Christian healing and the Mind of Christ

THERE is every indication that the words and works of the Master, Christ Jesus, were directed by divine intelligence. The Mind to which he turned for inspiration and guidance -- which enabled him to perceive the very heart of an individual and to minister so precisely to that person's need that healing and regeneration followed -- must certainly have been God, the divine Mind. Prayer in Christian Science involves turning to God as the source of all true intelligence and then humbly listening for and faithfully following divine Mind's leadings. Prayer in Christian Science isn't a matter of trying to convince oneself of God's presence and power through willful assertions or repetition of certain words or phrases -- a sort of metaphysical self-hypnosis. Nor is it the mere projecting of good thoughts or positive mental images onto the body. It isn't one human mind controlling another through mental suggestion. Christian Scientists take these words of Christ Jesus quite literally with regard to healing: ``I can of mine own self do nothing.''1

The prayer we're speaking of is based on what divine Mind, the source of all true power, is asserting and causing to be. It is the nature of God as Mind to reveal Himself, to communicate to us His impartial love and presence and power and the reality of our true being as His image and likeness. What comes to us from God during prayer is, very simply, the truth that heals.

The focus of Christian Science treatment is always on spiritual truth. Jesus said, ``Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.''2 He didn't recommend a mental process whereby we focus on the trouble, probing and analyzing it to discover an underlying mental cause. Although he sometimes disclosed hidden mental conditions such as fear or sinfulness, this perception was the result of his prayerful communion with the Father; and complete healing (in those cases when it was being sought) quickly followed.

Merely recognizing the mental cause underlying a trouble doesn't, of itself, eliminate either the cause or the trouble. Nor are we always able, through sheer strength of character, to let go of fears or anxieties. This is why we need Christ, the saving Truth that Jesus so fully exemplified.

Christ is the healing power of divine Mind, which we find in our consciousness when we are receptive. As we respond to this divine influence, allowing our thoughts and lives to be corrected and transformed by it, healing and regeneration follow as a natural result. We find ourselves made new, in a very real sense, both mentally and physically. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: ``The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or `God with us,' -- a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, To preach deliverance to the captives

[of sense], And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are

bruised.''3

The teachings of Christian Science are distinctly Christian. They concur with the Scriptures, which make clear that Christian healing depends for its effectiveness on a source outside and above the human mentality -- the Mind of Christ.

1John 5:30. 2John 8:32. 3Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi.

You can find more articles about spiritual healing in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Jeremiah 17:14