Hello, Friends – This email is the fourth week of something new – a once-a-week email on Friday written by regular participants in our Fillmore Wings Study Program. This week's post is by Marsha Schulte, a Unity ministerial candidate from Kansas City. If you do not wish to receive these Friday emails, scroll down to the bottom of this email and click on “Change your subscriptions to our newsletters.” That will open a box where you can change Subscribe/Unsubscribe to the Fillmore Wings Newsletter and other newsletters we send out. – Mark

What did Jesus mean when he said “Deny Yourself and Take up Your Cross and Follow Me”?

As we continued our weekly discussion on Fillmore Wings Lesson 11, Affirmations and Denials, paragraph 27 offered a robust discussion on Jesus’s understanding of the law of thought and his decree, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me“ (Matthew 16:24).

In Fillmore’s metaphysical framework this is viewed as psychological instruction for self-awareness. A basic question is, “How do you see your human self?” Our wayshower is opening the door for self-examination and the unmasking of false ideas of self-value, self-doubt and unworthiness. It is human nature to have confusing thoughts about our self-worth and if we hold onto ideas of superiority, entitlement, victimization, or judgement we are blocking our ability to “measure up to the God standard of man as a spiritual being”. In essence, persistent self-limiting shadows conveys our incomplete self, our Adam man, that we must deny so that we can manifest our true self, our Christ divinity.

Taking up the Cross is to challenge our mortal mind to let go of error in thinking and false ideas of self. Charles Fillmore viewed the cross as a symbol to motivate our righteous thinking. Where the cross intersects can be seen as the meeting place for sense consciousness, ego, and divine ideas, Spirit. This is the point where one must “take up” the practice of denials of repeated, self-limiting patterns and accept the invitation to do the work of stepping into spiritual growth and transformation. Jesus came into the Christ Consciousness and he affirmed, we too can gain spiritual understanding, freedom and abundance.

Raising our human stakes and being open to the deliberate and daily awareness of the inner currents of divine ideas allows for the I AM expression through man’s personality. We are now following the Jesus Principle as we realize our indwelling innate divinity. We affirm, we are worthy, we are pure of heart, we are divine. Faith, wisdom and grace will guide our inner work to help us cross the chasm of uncertainty and woundedness. “Follow me” is to allow Spirit, through prayer and meditation, to be our authority versus the influence of the material, mortal realm.

–Marsha Schulte
Friday, July 17, 2026

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Hello, again, one more thing – Right now we have four ongoing Fillmore Wings groups meeting. THERE IS NO PREREQUESITE for entering a class. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE, but we ask you to identify your name in the Zoom session and try to turn on video if possible. To join in, go the Events page for days and times; look for these classes:

• Sundays–Unity Correspondence Course with Marty Keller and Capital City Unity
• Mondays (starting July 13)–Fillmore Correspondence School Christ, The Only Begotten of the Father with Dara Bermick, LUT
• Tuesdays–Fillmore Wings Study Program with Rev. Mark Hicks
• Fridays (on hiatus July 24 and 31))–Fillmore Fridays with Rev. Melissa Hill Greenbaum