Spiritual Solutions

The words, “In God We Trust” are emblazoned on every bill of whatever denomination of dollar it might be, but do we really trust in God or do we put our trust in the dollar itself to determine how we view our life experience?

Let me share with you some insight into the early years of the Unity movement revealed in the book Letters of Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, as she responded to letters she had received, just to show what it really means to trust in God.

“You may never have suspected it, but this Unity work is a dream that has been nurtured and built from the invisible to the concrete through love and devotion and good hard work. It may never have occurred to you that my husband and I have put ourselves into this thing which God has given us to do, year after year, without personal returns beyond our ‘daily bread’ and clothing. I work here in the Unity buildings every day, and receive a salary, just as several hundred other workers do. I think a very capable business man or woman would not consider working for that salary. But it meets my personal needs; and usually I have a little each week with which to do what my heart prompts. . . .

“I smiled as I read of the state of your finances. I think I’ll tell you a little about mine! You know I am on a salary, just as the other Unity folks are. And sometimes I have a very definite place for all my allowance, before I even begin on my own individual needs. Sometimes I am obliged to draw upon the Fillmore account in order to do something I feel to be important. Usually when I find myself “strapped,” someone who doesn’t know the facts will send me a love gift. Last week I handed out just about all I could get my hands on and was looking for more, because I had places for it. This morning a letter came from a woman to whom I have written a few times, but whom I haven’t seen, in which there was a check for me for two hundred dollars. No particular apparent reason for her sending it; but evidently she and the Lord were aware of my use of money and replenished my purse in that happy way. So the money I had sent forth came back multiplied; I can replace the amount I drew out and still have plenty of “pin money” left.”

It is evident that Myrtle and her husband, Charles, had deep roots in the spiritual principles of faith and trust. What about you? Your faith and trust determine what your world is as far as you are concerned; whether you will make the most of circumstances and release the most of your potential. Without deep roots we merely exist; our lives are shallow. Unless deeply rooted in spiritual principles, we do not and cannot develop into individuals of stature and worth, such as we are intended to be.

George Elliot once said that no human being can live a whole and wholesome life unless rooted to some particular spot in the soil. The spot of soil we allude to also means for us a working philosophy, an orientation of spiritual principles without which we lead superficial lives with only surface roots; and the winds of worldly experience easily bowl us over.

There are two aspects to every strong life, rootage and fruitage, receptivity and activity, relaxation and tension, leaning back and moving forward. But he or she who cannot do one cannot do the other very well. He or she who is unable to rest cannot work effectively either. He or she who cannot let go cannot hold on very firmly. He or she who cannot find footing cannot progress. If one cannot let go, one has nothing substantial to rest on; one hasn’t grown dependable roots and doesn’t know how to surrender, to “let go and let God,” letting go of imaginary boundaries and allowing a greater flow of God’s good. This ability to “let go and let God” creates greater clarity of all that is already ours and who we really are in Truth.

With strong roots you can withstand any wind; and this is what we are urging – building an awareness of your inner resources, an awareness of your divine son-ship, the Christ in you.

Faith and trust go hand in hand; they are not “blind” but are deeply rooted in a conscious awareness of the activity of God within. With trust we become open to all the possibilities available to us in any particular moment and we have a willingness to take the steps needed to change our current life experience. Not only that, but we have the courage to move beyond what we previously thought was possible and we develop a sense of certainty that everything will work out fine even though we may not have proof at this time. Just as Myrtle Fillmore found, we are provided for from within; and this consciousness brings a profound feeling of safety and security even in the midst of adverse circumstances.

I firmly believe that when we accept the idea that we are plenteously provided for from within, and also act as if this were true, something happens . . . the taproot begins to grow, so to speak, and the entire experience begins to unfold. In that consciousness we never know lack, we never feel insecurity, we are never helpless. We are rather like the one described by the Psalmist, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Ps. 1:3)

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine 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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Today, Thursday, April 14, is the thirty-second day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
 
Assignment 32
 
God is all, the only power and presence in the universe. It is the invisible essence in and through and back of all activity. God is Spirit, spirit is breath and life and movement. God being all, fills all, fills man! Each person must reconcile his or her outer expression with this great Truth.
 
In proportion that we understand and come into full awareness of our relationship with the power back of us, that sustains us, and is each one of us, shall we have dominion and authority in life. The dominion and authority is not a personal thing but the result in us of abandonment, which is a release that comes when man is aware of his at-one-ment. Atonement is concord, reconciliation, in Truth it is unity, to be unified.
 
All disorder and discord in life is the direct result of a sense of separation from the power that gives us purpose for being. Man never fell, his creation is spiritual, he is just as spiritual today as he ever was or ever will be, but he must be alive to and aware of his own background and relationship to the Almighty. We can no longer think of ourselves as a single being but move in unison with the great universal presence. We must know we are perfect potential proving God.
 
Don’t try to understand it . . . accept it, you cannot help it. Relax, move, and be eager for life! You are an instrument of God instructed from within. Things may be disturbing or disconcerting but it is the order and balance of the universal plan. You look at your life and judging from the limitations of human sense, you say, “It is too bad, too late.” There is a greater law; look up from the contemplation of your little problem to your Oneness with God.
 
You are not just flesh and blood, not just body and brains, not hemmed in by the restrictions of a little thing you call “my life.” You have unknown possibilities. You are the executive power of God, and only through willing co-operation can the power come through. Atonement, the reconciliation of God and man, is happening to us all right now.
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
                                                 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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Today, Wednesday, March 23, is the thirteenth day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 

Assignment 13
 
Everything in our universe is under Law, comes forth by Law. The seed in the earth, the embryo in the womb, are workings of Law. There must be conception, gestation, and delivery, or no human form would come forth.
 
Yet man excludes his life from this Law and order. He feels life is a haphazard, “time and tide” affair – and he is filled with uncertainty and insecurity. Man believes outside happenings control his life and body. We must know the Law of life is certain. We were not created to be battered and rejected.
 
God is the name man has given to the unseen power and authority back of all creation. Man’s power and protection come from comprehending this indwelling Spirit. First man must accept it as a possible Truth in his human mind, and then comes the overwhelming testimony of his own heart and being that cannot be denied. Knowing is the unquestioned assent of man’s innermost self!
 
The Truth is so simple: there is One Supreme Power in the universe, God! We all admit the One Power, though we may call it by many names. The scientist may call it Source, First Cause, but the religionist calls it God. No matter what it is called, it is the Law of the Universe; out of it all things are formed.
 
“There is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God.” (Romans 13:1)
 
Let us put it into simple childlike words. God is the unseen power back of and supporting all that is seen. If God is everywhere present, there is no place where God left off and you began, no place where you the human, less than perfect, began and God the Perfect left off. This means the two are One! You in God and God in you . . . Unity!
 
“God, there is none else!” (Isaiah 45:6) You bring forth everything through the action of your mind coupled with the great feeling with which you imbue it. Just think about it . . . then think about it some more! Keep thinking!! God is the fulfilling of the Law.
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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When I think of healing I my thoughts go the example of Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, and her experience of healing.

She had been told that she had tuberculosis, which was then considered an incurable disease. She was given just six months to live. Her husband, a Kansas City realtor, took her to attend a metaphysical lecture. At that time, the Fillmores knew nothing about the power of thought to heal, but were desperately willing to consider any constructive technique that might restore health.

At the lecture the speaker said, “You are a child of God; therefore, you do not inherit sickness.” This statement came as a revelation to Myrtle, who had been told she had probably inherited the tuberculosis, and led her to start thinking about her body in a different way. In the pamphlet, How I Found Health, Mrs. Fillmore said, “I have made what seems to me a discovery. I was fearfully sick; I had all the ills of mind and body that I could bear. Medicine and doctors had ceased to give me relief, and I was in despair when I found practical Christianity. I took it up and I was healed. I did most of the healing myself, because I wanted the understanding for future use.”

She said she was thinking about life, and she was led to this realization: “Life is simply a form of energy, and has to be guided and directed in man’s body by his intelligence. How do we communicate with intelligence? By thinking and talking, of course. Then it flashed upon me that I might talk to the life in every part of my body and have it do just what I wanted. I began to teach my body and got marvelous results. . . .

“I went to all the life centers in my body and spoke words of Truth to them – words of strength and power. I asked their forgiveness for the foolish, ignorant course that I had pursued in the past when I had condemned them and called them weak, inefficient, and diseased. I did not become discouraged at their being slow to wake up, but kept right on, both silently and aloud, declaring the words of Truth, until the organs responded.”

Her health improved, and within two years Myrtle Fillmore was completely well. She lived another forty happy, active, years.
In Letters of Myrtle Fillmore, responding to her correspondents she wrote:

“First of all, in seeking a way to health we need to see clearly that God is omnipresent, as omnipresent as the very life in which we live and move and have our being; as the very substance out of which our body is formed and nourished; as the very intelligence that is within us, in every nerve and brain cell and structure of the body; as the very love that draws together and holds in perfect harmony (if we will only allow it) all the elements of our being; as the very light that radiates through us to bless and help others, the light that enables us to understand ourselves and others and all God’s creation, so that we may always think the Truth, the true state of all the creation.”

“In seeking the way to health we are to pray for an understanding of our oneness with God, to claim it. We are to study this relationship so that we may know how to lay hold of the abundant life and intelligence and substance and love of God, and build these into our soul and our body, that we may perfect our expression.”

“The way to healing is first of all to re-educate the mind and establish the Truth in all the faculties; then to see the reality of the body and its functions and to stamp every part with the perfect pattern, which is God-given and known as the Christ man, the out-picturing of the Christ ideas in individual consciousness; then to study the living habits and make them conform to the truth that good only is real and abiding and truly active.”

The power that heals is God. But what does that mean? The insight that is slowly being revealed through all the remarkable work being done in the various fields of experimentation is that the power that heals is the power of the whole. Back in the sixteenth century, Giordano Bruno had this realization: “Nature is a living unity of living units, in each of which the power of the whole is present.”

The activity of the whole is always seeking to bring wholeness to the part. It is the power that heals . . . and it is God; it is God as Spirit that is omnipresent as a process. The power that heals is always present as a dynamic Presence. The power that heals is the power of the whole within the person.

Father Symeon Burholt, master of novices at St. Mary’s Monastery, a Catholic contemporary community in Massachusetts, who has made study of the Greek fathers and C. G. Jung, says, “. . . the belief that God has overflowing life and energy is vital not only for a right understanding of God but also for knowing what it means to be a human being, since the human person is seen as made for participation in the divine energy. . . . We become and manifest who we really are to the extent that we realize our potentialities.” And “The world is radiant with God’s presence, with divine energy. He is dynamically present in all things as their creator and all things participate in the divine energy . . .”

Keep reminding yourself that the power that heals is the power of the whole that is present in every cell of your body. Take charge of your life by keeping control of your mind. Commit yourself every day to keeping your mind stayed on God, that power that heals that is always present.

The power that heals is within you, and it is always present, regardless of the appearance of things. The healing prayer is simply to acknowledge the power.

Remember, “Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily.” (Is. 58:8)

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

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When I was growing up in England, as a young boy I attended a Congregational church. My mother would sometimes go with me, while my dad stayed home and read the Sunday paper. But I would often go alone and I was struck with the fact that relatively few people attended the services. Yet, when I was walking home a mile or so up the hill from downtown I would pass a Catholic church along the way and there would inevitably be a crowd gathered outside visiting with one another. I thought that they must have great faith.

It was only later when I became friends with a young man from a Catholic family that I learned that, for them, it wasn’t an option; they had to go to church regularly.

As I look back over the years, I realize that I always had a longing or yearning within me for something that seemed just beyond my reach. As the poet Don Marquis said, “A fierce unrest seethes at the core of all existing things.” Then he followed it up with these words: “It was the eager wish to soar that gave the gods their wings.”

In an article titled The Path of Yearning found in the summer 2006 edition of the magazine Parabola, spiritual teacher Rabbi Marc Gafni said, “There is something lurking in our souls. It fills us with awe even as it fills us with terror. It strips away all of our pretenses even as it whispers to our greatness. It is the inconsolable longing that beats in the breast of every human being, burning sometimes bright and often dim in the recesses of the heart. It is the knowledge that ultimately this world with all of its dignity and majesty can never satisfy our ultimate longings. We possess a noble nostalgia for a reality that our conscious selves cannot describe and the cognitive mind cannot define. But we know with all of our being that it is there.”

In the same edition of Parabola, Omid Safi writes in All That is Between Them, “What we seek is found in our seeking. And therein is found the real secret of the mystical path. The treasure is mysteriously already here and now with us, but we don’t find it until we yearn for it. Blessed be this thirst, this yearning that leads us to the waters of life that already flow within . . .”

In the early sixties I was in my twenties studying and practicing the Kung-Fu discipline of martial arts in my free time. It was when taking a test for my black belt, defending against six attackers at the same time and doing it smoothly and easily, that I realized there must be something more in me or I wouldn’t be able to do that.

From that time I began to frequent Foyles bookstore in the West End of London every Saturday after my martial arts practice. I was looking for the source of that inner something. I breezed through subjects such as palmistry and astrology, and finally settled on a book called Concentration, by Mouni Sadhu, and began my study and practice of the exercises in the book.

Following that, I began to work with a book called Initiation into Hermetics, by Franz Bardon, which gave me ways to enhance my imaging and visualizing abilities. After eighteen months or so, I began delving deeply into both Eastern and Western mysticism and then began a correspondence course on the mystical Quabalah. I was still working on the course when I came to the United States in November of 1967 to a job with a typesetting company. I fell away from my studies for a while but then was brought up short (that’s another story!), realizing I needed to get back on my spiritual path.

It was then that I found Unity, and knew that I had “come home.” That same summer of 1969 I entered ministerial school at Unity Village (that’s another story too!).Among the examination questions was one which asked why I wanted to be a Unity minister. I remember that I answered it by saying I wanted to become a Unity minister because by doing so I would have to know more of God, and in so doing perhaps I could help others to also find God within them.

After all these years, has that “fierce unrest” abated? Or has my enthusiasm for Unity and its teaching of Truth principles diminished? The answer is “No” to both questions.

It is the inexorable law of the Universe in which everything must continually be growing, expanding, developing. It is a biological, mental, and spiritual impossibility for one to be “satisfied.”

Through an understanding of Truth we may develop a sense of contentment, which is simply a form of nonresistance. But in the words of St. Augustine, “Man is ever restless until his heart finds repose in God.”

God’s spiritual Creation is finished and complete, changeless and eternal. However, in the manifest, this Creation is a continuing activity. The directive force of this activity is what is sometimes called “the Will of God,” which is the ceaseless longing of the Creator to perfect Himself in that which is created. The Bible says, “It is not yet manifest what man shall be.” This is saying, “You are not finished yet!” You are an evolving spiritual being.

The human being is a growing, expanding, evolving dynamic life-idea, in the Infinite Mind of God. There can never be a limit to God. So it must follow that there can never be a limit to the human being in God-consciousness.

As Jeanne de Salzmann (1889-1990) wrote in her notebooks on The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff (in an excerpt published in the winter 2009 issue of Parabola): “We are seeking to approach the unknown, to open the door to what is hidden in us and pass beyond. It is necessary to submit entirely to an inner voice, to a feeling of the divine, of the sacred in us, but we can do it only in part. The sacred manifests as inner consciousness. The divine, God, must be found within. Truth, the only truth, is in consciousness.”

We are to fulfill our own uniqueness, or as the poet Robert Browning would say, to “open out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape.”

Jesus said it this way: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) But remember, as Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing” (John 5:30), yet “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13), and “. . . with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26)

We can delight in our longing and yearning, for it is an infallible sign of God’s Presence within us ever seeking greater expression.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Observing Lent The Unity Way

Unity believes that we can keep Lent best by denying ourselves not “things” but negative thoughts and feelings. And, through prayer and study, we can contemplate the victorious Christ and attempt to be more like Him.

Keep a True Lent contains material especially written by Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, to help you observe Lent in this way. You are invited to participate in these special lessons during the upcoming Lenten season, starting this week on Ash Wednesday and every day thereafter through Easter.

The word LENT comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring, which is derived from a verb meaning to lengthen. Lent comes in the spring when the days become noticeably longer.

This annual season of fasting, prayer, and penitence has been observed by the Western Church since the first century after Christ, although it has not always been forty days long. In more recent times it has been kept forty days, after the example of Moses and Elijah, and to commemorate the forty days of fasting and prayer that Jesus spent in the wilderness.

The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday from the custom that prevailed in the early Church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent, in token of repentance for sin.

Ash Wednesday comes forty-six days before Easter. There are six Sundays in Lent, and they are not considered part of Lent, because in the Western Church Sunday is always a feast day. The forty weekdays beginning with Ash Wednesday constitute Lent.

The fifth Sunday in Lent is known as Passion Sunday, because it marks the beginning of Passion-tide, the last two weeks of Lent. These two weeks specifically commemorate the Passion of Jesus, or His experiences following the Last Supper.

The last week of Lent is called Holy Week. It includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, commemorates Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem when the people strewed palms in His way.

Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, is a corruption of the Latin word mandati meaning “of the commandment,” and refers to the command “This do in remembrance of me” spoken by Jesus in regard to His breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine at the Last Supper. Maundy Thursday commemorates the event of the Last Supper.

Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, probably known originally as God’s Friday, commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.

Easter Day, of course, commemorates the Resurrection. The word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Eastre, the name of the Goddess of spring, in whose honor a festival was celebrated each April. Easter Day always comes on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after March 21. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter is the next Sunday. Easter can never fall earlier than March 22 nor later than April 25.

Lent is a season of spiritual growth, a time for progressive unfoldment. When we can blend and merge our mind with God-Mind, the way is open for the Lord to glorify us and to lift us into a higher, purer, more spiritual state.

“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” said Jesus. Truth students everywhere are invited to participate in our Lenten program. Christ is in our midst. Place all burdens on your indwelling Lord and enter the Lenten season expecting definite results.

Fasting means abstaining from; it is abstinence. The place of overcoming is in the consciousness of man. The forty-day fast is an all-round denial of sense demands. In fasting, we as metaphysicians abstain from error thinking and meditate on spiritual Truth until we incorporate it into the consciousness of oneness with the Father.

The desire to excel is in all men and women. It is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which ever urges us on through earth toward heaven. It should be encouraged and cultivated in the right direction.

As day after day we steadily adhere to our firm resolve to follow the steps outlined for the Lenten season, we discover that we are building on a firm foundation, and are mounting into a higher consciousness. We come to know that Christ is indeed with us and is resurrecting in us His realizations of light, life, and substance

How to Study

1. Before beginning your day-by-day study, we suggest you set aside a definite time for prayer and study when you are least likely to be interrupted.

2. Read each day’s assignment, beginning with Ash Wednesday.

3. Read the Bible reference given at the beginning of each day’s lesson.

4. Answer the questions concerning what you have read.

5. Use the meditation given in the Study Guide.

6. Put the principles of these lessons to work in your life.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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