DEAR Father, how may I learn not to be affected by others when they speak of hard times, sickness, or other negative conditions, and can stay above it all?

My son, there is only one way, and that is to turn at once within to Me and then to let Me speak through you to them, thereby gradually bringing you back into My Consciousness, so that you can see with My eyes and know with Me the truth of what I will say.

Until you have learned instantly to do this and to enter My Consciousness, you cannot help but be affected by what they say; for your mind naturally sympathizes with them and you thereby become involved in their depressed feeling. On the other hand, when turning to Me, your interest and attention is lifted away from and above their mental states and you become open to My Consciousness, which enables Me to speak through you the words of help and comfort I will always say, if there is real need.

But I will not accept as true what they tell of themselves being hard up, sick or troubled. For I see such condition is only an established belief in their minds; because I know that the Father in them, their Higher Self, is permitting it only to teach them the lessons they need to learn from this experience. He being in them and therefore responsible for them, for it is His life and consciousness animating and motivating them, He will lead them to a new job or opportunity, or will make them well and at peace again, when He has got them to know that the source of their supply and their health is not in their job or income, or in medicine and doctors, but in the Father within.

This He can teach them only through the experience they are now enduring, for only when affected by the trouble it causes them are they open to inner impressions and guidance; and when sufficiently humbled so that He can inspire hope and the building of a different picture in their minds and can get them to believe it, the manifestation will change accordingly.

So when such come to you and voice their troubles, I may cause you to say something like this.

“My dear, you do not have to be hard up or poor (or sick or anything you do not like) any longer than you want it, for this condition is manifesting because you created it and now believe it is so, and therefore you have to suffer it; when all that is necessary is to change your belief about this condition to a belief in one you want to manifest, and the condition will change to what you see clearly in your mind.”

This will usually get them interested, and if sufficiently so that they ask questions then we can tell them about the law, read to them from The Way Out and give them the little book to take home and read carefully. Usually this will prove to be the beginning of their awakening, when their Higher Selves will take care of the rest.

Why is it dear Father, that when we have been taught the truth and we earnestly try to live it, we cannot, and so many trials come preventing us?

It is because, dear one, when I bring to you a truth and cause it to make a strong impression upon your mind so that apparently you know it intellectually, it is for the sole purpose of developing in you the power to prove and use that truth in My Service.

What do I mean by that? You have found, for instance, that even though you know you must govern your tongue, yet when anyone says something that hurts, is unjust, or maybe is true of you, you immediately lose control and retort in retaliation or justification of yourself, usually arousing bitter feeling and antagonism in the other, and a fruitless argument. After it is over you are sorry and I am able to show you once more how foolish it was to reply and how much better it would have been to remain silent, to take what was said within to Me and allow Me to point out why you attracted such to you, and what I want you to do to correct such fault or weakness.

Surely you know by now that such power must become yours, and that you will continue to attract to you such hurts, such injustice, and such accusations, until there is nothing of self left in you that can be hurt, or can be affected by what anyone can say.

Yes, I will continue to place you in conditions where you invite such contacts, until through the mental suffering that results I can arouse in you a determination to master such weakness and thereby can release to you the power needed. For I cannot give you power of any kind until you have developed the understanding and ability to use it.

Therefore no truth is of any value to you, until you have learned to use and apply it in the daily problems of life, such as the simple one just illustrated.

What are these forces within me, dear Father, that rise up unbidden and often nearly overwhelm me?

Beloved, they are the forces of your lower nature that are your and my special mission in coming into human expression to redeem and transmute. That is really all you are here for, and of course it must and will be accomplished.

But you want to know just what are all these forces of your lower nature and why they are so powerful and so hard to master. If you will remember that your body of flesh is very similar to that of many animals, in fact is but the outer expression of your animal nature—for in reality you are still only a human animal, because of the very existence of these forces—you will begin to see what comprises your lower nature; that it is but the sum-total of the unredeemed forces of the animal still in you that must be mastered and transmuted before you can come into your true status as a human being.

Do you doubt this? Then consider the tigerish, snaky, foxy, wolfish, bullying, apish, fishy, catty, brutish or beastly qualities still in you, and that it is these qualities when stirred up by remarks or actions of others interfering with their rule that come forth and fight for their fancied rights.

The true human will have absolutely no animal characteristics left, but will have purified, refined, and lifted up all animal forces to where they are gentle, obedient and perfect servants of a wise and loving Master Will. So-called humanity has far to go before that stage is reached, although the followers of Jesus Christ are approaching that stage.

You who are waiting upon Me and seek only to please Me are having shown up to you these qualities as fast as you are able to recognize them and bear it. When the will to master them is aroused, My Christ Power is released and those qualities always succumb to it. But remember, when you allow outer thoughts to pull your attention and interest away from Me, the farther away you get, the easier it is to be surprised, caught and held by those forces.

But why suffer remorse or even regret for such lapses; they were necessary that you might learn to value truly My Love when you return to Me, so that you will strive the harder to abide with Me and let Me direct all your ways.

Why then be concerned about anything? Am I not sufficient and able to take care of you, my outer Expression of Myself?