Divine Control

June 5, 2019
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Readings from the Bible And Science & Health With Key to the Scriptures By Mary Baker Eddy

PSALMS

103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

145:13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

72:7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

JEREMIAH

10:10 . . . the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king:  
12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

ISAIAH

30:21 . . . thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 228:25-27
There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God.

SH 379:6

The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind.

SH 275:20-23
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science.

SH 143:25-31

Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was first chronologically, is first potentially, and must be first eternally, then give to Mind the glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its holy name. 

SH 171:12-13

Mind’s control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.

SH 473:8-10

God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power. 


SH 184:16-17
Controlled by the divine intelligence, man is harmonious and eternal.

LUKE

4:33 ¶ . . . in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36  And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
9:1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

MATTHEW

8:5 ¶ And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 177:5
The evidence of divine Mind’s healing power and absolute control is to me as certain as the evidence of my own existence.

SH 26:14-16
Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death.

SH 381:31

Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine authority and having only human approval for their sanction.

SH 182:30
To admit that sickness is a condition over which God has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power is powerless on some occasions. The law of Christ, or Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so-called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing from the basis of one God, one lawmaker. To suppose that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; discords have no support from nature or divine law, however much is said to the contrary.

SH 251:20-24 (2nd the)

. . . the divine Mind makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, and the healer of sin, disease, death.

SH 14:25

Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak “as one having authority.”

SH 76:20-21 (2nd man)

. . . man is immortal and lives by divine authority.

ROMANS

8:7 . . . the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1:16 … I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; …

8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
28 All things work together for good to them that love God.

JUDE

1:25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

SH 306:18-19 man

. . . man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God.

SH 91:5

Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth.


 SH 544:14-17

No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God.

SH 393:10-13
Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. 

SH 390:20
Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. 

SH 311:3
What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind: all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real.

SH 251:20-24

… we should learn to govern the body “from the higher understanding that the divine Mind makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, and the healer of sin, disease, death.

SH 395:11
When divine Science overcomes faith in a carnal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear.

PSALMS

91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 

10  There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 

11  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”

62:11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

PROVERBS

16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.
2:5 . . . your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
3:5 ¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

SH 393:16-18

Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s government.

SH 569:6-11
The Scripture, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many,” is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness.

SH 217:22-24 in

. . . in proportion as you understand the control which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be able to demonstrate this control. 


SH 17:1-3, 12-16
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme.


For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

SH 516:19-21
Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth.

PUBLICATIONS QUOTATIONS

 “Decisions and divine control”

By Robert Coe Gilbert

Christian Science Sentinel

September 7, 2015

All of us face situations, large and small, where decisions are being made about us that affect our lives. . . . such decisions are subject to divine power, to divine Truth and Love.

. . . right where important decisions are being made about us, God, Mind, is present and in complete control. And this complete control of God brings justice by silencing personal sense, the source of all wrong and negative effects; by destroying false beliefs, prejudices, and stereotypes about us; and by enforcing God’s wholly good judgment. 

I have found it important, as we tend to put an emphasis on how another’s decisions might impact us, to also put an emphasis on our decisions about them. We need to yield to the divine will in our thinking about others and perceive them as God knows them to be, as spiritual, innocent, pure, and true, as distinctly different from what personal sense might be telling us. 

We need to let God, divine Truth, silence the arguments of personal sense in our thinking, correct our false perceptions of others, and allow God’s judgment to rule in our hearts. This kind of spiritual honesty and humility is an important part of putting every aspect of decision-making (our own included) under God’s control.

Sometimes, though, decisions don’t go our way, or at least not the way we want them to go, and the consequences can seem overwhelming. At such times, I have found it immensely helpful to remember this biblical truth: “All things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28). Simply put, to love God causes all things in our lives to work together for good, even the things that seem negative. With this assurance, we are enabled to move forward, trusting that God’s government will be made evident sooner or later.

God doesn’t govern human affairs just to help us get what we think we want; His law is always governing, and His love for us causes us to recognize that we must surrender human will to God. 

We need to yield to the divine will in our thinking about others and perceive them as God knows them to be.

God’s purpose for us is inescapable, and, as we yield to God, we find His purpose is at work in all the important decisions in our lives. This may mean that we will be told “yes” to some things and “no” to others. God’s governing care never puts us into places or relationships that we are not ready for, or that can hinder the fulfillment of our holy purpose.  

“Divine Control””

By Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science Journal

May 1962

If there is any one lesson that the world should learn from the life and works of Christ Jesus, it should be that of God’s universal control. Wherever he was, whatever condition confronted him, the Master was ready to prove the supreme control of the Father. 

It is scientific logic that the greater controls the lesser, and our Exemplar never lost sight of that logic. He gave scientific proof that this kind of logic is effective when understood. Mary Baker Eddy, speaking of what Jesus would do if he were present, says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 294), “He would mightily rebuke a single doubt of the ever-present power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe.”

If God does not seem to be in control, it is because dull humanity is asleep to the actual order of existence, unaware of the nearness of God and His power. Jesus was always awake to true being. He was clearly conscious of God and His control. He possessed the pure spirituality that can penetrate the obscuring fog of materialism and perceive what is going on in Science: the one divine Being governing its own creation.

In Christian Science we find that spiritual perception and power are inseparable, for one brings into his experience what he spiritually perceives. Jesus actually perceived—not dimly imagined—the realm he called heaven, where God’s power over man is established. Then this order appeared in the Master’s experience because he was conscious of it. The genuine always rules out the spurious. When real consciousness, reflecting Mind and its content, is demonstrated, the illusion of a false, material consciousness that includes the lie of control by evil is dispelled.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). He also exemplified the fact that the divine will controls the human sense of life, once that mighty will is understood to be the only will. He proved for all time that inward submission to divine control externalizes itself in outward freedom from evil control.

If one seems to be governed ruthlessly by circumstances beyond his control, let him begin to lift his vision to the higher view of life and the true order. Mrs. Eddy says in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 354), “Experience shows that humility is the first step in Christian Science, wherein all is controlled, not by man or laws material, but by wisdom, Truth, and Love.”

After the first step is taken, one must go on boldly to prove fully that everything in God’s universe is under His perpetual jurisdiction and that any other control is delusive and destructible. This is the goal of Christian Science, and God makes it attainable by anyone willing to yield to the divine control.