Do you spend time thinking about negative conditions or the end of the world? Are you having trouble seeing good in others? If you have prayed for positive change with no results, you are not alone. Many people feel disconnected or distracted during prayer, and can’t seem to focus on what’s truly permanent or important in life.
Emmet Fox, a New Thought minister from the 1940’s, taught that focusing on God’s qualities is the best way to turn negative conditions around. His book Alter Your Life helped many people understand their relationship to God to experience more peaceful and productive lives. Emmet’s essay The Seven Main Aspects of God addresses spirit, and how we can release limiting thoughts to see the beauty in life.
Let’s continue to expand, and release limiting thoughts. This will open your door to a happier life.
The Sixth Aspect: Spirit
Unlike matter, spirit is permanent substance. Matter is limited and decays. Spirit is eternal. Any material item deteriorates over time. Spirit, like energy, cannot be destroyed or downgraded.
While your spirit resides in the human body, it cannot disappear at the end of your earth life. It was not born, it will never die. It is your true self and does not change.
Matter wears out, like your house or clothing. Your car deteriorates, as all other material items, but this is wonderful quality because it allows for their replacement of new and better things. It drives innovation and your imagination, because you must constantly think about improving what you have. Although many types of cells in your body can regenerate (for example, the outer layer of skin replaces itself every 35 days) and the human body is in a constant state of renewal and replacement, nobody has figured out how to make your body last forever. It does wear out, but spirit doesn’t because it is not subject to decay.
The entire universe is an interesting creation. You might believe it was an accident, or a giant collision of astronomical bodies, or a spiritual creation. Whatever you believe, your existence is an illusion. Quantum physicists have discovered that physical-material reality isn’t physical at all. Atoms are not the smallest particles of the universe; they are made from even smaller subatomic particles that emit constantly vibrating and spinning energy.
Each atom radiates its own unique energy. The atom has no physical structure and neither do we. Nor does any other material thing. Legendary physicist Max Planck said that there is no matter; all matter arises and persists only due to a force that causes atomic particles to vibrate, holding them together in the tiniest of solar systems, the atom. The origin of all matter, he said, is a force that is conscious, intelligent mind or spirit. Something must hold it all together.
We Are Energy
Fundamentally, we are all energy, not tangible matter, because when we look closely, there is nothing solid there. Energy vibrates at a lower frequency so we can perceive it in our dimension. What does that mean? It means that what we see is not what is. We see the world in a limited, distorted way. Matter is unreal; it is an illusion facilitated by our senses and it is only our perception of a state of consciousness. We see certain objects and participate in different events in the world, but they are all mental experiences that we give objective existence.
From a spiritual perspective, this underlying energy is the glue that informs the patterns of sub atomic particles. Their vibration and relationship to one another, is God or spirit. Spirit can never die. It is the true substance. This aspect of God is part of you. It IS you.
Whether a good or bad perception, matter is only a distorted vision of spirit. Matter can be beautiful in the form of nature, art, or any number of gorgeous material things, but it is really spirit shining through. Emmet taught that the veil of matter (the limitation of our thoughts) in a beautiful landscape is relatively thin, and in an ugly war zone or slum, the same veil is comparatively thick, but that’s the only difference. The presence of God, and any quality we see, is apprehended through the veil of matter.
If you are experiencing trouble, or something in your life seems to be damaged or in a state of decay, it is time to realize the aspect of God as Spirit. By realizing the aspect of God as spirit where the trouble seems to be, the condition will improve itself. Remember, matter is not reality. A negative condition is a spiritual idea seen in a limited way. When you realize this, and affirm that God exists behind the thing or situation, it will change for the better.
Daily Practice: Practicing the Presence of God as Spirit
- Think about the entire world, your home, place of work, the people you know, and your body. Imagine the sub atomic particles of these things as vibration or energy.
- Visualize the nature of God as Spirit, and think about the unchanging nature of spirit, as the only reality. Feel the presence of God behind any material item or situation.
- In your mind, see that everything is a spiritual idea. See that you are spirit and not a physical body.
- Claim that spirit dwells in you and in anyone or any situation that you are concerned about. Claim that everything and everyone has the same spiritual substance within them.
- Affirm that any trouble is a spiritual idea, seen in a limited way. Feel yourself ‘rising above it.’ Let go of the situation.
Successful Prayer
Pray regularly. Spend less time complaining and more time engaged in positive solutions. If you see a deficiency in your relationships or current conditions, acknowledge that spirit is shared by everyone. You can energetically rise above any circumstance and change yourself, and those around you, for the better. Claim that the presence of God is at work in your life. Claim that spirit is with you always, and works through you.
The entire universe, and everything we experience, is a connected system. One thing cannot change without changing another. Therefore, to change our situations or the way we experience life, we must first make change in our minds. All else will follow!
In Love and Light,
© Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D. and The Goddess Network, Inc., 2017. All Rights Reserved.
For more affirmations, read The Women’s Book of Empowerment: 323 Affirmations that Change Everyday Problems into Moments of Potential.
