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Jesus Christ is identified as
coming from the Father and going
to the Father. He is quoted as
asserting this.
When, in John 14:12, Jesus
says,
"Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that
believeth on me, the works
that I do shall he do also;
and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto
my Father,"
it would seem that He is
referring to His
crucifixion/ascension experience.
One meaning could be that He is
leaving us with the opportunity
to live His teachings and to
believe in ourselves as also
being the Christ in potential. (I
personally think this is His
central teaching.)
This points to another
interpretation: "Because I go
unto my Father" could also
refer to His life of prayer, His
life of believing that it is the
Father that does the works. So He
is telling us that He has taught
us to pray and now we will do
well if we pray as He has
done!
Charles Fillmore, who
co-founded Unity with his wife
Myrtle, had still another
interpretation - one that has had
a major influence upon my life.
Mr. Fillmore believed that Jesus
Christ is still functioning on
the invisible side of life as an
establishment of His
consciousness of oneness with the
Father in fulfillment of His
promise (Matt. 28:20) ".. lo,
I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world." In
John 14:13 Jesus says, "And
whatsoever ye shall ask in my
name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the
Son." Mr. Fillmore felt that
to pray in the name of Jesus
Christ is to enter into the Jesus
Christ consciousness.
It was Mr. Fillmore's strong
conviction that Jesus Christ is
available to us all in His
ascended state. I have not been
satisfied with my own attempts to
feel my union, but intellectually
it is one of my strongest beliefs
that the Jesus Christ
consciousness is very real, very
much alive, and is indeed
available to us all. And I can
understand that this highest
state of spiritual/human
consciousness has become part of
the collective consciousness of
humankind and is in the process
of raising us into oneness with
it. How fondly I remember the
classes at Unity School where we
affirmed "Jesus Christ is now
here raising us to His
consciousness of oneness with
God."
Rupert Sheldrake, the British
biologist, famous for his theory
of morphic resonance, believes
that any new height of human
development enters into the
collective consciousness and
influences it depending upon
humankind's response. Mr.
Fillmore's idea was that we need
to identify with Jesus Christ,
believe His teachings that
whatever He did we could do also
if we would be firm in our faith
and effect our oneness with God
in prayer as Jesus did.
In other words, we need to do
our part. What would be a more
logical practice of
Christianity!
Don
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