Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for October 26, 2008
The Jesus Christ Presence
Today we are talking about The Jesus Christ Presence. The more you know about Jesus Christ and what he did and what he taught - the more you will know that someone has gone before you to lead the way. It is comforting and reassuring to realize that no matter what road you take on your spiritual journey, there will be markers to let you know you are not lost.
Jesus Christ, the Way-Shower, has clearly blazed a trail for you. His teachings serve as guideposts as you encounter what you feel may be bewildering obstacles (such as relationship problems, loss of a job, addictions, ill health) along the path. His teachings will not only keep you heading in the right directions, they will arm you with powerful weapons with which to make progress.
Elizabeth Sand Turner wrote in the book Your Hope of Glory, "Jesus did not need to say that He was the Messiah to John the Baptist. His works bore witness of Him." He knew John would understand that only a divine power which moved through Him could enable Him to perform the miracles that had been accomplished. If in our moments of perplexity we will be still, we will receive confirmation from Christ that He is truly our (2 Cor. 9:8) "every blessing in abundance." Each one of us has felt the Christ presence. We have seen evidences of His healing power. Yet now and then we need the reassurance that He is with us and that His work is being done
Moving onward in your quest for transformation, you will discover Jesus’ teachings ever waiting for you, like familiar ribbons tied to trees, letting you know you are on the right trail and leading you higher and higher in your awareness of God.
The teachings of your Master Trailblazer about the nature of God and the kingdom of heaven as well as His principles of healing and love have been thoughtfully and lovingly placed before you, so that you will always know you are not alone.
LIFESAVING REVELATIONS
The teachings of Jesus Christ stand on their own. Without any involvement with Him personally, they are entirely sufficient to help you be the person you were created to be. In fact, His teachings can (and were meant to) transform the entire world. That was, and is, their purpose: to bring to all humanity the news that we are part of God and that God’s desire for each of us is absolute good.
In your personal spiritual journey you yourself are making the same discoveries that Jesus made, and you are, no doubt, having the exhilarating experience of realizing your life is getting better and better all the time. More than ever before, you are able to handle whatever is yours to handle, as you increasingly understand that you have a power within you which makes all things possible. To be sure, the teachings of Jesus Christ are, in a very real sense, lifesaving, "miracle-working" revelations. We have sincere gratitude for them and for Him for sharing His quest with us.
The Jews reminded Jesus that He was not yet fifty years of age, and they refused to believe that He had seen Abraham. Jesus replied, (John 8:58) "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am."
Jesus was speaking from the plane of the Christ, the everlasting self of man, without beginning and without end. The Christ had existed before man came into being and will exist throughout the eons of time. He is spiritual man, created in God's image and likeness. Jesus knew Himself to be one with Christ, and He declared His eternal livingness.
WHEN DID HE PASS THIS WAY?
Have you wondered, as you journeyed on your path, how long ago these teachings - these trail markings - were left there for you? How far ahead of you is the Master? Did He pass this way two thousand years ago to be gone forever and never to be seen or heard or felt again? If you were to stand completely still and barely breathe, might you hear His footsteps somewhere up ahead? Could He be waiting for you in a nearby glen, or will you come upon Him resting for a moment beside that stream beyond the trees? Or is He just around the next bend?
Not everyone who follows these universal teachings is interested in knowing the Teacher, but maybe you, like several others, desire to know Jesus Christ. Knowing His beautiful teachings, perhaps you now crave a personal relationship with Him who revealed them.
It’s very likely that the more you travel on your quest, the more this craving will grow, until one day you will see fresh footprints on the forest floor. Your heart will quicken as you pick up your pace. Is that the wind in the trees, or was it His voice whispering, "Come, follow me"?
Charles Fillmore writes in the book Mysteries of John, "The Christ is knocking at the door of every heart, and He will enter when He is invited to come in." The mind that is open to Truth invites Christ to enter.
HE MAKES HIS PRESENCE KNOWN
Just as you can have a personal experience of the Spirit of God, you can also have a personal experience of Jesus the Christ. Once again, this will not be an intellectual knowing. Rather it will be a mystical, indescribable perceiving. If you are sincere in your hunger to know the Master, call upon His name and ask Him to make His presence known to you.
In Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, Charles Fillmore writes, "Let us cease expecting Christ to come in bodily form; let us turn our attention to His risen body already with us. In this way we shall cooperate with Him in setting up the kingdom of the heavens on the earth."
The consciousness of Jesus Christ has never left our world. It is available to all who truly seek it, and by calling it forth, we gain access to all that Jesus Christ was and still is. We can establish a deep personal relationship with Him, a relationship which lifts us and imbues us with His own consciousness. The consciousness of Jesus Christ is the consciousness which never doubts God as the source of good, or humankind as heirs to that good.
Others have made an intimate connection with Jesus Christ. They have "felt His hand" upon their shoulders or spoken quietly with Him or seen His radiant features in their times of meditation.
BE MADE WHOLE
Charles Fillmore wrote in Jesus Christ Heals, "Jesus saw in Himself the perfect pattern of the God-Mind." He lived so close to that pattern that He became its perfect expression. As He continued to live closer and ever closer to God He beheld all men as living inventions of God, and through His spiritualized mentality awakened the image of the perfect pattern of the God-Mind in those who came to Him for help. And by arousing their souls' energy to such an extent that the physical became immersed in the healing life He enabled the perfect man to come into manifestation.
For example, when Jesus said in a loud voice to the spiritual man in the sleeping Lazarus who had been in the tomb four days, "Lazarus, come forth," the power of the Word in His voice aroused the spiritual man in Lazarus, who in turn awakened his soul to activity. Then the soul life in Lazarus resurrected and restored the seeming dead body, and Lazarus arose and walked out of the tomb.
The more enlightened man becomes the greater is his desire for perfect health. This is logical, for to be healthy is natural. It is a state of being sound or whole in mind, body, and soul. To heal then is to bring forth the perfect Christ man that exists within each of us.
There is quite a bit of misunderstanding on the part of both Christians and non-Christians with regard to the meaning of the words Christ and Jesus, and their use as applied to Jesus of Nazareth. Christ, meaning "messiah" or "anointed," designates one who had received a spiritual quickening from God, while Jesus is the name of the personality. To the metaphysical Christian--that is, to him who studies the spiritual man--Christ is the name of the super-mind and Jesus is the name of the personal consciousness.
The spiritual man is God's Son; the personal man is man's son. In the unregenerate God's Son is a mere potentiality. But in those who have begun the regenerative process Jesus, the Son of man, is in a state of becoming the Son of God; that is, man is being born again. At the time Jesus told Nicodemus, "Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God," He Himself was undergoing that mysterious unfoldment of the soul called the "new birth." He promised great power to those who followed Him in soul development. "You who have followed me, in the regeneration...shall sit upon twelve thrones."
The Christ or Son-of-God evolution of man's soul is plainly taught in the New Testament as the supreme attainment of every man. "For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God."
Without some evidence in us of the Christ man we are little better than animals. When through faith in the reality of things spiritual we begin soul evolution there is great rejoicing; "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
Christ existed long before Jesus. It was the Christ Mind in Jesus that exclaimed, "And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
We should clearly understand that the Christ, the spiritual man, spoke often through Jesus, the natural man; and then again the natural man, Jesus, spoke on His own account. Spiritual understanding reveals to us when it was that Christ spoke and when it was that Jesus spoke.
We know that Christ, the spiritual man, could not have experienced death, burial, and resurrection. The experiences were possible only to the mortal man, who was passing from the natural to the spiritual plane of consciousness. The Christ was present with Jesus, quickening and healing His body and finally raising it to the ethereal realm, where He exists to this day.
As Christ the Son of God became manifest in Jesus so He becomes manifest in us when we follow Him in the regeneration. "The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead...shall give life also to your mortal bodies."
But we must have faith in Spirit and through our thinking build it into our consciousness; then our bodies will be restored to harmony, health, and eternal life.
Jesus still lives in the spiritual ethers of this world and is in constant contact with those who raise their thoughts to Him in prayer. The promise was not an idle one that He would be with those who have faith in Him. "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. You heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you."
His body disappeared from our fleshly eyes because He raised it to its true place in the ether; but He can make His presence felt to anyone who looks to Him for help. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
If but two persons agree in their prayers and thoughts about Jesus Christ and His power to help, by sympathetic soul unity He instantly responds. "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven."
Jesus did not go to a faraway heaven, there to abide to the great day of His "Second Coming." He explained again and again, in language that anyone who has even a slight understanding of the interrelation of spirit, soul, and body may comprehend, that He would continue to exist in the etheric realm that He called "the heavens." He appeared after His crucifixion to five hundred at one time, and to many others: notably Paul, whom He converted by talking to him out of the ether. This all confirms His promise "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
How will the Master come to you? I cannot say, but can only tell you that if your heart is open to Him, if you are one of those who wish to make Jesus Christ your friend, or personal Lord, He will not disappoint.
Behold, He stands at the door. If you hear His voice and open the door, He will come in.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 9:8; John 8:58
REFERENCE: The Quest Richard & Mary-Alice Jafolla; Your Hope of Glory Elizabeth Sand Turner; Mysteries of John Charles Fillmore; Atom-Smashing Power of Mind Charles Fillmore; Jesus Christ Heals Charles Fillmore
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