Recording 463A, “Son of God Raised Up,” was not used as source material for any book.
This recording was posted through May 4, 2024, and is no longer available on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. You can also purchase the recording and/or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office here.
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In the previous class (462B), Joel taught that one facet of praying aright is recognizing the nature of the Christ. He said that prayer is really an activity of the Christ that flows through us to bless the world. In this class (463A), Joel uses Scripture to build an entire lesson on the nature of the Christ, or the I within.
Since Scripture is such a strong throughline for this lesson, the brief outline of the class given below highlights the many Scripture references in the class. We have used these quotations as shorthand to capture much of Joel’s discourse instead of summarizing his words.
Our suggestion for practice is to work deeply with those Scripture verses. Take just a few at a time and contemplate them in light of what Joel teaches in the class. You may have new insights into the meaning of the verse, or Joel’s remarks might prompt an entirely new interpretation for you. Make notes to capture your insights and interpretations. As you work, other related quotations may come to you from the Bible, from other Scriptures, or from other spiritual writings. Make a note of these, too.
Note: In some cases we have cited the Bible verse as Joel quotes it, rather than as it is given in the Bible. For these we use the citation “(See [reference])”
The Need to Take God into Our Experience
Joel begins the class by pointing out that many people believe they can build successful lives without God, and it doesn’t work out. On the other hand, many people have discovered that when they take God into their lives, life can be healthful, successful, joyous, and harmonious. Taking God into our lives means to come into an actual experience of God.
The Experience of Moses
Moses rose so high in consciousness that the secret of God revealed Itself to him. He realized that God was within him, within his very consciousness. He realized God as the I that I am, his very Selfhood, God’s own presence. With this illumined awareness, Moses was able to lead the Hebrews out of slavery and across the desert, right up to the Promised Land.
Jesus Revealed the I Again
After Moses, just a few Hebrew prophets had the awareness of the name and nature of God, but largely that awareness was lost. Yet the truth of God as I in the midst of us was never lost. When Jesus came, he revealed the truth once again that I, the very I of your being, is God.
How God Is Lost and How God is Found Again
God is lost when we worship or give power to something or someone external to our own being. God can be lost when we deify a man, or when we think that we can name God. God can be lost if we put our faith in an organization. In other words, God is lost when we fail to recognize that I in the midst of me is God. But when I have the realization that God is the very I of my being, God cannot be lost.
You can only know God when you give up every concept of God and abide in stillness until something within you says, “I. I am the only thing that isn’t external to you. I am the only thing that is not objective to you. I am the very essence of your being. There is only one Being, and I am that infinite divine Being.” I is God.
The Nature and Function of the Christ, or I
What is the nature and function of this I, or the Christ? I is in the midst of every individual—even the enemy. The soul of every individual is this same God presence. It is this same I, appearing as the presence of God, even though the individual may not be awake to It.
Your recognition of the I raises the Christ out of the tomb of ignorance and lifts the Christ up into the center of your consciousness, where you know: I in the midst of me is mighty. I is the resurrection and the life. I is Christ, the Son of God.
When the Christ is lifted up, It walks the earth in you. The presence of God, the spirit of God, walks the earth in you. It goes before you. It is within and without, above and beneath. It is with you in life and in death, for not even death can separate you from this Christ of God, which I am. As long as you have I, you have nothing to fear. The nature of this I, God, is light, is wisdom, and is freedom—not a freedom from anything, but a freedom in Christ.
This I, the Christ within you, is not a disciplinarian, a judge, or a critic. Its nature is love, which expresses as care and as a forgiveness that dissolves whatever is erroneous in your human nature without judging, criticizing, or condemning it. It makes no difference whether you are a saint or a sinner when you discover God within you. You could be in the deepest scarlet of sin, but in the moment that you discover I, God within you, you will be white as snow, and the past will be wiped out. You could be in the depth of disease, even unto death, and if you discover God, I will be the resurrection and the life unto you. I will make up for all the years that the locust has taken. I will do this—I in the midst of you.
This Presence, the Christ, this I within you, says to you:
God Comes into Manifestation through Recognition
In spiritual development, we go through degrees that lead eventually to the death of the old man and the rebirth of the new man. As the light of truth is poured into consciousness, the old man begins to die, and suddenly illumination takes place, and you are aware of a divine presence within you. The new man is born. The Son of God is raised up in you.
How do we come to this rebirth?
Contemplations from the Class
Joel gave two beautiful contemplations in this class, which can be helpful to use throughout the day.
“The Son of God, the presence of God, the I that the Master proclaimed, is raised up in me. I now know that I in the midst of me is God. I now know that the I in the midst of me is my mediator, my Messiah, my Christ. I know that I is my meat, my wine, my water, my drink. The wellspring of life that bubbles up into life everlasting, that is this I; and now It is raised up in me because I am consciously aware, whereas before, this I was buried in the tomb. Now It is resurrected and raised up into living life and walks this earth as me, as the I of you. Christ walks this earth, no longer entombed, but raised up, because now you know the truth.”
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“In any moment of temptation, sing a song to yourself: Whithersoever shall I flee from Thy Spirit? How can I get away from Myself; the divine Presence that is within me? Be still; be quiet; I need not fight. Put up thy sword. The Christ that now liveth in thee will go before thee. You need not fight. Be still and see the salvation of that God that you now know; in whom you live and whom you have living in you, with whom you commune, with whom you are one.
“How shall I worship God? In silence, in gratitude, in peace. And in any necessary moment, listen for that voice within you to say: ‘My peace give I unto you. My kingdom is not of the outer world. I am not a temporal power. Retire within Me and receive My grace. Receive My peace; and all these outer things will be added unto you, not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, by this Spirit that dwelleth in you. Rest in Me. Be at peace in Me. I am closer to you than breathing. Relax, rest, be at peace in Me.’
“The Son of God is raised up out of the tomb of ignorance and now lives in me, and walks in me and talks in me, and I tabernacle with the presence of God that is within me. I meditate and I commune with this inner Presence. I dedicate my life to the God within. I dedicate my life to the soul of man, the spirit of man, the invisible Presence that never leaves me nor forsakes me.
“If I build, I build with God. If I buy, I buy with God. If I sell, I sell with God. God shall accompany me every step of my journey through life and eventually through death into that realm that lies beyond the world of corporeality. I seek my wisdom of the Father within me, my strength, my joy, my peace. I shall abide forever in the household of the Lord, in the Kingdom of God that is within me.
“The Father that seeth these thoughts in secret rewardeth openly. The Father that seeth the purity of my love rewardeth openly, not in a human sense of reward—there is no reward or punishment in that sense—but makes manifest.
“I understand now the ninety-first Psalm: ‘He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, none of these evils will come nigh his dwelling place.’ Underneath are the everlasting arms. Now I understand the fifteenth chapter of John: ‘If I abide in Him and let Him abide in me, I will bear fruit richly. If I do not abide in Him and let Him abide in me, I will be as a branch of a tree that is cut off and withereth and dies.’”