If you want to stay healthy, don’t agree with any suggestion of disease coming your way. Stay free of it. As Jesus Christ taught, rebuke disease and send it fleeing.
One example of Jesus showing us how to send disease fleeing is found in the book of Luke. The story reads, “…Jesus went to Simon’s home, where he found Simon’s mother-in-law very sick with a high fever. ‘Please heal her,’ everyone begged. Standing at her bedside, he rebuked the fever, and it left her” (Luke 4:38-39, NLT).
“He rebuked the fever.” To Jesus, the fever was not a physical condition. It was a belief, a wrong belief about Simon’s mother-in-law. He rebuked it and sent it fleeing.
As Christian Science explains, Jesus understood the mental nature of disease. That it may appear to be a physical condition, but what one sees physically is but the manifestation of a belief held in the thought forming that physical condition. The cure is to remove the belief behind the suffering, then the suffering disappears.
As Mary Baker Eddy explains in her textbook on how to heal like Jesus healed, she writes, “If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of mortal mind” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 425). And further explains, “Disease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortal mind, the sensation would not appear if the error of belief was met and destroyed by truth” (Science and Health, p. 168).
One way to destroy an error of belief is to rebuke it. Don’t agree with it. Don’t sympathize with it. Don’t fear it. Rebuke it. Remove it from consciousness.
In forming metaphysical arguments for destroying beliefs of disease, Mrs. Eddy instructs, “Therefore the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient’s false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being, — representing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick” (Science and Health p. 376).
Disease is not your friend. Rebuke it. Be done with it. Have nothing to do with it. Assiduously side with the spiritual facts of being and send false beliefs fleeing.
AMEN!
Thank you Evan for the clear reminder to disagree with disease – pointing its mental nature. It reminds me of a passage from Corinne Jane Teeter’s article Humility-“lens and prism” (not sure which edition of the Journal) :-
“We don’t tackle evil at the point of the illusion – in other words, with thought focused on sickness or accident or some other calamity. Rather, we know that the appearance of evil is the mist of mortal-mindedness; that the arguments of the serpent and the serpent itself…. are fictional and totally false. The clear light of Truth entertained in thought dispels the mist, and the harmony that is eternally true again becomes evident.”
Here’s a link to the article
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2fdkq8amk9u?s=copylink
A very thought-provoking and insightful article. Thank you idear and RobertH.
I had success with rebuking disease when one morning I woke up with flu symptoms. I had to umpire a game of junior football and knew that we didn’t have anyone else available. I simply repeated in an affirmative manner, ‘No, no,no! This is not so. You have no power over me! Suddenly all the flu symptoms vanished from sight. It was quite remarkable.
Love this Theo!❣️
Wonderful demonstration Theo, thank you for sharing it with us!
Theo, I’ve posted this before but it coincides with your experience so I’ll repeat it. I was vacationing with family, awoke late at night with all the symptoms of a sore throat; without a moment’s hesitation, I mentally shouted, ‘No, no!;, I was not going to ruin our time together by being sick! Fell right back to sleep and in the morning, no sore throat! But that wasn’t the end of it–the next night a cough started! I did the same thing and immediately it stopped. Like our Master, we, too, can rebuke whatever has the audacity to claim power apart from God, good.
HEADLINE NEWS!
Nan, and takes me back to a time when the symptoms appeared which led to the removal of my tonsils and the END of participating on the school’s swim team. The outcome over time is that twenty years later, I married the classmate who was FIRST on our school’s men’s swim team. I am grateful to God for all of the outcome.
Well done, Theo. Thank you for sharing that, which is so supportive
of Evan’s SpiritView today.
This is praying for yourself, rebuke false testimony of the flesh call itself self and accept our true spiritual self our Christly reflection of the Divine.
Simply a suggestion knocking at the door, hoping we’ll let it in. No, not happening.
Thank you Evan. ❣️
Hi Patty, your very true comment made me think of this rock song from the 1970’s. The lyric is, “I hear you knockin, but you can’t come in, I hear you knockin, go back where you been.”
Perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMjwb13TFCo
Rose, I love this! I remember that song–great way to ”rebuke’ error!
I only know “assiduously” from context, so looked it up. We side with spiritual facts with great care, persistent attention to detail, and tireless dedication, working thoroughly and correctly. Because it’s Latin root means “to sit down to,” it means that with patience, focus, and continuous effort, we stay glued to the work until complete.
❤️
CAT, you’ve answered with TRUTH, what the word means, and I am so very grateful, as here we’re persistent and dedicated to the growth of our son, and WITH PATIENCE, FOCUS, AND ALL OUR EFFORTS, to witness our son’s advancement. If doing it assiduously leads to proof at the end, I will follow the TRUTH assiduously. Thank YOU!!!
This is such a powerful SV and the comments are so helpful. But, I struggle because I so often feel my thought is too fearful to rebuke strongly enough to send the problem fleeing. I know Mrs. Eddy says in the Preface of SH that the human mind is not a factor in the Principle of CS. But, it seems we have to use the human mind to rebuke and talk back to the error. So often I fear that my so called “human mind” is not up to the job. I’d love your thoughts on this. Thank you all!
I know how you feel, DD. i think we need to know that there is only one Mind, and
that is God. And Christ is the power and presence of that Mind, which is reflected
in each of us There is no other mind. We actually have the Mind of the Christ, and
need to claim it. It is the power of God and His Christ with us that silences the material sickly beliefs.
Jesus said that he could do nothing of himself but what he saw the Father. do. With God we can do anything, but without Him was can do nothing. We have been given dominion over all the earth and its seeming discords, and that dominion is God with us, or Christ with us. i am praying to understand and feel this more clearly, and to demonstrate it with humility but
confidence in this fact.
Dear DD,
I know what you mean about it not always being easy to rebuke and talk
back to error. The “human mind” is constantly bombarded by thoughts
that often seem challenging to dismiss. But as Mrs. Eddy states, in S&H
pg. 392 … ” Stand porter at the door of thought, admitting only such
conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself
harmoniously” … She goes on to write, “Exclude from mortal mind the
offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them.. The issues of
pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking
his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help
we can forbid this entrance.” The whole page (393) is helpful, but what
stands out to me is, “Mind [Capital Mind] is the master of the corporeal
senses, and can conquer sickness, sin and death. 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. ”
I know it is easier said than done, but it is a worthy goal that we try not to
agree with an error or belief in matter as being powerful in controlling
thought.
Angel, your last sentence about not agreeing ‘with an error or belief in matter’ reminds me of the title of a book that’s been showing up in an ad on Facebook: ‘Don’t Believe Everything You Think’. I think it’s interesting that the title goes right along with Mrs. Eddy’s rules of watching thought.
In the chapter Recapitulation which is used as the basis for CS class instruction, I find it interesting that Mrs. Eddy starts off by defining God. Once we have a true understanding of God, then it’s easier to rebuke (not believe) any suggestion that doesn’t reflect what we know God to be. And it’s fun to be creative when doing that. For example, each year my wife and I like to attend our state fair. During the middle of the covid pandemic, the fair was canceled. But the next year it was held again, but the fear of covid was still very strong and attendance wasn’t as high as normal. We attended and as I was watching a musical act, people would walk by and occasionally cough near me. That initially made me fearful and I struggled to rebuke the fear I might get sick as a result of contagion. But then the thought occurred to me that God governs the economy and many people relied on the fair for income. Therefore, it dawned on me that there was no power that could oppose God’s power to maintain a good economy. I’ve read Mrs. Eddy rebuked heavy snow because that can also limit economic activity. So I thought of that and the truth that nothing could prevent the right economic activity of God enabled me to conquer the fear of contagion at the fair. Both my wife and I enjoyed our time there and suffered no illness as a result of attending and interacting with many people.
So start with God and get a clear understanding of God (maybe by studying the first part of Recapitulation). Then just know anything unlike God can’t be real and it’s your right not to be fearful of anything that doesn’t originate from God.
Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, “Peace, be still.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 144:20)
Thank you Evan.
In the preface of Science & Health, Mary Baker Eddy quotes Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” That points to the purely mental nature of our experience (metaphysics = above the physical) as thought. It’s being mentally rebellious, like Theo so awesomely demonstrated. 🙂
“The disbelief that leads to healing” By Dorothy H. Jones. From the February 1979 issue of The Christian Science Journal:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/21y2oo2fvm8?s=copylink
Thank you Evan for today’s SpiritView on rebuking evil. Thank you also to idear for Corinne Jane Teeter’s article on Humility. It really hit the point on what I spent the morning thinking (not god-like thoughts.)
And Maggie — thank you for your description of the Christ –“Christ is the power and presence of that Mind, which is reflected in each of us . There is no other mind. ” I don’t think I’ve ever heard Christ described in quite that way.