“When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.

“John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’

“Jesus told them, ‘Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, “God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.”’” Matthew 11:1-6 (NLT)

“No one is reformed in a state of misfortune if it is only then that he thinks about God and implores His aid, because it is a coerced condition. When he comes into a free state, therefore, he reverts to his former condition in which he thought little if anything about God. Not so people who in a free state before feared God.

“By fearing God we mean fearing to offend Him – offending Him being to sin – and this is an effect not of fear but of love. Does not one who loves another fear to harm him? And the more he loves him, the greater his fear? Without that fear love is shallow and superficial, of the thought only and not at all of the will.

“By states of misfortune we mean states of despair in times of peril, as in battles, duels, shipwrecks, falls, fires, impending or unforeseen loss of wealth, or of office and therefore honor, and other, like situations. To think of God only at these times originates not from God but from self. For the mind is then imprisoned in the body, so to speak, being thus not in a state of freedom and so neither in a state of rationality, without which reformation is impossible.” Divine Providence §140

Jesus was traveling about Galilee, doing miracles and healing people. Some of John’s followers, probably the few who still believed in his ministry, heard where Jesus was and told John. John sent them to Jesus with a very good question: “Are you going to take over soon, or do we go looking for another leader?” I picture John being mentally oppressed by the misfortune he was experiencing, and had some serious doubts that Jesus was the Messiah, the “Coming One,” who would establish the kingdom of God John had been predicting. I imagine that, as strong as his personal call to his mission was, John was justifiably afraid he would soon lose his life, and he likely desired to be rescued by the new king. John needed some information, and he needed it fast!

They go seeking Jesus because they deeply believe He can answer their questions and resolve John’s predicament. They find Jesus and ask Him the question. Apparently, Jesus takes His time in answering the question. He goes about His normal routine, healing blind people; and the paralyzed, diseased and deaf. He even raises someone from the dead! And He spends time preaching to people, probably about the coming kingdom and how there is going to be a serious conflict. And He closes His presentation with what many feel is a gentle and sympathetic yet challenging comment (in the more familiar New King James Version): “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Which means: “Hey, John, don’t worry or be embarrassed or doubtful. I am doing My job successfully and your trust in Me should inspire confidence in Me.”

If you have ever played a game as part of a team you probably experienced being given a game plan, or told which play to run, or a leader plotted a strategy. And you followed the plan. Why? Typically a team player lets go of any plan of his or her own and does what the team has told him or her to do. What kind and amount of humility does this take? My memory of it is that it is rather easy. I go into the game knowing that I will not get my way and that I will simply do what I am told. The motivation behind by giving up my ego is the promise of success, and so my personal honor and glory! To the degree that I believe and feel that the information I have is accurate and successful in the past, to that degree I pour my heart and energy into the action. It is a kind of mindlessness. I am not thinking about alternatives. I am focusing on the strategy and my role. I am thinking neither of myself nor of what others’ are thinking about me.

So, to have Jesus in my heart, to be on His team, I have to be listening to the information He is giving me. I have to be paying attention to the plan He has laid out. And then I have to do my part in that plan, letting go of my ego, my ideas and desires. I can put them aside because I am motivated by the promise of success, in this case, salvation, healing, and joy. If this was like playing on any other team, I could say that letting go of my will in following Jesus is rather easy. And I should be doing it without any thought of myself or what others’ are thinking, feeling or saying about me. It doesn’t happen that way with me. Maybe it does with you. If so, consider yourself blessed!

Once (well maybe more than once!) there was a time that some people spoke critically of me. Putting aside for the moment their dysfunctional behavior about that, I remember that I was really bothered by what they were saying. While I felt an inner satisfaction about some of their complaints, because I felt I was doing what the Lord was asking me to do, I also did stumble. I didn’t feel any blessing. I see now that I had turned away. I was concerned for myself, my reputation, my ego, and my proprium. And so I lost a point of view, strength, a game plan, because I had left the huddle Jesus was inviting me into.

To have Jesus in my heart means here to think, speak and act from aN attitude that the Lord will bless me whenever I am actively on His team. To be actively on His team there is what I consider to be a short list of things I have to practice and be in action about.

First, I need to regularly read His Word so that I am continually gathering information from Him, updated to my current spiritual state. (Perhaps a good analogy is that I have to refresh the page regularly because the firmware is changing and the data will be used in new and better ways!) So every time I read His Word, I get more from the miracles I see, and more from the speeches I listen to.

Next item is practicing prayer. This means I actually, really stop all that I am doing and sit still and quietly. No music, no planning, no dialogue, no mantra. Those certainly are all helpful in our inner and outer spiritual and natural development. But the practice of prayer that I see is needed is putting aside for a time all that would filter, impede, or even, heaven forbid, block the flow of love from the Lord. So I turn my attention inward, seeking a spiritual place in me that is nothing but quiet peace, serenity, openness, reception, wonder. Where I am simply being, and not doing. Practicing this kind of prayer regularly will have side benefits, but its purpose is to teach me how to have the Lord in my heart in all the circumstances of my life. When I have practiced this prayer enough, I will stumble less often in my daily living. I will less often turn my gaze from the path the Lord has put me on. I will less often look at my own faulty information and trip on the rock called ego or self concern.

And then there is anticipating blessing. I heard this characterized as knowing that my life will be joyful, that circumstances will get better, that things will work out. This describes what my words and actions sound and look like when I have that inner circumstance produced by having information from the Lord I consider to be good, and I have practiced simply being open to receiving it. In anticipating His blessing in this way, I have Jesus in my heart. And then it will be relatively easy to recognize the lie of the evil spirits that I am in prison. I will not be manipulated by the threats of the hells that, if I continue believing and speaking the love of Jesus Christ, I will die. I will be giving energy and attention to the blessings in my life, the joy, and the possibilities.

I suggest that you consider simply collecting the truth of the Lord’s Word, prayerfully quiet your mind to prepare for feeling His love and truth in all circumstances, and then look for the blessing. Try this for a time – long enough to experience a blessing where before you didn’t. That will be an experience of having Jesus in your heart.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

I have come to set a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

 

“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

 

“Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” Matthew 10:34-42 (NLT)

 

“Human beings are nothing else than forms receiving life from the Lord. However, people's heredity, and their own actions, condition their form such that they refuse spiritual life coming from the Lord. But once those receptacles have been renounced so completely that they no longer claim any ownership of their freedom, there is total submission.

 

“The Lord desires any person's total submission so that He can make him blissful and happy. That is, He does not want him to be partly his own man and partly the Lord's, for then there are two masters whom a person cannot serve simultaneously, Matthew 6:24. Total submission is again meant by the Lord's words in Matthew,

Whoever loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37.” Secrets of Heaven §6138

 

[If a person repeatedly resists and abstains from doing evil deeds] “he finds the pleasures he gets from those evils become, because of the repetition, unpleasant to him, and he ends by consigning them to hell. This is what is meant by the Lord's words: If anyone wants to find his soul, he will lose it, and if anyone loses his soul for my sake, he will find it. Matt. 10:39.” True Christian Religion §532

We begin with the obvious: Jesus can be in your heart only if you and the devil are not taking up all the spiritual space, which is desire and belief. It follows that a person must do some work to make the space. This is an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth. The work to make space in your heart for Jesus is called temptation’s battle. Notice that this is not fighting against yourself to not eat the fattening food. This is a spiritual battle between good and evil and between truth and falsity. This is at the heart of many powerful stories of human failing and then redemption. But more importantly, it is the battle every single human being (that includes you, dear reader!) must engage in or spiritually die. It’s that serious. If you do not participate in the battle between the Lord and the devil, the devil will win because the evil desires and false thoughts are already taking all the space in your heart you leave for them.

War is hell. The Lord did not design the human being with this design. Why it is this way is not our topic today. But it is the way it is. Every human on the planet is being given a chance to be healed, saved and find a home in heaven by this means. Jesus knew this, and used a powerful metaphor to bring it home. (FYI: Jesus never meant this to be taken literally. One of many obvious truths about His intention to bring peace is John 14:27. Check it out).

Do you want to have your way? Sure you do. Do you want your own personal space? Sure you do. You even give to charities to help the homeless. Do you save and go into debt to get the stuff you want? Sure you do. Everybody does it! If you are seeking a spiritual path, you will have noticed times and circumstances when your desires have pushed out other, more noble realities than your wants. You have been uncomfortable. You are in a temptation battle. Before you lay a choice that must be consistently made correctly if you are going to be healed of egotism, selfishness, and materialism. That is the hard part. It takes attention and effort. You have to wake up in the morning and not do that thing or think that thought which you have had on awakening for years.

Do you know the right thing to do? Sure you do. And you tell your employees or coworkers every day. Do you have experience that has taught you the best way to accomplish a task? Sure you do. And your spouse and children are taught and helped every day by your sharing your experience. Did you read the article on the internet and know the facts so that you are right and he or she is wrong? Sure you did. If everybody agreed that world’s problems would be solved. And then it happens: you win an argument and lose a friend. You get no respect at work. Your kids rebel for no good reason, “just because!” However, you are pursuing a spiritual path, and the results of your behavior hit you. And you feel very badly. That is the feeling you have in a temptation battle. So you can change your behavior. Over time, as you consistently act with love, respect and humility, your coworkers, friends and family begin to treat you differently. That long term, consistent behavior change is really hard. Ever try to quit an addiction? Tough work.

This is what Jesus is trying to have us get. There are serious issues in our own spirit that must be confronted. And so He has given us some powerful ideas to use. And He is always present in our hearts, no matter how crowded it is! Our work is to use the truth we get from reliable sources (e.g. the Word) to assess the distinction between evil and good and falsity and truth. And then, appealing to the Lord, accepting our culpability, and accessing the prophet and righteous person that is already in our spirit, we little by little, step by step, make different, intentional choices.

The Lord then takes over! I really love the following powerful description of the process of the healing of my mind.

“Any falsity that the hells introduce is met with a response from the Divine. The falsities that come from hell are thrust into and enter the external or natural man, but the response from the Divine enters the internal or spiritual man. The person is less conscious of this response which comes from the Divine than he is of those falsities. It does not touch his individual thoughts, only his general awareness, yet in such a way that he scarcely comes to be conscious of it except as hope and consequent comfort, which however hold within them countless blessings of which the person has no knowledge. These are such that they are suited to his affection or love, especially his affection for, or love of, truth and goodness, which form his conscience.” Secrets of Heaven n.8159

The Lord wants us to recognize and hold onto that hope and comfort. I can miss it by not paying attention. However, He has designed our being, and implemented a process, that favors our wholeness, peace, serenity and security. He is revealing to us that our task is to lay down the evil desires and false ideas in our mind, which actually make up a very external part of us. We then are receptive to His love and faith, and we “lose” the old faith and its intellectual pride and arrogant will. We find a new life, which is the living soul that the Lord implants in us when we have Jesus in our heart.

[Jesus is talking to His Apostles as He sends them out to minister] “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

“A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel. 

“Students are not greater than their teacher, and slaves are not greater than their master. Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master. And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names!

“But don’t be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything that is covered will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10:16-33

We have here a widely argued issue about how the Divine Providence of Jesus Christ works: how can a God who is love only tell me to acquiesce to persecution just so that He can achieve His will? Note verse 18: “You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.” Now, He does promise to be especially present and helpful in such moments, giving us just the right words to speak. But He predicts I will be whipped. He implies in several speeches that I will die. Now, I am very conscious of the thousands of people around the world who are actually, really, being tortured and killed because they are a certain religion. (And of course there are thousands being tortured and killed because of their socially unacceptable behavior. Recently it was reported that lesbians in Ecuador were being tortured to change them.) But I know that I will not be tortured or killed for my Christianity here in Cincinnati, OH, USA, in 2011.

So what am I to do with this long list of explanations provided by Jesus explaining why I my being persecuted, each with the perfect resources for me to weather the trial? I want to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to have a clear feeling that He is with me, is on my side, and that His truth will prevail. The information Jesus is giving me here is a wonderful contribution to that relationship.

When I listen to Jesus, do what He commands, apply His teachings to myself – including the one that says He loves me regardless – then it is much easier for me to choose to say the truth, with love, to proclaim His love and wisdom, and to defend the stand I am taking, even if it is unpopular

So, based on what Jesus says here, I am going to strive for these attitudes and practices (see verses 26-33): I will seek to be good, even if people hate me for it because that is better for me and the world than my being agreeable so that I am liked. I will practice appearing to trust the Lord rather than appearing to be strong in the face of peer pressure. I want to love a person because of who they really are – a child of God – rather than who their parents are, the position they hold, or the doctrine they espouse. I intend to act like I believe the Lord loves me as much as anyone else. I will explore ways to confess my sins to the Lord that are effective – that open my heart to Him so that He may heal me.

My experience is that as I practice these exercises and do these tasks, Jesus is making His home in me, abiding in me. I then have Him in my heart.

“Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. When you enter the home, give it your blessing. If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day. Matthew 10:11-15 (NLT)

By 'peace' are signified all things in a complex whole that are from the Lord, and consequently all the things of heaven and the Church; also the blessedness of life in them. These are of peace in the supreme or inmost sense. It follows, therefore, that charity, spiritual security and internal rest are 'peace', for when a man is in the Lord he is in the peace with the neighbour that is charity, in the protection against the hells that is spiritual security; and when he is in peace with the neighbour and in protection against the hells, he is in internal rest from evils and untruths. Apocalypse Revealed n.306

It was from this signification that the Lord commanded His disciples to shake off the dust of their feet if they were not received, as in Matthew:

Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city (Matt. 10:14-15; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5; 10:10-12);

by the "disciples" here are not meant disciples, but all things of the church, thus all things of faith and charity (n. 2089, 2129, 2130, 3354, 3858, 3913, 6397); by "not receiving, and not hearing," is signified to reject the truths of faith and the goods of charity; and by "shaking off the dust of the feet," damnation. That "it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city," is because by "Sodom and Gomorrah" are meant those who are in evil of life, but who have known nothing of the Lord and the Word, and thus could not receive. From this it can be seen that there is not meant a house or city which would not receive the disciples, but those who are within the church and do not live the life of faith. Everyone can see that a whole city could not be damned because they did not receive the disciples and at once acknowledge the new doctrine which they preached. Secrets of Heaven  n.7418

As "dust" signifies those who do not regard spiritual and celestial things, but only what is corporeal and earthly, therefore the Lord enjoined His disciples that if the city or house into which they entered was not worthy, they should "shake off the dust of their feet" (Matt. 10:14). (That "dust" signifies what is condemned and infernal, will be further shown at verse 19.) Secrets of Heaven n.24

Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, as ye go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet (Matt. 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5);

where the "dust of the feet" has a signification like that of a "shoe," namely, uncleanness from evil and falsity, because the sole of the foot is the ultimate natural. They were commanded to do this because they were at that time in representatives, and thought that heavenly arcana were stored up in these alone, and not in naked truths. Secrets of Heaven n.1748

It was the custom for travelers, when they came into any house, to wash their feet; as when the brethren of Joseph were introduced into Joseph's house (Gen. 43:24); and when the Levite and his attendant were received into the house of the old man (Judges 19:21); and when Uriah on his return home was commanded by David to go down to his house and to wash his feet (2 Sam. 11:8). The reason was that traveling and journeying signified what relates to instruction, and thence to life (see n. 1293, 1457, 1463, 2025); and that these were to be purified was shown above; and further, lest the impurity understood in the spiritual sense should adhere, and defile the house, that is, the man; as is also evident from the fact that the disciples were to shake off the dust of the feet, if the city or the house would not receive peace (Matt. 10:14). Secrets of Heaven n.3148

That "dust" signifies what is condemned, is because the earth over the hells in the spiritual world consists of mere dust without grass and herbage. Apocalypse Revealed n.788

“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.” Matthew 10:1-10

“The regeneration of the spiritual man proceeds as follows: At first he is taught the truths of faith, during which time the Lord maintains his affection for truth. At the same time the good of faith, which is charity towards the neighbor, is instilled into him, though in such a way that he hardly knows it because that good lies concealed within the affection for truth. All this takes place to the end that the truth of faith may be joined to the good of charity. As time goes by the affection for the truth of faith increases and truth is seen because of its end in view, which is good, or what amounts to the same, life. That affection grows more and more. In this way is truth instilled into good, and while it is being instilled the person absorbs into himself the good of life in accordance with the truth that has been instilled into it. Thus he acts, or seems to himself to act, from good. Prior to this the truth of faith has been for him the chief thing, but after this the good of life becomes the chief thing….This is how regeneration proceeds. Regeneration is carried out to the end that a person may be received into heaven - heaven being nothing else than the marriage of truth and good, and of good and truth.” Secrets of Heaven §2979

The joining of desire and thought, will and intellect, goodness and truth is described in the Word thousands of times, so it must be important. And it must be important to describe it so many ways because it is not an instinctual way of being. It is not a natural or automatic accomplishment in our living. It is said to make us “spiritual,” rather than remaining natural. And, wonderfully, it is said that joining our sense of goodness with our understanding of truth into a cohesive, congruent unit, creates heaven in us. And so, therefore, around us.

A further conclusion is that having this integrity of desire and thought is the ways we were created to be. Remember, we are created IN His image, predestined to become according to His likeness. So God created the process whereby we are transformed so that we are spiritual, healed, regenerated, saved. He reveals truth to us in many ways. As we adopt the truth for our own (oftentimes clumsily, applying it to others rather an to ourselves!), He has designed our spirit such that the truth attracts the love that causes and creates that truth. So, as we adopt the goodness with in the truth, we become good people!

Here is a living, ongoing example (and I pray you have patience with and compassion for me!) I learned early that the key New Church idea is that God is the Lord Jesus Christ. My first use of this truth was to see how other denominations get this wrong. One time I was a young volunteer at church and, when a visitor asked me about it, I announced that the visitor believed in three gods and we do not. I have regret about treating that person that way. Some years later, at a wedding feast no less, I got into an argument about it with a relative of the bride who knew very little about the New Church. I swore of arguing about doctrine! I now judge that the truth about God that is in my understanding has been so infilled with the love of God, which the concept is intended to give me, that I no longer use it to assess others’ relationship with God! Instead it reveals to me a lot about a person’s relationship with the Lord, and I am ready, willing and able to support them in their spiritual development.

We all have “the facts” which include many truths. Indeed, we have the truths that describe the Lord’s church, which is symbolized by the twelve Apostles. And we each have the power from those truths to do what is good – we can go forth and preach the Good News. We have tools to speak the truth to ourselves and to the world. The task is to dwell in the truths that exist within the facts of our life; to own them, that is, to apply them to our selves. And then patiently practice using them as tools for our spiritual life.

As we do this, we will be able to receive the love that brings healing and joy first to our spirits, and then to the world around us. This is a transformation that happens according to the Lord design. We don’t do it. So it is subtle, gentle and gradual. It is the Lord Jesus Christ working in us, to glorify the truth so that it becomes love, even as He glorified Himself and became Love itself, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Even as my desire, my truth, my actions and my speech are all distinctly one, so too is my God, who is visible and powerful in Himself and in me.

To do our part of this spiritual development, we have to travel lightly and trust the Lord above any other resource. Extra money (magnified self worth), extra baggage (living from the past), extra clothing (exalted self image), or an extra staff (self derived power), all interfere with the process the Lord has designed, which is, in fact, automatic – His free grace. To trust in this process is the hardest task of life. And every time we participate, it brings the greatest reward, which is especially noticed after we have failed and sinned. The Lord’s hand is most evident as we look back and see the food He gave us, and the life coming back into our spirit.

It feels like the Lord is with us, walking along with us, dwelling in us. Indeed it is His love that is infilling the truth we have worked so hard to learn, adhere to, and internalize. It then feels like He is in our heart.

“Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. And seeing crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He says to his disciples, ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.’” Matthew 9:35-38

“In the internal sense ‘sickness’ means evil – the kinds of things that attack spiritual life. The sicknesses are evil desires and cravings, while the components of spiritual life are faith and charity. That life is sick when falsity exists instead of the truth of faith, and evil instead of the good of charity, because they lead to the death of that life, which is called spiritual death and is damnation, just as sicknesses lead to the death of natural life….Since sicknesses represented the unrighteous ways and the evils of spiritual life, the sicknesses which the Lord healed [delivered people] from the different kinds of evil and falsity that were molesting the Church and human race and that would have brought spiritual death. Divine miracles…involve and have regard to states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom; and this is why the Lord's miracles were primarily healing of sicknesses. These miracles are meant by the Lord's words addressed to the disciples sent by John, ‘Tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the gospel.’ Matt. 11:4, 5.” Secrets of Heaven §8364:2, 6

Perhaps you have had the experience (as I did many years ago) of walking on a trail and coming upon a bush full of ripe blueberries. All you have to do is reach out and take as many handfuls as you want. There was so many that you had little concern about dropping a few as the stems full of berries ran through your fingers as you brought you hand out of the bush.

Perhaps you have also had the experience of picking raspberries from the small and carefully tended patch in the backyard. Every one is precious, and you work carefully picking individual berries, careful not to squash the soft ones. If you drop one, you will risk scrapes from the stems to retrieve it if you can.

The difference between these attitudes is one’s response to a perception of abundance. My attitude is based on my sense of how much work there is for me relative to the benefit I will get. This is why the cereal makers want their product displayed at eye level in the market so that I make the least effort to see it. That is why the “sound bite” was invented, reducing the thinking effort required to get the emotional reaction.

My point here is not to bemoan how easily our spiritual life is impacted by external circumstances. That is always going to be happening. The point is to notice if we are allowing external stimuli to manipulate our emotions. That would be a state of spiritual sleep, when our life has no conscious intention. The point is to be grateful for what the Lord has provided you because you intentionally and affirmatively notice its abundance. 

Perhaps you have experienced a child running into your arms as you bend down, giving you a tight hug. Perhaps you have experienced visiting a sick child, who could only weakly lift her arms from the bed. Have you noticed that you feel the difference between these two in your stomach? This is why the Greek word for compassion is based on the word for “bowels.”

There are lots of circumstances that elicit a feeling of compassion, that wrench in our stomach in reaction to misery. The point is not that we are responsible for fixing them all, the point is to notice the physical feeling and the emotion that has generated it. You have a spiritual, emotional reaction that produces the sensation (not the other way around). If you do not feel the grip in your stomach, it is because the emotion wasn’t formed. The point is to be aware when we no longer feel a sensation in our bowels; when we no longer feel compassion. That would indicate that we don’t care, which may be another sign of spiritual sleep or woundedness. The point is to allow the compassion – like Jesus Christ felt – to be felt in our bodies and expressed in our faces, arms, and hands.

Perhaps you have gone on a “guilt trip” noticing that you didn’t help someone who obviously needed it. I have agonized over such missed opportunities. I have also rationalized them away. I have also felt completely unable to do anything. The point is not to seek forgiveness through self-flagellation. The point is to ask for forgiveness that opens the heart to new wisdom. The point is that Jesus Christ will visit our hearts through these experiences and provide feelings of gratitude and compassion. As we are healed by Jesus Christ, we are able to feel compassion, and then sense it our bodies, eventually becoming wise enough to be in action about it.

Perhaps it is useful to imagine the pain Jesus Christ felt in His gut as he looked out over the crowds, day after day, realizing He would not be able to reach them all. I really get that He said to His close followers, as if in an aside, that He wished there were more workers. Jesus Christ actually could heal every single disease, and hurt, and weakness that was presented to Him. He really could have stayed on the earth and fixed everything.

And that is not the point. Jesus Christ wants us all to know of the preparations He has made for our healing today. As we allow His love and wisdom to form our hearts and minds, we will more and more feel compassion and will actually become a worker in the field, joyfully harvesting what we have not planted, experiencing abundance we intend even though we know we do not create it. Jesus Christ is actually abiding in our heart, and working through our actions.

“The leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. ‘My daughter has just died,’ he said, ‘but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.’ So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, ‘Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.’ And the woman was healed at that moment.

“When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. ‘Get out!’ he told them. ‘The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.’ But the crowd laughed at him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

“After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’ They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, ‘Do you believe I can make you see?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ they told him, ‘we do.’ Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘Because of your faith, it will happen.’ Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, ‘Don’t tell anyone about this.’ But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.

“When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. ‘Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!” they exclaimed.” Matthew 9:18-33

“‘Laying the hand on’ means transmission and reception because by ‘the hands’ is meant power. And because this power is the capacity to act, ‘the hands’ also means whatever resides with a person, thus the entire person engaged in action. By ‘laying on’ is meant transmission on the part of the one who lays them on and reception on the part of the person on whom or thing on which they are laid. From this it is evident what ‘laying the hand on’ meant among the ancients, namely the transmission and transference of whatever thing it was that they had in mind, and also the reception of it by another, whether it was power, obedience, blessing, or testimony.

“When the Lord laid His hand on people, and also when He touched them, the meaning was the transmission and reception of Divine power. The fact that these things are meant is perfectly clear in Mark: ‘A certain woman came behind and touched Jesus’ garment, saying, “If I touch merely His garment I shall be healed.” And immediately she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus perceived within Himself that power had gone out of Him.” (Mark 5:27-30)

“By the ‘laying on of the hand upon children’ means the communication and reception of Divine power, through which is the healing of the interiors, which is salvation.” Secrets of Heaven §10023

I can get caught up in analyzing Jesus’ miracles and miss the larger, or more fundamental, lessons. Instead of connecting emotionally with my Savior, I remain merely intellectually stimulated. For instance, as I read these four miracles, I catch myself wondering why they are in the order they are. I imagine the lives of the apparently incurable woman, the agonizing father, the desperate blind men, the trapped man, and the amazed onlooker.

So, becoming touched by Jesus Christ, and so healed, requires a personal, internal, emotional response that leads to new thoughts, intentions and actions. The spiritual import of these stories and Jesus’ words provide me the foundation for those changes I have to make to abide in the Lord and have Him abide in me.

These stories teach me the Minimum Requirements for Healing (MRH): 1. Go to the Lord. 2. Humble myself to Him. 3. Beg Him for help. I must have all three for the necessary and sufficient conditions to be healed. MRH is a cyclical, organic and individualized process that includes listening to the teachings of Jesus and hearing their spirit; identifying, naming and assessing character traits, thinking patterns, emotional reactions and behaviors; and becoming clear about, comfortable with, and consistent in, letting go of power, wants, judgments and predictions, and replacing them with the love and wisdom learned from Jesus Christ. The total effect is an emotional state of being in which I feel loved, forgiven and empowered by the Lord, whose love for me is unceasing and unconditional; whose mercy is unbounded and unlimited; and whose power is infinite and bound by His divine love for my eternal joy.

These MRH provide that my sin can be very secret (like the woman in the story), and He still heals me. Even as Jesus didn’t mind touching unclean people; He won’t hesitate to help me.

The MRH provide that I can be ignorant and still be helped by the Lord. In fact, an intellectual sophistication formed from knowing a lot can interfere with letting go of false beliefs. However, while I can be ignorant, like the Synagogue leader, I must have his kind of faith. I must believe that Jesus Christ can heal me. I must believe that I need His help, which is a kind of belief that leads me into action. I must make an effort to find His teachings, experience them first hand in my life, from a heartfelt need for them (and sometimes from a desperate need for them).

The MRH demonstrate that healing is a miracle, not magic. He can heal me any time, any place, while I am in any condition. However, I must have a connection to Him (thus His hands are so often mentioned in the stories). The miracles performed at a distance are remarkable not because He didn’t touch the person He healed, but that His touch is not actually physical. The woman was healed, as He said, by her faith. Touching His robe demonstrated her connecting faith rather than creating a physical connection. And what Jesus Christ says is more often explicit encouragement rather than magic words or incantations. His words do not direct us away from the action, as a magician does with his hands and voice. Rather, His words call our attention to what is actually, really happening: the miracle of healing because MRH are being met.

So I invite you to look at where purposeless activity is bleeding your life away out of some childhood wound. I encourage you to believe that Jesus Christ can bring a genuine innocence back to life in your mind. I urge you to persevere in your search for the light, as blind as you are right now. And I will hold you in my heart while you struggle with Satan himself to be free of your addiction or compulsion. The MRH are within your reach. With practice you can achieve them repeatedly and regularly!

“Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with such scum?’

“When Jesus heard this, he said, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.’ Then he added, ‘Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’

“One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?’ 

“Jesus replied, ‘Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.’” Matthew 9:9-17

“All the things the person has thought, intended, or done since early childhood have entered into the composition of his life. They have also formed themselves into a network that is such that one cannot be moved without all of them together being moved. For a wicked person is an image of hell, and a good person is an image of heaven; and also the evils and falsities with a wicked person are interconnected in the same way as the communities of hell are with one another, of which that person is a part, while the forms of good and the truths with a good person are interconnected in the same way as heavenly communities are with one another, of which this person is a part. From this it is evident that the evils and falsities with a wicked person cannot be removed suddenly from where they are. They can be removed only in the measure that forms of good and truths in their proper order have been implanted more deeply within the person; for heaven with a person removes hell. If the removal were done suddenly the person would pass out, for the whole network of things, every single one, would be thrown into confusion and deprive him of his life.” Secrets of Heaven §9334

FROM THE PASTOR

The picture the story gives us is of Matthew sitting in a tollbooth by the road, collecting tax on the merchandise people were bringing into Capernaum. This made him unpopular for two reasons: one, he was employed by the occupying Romans; and two, he probably collected extra money which he kept, making him rich. Thus he was a traitor and a thief.

And then suddenly, he does an amazing thing. He literally walks away from his table and gives that all up to train to be a teacher of Christ’s ideas. He does it on the spot, immediately. What makes this miraculous is that such changes of heart normally take a long time. He didn’t know what it meant to follow Jesus. He didn’t know any of the new teachings. So it must have been that he had a feeling in his heart that this was the best thing to do. And it must have been Jesus who put that feeling in him. Matthew is an example of the kind of people that Jesus Christ can heal. No matter how evil a person is, if their heart is turned, attracted by the mercy and forgiveness Jesus offers, they can be healed and become a model Christian. On the other hand, if you are satisfied with your life, and you do all the “correct” things like the Pharisees, it may be that you will be hypocritical and deny that you are spiritually sick. If so, it is likely you will reject the Lord’s call to change your heart and abide in Him.

Jesus then describes three aspects of your spiritual growth. 1. It is important that you take the time and make the effort to enjoy the happiness in your life as a gift from God. Whenever you feel close to the Lord, rejoice! This prepares you for the times when He feels absent. That is when you will do the hard work. That is when you feel hungry. That is when you feel like something is missing. But your memory of the good times can carry you through those down times. So look for and appreciate them when you have them. “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus asked. The implied answer is, no.

2. As we noted in the above passage from the Writings for the New Church, the things you have come to love will change over time. You are discovering that in order to become an adult you have to give up and let go of many old thoughts and feelings about your life. Some of this will be easy – you just won’t want to play with dolls or soldiers anymore. Some things will be harder – you will learn to value your friends after losing some. Some of the things in your external life will stay the same, but you will use them differently. You may keep and treasure your old trophies, books, etc., but now you will have only a fond memory of the feelings they gave you. Trying to recapture and hold the old feelings is to try to stay in that younger life. That will tend to make your present circumstances worse, not better. The patch made of unshrunk cloth “pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.”

3. The ideas that you cherish lose their emotional weight. What was so true for you before is not so black and white. New ideas are coming in and you are very unsettled about many things. You have a lot of questions. One answer you really like in one situation may not work in other situations. Or you may notice that a new idea will seem good, but is the opposite of an old idea. You begin to feel that they can’t all be together in your head at the same time. Maybe someone will tell you that you are not making sense. You should know this: spiritual growth happens when new ideas have a place in your feelings and life. But don’t try to fit the new ideas into your old habits. Rather, take the time to process any new ideas you have from the Word by giving them a little extra weight, attention, consideration, even honor. This will allow new feelings to connect with the new ideas, building a network in your consciousness. Then, as Jesus illustrated it, you will “put new wine into new wineskins, and both (your ideas and your life!) are preserved.”

The Matthew-like incidents of instance acceptance and change of heart and life will be few and far between. The experience of Christ in your heart will be the result of a progression of states through which the Lord carefully undoes the networks we have built based on falsity by replacing them with new networks based on truth, which we come to love. Open your heart to the process by reading the Word, discovering there the mercy of the Lord.

“ Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.’

But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, ‘That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?’

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, ‘Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say “Your sins are forgiven,” or “Stand up and walk”? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.’ Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, ‘Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!’

And the man jumped up and went home! Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for sending a man with such great authority.  Matthew 9:1-8

“There were three reasons why faith in [Jesus healed people]. The first was that they acknowledged His Divine Omnipotence, and that He was God. The second was that faith is acknowledgment, and intuition comes from acknowledgment, in this case, from the acknowledgment of the Lord's Omnipotence. And it was from this acknowledgment that they were first of all to have an intuition of the Lord, when a new church was to be established by Him. The third reason was that all the diseases that the Lord healed represented spiritual diseases, to which natural diseases correspond. Spiritual diseases cannot be healed except by the Lord, and indeed by looking to His Divine Omnipotence, and by repentance of life. Therefore also He sometimes said, ‘Your sins are forgiven you; go and sin no more.’ The faith through which the Lord heals spiritual diseases consists of truths from the Word, and by a life according to them.” Apocalypse Explained §815

Jesus has returned to Capernaum, and a crowd is always around Him. Struggling through the crowd are three men, two carrying their paralyzed friend. We don’t know how far they have come. We don’t know what effort it took. Luke adds a detail in his Gospel, describing how the men broke through the roof of the house to reach Jesus.

The effort, the demonstration of their faith, gave Jesus joy. Imagine His life at this time. He had no permanent place to live. He was repeatedly asked to leave by the people He was teaching and healing. Local and national political and religious leaders challenged him at every opportunity. So when He witnessed the great effort these men went to helping their friend, it certainly made His day!

Being paralyzed, maimed or handicapped in those days made life very difficult. If the person was rich, he or she could sit back and be served. If the person were a tradesman or laborer he would have to depend on his extended family and friends. A poor handicapped person, without dedicated family and friends, would be destitute. Nowadays we share our resources and provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Also, there are many activities a handicapped person can do to make a contribution to the community. In the days of the New Testament a handicapped person would feel useless and completely reliant upon others for just staying alive. And on top of it all, it was commonly believed that such an illness was the result of sin. This further separated a person from the rest of society. It was a hard life, for sure. 

All this made it hard to accept that salvation was more important that physical wellbeing. That is the message Jesus gave when He said first, before healing the man, “your sins are forgiven you.” The leaders of the church then immediately–and properly–thought “He blasphemes!” For only God Himself could forgive sins. Knowing the story, we realize: Jesus had set them up.

Today, our physical needs are so easily cared for. Good health is common. Handicapped people are respected as people and given all the help possible to be independent. One result of these circumstances is that it is relatively easy for us to accept that salvation is more important that health, since good health is so common and illness can be overcome. Our physical health takes less of our time and energy, freeing us to consider our spiritual health. In all likelihood the paralyzed man that was taken to Jesus cared little or nothing about his salvation. He just wanted to be well. His friends wanted him to be well. And they all firmly believed that Jesus could do it.

So Jesus gave the man want he wanted. And everybody was amazed. I can imagine the disciples saying, “Is there nothing this man cannot do?” And Jesus gives the lesson, the truth of it all. “Since you think healing is so hard and amazing and yet salvation easily available to all of you from God, I’ll show you that I can heal so you will begin to understand that I can forgive sins because I am God on earth!” Indeed, Jesus came to redeem mankind, to forgive their sins and free them from slavery to evil spirits. It is very important to understand that Jesus did not heal everyone’s sickness and injury. However, by His life, death and resurrection He spiritually healed every person on the planet enough so that they could be free to love Him and their neighbor and not be possessed or sickened by evil spirits. And He continues to provide this healing to all of us.

How completely and consistently do we know that salvation is more important than physical health? What does that attitude look like? You might ask yourself these questions:

            • Who gets healed?

            • Who gets forgiven?

            • What personality trait or ability would you like to have that you don’t right now?

            • What is stopping you from getting it?

            • What do friends do for each other?

When Jesus is in our heart, we feel a spiritual health that feels like forgiveness. We feel strong in all the golden, valuable human traits that we have. We are in action because we bravely do what we have not done before. And we feel compassion for all our fellow humans. Surely this healing is far more important to us than our physical health. Indeed, having Jesus in our heart this way gives us the wherewithal and the attitude to carry on in life without feeling held back physically. Your sins are forgiven. You can do whatever good your heart desires!

“Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’

“Jesus responded, ‘Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!’ Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

“The disciples were amazed. ‘Who is this man?’ they asked. ‘Even the winds and waves obey him!’  Matthew 8:23-27

“This describes the spirit of a person of the church when they are focused on what is earthly and not yet on what is spiritual. In that state of mind the person’s earthly desires, which are various cravings produced by the loves of self and the world, rise up and produce various commotions of the mind. In this state the Lord appears to be absent. This apparent absence is meant by His being asleep. But when a person comes out of a focus on what is earthly and into a focus on what is spiritual, these commotions cease, and there comes tranquility of mind. The Lord calms the tempestuous commotions of the person’s earthly plane when the spiritual plane is opened, and through it the Lord flows into the earthly plane. The desires that are of the love of self and of the world, and the resulting thoughts and thinking process, are from hell. They are lusts of every kind that come from there into the earthly plane. These are meant by ‘the wind and the waves of the sea,’ and hell itself is meant by the ‘sea,’ in the spiritual sense. This can be seen, too, from its being said that ‘the Lord rebuked the wind.’ This could not have been said to the wind and to the sea unless they meant hell, from which arise the tempestuous emotions of the mind from various cravings.”   Apocalypse Explained §514

“Redemption was something only the Divine could bring about. If you knew what hell is like, and you knew how high it swelled and how it flooded the entire world of spirits at the time of the Lord's coming, and you saw the great power with which the Lord cast hell down and scattered it and then restructured both it and heaven in accordance with the divine design, you could not help being stunned and exclaiming that all of it was something only the Divine could do….In fact, when the Lord controls the sea by saying "Peace, be still" (Mark 4:38, 39; Matthew 8:26; Luke 8:23, 24), it means the Lord's process of gaining control over the hells. There, and in many other passages, the sea means hell.

“The Lord uses the same divine power today to fight against hell in every one of us who is being regenerated. Hell attacks us all with diabolical fury. If the Lord did not counter hell and control it, we could not help succumbing. Hell is like one monstrous human being or a massive lion; in fact, it is compared to a lion in the Word. The Lord has to chain the forelegs and shackle the hind legs of that lion, that monster. Otherwise the only possible outcome would be that once we were rescued from one evil we would spontaneously fall into the next, and in fact into many others.  True Christianity §123

Whenever I feel I have Jesus Christ in my heart, I also feel protected, serene, encouraged, and even powerful. Is this a result of my faith? Is this the result of hope? Is this the result of surrender?

We can talk around and around the nature of faith, hope and surrender. We can argue multiple sides of each of these. Is faith simply an opiate, dulling my rational thought? Is faith a trust in something I can never understand (and simply asking to understand is discarding faith)? Is hope an unhealthy attention to the future, burying the present? Is hope a self generated imagination produced by an unrealistic desire? Is surrender giving up? Is surrender denying my personhood, my individuality?

Many of us have spent many hours thinking about these issues. And some of us have spent many weeks in therapeutic conversations to resolve these questions for ourselves. My experience so far is that we each can come to a conclusion that works for us, which does not have to agree with anyone else’s resolution. There is no “right” answer.

So, in an odd way, people’s experience of resolving these questions is evidence for the manner in which Jesus Christ is actually in our hearts. It is not the kind of faith, hope or surrender that we have that gives us a sense of protection, serenity, encouragement, and power. It is not our resolution of these issues, it is not achieving certain spiritual states, that produce the sensation of the protection, etc. Rather, it is the redemption that Jesus Christ accomplished through the spiritual, divine work He did while on earth; and it is the continuing winning against the attacks of the hells, which provide all these states for us.

While it is necessary for human beings to go through the process of resolving many similar mental and emotional issues, such as how we experience faith, hope and surrender, it is only by actually going through the process myself that I come to experience the reality – that Jesus Christ has redeemed me and is always pushing the hells out of my spirit back into hell.

It is frightening when we feel despair, or desperation, or helplessness. It is typical to say to ourselves “Where are you, Lord?” It can even feel like we are going to fall out of our fragile, leaky boat and drown in the chaos and confusion of our lives. The people in our lives are pressuring us. The circumstances are demanding. There are no clear paths to follow, and past mistakes and wounds are blockages to progress.

Our cries from the trough between the ocean waves are heard by the Lord, and it seems to us that He awakens to our plight (although He has always been in our hearts). We see a faint light, feel a warm current, if only for a moment. There is a faith in, a hope on, and a grateful surrender to, Jesus Christ as He quells the tempest in our heart and mind, and we see a way through the rain squall to His protecting arms.

Every time this happens, and we rediscover the protection, serenity, and power of His love, we are amazed. It is a miracle, again! We remember what it feels like to have Jesus in our hearts.