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A: Yes. Yes, it’s possible to visualize it. It may not be that way after it gets here, but at least to our sense, it would seem very much like a world that was made up of people all in the same frame of mind as we were sitting here. Now, for all intents and purposes, we look like all the other human beings on earth, and there’s no way to separate us or tell us from anybody else that’s walking the face of the earth. Yet, if we have attained some measure of that which we are studying—spiritual life, spiritual law, the nature of God—then inwardly, we are not the same people that we formerly were, and we are nothing like what we look outwardly.
In other words, in the degree that we attain even a measure of the Spirit that we’re reading about and hearing about, studying about, meditating about, we have come to a place where we recognize that God is our source and God is the infinity of our being. Now, let us for a minute accept that statement: God is the source of my being and the infinity of my being. Now tell me what I would ever need of you, or require of you, or want of you, or of anybody outside of this room? Nothing. Nothing, since I am one with my Source, since I recognize the infinite nature of my Source, I can well take the position that nothing can be added to me. Nothing. God is my supply; God is infinite; my supply is infinite. God is my health; God is infinite; my health is infinite. God is my relationships, or the cement of my relationships, or the bond, so I need no friends, no relatives, nobody, except those that God brings into my sphere.
Now, if that is my conviction in any degree, then I can come up to this point of our development: “To him that hath, shall be given. From him that hath not shall be taken even the little that he hath.” Now, as human beings, we are those who have not, so we are always on the lookout for what we can get, earn, achieve, deserve, win. Then, of course, if our ability doesn’t take us far enough in that direction is when the human race starts to think of how it can connive, plot, plan, scheme. Then, if it can’t reach it that way, it goes a step further and says, “How can I steal, rob, plunder, defraud?”
Now it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s on the lowest step of humanity—that of marauding—or whether it’s on the highest step of humanity saying, “Oh, I deserve it. I earn it. I work for it.” It is all humanness or getting, and that is why even in the most respectable circles we have very difficult types of competition—in business, in professions, in the arts, I’m sorry to say, in religious work—hard competitions. Why? Because as a human being, we have to get, accomplish, achieve, add to ourselves in some way or other.
Even if we go into the noble business of a church business, we have to keep watching out that our competitor doesn’t take our people away from our church door. It’s sinful to believe that, but you know it’s true. You know that. The same way that you know that even in church work, most churches, I mean, there are always drives for more funds, and more monies, and new buildings, and new additions, and new stained-glass windows, and always to be a bigger church and a better church, and a greater organ, and a greater choir and a let’s hire a quartet in Europe—all competition, all based on getting. Now a human being can’t help that; a human being can’t help that. That is the nature of humanity; that is the nature of the human mind.
Now, if you catch one glimpse only of the spiritual nature of your being, the first thing you will remember—and don’t forget this, that we have been quoting it every day this week, and I know I’ve quoted it every day last week—”I have meat the world knows not of. I am the bread of life. I am the wine. I am the water. I could give you water.” I don’t have to ask you for any; I can give you. I can feed the multitudes—4,000, 5000, 7,000—and have twelve baskets left over. I can heal the multitudes, supply them. Do you see in that frame of mind that you would need nothing, require nothing of anybody?
And now that doesn’t mean that your rent wouldn’t come due, and you wouldn’t have clothing bills and fuel bills, but you wouldn’t have to get the money for them anywhere. Automatically, in this state of consciousness, the way opens, and you have your rightful employment, your gainful employment, or art or profession or investment, and without getting, without striving, without struggling. I don’t mean without working. We all work. But you would not be working for a living. You would be working because it’s the nature of our being to be active. It’s our nature to be creative.
The nearer you get to being in your realization of divine sonship, the more creative you are—whether it’s in creating new ideas of business, new inventions, new compositions, new books, new stories. The closer you get to the center of spiritual being, the more God’s wisdom and God’s activity…. and that’s why it is people who are touched with the Spirit can’t stop. They can’t rest. They’re on the go continuously. You would think that they were driven by ambition or lust for money or something, or fame. They’re not. It’s just a drive to work, to work, to work, to do more, to bring forth more because the Spirit doesn’t let you rest except at resting time, and then you rest beautifully. But they’re short periods because the renewal comes so quickly within from the infinite source of Spirit.
Now, as a businessman with a touch of Spirit, you would go to your office, or your business, or your shop, and you would perform every bit of duty called on you to do—make calls, go out selling, buying, routing, whatever the business may be, but without any sense of responsibility as if the world depended on what you do next, or even as if your own living depended on it. Your living goes out of your mind entirely. The first touch of the Spirit sends it out of your mind entirely. And from then on, it’s automatic. And so it is with the creative works; it becomes automatic. All right.
Now, I am the same individual who, as a human being, competing, selling, buying, working hard, rushing into the next town, believing that sales are dependent on my personal effort, or being there when the store opened at 8:30 in the morning to be the first one to catch the buyer. I am that same one in the human picture, but if you look at me a few years later, when I’ve caught a glimpse of this, you say, “It’s the same fellow.” Yes, with this difference. But now, if I’m there at 8:30 in the morning, it isn’t because I’m in a hurry to see the buyer first. It’s because I can’t sleep any longer, and I’ve got to get out and work. I don’t particularly care whether I see him first, second, or third because nobody now can take my business from me.
Now is when I commence to understand Mr. Burroughs. Remember his poem, “Waiting”?
Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For, lo! my own shall come to me.
I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.
Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.
What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.
The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.
The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.
Well now, that’s the same spiritual man, you see, in an entirely… rather it’s the same man in an entirely different frame of mind, no longer rushing about trying to get, achieve, accomplish. Now he rests, goes about his business, never making false representations about his wares, never concerned whether the other salesman gets there first, only concerned with doing the utmost that God gives him to do each moment and then knowing, “My own shall come to me,” and it works out that way.
Now, when this [new] world comes into being, we will be just what we are now; only, we will not be seeking; we will not be fearful; we will not be doubtful; we will not be out on the run. We will be walking leisurely, and we will inwardly be resting in the realization, “My own shall come to me.” Why? Because God is directing it. Now you see, in the new dispensation, there is no need at all for us to have wings, no need at all for us to have ethereal bodies. All we need is an ethereal state of consciousness, one that isn’t continuously seeking to draw to itself.
Now, you’ve come to another law of the Bible. Remember, we’ve had one: “To him that hath.” To him that knows that he hath God, to him that knows that he hath access to the Infinite Invisible, to him that knows that God … “All that the Father hath is mine.” To him that hath that wisdom, all these things shall be added. “Seek not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed. Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things, and it is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
When you have that knowledge, when you have that knowledge, I need take no thought. What is my own shall come to me by divine law, and it doesn’t even have to come to me. All that the Father hath is mine, already mine. By what relationship? Joint-heir with Christ in God to all the heavenly riches.
Know ye not that you are heirs, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ in God to all the heavenly riches? That is the relationship that enables us to know that “I have.” In fact, all that the Father hath is mine. Now just look at the fear and worry and doubt that drops off my shoulders and wrinkles that drop off my forehead because I need no longer take concern. I no longer need take thought. Now I have only one idea, and that’s the next law of the Bible: “Cast your bread upon the waters.”
You see, in the material world, everybody’s down at the seashore looking for that bread to come in. They don’t care much whose bread it is, but if they get their hands on it, it’s their bread. But that isn’t the Bible teaching. No, no, the Bible teaching is, “Cast your bread upon the waters.” How can you do that? Because all the Father hath is yours; because you already know there is a spiritual law providing for you. You know that you don’t need human means, and so you can start with what you have. Now there, too, that is subject to interpretation.
In a human way, it might be like the poor widow who only has a mite. So you could begin with that mite. That’s all, just that mite. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s a penny, nickel, dime. If it really represents a sense of giving, then you start with that. It may be that there isn’t any need for the giving of money at the moment, but there is some need for service. So you start with that. Inasmuch as you have twenty-four hours of every day; inasmuch as you have plenty of time; inasmuch as you have plenty of wisdom, you cast your bread upon the waters, whether you’re doing it this minute with five-cent pieces to the beggar on the street, or whether you’re doing it the next minute by a spiritual treatment, or mental treatment, or prayer, but you’re casting your bread upon the waters.
It may be that you’re not called upon either for money or for treatment or prayers, but you may be called upon for forgiveness. I don’t mean that somebody may ask you for forgiveness. That’s the sad part—that most people who should be asking for forgiveness don’t even know they’ve offended us. As a matter of fact, to them, we’re the offender, so we may not be asked in language for forgiveness, but you and I know who has offended us. You and I know who has ill-treated us. You and I know who are those who despitefully use us or persecute us, whether or not they know it. So as long as you and I know it, we can begin to cast our bread upon the water, and it may be forgiveness. It may be that very thing: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do. Father, remember: I don’t want them punished; I want them forgiven.” Then you see, you’re casting your bread upon the water.
In some way or other, the moment you have a spiritual vision of even the slightest degree, you are no longer in the business of getting. You are in the business of casting your bread upon the water—giving, sharing, offering, cooperating.
Now, since God is your individual consciousness, since God, the Universal Divine, is your individual consciousness, is not your individual consciousness filled full? It is. Then why try to add to it? Why not just draw from it?
1This copyrighted excerpt is from Recording 105A: 1954 Seattle Closed Class, titled “My Own Shall Come to Me.” It is posted with the kind permission of the Estate of Joel S. Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available from The Infinite Way Office or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
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