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God's loving, healing messages

A Christian Science perspective: Listening for ‘angel messages’ brings blessings – including healing.

  • By Mark Swinney

Something a close friend mentioned the other day really got me thinking. She said: “There are so many people talking to me – talking over the phone, in person, or on my computer and TV screens – that lately I find myself tuning out. Recently, as I began to tune out once again, I realized something surprising. Arresting, actually. I was doing the same thing with God! Big wake-up call.”

This friend, who has always made a steady practice of being receptive to divine things, was referring to being open to perceiving “angel messages” – God’s loving, healing communications to us. Most often, these spiritual thoughts dawn quietly within, transforming our thoughts and perspectives. The Bible talks about being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). To do this is to allow our thought to be changed by the divine Mind and to see more clearly God’s infinite love for us.

I have found listening for such angel messages to be invaluable. “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,” the Bible says (Psalms 91:11). Christ Jesus’ amazing career was based on listening to God, which enabled him to bring healing and comfort to multitudes of people. Always, and with such love, God is providing us with guidance, insight, intelligence, even peace. A wholehearted love for God helps us be receptive to these ideas.

How do we identify God’s messages of love? Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy explains, “When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 306). When we hear a message from God, hand in hand with it we’ll feel something of God’s love and peace. It’s a joyful, spiritual sense of love so powerful it can stop us right in our tracks and bring healing.

I remember prayerfully listening to God after damaging my knee while skiing one time. As I was thinking about how God is a sure foundation (see II Timothy 2:19), it dawned on me that God is what I really stand upon. God made us spiritual, so flesh and bones are not our most fundamental foundation. I knew that this was an angel message because of the joyful sense of love I felt right along with it. As I embraced the fact of God as our creator, and felt a deep love and gratitude for that, I was healed on the spot – so completely that in college I was able to compete as a skier.

As my friend pointed out, there is a flood of words coming our way each day. That’s why it is so important to quiet our thought and listen for what God is communicating. We can do this at any point and anywhere. We can be mentally still and listen at the grocery store, when on a walk, when brushing our teeth, anytime! We’re all inherently receptive to God’s messages; it just takes a willingness – and an open heart – to receive them.

And, thankfully, angel messages are constantly there for us. We don’t only get one per day; we get an army of them. Jesus pointed to this fact when he said that God could provide him with thousands of angels (see Matthew 26:53). In light of all that God is communicating to us, it can be helpful to stop and acknowledge how our perspectives and thoughts may have changed for the better. Do our feelings and actions now reflect more goodness, love, intelligence, and peace? To the degree they do, God’s healing influence not only helps us, but can bring more widespread blessings to the world.

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