IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 192

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part iv)

We began yesterday as we will again today, with our list of four sayings by the Master that give to us the greater understanding that it is within our ken and our power to do the works that He did and which set forth for us the several requirements for doing such. Remember that we are here talking about those greater works which range up to and include the moving of the mountain. This idea of moving the mountain is thought by many to be said as an example of doing something difficult and this is true but it is also true that the Master told us that we could do this certain thing if we were the have that degree of believing and would have no doubt; that is, to plainly KNOW that we could do it. And these are the requirements; that we have Faith and we believe, doubting nothing. In the saying of the Master from the Gospel of John that we list as number two we find the way by which we can come to this point of Faith and believing and doubting nothing and this is in our ability to believe on the Master which we interpret into a combination of the saying by Vincent; to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life⁴ plus our own simple understanding of to follow Him and to keep His words. 

1. “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).
2. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
3. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).
4. “…for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20).

Except for the third point, which we have discussed in the last two posts, and to which we have given a meaning of the Master’s instructions to us showing the actual workings of the Power of God as they work out in our individual lives. Simply put it is the Spirit, represented as and by the Father, that is Pure and at ONE with God and in whose Light the Soul exists as the manifestation of that Spirit being the Christ, the Son, the Christ Within, who is Pure and unblemished. It is the Soul that reveals the Good, the Beautiful and the True to the consciousness of a man and it is through this Light of the Soul, which grows ever brighter as we focus on the Christ and the Christ Within, that the Soul encourages us to follow the teachings of the Master and to keep His words. It is within this revealing of the Son that we gain the continuing revelation that brings us closer and closer to that point of True Faith and True believing and to that place where we have no doubt. What the Master speaks of here is the fullness of the Christ Within expressing through the conscious personality; He is talking about the fullness of being accounted worthy of His Presence and His Kingdom as men. This fullness is what is necessary to be capable of moving the mountain and of doing the “greater works than these” which He had done here on Earth; this is the culmination of doing what He tells us that we should do as “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). There can be no other state of being in this world with which one could be trusted to yield such power and it is only in this perfection that it is possible.

With these thoughts in mind we have made a separation of the miracles of the Master so as to group those which concern His power over His own nature and His ability to cure and to heal people as individuals which we are presented with in the gospels. In the arena of cures and healings we found two distinct types; the one which called the person being healed,  or his representative as in the case of the centurion, into the act of healing itself by Faith and forgiveness. In the other we found that the Master healed at His own discretion, either out of compassion or as a part of the teaching that He was giving to those who were there. Both of these are within the area of miracles that the Master TOLD His disciples that they should do when He sent them out as the twelve and as the seventy (or seventy two) and it is here that we ended yesterday, with His commands to them as to how they were to live and act. Using the most direct record, from Luke’s Gospel, of the Master’s instructions to the disciples we see that He says “Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart” (Luke 9:3-4).

We noted yesterday that this is thought of by some as to be a lesson to His disciples; Rev. Hartdegen tells us that: here, by forbidding His Apostles to possess more that was required for present use, our Lord teaches the lesson of poverty and dependence upon divine Providence¹⁰. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible⁸, tells us: Now these several things were forbidden them, partly because they would be burdensome to them in travelling; and partly because they were not to be out any long time, but were quickly to return again; and chiefly to teach them to live and depend upon divine providence⁸. Both of these are of course suppositions by the writers and we have our own ideas on this which do not include poverty as a teaching by the Master nor do they provide for reliance on Providence. We should understand that the disciples may have had these things is a distinct possibility else why should the Master address these as issues; the point Jesus makes is that they should not bring them with them on this journey. There is confusion in the disagreement of the lists as we saw yesterday and this is where many of the commentaries spend their time, many without noticing our point which is that the Master is sending forth His disciples to do as He did, as His surrogates, who, having made themselves Pure, are able to express the Light of the Soul, the Christ Within, to the world. He sent them out to be a testimony to His teachings as well and instructs them so that they would do and act as He does and as He teaches; humble and meek and in the spirit of Love. His instructions ensure that they should have no worldly advantage over any that they could meet; that they could not be seen as proudly standing in a fresh coat and shoes with staff in hand nor selecting the best house to go to nor changing houses for one better, for a higher room. He tells them as He tells us:  to go out among the people as servants and nothing more and to “to preach the kingdom of God”; He tells us all that “freely ye have received , freely give” (Matthew 10:8).

Jesus goes to great lengths to teach us the true nature of the spiritual idea of serving and of being a servant and it is in this humbleness and meekness that we can Truly express the Christ Within. Any other attitude of the conscious personality will only serve to block out the Light from the the Soul and this is True whether one’s attitude is spiritually oriented or not. The Apostles James and Peter both tell us, quoting scripture, that “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5) and there are many ways in which pride can strike us. Again, the lesson given by the Master in sending out His disciples is one of serving and doing so in humbleness and meekness and at the same time expecting nothing in return except that to know that to whatever house they should go that they should be received and then to be content with whatsoever place that they are in. On being a servant the Master has many sayings and we repeat a few here for the clarity of His intent it being the antithesis of pride:

• Speaking to His disciples alone Jesus says: “… it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).
• Speaking to the gathered multitudes the Master says: “Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:10-12).
• Speaking to His disciples alone, responding to their own disputation of who is greatest, the Master says: “And he sat down , and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:35) .
• After washing the disciples feet as an example of service, Jesus says: “The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him” (John 13:16).

There should be no question as the the Masters intent in sending forth His twelve and His seventy (or seventy two), that they were to serve as He did, that they were to go in humility and in meekness as He did, and that they would, in the Spirit of Love, to preach the Kingdom of God.

Now all of this is merely to set the stage for our proper understanding of these miracles which these men went forth to do and to show that it is in the following of the Master and in the keeping of His words, which is really all that the above instructions represent, that they found, and we can find, the Light sufficient to do these things and to do them predictably. Within this word predictably lies the KNOWING that comes from one’s ability to believe and not doubt and, to complete our circle, the source of this KNOWING is found in following Him and keeping His words.

So we have these men, His disciples, going forth around the countryside and healing and curing and we know not whether these things are done individually as person to person as in our examples from yesterday or if they could have been done en masse which is our next topic in regard to miracles. The en masse healings of the Master are not much spoken of as compared to the specific healing and cures that are itemized in scripture save the healing of the ten lepers. These present a different and a unique type of healing which is also within our ability albeit likely of a more advanced state of being. Let us look at it this way; the individual healings are the direction of ‘healing power’ toward a specific individual and can be with the cooperation and the assistance of the one being healed, by their faith, or can be as a solitary act of healer. In both cases there is within this healing power the ability the change the physical realm as regards that person being healed. There are many reports of these types in the world, the remissions of cancer, the disappearance of tumors and growths, the restructuring of limbs and the restoring of sight; even the restoration of life itself. From all the testimony we should have no doubt at all that this ‘supernatural’ power exists and is capable of being used and the only difference between these and the healings and cures of the Master and the disciples is that for them these things are predictable. We do not know what it is that allows healings in the world today for some who need and want it and not for others and why only some of the time. We should see from above however the nature of that predictable healing and the awesome responsibility that comes with it. These healings that we are speaking of in the world today are unpredictable and are not nearly understood by those that do them nor by those that receive them and they are most all of an individual nature.

Of the en masse healings of the Master we have several occurrences and the nature of some of them is clouded by the words used by each writer. We can say however that these are above and beyond the scope of the healings and the cures that we have up to now discussed by the Master and His disciples. When the writer says “and He healed them all” we can but imagine what maladies there were afflicting the people concerned as there is no one to tell us except in generalities. Some of these include:

• “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them” (Matthew 4:23-24).
• “And Jesus went forth , and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14).
• “And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all” (Luke 6:17-19).
• “And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing” (Luke 9:11).
• “And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed” (Luke 17:12-14)

Except for the ten lepers we do not have any of the specifics of healing. We know of the ten that they were “afar off” and were healed by the Master’s word. We know from Luke that people sought to touch Him and that “there went virtue out of him”; we don’t know if all touched Him but we do know that He “healed them all“. Was this a great wave of healing power, virtue as it is translated,  flowing from the Master? We don’t know but we can surmise some about it based on Luke’s writing for us in the Book of Acts regarding the Apostle Peter which we will state here and begin with in the next post.

“Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:15-16).

Note on the Quote of the Day

If you are awake in the presence of a master
One moment will show you the way.
The fool is his own enemy.
The mischief is his undoing.
How bitterly he suffers!
Why do what you will regret?
Why bring tears upon yourself?
Do only what you do not regret,
And fill yourself with joy.
For a while the fool's mischief
Tastes sweet, sweet as honey.
Bit in the end it turns bitter.
And how bitterly he suffers!
For months the fool may fast,
Eating from the tip of a grass blade.
Still he is not worth a penny 
Beside the master whose food is the way.
Fresh milk takes time to sour.
So a fool's mischief
Takes time to catch up with him.
Like the embers of a fire
It smolders within him.
Whatever a fool learns,
It only makes him duller.
Knowledge cleaves his head.
For then he wants recognition.
A place before other people,
A place over other people.
"Let them know my work,
Let everyone look to me for direction."
Such are his desires,
Such is his swelling pride.
One way leads to wealth and fame, 
The other to the end of the way.
Look not for recognition 
But follow the awakened
And set yourself free.