Easter is not a passport to another world; it is a quality of perception for this one. It is not just a day when we recall how Jesus rose from the dead. It is a time to take a new look at ourselves and contemplate the Divinity within us, the depths of our own innate God-potential. It is a time to reappraise the principle that makes all overcoming possible.

… Easter morning was a commencement day for Jesus. He had made the “Great Demonstration.” … When Jesus returned “from the dead,” He had demonstrated more than the overcoming in His own life. He did that. He rose again. And this was and is good reason for rejoicing for those who love him. But the most important factor, and one that has been almost universally overlooked, is that He had verified His teaching of the Divinity of Man. He had proved in the most dramatic manner that there is a depth within man beyond the human. He not only achieved a victory for Himself but He became the greatest explorer of “inner space.” We downgrade Jesus and the Great Demonstration when we think of the Easter “happening” as a miracle of God instead of the revelation of the depth-potential of man. 

… Remember His words: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me [the Christ indwelling], the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father [Because I have made the breakthrough and have proved the Divinity of Man]” (John 14:12). 

… Through the resurrection, Jesus proved conclusively that the life of God is indestructible, changeless and eternal—and not just for Himself, but for you and me.

Easter deals not only with the passing into death and return, but the power to go beyond the end of things to a new opportunity and a new vision for overcoming. … A man can rise above limited experiences, and he can go forward through any dark hour to a new beginning.

… This is the keynote of the Great Demonstration of Easter: You are divine. No matter what you have thought of yourself, no matter what you have done in your life or with it, no matter how limited your experience has seemed to be—you are divine.

… Every year on Easter morning, millions of people throughout the Christian world proclaim the words, “He is Risen, Hallelujah, He is Risen.” If only every devotee could catch the deep implications of Easter and of his own statement, “He is risen.” If everyone would realize that “He is risen in me, which enables me to see that which is risen in every person in the world,” we would see a manifestation of “peace on earth, good will toward men.”

… It is not enough to parrot the resurrection story. We need to reduce it to the least common denominator and then put the principles to work. Easter deals with the Divinity of Man, of you, and of people everywhere. … Let us lift up our eyes, and the stones will be rolled away. Let us not try to set things right but to see them rightly. Right seeing is our eternal passport from the illusions of human sense to the heaven of accomplishment.

This excerpt was taken from Eric Butterworth's book Discover the Power Within You: A Guide to the Unexplored Depths Within. The special fortieth anniversary edition, published by HarperOne, includes a forward by Maya Angelou.