Empowered by the Holy Ghost

LaMeice Harding | from The Christian Science Journal

The Holy Ghost is the animating power that brings us a better understanding of divine Science.

For years, the subject of the Holy Ghost was baffling to me. Yet there are many Biblical citations as well as references in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings that refer to the Holy Ghost, which prompts me to ask: What part does it actually play in the demonstration of Christian Science healing? A passage in Science and Health sheds light: “Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God—the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth” (Science and Health, p. 332). As I delved into this passage, I found insight on how the Christ, or Holy Ghost, could deepen my prayers and healing work.

I’ve always loved learning that Christ is the message of God that informs, describes, illustrates, and presents who and what we are. It speaks to us in the exact language we can understand—right where we are. Christ comprises the spiritual qualities that alone constitute our true being.

Once we have established our Christliness in our thinking, we can then ask: How do we destroy whatever is not part of us as the likeness of God? And this is where that passage from Science and Health provides more clarification by giving a widened view of the Christ: “the Holy Ghost, or Comforter.”

So we can say that it is Christ that defines our pure identity, our true son-and-daughter relationship with God. And the Holy Ghost enlivens this relationship so we can see, hear, and feel the perfection of this union.

Turning on the light

It’s imperative that we be receptive to the Holy Ghost.

In order to feel more and more of this perfect union with our Creator, it’s imperative that we be receptive to the Holy Ghost. The two-part definition of Holy Ghost in the Glossary of Science and Health helps in this regard. The first part of the definition is “Divine Science.” Divine Science is God’s unbroken and eternal harmony, the entire creation good and perfect, and entirely spiritual.

The next part of the definition states: “the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 588). Human beings are not always aware of their perfect relationship with God. We need growth in this understanding. Eternal Life, Truth, and Love need no development, but we do—expanding thought and activity to better understand God as Life, Truth, and Love. As Science and Health states: “… divine Science reveals the eternal chain of existence as uninterrupted and wholly spiritual; yet this can be realized only as the false sense of being disappears” (Science and Health, p. 172) .

One definition of development is “the process of … becoming larger, stronger, or more impressive, successful, or advanced” (Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition). As long as there is any contradiction in our thinking or behavior of who we are as ideas of Life, Truth, and Love, we need to develop a better understanding of divine Science. The Holy Ghost is the animating power that brings forth this better understanding. It is the power of the Christ-message. For instance, our Christlike nature includes the quality of kindness—yet it is the Holy Ghost that impels us to express kindly deeds.

An old saying goes: “Fear is a dark room where negatives are developed.” But when the spiritual light is turned on in human consciousness, what do we see? We see the development—the unfolding, the disclosure—of the correct picture. A picture that was always there but that the darkness, negativity, and fear had obscured. Now we can see what was always true—our innate goodness, and we are impelled to express it through healing ourselves and others.

The Holy Ghost motivates and quickens us.

The Holy Ghost motivates and quickens us. It gives wings to our motives and brings us into the realization of God’s ongoing harmony. The Holy Ghost leads us toward our high goal and gives us the energy to fulfill our mission. It is what forces us out of stagnation. It is what fills us with love, rouses us to think, impels us to act. It raises us out of the quicksand of depression and despair. It doesn’t only make us grow, it inspires us to grow.

To me, the fundamental purpose of Jesus’ teaching was to lift and arouse us spiritually—to make us want to climb ever higher. Just listen to some of Jesus’ instructions in the Bible: “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house” (Matt. 9:6); “Arise, and be not afraid” (Matt. 17:7); “Damsel, I say unto thee, arise” (Mark 5:41); “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14); “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19).

Jesus is teaching us to arise! And it’s the Holy Ghost that provides us with the spiritual animus to overcome the temptation to feel disillusioned—about ourselves, others, or the world. Jesus’ directive to “arise” is the inspiration that awakens us not only to action, but also to meet every challenge with certain success.

Hearing the Christ-message

We know that Jesus was inspired in the wilderness, in a desert place, in a mountain place—in every place. Even though Jesus listened only to the Christ-message, he had something else to do on a human level. Jesus had to arise out of the wilderness, out of the hatred of the crowds, out of the humiliation of the cross, and out of the tomb. The Holy Ghost was the spiritual power that enabled him to do this. He was led by the Holy Ghost throughout his ministry, and it was this Spirit that inspired his disciples and brought them to that oneness of Mind, that being of “one accord” (Acts 2:1). We also read in the Book of Acts how the disciples were roused to forward Christianity after the appearance of the Holy Ghost (see Acts 2:4). What Jesus had taught now became clear. They understood the Christ-message of his life-purpose, and they acted upon it. Isn’t it worth pondering the fact that the book that describes the coming of the Holy Ghost is called Acts?

The Holy Ghost compels us to rise higher in consciousness.

The Holy Ghost compels us to rise higher in consciousness. Thereby we can achieve spiritual ascendancy over the disabling beliefs that we don’t have enough time or enough opportunity or enough income or enough talent, and all the “et ceteras” that go with day-to-day living! These threats, unheeded, produce a climate that is lackadaisical, which can lead to indifference. Yet the Holy Ghost gives fresh energy, renewed energy, to humanity. Christ comes to us as the true message from God, and the Holy Ghost empowers us to act on what we are hearing. With this awakened sense of purpose comes the desire to root out any thoughts and actions that are not God-derived. And that is why it is just as important for us to understand the Holy Ghost as it is to understand the Christ.

Are we ready to come into the true light of Christ, willing to leave behind whatever is unlike the Almighty? We have the Holy Ghost moving us toward all that divine Mind has provided for us. As Mrs. Eddy wrote in her book Unity of Good: “This Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which reveals and sustains the unbroken and eternal harmony of both God and the universe” (Unity of Good, p. 52). And it is this revealing, this sustaining, that make each one of us shine for all the world to see.

LaMeice Harding is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. She lives in Westlake Village, California.