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The healing all-presence of God

Getting to know God, divine Spirit, as the ever-present source of all that’s good and true is a powerful starting point for prayer that heals.

  • By Mark Swinney

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
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A friend of mine had been suffering from a debilitating fever and couldn’t do anything for herself. When I learned of this, a particular line from the Bible’s book of Psalms sprang into my thoughts: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (46:1).

The word “present” stood out to me, and I recognized that the time was ripe for examining this concept more deeply. It might have been tempting to think, “Yes, God is present in a general sense, but is missing from the location of my friend.” Instead, my prayer began with a humble acceptance of something I’ve learned through my study and practice of Christian Science: that this “very present help” that is God, divine Spirit, truly is the entirety of existence – is All.

In other words, it’s not that God is with us in a physical context. We couldn’t divide the whole material universe into cubes and find God physically in each one. Rather, it’s that divine Spirit itself is actually the entire source of existence. This existence isn’t physical at all. It’s entirely spiritual – and detailed, perfect, and infinitely substantial. As Christ Jesus put it, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

Taking our exploration of God’s ever-presence even further, the allness of God, who is supremely good, naturally precludes even the slightest presence of an opposite. “God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never present,” states the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in her pioneering book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 72). God’s kingdom is the only one that ever was, ever will be, or ever can be present.

And because there is no place where infinite Spirit doesn’t exist, there are no grounds for an evil counterpart to be valid. Divine Spirit and Spirit’s manifestation is all that truly exists. That manifestation includes each of us as a distinctly spiritual and immortal child of God, the flawless expression of God’s timeless nature.

This is because the action of God brings about, in beautiful and all-spanning intricacy, a divinely spiritual creation. Spirit’s offspring aren’t mortal. They are ideas – spiritual ideas that express the perfection and essence of God. Our permanence as God’s spiritual, perfect ideas ensures that we never will be held hostage by time or physicality.

Certainly, this does not always seem to be the case. But an openness to these spiritual facts has practical value. I’ll tell you, the realization that God, Spirit, is All brought me such concrete peace about my friend. And the next morning I learned that she was feeling much better and no longer had a fever. By the following day, she felt completely like herself again.

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” David asks in Psalms (139:7). Christian Science, based on the teachings and healing ministry of Jesus, has revealed for everyone around the globe how the utter all-presence of God, divine Spirit, is the sum-total basis for existence. Knowing more of God’s nature as absolute and entire results in effective prayer and healing.

What can dethrone a presence that is entire? Nothing at all. This gives us grounds to subjugate and vanquish the notion that omnipresent Spirit has an opponent, and we can always stand confidently on this unalterable truth.

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