The Mystery of Power
Nona L. Brooks
Mysteries,
1924.
Divine Science Federation
Int’l
3rd Printing, 1977.
Copyright Material
Reprinted by Permission
What is
power? Is it a quality brought into
existence in the individual life by the
touch of a magic wand? Where is the
mystery of the powerful life? Is this
mystery to be revealed only to the few?
Power is an inherency of infinite Life.
The sons of God are inherently powerful,
because Father and Son are one. To many
people it is a mystery that we do not
demonstrate that power which we are. Let
us set about to fathom this mystery.
Power lies within ourselves; we do not
find it in outer things. It must become a
realization. The worthwhile life is the
powerful life. What do we mean by the
term worthwhile? The life, so lived from
day to day that each day brings the
richest possible returns, is the life
worthwhile. What do I mean by the richest
possible returns? The best
accomplishment, the truest attainment,
the highest realization, that each one in
his stage of development is capable of
reaching, are the richest returns. How
shall we accomplish, attain, and realize
our best? There is only one way--in right
use of present attainment.
The day
worthwhile is the one that is dedicated
to the giving of our best, so that when
the time of quiet comes at its close and
we think over the day’s work, we
see that the hours have been spent in
service, accomplishment, and unfoldment
into greater realization. Let us come to
the close of day with such assurance of
God’s presence and power that we
are richly blessed in consciousness.
How shall we
live the day so that it will bless us? To
get the best out of each day we must put
our best into it. We must carry into the
day the right attitude toward the events
of every hour. The power within us is the
divine gift, and endows us with the
greatest of all blessings, the
opportunity to express. Our highest duty
is to make sure that what we put into the
day is the best there is in us to
give.
When I say
that we must have a right attitude
towards the events of the day, I mean
that we must react toward the process of
life spelled with a small p with the same
faith, love, and joy that we do toward
Process, spelled with a capital P. Let us
have faith in the external experience,
seeing it as an expression of law. If we
are willing to take our best to the
day’s experiences, we shall carry
away from them a richness of insight, a
fullness of consciousness, a satisfying
awareness that, after all, these were
good. Let us keep the prayer of
affirmation always in our hearts and on
our lips: "Father, we have the faith to
meet every experience, be it positive or
negative, apparently ill or good, with
the quiet confidence and poise that only
communion with Thee can possibly give to
the sons of God."
"How," do
you say, "shall I react toward the
experiences of the day with love?" Love
is an attitude that we establish through
sensing the unity of all life. If we
truly love, we see that the events of the
day belong to us; in fact, these bring us
a message from the Father. We hear the
voice of Spirit saying, "Here is my right
place, and I can fulfill with fullness
any obligation that the law reveals as
mine." Then, shall we meet our work with
love, the consciousness of unity which
shows us that the external is by law, and
not by chance. We have little difficulty
in thinking of the internal or spiritual
process, as the God-Process. Remember,
first and last, that all is one; hence
shall we not think of the outer as the
Process manifesting in human
experience?
There are
those who have the attitude of faith and
love, but they fail to live joyfully. Of
all the lights that shine from the human
face or from any other God-Expression joy
shines farthest out to sea. It is the
light of the world. The gloomy man is not
the powerful man, because the light of
God within him is not shining forth. Let
there be joy---joy in the inner Process;
joy in the events of the day, the outer
process.
The man who
goes to his day’s work enriched
with the attitude of faith, love, and joy
is the strong man whose influence has
been felt in the uplifting process of the
world through ages of progression. He is
the one who rejoices to run the race of
progress. He is the one who meets the day
in the spirit of a man out on a divine
adventure. He is one with the best in all
experience. His days might be likened to
those spent in a gymnasium; tests of
strength present themselves. He rejoices
because the power to meet these tests
with integrity and completeness is within
him--his God heritage, as the son of
Power. He does not falter before the most
difficult tasks; he rejoices in the power
that he has to meet the tasks well; and
his day abounds in good for himself and
for others.
In order to
keep the triune attitude of faith, love,
and joy in the inner and in the outer, we
must have a right philosophy of life, a
scientific method of procedure, and a
deep religious experience. Since these
are the elements that combine to bring a
realization of power, let us consider
them well. What constitutes a true
philosophy of life? The philosopher is a
lover of wisdom; the philosophy of the
ages is the story of man’s search
for the meaning of life. He who loves
wisdom never leaves it behind him; he
applies it to the day’s experiences
as Jesus, who taught the true philosophy
of life during his ministry, did. Jesus
showed us that there is one Father, and
that all men are brothers; also that
principle is the foundation of all true
living. His was the wisdom of the ages,
and his life exemplifies the meaning of
the attitude of faith, love, and joy
applied to daily living.
Let us work
out in our own lives the Jesus
philosophy. His working basis was unity,
brotherhood, if you will. Have you ever
thought of living as a privilege? That is
what Jesus did. The days bring us
opportunities for the realization of our
sonship in service and of meeting
experience in the spirit of unity. The
morning light of every day is a call to
go forth with poise, faith, love, joy, to
meet the day with its experiences--all
good if we but understand.
He who would
live powerfully must have a scientific
method--a way by which he can carry his
ideals of Fatherhood and brotherhood into
action. Many great souls have seen the
unity of life, but they have not attained
to the realization of it. God’s
ways are certain; he is working out the
good of the whole. He is doing it by law
or method. “Order is heaven’s
first law.” Since unity is the
basic principle of universal expression,
let us base our living, our thinking, and
our doing upon this law. When we live
true to basis the hard experiences of the
external pass away, and our days grow
restful, free, and full of joy. That
which we experience in the spirit of
unity cannot limit us.
The first
two steps, then, toward the realization
of power are an attitude of faith, love,
and joy, and a true method, the practice
of those qualities which are the basis of
our attitude. Method means practicing the
Presence continually; in other words, it
means seeing all men as brothers and all
life as one. All men are members of one
family, and the family name is Christ.
Jesus and Paul used the Christ method. It
is true that there are in this family
many prodigals; but these may go home as
soon as they are tired of the husks, for
the Father’s attitude is one of
expectancy.
A working
philosophy and a scientific method are
requisite to the one who would live a
worthwhile life; but there is still
something bigger. Men may see the meaning
of experience, and practice the truly
scientific method in thinking and doing,
but they must take one more step in order
to live the life of power; there must be
a religious experience. This is
fundamental in all worthful living. If
mankind is persistent, and true to the
vision of oneness, there comes the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the
basic experience; without it life is cold
and mechanical. Hold to your philosophy;
train your thinking; but think and act so
that the great religious experience of
the baptism of the Holy Spirit will come
upon you. As we live faithful to the
divine trust, and practice steadfastly,
persistently, and consistently the
Presence of God in our daily experiences
and in our thinking, we come to the great
moment in which the Holy Spirit descends
upon us as it did upon them of old. Our
lives are transformed. In that great
moment we are fully conscious of
God’s Presence; we stand in the
realization of this consciousness. Life
is manifestly wonderful, glorious, free,
and rich every day and all days.
True
attitude and right method are necessary;
it is well to keep our affirmations true
to principle. This is a means to an end.
The end is illumination which means inner
vision--perfect seeing. Remember we
cannot put on the Holy Spirit, although
we may use the words--descend upon us,
because our fathers used them to express
what we are meaning now: a realization of
the presence and power of God within and
without. Baptism--and we say that we are
baptized of the Holy Spirit--is an inner
realization. We are baptized in the name
or nature of God, the Father, and of the
Eternal Son. We rise to the heights; we
stand with Jesus on the Mount of
Consciousness, and experience the baptism
of the Spirit which shows us that God is
All.
Glorified by
the baptism of the Spirit we go forth
powerfully equipped to meet life. The day
is filled with God. This is the secret of
power; it is the only way to attain. We
are not speaking here of personal power,
the power of domination. This is not The
Power. Power that has its source in
individual formulation is temporary
power. It blesses neither the possessor
of it nor his associates. True power is
the realization that God is the only
power. The powerful man is the man who
has made his unity with God and man.
There arises from this inner realization
of the unity of life a mighty radiation
which we call power. It is the power that
Jesus demonstrated. It is the power that
will raise the world. The man who
radiates this kind of power has a great
influence upon his fellow men; he does
not identify with their weaknesses, but
he blesses them with his consciousness of
their strength. To those who think of
themselves as weak he gives courage, as
Jesus did. He refuses to recognize
weakness as our heritage, but he helps
those who cannot rise alone. Jesus fed
the multitude spiritually and physically;
he demonstrated power on every hand,
because he realized that of himself he
could do nothing, but that the Father
worked through him. What Jesus did we can
do, if we consecrate our lives to
acknowledging God in all our ways--to
practicing the Presence without
ceasing.
Jesus
applied the principle of unity in every
experience of the day. He blessed not
only those whom he touched in person, but
he is blessing the world after nearly two
thousand years. He was conscious that the
Father was doing the work, and that his
responsibility was consecrated
cooperation. Jesus taught us that in the
consciousness of God we can do all
things.
He accepted
the principle of Omnipresence, and lived
his life in accordance with it. Are there
those who wish to follow in his
footsteps? Let us suppose that there is
someone young in this thought who wished
to live the Christ life. I would say to
him, "Keep the faith; be consistent;
practice integrity; keep up the simple
practice of affirming the Presence moment
by moment." The exercise of affirming is
uplifting; it sets the trend of our
thinking in the right direction. We often
think that because we have studied for
five, ten, or fifteen years, we may let
go a little now and then and not be so
watchful of our thinking. I have studied
for thirty-six years, and I find that as
surely as I think that I know a great
deal, and can afford to be less faithful,
I come up against experiences that make
me turn to my simple exercises of the
affirmation that wisdom, strength, love,
power, and joy are God’s intent for
me.
If we wish
to live a rich day, before rising in the
morning, let us set the thermometer of
our thought for the day. Many of us feel
that we have not the time. We have time
for our other appointments; what about
the one with God, which should be kept
first? The early morning is the time to
set the hands of my thought-watch at
Truth. Every moment is my moment to think
the right thought--yes, it is; but the
moment of solitude which morning affords
may not recur in the course of the day.
It is precious; let us use it, and look
out upon the day as a process of
progressive action, saying to ourselves.
"Every moment of this day is filled with
good, with joy, and with abundant
supply."
The day is
rich with blessings to the one who sees
his relation to God. His is the day of
power. The day of power makes rich
returns, for it is based upon an endeavor
to realize God’s Presence in every
event and experience of the hours.
Each one of
us has the little things that often
require more wisdom and power to meet
than do the big things. The mother, the
housekeeper, the business man, the
teacher--all who serve have their
difficulties. How are these difficulties
to be met? Shall we let the day with its
experiences shape our thinking, or shall
we by our thinking shape the events of
the day? Think well on this before
rising. We may be irritated or we may be
peaceful. Which shall it be? Choose
carefully, because today is forecasting
tomorrow. As we live by Principle we meet
the big things and the little things with
poise and power, and build character for
every day. Do not become identified with
the wrong condition that confronts you;
make it right first; then make your unity
with it.
Moment by
moment we live; moment by moment we
think. If our thinking is optimistic,
constructive, and right, and our doing is
consistent with it, we shall find the day
an opportunity for development. A day met
with faith, love, and joy is the best
preparation for the next day. Make the
day worthwhile; make it a day of activity
and of overcoming, and tomorrow will be
richer as a result of your attitude
today. So let us pass through life making
the days worthwhile to ourselves and to
others certain that the law is perfect at
every point, rejoicing in the good of the
whole, and as a consequence, realizing
heaven every day. Thus shall we pass on
into the open court, the place of freedom
and power. With the morning light let us
consecrate ourselves to living true to
the principle of unity, to practicing the
scientific method of thinking, and the
great religious experience shall be ours.
Jesus says, "Ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Spirit has come upon
you."
Why have men
believed that power was mysterious? It is
simply because they have not known what
power is. The mystery is in ourselves.
The solution is in ourselves--that is, in
our realization that all power in heaven
and earth is ours, if we understand the
Source of power.
* * * * *
Mysteries
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