Excerpts from
The Healing Light The Art and Method of Spiritual Healing by Agnes Sanford Order in Adobe PDF eBook form for $4.95 or click here to order from Amazon.com Book Description In The Healing Light, Ms. Agnes Sanford outlines her experiences with the healing power of God. Ms. Sanford compares the power of God to the power of electricity -- "the whole universe is full of it, but only the amount of it that flows through...will work." In her down-to-earth, gentle style, Ms. Agnes Sanford explains how the love of God can become manifest in the most diverse manner. The Healing Light, is often considered a classic in its field and has sold over half a million copies since its original 1947 publication. INTRODUCTION "The scientific
attitude is the attitude of perfect open-mindedness," writes Agnes
Sanford. "It consists in an unshakable faith in the laws of nature
combined with perfect humility toward those laws and a patient
determination to
learn them at whatever cost. Through this humility scientists have
learned how
to conform to the laws of nature and by so doing have achieved results.
Through
the same meekness those who seek God can produce results by learning to
conform
to His laws of faith and love. "The first step
in seeking to produce results by any power is to contact that power. .
. . "The second
step is to turn it on. . . . "The third step
is to believe that this power is coming into use and to accept it by
faith. No
matter how much we ask for something it becomes ours only as we accept
it and
give thanks for it." These three steps
are made so clear in this book that a child can understand them. But something besides understanding is
required if one desires real healing and that "something besides" is
what this book proceeds to give. That "something
besides" which Agnes Sanford possesses more than anyone I have met is
hard
to catch and put into words; it is something as evanescent and
indefinable as
the air we breathe. For want of a better word I shall call it the
"climate" necessary for healing. In Northern Siberia
there is a Russian port, used for whaling vessels in the summer
season. But in
winter with the temperatures ranging from fifty to ninety degrees below
zero,
no vessels have ever been known to enter. The port is there, the
wharves are
there, all the avenues for ships to come and go are there. But no
vessels ever
come. It would be silly to ask why because everyone knows why they
don't come
in. It is because of the wrong kind of climate. Anyone who steps
into the presence of Agnes steps into the right kind of climate for
healing.
When I looked over the manuscript of this book I had only a
secondary interest in seeing whether she had the
"technique" of healing because I knew she had that. I knew
that thousands of people who have never healed anyone in their lives
also have
the technique. My primary interest was in seeing whether this book
(prepared for
a world where the spiritual temperature is so far below zero) could
furnish a
"climate" that would make healing a living reality. To my great joy I
found that this is exactly what it does do. I therefore put it on my
MUST list
for all who wish to go "all out" in their seeking for the healing
power of God. Agnes Sanford was
born in China as the daughter of a Presbyterian missionary, she has
lived for
years in New Jersey as the wife of an Episcopalian rector, and she has
studied
and tried every form of healing that has ever been known. Never have I
met one
who combined the metaphysical and the sacramental approach as she
does. I have
never met anyone more Christ-centered nor anyone more church-centered
and yet
more utterly unconcerned about the creed or lack of creed of those that
she
administers to. "I explained to
the suffering soldier boy that there was a healing energy in him that
the
doctors called 'nature,' that this same healing life was in the world
outside
of him too, and that he could receive more of it by asking for it. " 'Who'll I
ask?' Sammy wondered. " 'Ask God.
Because He is the one who made nature and He's in nature and He is
nature.' " 'But I don't
know anything about God.' " 'You know
there's something outside of
yourself, don't you? After all, you
didn't make this world. There's some kind
of life outside of you.' " 'Oh, sure.
When you're scared enough you feel like there must be something.' " 'Well then,
ask that Something to come into you. Just say "Whoever you are or
whatever
you are, come into me now and help nature in my body to mend this
bone." '
" This book shows how
this boy and scores of others like him were healed through simple
exposure to
the climate of faith and love. If to this faith and love there is added
the
warm sunshine of enthusiasm, humor and good cheer there is
nothing more to be asked. When you finish reading this book you will
agree with
me that this is far more than a book on healing. It is a guide to
redemptive,
creative living. glenn
clark St. Paul, Minnesota. Chapter 1 GOD WORKS THROUGH
US if
we try turning on
an electric iron and it does not work, we look to the wiring
of the iron, the cord, or the house. We do not stand in dismay before
the iron
and cry, "Oh, electricity, please come
into my iron and make it work!" We realize that while the whole world
is
full of that mysterious power we call electricity, only the amount that
flows
through the wiring of the iron will make the iron work for us. The same principle
is true of the creative energy of God. The whole universe is full of
it, but
only the amount of it that flows through our own beings will work for
us. We have tried often
to make this creative power flow through us, saying, "Oh, God, please
do
this or that!" And He has not done this or that, so we have concluded
that
there is no use in prayer, because God, if there is such a Being, will
do as He
likes regardless of our wishes. In other words, we doubt the willingness or the ability of God to
actually produce within our lives and bodies the
results that we desire. We do not doubt our own ability to come into
His
presence and fill ourselves with Him, but His willingness to come into
us and
fill us with Himself. My baby had been ill
for six weeks with abscessed ears. I prayed desperately that God would
heal the
child. My mind was filled with thoughts of fear and of bitterness, and
these
are not of God. God is love, and perfect love casts out fear. So God
could not
go through me to heal my baby, for there was a break in the pipe line
that
connected me with Him. Nevertheless, in His
great kindness He did what he could for me. He sent me one of His own
ministers. The minister was a young man, ruddy-faced, clear-eyed, full
of
normal, healthy interest in people and in life. "I'll go up and
have a prayer with him," he said. "I don't think
that will do any good," I replied wearily. "He's only a
year and a half old. He wouldn't understand." What I really
thought was, "If God doesn't answer my prayers why
would He answer this minister's prayers?" "Oh that won't
matter," cried the minister, disregarding my feeble protests. He went
upstairs. Light shone from his
eyes. I looked at him and saw his joyfulness, and I believed. For joy
is the
heavenly "O.K." on the inner life of power. No dreary, long-faced
minister could have channeled God's healing to my baby. For without my
faith
the baby could not have been healed, and it was the Joy on the minister's face
that called forth my faith.
Looking on him I knew that he had been with the One who came to give us
His joy
and so I knew that the baby would be well. The minister placed
his hands upon the baby's ears and said "Heavenly Father, we ask you to
send Your life into this baby's ears and make them well. We thank you
because
we know that this is being done. Amen." The fever-flush died
out of the baby's face immediately. He turned very pale, closed his
eyes and
slept. When he woke he was well. And he never again has had abscessed ears. This incident turned
on the light for me in a world that had grown very dark with futility.
It
showed me that God is an active and powerful reality.
True, I understood very little about Him. I merely
thought that
the visiting minister had the gift of healing. Now I know that he had
no gift
except that which is open to all of us, the infinite gift of the life
of God
Himself. God's water of life could rush through him, for the pipeline
between
his spirit and God's spirit was intact. He was in harmony with God. The
life of
God flowed through him, and could therefore be turned on by him for the
healing
child. He knew it, and therefore had
the courage to speak with authority. "We
thank you because we know that this is being done," he had said, adding
the word, "Amen (So be it)," a word of command. All prayers end with
"Amen," but usually the word is meaningless. The people who utter it
do not in the least intend to send forth a command so positive that
they would
dare to say, "When he wakes he will be all right." This is one reason
why many prayers do not seem to be answered. God is both within
us and without us. He is the Source of all life; the Creator of
universe behind
universe; and of unimaginable depths of inter-stellar space and of
light-years
without end. But He is also the indwelling life of our own little
selves. And
just as a whole world full of electricity will not light a house unless
the
house itself is prepared to receive that electricity, so the
infinite and
eternal life of God cannot help us unless we are prepared to receive
that life
within ourselves. Only the amount of God
that we can get in us will work for us. "The Kingdom of
God is within you," said Jesus. And it is the Indwelling Light, the
secret
Place of the Consciousness of the Most High that is the Kingdom of
Heaven in
its present manifestation on this earth. Learning to live in the
Kingdom of
Heaven is learning to turn on the light of God within. We must learn that
God is not an unreasonable and impulsive sovereign who breaks His
own laws at
will. As soon as we learn that God does things through us
(not for us),
the matter becomes as simple as breathing, as inevitable as sunrise. "But God is
omnipotent!" some people say. "He can do anything He likes!"
Certainly, but He has made a world that runs by law, and He does not
like to
break those laws. Few of us in the
north would ask God to produce a full-blown rose out of doors in
January. Yet
He can do this very thing, if we adapt our greenhouses to His laws of
heat and
light, so as to provide the necessities of the rose. And He can produce
a
full-blown answer to prayer if we adapt our earthly tabernacles to His
laws of
love and faith so as to provide the necessities of answered prayer. Some day the world
will come to understand this fact, as it now understands the miracle of
sound
waves, for one generation's miracles are the commonplaces of another
generation. Some day we will understand the
scientific
principles that underlie the miracle-working powers of God, and we will
accept
His intervention as simply and naturally as we do the radio. Dr. Alexis Carrell,
physician and scientist, declares that he has seen a skin cancer
disappear at
the command of faith. But that was not a breaking of the laws of
nature. It was
the super-imposition of a higher law of life over a lower law of life.
Thus it
was the fulfillment of the laws of nature. If one thinks of a miracle
not as
the breaking of God's laws but as His own using of His laws, then the
world is
full of miracles. I have seen
pneumonia destroyed within fifteen minutes, while the patient's
temperature
dropped from a hundred-and-three to normal and perspiration poured from
his
body and drenched the sheets. This was almost as great a miracle as the
miracle
of the frost, weaving ever-changing patterns on the window-pane. It was
almost
as great a miracle as the miracle of day and night, of sunrise and
sunset,
caused by the never-ceasing swing of the earth and the sun and the moon
in a
pattern of motion controlled and adjusted by cosmic forces beyond the
ken of
the astronomer. God does nothing
except by law. But He has provided enough power within His laws to do
anything
that is in accordance with His will. His will includes unlimited
miracles. It
is for us to learn His will, and to seek the simplicity and the beauty
of the
laws that set free His power. The Healing Light
The Art and Method of Spiritual Healing by Agnes Sanford Order in Adobe PDF eBook form for $4.95 or click here to order from Amazon.com |
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