THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH
LECTURE

Affirming the Good

© The School of Truth
Source p. 334, Dec 2005 / Jan 2006 - The Path of Truth

It is gratifying to us when students tell us of their successes in overcoming difficulties and problems. But there are some who apparently have failed.

For example there was a successful businessman whose health was troubling him. His stumbling block was that he approached Truth with the mind of a businessman. He was firmly convinced that you get nothing unless you pay something for it. If you are going to get money or any advantage, you have to do something in exchange. He took that notion consciously or unconsciously into everything he tried to do with Truth. When he could find no way of "paying" for what he needed he began to lose faith.

Then there is the guilt complex. These people have been taught since childhood that they are sinful and cannot expect any blessing from God unless they have conformed to a standard set by somebody who is presumed to lay down God's law. Because of wrong things they feel they have done in the past they see their present difficulty as a necessary punishment. Sometimes they are not even conscious of their attitude.

There are others who fail to release God's good because they think they are using the wrong "technique" in their approach to Him. They believe that only through prolonged study will they find the way. They tell us at the School that our approach is too "simple", that they need something more "advanced". We tell them that simplicity is the key to Truth, that the more simple your faith the sooner is God's good released in them.

Take the small child who is on his way to bed. He looks up at the dark stairway and is afraid, so he calls his dad, who comes along and takes his hand. After that he doesn't care how dark it is because Dad is there and everything is safe. If we become like that, if we can confidently and with childlike faith place our hand in God's hand, and say we don't care how dark it is, even if He remains a power we cannot define, we go forwards and our Good is released.

People report to us that they read in our magazine how others have experienced their good almost immediately, while they themselves have been trying unsuccessfully for months and months. But in simple trust is no need to argue whys and wherefores, no need for metaphysical hairsplitting. The important thing is: Do you believe in the power of God and His willingness to help you? The centurion went to the Master to heal a servant and the Master offered to go to his home, but the Centurion said it was not necessary, that he knew authority when he saw it because he himself commanded authority, and that it would be sufficient for the Master to say the word and the servant would be healed. That should be our attitude.

If you will say to yourself "I don't know how this thing works and it doesn't matter how it works. I only believe that it does work" then you will grow very rapidly in Truth.

Do not wait until you get into a predicament before you try to find faith. Start with little things in your experience and say "I am going to overcome by the power of prayer." Realise that the little job you have to do, however small or seemingly unimportant, can be done better under the guidance of God. Claim that you will prosper in this effort and then go ahead trustfully and do your part. You won't experience any "Divine signs", but you will be reminded at the right times of things you seem to have forgotten. Once you become conscious that you have All-power working with you, protecting and guiding you in all that you do, nothing will make you afraid. In practice it is enough to take the simplest view, that "Christ promised and therefore it is really as good as done."

People find it hard to dispel the idea that there are two powers in the universe - good and evil. They have been conditioned to accept the reality of a power of evil which is forever trying to pull them back as they climb the hill of life. But there is no such thing. The only devil is in our own minds and hearts. There is only one Power, God the Good, and you have nothing to fight against. You must dispel the illusion, just as when you turn on the light in a dark room you find the darkness isn't there. It never was there.

Remember the words of the Master "Whatever you ask in prayer you will receive, if you have faith." "Faith" means keeping your mind and heart stayed on Good alone. Where it is necessary for you to make an effort you will be guided to make that effort, and where it is necessary for somebody else to bring your good to you he will bring it. You set up the cause within yourself. But by the same measure, if you continually set up a negative cause, then you will be met by nothingness. You cannot blame God.

Fear is the one great obstacle to success - fear that God is not going to answer, or that there is some power that will prevent God's good from coming to you in time. You may become so desparate that you contemplate suicide, but when you examine your attitude you find that you haven't been trusting God at all. You have been making affirmations, and becoming even more tense. In fact your affirmations have become inverted and you experience the opposite of what you think you have been affirming.

When we teach you to affirm the good we do not mean affirming with set teeth and clenched hands. Nor, when we teach "Let go and let God" do we mean you should drop into an easy chair and say "Well, that's that - there is nothing more for me to do about it." Affirmation is a process of educating your mind to keep out the negative thoughts that are pulling you down. Letting go means letting go of the problem as a problem. If you have God you have all you need. If you want wealth you want God, if you want health you want God, if you want protection and deliverance from your difficulties, you want God. When you experience the Presence of God you have all things which are good, all the things that you need in your life here and now.

Imagine you were experiencing a great difficulty and you met a certain man and said to him "This is my particular problem, and I can see no way out. Everything seems to be lost. But I understand that you can help me." And suppose you knew the man could help you and he said "Yes, certainly, leave this to me and I'll put it right. Now you go and do this and that and keep calm. I'll fix it all up." How would you feel? Your attitude would be one of continuing gratitude. You would say to yourself "Thank God I found that man in time. Thank God he is going to put things right. I can't see how he will do it but I know he will." And your main thought all the time would be "My problem is now solved."

Now that is what we mean when we tell you to keep on affirming. We give you a constructive thought, which is the same as saying that your problem, whatever it is, is now solved by the Power of God. It, together with gratitude, remain in the background of your consciousness day after day. Remember, the man has told you to leave it to him - he is going to fix it up. You don't run after him asking when he is going to do it or how, or whether he is going to charge you to do it. You confidently leave everything to him.

Similarly, when you plant seeds in the earth, you leave the growing to the power we call Nature. You do your part in planting the seeds and caring for them. That is what "Let go and let God" means. You keep your mind and heart in a state of positive gratitude and leave the results to God. You cannot drag out of God something He does not want to give you. We have been told over and over again that God is far more willing to give to us than we are ready to receive. Over the years we in The School of Truth have seen God honour that promise in countless cases. He will honour it in your case too. We have seen people on the verge of nervous collapse and have seen them restored in matters of hours. He can do that for you. We have seen so-called incurable diseases put right by the power of prayer. That can happen to you. Nothing that happens in your life is beyond God's power to heal, to put right. It does not matter how it arose. If you really trust God, and back it with gratitude, He protects you.

The promises are: "In due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart," and "You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart." Accept these promises at face value, take it that God means precisely what He says, and apply the promises to your own problem, whatever it is.

(Ref. POT 8408)

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