Twelve Powers - Faith

Today is day 339 of my 365-day experiment with practicing the Law of Mind Action, and I’ve begun a new study that intertwines nicely with my current “research.”  I am working with the Twelve Powers as described by Charles Fillmore in his book The Twelve Powers of Man.   Fillmore claimed that each individual possesses twelve spiritual abilities, in varying degrees of development, which Jesus expressed fully and which each of us can learn to express in our own daily lives.

I’m working with Fillmore’s book and with a second book which is required reading for Unity Institute’s S.E.E. (Spiritual Education and Enrichment) course on the Twelve Powers.  Power Up!  by Unity ministers Rev. Dr. Paul Hasselbeck and Rev. Dr. Cher Holton simplifies and modernizes the sometimes difficult-to-read Fillmore text.   The Unity Worldwide Ministries website also offers some material on the Twelve Powers at http://www.unity.org/resources/twelve-powers/twelve-powers. Plus, Jean has decided to join me in this study! So I’m feeling blessed with an abundance of materials and rich conversations from which to draw insights and knowledge.

The Twelve Powers correspond nicely with the months of the year - perfect for my Type-A brain, which prefers to study things in a logical, methodical, back-in-school kind of way.  The power for January was Faith, and I spent the month of January immersed in readings on this topic.  In addition to the Unity materials I mentioned above, I also checked the library for books on the subject of Faith, and I found one I loved called Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience by Sharon Salzberg, a Buddhist meditation teacher.

At the beginning of January, I had noticed I was feeling resistant to the idea of exploring the subject of Faith.  There was something about Faith that seemed too vague and fuzzy for me to get my perfectionist mind wrapped around.  Plus, some of the things I’ve discovered in my experiment with the Law of Mind Action seemed contradictory to the definition of Faith as I understood it at first.  So I wasn’t sure I had any Faith in the idea of studying Faith!  But over the course of the month, as I continued to work with the readings, I started to gain some clarity around Faith and to see how I can use my own spiritual ability of Faith to navigate the troubled waters I encounter on my path toward becoming fully who I am.

What I realized this past month is that, contrary to my previous definition, having Faith – to me - doesn’t mean believing that things will work out the way I want them to.  It doesn’t mean if I pray hard enough I’ll get the job I want.  It doesn’t mean I’ll get the diagnosis I want.  It doesn’t mean my children will follow the paths I want them to follow.  It doesn’t mean there will be a “happy ending” to my every story.  To me, having Faith means knowing that no matter what my outer circumstances may be, I am always connected to that wise, loving Center - it’s only a breath away.  And I can meet my circumstances, whatever they are, from my Center with courage and strength and grace and love.   This is a definition of Faith that fills my heart.  

The color for Faith is blue.  I’ve been wearing a bracelet with a blue teardrop charm as a reminder of my Faith throughout the day.  Now that we’re into February, it’s time to begin the study of Strength, but I plan to keep wearing my bracelet to help me stay connected to my Faith as I move through the rest of the Twelve Powers.

For more information about Unity Institute's S.E.E. program, visit http://www.unityinstitute.org/see. 

~REBECCA