One of my favorite dialogues in the New Testament is between Pilate and Jesus when Pilate is interrogating Jesus about his authority. Jesus has few words to share, and in frustration Pilate retorts, “Why don’t you talk to me?”…“Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?” Jesus responds, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above” (John 19:10,11, NLT). Jesus understood that God was the only power over his life, health and future. And he went on to prove it.
We can have the same conviction concerning the coronavirus!
When fears about the virus alarm, we can reply, “You have no power over me!”
We live in a universe of divine Mind, where God is the only power at work sustaining health and maintaining conditions of safety for all creatures to enjoy.
When evil appears real, such as with the coronavirus pandemic, it’s an opportunity to understand the power and presence of God better, which in turn, will neutralize that evil and render it harmless.
A virus is not something to fear. As a material germ it is utterly powerless. It is an element of matter, and matter has no intelligence or mind to think, act or create. Any effect associated with a virus is not caused by the virus itself, but by beliefs and fears attached to it.
The world is not witnessing the spread of a virus, so much as the spread of fear about the coronavirus. We can contribute to the end of this fear-pandemic by understanding the power of God better.
God is the only power!
As matter, a virus is not a god, a controller, cause or threat to your health. It is mindless. It does not plot, plan or create conditions for your health. God is the only power over your health, and God is a constant presence of protection and safety.
Understanding the presence of God renders a virus harmless.
To stay healthy, stay clear on what has power over your life and health.
God is the only power! To any claim of the coronavirus, you can declare, “You have no power over me!” and then understand the spiritual reasons why. They will protect you from harm.
Thank you, Evan, for this very clear message.
Thank you Evan for this wonderful and correcting view of what is going on. A more powerful and healing bulletin than the press is putting out. How blest we are- and thus encouraged. Much gratitude to you and to all in our movement who are supporting the world at this time.
Amen
Thank you Evan, thanking God we have the Christ under-standing as the rock upon which we place ourselves.
I look forward to printing this out for reference along with our Pastors.
Needless to say as a lifelong Scientist , I have been working on this subject since its inception, intrusion upon our works and I. am so grateful to read what u hav3 to say on the subject Evan, as. The world hears yourctimely TRUTH and it us so needed.c. thank u so much, could not have said it better.
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I was feeling sad this morning as my branch church has just suspended all church services including this Sunday, and it appears that mass self-isolation is imminent in the UK, but I am so grateful to have your SpiritView every day and the Bible Lesson. I am not on JSH online but will still be able to hear the Sunday service from The Mother Church. Your message today is so helpful as are all the comments each day. Thank you all!
We are continuing our services online and by telephone conference. The phone number to listen and participate is 831-296-3513, no code. The website to listen and participate is http://www.uberconference.com/room/church service. Must use Chrome browser. First Church of Christ, Scientist, Monterey, California.
What a perfect counterpoint to all that is being discussed in the media with respect to Covid-19.
I have always cherished what Christ Jesus said to Pilate and have used it often in my own life. Jesus knew that only one power was at work in his life.
As Reading Room librarian, I just completed a window treatment yesterday — and I do mean treatment– featuring the 91st Psalm. My hope is that our window display will also prove to be a counterpoint for passersby to read and perhaps take to heart as a promise from divine Providence
Thank you so much, Evan. And thank you all for your prayers during this time of worldwide need for respite in God’s truth.
406:16 “The moral man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he should be as fearless on the question of disease.”
Came across this today and wanted to share.
Thank you Fawn. This is wonderful!
Thank you, and all the commentors, and Evan, of course…
Thank you Fawn! That page also has one my favorite sentences “Perfect Love casts out fear”.
Thank you Evan, that you mention the Verses from John 19: 11, 12. From this i also realize, that nothing has power over me too than the almighty all-good God. Those are comforting words of Truth from Christ Jesus for us all! Am so so greatful you are caring for us so lovingly during this time of challenge explaining and teaching us the Truth !
Thank you!!! :
Amen! A powerful treatment! Thank you
One with God is a majority, because that one is the one Mind being expressed. When Jesus said “Peace be still” the storm was no more, the sea calm. The storm didn’t take hours to dissipate. All our combined prayers are no more effective because of number, but as a reflection and expression of infinite good, in which one is as important as all, and we share in brotherhood. And because Truth is the only power.[See Elisha’s response, “open his eyes, that he may see” 2 Kings 6:17] Each prayer is already known to God, and Love is reflected in love, blessing those that pray. Error will be self seen and will vanish. Its disappearance will transform world thought.
https://www.kencooperpoetry.com/god-is-our-freedom/
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”. Jesus proved this all the time.
“Peace, be still”……….
Amen
Thank you, Ken and all. Can we not be assured that one with God is a monopoly?
Hymn 85 comes to mind, as I read your comments, Ken. Every word, every verse was written for NOW! Thank you, FATHER!
YES!!
I spirit we are innocent of any error. I love the picture of child exploring the world around. In it we grow and learn, but that world is based upon Spirit not matter.
In spirit
This message is like a light shining in darkness! It only takes one candle to enlighten a whole room! Everyone benefits from that light! Let’s keep the light of Truth strong in thought and let it melt away the clouds of fear!
Amen
How perfect! Thank you.!!!!
Thank you, Evan. GOD IS THE ONLY POWER! I woke up this morning repeating and thinking about each word in the Scientific Statement of Being. It ends with “therefore man is not material, he is spiritual “. Reasoning from this basis, we can know we live and move and have our being in the rarified atmosphere of God’s creation…His eternal, spiritual universe which “ has not a single element of error….and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive..”. I will repeat often, that GOD IS THE ONLY POWER!
Amen
Right On!
Perfect. Thank you.
Evan- thank you!! So very grateful for this blog filled with the Truth!! It is blessing all mankind.
Yes, your message is a blessing !
Grateful
Sheree
You are right about our task to help neutralise this fear. “NOW IS THE TIME!” NOW are we the sons of God….” “all the predictions of this being the new normal”?????? is the most insidious lie that is being grabbed and eaten up by a public hungry for what? For information on disease because they are frightened. We know how fortunate we are to know God’s power is far above all of these lies about the Life that we are one with…but we now must know that as everyone is God’s child, every single one has been given the ability to perceive Truth, to feel safe, to think intelligently about the situation instead of reacting blindly. We are all one with the one divine Mind. Im so grateful for this blog Evan as it is like a worldwide network that grows stronger with every single person joining in and adding the truth as they see it….so much confirmation of God’s universe cannot be impotent to neutralise the fear that seems to be gripping the world as it pulls in those knowing and seeking the Truth in a practical way for the benefit of the world.
Indeed, the Christ is present in every human consciousness. Thank you Diane W for this reminder.
Thank you all for your uplifting comments added to Evan’s powerful treatment! I read an article about a woman who was praying about a condition. She was at the beach and picked up five smooth stones. She thought about the symbolism they represented (when David fought Goliath: protection against a posing threat) for her to protect her from fear or feeling of hopelessness of the ailment and shared these thoughts:
1. God made me.
2. God loves me.
3. God maintains me.
4. God showers me with blessings.
5. These are permanent facts—true now and always.
These thoughts brought much comfort and peace in the most simplistic form. Like Evan’s blog this morning, we are not faced with a threat of dis-ease, but of the pandemic of fear itself. We all know how to conquer fear… Fear is false evidence appearing real. So let’s all do our work to spread good, spread love, spread the knowledge that God is here right now and His laws are in effect and are ever present! Thanks Evan!! Hugs, ali
S and H page 352″12-32. Substituting the word “virus” for “ghosts” is helpful.
“Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at imaginary VIRUS and sick in consequence of the fear: “I know that VIRUS is real. They exist, and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid
of them”?…..”VIRUS are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made”
“If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of VIRUS will depart and health be restored.
The objects of alarm will then vanish into nothingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor”…
It’s not that God is MORE powerful than the virus, it’s God is the ONLY and ALL power.
That’s a good one. Thank you!
There is no coronavirus.
We must work from the standpoint of absolute truth.
From the article ‘Justification’ written in 1913:
‘A number of years ago, a Christian Science practitioner had as a patient a civil war veteran, who was suffering from a wound received in the war. The case not yielding to treatment, Mrs. Eddy was asked what she thought the error could be that prevented the healing; she replied in effect, that the practitioner as well as the patient believed there had once been a war, and regarded it as a link in the man’s history. How many of us have freed our thought entirely from the belief that error, evil, has had a history? We are told that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and in order to demonstrate the truth for ourselves and others, it is absolutely necessary that thought be relieved from this incubus, this belief in a material past, for so long as it remains we are yielding assent to error’s claim that we possess a life separate from God.’
JUSTIFICATION
IRA W. PACKARD.
From the May 10, 1913 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Thanks Shelley. Here’s a link to the article.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2dff68mg7va?s
Read that article, TY Brian for linking it so I can re-read it online now. The point the author made, THERE WAS NO WAR, nor effect from any evil, resulted in the patient being healed. Lovely.
I love this ❤️
My thoughts have gone to the good coming out of this now We have become so divided by the them and us mentality. I am hoping we will begin to see that we are all one family. Sometimes it has to be something so material such as a virus to get the attention of people. We may appreciate how our government works,, where we need to make real reforms in healthcare and supporting working families with sick pay, family leave. Maybe we have an opportunity to discover our shared humanity. This virus cannot be controlled by politicians or lied about and it is global. I am not afraid of disease but somehow I see the good that might be accomplished as we stop our usual lives, have time to think about how we live, our spiritual lives that can pushed aside, I am always wanting more time and now I have it. Perhaps working and praying even more,
Mrs Eddy states in Science and Health that”Animals are harmless, useful, and indestructible.” That means that they cannot be innocent carriers of disease or of a virus of any kind. The Bible tells us that men have “sought out many inventions.” The Chinese have been eating these animals traditionally, unharmed , for centuries – and now, all of a sudden, these particular animals are found to be hosts of an inanimate and harmful virus? Why now? Historically, viri were unknown. They have only been “discovered” in relatively recent years.
God is the only Cause and Creator and He does not cause evil. Good cannot cause evil.
To quote a much loved hymn: “God made all His creatures free; Life itself is liberty.”
We cannot be made to believe a lie. We have a choice as to what we believe and I choose not to believe in the lie of disease of any kind. I choose not to believe in viri or error of any kind, however widespread it appears to be. I choose to believe in God’s allness, ever-presence, and omnipotence. I choose to believe that God is the only power, the only presence, the only being of which we can be aware. I choose not to believe a lie, but only to believe the Truth.
”Animals are harmless, useful, and indestructible.” Animals are expressions of Love and there is no disease or error in them. Virus has no place in our history to take root – not in a race, not in the human species, not in the animal kingdom – no where, no place. The idea it has a place is a lie to be exposed and eradicated. The Truth about Life is Love expressed by one omnipotent Spiritual Mind. There simply is no place for error.
Thank you Evan for these inspiring blogs on the coronavirus!
I recall in one of your talks you talk about how one member of your family got sick then one after another was getting sick.. You saw a dark cloud over your house. You needed to find the cause. It was an attack on your practice. Once error was uncovered the family got well very quickly.
Can you speak to what is the underlining cause of this fear that we are dealing with?
Many thanks for this blog and for all the good you are doing for us and the world!
Hi Syl,
I think this is the Sentinel Watch you are referring to-What is animal magnetism? :):)
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/3qf4yy3xgm?s=e
Thank you Kirsten! Even is sooooo clear and so inspiring!
Oops..I mean Evan!!
There is no such thing as a virus. This is just the serpent lying and “deceiving the whole world” as we learned in last week’s Bible Lesson. This lie will soon be seen through by everyone’s spiritual sense.. As the common saying goes “”truth will out”.
I have been reading the definition of serpent in Science and Health! Thank you for confirmation.
Grateful thanks, Evan and all commenters!
Well explained and is manifest universally individually and collectively as truth covering all creation. Germs have only the substance mortal fear would give them; to believe otherwise is idolatry, not knowing God, His/Her reality as the only ALL good. forever and allways. Think about it!! What is real.
Our Christian Science Bible Lessons emphasize this Fact every single week without exception. See truth!!! Thank-you everyone for your wonderful, prayerful contributions.
My take on Syl from California’s question as to the cause of this fear: Mrs. Eddy stated in “Love your enemies”, “Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last.” (Mis. 12:1–3) Since perfect, all-embracing, all-permeating Love casts out fear, it also leaves no room for hatred. In several places MBE said or wrote to her students that malice is what causes adverse weather conditions. In S&H she called it “vapid (empty, offering nothing) fury of mortal mind.” Looking at the world’s mental atmosphere, I think this is what we are dealing with. I’ve been praying constantly to see and feel divine Love filling all space, all consciousness, being all substance, all the Life and action there is. Also translating “covid” into Christ Only Verifies IDentity.
thank you for this!!
Here is another acronym that was posted on Facebook:
C.O.V.I.D. -19
Christ Over Viruses and Infectious Diseases
They added:
“Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”
Joshua 1:9 (for the 19)
Brilliant!
The idea that has been most helpful to me is the account in Science and Health about the man that was made to believe he was in a bed that a person with cholera had been in and died. Subsequently he showed symptoms of the disease and died. “The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient had been in that bed.” p. 154:9 This makes it so clear to me that disease is wholly mental. That in reality there is no disease only a BELIEF of disease, a fearful belief. His death was not caused by a “thing” a virus or infectious disease, it was FEAR. There is nothing
“out there” to fear. Another helpful idea that came to me while praying, is that we don’t need to try to convince others to not be afraid but affirm that as God’s children, His likeness, they ARE not afraid. If God, divine Love is not afraid we are not afraid. We are not fearful mortals but fearless children of God. All of us. That’s the absolute truth! “There is no fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out fear.” I John 4:18
Thank you Evan and for all the helpful comments.
Thank you Evan all for your perfect comments!