Finally, we may need a Divine adjustment as regards character and sin. Even a wrong thought is a sin, so we certainly all need a deliverance in this respect. Most of us have weaknesses of character, hardness of heart, wrong states of mind, un-Christlike desires from which it is our most earnest wish we should become free. Indeed our faults are so many, when we candidly examine ourselves and our motives, that it may seem impossible that they can ever be overcome. But if we acknowledge that God alone can heal our moral character, and renew our hearts, and change our desires; and also if we hold the whole matter up, so to speak, so that the Divine light and action can operate upon It, then we find that steadily and surely a regenerative change does take place, until we grow into the likeness of the Son of God. We have to realize that Christ is in us, and is the hope of our glory. That is, a reigning Christ is reigning in us. Every wrong thought and desire can be wiped out if we appeal to the Indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ to wipe it out, so that we can see once again His purity and perfection. This necessitates constant vigilance on our part.n6734 ¶1
We have to do our share in the work of change and regeneration. We have to co-operate with Christ; we have to watch the gate of our thoughts and desires; we have to be ready to deal with evil suggestions, one of the worst of which is doubt of God's ability and willingness to save, deliver, provide for, protect and keep. While we cannot save or change ourselves, yet at the first sign of danger we can appeal to the Christ to wipe out the evil thought, desire or suggestion, and at the same time, to reveal his beauty, purity, love, patience and loving kindness in its place. He "is able to do for us exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." He is able to change us into His own likeness, and "to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Gradually the 'self' ('self' is our greatest and most persistent and subtle devil) is reduced in strength until it is abolished altogether, and only Christ remains, so that He is all in all. Yet we do not lose our real identity or true individuality; but, rather, it is revealed in us. This is the great mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages, and which Jesus Christ came to reveal. He came to become the first-born of many brethren; to establish a new order of men, who should become like unto Himself. This mystery is hidden from the wise (the intellectuals) and prudent, but is revealed unto babes, i.e., those who have been born again of the Spirit, or from above, and who are thus capable of learning spiritual things, and of growth in a new life; a life that is not that of an ordinary man, but of the Immortals. Creative Imagination "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God."n6734 ¶2
Romans XI,33 There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything; there is a right and a wrong way of using the Creative Imagination. By visualizing and strong willing, the imagination can be used, or rather, mis-used in such a way as to produce results. But these have no permanence, and can bring no real harmony into being. Such results are a creation of the mind of separateness and because of this have no divine foundation; therefore, like the house built upon the sand, spoken of by Jesus, they fall into ruin, because they have no true foundation. The mind is creative. Our outward life is largely the result of the activity of our mind. It is also the result of the activity of the race mind. The human race has thought itself into its present state of disharmony, mostly subconsciously. It is for ever creating evil and disorder for itself.n6734 ¶3
But we are called by God to cease doing this, and instead, to think God's thoughts after Him. To do this is, of course, the highest form of right thinking. 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Some of our readers may object to being called wicked, for the reason that they have put aside all carnal desires; but there is no greater sin than that of doubt, and most people will admit having had their doubts and fears, when everything in their life has appeared to go wrong. Again, they may object to being called 'unrighteous'; but righteousness is Divine order, and most of us surely admit that we do not live in a state of Divine order, and that our thought life is not in accord with it.n6734 ¶4
We see, therefore, that the Scriptural quotation refers to us. We are invited to forsake our 'ways' (attitude of mind and mode of life), and also our thoughts (creators of disorder), and return to the Lord (the One Source of all Harmony and Perfection).n6734 ¶5
We are invited to do this because God's thoughts (Reality and Truth) are so different from our human thoughts. 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' Man's thoughts and man's ways produce disharmony, disorder and suffering. But God's thoughts and God's ways produce harmony, order, beauty and joy. God is a God of Wholeness. The life that He has designed for man is a state of perfect wholeness. If we return to the Lord and forsake our wrong thoughts and ways, so that God's thoughts and ways may be followed, then a state of wholeness is brought about that is in itself a healing of the whole life, right from the centre to the circumference. It is because of this that I have used, elsewhere, the term Healing the 'Hard Times' Consciousness, for it is true healing that is needed; a Divine adjustment, a restoration to a state of complete wholeness. All methods of healing either of mind, body or state, that are of the human mind, while they may produce a temporary relief, can never bring about a state of wholeness and Divine order.n6734 ¶6
The Divine invitation is not for us to visualize and concentrate upon in order to produce with our mental powers wealth, money and other things which when rightly used are necessary, but which, if thought too much of, become tyrants of the worst description; but instead the call comes for us to return unto the Lord, the author of all order and wholeness, and to forsake our thoughts, in order that the thoughts of God which are wholeness, perfection and harmony, should be allowed to operate, to our eternal good, and that of other people and the world at large. But how can one return unto the Lord in the sense in which it is being interpreted in this article, it may be asked. People write to say that they have been Christians all their life, or for many years, yet they know nothing of the power of which we speak, and in no church can they find any instruction in the matter. They say that we possess something which they lack, how can they discover it. In reply it may be stated at once that information concerning the hidden things of the Spirit does not come to us, and cannot be found by us, until we are ready for it. But when we are ready for it, what we need comes to us just at the right moment.n6734 ¶7