I must admit, I really enjoy Pilates. Not that I am a big exerciser.
But if I were to get into a regular routine Pilates would probably be one of my first choices. I love the gentleness (not to be confused with ease - I find it quite challenging) and the pacing of the movements. And the concentration. I am also intrigued by the vocabulary of Pilates, most especially the term "powerhouse,"  which I have appropriated to use in my work to describe one's spiritual core.

For background, the Pilates method incorporates six key principles: centering, concentration, control, precision, breath, and flow of movement. Joseph Pilates, founder of the method, taught that all movements of the human body emanate from the center or core which he called the powerhouse of the body. The Pilates method endeavors to strengthen the powerhouse as one of its primary goals.

According to Joseph Pilates, the powerhouse is muscular. But I use the term to refer to the spiritual core, or true facts of man's divine being. To me, it's what Christ Jesus taught when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (see Luke 17:20-21) I believe that to access and utilize our spiritual powerhouse, we have to understand what the kingdom of God is and what purpose it serves for us.

To translate "kingdom of God" into simple terms, we might call it the seat of the divine in us. Please don't confuse "in" to mean "confined to a material body." I am talking about spiritual consciousness - the unlimited, unconfined essence of true being as spiritual. Everyone of us has this powerhouse - the wholeness of God - expressed in us in an individual way.

We aren't the compilation of strengths/weaknesses that a material view of man suggests.
We also don't have to create or develop the kingdom of God within. God expresses His own divinity and that expression is reflected in you and me. The divine is already here, whether we acknowledge it or not. And through prayer we can gain full access to the divine powerhouse - the kingdom of God within us. 

Referring to God as divine Principle, the Christian Science textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains, "Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe." (p.465)

It isn’t that you reflect some of God’s being, and I reflect some, and it takes all of us to reflect all of God’s being. Divinity isn't like cake. It isn't divided up and dished out in a variety of shapes and sizes. It isn't just occasionally available, or saved for something/someone/sometime special, like a dessert. As the full individual reflection of God, we EACH reflect divine omnipotence (ALL-power), divine omniscience (ALL-knowing), and divine omnipresence (ALL-presence).

The kingdom of God as ALL is with us, in us, all the time.  Prayer that explores the infinite nature of God and the full potential and power of man as God's reflection leads to knowing and experiencing one's spiritual powerhouse of divinity.  Prayer can radically redirect the reality-view to include only what God, infinite Good, sees and knows about His creation.

You (and I do mean YOU) express the fullness of God who is the divine Mind.
In an individual way, we each express omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.  By individual, I don’t mean small.  I mean each of us reflects uniquely the All-intelligence, All-power and Everywhere-presence of God. This is no small thing.

OMNIPOTENCE.
You are strong. Nothing can withstand the powerful God of Love you reflect.  Anger, hatred, malice, sickness, sin, any weakness, have no power to stop, interrupt or disturb the harmonious flow of your life.  You reflect the omnipotent Life that is God. Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Wait patiently on illimitable Life.”  (ibid, p.4) Wait patiently - to me, that is patiently serve Life as it’s full unlimited expression. “Reflect this Life and with it cometh the full power of being.” (ibid, p.4) And remember, you reflect that full power of omnipotence in an individual way.
 
Science and Health reinforces this thought. “A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man." (p.128) Through your powerhouse - the kingdom of omnipotence within you - you have completely unrestricted access to divine good and to God's all-power in your life.

OMNIPRESENCE.
God is everywhere. Reflecting omnipresence, you are never in transit to your right place. You are not heading to a better "somewhere else." Place - call it home, job, new career, fresh opportunity - is in you. You are always present and safe in God, sheltered in Love, active in the full sunshine of Mind.

You are where you need to be. You include all you ever need to be happy and complete. Your expression of omnipresence reveals the right idea of activity and movement - which is always at hand. You are right where you should be, so you are always on time. The kingdom of omnipresence is within you. It's your powerhouse. Mrs. Eddy puts it this way, “Who lives in good, lives also in God, - lives in all Life, through all space." (ibid, p.4)

OMNISCIENCE.
You are the reflection, the manifestation, of omniscient Mind. As the unique, one-of-a-kind expression of God's omniscience, you reflect complete, divine intelligence. This means that you know exactly what you need to know, in the right place, at the right time, all the time.  Because Mind is not dependent on educational processes to know, as Mind's reflection, neither are you. You include and express the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-hearing Mind that is God. 

God is your Mind. You don't have intelligence, ego, or creative capacity through a personal and separate mind. Therefore, you don't tumble under self-condemnation, doubt, or fear. You can't be made to believe that you are ignorant. Through your powerhouse - the kingdom of omniscience within you - you know and embrace God, the true and only Mind, as the source of your intelligence. Your reflection of Mind always reveals what you need to know. There is no limit to your intelligence.

Science and Health reminds us that understanding the Science of man's true being “raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.” (p.128)  Perspicacity refers to an acute mental vision or precise discernment. You are the focused reflection of omniscient Mind.  Nothing worth knowing or seeing can be hidden from you. Through your powerhouse of omniscience, you are open to and ready for the special delights that your Mind is reflecting in you.

These are a few thought-starters for your consideration. What are your prayers showing you about your powerhouse?

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Christ Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)  To understand the implications of this requires a shift in our reality-view. Each one of God's children expresses the fullness, the majesty of the one divine Mind that is God.  Whatever Mind includes, we all include by reflection. 

Think about it. Because God doesn’t have an outside, you as God’s likeness don’t have an outside.  Everything exists within, within your reflected being.

So, when you look at huge and majestic mountains or across the grand expanse of an ocean, don’t feel small. As grand as they may seem, they are mere infinitesimal hints of the mass and majesty of you!  You include them. You are the greater and you express God’s dominion over them.  

A man, looking out at a grand mountain range, once said, “What an amazing and beautiful body I have.” 

Again, think about it! What was he seeing? Did he understand that what he saw was not external or outside of his infinite being as reflection? He embraced the beauty of his wholeness and man's true body as majestic and fully spiritual. 

And yet even then, what he saw with his eyes reflected only faintly and minutely his infinite possibilities as God’s image and likeness.

In an individual way, each of us reflects omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. This was the message in David's 8th Psalm.  He sang, "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! who have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants have you ordained strength...

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet."

Christian Science Discoverer Mary Baker Eddy summed it up this way: