Metaphysical watchfulness – a very effective defense

We know we are in the kingdom of heaven when we come to the reassuring realization that an acceptance of the Christ-in-action in our daily lives, here on earth, brings healing to ourselves and to all upon whom our thoughts rest.

I now have a clearer focus of metaphysical watchfulness, to be activated at the very moment a negative symptom comes to mind, or any thought that I can represent anything other than God’s cared-for and dominion-filled idea. Nipping in the bud any ensnaring suggestion that would creep subtly, or not-so-subtly, into my consciousness!

This new “offensive defense” is proving very effective, preventing aggressive mental suggestions from taking root and growing. All the while, I am endeavoring to sow proven seeds into good soil and to nurture and water my spiritual garden, as I watch my Spirit-based foundation grow stronger and steadier.

I rejoice to see my Sunday School pupils grasping spiritual truths and being able to articulate their insights. In addition, I am in my 16 th year of distributing Christian Science periodicals in our area. Since the pandemic there has been a noticeable increase in expressions of gratitude for The Christian Science Monitor and the Christian Science Sentinel.

One night last week, I awakened with an apparent rash and excessive watering in one of my eyes. In addition, the inside of my lower lip was swollen. Recognizing the need to get right on this false evidence, I told myself not to look in a mirror or check on my progress materially. Rather, I worked to know who I always have been and AM, spiritually. Within a few hours of sole reliance on the truth about God and His idea man (me), I was able to demonstrate a complete return to normalcy!

This healing came to fruition by putting into practice Mary Baker Eddy’s directive: “Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgement and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness” (Miscellaneous Writings 185:7–14).

“Gradually and gently up toward the perfect thought divine” — (Unity of Good)

Thank you for the assignment! I’ve been thinking about the kingdom of heaven every morning when I say the Daily Prayer and am getting a stronger feeling of actually living in that kingdom. 

While reading Mary Baker Eddy’s Retrospection and Introspection in college, I discovered this quote from Jesus, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12). I now see this informs how we should work upward.

Mrs. Eddy wrote that “radical reliance on Truth” is necessary for healing (Science and Health 167:30). At first, I thought she meant that I needed to think radically, or extremely. Now I wonder if she was using Merriam Webster’s second definition of radical, which is “of or relating to the origin: fundamental,” as in a fundamental reliance on Truth. To me, this means seeing more of what God is doing and less of what I’m trying to do. Paul changed his name when his old sense of right was replaced with a new sense, and I feel solidarity with that change. It’s not that I wasn’t trying to do the right thing before, I just didn’t know how to be more right.

My small but evolving understanding of how to work in this kingdom is that I should work more gently, while still refuting error. More time with the periodicals has helped propel me forward in this fresh approach. A recent Sentinel article highlighted guidance from Mrs. Eddy, who wrote that Christian Scientists “work gradually and gently up toward the perfect thought divine” (Unity of Good 5:5–6).

I remember Skip’s guidance that “everything is a demonstration.” Instead of forcing an outcome, I’m more willing to let progress unfold. I think this is the way forward for our churches, too. Not forceful giving but “freely giving.”

This past year I’ve seen healings and prevention of COVID in my family; protection from an accident with a power tool; symptoms of meningitis overcome; and a fear of cancer destroyed with the help of a faithful practitioner. I’ve also had people request my prayers at work. This must be a taste of that real kingdom.

It would be hard to express my gratitude any better than these words of Hymn 484: “God is here with me. / While praying, I find all good here provided. / I’m seeing views of Truth, and understanding all is well. / Infirmity is gone, now leaving me perfectly free.”

A challenging Sunday School class and the Lord’s Prayer

I’ve always loved the Lord’s Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation, but never more than this year, so I was happy to see it as part of this year’s Association readings and assignment.

This fall, my new Sunday School class of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds was more challenging than I expected. They just couldn’t seem to stay focused. Though I’ve taught Sunday School for many, many years, I found that I couldn’t simply draw on what I’d learned from the past. This class was difficult in a new way, and I discovered I had to pray in a new way. I’ve felt great resistance to doing this praying, feeling tempted to stew and analyze instead. But gratefully, God loves me and Sunday School enough to get me past this resistance. Each time I break through, it’s invigorating, joyful, and progressive – and ends up feeling natural.

One idea that came from prayer was to start focusing on the Lord’s Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation in class. This is one of the four subjects for Sunday School children listed in the Church Manual. For some unexplained reason, most of my previous years’ classes centered on the other three subjects – the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount, and the Bible Lesson. The Lord’s Prayer had been playing a minor role. Now, though, it has been front and center for me and the class. I’m so grateful for this realignment. It’s reminded me that when Christ Jesus responds to the request, “Teach us to pray,” it behooves us to take notice. 

Our class began to focus on one section of the prayer each week. During the week, I’d see what the textbook and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible Lesson brought out about that part of the prayer. I’d also find testimonies on JSH-Online where that section of the prayer had made a difference. I’d learned from Skip’s example that going straight to the books and also reading testimonies from the bound volumes helps keep our trust in God and Christian Science strong and pure.

When I shared examples of real healing, the students were riveted; they listened in a whole different way, hungry to be able to trust that what they were learning had real value. They loved hearing that with the Lord’s Prayer, children had been healed of earaches, headaches, food poisoning, animal stings, and injuries from a car accident. They were inspired to know that, thanks to this prayer, children had stopped a robbery, avoided fights with bullies, found lost items, found their way after taking the wrong school bus, and been able to forgive and to abstain from lying and stealing.

Our assignment each week was to pray with a specific section of the Lord’s Prayer. I found this discipline extremely helpful for my own spiritual growth. As an example, the first two lines have been particularly meaningful in my prayers for this Sunday School class. Acknowledging that God is “all-harmonious” and the “Adorable One,” the one thing that man can and does adore, helps lift thought to the natural place of trusting that God – not ego, silliness, sleepiness – is the center of our Sunday School hour.

Since we began focusing on the Lord’s Prayer, it has been a very present support for me. I’m finding that when I need to pray but there seems to be a gap between need and inspiration, the Lord’s Prayer is my go-to starting place. It quickly aligns my thought with Truth and Love. Sometimes it’s the springboard to other prayer. Other times, it becomes the inspiring pool in which I swim, soaking in the Science of being. It’s been bringing healing and peace – when I’ve prayed for ill family members and friends, when I’ve prayed before potentially contentious meetings, when I’ve prayed for the class, and when I’ve prayed about the many troubles going on in the world.

It’s easier for me to see the impact this prayer has had on my life than on my students’ lives, since I’m with them just an hour each week. But I do know the class has become more focused, cooperative, God-centered, and loving. It’s less competitive, frenetic, and pedantic. During class, the students actually pray during silent prayer and the Lord’s Prayer and actually sing the hymns (instead of just goofing off). They now quiet each other so that they can hear and be heard when they share things, such as, “Daily bread is like the manna they ate in the desert.”

Last week, one of the students said his school had been on lock-down one morning because a man with a gun had been spotted on the school grounds. I felt grateful that the Lord’s Prayer had been so much in his thought in recent months and that he felt comfortable in bringing this issue to class.

Parents have told me, in a surprised voice, that their children actually want to come to Sunday School. I’ve been told by the Superintendent and others that there’s been a remarkable change in these students’ behavior since last year.

It’s a work in progress. I can tell we’re having substantive classes…most of the time. Remembering we are in the kingdom is daily work – “Give us this day our daily bread.” I’ve been renewedly grateful for this prayer, for what it shows us about God’s present kingdom, and for its place in Sunday School and our lives.

The learning and growing continues!

Reading through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, I found that it consisted of a series of signposts to lead one to live in the kingdom of heaven or, as Jesus pointed out, to recognize that the kingdom of heaven lives within one.

Until this assignment, I had never read through the three chapters as a whole. Once I had, it was clear why Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “To my sense the Sermon on the Mount, read each Sunday without comment and obeyed throughout the week, would be enough for Christian practice” (Message to the Mother Church ’01 11:14–19). Mrs. Eddy also mentions the idea of “practice” in this statement: “The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised” (Science and Health 174:17).

In the Glossary of Science and Health, the definition of heaven is followed by the definition of hell, which is a perfect foil for the definitions of heaven and kingdom of heaven. A hellish consciousness presents an earthbound existence with all its limitations and pitfalls. Mrs. Eddy quotes Scripture with this assertion: “It is ‘easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,’ than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of heaven, eternal harmony” (Science and Health 241:31-1). At another point, she emphasizes what living in the kingdom of heaven involves: “Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love – the kingdom of heaven – reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear” (Science and Health 248:29).

This quote was another source of insight concerning living in the kingdom of heaven: “A germ of infinite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven, is the higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled until God prepares the soil for the seed” (Science and Health 361:25–28).

I am grateful for God-given receptiveness, which has allowed me to learn from others around me. For example, by observing the care and respect in the long-term boyfriend/girlfriend relationships of those younger than myself, I have been led to re-evaluate my own relationships and treatment of others. A simple comment regarding being considerate of others in conversation has awakened a greater appreciation for those with whom I come in daily contact. I have also seen how a simple act of God-impelled love gently untangled a snarl in a relationship. These discoveries have been guiding me to a greater sense of the kingdom of heaven, here and now.

Furthermore, through the privilege of serving as a Sunday School teacher, I have become a more active listener of JSH-online, and this has been a continual source of education about God, man, and the kingdom of heaven.

I have not had any spectacular healings this year, but am grateful for the opportunity to refute suggestions of various bodily complaints through my study and right thinking. The learning and growing continues!

Dwelling in the land – the kingdom of heaven

My familiarity with heaven unfolded from my study of Psalm 37:3, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”

It was at a time when I had a great need. I was working hard in my business, but was not fulfilling its goals. We were falling further and further into debt. After studying this psalm, I began to start each day by trusting God and doing good. My business involved a lot of phone calls. I had written this verse on a card near my phone, and I would think about it at the beginning of each call to see how I could reflect good.

But I didn’t know what it meant to “dwell in the land.” I saw the “land” as the material place where I went to work, where I needed to trust in the Lord and do good.

Then one day, I had a turn of thought, an angel message, which made me realize that the “land” isn’t my material workplace, but the kingdom of heaven. I had the opportunity to recognize that I reside in the kingdom of heaven – not in some future experience, but right now. I wasn’t living in a material place where I had to overcome matter to be spiritual. I was already spiritual, living in heaven. This realization changed my life. It made my relationship with God more current and present, enabling me to do good and be fed.

In preparing for this association, I had another recognition. It came from the Lord’s prayer and Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual interpretation. The Lord’s prayer starts with “Our Father which art in heaven,” and Science and Health adds “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious” (Science and Health 16:26). I noted that all-harmonious was hyphenated as one word. It came to me that heaven is the same as all-harmonious. Heaven, where I dwell, is God’s, and it is all-harmonious. This strengthens my everyday activity, where I trust the Lord and dwell in the land.

Heaven is the place I exist. It is where I go to heal and be healed. It is that secret place of the Most High, and it is omnipresent.

Support from the Beatitudes during a strike

During the last year, I have read through the Sermon on the Mount on a number of occasions, and each time I have been astonished by the profundity and specificity of Jesus’ teaching on how to truly be Christian in the world. The most recent time was in January, when the educators in the district where I teach went on strike. The dispute had gone on for over a year, and it seemed as though a strike was the only way to draw attention to some of the greatest needs of our students and staff.

We went on strike on a Thursday night, hoping that negotiations could take place on Friday and over the weekend, and that we could be back in school on Monday. But that’s not how it turned out. Instead, we were asked to march, picket, canvas, rally, and shout for five hours a day in the coldest part of the year. I prayed daily to understand that there is one Mind, and that this Mind helps each of us to know what we need to know at each moment. Because we are all Her loved expressions, we can be open to new ideas, communicate respectfully, and love one another, even – or especially – those who seem to be on the other side of the dispute.

Every morning these prayers helped me get up and go out into the cold, but as we got into the second week of the strike, a deep sense of discouragement threatened to overwhelm me. That’s when I saw that I needed to really dig into the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the Beatitudes. I reasoned that humanly, I could not control the weather, or the thoughts of the school committee, or the media coverage of the dispute, but I could focus my thoughts on the spiritual truths Jesus gave us.

It was so comforting to see that many of the Beatitudes seemed to start in just the mental place where I was: “How happy are those who know their need for God” (Matt. 5:3, The New Testament in Modern English, J.B. Phillips). That certainly was me. It was clear that nothing but God was of any use in this situation. But then came the promise, “for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!” Of course! If love of God and an abject recognition of our need for Her is the kingdom, then we are there!

I reasoned my way through each of the Beatitudes until I got to the one about persecution: “Happy are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!” (Matt. 5:10, J. B. Phillips) Certainly, my colleagues and I were feeling persecuted. The social media had gotten ugly and some parents were beginning to turn against us. It felt as though we were being actively hated. Yet here was Jesus, who knew a thing or two about being persecuted, telling me that I was in a blessed state. Again it seemed clear that all of the Beatitudes pointed to the need for total humility – an admission that “I can of mine own self do nothing.”

I won’t say that things got easy, but they did become possible from then on. Despite all that was going on around me, I felt a real closeness to God and an ability to listen for what to do each day, each moment. Some days, that meant marching and chanting to keep up the spirits of the negotiating team; other days that was going door-to-door to talk to community members. Always it was a deep spiritual appreciation of the person right next to me as we walked or picketed – whether it was a colleague I knew well or someone I was meeting for the first time.

After eleven days, the dispute was resolved and we went back to school. Eventually, what I learned became so much more important than what was hard about that period out of school. That learning has stuck with me, changing me, even if in a small way. Now in my daily life I am more inclined to listen, not for what I need, but for what I can do to help, to serve. I can see that humility is the road to gratitude, and gratitude is the road to peace, no matter how difficult the circumstances. And peace truly is the kingdom of heaven within.

The universe of Spirit – undivided and harmonious

This year my work on the assignment was aligned with work I was already doing to see more of the universe of Spirit – the undivided and harmonious creation of God’s making, peopled with spiritual beings, and governed by divine Science. To paraphrase Mrs. Eddy, I was working to catch a glimpse the universe we really live in.

This work has changed the way I think and act toward others as well as how I think of myself. Because of this work, I have greater peace of mind. I’m no longer startled by media reports about how divided and violent our country and the world appear to be, nor do I ruminate or become angry over them. I’m more likely to reverse or dismiss them because they are so clearly antithetical to what I’m learning about the reality of God’s kingdom and His man.

Working in this way has also had a beneficial effect on my day-to-day experience with other people. There’s more give-and-take, more patience, more appreciation for the contributions of others, and far less criticism and condemnation of others and of myself. It’s becoming easier to see the good in everyone, which makes sense since God is good and we reflect Him. In one instance, I had a complete reversal of my perception of someone, who turned out to be more thoughtful and loving than I had ever imagined.

Here are some ideas that came to me working with the Lord’s Prayer and Mrs. Eddy’s spiritual interpretation:

Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever present.

I realized this was not a plea to God for His kingdom to come to us, as if it’s somewhere else but could be here, if He would only grant it to be so. It is an acknowledgement that His kingdom is already here in all its power and glory; we are living in that kingdom right now and subject only to His laws, protection, and benefits. His kingdom fills all space and consciousness. Within God’s kingdom, matter and its false laws have no power or reason to exist.

Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today;. feed the famished affections;

Mrs. Eddy defines grace as “the effect of God understood” (Christian Science versus Pantheism 10:23–24). Cowed by a worldly sense of evidence in favor of the immoral and baneful, it can seem as if the spiritual affections have been starved out completely. But God’s grace reverses this false perception. He feeds our understanding by revealing that the spiritual affections of truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness, and goodness have complete dominion over evil. Good displaces and destroys everything unlike itself.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;

I learned that when I see myself as God sees me, forgiving others is a natural consequence. But it is difficult to forgive when mortal mind diverts my thoughts to the contemplation of my supposed short comings and failures. That mind picture carries over into how I see others, and suddenly I find myself criticizing and condemning instead of loving and forgiving. When I start with God and realize all the goodness and love He bestows on me, I can see others as God’s pure and perfect ideas. I believe that’s what Jesus meant by his admonition to “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye” (Matt. 7:5). Jesus must have been so keenly aware of his own perfection as God’s beloved Son that he always saw the perfect man in others. As Mrs. Eddy writes, “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning, mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick” (Science and Health 476:32–4).

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease and death.

The temptation to personalize evil is particularly prevalent today. The press, social media, and government leaders often identify people as either good or evil. But Mrs. Eddy is clear regarding evil: “Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense” (Science and Health 71:2).

The Lord’s Prayer warns us not to fall for mortal mind’s illusory claim that there are evil people, evil countries, or evil leaders. It leads us to the truth that there is one Mind, one Principle and operative cause that expresses only good, one divine Love, governing the motives, speech, and actions of all men. Only that which God imparts is true about men and nations. He delivers us from the irrational fear that sin has power when God, good, is omnipotent; that disease can be present when God is omnipresent; and that death can end existence when God is Life eternal.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

God being infinite, there is not a Planck length of space in the entire universe where all His goodness and glory are not fully present. God, good, is all-power, not just most of the power, but the only power. God is One and supreme over all. His kingdom is not relegated to some distant dimension. It is here and everywhere. We forever express the freedom and joy of Life, the certainty of omniscient Truth, and the Mother Love that knows no enmity but cherishes all as Her beloved sons and daughters.

My dad’s real address is and always has been the kingdom of heaven

I am very grateful for this assignment and the readings, which have been extremely helpful. A few months ago, my dear dad passed on unexpectedly, and I suddenly felt like I was outside the kingdom of heaven, as if I was in the opposite of heaven. My human experience has been forcing me to pray more deeply and consistently to understand that we are always in the kingdom of heaven. That there is only one kingdom, where we all are, forever, comes through in this statement by Mrs. Eddy: “Where God is we can meet, and where God is we can never part” (Miscellany 131:20–21). 

Although I’ve generally found the book of Revelation a little befuddling, recently I have been struck by its description of the city that “lieth foursquare,” which makes me think of God’s kingdom as complete, lacking nothing. Mrs. Eddy writes: “This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Principle of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets this great example and the great Exemplar. This city of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter” (Science and Health 577:12–21). 

A few months ago, I read an article that contained this quote from Mrs. Eddy, “Nothing is lost that God gives” (Miscellaneous Writings 111:13). I was happy to see it in our citations – this has been helpful in working to overcome a sense of loss. Recognizing that we are currently dwelling in the kingdom of heaven reminds me that there can be no loss here. Someone said to me that my dad just has a “new address” (and I appreciate the thought behind that), but I think his real address – and mine and everyone’s – is and always has been the kingdom of heaven.

I have also found the Lord’s Prayer and its spiritual interpretation increasingly meaningful and comforting – I love its constant reminder that God is our Father (and our Mother) and that God’s kingdom is right here and now, for everyone.

Finding a home in the kingdom of heaven

From the time I was a child, I had a keen sense of the presence of God in my life. Growing up with only an occasional visit to the Orthodox church, my understanding of God was limited. Yet there was something within me that understood it was important to reflect goodness, kindness, patience, love, gratitude and humility. I was 8 years old when my grandfather passed away, and I remember how prayer became an important way for me to draw near to God and find comfort and peace in His presence. That was when my journey of the kingdom of heaven at hand and within began. And where God has taken me through the years is a pure demonstration that “with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).

When I turned 18, I was introduced to an evangelical Christian church, which I attended for over 10 years. There I learned how to study the Bible and what it meant to live your life for God. By my early 30’s, I was looking for something more. When my future husband came into my life, he introduced me to Christian Science. While I absorbed the chapter “Prayer” in Science and Health as absolute Truth, I was hesitant to continue reading, as it was significantly different from what I had been taught and believed at the time. Instead, he encouraged me to read about Mrs. Eddy’s ability to heal others in Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, and it was through this that God illumined my thought and opened me up to the healing Truth that was missing from my Christianity.

Acts 17:28 says, “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” As I ponder this verse, I recall so many demonstrations of what it means to live in the kingdom of heaven. The understanding of this Truth has brought about physical healings that include colds, bladder infections, stomach issues, chronic foot pain, sprained ankle and thumb, menopause, whiplash, headaches, sleeplessness and fatigue, and sciatic pain.

Living in this kingdom of heaven is a daily demonstration of working and praying to “learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, – the reign and rule of universal harmony” (Science and Health 208: 20-23). It means that we are seeking first that which is of God and trusting Him to provide all that is needed in our daily lives. As I have sought to turn to God each day for His purpose to be fulfilled in my life, I have experienced firsthand how “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (Science and Health 494:10-11).

The most significant demonstration of supply was with my husband in our endeavor to buy our own home. This did not come easily or quickly, as we were working to get out of debt from my husband’s going back to school and starting a new career. We also faced the challenge of buying in an expensive housing market. After initially looking at many homes, we prayerfully decided to take a pause and wait for God to lead us. During this time, we were able to pay off all of our debt and save money for a down payment, both of which were only possible through a constant demonstration of God’s supply in ways that were not always monetary.

After a year had passed, we decided to look again. It appeared that it was going to be the same as before, looking at a dozen houses to no avail. Then I turned to a practitioner for support, who helped me to recognize that I first needed an understanding of my spiritual home. As I began to pray about our true home being in Mind and living in the atmosphere of Love, I was able to let God lead, knowing that He was the source of all good, including our earthly home.

Within a month we had found our home in a town where previously we had not looked. The owners were eager to sell, as their house had been on the market for over a year and there were no other offers. Since then, this home has come to bless all who have entered it. But first I needed an understanding of what it meant to live in the kingdom of heaven.

“A new world right where the old one seemed to be”

What is the kingdom within? How can a whole kingdom – the divine creation – be within us? The kingdom within us is spiritual consciousness – when we’re awake to the divine creation, to “a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe” (Retrospection and Introspection 27:29–30), it is necessarily at hand and within. I’m finding it’s important to recognize that because Spirit fills all space and all that God creates is constant and infinite, God’s kingdom is always at hand. But while spiritual consciousness perceives the immediacy of that presence, a mortal sense of things is quite blind to it. Isn’t this exactly what our Leader explains concerning the “new heaven and new earth”? In Science and Health, she writes:

“In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: –

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

“The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth….This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness….When you read this, remember Jesus’ words, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility” (Science and Health 572:19–25; 573:5, 31).

It’s so striking to me that the “consciousness which God bestows” is also “human consciousness.” It’s obviously not mortal mindedness, but it’s also not some transcendental, out-of-reach consciousness. It’s saying that right in our everyday lives we can lay claim to the “consciousness which God bestows,” or, as the Bible exhibit film script stated, we can be spiritually awake and able to “see a new world right where the old one seemed to be.”

But how do we have spiritual consciousness rather than “the unillumined human mind”? Among the essential steps, I would include the following: 

• Claim it: As a manifestation of divine Mind, I have spiritual consciousness, Mind-bestowed consciousness.

• Daily devote time and fullness of heart to prayer, spiritual study, and communing with God.

• Remember that we’re not trying to bring spiritual understanding into a material context; rather, we are striving to be awake to the true context of all being– God’s allness. That’s where we “live and move and have our being” and that’s the kingdom at hand and within.

• Handle aggressive mental suggestions and don’t get hoodwinked.

• Expect spiritual progress, while also recognizing that “trials are proofs of God’s care.”

• Be patient; be persistent; be grateful.

• Live the love that God gives.

A holy night for sure

Thank you for the assignment on the kingdom of heaven. The readings and the work associated with this assignment have been very much needed and appreciated by me. This assignment has also made me tune in to how often the kingdom of heaven is included in our Lesson-Sermons!

As the one Mind would have it, my branch church invited Mark McCurties to speak early this spring for our lecture. His subject was “Meaningful Change for Ourselves and the World.” I found the talk very impactful in addressing my own concerns about politics and world issues.

Mark opened by talking about the kingdom of heaven and said that Jesus’ “mission statement” as he began his ministry (after his temptations in the wilderness) was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mark discussed the true meaning of the word repent as “change” or “think again.” He told how praying to change his own thought had brought about harmony in several situations and said we can do the same as we think about seemingly intractable situations in the world and in our own lives. Mark said that to correctly identify ourselves, we need to identify ourselves as God knows us, which is what Jesus came to show us. As Mrs. Eddy points out in her well-loved statement on p. 476 of Science and Health, “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.”

In my role as First Reader in my branch church, I was led to prepare readings for a Wednesday night meeting on the subject of the kingdom of heaven, and was able to incorporate portions of the Sermon on the Mount. The readings seemed to be well-received, and a busy and substantial testimony period followed. Hymns 204, 572, and 485 resonated with peace and uplift as we sang them. I really felt we were experiencing the kingdom of heaven during that meeting, as there was a warmth and glow of love that pervaded the sanctuary. There were hugs and other expressions of love following the service. A holy night for sure.

In general, I am more and more grateful for the excellent teaching we received from Skip and am trying to be more alive to the fact that I am well-trained in spiritual endeavors and spiritual understanding, and thus equal to the task of healing and seeing through matter’s many suggestions. A couple of sentences on the wall of The Mother Church so impressed me that I took a photo of the engraving and had a print of it framed for my little First Reader’s room at church: “If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love can unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering and a sense of ease antidotes it, disease is mental, not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone suffers, is sick, and the divine Mind alone heals” (Science and Health 270:26). From this I see that in order to heal, Mind must lead us out of any misguided suggestions that the human mind can conjure up. And that I need to trust Mind to be omnipotent and equal to all that may be required.