Spiritual Solutions

One afternoon a few years ago, when we lived on Coffee Pot Bayou, there was a sudden storm, short but fairly severe. We looked out of the window and saw there was a little blue sailboat, just a very tiny one, out on the bayou. There was a man and a little child in the sailboat. It looked like the sailboat was in trouble and the man couldn’t get it where he wanted it to go.

I went down to the dock, and by that time he’d managed to get to the shore at the end of the bayou so I thought maybe he lived down there. He had put the little girl out on the rocks and he was baling water out of the boat. Then he got out and tipped the rest of the water out of the boat.

Then, lo and behold, they got back into the boat. By this time it was really getting dark and beginning to blow. They came back past our dock, about fifteen feet away. I called out, "Are you all right?" The man said, "Yes, I’m trying to get over there." That was across the bayou to the ramp. "But I can’t seem to get over there." I said, "Well, you better not try in this storm." He said, "Well, I think I can do it."

He continued on a little further down the bayou and realized he couldn’t get across it; then he turned around and tried to come back toward our dock. When he got to about fifteen feet from the dock I threw him a line. I had the faith that he could reach the dock, but I turned that faith into activity as well. That’s important, isn’t it?

It’s all right having faith, but I could have stood there and had faith and he could have been swamped in his little boat, with a little girl in there too. So I threw him a line, pulled him up to the dock and secured the boat, lifted the little girl out of the boat, and helped him out. He and I hauled the little boat onto the dock, then we all headed inside the house where Kathryn and I wrapped them in towels and made them some hot chocolate. After the storm quieted down we lashed the boat to the top of our car and drove the two of them around to the other side of the bayou where they had parked their own car.

You see, the faith has to have activity with it. That’s a simple illustration, but it applies in every facet of our lives. We must move our feet with our faith.

I was thinking about examples of faith that have both vision and action, and I remembered a story about the director of Disney Studios, Mike Vance, after Disney World had been created and Walt Disney was no longer alive. Someone said to Mr. Vance, "Isn’t it a shame that Walt Disney isn’t here to see it?" Mike Vance turned to the person and said, "It is because Walt Disney could see it that it is here!"

We have to see it first, and then move into activity to bring it forth. And that’s a really important realization.

In the book of James we read, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only."

Let’s take a look at that scripture for a moment. He says, "Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." In other words, faith is wonderful, faith is fine, faith is great, it’s good to have faith, it’s good to study and learn and have faith. But if you don’t have works as well, if you don’t have the activity as well, the faith is not being manifest, the faith is not being made visible. So he’s saying that this is so essential that we have both. We have faith, but it becomes an active faith moving into activity.

He said, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing." (James 1:22-25)

Take the analogy of looking in a mirror. You look in a mirror and you think you either look good or you don’t look so good, then you go away from the mirror and you forget about it. James is relating the experience of Truth to that.

When the Truth is right before us, we remember it. We recognize it. But when we move away from it and it’s no longer before us, we forget about it. We get caught up in the outer appearance of things unless we look toward the perfect law, unless we look toward the reality that the world is our mirror also. Then we keep the realization of the presence of God that is with us at all times, we persevere in that understanding, and we are blessed in our doing as we act from faith.

It’s not just learning about, not just studying about something. It has to be put into our activity.

In the letter to the Hebrews, at the beginning of chapter eleven, there’s a familiar passage which says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." This then is a statement about faith, what faith is, and here we see a quality of perception. It goes on from there, and in chapter twelve we read, "Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." And a little later on, "Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet."

So, in other words, faith is both perception and activity. Perception is not enough by itself, activity is not enough by itself. It has to be the two, that we perceive the vision, we perceive the truth we want to bring forth. We perceive the truth of God’s presence in our life, we perceive the good that we want to experience. But then we move into action, we move into activity to bring it forth. So faith without the "works," without the activity, isn’t complete.

Charles Fillmore said, "Faith is the perceiving power of the mind, linked with the power to shape substance." There are two aspects to it – the perceiving power of the mind, perception, and it being linked with the power to shape substance.

If you take the word "substance" and divide it into sub-stance, "sub" means "under" and "stance" means "standing." So substance is that which stands under all things, all visible things. So faith is the power to shape that which stands under all things.

Charles Fillmore said that the best way to shape this substance is through love. He said, "Faith is more than mere belief; it is the very substance of that which is believed. It works by love. Thoughts of condemnation, enmity and resistance must be released and divine love declared, then faith will work unhindered."

So it is faith and love together that have tremendous power.

So often we get caught up in the outer activity of things. You see, that’s a problem with faith. It’s linked to perception, and our power of perception sometimes gets caught up in the outer. We see those things before us that are happening, and we say things such as, "The economy is going to pot; I can’t do well because of that" or "I can’t get a job because unemployment is so high and there are no jobs around for me" or "There’s all these incurable diseases that we’re so susceptible to, I’m bound to get something" or "The world is filled with violence and crime and drugs, and our kids don’t stand a chance."

We get caught up with that kind of perception, and our perception is faulty. We are not seeing the truth, we are seeing an outer activity. But the truth is eternal, that which is never changing. Those outer things change, but the truth never changes. It is eternal, it lasts forever. And that’s where our perception needs to be focused.

When we get caught up in what’s happening in the outer, we get caught up in fear.  F-E-A-R. I used to think that meant "Forget everything and run."

Then I understood that it really means "False evidence appearing real." You see, it’s not the truth. Fear doesn’t tell us the truth.

So how do we get rid of fear? In looking at I John, chapter 4, we read, "There is no fear in love, and perfect love casts out fear."

So where do we find that perfect love? We find that perfect love in God. And where do we find God? We find God’s presence within us, don’t we? And the nature of God within us is love, and our true nature is love.

So when we find God’s presence within us, we find love. And that love, that perfect love, casts out all fear. So if we get caught up in fear through looking at the outer activity all we have to do is to turn to that perfect love within us, which then casts out fear.

When we get caught up in fear we often make our predictions come true. It’s like the man who started a hot-dog stand. He loved to
cook hot-dogs. He created a stand on the side of the road, and he would call out to people passing by, "Come over here and have a hot-dog; these are great hot-dogs. Just taste one, they’re wonderful!"

And before long there were crowds of people coming and he had to expand his business, order more hot-dog buns and more meat. He thought, "Well, I better get a new oven." He got a new oven. Then he thought, "I’ll get my son out of college to come and help me." So he got his son out of college. Now this man, he loved to cook hot-dogs but he wasn’t able to see too well and so he didn’t have a television or read the newspaper. His hearing wasn’t too good, so he didn’t have a radio. But he knew how to cook good hot-dogs.

His son came and said to his father, "Look, Dad, you’re doing all this, but don’t you know that we’re in a big depression? You can’t be expanding in a depression like this, you must have heard about it. I know you don’t have a television or radio and you don’t read the newspaper, but surely you know we’re in a depression."

The man thought, "Well, my son’s educated. He goes to college, he watches television, listens to the radio, and he reads the newspapers. He must know what’s going on, so I’d better cut back." So he began to cut back, and he no longer called out to people to come and taste his hot-dogs. It seemed like all of a sudden things began to decline. He looked around, looked at his business, and he looked at his son. He said, "Son, you must be right. We are in a depression."

You see how often we let fear take over, and so let those predictions come true in our lives. But we can turn to the Spirit within, the source of love and faith, and begin to put it to work – you see, God is love but God is the love expressed through you in the activity of the expression of love.

The power of love and faith work, and they work together; but they work when you work it. The power works when you work it. So I encourage you to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

God is blessing you, right now.

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

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