This recording is the basis for Chapter 4, “The Hidden Kingdom,” in The Art of Spiritual Living. This recording was posted through June 26, 2021, and is no longer available on this site. If you subscribe to the Joel S. Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase this recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
After hearing a class, it can be helpful to draw out what you see as the major points of the lesson and then consider each of them in light of your own spiritual work, asking “Am I practicing this aspect of the message?”
Of course, when we do this, if we cannot honestly answer as we might wish we could, it is important not to judge, criticize, or condemn ourselves. We can simply notice where we are and what we are willing or unwilling to do at this stage of our spiritual development. Then we make whatever adjustments we can and continue with our study and practice. Joel always reminds us that sincere, dedicated study and practice will gradually but surely raise our state of consciousness.
The summary that follows is just one example of pulling out the major points in this recording (489B). If you create your own summary, it may be different than this one. Whether you use this summary or do your own, for each part of the summary, try asking:
In identifying what we are willing to do and practice, it is usually more effective to focus on just one or two things. Taking on too much can lead to frustration and disappointment.
Pray Only for the INCORPOREAL
Prayers for material things and metaphysical affirmations have not worked because God is Spirit, and we must worship God in Spirit and in truth, taking no thought for anything of a material nature. We can ask anything of God that is INCORPOREAL, or spiritual; that is, without physical form. We can pray for spiritual light, spiritual wisdom, spiritual truth, spiritual bread, wine, water, resurrection. When we do, our prayers are answered, and somehow the answers have a way of appearing as tangible forms.
Praying for the Spiritual Results in Material Forms
We don’t know how it happens that praying only for the incorporeal or spiritual results in tangible material form. We just know that it does. God knows nothing of material forms or conditions, but such things as food, clothing, and housing are part of our need at the human level of consciousness. Since God does not come down to the human level of consciousness, we must raise ourselves up to God-consciousness, and when we come back, we find forms that are understandable to us. For example, if you stop praying for health and pray instead that God reveal Himself, His way, His kingdom, to you, when your prayer is answered, a healthy body is revealed. But this happens only when you do not ask for anything of this world; when you pray that the spiritual kingdom be revealed.
What Is the Spiritual Kingdom?
We have tried to get God to make this world better, or we have tried to find peace, health, and wealth in this world, even though the Master said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and spoke of “My peace, not as the world gives.” What is this spiritual kingdom, this “My kingdom” and “My peace” of which Jesus spoke? We have not been curious enough to find out. We want to hold on to what we know and what we have. We have been unwilling to leave everything to find this kingdom. But what kind of a world would it be? If it is of God, it must be supremely good. But we will never know until we are willing to stop demonstrating more of what we have and seek a realm, a kingdom, and a peace heretofore unknown to us; until we are willing to abandon prayers for earthly things and pray only that Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, and Thy grace be established. The spiritual path is a life of adventure! Can we be adventurous enough to look away from the human picture and see what happens when we enter the spiritual kingdom?
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
The kingdom of God is within you, always right where you are. But to find it, you must stop holding on to this world; stop depending on family and friends; be willing to lose them for the greater gain of the kingdom of God. When we seek the Christly kingdom, we seek that which is humanly unknown, and those of this world do not understand what we are doing. “My kingdom” cannot be known by the human, intellectual, thinking mind. It can only be discovered through soul capacity, or spiritual discernment. Peter recognized Jesus as the Christ through spiritual discernment. When a practitioner recognizes your spiritual identity and nature through developed spiritual discernment, harmony is revealed.
You do not get spiritual discernment from just studying books and believing them, but if you study a spiritual message long enough, you will build up spiritual consciousness, spiritual discernment, and you, too, will heal and forgive. Spiritual discernment comes forth through humility. A practitioner must have the humility to know that no part of their humanhood, including the studied mind, is a healing agency. The healing agency is the presence of God within. For the best result, the patient must also have the humility to acknowledge that by living on a material plane of existence, they have brought forth a material sense, and they are trying now to come out of it into a higher altitude of prayer, where they do not pray for earthly things but want to know the hidden kingdom, the hidden manna.
“I Have Meat the World Knows Not of.”
Joel knew there was a “something” hidden within him that no one could see, and he had his faith, hope, and reliance on that “something.” He did not look to others for anything. He knew that he had meat, a substance, a hidden manna, a divine grace, and that it was wholly spiritual. He was perfectly willing to let It manifest and lead in whatever way It did. It lived his life; It put words in his mouth, often words that he never knew before they came out.
This “something” is within you, too. It is the kingdom of God that is not of this world. It is the “My peace,” the meat the world knows not of, that can give you the fullness of life—IF you drop all concern for this world. It is the divine Presence that multiplies loaves and fishes and resurrects a broken body, and It will eventually lift you above all material things into the spiritual kingdom. In your study and practice, you are laying up the treasures of the Word, and that Word becomes flesh, appearing outwardly as health, harmony, wholeness, completeness, perfection, and fulfillment. God did not send you to earth to fend for yourself. God is STILL your Father, and His kingdom is within you. You only have to dig a little to find it.
Every Experience Takes Place Within You
Every experience takes place within you, and any crucifixion you endure is an internal crucifixion. It is crucifying the desires of the flesh, not in the sense of repressing human nature or becoming an ascetic, but crucifying the desire to pray for more things of this world. Rise higher in consciousness to where you pray for the word of God, for light, for revelation of the hidden meat. Leaving mother, father, brother, and sister does not mean abandoning your family, but relinquishing dependence on them. Live your life in God, and then you really have something to share with them.
Supply gravitates to those on the spiritual path because they are not holding onto material things. They do not think in terms of what they want to do or to eat. They think in terms of this meat that the world knows not of, this grace, this “My kingdom” that has nothing to do with this world. The longer you dwell in that consciousness, when you come back to earth, the more material things there are to be enjoyed.
The whole spiritual experience takes place within you—crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension—and you need not let the world know it is going on. It is better to keep the Christ and your spiritual activity silent, sacred, and secret within your own consciousness until you really have it to share. Those who are materially minded see only this world and may think that you have taken on an insane project. But you have seen that this world is made up of baubles, hypocrisy, lies, man’s inhumanity to man, and laws that cripple. Who wants more of that?
The World is Really Heaven on Earth
When you see this world “face to face,” or with spiritual discernment, it is the greatest world imaginable. It is the world of God’s creating; it is heaven on earth. The materialist sees it distorted, through the eyes of good and evil. But when you see with spiritual discernment, everyone is made of love, giving love, integrity, wisdom, joy, and sharing. When you can see and hear spiritually, you understand that the words of scripture actually attest to Reality. When Jesus spoke of My kingdom, of meat, wine, water, the bread of life, resurrection, the kingdom of God, and grace, he was revealing an actual kingdom that exists here and now. But it can only be experienced through spiritual discernment.
This whole kingdom is already within you, and you discover it in proportion as you give up your desires and prayers for corporeality. When your desires and prayers are only for the spiritual or incorporeal, for the hidden wisdom and glory to be revealed, you develop spiritual discernment. Then you will be able to see through appearances and heal. But it is important to remember that the words in the books, tapes, or classes do not heal. It is the spiritual discernment, the consciousness that you build by means of those things, that is the healing agency.