. And it can open the way for a transforming experience for you, too, if you grasp its meaning. It concerns the power of the spoken word. Job is told, “Lay up His words in thy heart. . . .”

It points up the Truth that is in the negative use of the spoken word lies the cause of many of the ills and misfortunes of humankind. A cause so simple that many, like Job, look in vain for various causes and thus cannot find any answer to their problems until this inspiration dawns in consciousness that our life and death, our health or sickness, our success or failure, are veritably determined by the content of our speech and our manner of speaking.

Have you ever thought that when you used anxious, worried and negative words all through the day that you are really praying for trouble? Words are prayers. Just think back in the last twenty-four hours and check up on your manner of speech.

One of the most important disciplines in spiritual living is the care and preservation of positive words and speech. And even beyond the positive nature of words is the manner of their speaking. It is often not what we say, but how we say it that counts. You may be striving with all your heart to speak words that express positive thought. But, through force of habit, you may be speaking them with a negative tone.

Work at putting joy and enthusiasm into your voice. Work at making the tone of your voice musically interesting. When you open your mouth to speak, let your speech express you in a positive way. Give voice to your thoughts in a relaxed and friendly manner; speak in agreement with your highest sense of good. Words that come from a heart overflowing with love and a mind filled with the goodness of God are words that bless.

Job couldn’t understand why all these horrible things were happening to him, since he was a good man. Finally it came to him that his problem was his manner of speaking, that he should lay up the words of God in his heart. Ultimately then, “Thou shalt make thy prayer and He shall hear thee,” because your prayer will be your manner of speaking.

Allow the Christ love within you to give shape and substance to your thoughts as they become the words that you speak, words that bless. “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and light shall shine upon thy ways.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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My wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, counseling a woman who was upset, frustrated and unhappy with her partner, told her gently, “Just be kind!” And truly, this is the key to happiness.

Moment by moment, as we go about our daily tasks, the answer comes. “Just be kind!” life whispers. Be kind. We do not understand. It is too simple. Yet life, considering that every individual in the world is unique, repeats again and again, “Just be kind!” There is a great hunger in the world today for simple kindness, as there has been for many years. It is brought home to us in so many ways.

Some time ago, a sensitive and highly gifted woman in this country found herself suddenly thrown amid circumstances where she had almost no privacy. As a result, she began to dislike people; she shrank from contact with them, wishing she might never have to see them. Her dominant desire was to escape to some desert solitude, where she could feel the freedom of space and the healing balm of silence.

That being impossible, she decided she would play a game with life. She would pretend that she was “Mother of the Universe,” and that all beings in it were her children. If they misbehaved, it was because they had not been brought up properly. She would have to tolerate their short-comings, and see what she could do to re-educate them.

Sometimes she knew the people well enough to make some constructive suggestions. If a person was cruel or critical or unkind to some other person in her home, she would tactfully try to awaken in him or her a truer sense of values, either through speech or through example. If someone was greedy, she would be generous. If someone was afraid, she would be calm and serene, and either explain to him or show her that there was nothing to fear.

If she was among strangers, as on a bus for example, and people eager for seats trampled over others to get them, she would imagine that they were her own errant children whom she loved in spite of their waywardness, misbehaving in surroundings where she could not easily correct them. Then she would visualize them as considerate, instead.

In any event, her game of pretending that she was “Mother of the Universe” promoted understanding, sympathy and tolerance, and she found herself loving people again instead of hating them, welcoming people instead of avoiding them, performing acts of kindness instead of being critical, enjoying harmony instead of feeling discord.

Friends, life is made up of simple situations; if we can learn to handle little tasks with love, they will become great, and so will we. Kindness is more than a virtue; it is a power in the up building and restoration of prosperity. It is the antidote for unkindness, the only cure for the aftereffects of unkindness.

Kindness may be administered by the least as well as the greatest. It will restore confidence, spread good will, enrich the consciousness as well as the coffers of the individual, business firm, and government.

Yes, the eternal cry of life is “Just be kind!” Be kind in little things. Handle little things with love, and you will be happy, unworried, even more prosperous and healthy.

Practice the spirit of mothering, of loving, of being kind and understanding, patient and tolerant. Not only will your individual world become harmonious and peaceful and happy, but the world in general will have just that more weight on the constructive side.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

————————————————————
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Today I choose to be a peacemaker. If I am experiencing disharmony within myself or with another, I affirm this simple, yet powerful. statement. Let us then consider this statement in light of four roads to peace that have been suggested by the Bible.

First, The Damascus Road. Paul was traveling this road with the intention to completely destroy the Christian movement. He was on his way to Damascus on this militant mission when he was struck blind in a spiritual experience, and when several days later the “scales fell from his eyes,” he began to see for the first time in the light of Truth.

It was not just a changing of sides or a switch from one persuasion to another. It was an awakening to a new level of consciousness on which he began to perceive things from an entirely new frame of reference. Paul had been sure of his rightness in his devotion to the destruction of the Christian movement which was to him the road to peace. But the true road to peace for him was an awakening, a change, a conversion. This was symbolized in the change of names, from Saul to Paul; there had likewise to be a change of nature.

We must understand this, that we cannot find peace in a fast-changing world by the methods and concepts applied in the past. As Jesus said, “Except you be born anew, you shall not see the Kingdom.” There must be an awakening, a new birth, a new view, an enlargement of the concept. Paul thus revealed a spiritual inroad to peace, the Truth with a capital “T” which urges us to follow the divinity within ourselves. He knew that only by doing so could the new heaven and the new earth come into manifestation.

Second, The Emmaus Road. Two of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, and along the way the resurrected Christ appeared to them. On the Emmaus Road a new concept was born: “Immanuel,” God with us, for here was the demonstration of the ever-living Christ, the Christ of every road.

The Emmaus Road is the revelation of the Christ within, the rediscovery of what Jesus had in mind, the divinity of humankind, the realization that worship is not a performance but an inner experience. This leads to a road to peace that is a road of love and understanding, of believing in the inherent divinity in all persons, of seeing the Truth of the Christ in ourselves and working to deal with people everywhere on the level of the Christ in them. The Road to Emmaus leads us to a new level of consciousness on which we can be honest with ourselves and others as we recognize the Truth of being and sense the non-material “peace that passes understanding.”

Third, The Road to Jericho. We are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan who helped the man who had been injured and robbed by thieves then left to die by the side of the road. The Samaritan treated his wounds and took him to the inn and cared for him. The priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side were religious and had the means to help, but they did not do so. They represent ignorance and indifference to the spiritual dimension of life. The Samaritan had the courage and the strength and the power to help, but he had one thing more – he had the compassion to act.

The story points up an important realization, not that I am my brother’s keeper, but that I am my brother’s brother. Even more, as Emerson puts it, “The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of his and mine ceases; he is mine – I am my brother and my brother is me.” There is thus the compassion to act.

The Jericho Road to peace starts with the compassion to act with one person, in the recognition that we are all one; it begins with a commitment to do what we can with what we have for whom we are able.

Finally, The Road to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Road is that of commitment to goals higher than personal. It is the victory of the divine over the human. Jesus knew what was ahead, but to be lifted up he had to go to Jerusalem, to “lose his life so that he could find it.”

So it is with us; we must be willing to let go much of what we hold on to in consciousness in order that we may find the peace and freedom so deeply desired by us. As has been said, everyone wants peace but not many are willing to do that which makes for peace. Are we willing to walk the Jerusalem Road, the road to true peace? Are we willing to renounce our warlike nature and everything based on fighting and violence? For there will be no peace until we have peaceful hearts and a loving consciousness. Peace begins with you. This is the Jerusalem Road to peace. Are you ready to be a peacemaker?

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

————————————————————
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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It was Lao-tzu who said that one lives in proportion to the number of points with which he or she contacts life and the world, inferring that the flow of life must go outward to form a harmonious interaction with people. To love God and your neighbor, as Jesus instructs us, is to “establish points” with which you contact life and the world. It is to get into the flow of love. You will invariably find it easier to get along with people when you go along with the movement of the flow of love.

There is a flow of love and harmony everywhere, whether you are aware of it or not, and whether you are consciously moving in it or not. This is what the omnipresence of God means. You are never out of the Presence of God even though you may be out of the consciousness of the Presence. You are never out of the flow of love and life. The important thing is to be in conscious awareness of this flow.

If you could realize the importance of keeping consciously in the flow of life and the danger of getting out of this flow even for one instant, you might see any episode of confrontation in the light of what it reveals about you rather than the other person. Then take a moment to “be still and know” and use it as a reminder to get back in the flow.

The key to staying in the flow of love is conscious awareness. I remember a significant moment for me from many years ago, when my children were acting up and I was yelling at them to behave. I suddenly became aware that I was acting out my own father, who sometimes yelled at us kids like that when he was frustrated with us. I realized that I didn’t need to do that, I didn’t need to yell at my kids and it didn’t do any good anyway, in fact it made matters worse. It was a moment of conscious awareness for which I am very grateful. Since that time so long ago, I have noticed that being consciously aware is an integral part of my spiritual growth. 

Well, what can you do when you think a person is being mean and nasty toward you? When Jesus says, “Pray for those who despitefully use you,” he indicates the need to elevate your thoughts about them, for they are your thoughts that are obstructing the flow in your mind. In other words, stop resisting and start loving. Get yourself back in the flow. The Truth is, if you could really know this person and vice-versa, there would only be love between you. For that is the reality of life which human experiences and one’s reactions to them tend to obscure.

Then what can you do when you seem to be surrounded by people with whom you have so little in common, people who may appear to be beneath you, and people who resist your efforts even to get along with them? You can turn on more light. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14) You may wonder why you are there. You are there to let your light shine. The important thing is that, at the moment you are there. And wherever you are, God is. Wherever you are, there is a flow of light and love. Get in the consciousness of it.

Former Unity minister and author, Eric Butterworth, in his book In the Flow of Life, suggests that every morning, before setting out into the world, or before making the initial contact with the world through watching or reading the morning news, it is the better part of wisdom to prepare yourself by a prayer or meditation to get consciously in the flow of life. He says, “It is a simple matter of getting your lights turned on before you face any darkness in the world or in human behavior. In the flow of love you will tend to see and respond to the divinity in all persons, and so you will establish yourself in the kind of consciousness that you desire to experience, letting it flow through you and go from you.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

————————————————————
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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To be truly dedicated to God, we must understand what God is and what God is not. We are plainly told in the Bible what God is, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) But in the Book of Numbers we are also told just as plainly what God is not.

It relates how the children of Israel came out of Egypt and camped on the plains of Moab. When Balak, the king of Moab, saw them he was afraid of this mighty nation. He sent for the prophet Balaam to put a curse on the invaders, offering wealth and honors in return. Balaam came, but when he spoke, the Lord had put words of blessings into his mouth.

In our imagination we can hear the king’s exasperation when he says, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” (Numbers 23:11) Balaam answers that he must speak what the Lord tells him to speak. Then he uses words to describe God in which we can find a great lesson: “God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.” (Numbers 23:19-20)

“God is not a man . . .” What a marvelous realization of faith and life it gives us to grasp this truth! This explains why things that are impossible to man are possible with God, because “God is not a man.” The solutions for every problem, the supply for every need we can ever have, exists already in God-mind, but we cannot unite ourselves with God-mind and use its power if we conceive of it as being simply human mind raised to a higher level. “God is not a man,” and God-mind is not at all like our human mind.

Thinking of God-mind as simply a higher type of human mind, a sort of super-brain, is the same old error as thinking of God as a person. As Balaam said, “God is not a man.” God is something else entirely, something infinitely greater and more wonderful. When we go to God, we do not go to a judge – we go to justice itself. We do not go to a king – we go to power itself. We do not go to a healer – we go to healing itself. God is not a man (or a woman) – he/she is God. God is justice, power, healing, and abundance. And God does not change.

God is always there, always the same, helping us solve our problems at the vey moment we turn to him. But “God is not a man.” God is something infinitely greater. God is as kind and generous, yet as impersonal as the rain. He becomes my personal God and your personal God as we personally turn to him and seek to bring our mind into the pattern of God-mind. When we realize this, when we get a true understanding of God in our heart, then we are able to pray in a new way.

Do you have a problem? And have you become dedicated to your problem? God’s power cannot flow through your mind if it is clogged with negative thoughts. It can and will flow instantly through the clear mind that is attuned to good, which is dedicated to God. Attune your mind to God-mind by getting away from the personal, and thinking about the infinite goodness, wisdom and love of God. Say to yourself, “I am dedicated to God. There is nothing in my life but God. God is in my heart. God is in my world. There is nothing but God here. There is nothing but good here.”

What a difference it makes in your entire experience when you become established in a right understanding of God. You begin to realize that God is not a person to whom you pray, but a spirit by which you live. You begin to realize that Brother Lawrence’s ideal of “The practice of the presence of God” is completely relevant to your life today. It means, very simply, realizing that life is lived from within out and that when you think of God you draw on infinite intelligence, that you are guided by divine creativity, that when you love you are the focus of the great love of God. You can practice the presence of God in your life today. It is a way of dedicating yourself to God, through which you can be and do and have more than you ever imagined possible for you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us, and at this time it brings me to thoughts of family. Our family is scattered around the globe, in England, New Zealand and Australia, as well as around the United States in California, Washington State and Iowa.

We’ve had some additions to our family in the last couple of months – two great-grandchildren, a baby boy in California and a baby girl in Washington State, and our nephew and his wife in Australia had a baby boy.

We had a great visit with our granddaughter Emma, from England, recently. She and two friends from the university where they are students came to Florida to do some research on hurricanes and hurricane preparation. It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm and exuberance they brought to their task, and the enjoyment they got out of it all.

Our grandson in England recently graduated from Gloucester University with a Bachelor of Science degree and honors, and is now running a gym and teaching physical education and nutrition. And our granddaughter in California graduated earlier this year from San Diego University with two degrees.

As you can tell, we are proud of our growing family. We just wish they were closer in proximity so we could be together more often, especially at special holidays such as Thanksgiving.

I know there are many people without families, and it is especially hard at holidays when families traditionally get together. But for all of us, I think we can expand our understanding of family to include everyone. In other words, that in truth we’re all family, one with one another. We can reach out to friends and all people to embrace them in the consciousness of family and share love and gratitude with each other.

Notice I said we can embrace and reach out to share love and gratitude. That means love and gratitude begins within, and is not dependent upon external circumstances. Thanksgiving starts within us, it’s not a matter of what am I thankful for, but what am I thankful from? What am I grateful from? Let your consciousness rest on a divine flow of gratitude from your inner being. We can be grateful from that consciousness that we are forever one with the divine flow, giving thanks from the consciousness of oneness with God.

I remember Janie Paulson, the former Unity minister, who loved to sing and have everyone sing “We’re a family; we’re a family, a family of love!” Be still – know your oneness with God; that God is the one reality at the heart of you; that you live and move and have your being in the heart of God. Get your consciousness in tune with the divine flow, giving thanks from that consciousness. As the song says,

“Our family is a little world,
Of ten, or six, or three;
Our family is a larger world
With billions just like you and me.

“We live together, that’s the way;
We live together as we say,
We’re a family, we’re a family,
We’re a family of love!”

As Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” (I Th. 5:18) He didn’t say “for” all circumstances, he says “in” all circumstances. In other words, you have the sense of gratitude, and you give that gratitude, that praise, that thanksgiving regardless of what the conditions and circumstances are around you because you are keeping in touch with the divine flow. You give thanks from the consciousness of your oneness with God. You are grateful for the realization you are a spiritual being and that you have within you the capability to cope with all the changing circumstances of life.

When you begin with gratitude in this sense, I think you will find that gratitude and thanksgiving will take on an entirely different meaning. In the process you will have a much broader perception of the inherent good that is within all things, and you will begin to find that it is much easier to give thanks for the many blessings in your life.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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When I think about spiritual healing, my mind goes to thoughts of Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, who had been given a diagnosis of tuberculosis and six months to live. The story goes that, in 1886, she and her husband Charles attended a lecture in Kansas City given by Eugene B. Weeks, and Myrtle left with insights that changed her life. Ringing in her head were the words, “You are a child of God, and you do not inherit sickness.”

She had believed she inherited tuberculosis but now, at age forty-two, worked on casting aside that old belief and blessing all the cells of her body with new life, declaring that they were indeed filled through and through with God-life. And with her new-found spiritual understanding and the application of spiritual principles, she healed herself of tuberculosis.

In this article, I’d like to draw upon the work of Neal Valhe in his biography of Myrtle Fillmore, Torch-Bearer to Light the Way, so you may capture some of the essence of the activity of Spirit in the healing process.

Myrtle Fillmore came to understand that mind and body are not separate. There is intelligence contained in every cell of our body, and it responds to our thoughts. It responds to how we react to circumstances or situations in our lives, and it stores that information for playback in all the experiences of our lives.

But Myrtle said that understanding is not enough. It’s good for us to understand Truth principles if we are to make progress in unfolding our spiritual awareness, but it’s not enough. In her own life, she made a commitment to practicing the Truth principles. She began to speak to the intelligence within her body; she affirmed the presence of God within herself. She focused on that healing activity, and gradually began to see it manifest in her life.

Then Myrtle began to use the techniques in working with others and helping them to heal themselves. Notice I said “to heal themselves.” Although people looked to her as a healer, she recognized it was not she, herself, that was the healer but the spirit of God within the person was the healing power. She encouraged them always to look to the spirit within, to come to understand the spiritual principles and begin to apply them in their own life. Get to know the truth of God within, then the healing transformation can take place.

As she began to work with people, friends and neighbors sought her out for help and they began to see marvelous healings taking place (many of these are recorded in the book, Torch-Bearer to Light the Way, by Neal Vahle). And always, Myrtle focused on God’s healing power. She said that the key to healing is having faith in the healing power of God within you. The book goes on to say she soon came to realize that physical healing was only one aspect of the work. The real goal was advancing the spiritual development of the person.

Both she and Charles Fillmore came to understand that the role of the healer and the teacher were interrelated, and they began to emphasize spiritual instruction to enable people to understand the healing power of God within. They didn’t tell them what to think but how to think, so that their lives could be different, empowered and nurtured by the spirit of God within them.

Myrtle said that the whole aim of their method was to quicken the spirit within the person until they grasped the Truth for themselves. Healing prayer was also connected with the instructions, and excellent results nearly always followed.

They also began to realize that they were actually getting better results with what they called “absent healing,” where people would write in for healing. The work began to grow and they eventually had other people to help them do the healing work. They developed a system of working with people who wrote or called in for healing; they would pray with them over the phone and hold them in a consciousness of God’s presence within, with miraculous results. People wrote in with testimonials about the things that had happened for them through the absent healing.

That was the beginning of the work that became Silent Unity and became the Silent Unity healing department, which grew and has continued for over a hundred years now. You can call Silent Unity any time of day or night and a Silent Unity worker will pray with you (1-800-669-7729). There is an activity of Spirit that goes on when you release something in that way and you know that someone is praying with you. And healing can take place.

In the teachings and in absent healing, Myrtle Fillmore always focused on the importance of finding the healing power of God within. She stressed what she called a “threefold healing.” In the spiritual, it is an activity of aligning with the true spirit of God which is at work within you at all times.

The mental work is to recognize that when you have negative thoughts about yourself or about situations, you can change those thoughts; you can choose your thoughts. She encouraged people to think in a positive way knowing that God’s presence is active within. It’s a matter of aligning your thoughts with the presence of God within.

In regard to the physical, recognize that God’s activity is in every cell of your being and that you can speak to the cells of your body and know that your body will respond. She speaks not only of our physical body but also the body of our experience; God is at work in the physical body and the body of our experience. Wherever we are, God is; we can take comfort from knowing that. And healing can be made manifest.

Your healing is at hand, my friend. If you are going through anything that needs healing, whether it’s body, mind, emotions, relationships, whatever it is, just keep your thoughts and attention on that idea: “My healing is at hand.” As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” And that means the kingdom of God is right here, it’s handy, it’s at hand right now, because God is omnipresent. Say that to yourself: “My healing is at hand.” Know that for yourself, put your attention on that, keep your thoughts on that; no matter what the appearance, be persistent and steady in your efforts. Not trying hard, but letting yourself turn to the spirit of God within, for it’s the spirit within which always does the work.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

————————————————————
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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