Developing Spiritual Sense

Assuming we're agreed that matter isn't all that there is, then how do we go about “seeing” things outside the realm of matter? The five senses are useless here. What we need to develop is a “spiritual sense”.

In order to develop this spiritual sense, it would help to know what we're going to be using it to look for. Here Mary Baker Eddy helps us out. In her work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she gives us a definition of God which includes seven names for Him. These names are: Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love. Any time you see one of these words capitalized in Mrs. Eddy's written works, it is being used as a synonym for God. Christian Scientists know these words as “the seven synonyms”.

Of these seven synonyms, the ones that appear frequently together are Life, Truth, and Love. It's no accident that I used a mother's love for her child in my last entry as my example of something that exists outside the realm of matter. But don't you also feel something special when someone is trying to perpetrate a deception, and you stand up for truth? And on good days don't you just feel more "alive". Those are things you "feel" with spiritual sense.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, the Master gave them a prayer that begins with the words “Our Father”. Mrs. Eddy sometimes refers to Father-Mother God in her writings. This idea of the motherhood of God is supported by the biblical text from Isaiah “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

So if human beings love their children as much as we know most of them do, how much does God love us? More than we can possibly imagine.

What's this got to do with developing spiritual sense? Try this exercise... at various times throughout your day stop what you're doing, close your eyes, and silently say, “God, please show me your love today in a way that I can understand.” Then, as you go on with your day, watch and listen for a response. Be confident you'll get one, and I'm confident that you will.