The Power that Jesus Used

Throughout our lives we have read and wondered about the miracles of Jesus.  But to how many of us has the thought come that this same power must be available to everyone?  We have been so accustomed to thinking of Jesus as a man filled with love and compassion and human kindness that we have overlooked something else about him that is equally important. Jesus had access to a spiritual Power that he used in every way. To him it seemed the most natural thing in the world that he should be able to tell the paralyzed man to walk, or multiply the loaves and fishes, or still the wind and waves.

I happen to be one of those who really believe that Jesus did these things and that we could also do them if we had the know-how. It takes nothing away from Jesus when we say that in addition to his love and compassion and his great humanity we also have access to the same Power which enabled him to do such wonderful things. Even his own followers thought he must be using a power that no one else possessed; however, when we study his words carefully, we find that he said that others could do what he did if they followed the same rules. Jesus was not the great exception, he was the great example, and he even said that "greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father."

What we want to find out, then, is the nature of this Power that Jesus used, learn how It operates, and then apply It in our own lives in helping ourselves and also in helping others. I am not thinking only about the healing miracles when people have been restored to physical health. For while this is wonderful and good, there is much more to life than merely getting rid of a pain. Jesus had access to some kind of Power that was available for every purpose. He had access to an Intelligence that guided him in everything he did. And he had a deep inward peace and feeling of security that removed all confusion and doubt and uncertainty from his mind.

What we want to find is the key that unlocks the doorway to the Power greater than we are.  What we want to do is to discover the secret which he so plainly told us was a certain kind of relationship he had to God, who, he said, was present everywhere and was also within him and within everyone.

We are accustomed to thinking of the powers and energies in nature, and we know that the whole field of modern science is devoted to the discovery of these powers and learning how to apply them for our everyday needs. We also know that these powers which science uncovers have always existed, they were always there waiting to be used, always ready to respond when we use them rightly.

We think of a scientific man as one who uses a power of nature.  We do not say that he possesses it as a personal thing. For, of course, this would not be true. What we say is that science discovers the power, unlocks its energy, and then uses it for definite purposes for the betterment of humanity. What we really mean by this is that there are certain physical laws and physical powers in nature which are greater than we are but which can be used, and that these powers operate for us as though they were our servants.  We employ them, we do not implore them.  That is, we do not beseech them, we do not coerce them, and, as a matter of fact, we do not even concentrate them. We merely use them.

But Jesus had access to another kind of power which he called the Power of the Spirit. We cannot doubt but that there are spiritual powers which act like physical ones; that act for us and in a certain sense become our servants when we have first learned how they operate. But in doing this we must always comply with them, for the secrets of nature are disclosed and the powers of nature can be used only when we first comply with the way they work. Of all people in the world the true scientist is the most humble. He stands in reverence and awe before the wonders of a self-operating universe that operates independently of his will, his coercion, or even his desire.

When it was discovered that a hen lays a certain number of eggs and then sits on them and hatches out chickens, someone had the foresight to realize that you can have as many hens as you want to sit on as many eggs as they can cover and produce as many chickens as are desirable, provided you actually put the hen and the eggs together. Here is an example of the way nature works, with complete independence of our thoughts and our will and our desires, but always with this in mind, that when we comply with the way she works, we receive the benefit.

And so it is with every scientific discovery. In the laboratory man observes the laws of nature, discovers how they work, and then applies them, and nature herself produces the result.  We are so used to thinking of this that we take it for granted, not realizing that every day, in some physical laboratory, new things are being revealed to us because we are learning how to cooperate with the Source of all power.

Jesus worked in a different kind of laboratory. He understood a different set of laws, and because he used these laws a power was delivered to him that has amazed the world. It is our purpose to rediscover these laws, find out how they work, and apply them for every legitimate purpose, then reap the benefit for ourselves and for others. Of course, in doing this it is necessary that we follow the example of the one who really knew. The only reason we have to suppose that Jesus knew is that he proved his claim.  What we should do, then, is to find out exactly what Jesus believed, and why, and how he used this secret of the ages so effectively.

The first thing we shall learn is that Jesus believed himself to be one with God, and he believed that the Divine Presence was right where he was. He communed with this Presence through prayer and meditation until It was the most real thing to him in life. But Jesus added something else to this, for he told us that after we have discovered God and when we have learned to commune with Him through prayer and meditation, then a certain kind of spiritual Power will be delivered to us, if we have faith that It will. We find, then, that the whole background of his teaching starts with the idea that there is such a Presence and such a Power; that the Presence is accessible to all of us, and that the Power can be used by anyone who has faith in It.

This is no doubt the greatest secret of the ages. It is the miracle of the answer to prayer. It is the miracle of Life Itself. We need to believe that you and I, so little and so alone, do have access to a Power that has the possibility of making everything in our lives happy and harmonious if we cooperate with It. Right here
I would like to inject this thought – for it is one that so many people express – how can we believe in a Power that we can neither touch nor taste nor handle?

The answer to this is simple enough. Let us go right back to the hen sitting on her eggs.  Neither you nor I nor the hen ever put a chicken in an egg, nor did we ever take one out. The hen, instinctively, by some method of which she is not consciously aware, follows the law of her own life. She lays the eggs and then she sits on them and nature performs the miracle for her. The Power which does this cannot be touched or tasted or handled. It cannot be seen. And yet, we are so used to it that we never question the result. We build incubators and set the eggs in them and subject them to a certain heat for a certain period of time, with complete assurance, with absolute faith, because experience has taught us that we can do this and have chicks hatch.

So it is with every law that we use.  No one has ever seen the powers of nature.  We only see how they work and we accept them with the simplicity of a child. Again someone might ask: How can we believe in a Divine Presence when we have not seen It?  The answer to this also is simple. How can we believe in the law of attraction and repulsion which we have not seen? How can we believe that a magnet will attract iron since we do not see the power of attraction that draws it? No one has ever seen love or human affection, no one has seen kindness and tolerance and human understanding, but we have all felt them and we have no more doubt of their existence than we do of our own being.

I do not think we need to be concerned with the fact that we do not see God other than in His creation, or that we have not seen the forces of nature other than in and through what they do. When Jesus told us that we should have faith, he was not telling us about something that is impossible for us to attain, for Jesus was the most simple and direct of men and he knew that faith is a natural attitude of mind. It is the very simplicity of his teaching that eludes us. As a matter of fact, it is so easy that it is hard, so simple that it is difficult, so direct that we fail to catch its significance. For whether or not we know it, we all have faith. We are merely mostly using it in reverse.

So Jesus told us that there is a Divine Presence that will guide us if we let It. And he told us that there is a Power that will operate for us if we believe that It will. But he also told us that this Presence is love and this Power is good and that we cannot hope to derive the greatest benefit from the Presence as Divine guidance, or the Power as the operation of Divine Love, until we first greet the Presence in love and use the Power for good.  So far as I know, he laid down no instructions other than these: God is love and God is good, therefore Divine Power is delivered to us only in such degree as we love and as we are constructive.

All the prayers or the will of man can neither add to nor take from the powers of nature. This is so self-evident that one cannot even argue against it. What we have to do, then, is to invite the Presence and use the Power. We invite the Divine Presence every time we think about It in love and with true humility. We draw inspiration into our minds and into our imaginations and loose it through our actions when we recognize this Presence, and we benefit from the use of the Power when we comply with the way It works.

Here is where our great experiment in using the Power that Jesus understood starts. This is the very beginning of it. We must believe that there is a Divine Presence. Of course, our belief does not create It; it merely acknowledges It. It is this acknowledgment of the Divine Presence that Jesus was referring to when he said: your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

The artist believes in the presence of beauty. He invites it into his thought and will and imagination; he makes himself open to it. Our acknowledgment of the Presence of God should be as simple as this and as direct. No matter what we are doing we should start with this basic thought: "God is all there is. God is right where I am. Divine Intelligence is now directing me. I not only invite It, I believe It is here. There is nothing in me that can deny me the privilege of receiving this Divine guidance. There is Something in me that knows what to do under every circumstance, knows how to meet every situation, knows how to overcome every obstacle. I am in partnership with the infinite Mind that creates everything and sustains everything. I am one with God."

We should entertain thoughts like these until they become habitual; that is, until nothing in us denies them. It is not going to take any more faith than we now have, for one of the greatest lessons we can learn about faith is that we always possess it. But too often we are using it negatively. As a matter of fact, we are always affirming something, be it for good or for ill. We are always either saying, “l can," or "I cannot." What we need to do is to eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive. In doing this we shall gradually acquire the habit of affirmative thinking.

To this belief that there is a Divine Presence which is guiding us and leading us gently but certainly on the pathway to success and happiness and wholeness, we must also come to believe that there is a Power that always goes with this recognition of the Divine Presence, and we must have faith that this Power operates on our word. But, of course, we do not see Its operation. We do not touch It or taste It or handle It, but we can feel It. It is this deep underlying conviction and feeling that we must acquire.

But this is not difficult. It is just a question of training the mind to believe in and understand spiritual Law in exactly the same manner that it believes in and understands the operation of physical law. If it were something too difficult, then it would be beyond our reach and we should become discouraged even before we started. The whole thing has to be kept simple and direct and sincere. The Power that Jesus used was a spiritual Power. He knew that It operated on or through his word of faith, and he had such complete reliance on It that he did not hesitate to tell the paralyzed man to get up and walk.

It was not the words that Jesus used that performed the miracle. It was his inner conviction of the Power that operated on and in and through his words.  He called this faith and belief, and in so doing reduced it to a mental attitude or to a way of thinking that we all can understand. There is Something that operates on our belief and acts exactly like a law, because It is a law, and tends to bring about conditions which correspond to our faith, our belief, our way of thinking.

Frequently, when we begin to use this Power consciously we find that our thoughts are unruly. In one moment we affirm some good we desire and in the very next moment we deny what we have affirmed. In this way we are a mental house divided against itself. We may as well recognize this fact because it is an important one. But in recognizing it there is no occasion for us to despair. For we know that thinking is really a movement of the mind upon itself, right where we are, and we are the thinker, therefore we can change our thoughts.

This is why Jesus told us that sometimes only prayer and fasting can bring about the desired result. He did not mean that God listens because we do a lot of talking. What he meant was that we should pray affirmatively and fast when it comes to negative thinking. This is the sacrifice we make in the surrender of our doubts and fears to the great affirmations of life. To pray without ceasing means to continue in an affirmative attitude of mind and to fast means to refrain from all negative thoughts and ideas.

There must come a new impulse to the mind, a new way of looking at things. This is what Jesus called the new birth. He referred to this when he said that we must be born again, we must be born of the Spirit, which means being born into a complete conviction of the Presence and the Power and the Activity of God in and through us. The results that follow this new birth are automatic, and this is why Jesus told us that if we would seek the kingdom of God first, everything else would be added.

What a wonderful adventure lies before us. How grateful we should be for the opportunity to live and love and work and play. We should have a keen sense of anticipation and enthusiasm because we know that we are working with a spiritual Power greater than we are, a Law of Mind that is available to create every good thing in life. I believe this is the secret to the power Jesus demonstrated and to the understanding of his teachings. We may call this faith, we may call it religion, we may call it worship. It is all this and more, too. But in reality it resolves itself into a simple, sincere, and direct approach to God and to the Law of Mind.

The world is in search of the answer to its problems. Frustrated and distraught, disillusioned and chagrined, today it stands on the brink of two possibilities – to  be, or not to be. The world today is shocked by the realization of what it has brought on itself. Nothing is more certain than that we have failed, and as never before millions of people are ready to try something else, that something that for too Iong has been neglected, that something which alone can make it whole.  Nothing is more certain than that we must rediscover the secret of the ages, this coming into close cooperation with the Presence that made us and the Power that sustains us. Along this pathway alone lies the hope of humanity. This, and this only, is the road to peace, to prosperity, and to happiness.

--Ernest Holmes, The Philosophy of Jesus for the World Today
Science of Mind Publications, 1973