Recording 494A, “Spiritual Power – Temporal Non-Power,” from the 1962 London Special Class, is one of two recordings used as source material for Chapter 2, “Releasing Spiritual Power,” in Awakening Mystical Consciousness.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
This chapter focuses squarely on two of the foundational principles of The Infinite Way: the nature of God and the nature of individual being. When Joel talks about the nature of spiritual power, he is really talking about the nature of God, since God is Omnipotence, all power.
Joel is very direct in telling us how we can come to realize the nature of spiritual power and bring it forth in our experience, so the study suggestions are really built into the chapter. Here we just recap a few of the “pearls” and practices in this chapter. Undoubtedly, you will find others as you study the chapter and the source recordings.
Contemplate the Suggested Questions
Joel emphasizes the truth that in the presence of realized spiritual power, temporal power is not a power. In fact, he says, temporal power does not even exist in the presence of that spiritual Light that we are.
He points out that we have proven this only to a small degree. But even though we have not attained the full realization of the nature of spiritual power, we are on the path that can lead us there.
Spiritual power is unknown to the human mind, for the human mind cannot know the law of God. So how are we to know it? How do we come to the realization of spiritual power and the nature of spiritual power?
Joel says that it is an individual undertaking, and there are no formulas. It is up to each one of us to see how to realize the nature of spiritual power, bring it forth in daily experience, and prove that in the presence of this realized spiritual power, temporal power of any kind is not a power.
However, he does suggest that the realization will eventually come if we seek an understanding of the nature of spiritual power and presence by going within and asking questions, because the answers must come forth from within your own consciousness.
Joel suggests many questions that we can take for contemplation, such as:
To realize spiritual power is to realize the presence of God within oneself, and that Presence Itself is perfect harmony. Once we have realized the nature of spiritual power, we do not have to do anything with it. It does Its own work. We never need concern ourselves with how to heal disease, or overcome sin or lack, for in the consciousness of spiritual power, these do not exist. We have only one concern: to know God, to know the nature of spiritual presence and power, and to bring this Light of the world into expression. In the presence of that Light, there is no darkness.
We cannot meet a problem on the level of the problem. When we try to treat problems, we perpetuate them. So in our work, we turn away from the problem and we turn to the inner realization of spiritual identity, spiritual power, spiritual law, and spiritual life. Problems disappear only in proportion as we can take our attention away from them and begin to realize the omnipresence of infinite grace, which operates universally.
Why should we strive to realize the nature of spiritual power and bring it into expression? Joel teaches that in the degree that we can do this, we will bring a measure of peace, health, and happiness into the lives of others. As we continue to learn more and more about spiritual power, we are preparing ourselves to be worthy instruments for its flow, not so much for our own good, but that the entire world may be embraced in divine love. Then we will partake of it because we are part of that world.
In the degree of your realization of your Christhood and spiritual power, you become the law in your household, in your community, and in proportion to the degree of your realization, your influence spreads further into the world.
Other Practices
While the main practice Joel gives in this chapter is working to realize the nature of spiritual power, he suggests a few other practices as well.
Have the Consciousness of Giving
Joel teaches that our needs are met in proportion to our giving; that our spiritual giving is the very substance and activity of our supply. The more we give, the more we have. The more we exercise our dominion, the more dominion we have. This principle operates at every level of our existence.
Further, the more we are in the consciousness of giving, there is less evidence of the personal self. The total elimination of our problems comes with the elimination of the personal selfhood apart from God. When we give up personal sense, we get the awareness of our real Self.
So as a practice, we can look at our own lives and ask whether we are living in that consciousness of giving.
Purify Your Consciousness
We learn in this chapter that when we permit our consciousness to be attuned to spiritual power, disease, sin, fear, and lack are eliminated from our consciousness. But spiritual power cannot remove a problem when the cause of the problem persists, and the cause of the problem is human consciousness with its erroneous beliefs and concepts.
So Joel teaches that we must purify our consciousness. To do this, he suggests that to the best of our ability, we attune our consciousness to the Divine and open ourselves to the realization of Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience. From the heart, we pray, “Thy will be done in me, not mine.”
Then we must give up all our concepts—concepts of the world, of humanity, and of other peoples, races, and nations. We drop these concepts and recognize that at the core of being, each of us is the same child of God. We do not judge or criticize others. We forgive, and we pray that their eyes be opened. When there is no criticism, condemnation, or judgment, we are attuned, and when we are attuned, we are open to receive the grace of God.
Then we don’t have to ask God to heal us. All we need to do is love our neighbor—friend neighbor and enemy neighbor—as ourselves and thereby bring ourselves into harmony with the laws of God. Then the laws of God can function. They cannot function in a consciousness filled with false concepts. If we believe there are two powers, we set up a barrier. But if we realize Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, we are attuning ourselves to spiritual power and spiritual wisdom.
Our problems are dissolved only in the degree that we can pray for friend and enemy and realize the universal nature of Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence. Then our consciousness becomes a transparency for the spiritual power that enables us to heal, reform, forgive, and supply others.
So here again—without judging or criticizing ourselves, but just to take inventory, to assess where we are in terms of our practice— we can look within and ask ourselves,
Second Recording for Chapter 2
Recording 494B, “Nature of Spiritual Power,” is the class that immediately followed the class that we heard in our sessions, and is the second source recording for Chapter 2. We posted it for optional listening through March 4, 2023, and it 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.