The class I just finished was called “The Twelve Powers”. Unity teaches that God has endowed every one of us with “divine powers” and if we keep our attention on them, it will lead to the life that God intends for us. I thought this teaching was very cool and so I thought I’d share it with you. I apologize if this recap does any disservice to their important teaching. I am certain there is much more to learn. So with that caveat, here’s a little sketch of how my Episcopal lens understands The Twelve Powers:
Faith - Everything is grounded in the power of faith. We are all beloved children of God but if we don’t have faith in that basic principle of who we are, then it doesn’t matter whether it is true or not. We are given the power to choose to have faith.
Strength – This power enables us to stay in the consciousness of Jesus, the Christ, even when we are in times of hardship.
Wisdom - This power gives us good judgment and the ability to know God, know ourselves, and understand how we are showing up in the world.
Love - Since we are created in the energy of God’s unconditional love, the power of love is imbedded within us. In other words, we can’t help but to love.
Power – We have power over our human condition and the way we show up in the human condition. While we don’t have power over some things that happen to us (like getting run over by a truck), we have power to remember that even in the worst of circumstances, we have power over how we think about it, remembering that God is always working for good.
Imagination - This power gives us the ability to imagine what we want in our life. Imagination comes before creativity. We imagine a Peaceable Kingdom, right? So let’s create it.
Understanding - This power helps us to discern as to what is spiritual or of God and how to use it so that it benefits not only our own life but the world.
Will - The Holy Spirit provides us with opportunities to practice and use the power of our will.
Order - This power calls us to embrace who we truly are – we are in the divine mind; we are an expression of God.
Zeal – I love this power! It is passion. It is what energizes us to live life fully.
Elimination - In my opinion, this is one of the top 3 powers on the journey. It gives us the ability to let go of any circumstance that has power over us that is not of God’s love. Mostly this power is about forgiveness.
Life - This power promises that if we stay anchored in the other 11 powers, we create a life that is abundant in God.
Unity believes that Jesus developed all these powers to their fullest and if we study the gospels we can see how he used them. We can develop them too because when God created us, God placed them within us.
As always, your thoughts, please.
~Pastor Gae ✝️
