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Spiritual facts, spiritual healing

From the November 1986 issue of The Christian Science Journal


Getting the facts straight about any situation is important. To a child at bedtime who is afraid of the dark, it can mean the difference between going to sleep in peace or fear. To a judge deliberating on a criminal case, it can make the difference between sentencing or acquitting an innocent person.

When we find out the truth about something, the facts don't change. But our perception of the situation changes, and this naturally affects us. Fears are laid to rest; intelligent, wise decisions are reached; mistakes are corrected. And even though appearances often contradict the truth, once we've got the facts we judge things according to the way they really are, not as they seem.

When the child discovers that the grisly creatures he feared at night are only shadows, not realities, then his knowledge of things as they are saves him from the fear of things as they appear. He knows he's not in any danger and never was. What a relief!

What an even greater relief it is to find out the spiritual facts—the truth of being in divine Science! To one struggling with sickness, nothing can compare with the liberating, healing joy of knowing, really knowing, the truth—seeing through matter's pretense of reality to the fact that God is the only power and presence, and that man is not a defective mortal but the perfect spiritual likeness of divine Love.

What we see or experience through the physical senses can seem undeniably true at times, especially in the case of disease. But through the teachings of Christian Science we learn that all material evidence is actually a deception, never bona fide reality. Material evidence testifies to the impossible—the belief that omnipresent Spirit could be absent. So how should we deal with it? Just as we would with any other deception—by understanding the facts.

True to prophecy, Christ Jesus did "not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears." Isa. 11:3. The Master judged from the standpoint of spiritual sense. So should we, because when we understand man as the spiritual idea of God and hold our ground with conviction, this eliminates the disease-producing belief that life is just a variable and vulnerable mass of flesh. As our thinking is transformed by Christ, Truth, we see things as they really are, and the natural outcome of this regeneration and changed perspective is healing.

If it appears as though disease has got a hold in our own or another's life, let us appeal to divine Truth so we can discern what is really going on. Bearing in mind the fraudulence of material appearances, we can challenge the physical evidence and turn in prayer to God, divine Mind, to perceive the metaphysical facts. And through Christ, Truth, comes the reassurance that God's man has never for an instant been violated by disease. Man's life is safely intact in Spirit. As the Bible promises, "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it." Eccl. 3:14. The fact is that all is well with man, God's image and likeness. It always has been. It always will be.

This timeless good news of the Christ comes to each one of us even now, mercifully speaking of man's innate innocence and spirituality, preserved through his sacred union with God. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive." Science and Health, p. 463.

Think of it! Right now the fact is that you and I, in our true nature as man, God's cherished spiritual idea, have "not a single element of error," in any form or to any degree. Not a mild ailment or a so-called serious one. Not a chronic or acute problem. No aches and pains, no fear, and no unpleasant dispositional traits or hidden sin that could lead to disease.

Despite appearances and universal belief to the contrary, God's man is not a material organism that can become the breeding ground—or battleground—for disease. He is the perfect, incorporeal likeness of divine Love. How, then, can he have any infection, inflammation, congestion, or decay? It isn't possible, because real individuality expresses the ordered, harmonious action of divine Principle, God.

In divine Science, man possesses, by reflection, infinite good, and this includes health. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand," John 3:35. said the Master.

On the human scene good and evil, health and sickness, seem to commingle. But as we consciously identify ourselves with the Christ-idea, welcome it into our hearts and demonstrate it in our lives, we bear witness, through healing, to the fact that an understanding of man's uncontaminated spiritual identity meets the human need by removing "properly whatever is offensive."

Now, just what is it that's offensive and needs removal? Is it some form of matter? A tumor? An infection? A chemical imbalance? Is it a diseased condition —or a belief in a diseased condition?

Let's return for a moment to the analogy of the child in the dark. In his case, what needs to be removed? Monsters? Ghosts? Ferocious beasts? Obviously not. The problem is not these things, but his belief in them. He has made a mistake in judgment, based on appearances. Once he finds out the facts, though, both the belief and its effects are eliminated.

Similarly, in the case of disease (and, for that matter, any discord) what needs to be removed is not a material condition or circumstance. Disease is not solid substance; it's but a shadow in a dark corner of human consciousness. It is a disturbed image in supposititious mortal thought—specifically, the offensive misconception that an idea of God can have an element of error in any form. So disease is a belief that needs elimination, not an actual condition.

And how do we remove this belief? By becoming thoroughly conscious of the presence of Christ, Truth. Science and Health explains, "Tumors, ulcers, tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are waking dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which flee before the light of Truth." Science and Health, p. 418.

Being is already error-free; disease is already an impotent, placeless nonentity. And we need to understand these facts if we would find healing. Still, it is important to remember that our realization of the truth doesn't make it true. It doesn't change reality, any more than the child's discovery that there aren't any monsters in his room makes the monsters go away. It only makes apparent to human consciousness that which already is.

If, however, we find ourselves "knowing" the truth, then checking the body to see if anything is improved, this is a clue that we're not yet really convinced of the facts and therefore not really living in accord with them. We're not knowing, we're merely stating, that man is spiritual and perfect, while at the same time retaining belief in the power and existence of disease. In other words, we still believe there is an element of error lodged in being. As a result, our treatment will tend to seem labored. We're likely to feel frustrated and wonder why our prayers haven't "worked."

The point is, once we're sure of the facts, we don't need to check anxiously with the body to confirm them. As declaration becomes conviction, our prayers come alive with joy, gratitude, and fearlessness. Then, as the problem is thoroughly removed from our concept of ourselves, it's also eliminated from the body, the outcome of this concept.

Some friends proved this recently when their son fell off his bicycle and a stone from the pavement became imbedded in his knee. The leg was cleaned, but the parents' efforts to remove the stone were futile. As Christian Scientists, the family had always turned to God for healing, and it was natural for them to do so in this instance. They began to pray for the youngster, and they asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray for the boy and for them.

During the week before this incident, the practitioner had been giving prayerful thought to Mrs. Eddy's statement, mentioned earlier, that "a spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive." Clearly, here was an opportunity to prove this, for the case at hand declared just the opposite: that man is material, therefore fragile, vulnerable, and penetrable by a potentially harmful element. The parents and the practitioner agreed that prayer in Christian Science is based on the truth that real substance is Spirit and always pure. This basis necessitates ruling out of thought the specific offensive belief that anyone could be or have anything less than good.

A couple of days went by. The boy could move around normally and comfortably, for which everyone was thankful. But the stone was still there. Going beyond this material appearance wasn't easy. Yet my friends knew it was essential to stick with the spiritual facts and not back down from what they knew in their hearts was the truth.

They realized that the fundamental need was to discern the child's blameless Christly selfhood more clearly than ever before. So they faithfully continued to pray and give thanks to God that purity was already an established fact. As they did this, fears of infection and concern about the ultimate outcome of the situation vanished completely. There was a happy, expectant sense in the home. About a week later, much to the child's exuberant delight, the stone simply came out painlessly while he was taking a bath. The knee soon healed properly and completely.

The spiritual facts of being are true right now. And they're true about you. Are you ready and willing to accept them, to identify yourself wholeheartedly with the pure Christ-idea? If so, the joy of spiritual healing is yours this very day.

More In This Issue / November 1986

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