Chapter 25
SPIRITUAL HEARINGCharles Fillmore
Teach Us To Pray
I give ear to Thee and now realize Thy life in all my members, for Thou art my health unfailing.
My mind is full of Thy substance, and my prosperity is always manifest in abundance.
THE SCRIPTURES are rich in references to the listening ear. “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?”
Jesus said, “What I tell you in the darkness, speak ye in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, proclaim upon the house-tops.” “He that hath ears to hear let him hear.”
In many places the Bible indicates the ear referred to is not the physical organ but the listening mind or spirit. “Having ears, hear ye not?”
Then the question arises, Do we have ears that can hear “overtones” from which the mind can obtain meanings superior to those of the senses? In every walk of life are those who stoutly claim that they hear voices and sounds, musical and otherwise, inwardly or apparently with another set of ears. Sometimes these persons are geniuses and sometimes they are classed as queer.
Physiology describes a complicated physical ear, but the “ear” that conceives and really hears is the auditory center in the brain. It is here the mind grasps and analyzes the sound vibrations. Thus musical people may have the same physical ears as the unmusical, but their minds have listened for the fine variations of sound and have given the auditory area in the brain a composer’s ego. The great Beethoven was a brilliant example. He was stone-deaf when he composed some of the most beautiful music of the world. But his “inner ear” must have been open to music that is not heard by everyone.
What is true in music is also true in every religion, art, and science. Little Samuel heard the voice of the Lord. Joan of Arc heard militant voices. Modern psychics and many who are deeply religious hear voices, or sounds that they translate into voices, in their cerebral cortex. It is the bent of the mind that determines the character of the voice. Job said in substance that there is a spirit or mind in man that gives the breath or vibrations of the Almighty understanding.
Practice giving ear or listening with your mind to the Lord. You will acquire the ability to make contact with the mind radiations of Christ and concentrate them in your mind and actually hear His voice. On the contrary, by a like concentration of thought you can attract the mind of persons both in and out of the body and thereby become a psychic and medium. Excessive meditation on things spiritual also often dulls the receptivity of the outer ear and it loses its alertness.
Shakespeare says, “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice”; that is, learn to listen rather than talk. Jesus called His first disciple Simon Peter. Simon means “hearing” and Peter “a rock.” Spiritual receptivity is the basis of a solid character. We all need a fuller realization of life in order to be healthy. This can be attained by concentrating our attention on the universal life radiations and incorporating them into our mind and body.
This world of matter has its origin in a radiant substance that our mind conceives and automatically translates into flesh and physical things. The process is so gradual that we do not realize it, but modern science is daily approaching an explanation that will eventually be universally accepted; then what we are teaching from the spiritual side will be confirmed by the physical.
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Teach Us To Pray
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