Knowing in an instant

by David Bates

Never in my life had I ever had such a clear understanding of myself, my relation to God, and what Christian Science means to me. And it all stemmed from a simple, yet profound, instantaneous healing.

I was at home one evening. After eating dinner, I was suddenly overcome with illness, exhaustion, and fear all at once. I lay down on my bed and did the only thing I knew how to do in a situation like this—I prayed. After only a few moments of silence, a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal popped into my head.

I looked it up and these lines stood out to me, “Only God can bring us gladness, Only God can give us peace,” and “Undisturbed, our hearts rejoice.” And then this from the second stanza: “Heavenly calm and comfort showing, Comes the healing word of Love” (No. 263).

I really needed this healing word of Love or God. Overall, I just needed a sense of peace—to feel undisturbed. And after reading this hymn, I did feel more at peace.

But this wasn’t when the instantaneous healing took place. After reading through the hymn, I felt inspired to think about what Christian Science was and what it means to me. Probably because of a new sense of calm, answers to these questions came so easily. In an instant I understood more than ever before how Christian Science explains a fixed principle of healing. I knew that when this principle is properly understood and demonstrated, then a healing takes place.

I began to pray more deeply about the facts that support this principle. I knew they involved one, harmonious, all-powerful God who is good. I knew this God produced me and all of mankind in His image and likeness. And my relation to Him is constant and intact, never broken. Because how could a child never have had a father? It was at this point, after praying and coming to the realization of what Christian Science is and how it heals, that I was instantaneously healed. I suddenly felt well and was able to continue with what I needed to do that evening.

Since that night, I’ve wanted to dig deeper to figure out what exactly happened. (And this blog is helping me to do that now!) I found this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well.”

Hmm, that sheds more light on what must have happened in my thought when I wasn’t feeling well. Through my prayers (my conscious communion with God, divine Love), I was pondering how my life (as an expression of the Life that is God) is spiritual and perfect. And my life is always connected to God and never broken or disrupted by anything, including a belief of sickness. At the same time, my spiritual sense was seeing that this true sense of life could never originate in matter or be material. And what was the result? I found myself suddenly well.

Of course I was happy that I felt better, but I was even more impressed by how clearly I understood what Christian Science means to me and how that fits in with my relation to God. In that instant, I really felt as if I understood the healing principle behind Christian Science and could easily apply it.

And I think this is a key point—Christian Science is applicable and gets results every time. You can transform your thought in an instant. You can pray for peace, understand why you can have peace (and actually already have it), and then give thanks for that peace.

In fact, according to I Corinthians, this can happen in a “twinkling of an eye,” and “we shall be changed.” That’s instantaneous healing. Although it sometimes may take awhile to see the bodily results, if we continue to look away from the body (matter) and attune ourselves to and affirm our relation with God, the body will naturally correspond to a native, inherent sense of health.

I’m so grateful to be able to witness instantaneous healings today. It became more evident than ever to me on that night how the lessons Jesus taught and demonstrated have a distinct science to them. And when you apply the principles of this science—which Mary Baker Eddy called Christian Science—then you know that in every instant you are well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Fear, Illness, Christian Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.