Midweek Faith Lift
December 8, 2021
The Power of Visualizing Peace
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Daily Reflection
November 24, 2021
On a West Hollywood street last year, Denzel Washington watched from his car as police officers questioned a distressed homeless man and were preparing to handcuff him. Denzel got out of his car and talked with the man and the police, helping to diffuse a tense situation. Rather than arresting the man, he was held for a mental-health check and allowed to go.
“The world largely forgets the efforts of individuals, yet those efforts are not in vain. They bear fruit in a life helped here, a future brightened there. I cannot live without purpose, without recognizing that the purest joy comes in helping others.” – Arthur Ashe
Affirmative prayer: I give thanks for every life that has touched my own, blessing and lifting me up. I reach out to others, praying that my service brings comfort and joy. Today, I give of myself, allowing my touch to be the occasion of connection and love revealed.
We are at the 7th step of realizing a miracle which Dr. Todd Michael calls visualizing. But as I read this chapter, it is visualizing on steroids…..spiritual visualizing, not just our ordinary human process of visualizing. When we take it into that kind of spiritual realm, it truly becomes mystical and is way beyond the power of our human imagination. Imagination is one of our 12 Powers in Unity, and this kind of visualization is that power. How is it that this power of visualizing works? And what is ours to do in awakening and working with this power in our own lives? How does it work and what do we do with it? Challenging questions!
In the story of the Loaves and Fishes, as that is our guide for this exploration of miracles, we are at the place where it says, from the Greek: “and taking the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to the Heaven.” This is what Jesus does next after telling everyone to sit down on the grass. This is a continuation of Matthew 14:19 which we began last week. Dr. Michael explored the Greek translations in greater depth and discovered the act of “looking up to the heaven” means “to restore vision.” My take on this is that it means to restore our connection, affirm our ability to see beyond appearances, that there is always more.
The second word of this phrase in Greek is ouranon, which means more than just heaven; it also means power or happiness. Taken together, we are restoring our capacity to see true happiness beyond appearances. The key element to understanding this is the idea of elevation. Looking up to heaven translates as focusing attention on Source: remembering from whence all miracle energy emanates is the key. We lift our vision to connect with the power of Spirit, of Source. This leads to the realm of happiness. And the channel that connects you to Source is not physical but is made of consciousness.
A regularly used prayer in Unity, especially at Silent Unity is phrased like this; “It is not I, but the Christ within that does the work.” It is a powerful phrase that connects us to Source in a deliberate, conscious way, and it is the only way.
This is the key to miracle-making with the process of visualization or as we describe it, our spiritual power of Imagination. There are hundreds of names for God, but only One Source, and it is to that Source that we lift our consciousness when we visualize a miracle unfolding.
It is the ultimate experience of “let go and let God.” We remember the words of Paul in the letter to the Philippians 4:12-13:
12 I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty, and of being in need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
This is the deep understanding and connection with Source from whence all our good flows. And what is this Source? What is this Primordial Substance from which all our good, all miracle-making energy flows? Quantum physics and spiritual Truth tells us it is “consciousness.” We call it Christ Consciousness.
As Dr. Michael states it on p. 113 of Twelve Conditions of a Miracle:
Regardless of its form, every single thing in the universe is alive and conscious—in spite of the fact that our very limited intelligence and senses might have us believe otherwise. Every type of matter and energy in your reality is a form of consciousness, a manifestation of consciousness.
That takes us to the place of working with our consciousness, aligning with the Divine, and then asking for what is needed. When we have come to the edge of all that we, in our human expression know and believe to be true, we turn to Source within. When there seems to be no way, Spirit always opens a Way.
Now here is the hard part: letting go of our human need to control the circumstances and situation that is in need of a miracle. Dr. Michael experienced this with a patient who was near death, for whom he had done everything to save medically with no change. Then he had to do what is hardest for humans to do: see with the eyes of Spirit, to let go of his attachment to his human powers, he had to see the best even as the worst transpired in vivid detail right before his eyes.
He describes lifting his vision to a higher state, seeing his patient healed and healthy. He describes feeling the joy at all the good this woman would bring to the world in her life on earth. He actually could feel that energy, and what unfolded next was that she woke up and said to him, “I am ok, doctor, how are you today?” He describes himself as “nearly paralyzed” in response, which is the truth. It was not he, but the energy of Spirit that did this work.
What did this require of him and what is required of us? It requires that we find ourselves in God. Father Richard Rohr reminds us that we are created in the image and likeness of God, which offers us a solid foundation from which we can operate in the world. From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, Monday, November 29, 2021, Finding Ourselves in God we read:
Our DNA is divine, and the divine indwelling is never earned by any behavior, group membership, or ritual whatsoever, but only recognized and realized (see Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8–10) and thus fallen in love with. When we are ready, we will be both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the boundless mystery of our own humanity. We will know we are standing under the same waterfall of mercy as everybody else and receiving an undeserved radical grace, which is the root cause of every ensouled being.
Thank you, Richard Rohr! The passages from Romans and Ephesians both state we are in essence Divine and that there is nothing we can do to earn this or deserve it. We are called to wake up to it!
So, returning to our original two questions how does this miracle-making power of visualization work, and what are we to do with it? Well, go back to the 3rd condition, the one of asking. Remember that we ask for what the situation needs without attachment to outcome, praying only to recognize and do our part to make it real. We ask, believing that what we need is already manifested in the Mind of God and we feel the joy at seeing it made real here and now. Focused on the Source, ego takes a back seat and we lift our consciousness to the heavens. The true Power comes from Spirit; our part is to use the visualization to provide a direction for that Power and seeing the final state as realized.
So what is ours to do, what is mine to do? This Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Peace. Visualizing peace at this time of year is a typical process people follow during Advent. We pray and sing of Peace and of Jesus as the Prince of Peace. What has been the result? Well, throughout history, war has been stopped for one day, Christmas Day as a result of our human efforts. Somehow if we are to realize miracle-making visualization of peace, it is going to take a higher consciousness. It is going to require us to do a lot of work on the ground within our own consciousness first, much like Dr. Michael did every medical procedure he knew to save the life of his patient. Only when he came to the end of all that he could do was he at the point of humility and surrender to let go and visualize her complete healing.
So it is with us in this peace realizing process because there is a lot of what I call “not peace” in the world right not. It seems to be everywhere. So what can I do? Well, as noted last week, I need to sit down, look around and see what is there. This past week, I was running errands and saw two very “not peace” triggers literally. The first one was a bumper sticker “Gun lovers love Trump” and the second bumper sticker was “Raise your Guns.” The gentlemen sporting these messages were at the same chiropractor’s office that I frequent.
I have to admit my first response was anger and intense dislike for these men and all who adhere to their sentiments. Then I had to breathe, relax and connect with Source. What is mine to do is to see peace, kindness, and caring where it is not evident. I had to elevate my consciousness to see beyond these angry human cries of fear and affirm, “May the peace of God prevail in us.” I had to pray that should the opportunity arise whereby I can show up and hold space for peace and understanding much as Denzel Washington did in the opening story, I would do it. My human knees may be shaking, but it is the Christ in me that will find the words to speak peace in such a way that peace does prevail. May it be so.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb