This Thing Called You, Chapter 7

This Thing Called You, Chapter 7

Your faith can penetrate clouds of unbelief and reveal the Truth which is forever perfect. Your words do not create this Truth, they merely reveal It. By way of illustration, imagine yourself looking at the picture of a beautiful landscape. In this picture there are trees, a house, a stream of water, a beautiful meadow, and in the background mountains and a blue sky, dotted with clouds. 

You look at it long, contemplating its beauty. Now, suppose that a colored glass is placed between you and the picture so that the picture appears blurred. Everything seems distorted and yet nothing has happened to the picture. It is your business to remove the colored glass. 

Because the picture is still there on the wall, it still may be seen. Mental statements are merely a method you use for the clearing up of mental images. Neither affirmations, denials nor statements create the pattern of perfection, nor can they change it. They merely rearrange your thinking. If you could rearrange your thinking instantly, you would have an instantaneous result. If it takes time, do not become discouraged for you are working with a definite Principle which cannot fail you. 

Your desire for self-expression is inherent in the Divine Pattern itself, and it is because you intuitively feel this Pattern that you grope back toward it. Learn to trust the intuition within you, which causes you to sense the Pattern.

There is a stream of Life running into every organ and function of your being. This stream is always there. It never stops for a second. If it did, the universe would cease to exist. Inexhaustible energy exists at the center of your being. Therefore, learn to live without effort. Activity is the joy of life flowing through you. 

Since no two persons are alike there must be a unique place for you in the scheme of things. The Divine Pattern would be imperfect without you. Dare to be yourself. Stand in wonder before the majesty and might, the beauty and power of that Divine Presence which seeks expression through your individual life. Accept all the good there is. Whatever things you desire, believe that you have them.

There should be a definiteness in your mental attitude, but no sense of coercion.  There should be a one-pointedness without any attempt at concentration, a definite direction without trying to force anything. There should be a positive decision without compulsion. If there is any doubt in your mind as to whether or not God or Life wishes you to have the best, ask yourself: Could God, who is freedom, conceive restriction? Could God, who is limitless, conceive lack, want, limitation or bondage? 

Could God, who is perfect life, conceive anything that limits the joy of living? If God wills death, then God is not Life. If God wills lack, then God is limited. If God's will operates against peace, then God is confused. Nothing rewards or punishes you but the immutable law of cause and effect. There is no good which you cannot experience provided you first embody that good. There is no joy which you cannot reach provided you first clear your consciousness of anything which would limit this joy in yourself or in others. Expect, accept, and you shall receive. 

The Will of God for you is the will of a boundless life, flowing through you. It is the will of joy, of success, of happiness, of peace, of abundance. It is the will of the Kingdom of Heaven, not absent from this earth, but imperfectly seen. You cannot build happiness or sanity on the proposition that God wills evil, that there is a devil, a hell or a future punishment. The Law of cause and effect works at all times as absolute justice. While you would harm others you can be hurt yourself. While you withhold good you can have an equal amount of good withheld from you. 

The ceaseless human struggle for liberty is an attempt to rise above the limitations which the consciousness of man knows to be false. Every scientific discovery is proof that limitation is not ordained by the laws of your being. The limitation of locomotion and travel in ox cart days was not imposed by Divine fiat. It was imposed by ignorance. 

When the Prodigal was in a far country, destitute, nothing had happened to the Divine Abundance. The Father's house had not been dismantled. The celestial garden still produced the fruit of the vine. But the son's face was turned, his eyes were closed, his ears were stopped, his consciousness was numbed. He had to come to himself. In coming to himself, he met, face to face, the heavenly Presence which pervades all. He was enfolded in the arms of love. A banquet was spread before him in his wilderness. There was feasting, enjoyment, reconciliation. 

Where had God been all this time? God had not been anywhere. The Divine is always present and appears wherever recognized. As you enter more completely into conscious union with Life, you will realize that the universe holds as much good for you as you can take, that you can take only what you give. 

You cannot draw love into your consciousness through hate. You cannot draw peace from confusion. You cannot see beauty through ugliness, nor hear harmony while your ears are filled with discord.

You rob no person when you discover your own good. You limit no person when you express a greater degree of livingness. You harm no one by being happy. You steal from no one by being prosperous. You hinder no person's evolution when you consciously enter into the kingdom of your good and possess it today. 

Your thought, operating through the Law of Life, can meet your need, convert fear into faith, loss into gain, failure into success. Act as though you already had dominion over evil. Refuse to entertain images of fear. Know that good is the only power there is. Believe that you are governed by Divine Intelligence, that you are directed by Divine Guidance. Know that everything you say, think or do that is constructive, is done through Divine Authority. Know that the freedom which already exists in the Mind of God belongs to you and now manifests through you.

The consciousness that God is in and through everything will enable you better to see perfection and harmony in people and affairs. Know that the Spirit is right where you are. It is the very essence of your being. It is at the center as well as at the circumference of your life. Learn to sense this Divine Presence in every thought and act. Let the warmth and color of this Presence permeate your entire consciousness. 

Let your thought be filled with an atmosphere of helpfulness, of life, of givingness and of peace. Know that the doorway of opportunity is never closed. Know that experience opens up before you like a blossoming flower. Live in continuous, joyous anticipation. 

It might come as a surprise to many if, when they say; "My poor head!" "My poor back!" or "My poor circulation!" you were to tell them they are actually using a creative law in a negative way. The laws of mind do not work in one instance while refusing to operate in another. Every time you think, you are using the Law of Mind. How careful, then, you should be to think constructively.

Mental laws are as real as physical laws, reproducing physical laws in the mental realm. The use of your creative power is as natural as the use of electricity, but there is not as much known about it. Many think it is something delivered only to a few by special edict. Fortunately, this is not the case. 

When the Spirit thinks, knows or wills, a law is set in motion which projects and governs what It thinks, knows and wills. Since God is always in harmony with Himself and knows only that which is good, then God thinks only that which is good. Since God thinks everything into being, there must be a perfect pattern at the center of everything. Your individual world is a unique and individualized representation of the whole universe, following the same laws, governed by the same principle, and stimulated by the same mind

It is because the Law of Life is at the center of your being that your thought is creative. The Law of God acting through you makes your thought creative. It takes the form of your thought and reacts to your word exactly as you think it. Your individual use of this Law becomes the law of your individual being. While this is one of the most profound concepts ever believed in, it is also one of the simplest. Instead of having an individual creative mind, you really have an individual or personal use of a Law which is infinite. Through this Law you can bring things to you from the uttermost parts of the earth. 

The Mind Principle around you is reactive to your thought. Its chief characteristic is Its susceptibility to impression. It receives the slightest vibration of thought and acts upon it. Since this Law acts like a mirror, when you withdraw old images of thought and place new ones in front of this mirror of Mind, the old reflections or conditions cease to exist and the new ones take their places. But if you only half withdraw the old images and only half create new ones, your experience will partake of the nature of both kinds of thought. 

This Thing called You, Chapter 7,

Ernest Holmes