The Power of Oneself. Charles Fillmore
beginning His kingdom was a very small affair, and the wise and the mighty laughed to scorn the proclamation that He was a king. Yet He was every inch a king. His people have been slow to follow the laws that He promulgated for His kingdom, but men in every walk of life are beginning to comprehend the vital integrity of His edicts, they are seeing that there can be no permanent peace or even civilization on earth until the Golden Rule, laid down by Him, is adopted by nations in commercial and in all other relationships. Businessmen are teaching the precept of Jesus, "All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them," as fundamental in commercial success. Everywhere we hear them talking co-operation instead of competition. Commercial seers are discerning the dawn of a new day, in which good service instead of big profits will be the goal. Here we see the coming of the Christ "as a thief in the night." The night of ignorance and destructive competition is being burned out.
It follows that every kind of human industry must be carried forward by a power that recognizes the divine law. Man is the power of God in action. To man is given the highest power in the universe, the conscious power of thought. There is a universal creative force that urges man forward to a recognition of the creative power of his individual thought. This force is elemental, and all its attributes come under the dominion of man. When he co-operates with divine principle, man sits on the throne of his authority and the elemental force is subject to him.
But the power and the authority that are to rule in the kingdom of heaven are dependent on man's authority and his rule in the earth. Jesus said to Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." If man binds or controls the appetites, passions, and emotions in the body (earth), he establishes ability and power to control the same forces in the realms universal, out of which the heavens are formed. When he attains a freedom in the expression of the qualities inherent in soul and body, he expands in power and can set free the elements universal and restore equilibrium between heaven and earth, or Spirit and matter.
When enough people have attained this power, the "new heaven and . . . new earth" (described in the 21st chapter of Revelation) will appear. It will not be necessary for anyone to wait for the full complement of overcomers, the mystical 144,000 who are to rule the new world, but each individual who complies with the overcoming law may enter into power with Jesus. It should not be overlooked by the elect that the Scripture reads: "He that overcometh shall inherit these things." To overcome and sit with Jesus on His throne means that man must overcome as He overcame. Jesus overcame the world, the flesh, and the Devil. To overcome the world one must be proof against all its allurements of riches and honor. To overcome the flesh one must spiritualize the five-sense man until material consciousness is raised to spiritual consciousness in feeling, tasting, seeing, hearing, and smelling. This change will ultimate in man's complete mastery of the body and in its final redemption from death.
The Devil is the personal ego who has in his freedom formed a state of consciousness peculiarly his own. When man lives wholly in the consciousness that personality has built up, he is ruled by the carnal mind, which is the Adversary, or Satan. In the mystery of the cross is hidden the overcoming of Satan. The crucifixion of Jesus is the symbolical representation of the crossing out (destruction) of the carnal mind (Satan) in the redeemed man's consciousness. Christ was not killed on the cross, neither was the body of Jesus destroyed. The "ghost" that Jesus gave up with His last breath was mortality. It was the personal, mortal consciousness that cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (The god should be spelled with a small g.) The personal-concept God fails to save its worshiper.
When the I AM identity, which is man, becomes so involved in its personal affairs that it ignores God, I AM lays hold of the body and rules all the bodily functions. When this rule is broken by the power of the Christ or supermind, there is a crucifixion. It may seem that Jesus is being crucified, but this is seeming only. Death comes to the Judas consciousness, which "hath a devil" (A.V.), but the body, being closely connected with this usurping mind, passes through suffering and apparent death. This is no more than appearance, because the higher principle, the Christ, resurrects the body and transmutes it into higher spiritual substance, where it enters into harmony or heaven. The climax of man's power and dominion is set forth in the resurrection and ascension of the type man, Jesus.
Chapter VII
The Work of the Imagination in Regeneration
WHEN THE faculties of the mind are understood in their threefold relation--spirit, soul, body--it will be found that every form and shape originated in the imagination. It is through the imagination that the formless takes form. It is well known that the artist sees in mind every picture that he puts on canvas. Man and the universe are a series of pictures in the Mind of Being. God made man in His image and likeness. Man, in his turn, is continually making and sending forth into his mind, his body, and the world about him living thought forms embodied and indued with his whole character. These images are formed in the front brain, and clothed with substance and life drawn from subcenters in the body.
Very intellectual people, concentrating the intensity of their thought in the head, fail to connect with the substance, life, and love centers in the body, and their work, although it may be very brilliant, lacks what we term "soul." The thought creations of this type seldom live long. Where the thought form and its substance are evenly balanced, the projected idea endures indefinitely. Jesus was a man thoroughly conversant with this law, and every idea that He clothed has lived and grown in wisdom and power in the minds of those who make union with Him in faith and spiritual understanding. He said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."
Among the apostles, Bartholomew represents the imagination. He is called Nathanael in the 1st chapter of John, where it is recorded that Jesus saw him under the fig tree--the inference being that Jesus discerned Nathanael's presence before the latter came into visibility. This would indicate that images of people and things are projected into the imaging chamber of the mind and that by giving them attention one can understand their relation to outer things. Mind readers, clairvoyants, and dreamers have developed this capacity to varying degree. Where consciousness is primary in soul unfoldment there is confusion, because of lack of understanding of the fundamental law of mind action. Forms are always manifestations of ideas. One who understands this can interpret the symbols shown to him in dreams and visions, but lack of understanding of this law makes one a psychic without power. Joseph was an interpreter because he sought the one creative Mind for guidance. "And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace." When Pharaoh told him the dream about the fat kine and the lean kine, Joseph at once gave the real meaning of the dream; he understood the metaphysical law. The early Christians had understanding of this law. The same law is in existence today and can be used more effectually by us, the reincarnated followers of Jesus, because mind and its modes of action are now better understood.
The Spirit of truth projects into the chamber of imagery pictures that, rightly understood, will be a sure guide for all people who believe in the omnipresence of mind. Everybody dreams, but the great majority do not attempt to interpret the handwriting on the wall of the mind, or they take their dreams literally and, because the dreams do not come true, consider them foolish. Through ignorance of the law with which imagination works, man has made imagination a byword. We look upon imaginary things as trivial, yet we know that through the imagination we can produce wonderful changes in the body. Studying this law, we find that the character of both soul and body is determined by the imagination and its associated faculties. Paul referred to this power of the imagination when he wrote:
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
There has been much speculation about the method that Jesus used to impart spiritual understanding to His apostles and other early Christians, who were wonderfully illumined. It is true that the Twelve apostles had His personal instruction, but it was apparently preparatory only; the thorough training was to follow. Jesus promised that the Spirit of truth