Sunday Message for March 10, 2024

Ye Are Gods

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent. So, as we make our way to Easter and the resurrection, there is an idea I would like to cover. It is something that needs to be clear in your minds as you grow spiritually.

In (John 10:31-39) it says, The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?"
The Jews answered, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God."
Jesus answered, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'? If those to whom the word of God came were called 'gods' - and the scripture cannot be annulled - can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, 'I am God's Son'? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.^a

Jesus was quoting the passage from Psalms 82:6 "I say, 'You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you;"^b. We, all of us, have been declared gods, children of the Most High, offspring of God. And this is the aspect of our being that we need to be consciously building.

I AM OR SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS
Superconsciousness is the goal toward which we are all working. I know that it doesn't always look like it out there in the world - but there is a continuous upward trend.

Superconsciousness is the realm of divine ideas. It is impersonal. It has no personal ambitions and knows no condemnation. It is always pure, innocent, loving, and obedient to the call of God.

What we are calling the superconsciousness has been understood, throughout the ages, by enlightened people; but they haven't known how to externalize it and make it a permanent state of consciousness.

Jesus is one of the few who accomplished this, so his method is something we should take note of. We can follow the life of purity and love and power shown in the experiences of Jesus in the New Testament.

Jesus said that he was the son of God; he acknowledged that publicly. If we are to live in the superconsciousness, we, too, need to recognize ourselves as sons and daughters of God, right here and now, regardless of any appearance to the contrary. We know it is the truth, so why not take possession of our God-given right? Jesus did it in the most adverse conditions. But no one is going to crucify you.

We know that an idea held in mind must create after its own kind. So, by following the method of Jesus and doing the work that comes to us day by day, we will also put on the Christ as fully and completely as Jesus did.

Charles Fillmore writes in the book Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, that there were two definite steps that Jesus took. First, the recognition of the spiritual selfhood and a constant affirmation of its supremacy and power. Jesus didn't mess around with wimpy little affirmations but made the highest statements.
(John 10:30) "The Father and I are one."^c
(Matthew 28:18) "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."^d
He made these statements before the resurrection, so we know that at that time he was fully aware of their reality.

Secondly, by the power of his word he penetrated deeper into omnipresence and tapped the deepest resources of His mind, whereby He released the light, life, and substance of Spirit, which enabled Him to get the realization that wholly united His consciousness with the Father Mind.^e

We in Unity teach his scientific approach, the one he taught His followers to do. No one has a copyright on the principles of Truth; Truth is free, it is Spirit, and it cannot be kept from the spiritually minded. In the light of today's understanding we can see that the miracles of the Bible can be rationally explained as Mind acting in an omnipresent spiritual field, which is there for all who develop spiritually.
(Matthew 19:28) Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."^f

(Revelation 3:21) To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne.^g

One who conquers or overcomes is one who has changed his mind from error to Truth. To do this, we first realize, by faith, that we are the sons and daughters of God; then second, we demonstrate it in every thought and act.

The Word is our I AM. The Holy Spirit is the activity of the living Word. The work of the Holy Spirit is the executive power of Father (mind) and Son (idea), carrying out the creative plan. It is through the help of the Holy Spirit that man overcomes. The Holy Spirit reveals, helps, and directs in our overcoming.
(1 Corinthians 2:10) The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.^h It finally leads us into the light

The work that the overcomer does for the world is to help establish a new race consciousness, (2 Peter 3:13) says that it is new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.ⁱ By being true to his highest understanding of Truth the overcomer never swerves to the right nor left for any reason.

The mind of man is built on Truth, and the clearer our understanding of Truth is the more substantial our mind becomes. It is through progressive, step-by-step spiritual unfoldment that Truth is demonstrated. The truths of Being are scientific, and undoubtedly Jesus understood and taught the properties of the cosmic ether under the name of "the kingdom of the heavens."

Jesus recognized mind in everything and called it "Father." He knew that there is a faith center in each atom of so-called matter and that faith in man can move upon the faith center in so-called matter and can remove mountains.

He developed spiritual faith in His own mind, which moved upon the cells of His body and released the power He used in His resurrection and ascension.

We cannot separate Jesus Christ from God or tell where man leaves off and God begins in Him. To say that we are men as Jesus Christ was a man is not exactly true, because He had dropped that personal consciousness by which we separate ourselves from our true God self. He became consciously one with the absolute principle of Being. He proved in His resurrection and ascension that He had no consciousness separate from that of Being, therefore He really was this Being to all intents and purposes.

Yet He attained no more than what is expected of every one of us. (John 17:11) "That they may be one, as we are one,"^j and this was Jesus' prayer.

This is all accomplished through the externalization of the superconsciousness, which is omnipresent and ever ready to manifest itself through us as it did through Jesus. Let (Galatians 4:19) Christ be formed in you.^k

In (Acts 1:8) Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you."^l

Through the Holy Spirit, man not only has power to keep the words of Jesus but also to do the works that He did, even greater works.

Modern science tells us that in the trillions of cells in our body there are imprisoned electronic energies beyond all possibility of estimate; that a single teardrop has within its atoms dynamic force enough to blow up a six-story building. Man is coming into an understanding of how to release these mighty powers and use them in regenerating soul and body.

Jesus taught that the realities of God were capable of expression here in this world and that man within himself had God capacity and power. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be the Son of God. Yet the Scriptures, which the Pharisees worshiped, had this bold proclamation, which Jesus quoted to them from (Psalms 82:6) I say, "You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you."^m

Jesus differed from other men in that He proved by His works that He was the Son of God, while the average man is still striving to attain that excellence.

The reports by His followers of what He taught clearly point to two subjects that He loved to discourse upon. The first was the Son of God. Secondly, we might all become as He was and demonstrate our dominion by following Him in the regeneration.

In order to follow Jesus in the regeneration we must become better acquainted with the various phases of mind and how they function in and through the body.

He who has caught the significance of man, and who and what man is, never allows himself to accept any erroneous conclusions as to his final destiny. He does, however, know there is a way provided by which he can not only free himself from the claims of materiality but also by his efforts open the way for many others to do likewise. No person ever demonstrated his God-given powers in even a small way but what he helped others to do the same. Preaching is good, but precept is better. (John 12:32) And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.ⁿ

In (Isaiah 65:17) we read, "For I am about to create new heavens (ideals) and a new earth (manifestation); the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind."^o

The body which is formed in regeneration absorbs the substance of the body of flesh, and makes out of it a new body in divine order, under the law of the Christ mind. In this process the physical body dies so that the Christ body may live; but the spiritual ego, the I AM, remains consciously active throughout the process of development that Paul referred to when he said, "I die daily."

In spiritual understanding we know that all the forces in the body are directed by thought and that they work in a constructive or a destructive way, according to the character of the thought. Medicine, massage, and all the material means accomplish but incomplete, unsatisfactory, temporary results, because they work only from the outside and do not touch the inner springs that control the forces. The springs can only be touched by thought. There must be a unity between the mind of man and Divine Mind so that ideas and thoughts that work constructively unto eternal life may be quickened in the mind and organism of man.

Jesus Christ unfolded the consciousness of the Absolute. Through the quickening of the Spirit we are loosed from all limiting ideas and are set free in the Christ consciousness or realization of the Absolute. The consciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is of limitless life, strength, power, wisdom, love, and substance that are everywhere present, always present.

We are told in John that the world could not contain the books that would be written if all the things that Jesus did were put into writing. But enough is given in the story of His life and in the writings of the apostles concerning Him to bear witness to that which is daily being revealed in this day of fulfillment. Those who are consecrated to Truth and fully resolved to follow Jesus all the way are spiritualizing the whole man, including the body, which is being redeemed from corruption. Those who are living as Jesus lived are becoming like Him. (Matthew 22:32) He is God not of the dead, but of the living.^p

Resurrection takes place in people who are alive. One does not go into the grave to be resurrected and to enter the heavenly state of those raised in Christ. So continue your journey through this Lenten season. Continue to fast from negative thought and continue to know that you are the sons and daughters of God. You will do what Jesus did and more.