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Through our website pages, we
are endeavoring to introduce to
you the essential ideas that make
up the dynamics of the Unity
Movement. A good many of my
recent writings have been devoted
to introducing the ideas of our
co-founder, Charles Fillmore,
that he called the 12 powers of
man. This month I am again
writing on this subject.
Each of the 12 powers
(attitudes, capacities,
abilities, talents, ideas) come
into play to meet certain aspects
of life. And each appears to
relate to a certain body
function. (I will go into this in
greater detail next month.)
The elements that make up the
material world function in the
same manner: each performing a
certain role and often there is
the combination and co-ordination
of two or more elements just as
we see in the 12 power
system.
One way to think of all of
this is that the various
processes are the invisible
causative potential and
exhaustless spiritual reality
coming into visibility.
Analyzing this, it would seem
that faith leads the way from the
invisible into the visible.
Tagore's famous poem of the bird
trumpeting the dawn while it is
yet dark is a beautiful reference
to this truth.
Jesus declared that He would
build His church upon Petra, the
rock. Peter represents faith.
Faith is the rock, the
foundation, the center around
which and upon which we build the
consciousness (church) of
bringing the invisible
possibilities of our spiritual
(God) nature into actuality,
manifestation.
Fear is the opposite of faith,
that is, the absence of its
expression. When we fear, we
refuse to act until the results
are already in place.
Unfortunately fear prevents the
activity that alone brings the
results!
This is what Jesus is talking
about as He speaks of the fields
being white already to harvest.
He meant, we have to see things
that way, believe that it can
happen, and then we will take the
action to make it so!
Our faith is often severely
challenged, just as in the case
of Peter when he denies Jesus
three times! Also John outruns
him to the empty tomb! Love
seemed stronger than faith on
this occasion, which is another
interesting point to
contemplate.
It takes each and all of our
12 powers (disciple qualities)
representing our complete
God-nature, to bring the
invisible possibilities of life
into visibility. Life is the
process by which and through
which we are learning how!
On the way to our development
of the full use (consistent use)
of our 12 powers, we fear instead
of having faith; hate or dislike
instead of being loving; feel
powerless and victimized instead
of expressing the faculty of
power; feel hopeless instead of
being zealous and enthusiastic
about life; feel that Murphy's
law (anything that can go wrong
will!) is asserting itself
instead of patiently holding to
the truth of divine order in the
way God is running His universe;
despairing that there is no
justice nor goodness in society
instead of being part of bringing
good judgment and
non-judgmentalism into our world;
feel weak and lacking in
confidence instead of expressing
strength; feeling uncreative and
uncertain instead of using our
creative life faculty and our
power of imagination; being
wilful and stubborn instead of
co-operating with the good will
of our God-nature; being
frustrated and bothered with life
and people instead of expressing
love and understanding; declaring
"I don't know" instead of looking
it up - using our God-given
intelligence to think and to
search out what we need to know;
and finally, not using our
faculty of renunciation, saying
'no' instead of succumbing to
temptation, whimsy and impulse -
believing in the impossible
instead of the possible!
Let's remember, there are no
faculties of hate and fear and
doubt and criticism, etc. It just
looks that way until we "get our
act together"!
Don
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