WE INCREASE our vitality by blessing and giving thanks in spirit. To bring about this increase efficiently we must understand the anatomy of the soul and mind centers in the body.
It has been found by experience that a person increases
his blessings by being grateful for what he has. Gratitude even on the mental plane is a great magnet, and when gratitude is expressed from the spiritual standpoint it is powerfully augmented. The custom of saying grace at the table has its origin in man's attempt to use this power of increase.
A woman who had been left with a large family and no visible means of support related in an experience meeting how wonderfully this law had worked in providing food for her children. In her extremity she had asked the advice of one who understood the law, and she had been told to thank God silently for abundant supply on her table, regardless of appearances. She and her children began doing this, and in a short time the increase of food was so great at times that it astonished them. Her grocer's bill was met promptly, and in most marvelous ways the family was supplied with food. Never after that time did they lack.
In all its work the I AM (Christ) uses the faculties of the mind. The I AM is Spirit, and it cannot move directly on substance or formed states of consciousness. It uses the spiritual faculties as its agents. The name Philip means "power," and Jesus appealed to Philip to know how these hungry "thoughts" or people were to be fed. Jesus did this to "prove him." This means that power is still under the limitations of sense. It looks on the visible supply and judges its capacity from that viewpoint. Andrew (strength), brother of Peter (faith), has a slight perception of true supply on the seven-sense
plane of consciousness (represented as the lad with five loaves and two fishes). This is a good beginning for the I AM. If you have a consciousness of the capacity that is involved in the natural man's sevenfold nature, you have a good foundation on which to build the twelvefold or spiritual man.
Having quickened your idea of power and strength in universal Spirit, you "sit down" or center your forces within you and begin to bless and give thanks. In divine order you make connection with the universal, vital energy of Being and fill your whole consciousness with vitality. The surplus energy settles back into the various centers as reserve force (the twelve baskets that remained over). Thus you learn to live by "the living bread which came down out of heaven," the very flesh or substance of eternal life.
Jesus and His disciples were on a mountain when this great increase of substance took place, which indicates a high state of consciousness. An eminent British scientist, Sir James Jeans, says that it may be that the gods that determine our fates are our own minds acting on our brain cells and through them on the world about us. Here is stated a profound truth that, accepted and tested, will demonstrate supply to meet every need. Science says that we live in an invisible ether pregnant with the essence of all visible things, that this essence is wrapped up in the atom, and that it awaits an as yet undiscovered law to set it free. Jesus knew the law and through Him we may know it. In World War II science used this power in the destructive atom bomb. Jesus used
it constructively in feeding the five thousand.
Spirit always has the power and the ability to handle any situation. Jesus knew His time had not yet come. He had not yet developed the spiritual power necessary to meet the many demands made on Him. The way out was to withdraw from public work for a season. Those who are evolving spiritually know whether or not they are equal to certain demands made on them, and they withdraw to the within for further spiritual realization and power.
To walk on the sea as Jesus did, without sinking down into the waves, required established faith in the power of Spirit.
We cannot walk on the waves of life in our
own personal strength. If we remember to call on the strength of Christ we are sustained by unlimited power, by the real self.
Here the multitudes (meaning a multitude of thoughts) are really seeking comfort and consolation ("they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus"). They had entered into that inner conviction of the abiding compassion and restoring power of God.
In the universal Mind principle, which Jesus called "the Father," there is a substance that also includes the mother or seed of all visible substance. It is the only real substance because it is unchangeable, while the visible substance is in constant transition.
The origin or source of all substance is the idea of substance. It is purely spiritual and can be apprehended only by the mind. It is never visible to the eye, nor can it be sensed by man through any of the bodily faculties. Bible authorities say that the Almighty God in Genesis should have been translated
El Shaddai, "the breasted one." Thus God is found to include both the male and the female principle.
When the mind has centered its attention on this idea of substance long enough and strongly enough, it generates the consciousness of substance, and through the powers of the various faculties of the mind in right relation it can form visible substance. Jesus in this way brought into visibility the loaves and fishes to feed the five thousand.
But this faculty of dealing with ideas is open to all men and women. It is not given to privileged persons and withheld from all others.
Jesus knew this, and He also knew that every man must center his attention on this spiritual substance and bring forth its fruits, just as He did. But those whose attention has long been centered in things visible are slow to appreciate this fact.
Jesus fed the multitude in an easy way, and they followed Him over the sea in boats apparently in order to get more food; at least that is the motive Jesus attributed to them.
Then He tells them plainly that they must not labor for the food that perishes but for the food that "abideth unto eternal life."
When they asked how they should do these "works of God" or so-called miracles, He said, "Believe on him whom he hath sent." One translation says, "Believe in him." Man is to believe in the spiritual presence of the living God even as one "sent"; that is, entered into the consciousness.
All shall attain who believe or have faith in the spiritual source of life. Whoever comes to this Christ
realm in the heavens all about us will be moved by its will, which is the will of the Father. There will be no loss, no failure in this realm, and whoever enters into the Mind of Spirit will have poured out to him its life essence and be wholly raised up from material conditions when arriving at the "last day" (the last degree of understanding).
Moses caused manna to fall from heaven to feed the Children of Israel. The body of Christ is a spiritual substance that we incorporate into consciousness through faith out of the heavens of mind. That the food we eat has a spiritual source is proved by those who fast in spiritual faith much longer and easier than those who are forced to starve.
Jesus said, "It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." Being, the original fount, is an impersonal principle; but in its work of creation it puts forth an idea that contains all ideas: the Logos, Word, Christ, the Son of God, or spiritual man. This spiritual man or Christ or Word of God is the true inner self of every individual. Man therefore contains within himself the capacities of Being, and through his words uses the creative principle in forming his environment, good or bad. So we make our own heaven or hell.
The ideas that make words constructive are those of life, love, wisdom, substance, power, strength, and all other ideas that express divine attributes. Words carrying the life idea produce a vitalizing and life-giving effect. Words that express divine love are harmonizing and unifying in their effect.
Words are made active in the body through their receptivity by the mind and are carried into the body through the subconsciousness by one's thought. Constructive words that renew the body are made a part of the body consciousness by prayer and meditation. These are the words that are Spirit and give life.
Many people start out to walk in the light of Spirit, to unfold Truth, but they become entangled in their own misgivings and disbelief and therefore
return to their old limited way of life.
After these events Jesus went to Galilee (the "whirl of life"), for He did not walk in Judea (praise) because the Jews sought to kill him. The Jews (the Pharisaical Jews in this instance) believed in the letter of the law rather than the spirit.
