Sunday Message for January 16, 2022

HAVE FAITH IN GOD

Let's start in prayer: Father, Mother, God; help me to open to all my faculties as we study faith this month. I know that God is the one thing I can trust. Help me to develop my faith in God and love God, myself, and all people. Amen.

This month we are looking at our faculty or power of FAITH. We want to be able to use our faith power constructively. Faith is a spiritual power, but it is not confined to religion. We use our faith faculty whenever we give mental attention to something. (Mark 11:22) Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God."^a

YOU HAVE FAITH RIGHT NOW AND ALWAYS
You have Faith right now and always. Faith is not something we get from religions, churches, or denominations. Faith can be expressed as religious beliefs, but Charles Fillmore worked with faith as the basic foundational power of our Twelve Powers. Faith is not something we have or don't have. We don't get some and then lose it. We have no choice in the matter. We have the faith power. We invest this faith power in various beliefs, trust, risks, fears, doubts, and convictions all the time. For example, I believe this roof will stay up or I would not be under it right now.

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET
What you see is what you get. Charles Fillmore said, "Faith is the perceiving power of the mind."^b Faith is in-sight or inner sight. Faith is our ability to look (perceive) with our mind, to give our mental attention to something. What is the opposite of faith? Is it fear? The opposite depends on how we use, focus, give our mental attention, or believe.

THE FOCUS OF FAITH MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
The focus of faith makes the difference. Jesus said, "Have faith in God." He obviously taught that we could have or place our faith focus elsewhere. Do we do that? We may say, "Sure, I believe in God." Then, do we invest most of our mental attention during the day and night in knowing only the one Presence and Power in our life, God-the-Good, Omnipotent? Or do we focus on lack, luck, limitation: "He hurt my feelings and I hate him"; "Nobody loves me or appreciates me"; "My country is always right"; "My race or gender or age is always against me." Where is my faith?

SAY "YES" TO GOD
Say "Yes" to God. Activate your faith power in the highest and most powerful way by saying "yes" to God-the-Good. Have faith that unlimited good is being manifested in your life. (Matthew 17:20)"...if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, ... nothing will be impossible for you."^c Faith is our ability to draw our good from the invisible into the visible realm. That's why we say, "You'll see it when you believe it."

SIMON PETER PORTRAYS FAITH
Charles Fillmore wrote that Simon Peter portrays Faith. According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Simon was the first disciple to be called by Jesus. Jesus gave Simon the name Peter which means "rock." Peter grew in his ability to perceive and to believe. He was able to say to Jesus, (Matthew 16:16) " "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."^d Jesus responded, (Matthew 16:18) "... you are Peter, ..."^e Jesus could have been saying to Simon Peter: "Through faith, you have perceived the truth of who I am. I want you also to see the truth of who you are. You are the Son of God, too! Say 'yes' to the truth about yourself." See it! Behold your true Self and all your innate powers.

When Jesus first met Peter, his name was Simon. Metaphysically, Simon means "hearing." And it signified his receptivity to Truth. Jesus changed his name to Peter, or Cephas, which is the Greek for the word "rock." And Peter represents strong, unwavering, enduring faith in God. This faith is a necessary foundation for the building up of spiritual consciousness, the church of Christ, within us.

Jesus says in (Matthew 16:18) " And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, ..."^f So on FAITH we build our spiritual consciousness.

Peter was one of the first disciples that Jesus called. Faith is one of the first spiritual faculties to be called into expression by everyone who would follow Jesus.

The main characteristic of Peter, before he is firmly established in spiritual consciousness, is changeableness. He is typical of the state of instability which goes from the highly spiritual to the material. Yet there is always that recurring desire for Spirit and for the things of Spirit, which will lead into the light.

Simon (hearing) represents the spiritual receptivity of the mind. Peter (stone, rock) represents the ability of the mind to lay hold of and establish ideas in consciousness.

(John 21:15-17) "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."{16} A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."{17} He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."^g

The spiritual meaning of Peter's repeated affirmations of love is that steadfastness of faith is developed through love. Peter wavered in his faith many times because he was not established in love. -which is the next faculty we will be discussing- Jesus had him affirm love three times, that is in spirit, soul, and body. Then he was prepared to serve - to "Feed my sheep."

Faith is the central faculty in the consciousness of a master. Jesus said that upon it He would build His church, or ecclesia, an aggregation of spiritual ideas.

If Peter had been allowed to continue to concentrate his energy on the limited ideas of the temporal world, would he ever have become more than a common fisherman? In other words, if your faith is never exercised on a higher ideal than the physical man manifests, will it ever become spiritually strong?

(Matthew 14:24-31) " ... the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.{25} And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.. {26} But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.{27} But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.". {28} Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."{29} He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. {30} But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"{31} Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"^h

To walk on the water of troubled thought without sinking requires the established faith of Jesus in the saving power of Spirit. Peter represents faith in its various stages of development.

The world is full of ambitious people who seem to have success before them. They start out bravely, but they disappear in the boisterous waves of adversity. If they could know the mighty power right at hand and could cry out with faith when they begin to sink, "Lord, save me!" they would be raised up and made superior to the seemingly adverse conditions around them.

Get really clear in your understanding that you are not the faith-thinker, Peter. You are Jesus; Peter is one of your twelve powers. Before this truth dawns on you - you are a carpenter, a builder in the realm of matter. Peter is a fisherman, one who draws his thoughts from the changeable, unstable sea of sense.

When you realize that you are Mind, and that all things are originally generated in the laboratory of Mind, you leave your carpenter's bench and go forth proclaiming the Truth that is revealed to you. You find that your tools in this new field of labor are your untrained faculties. One of the first of these faculties to be brought under your dominion is Peter, the thinking power.

You can see why this faith-thinker, Peter, is the foundation; why the faith faculty should be guarded, directed, and trained. His words are operative on many planes of consciousness, and he will bind you to conditions of servitude if you do not guard his acts closely.

Those who let their thinking faculty attach itself to the things of earth are limiting or binding their free ideas, or "heaven," and they thereby become slaves to hard, material conditions, gradually shutting out any desire for higher things.

Those who look right through the apparent hardships of earthly environments and persistently declare them not material, but spiritual, are loosing them in the ideal or "heaven," and such conditions must, through the creative power vested in the thinker, eventually rearrange themselves according to his word.

This is especially true of bodily conditions. If you allow Peter to speak of erroneous states of consciousness as true conditions you will be bound to them and you will suffer; but if you see to it that he pronounces them free from errors of sense, they will be "loosed."

(Matthew 26:33-34) " Peter said to him, "Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you." {34} Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."ⁱ

Until faith is thoroughly identified with the Christ you will find that the Peter faculty in you is a regular weathercock. It will in all sincerity affirm its allegiance to Spirit, and then in the hour of adversity will deny that it ever knew Spirit. This, however, is in its probationary period. When you have trained it to look to Christ for all things, under all circumstances, it becomes the staunchest defender of the faith.

It is necessary that you know the important place in your consciousness that this faculty, Peter, occupies! You are the free will, the directive ego, Jesus. You have the problem of life before you - the bringing forth of the Grand Man with His twelve powers.

This is your "church." You are the high priest without beginning of years or end of days, the alpha and the omega; but you cannot do what the Father has set before you, without disciplining your powers. Your thinking faculty is the first to be considered. It is the inlet and the outlet of all your ideas. It is always active, zealous, impulsive, but not always wise. Its nature is to think, and it will do that. If you are ignorant of your office - a prince in the house of David - and stand meekly by and let it think unsifted thoughts, your thinking faculty will prove an unruly servant and will produce all sorts of discord.

Its food is ideas - symbolized in the Gospels as fishes - and it is forever casting its net on the right, or the left, for a draft. You alone can direct where its net shall be cast. You are he who says, (John 21:6) " ... "Cast the net to the right side ..."^j The "right side" is always on the side of Truth, the side of power. Whenever you, the master, are there, the nets are filled with ideas, because you are in touch with the infinite storehouse of wisdom.

You must stay very close to Peter - you must always be certain of his allegiance and love. Test him often. Say to him, "do you love me more than these?" You want his undivided attention. He is inclined to wander; you say that your mind wanders. This is an error. Divine Mind never wanders. The faith-thinker, Peter, wanders; he looks in many directions. He stands at the door of heaven, the harmony within you; the same door is the entrance to the world of sense.

Peter looks within; he also looks without. This is his office, and it is right that he should look both ways; but he must be equalized, balanced. He must look within for his sustenance; he must recognize the Christ before he can draw his net full of fishes.

Keep your eye on Peter. Make him toe the mark every moment. Teach him to affirm Truth over and over again. Say to him "the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"" He may say, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." This is a very common protest. We hear, in this day of modern metaphysics, that concentration is not necessary; that if one only perceives spiritual Truth the demonstrations will follow.

Jesus Christ gave us many lessons on this point. He knew Peter like a book. He knew that a faculty whose office was so versatile was apt to frequently change its base. When in the exuberance of his allegiance Peter protested that he would lay down his life for Jesus, the Master said, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."

You must teach Peter to concentrate. Teach him to center on true words. It is through him that you feed your sheep, your other faculties. Keep him right at his task. He is inquisitive, impulsive, and dictatorial, when not firmly directed. When he questions your dominion and tries to dictate the movements of your other powers, put him into line with, "(John 21:22). "..., what is that to you? Follow me!"^k

Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." This is precisely as if Jesus had said, "I am Peter, therefore I am." This is I AM losing itself in its own creation. Exactly the converse of this statement is true: I am; therefore, I think. Thinking is a faculty of the omnipotent I AM of each of us. It is a process in mind, the formulating process of mind, and is under our dominion.

The I AM does not think unless it wills to do so. You can stop all thought action when you have learned to separate your I AM from the thinking faculty. Know this and live in Christ.

Don't be a slave to the thinking faculty; command it to be still and know. Stand at the center of your being and say, "I and the Father are one." "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." "I AM THAT I AM" - "there is none besides me."

FAITH IS A SPIRITUAL POWER
Faith is a spiritual power. In the Dynamics for Living Charles Fillmore writes: "The idea that faith is something that has to do only with one's religious experience is incorrect... That it is a power is self-evident. People who have faith in themselves achieve far more than those who do not believe in their own ability. We call this self-faith innate confidence. Confidence is a form of faith... Though our faith be as small as the smallest seeds, it will spring forth and demonstrate its power to carry out every desire into which we infuse it."^l

If we build our character on faith, understanding, and love, with the great I AM as the focal center, we shall become pillars in the temple of God.

Let's end with a prayer: Mother, Father, God; I know that you are always with me. Let me be aware of your presence as I declare: I AM strong in my faith. I AM being lifted out of fear and doubt. I AM secure in the protective love and power of God. Amen