Activity and Increase
1924-11-09
John 6:1-15
Download a PDF copy of this sermon by Charles Fillmore.
Transcribed by Rev. Dagmar Mikkila on February 28, 2024.
This lesson from Charles Fillmore was featured on Bob Brach’s Unity Classic Radio broadcast in 2016. Bob writes, “Here is the PDF transcript I will read from on tomorrow’s (Jan 19th) (2016) show. Mr Fillmore talks about going “up the mountain” to use our 12 powers (p.7), the 12 Powers are activated by the I AM (p.13) and about living in the “4th Dimension” (p. 33). The talk is entitled “Activity and Increase” and in very appropriate as we move forward in 2016.—Blessings, Reverend Bob”
Go to list of Sermons of Charles Fillmore
CHARLES FILLMORE, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1924
ACTIVITY AND INCREASE
To rightly understand the so-called miracle of the loaves and fishes requires that we take it out of the realm of the heavenly and put it into the earthly. Our interpretation is sometimes considered altogether too practical. Someone sent me a paper yesterday in which one of our Bible lessons was reviewed and the editor said that it was ridiculous that we should reduce to physiology the wonderful teaching of Jesus Christ, that he taught about heaven and what men should inherit after death and all that sort of thing. Well, we will have to give it to you as the Spirit gives it to us, and we find that it is a teaching of physiology but a physiology that is raised to spiritual or to soul consciousness. It is not only physiology but it is psychology and it is also spirit-ology.
There is a spiritual side, there is a soul side, and a body side to the teaching of Jesus Christ. He understood what was in man and he understood that which he found in man and that is just what this teaching is and if it goes over the heads of people we will have to let it go, because they must sooner or later get this practical side of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Now the lesson today has a very practical side. It has to do with the feeding of the hungry, of the cellular life in the body of man, how to feed it, and if we take these symbols and get at the very root of them we will find out that it is physiology and we will also raise our physiology to soul activity and then we will get the source in Spirit. Now everything has its origin in Spirit. It is an activity in the mind first. Physiology is finally determining that everything originates in the mind, and they don’t tell us just how that origin formed, how it acts first, but they know that it does act through the mind, and so we must get at the spiritual side of all these propositions. We cannot understand physiology until we understand the action of the mind on the body. Our physiology will always be incomplete. We will never see the art, the science, the truth of our own body till we know that it is acted upon by a higher principle, a higher force, and that that force is in its origin, Spirit. It is Spirit, the action of Spirit.
Now this miracle, so-called, we are told, took place in Palestine. But you will notice that nearly all the miracles and all the work that Jesus did was around the sea of Galilee.
His first miracle was at Cana of Galilee, and this miracle was supposed to have taken place at Bethsaida, the town of Philip and Andrew and Peter. Now this sea of Galilee must always be taken into consideration in analyzing and finding out the real action of the miracles or the teaching or whatever is pictured out. This is all symbolical. It may have taken place. We do not deny that it may have taken place and that it is possible for a man, a superman, as Jesus was, or a God- man, to feed 5,000 people by multiplying two fishes and five loaves, but we say that cannot be done until a man performs the miracle in himself.
In other words you can not be a prize fighter until you develop your muscles and so you cannot be a superman, you cannot do the so-called miracles until you find out how through the power of the mind and your soul and that higher principle of Spirit. You can lay hold of these potential activities of being itself that man has within him, all these potentialities, and we as we develop our soul power and through that lay hold of the cells of the organism, shall be able to touch and not only contact and touch but to rule all the potential qualities of being that we can reach. It is a soul development but we must understand the foundation principles of being in a measure and we have to begin like children.
Now in every one of us there is a great call in the organism for more substance and more life. Well how are we to supply that? How are we to meet this hunger or this need of the man? Well, we are taught by the physical scientists that it is food that we need, that when a certain anaemic condition sets in the organism, we are not eating the right kind of food We need more of this or that on the material plane, but that doesn’t always satisfy the need of the man. He becomes weak or he becomes shallow or he becomes bony or he becomes too fat on the other hand or something is out of harmony. What is necessary? Well we need more vitality, more of that spiritual quality.
Now this is exactly the case in which we find ourselves today if we are following Jesus Christ. There was need of food for the cells in the organism. Those were the hungry people; they were to be brought into an understanding of this principle, but at the same time they were to be fed by this spiritual mind of man. Everything was here.
Now as I say, this took place on the shore of the lake of Galilee. We are told Jesus went up into a mountain and took his disciples with him but many people seemed to be there. What does that going up into the mountain mean—why was that thrown in? That means you must go up into a high place of consciousness in order to perform this so-called miracle. In other words in order to draw upon this great universal life and throw it into your mind and through your mind into your body, you must realize that it is a spiritual act. That you do it through the power of the Spirit. That is going up onto the mountain, taking your disciples with you is bringing into consciousness, bringing all the twelve powers of man under your dominion, to show them that you have the power to pass out this invisible substance and that you can feed the whole man.
Now as I say, the sea of Galilee means whirling activity, the serpent. There is a great universal tree of life. Now we do not generate life ourselves but we draw life from the universal. That is universally admitted I think, that we take from this great ether, that we live in it. It is an interpenetrating, it is in the fourth dimension—the ether is. Now you in your silent meditation will feel, if you get still enough, a great—as if you were in a sea of force, a sea of energy. That is the sea of Galilee and these towns were on the shore of Galilee. Those mean the local centers in the consciousness.
Cana means here at the root of the tongue, it is the larynx, the place of reeds. Here we have Bethsaida. What does that mean? The town of nets. A net means that you catch something. Here is your see of Galilee. It is full of all kinds of life, of energy, of intelligence it is the mind of God. That is what Galilee means. It means the activity the mind of God, it is the Holy Spirit in action and we have within us these various capacities, twelve of them, the twelve powers, and those twelve powers can be set into action through the I am, the spiritual man, the Jesus. When we know that we begin to search for well some of the beginnings we will say, of this laying hold of this great universal life.
Now Philip we find means a lover of horses. What does a horse represent? Vitality. He represents that inner energy and we find that we have this capacity within ourselves to energize our minds and bodies, the soul and the body. But how do we do that? Why we must realize first that we live in this great universal life, in the sea of Galilee. But how shall we lay hold of thot life? Why you have got the faculty or the net and that net is the aggregation of cells . Now Bethsaida is here at the root of your tongue. There is where the disciple Philip is, his town. Now Philip is a faculty. He is a power. We call it the power of the word. And the words that you speak are backed up by this Philip quality and if You believe that you have unlimited power to speak words or that you have great thinking power, great power of express on, that you control your words and that your words are lifted up and they are spiritual, you begin to lay hold of this great universal. You catch it in your net. There you catch what? You catch whatever you put into your mind. Now if you think that you are vitalized with the vim and energy and power of the Spirit, you are beginning to catch fish and those fish really are circulating all through the seminal fluids of your organism.
We are told that that fluid is made up of little serpents or fish. They belong to the same family. And we hold in our minds right here at the throat—you will find that is the point of control. There is another center we are told that Philip and Andrew are brothers and both of the same town. That is they both have the depth and you will notice the Andrew means stability, it means poise and strength·. You will find that center is in the back, the small of’ the back, and you will know that when you are in the state of weakness, you don’t feel very strong, your voice will indicate it right away. This indicates to a metaphysician that there is need of a larger expression or a larger appreciation of the one universal life. So this life is invoked; we affirm it. We say: “I am one with the great universal life,” and you will almost invariably find yourself concentrating right there at the root of the tongue. That we are told by physiologists is the little muscle that controls the larynx and surrounds it, the __?__ muscle is set in action by the musical cell in the brain, and unless you get that into action you cannot become a great singer.
Some people take up the cultivation of the voice mechanically, they are taught mechanically; that never gets them into a real singing consciousness. They always lack a certain, what we call soul quality, and the reason is they haven’t contracted the spiritual side. They haven’t had faith. Now, faith is Peter. Peter belonged to this same family—Peter and Andrew and Philip were closely related. You will find the Jesus Christ’s disciples were related always. James and John were related here at the solar plexus. There was wisdom and love and so we have here in the lesson today that these disciples were related and when you enter into this consciousness of the unity of all things in Spirit, and begin to find the centers in your minds and bodies through which these potentialities work you awaken to spiritual science, I might say spiritual energy, spiritual power, and spiritual control, and this is a lesson in the increase of the power within and contact without.
Now as you begin this inner action; as you enter into the Spirit and begin to think and give attention to the spiritual side of life that life will awaken in you, but when you hold it? That is the next point now. Some people say: “Yes I know all about your theory that life is everywhere present and life is spiritual, and I know God is life.” But do those people abide in the life? Do they lay hold of the life? No, not unless they awaken and quicken these centers of consciousness and that is the calling of your disciples. It is not only the calling of your disciples but it is the educating of them. Now this disciple Philip who thinks from his outer observation and from that view point the power and in the natural man we live in the outer, we live in the third dimension and from that viewpoint the power in you sees in a limited way.
When Jesus Christ, the spiritual man, asked how all those people, all these cells of the organism that need vitalizing every day, how they were to be fed, Philip said: “Why there is a boy here that has some few loaves and fishes but what would that be among so many, and it costs so much money to buy food.” It cost in our money about $500.00 to feed the people that were there and that was beyond their purse, but Jesus knew what was in man. He was just trying this Philip quality. He said: “Bring me that little seed, the loaves and fishes” and what did he do? Why he prayed. That is, he gave thanks and that thanksgiving within the man, within the Spirit increased and multiplied the loaves and fishes until the whole multitude was fed.
Now that is sometimes read historically as a great miracle and we put it away and say that it away beyond us, that was done by the Son of God. You are the son of God, and you, can perform this miracle at any time that you will do the work. It is something that has to be done by the individual. You must work with not only your soul but you must work with your body. Now these bodies are very important parts of the soul. They are the expression of the soul and we must work these problems out.
Now you begin we will say in a small way with simple numbers. You want to be a singer or you want to increase the volume of your voice and how shall you do that—simply by voice culture? No, you must build up the whole man. Now the voice is dependent upon all the other powers. You must have more life, more enduring capacity, you must have strength physically. You must be like Caruso—an animal in a way. You must have that strength and power that goes with great endurance, strength. That is Andrew, he could endure. He had the vitalizing strength, but you must develop at the same time your muscles. Now this muscle that is moved by the musical idea in the mind—we are told that Caruso could curve his tongue, curl it up or down. How did he do that? By developing this muscle surrounding the larynx. Can we do that? Yes, without nearly the work that Caruso spent. He spent nearly all his time practicing on his voice. But it is found that one with spiritual consciousness, that understands the teaching of Jesus Christ can make the contact with this universal life through prayer, through going up into consciousness.
Now you must lift yourself up and raise the whole man and do that by affirming that “I am Spirit. I am not material; I do not live in a three dimension world. That is only a part of my consciousness and I live in the fourth dimension.” The fourth dimension is a dimension in which everything is here in solution. It is interpenetrating; you can feel it. You can feel the life, the power, the strength, the energy, and the intelligence. By thinking about the omnipresence of the infinite mind you will know within yourself how to handle the proposition. You will know how to feed that hungry body of yours. Every man that is not practicing this inner concentration is hungry. The cells of his organism are starving. You must feed your man and the only way to do it is to get into action these inner forces, to find out how the centers of consciousness are located in your body that provide the necessary sustenance for the cells.
This is a big proposition. You will say it is going over the heads of the multitude, but I notice a lot of people like to listen to it. They are awake in Spirit and in soul and they see that this is the next step for the race. We have to follow Jesus Christ in this regeneration and so we find people who are cultivating their different abilities and are using that culture to express itself in spirit and in mind and in body. These three co-ordinate. They unify, and as you study the New Testament you will find that in these symbols the co-ordination is explained if you get at the root meaning and find how your mind works on the body.
When you bless and give thanks for this invisible abundance, you begin to express it and it has its reaction or outer action upon the conditions that surround us. We find that we can through blessing the substance and the life invisible and especially within the man, within the body, increase our outer conditions. We can set into action a slow-going business, we can increase the capacity of our earning, we can increase and multiply the very food on the table by giving thanks. That is where the table of blessing originated. It originated in the discerning of spiritual men and women that there was a capacity or power of increase in giving thanks.
So before Jesus Christ performed this wonderful miracle he gave thanks and lifted up his eyes and lifted up his whole being to God, the great universal omnipresent mind and gave thanks for the abundance that wasn’t there at all apparently in the outer. What did that thanksgiving do? It multiplied and filled his whole being with the seed of substance but he could shower it forth. He increased the capacity of his Philip power until he said that his words were good and not only that but he went so far as to say that the words he spoke were not his but the Father dwelling in him spoke the words. He said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall never pass away.”
Now this lesson might be taken for anyone in any department of life and they would get the benefit from it. They would find that by meditation and prayer and a realization that the kingdom of God is within man, they could quicken and arouse these sleeping powers in every one of us until they would reap a great reward, an increase of vital action, an increase of capacity and new strength and new power. Now as I say, you don’t have to wait until you go to the kingdom of heaven to see and feel this Christ in you, but it is here right now. It is here waiting for every one of us who put scientifically into action this teaching, to catch in the net those inner forces, these inner centers of being, this universal life, universal substance, and all those qualities that belong to the infinite mind. So let us in conclusion apply this by giving thanks right now.
Center your attention in your throats and feel that I am being quickened by Spirit, that I have the vitality and the power and the vigor end the energy of the infinite mind right here now . And I can feed every one of these hungry thoughts that are pressing in upon me. I can feed them and vitalize them and fill them with spiritual life and spiritual substance, and they will be satisfied. Not only satisfy the nearby hungry one, but after the communion is over, after the miracle so-called is performed, I will have left over vital force and substance enough to fill all twelve centers of my body. Those are the twelve baskets. These are given you will see instead of towns and people and disciples—they are given as baskets. Man is a receptacle for the great universal, and we can receive and retain the substance and life which is ours to command.
Now as I say, in conclusion this morning, let us enter into that realization, the realization of fullness and satisfaction. We get into the habit of being dissatisfied with our body. We are dissatisfied because we don’t feel right up to concert pitch all the time.
Say: “I am satisfied with the infinite, omnipresent, fullness of life and substance. My whole organism is filled right now with the vitalizing energy of God. I do not crave any stimulant of any kind. I am not craving strong drink; I am not craving food because I am fed with the word of God, I am fed with the substance of God, I am fed with the life of God and I am satisfied.”
