Discover the Power Within You: A Guide to the Unexplored Depths Within

by Eric Butterworth

This is a large order! But then we are dealing with a large and wonderful principle, the divinity of man. If you remember who you are, and keep your inward contact, you will not let yourself be drawn into experiences on another’s level of thought. You will meet them on your level, for your thought is your life.

Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift [Matt. 5:23, 24, AV]. Prayer is of the spirit; it is not form. If we pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” and do not forgive our debtors, who are we fooling? Jesus challenges us here to break through the shell of formal prayer and fulfill the law of spiritual consciousness.

Jesus says that the great gift we must offer at the altar of inner prayer is the pure heart—and not some material gift that is an appeasement for a state of mind that we have no desire to relinquish.

Prayer may and should help you to reestablish yourself in spiritual consciousness and in right attitude of mind. But, He is saying, if you are praying for harmony in a relationship in which you still are harboring feelings of bitterness toward those people involved, you had better get those thoughts right, or forget the whole thing. For prayer changes things only as it changes you.

When you find yourself getting resistant or hostile or envious or angry, when the seeds of conflict begin to reveal themselves in you, settle with them immediately by “agreeing with God.” Affirm your unity with Infinite Mind and the inexhaustible resources of love and peace. If someone is criticizing you, “agree quickly”—which means “get yourself in neutral.” Deal quickly with the tendency to flare up and resent the critic, so that you can deal impersonally with the criticism. It may be a helpful comment that will mean blessings to

you. If it is not justified, you can easily discard it without personal animosity.

However, if you do not make that quick agreement—if you do not dispose of the adversary of your own negative reaction right at the outset, you may well create a poison within you that will extract a tremendous price in terms of peace and well-being. You may carry this person on your back in hurt and an...

The danger is when we let these fear and worry thoughts simmer in our minds. We need to be stern with ourselves. We must take action immediately. Stand up and speak the word of “peace” to the storms of human thought.

The disciples were fearful, so they awakened Jesus and said, “Master carest thou not that we perish?” Jesus arose and “rebuked the wind” and said unto the sea, “Peace, be still.” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it ye have no faith?” This dramatic story reveals the power of the law of agreement. Jesus was the Master of the situation because He was Master of His own thoughts. He agreed with God always. He kept Himself in tune, in a state of spiritual unity with God.

This was accomplished by the discipline

of frequent periods of meditation. Thus in a crisis He was prepared, becau...

Note carefully that Jesus didn’t say, “Well, now, boys, let’s not get too excited. Things are never as bad as they seem. We’ll pull through this thing somehow.” He did not acquiesce in the thought of danger at all. He did not let the storm have place in His mind in any way as something to be worried about. In perfect agreement with God, He simply spoke the strong word of power, and the storm subsided. Jesus always shows the highest and most absolute goal toward which we must reach. We are all on the path, but we may have a long way to go to reach this lofty goal. Possibly, some of us in the situation of the storm, even through faith, might be looking to the lifeboats as our means of escape. And, if that is our level of consciousness, then this same law of agreeme...

“Agree with thine adversary quickly,” remembering that the adversary is not the person or situation that stands before you, but your reaction to or feeling about it.

“Things may happen around you, and things may happen to you, but the only things that really count are the things that happen in you.” We can’t always control what happens to us. But we can control what we think about what happens—and what we are thinking is our life at any particular moment.

The Mosaic law forbade swearing by anything but God. Of course, it was done all the time any way. But the Master said, “Swear not at all.” This means that we should not take or make vows. The main problem with the vow is that it is a mortgage on the future. For instance, if we impetuously proclaim, “I will never speak to him again as long as I live,” we are limiting future experience to our present low state of consciousness. Usually, we come to regret such a vow. Either we break it with a sense of weakness of character or we hold to it stoically, feeling trapped by a regrettable decision.

How often the alcoholic vows never to take another drink. And how easily is the vow broken, each time reducing his already low self-respect. The fine organization of Alcoholics Anonymous wisely insists that such vows should never be taken for periods longer than one day—the theory being that anyone can restrain himself for twenty-four hours. And at the end of that time, he has the satisfaction of accomplishment. Then he can progress for another day.

The unforgivable sin is simply the closed mind, the mind that is made up, that will not let the Spirit reveal new Truths. Of how many individuals could it be said: I’m a Methodist born and a Methodist bred, And when I die, there’ll be a Methodist dead. Jesus says, “Keep your mind open. Don’t mortgage your future by making or taking vows. Be receptive to the continuous unfoldment of the Truth in and through you. Give thanks that life is lived one day at a time, and that every day is a glorious opportunity to be strong, to overcome, to achieve, and to be happy. Now is the time of salvation.”

When you see the beggar (or the friend) approaching, if you find resistance welling up in you, “turn the other cheek” immediately. Get your mind on the loving, nonresistant Christ-consciousness. You cannot really afford to do less. From the level of your divinity, you will respond to the requests with love and understanding. You will recognize that he has a problem which may go deeper than his need for financial help. You will “salute the divinity” within him and deal with him on this level.

Now, in this consciousness, you can deal with him from the standpoint of his highest good. You may give him the money in the faith that he will use it wisely and responsibly. Or you may be led to withhold the gift, but to give him the blessing of your wise and loving counsel. Your blessing may help him to create a new self-image, to find new self-respect, to rise to new faith in his ability to meet life.

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Jesus is constantly challenging us to take a good look at ourselves in the context of the divine potential within us. We must recognize that the basic problem in life is the frustration of our own potentiality. When we are faced with inharmony in relationships, it is not so much a problem between ourself and another who seems to be fighting us, as it is a break in our own circuit of good from the Father within. Life is consciousness. The problems we face indicate that our wires are down. We need to repair the break within ourselves. The only existence an error-condition has, as far as we are concerned, is that which we give it in our own thinking. Withdraw the thought about it and it fades into nothingness. What matters to us, in reality, is not people or things or conditions in themselves, but the thoughts and feelings we harbor concerning them. It is not the conduct of others but our reaction to it that makes or mars our life experience.

It is easy to be nice and friendly to those who are nice to you. It is no problem to “love thy neighbor” as long as we have something to say about who that neighbor may be. Love is not an emotion that begins in us and ends in the positive response of another. Love is a divine energy that begins in God and has no end. We tune in on this energy and are moved by it as it flows through us. Shakespeare says, “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”2 The classic illustration of this is in the statement, “I loved him with all my heart, but after what he did to me I hate him with a passion.”

On the level of his divinity, man has tremendous and limitless powers as his inheritance. However, they are his to use only when he acts the part of his divinity. So Jesus is saying, “Love your enemy—not because he is especially deserving of your love, but because when he causes you resistance, you are not acting the part of your divinity. And the power that goes with your divinity is only yours when you act the part.”

A light bulb is nothing more than that unless it is turned on. When the connection is made with electrical energy, it becomes a radiant source of light and warmth. Man is a spiritual being, a child of God, heir to all the infinite potential that inheres in all God’s creation, including Love, the strongest single force in existence. But, in reality, the fulfilling of the power of our...

You may say, “But I am only human.” This is the understatement of your life. You are not only human—you are also divine in potential. The fulfillment of all your goals and aspirations in life depends upon stirring up and releasing more of that divine potential. And there is really nothing difficult about letting this inner light shine. All we must do is correct the tendency to turn off our light when we face darkness.

It was of just such experiences as this that Jesus spoke, when he commanded, “Love thine enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you,…that you may be sons of your Father.” In other words love them, not because they deserve it but because you deserve it and need to keep your love-energy flowing.

He may blame the thief for what may ultimately happen—the loss of his purse, or the injury caused by the frightened culprit. But, from the standpoint of the law of consciousness, and of realizing the potential of the Divinity of Man, the real crisis resulted when the victim turned off his light and thus fearfully caused a break in his relationship with the Light of God within himself. So, no matter what the difficulty around you or the darkness before you, turn on the light. No matter what happens, turn on the light and keep it on.

“Ye shall therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is another important evidence that Jesus taught the Divinity of Man, and that man is intended to continue in unfoldment until he expresses and experiences the dynamic life of God.

It is impossible for weak, sinful humans to fulfill the absolute teachings of Jesus. But why be a weak, sinful human? Jesus is saying, “Much is expected of you because you are well endowed. You are a child of God, created in His image-likeness, possessed of the potential of the Christ indwelling. You are a growing, expanding, evolving, dynamic life-idea in God-Mind. There can never be a limit to God, and thus there can never be a limit to you if you get into God-consciousness.” It is not that Jesus challenges us with unattainable goals, but that He is continually reminding us of unclaimed possibilities. “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).

This is the key to understanding prayer—and the prayer idea that Jesus outlines. Prayer does not deal with a capricious God. It is a technique for achieving unity with God and His limitless life, substance, and intelligence.

Jesus said, “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). This is not a definition. Jesus knew that to define a thing is to limit it, and He was bent on expanding our thought of God as well as giving us a deeper insight into ourselves. He was giving a guide to direct our thoughts away from finite form, from thinking of God as a superman. Man’s dilemma is that he has become trapped in a religion of propositional theology. His attitudes about God and life and prayer have been cut-and-dried and bound into neat little packages. But you can’t cut-and-dry Truth without its ceasing to live as Truth.

Man is a thinking being, and the mind is the connecting link between God and man. Jesus is saying that prayer is not a matter of words or of outer forms. It is a matter of consciousness, of concentrated, rightly directed, spiritually oriented positive thinking. The law is, “As he thinketh in himself so is he.”

You cannot see God, but you see the life of God in that which is living. You see the love of God in him who is loving. You see the wisdom of God in the intelligence of man. It was in this sense that Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (though this statement has been misrepresented as referring to His unique divinity).

Because we haven’t understood the “secret place” of unity with God, and have not entered into the realm of causation, we have thought of prayer as the attempt to perform miracles, but that is not its purpose. The results of prayer may be humanly astounding, but they merely demonstrate the art of unifying ourselves with the creative source of all good, the divine law of fulfillment.

When we think that “only a miracle can save us” and turn to prayer in that consciousness, we limit the power of our prayer. No miracle is needed to bring health or guidance or prosperity into our frustrated lives, because they are the very nature of God and the plan for His ideal creation, man. And that is the great “secret.”

Jesus is applying the term “hypocrite” to the religious zealot who makes a show of his religion and his prayer. But He is not condemning the person, only the practice. It is not often that this practice is a conscious attempt to show off. Because his religion has been given to him “custom-made,” the individual may know no other way. Men of all times have deluded themselves with the belief that outward acts which seem to be easy can be made to take the place of interior changes in thought and feeling which seem to be more difficult. How easy it is to fall into the practice of buying and wearing ceremonial garments, repeating set prayers by rote, using stereotyped forms of devotion, attending

religious services at prescribed times, and still leave the heart unchanged.

Jesus is saying, “Make no parade of your religion. The Father in you knows you better than you know yourself. He doesn’t want a pretender, a play-actor. He wants you. Your prayer is not to impress Him or anyone else. Your prayer is to lift your c...

We must work to alter the concept of God as the “answer man,” the “super-doctor,” “the divine warehouse,” and the concept of prayer as the

great “spiritual slot machine.” Remember, “God is Spirit and they that worship must worship in Spirit and in Truth.” Often someone may say, “I haven’t prayed much lately, because I have had no problems to pray about.” This person has missed the whole idea of prayer. Most certainly, problems may be solved through prayer; but that is only a secondary value. The most important purpose of prayer is lifting ourselves to a high level of consciousness where we can be conditioned in mind and body with the all-sufficient life, substance, and intelligence of God.

“And in praying use not vain repetitions.” Notice that Jesus does not condemn repetition, but vain repetition. Jesus, Himself, used repetition, on one occasion He repeated the same prayer three times. Prayer is to lift consciousness—yours, not God’s. If the repetition is the effort to condition your mind with the thoughts of God, then it is good. However, if you parrot a prayer or affirmation over and over with the idea of conditioning God to your needs, then it is vain. Nowhere in Christian practice has Jesus’ clear instruction been so disregarded as in this matter of prayer repetition.

Kahlil Gibran says: “For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?”4 “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matt. 6:8). This statement should be the preamble to every prayer. It should be read in every Christian church every time the “call to prayer” is issued. It should be embossed on the front of every Bible and prayer book, and should be prominently displayed in every prayer room. Certainly if we really believed that the Father knew our needs even before we prayed, it would cause some rethinking about prayer in general, and it would be a tremendous influence on every prayer for specific needs.

God doesn’t have what you want or need. God is the substance of that need. You don’t have to ask God for life, for God is life. You are the projection of that life into visibility. The key to healing is to lift up your thought to the consciousness of the wholeness of life in you. You need not ask for it. God is that wholeness, but you must accept it into your mind which has been seeing in part. You don’t have to ask God for wisdom, for God is wisdom. Your mind is an activity in the Infinite Mind of God. If there is any break in the flow of the inspiration of the Almighty in you, that break is in you—not in God. Your need is to reestablish yourself in the consciousness of the all-knowing Mind of God in you. How do you ask the sun for sunlight? By getting out into the sun. How do you ask electricity for light for you lamp? By turning on the switch. How do you “ask” God for what you

want? By getting into the Spirit. It is not something that God must do for you. It is what you must do for yourself to enable God to do for you that which it is His ceaseless longing to do. “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

How can you ask for anything believing that you already have it? You can when you realize that, as a spiritual being, God has endowed you with built-in capacities and with a Kingdom within you of all-sufficient resources. Sickness or lack or indecision have no place in the plan of the Infinite for man. You are the very expression of God and it is His ceaseless longing to fulfill you as a total person. You ask for your good in the sense of claiming your inheritance, drawing upon your spiritual reserves with the same confidence as drawing savings out of a bank.

Prayer is not a way to turn on the light in God, but to turn on the light in you—and God is that light.

“But when thou prayest, enter into the inner chamber and shut thy door.” This is Jesus’ teaching of the silence, the dynamic concept of deep prayer. In a very real sense, much that we think of as prayer is but a preparation for prayer. It is the process of resolving the conflicts of the mind so that we can “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). When we plug the battery into a charger, it does not chatter away about how much it needs the charging. It simply and quietly accepts the inflow of energy. And when we pray, Jesus is telling us, we should get into the depths of our being, and shut out the concerns of the world, and “pray to the Father in secret.”