Photographer: Rick Mortimer
A plant, however small, will split a rock or push it’s way through pavement and asphalt to grow upward as it seeks the sun – which is to say, to pursue the purpose for which it is made. This purpose is in harmony with God’s order of things. This is what it was made to do.
The power behind this pursuit of purpose is Cosmic Habit Force. We can see this law applied all around us in the natural world. The planets are fixed in their orbit around the sun, particles of matter move in fixed patterns around the atom. The seasons are fixed and regular. It is a power supplied by God for all living things with which they will pursue the creative image within their essential being and so become what they are meant to be. Man can plant a seed in the ground but he can not create life. Nor can he create the habit force that will cause a plant to push aside rocks and split asphalt in its search for self.
In all life-forms but man, we refer to this habit-force as instinct. All things act out what they are ‘programmed’ to do and to be. It is unchangeable in all life forms but man. An acorn cannot become an apple tree, nor can a kernel of corn produce a tomato. A seed will always produce in kind.
In man, this same power that causes a small weed to push it’s way through the pavement to pursue it’s purpose, is expressed through the power of the Will. Unlike all other forms of life, man does not act out of instinct. Man has creative vision, which is the expression of his ego. Because man has total control over his thoughts, hence over the ego, he can envision what he wills, and it have it come to pass. What he creates is what he has programmed his ego to be. What he determines his ego will be is dependant on his vision of what he desires in life. That purpose to manifest his vision, will create in him the desire to remake his ego.
Ego is the ‘ID’. It is the “Who I am as a human being.” Ego is the well from which spring your dreams, desire, aspirations, and goals. Your own personal dreams or goals will therefore always be in harmony with who you are and what you think, for it is your thoughts which feed –or starve- your ego. And so the aphorism “As a Man Thinketh in His Heart so is He” proves to be true. We are what we think and we have the power to become that which we desire to be by controlling our thoughts until they are overtaken by habit force and direct us subconsciously. Many a man has been forced by tribulation and adversity to examine himself and then go on to make great changes in himself, just as a river being blocked of it’s normal route of flow must find another way to proceed to it’s final goal.
When you focus upon that purpose which is the expression of your ego [your dream, or vision], and back it with the life power that is behind your will to create it, then you will create your purpose in the physical realm just as surely as the weed will push through the asphalt in order to achieve it’s purpose. It can do no less, because that is what it was created to do. It has to produce the purpose it is programmed to do. The plant can do no less than seek the sunlight, the beaver can do no less than build a dam, the geese can do no less than migrate south, and the acorn can do no less than become an oak tree. Man, on the other hand is the only living thing that has been given the power over his own thoughts. He may choose what he will and make it come to pass. Man therefore, is in control of his own ego and can create the future as he chooses it to be. Men do not attract to themselves that which they want, but that which they are. How he thinks, is what he will become. With men, this is a choice.
The power in man behind this ‘becoming’ is the will. When a man has a vision that he desires to fulfill with the same intensity as a drowning man seeks the next breath of air, the full power of his will comes to bear on the task of creating it. Suddenly all his senses are attuned to ways and means of it’s achievement and things will be attracted to him that will help in the achievement of his goal. Possibilities for it’s success will appear as if by magic by way of other people and events or circumstance. It is a truism that the world will step aside for the man of purpose.
There is one thing of note however, about the Will:
The Will can not act upon that which it does not believe.
- If you do not believe something is possible to complete, you will find yourself acting only half-heartedly in it’s accomplishment – if at all. Thus, you will be unable to apply the will and so achieve it.
- If you do not believe in your own ability to achieve the thing, you will not be able to use the full power of your will in achieving it. You will be double-minded and unstable in all your ways of working towards the goal. Again, success will elude you.
Doubt, fear, and disbelief in your own ability is weakness and cannot give strength to purpose. These defects and faults can come about through lacking a strong self-image or from an ego which is out of harmony with the eternal laws of the Universe and the Creator’s principles of growth and balance.
We have been given the power of control over our thoughts. Doubt, fear, and disbelief stem from thoughts. Therefore they are under our control and so we are able to change them into Faith, courage, and belief. These are strong traits and bring success within our reach if we persistently apply them and act from them.
Our creative mind is a gift from God. I also believe that God would never give us something as all-consuming as a big dream or vision for our life, without a way for us to accomplish it. What a cruel act that would be! That would certainly not be in keeping with the character of the God I know.
