How I Used Truth - Lesson 6 - Annotation 8
What is the relation between the "word" and the "hand"?
8. The "hand" symbolizes the ability to carry out the "word" in the visible plane. In turn the "word" is the ability to execute the will, or carry out the edicts of the mind. In its highest aspect, our word is intended to carry out the will of God through our thinking, feeling, and willing. The hand in its highest aspect symbolizes the carrying out of God's will through the word. This is done by our speaking and acting. In one sense, we might say that speaking or saying the word is the "handling" of divine ideas to make them manifest in the visible world.
It is the hand that accomplishes what the word has decreed. The word, obeying the desire or will, provides the hand with the motive power to do, to accomplish. On page 67 (HIUT-67) of the text a portion of verse eleven, chapter fifty-five of Isaiah, is given; the entire verse reads as follows:
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:11).
In this scriptural text we realize that the prophet is expressing the manner in which God brings forth from the invisible into the visible. The word which "goeth forth out of my mouth" is the expression of the will or plan God has for His creation. Being God's will, it can only accomplish "that which I please." In other words, it can produce only good, for that is the nature of God.
Usually when we speak a word of something we are going to do, we go right ahead and accomplish. The "hand of God," moving throughout creation as His laws, accomplishes the God plan, so that divine order is operative on all levels of life. This is true whether there is a need for healing, for prosperity, for understanding, or for peace. In the same way, we send forth our word of Truth to "accomplish that which I please." However, we must go a step further and actually do whatever is required to bring forth the manifestation or the works. This is emphasized in the Epistle of James:
"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). "What doeth it profit . . . if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? . . . Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself" (James 2:14, 17).
The hand is the "doer" of the word of faith and until the hand and the word are working in perfect unison, we will not have the "works." The word is the power to say; the hand is the power to do. The first is the master, the second is the obedient servant.
The word is the working power in the realm of the mind, but the hand is the working power in the visible world. The hand is the power that makes objects or forms, that accomplishes results in the actual or three-dimensional sphere.
When there is willfulness on our part, our words are not the creative working power of God; they are being used to tear down rather than to build up. The hand, having no choice of its own, must follow the impulse of the will and the word. We must yield our will (i.e. our faculty of will) to God's will. Guarding our word against negative uses and blessing our hand produces a working combination that is unbeatable. The yielding of our will to God brings spiritual mastery. Then, when we "say the word" of Truth, our hand is indeed the "hand of God" moving throughout creation "to accomplish that which I please." We can say with deep conviction, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth" (Matt. 6:10), knowing that we are doing our part to make this possible.
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Preceding Entry: What is meant by the statement in the text (page 67), "'Only say the word' of giving"?
Following Entry: Of what is "giving" the natural outflow?
