Joel taught that rising in consciousness to realized Christhood is not ultimately for our own benefit, but the means to uplift the consciousness of mankind universally and dispel the ignorance of truth that is at the root of all human trouble. He spoke often about how we as individuals can be an influence in bringing that freedom to the world.
On the first of each month, we post an excerpt from Joel’s writings on this topic. The following excerpt is from Chapter 9, “Freedom in God,” in Living by Grace.
When the Spirit of the Lord God is upon you, anyone who is reaching out to you for help receives it. If you were to attain this realization three, four, or five times a day, you would always be in some degree in the Spirit. You would never be entirely out of the Spirit. So for the sake of your own individual lives, for your patients or students, for your family, for all those who look to you for comfort, bring yourself to a conscious realization of God’s Presence.
In addition, for the sake of the world, give us three periods out of every twenty-four hours in which you forget yourself, your family, your patients, your students. This is your contribution to the world. Remember that you already have “all that the Father has” and therefore you are infinite and no good can come to you. But you must open out a way for the “imprisoned splendor” to escape. Three times a day, open out a way for the Spirit of the Lord God, which is upon you, to escape out into the world.
In the first of these meditations, just meditate until you feel a consciousness of God’s Presence. That is the end of the first meditation for the world. In your second meditation, after you feel this Presence, make the declaration, “This realization of Christ is dispelling material sense.” In your third meditation for the world, first attain your realization of the Christ, then realize, “This realization of the Christ is opening human consciousness to the receptivity of Truth.” That is all. That is your prayer. That is your gift to the world.
What is happening is that you are admitting the Christ into human consciousness three times a day. These three periods a day are your world work. The rest of the time, have this realization of the Spirit for any purpose you like—yourself, your patients, your students, your family. But reserve three periods a day for the world.
As I said earlier, we cannot go to the world and tell it to be spiritual, because people are not interested in that. But by our three periods of meditation a day for the world, the Christ will enter their consciousness and make them want to be spiritual. They will become as we are at this moment. We want to be spiritual. We are not really giving as full expression to the Christ as we would like to. We are not as spiritual as we would like to be. That is why we are not as happy as we could be. We know how far we are failing in being as spiritual as we would like to be, but we have the desire, the hunger, to be fully spiritual, and that is what we are doing for the world. That is the only contribution we can make to the world.