Spiritual Defense and Offense for Flu

THE PROBLEM:
On January 8, 2018, Op-Ed Contributors of the New York Times,  Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaaker, assessed the flu situation as it stands worldwide. They warn of the probability of a global flu pandemic -- "occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population" (Merriam-Webster). Their message is that we are "not ready." They compare the conditions at the time of the disastrous 1918 Spanish-flu epidemic where it is said that between "50 and 100 million people" lost their lives, to today. The hope of discovering an effective vaccine, they say, is within reach of our technology, however, there is insufficient funding to accomplish this goal. There are four times as many people on the planet as in 1918, and transcontinental flights bring us into proximity with one another consistently, adding to the fear of disease spreading worldwide. The remedy in the form of an efficient vaccine in sufficient amount seems out of reach.

THERE IS AN ANSWER IN SPIRIT, TRUTH, AND DIVINE LOVE.
The purpose of the blog today, is to address this issue by turning those spiritually-minded individuals to the fact of an omnipotent, ever-present "help in times of trouble." Those studying the healing works and words of the Master, Christ Jesus, know the dominion he showed over every disease or sickness. He would not be afraid of flu, nor in danger of catching it. He said, "I am not of this world," therefore exempt from illness. He also said, "Ye are not of this world." What did he mean, and how will that protect you? Truth makes us free, Jesus taught. Your are not "of this world" because in reality, right this moment, you are purely spiritual. Spirit is the one true substance, and seeing this with your spiritual sense immediately begins to act practically on one's health and well-being. There is a "medicine of Mind" that Mary Baker Eddy expounds upon in her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The author healed thousands of people through her pure Christly prayer, and teaches us from Jesus' own words, how we can heal ourselves and others, too. Put on your Christly protection of increased spiritual understanding through your Bible study, prayer, and pure unselfish motives. Fear not, for the I Am that I Am is with you. Insist on the presence of God, Good; declare and feel that the Law of God, is the Law of Love, and is around you, your loved ones, and all.

Intuition

When you get that little nudge that you cannot quite define, that feeling that maybe you should wait, or a totally "green light" on a decision -- all of that is intuition. Intuition is something literally built into the spiritual DNA or genetics of our Soul -- it is the actual presence of Mind in operation as our consciousness that feels after correct impulses of direction. Intuition in decision-making may push through to you at any time, under any circumstances, but it is best sought in quiet places of solitude, even if for only a moment or two. Habitual meditative times really open the door wide for intuition. You may find yourself with greatly increased discernment in various areas of experience and in relations and communication with others. When we stop trying to tell God, Spirit, everything, stop asking and asking for help, and instead listen and quiet our personal senses, then intuition comes in as a refreshing wave of calm and peaceful awakening. It "restores my soul," (Psalm 23). Wondering if something is right? A decision is to be made? A relationship or job be pursued? Quiet -- listen for angel messages -- ask and they will come. This is your natural intuitiveness -- a gift from Soul. You will know. Be grateful that you will know. Thank You for letting me know what to do, when to wait, when to move forward. Be not afraid and do not hurry. Most of all, do not argue with your spiritual intuitions or try to "logically" explain them away. They are pure and have your best interest to the front. Trust the bigger picture to God and feel His directing. The divine plan is for perfect harmony and happiness. Listen and follow, even if it doesn't make sense at the moment; even if it seems disappointing -- wait. Love wants only the best for you. There is a divine plan and nothing can interfere with it; it is operating in your behalf for your best good and to bless those that you have, or will have, in your experience. With intuition you can be the best help, the most discerning counselor or coach, because it is not the personal you thinking or speaking. You listen to what people say, and at the same time you hear what God is saying because you have nurtured that listening prayer and are always receiving angel messages. You speak what God says to your consciousness and it turns out to be perfect intuitiveness with just the right answer for the one who needs your help.

Once I had the intuition that I should not go so early to pick up my daughter from school -- I usually left with extra time. It didn't make sense to me and I fought off the light little intuition with human logic and left as always. For this, I was stuck for a really long time in a traffic jam, and when I finally arrived at the school, I had to wait because my daughter was held up talking with her teacher. This is just a tiny example, but illustrates how we need to really be obedient to the gentle promptings that come to thought in the form on intuitions.

A time when my intuitions came to the rescue occurred when a woman called me to pray with her. She said she was so weak that she couldn't really get out of bed anymore, and she was just giving up. She was scared. The angel messages that came as I prayed with her prompted me to ask if she lived alone, if she had anyone there, if she had eaten. All responses were in the negative. I was able to get her to call a family member to come assist her -- she was quite reluctant to do so because she was afraid they might take her from her home. This led to practical and gentle steps that took care of her immediate needs, and we continued to pray together a few more times on the phone. She recovered health and strength and was able to stay home safely after a few weeks. I am grateful for the angel messages that came to my thought to ask the right questions.

You can develop the strength of your innate intuitiveness through quiet meditative prayer. Doing this regularly with the purpose of expressing love and bringing healing enables you to receive the intuitions you need to help yourself and others, and have a happier, Spirit-connected life!

Two Barrels of Chlorine Gas Dropped: Prayer Needed for Healing

The question at issue, two barrels of chlorine gas have been dropped on Saraqeb, Syria (late on Monday, August 1), what can we do to help those afflicted? Who is responsible and why it was done are not the urgent questions, rather it is how we can effectively pray to bring healing to the approximate 30 suffering in consequence -- mostly innocent women and children. 

The need of the moment is for healing, for relief, for the saving power of divine Love to rest upon them. Can you help? Yes.

What do we need to include (or exclude) in our prayerful thinking so it is effective in healing? First, prayer needs to be more listening (to God) than informing Him. God knows all and knows the reality of His own infinitude of Good. We need to get on the side of His thought and vision. Right where evil, fear, pain, physical discomfort, threat, and violence appear, right there we must get into the embrace of that intelligent Love who makes us see from His higher view -- makes us see what is actual and real. The Scriptures say that God "is of purer eyes than to behold evil." It is not that He is unable to see everything -- God sees all and "behold, it is very good." We are seeing things incorrectly with a false perception. If we see things as they really are, we can see only Good, for God, Good fills all space "and there is none beside Him." This higher spiritual standpoint goes against all the physical sense presentation. However, holding to the infinitude of God as all good and all-loving, we are knowing truth, and Jesus said that would make us free. It will heal. 

So how to help? Turn thought to realize goodness and Love, like a gentle Light, filling all space and resting as a healing presence on those who have unjustly been afflicted. This is the Christ presence and it heals, comforts, and restores. 

What must we not include in our thinking? Blame, anger, astonishment. These obstruct. Turn so fully to God, Goodness and Love, that it is all that fills your thought. This Christly activity of thought manifests blessings and healing. The little ones in Saraqeb need us. Bring the true Light and behold them from God's eye view, safe in the midst of His Being of Love.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36951783

Egypt Airline

With a spiritual eye on the news, two questions must be addressed concerning the Egypt Airline tragedy. 1) How can we best console those who have lost loved ones? 2) How can we pray effectively to prevent further catastrophes?

Both questions are complex, and each will most likely be addressed inaudibly and from a distance. These factors do not interfere with the application of the power of God to comfort, heal, and protect.

First, there is always shock when such things occur -- and intense sadness. It affects everyone, but those with close family or friends are most devastated. The best comfort I know comes as a gift from Christ Jesus whose cross-and-resurrection lesson demonstrated the reality of continuous life in a very substantial way. There is no doubt that each individual continues his or her experience of life, and that in reality, there is no separation but what the material senses suggest. The truth (that makes free) is that we "live, move, and have our being" in the One Infinite I AM. No one ever loses Life (the one true Life is God). Each one of us is the expression of his very Being, Mind, Love.

Preventative prayer? God is All there is and He fills all space. He is the one Intelligence and is all good. In reality all is God, Spirit, and the spiritual universe (timeless and eternal) is all there is -- we are in it and it is in us. The Scriptures say that God is "Light in whom is no darkness at all," all good in whom there is no evil at all. Realization of the everpresence of Good precludes bad things from occurring. It is where we go for true safety. We are always under the shadow of His wing, safe. These truths, realized, are a law to the case for you and will protect and defend you perfectly.

Easter Attack and the Healing Response of divine Love

BBC News in Asia today, reports on "the attack against Christians celebrating Easter" at a funfair in a park (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35910124). Hundreds were injured and dozens of innocent children died.  

Although "Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said the target of its Easter Sunday attack was the Christian community," many who died were Muslims. "In the end," unfortunately, "those killed and wounded were simply Pakistani citizens spending a day out in the park with their children."  

After his visits to the victims in the hospital, Mr. Sharif, at a "later security meeting," said that "defeating terrorism was imperative." Absolutely. 

Terrorism is not something new to the world, but it is something the greater part of humanity rejects. It is not in accord with the nature of the Infinite One who is Spirit and Love. Violence does not emanate from the Source of all Being which is Love. This is a powerful fact to realize in prayer because whatever is not aligned to the divine nature has, in reality, no power, since God, Spirit, is omnipotent and supreme. This truth is mighty and realizing this fact causes things to happen in a saving direction. 

In the book of Revelation, evil at its worst is symbolized by the "great red dragon" (12:3). This evil, one form of which is terrorism, is bound with a great chain by "an angel come down from heaven" and "cast into the bottomless pit" for a thousand years "that he should deceive the nations no more" (20:1-3). The nature of the Dragon (evil, terrorism) is deception. The nature of God, Good, is Truth. According to the Master, Christ Jesus, the Truth makes us free. To be free of terrorism we must know the deep truth, or reality, of divine Love's ever-presence and omnipotence. 

There is never a moment when Love is not present. When evil seems violently present as in this terrorist attack, the strongest power against it -- one that will aid those taking practical outward steps to prevent further victimization and loss -- is to humbly ask for the realization of God's presence and power as the Light of Love filling all space and encircling everyone. 

Evil is deceptive. It appears to be present and hurtful. Truth exposes its nothingness and shows itself in protection and healing. 

Even now, to declare that our divine Father was present and protecting His little ones, no matter what it looked like, will bring healing physically and emotionally to those who seem to have been hurt. The dear ones who we mourn, they are in the Father's arms, whole and comforted. Let us pray for that comfort to rest on each of us, and for the healing power that comes with realizing the allness and ever presence of God, Good, Spirit and Love. Let the wounds be healed. Let the uplifting resurrection power be felt by all who suffered in this attack.

Art to Encourage Syrian Children

Diana Brisly, Syrian artist now living in Beirut, sends encouragement to children in her home country. She explains, "You can put philosophy in a painting," and many of her pieces are featured in a surviving children's magazine, Zayton and Zaytona. The aim is to give children hope and help them hold to their dreams while living in a war zone and witnessing things that no one should ever have to face (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35847632). 

It is a natural thing to cover your child's eyes at the sight of something bad or frightening. We do it at the movies and should do it for all presentations of evil. The innocent mind full of natural wonder and love of play should not have ugly, violent, war pictures before their gaze every day, no have to bear the loss of loved family members or damage to their own bodies. Brisly is giving them her best in art; she is teaching and encouraging through paintings that people risk their lives and freedom to distribute. 

What can we give? What can we do to help? How can we reach a child in Syria's war zone right now to protect and give hope? Some of us may find ways to respond hands-on or in-person, but most of us need to respond metaphysically through extraordinarily powerful prayer that becomes practical even at such a distance to a multitude of young children to decrease violence before their eyes. Let's put the beautiful and meaningful paintings of divine Spirit and Love before their eyes instead. This requires seeing spiritually, a thing more difficult for the more mature and educated ming than for a child who embraces spirituality naturally.

Our effective prayer comes with seeing from God's eyes. See the Light of Love everywhere, gently embracing everything, filling all the space in Syria and all the space around each and every child there. See them surrounded in a gentle but impervious light -- the light that is God whose Word changes chaos to order, and senseless fighting and violence to peace, rest, calm, and joy. God is ever-present and "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Corinthians 3:17). 

Urgent Need: Christian refugees held in Thailand

Please see the news article on BBC. 
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35654804

The Christians held in Thailand after fleeing Pakistan

By Chris RogersBBC News, Thailand26 February 2016
There is a very urgent need for practical, powerful prayer in behalf of Pakistani Christians who have fled to Thailand, but are now incarcerated or kept in dire living conditions. The U.N. is to investigate each case, but one family that has been there for a very long time, and is in extreme suffering, must wait until 2018 for this to occur. Although these hundreds, or thousands, of Christian Pakistanis are UN-registered asylum seekers, supposedly under UN protection, they still find themselves in long-term suffering through separation from families and/or imprisonment. 

Police in Thailand, tired of waiting for UN help, break into the overcrowded, dingy rooms where asylum seekers live, often taking the husbands and fathers from the family. An example is given of a ma who has lived in a "small, sparce room with no kitchen or toilet" with 10 family members for two years, and who was arrested and taken from the family two months ago. He explains that in Pakistan "a gang threatened to kill [his] family if they didn't convert to Islam." 
A 19-year-old's comment probably speaks for  the majority when she says that they do not have any faith in the United Nations, but they "only have faith in God. He will bring us freedom." We need to be moved with compassion and help with powerful prayer and voicing of Truth in their behalf. The Scriptures give us examples that parallel situations such as these. Of the many to consider, there is the well-known narrative of Moses who freed the children of Israel after 400 years of hard slavery. They were held by Pharaoh who would not budge in his decision to keep them in bondage. But the Law of God was present, and the Spirit of Truth inevitably brings freedom. Man is not made to be held in bonds or to be imprisoned. 
The result of Moses' obedience to whatever God told him to do or say was that hundreds of thousands were freed and walked out of Egypt in plain sight. This law of God is present today with the Christians in Thailand. They are holding to forgiveness and to Christ's example. Good is powerful, and ever-present. Love frees. God fills all space and is in the prison and in the simple shelters. "Where the spirit of God is, there is liberty." Let us hold to this prayer until we see a break in this situation and the people are freed. Let us know that there is no power to hold up right action in the UN -- that there is nothing to delay God's Law, justice and mercy, so the people can be free, the families can reunite, and the conditions for living be normalized. Let us pray to realize the presence of Love and power of Good. 
Again, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." And Spirit fills all space!