Recording 245B, “Starting the Spiritual Healing Activity,” is from the 1959 Maui Advanced Work. This recording was not used as source material for any book.
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Part 1 of our study program provided an overview of spiritual healing, and Part 2 focused on the core principles of The Infinite Way and their role in spiritual healing. Part 3 of our study program concentrated on the practice of spiritual healing, and Part 4 addressed issues that can arise in spiritual healing.
With this session, we begin the fifth and final part of our program, “Beginning the Healing Work.” In this first recording, Joel begins by saying that if we have been students for several years, we should begin to show forth more healing works. He explains that while your studies and meditations may have improved your life and the lives of family and friends, that is not a healing ministry. Joel points out that the spiritual healing ministry begins when you “know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and when you are willing to take responsibility for doing it.”
We do not believe that Joel is speaking here about entering the healing ministry professionally. (Please refer to the Q and A for the first half of April.) We believe he is referring to being willing to accept a request for help. In other words, if someone calls you for help, you do not give them the name of a practitioner and pass along the responsibility. You are willing to accept the request yourself and do the healing work to the best of your ability.
Humanly, you might not think that you are ready to do it, that it is too much responsibility, or that you must decline because you do not want to “fail.” Those considerations stem from a fundamental mistake: believing that “you” are the healer. In fact, the personal sense of you could never be the healer. But whether they know it or not, the individual is not coming to the human “you” for healing. They are coming to the Christ of you, and “I can do all things through Christ.”
Thus far, our study program on spiritual healing has focused on the first two things Joel mentioned: “what we do and why we do it.” The third—willingness to take responsibility for doing the work—is, of course, up to each individual.
We understand that, even though we might feel grounded in the principles and practices of spiritual healing, some of us will just not be able to take the step of accepting a request for help right now. In Part 5 of the course, we will include two sessions that provide intermediate stepping stones to help you continue developing the healing consciousness so that, at some point, you will be willing to take on that responsibility. It is always a choice that only you can make.
Joel begins this class by saying that if we have been students for several years, we should begin to show forth more healing works. Your life and the lives of family and friends may have improved through your studies and meditations, but that isn’t spiritual healing ministry. It is a preparation for that ministry. The healing ministry actually begins when you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, and when you are willing to take responsibility for doing it.
The importance of humility
Humility is an important quality in the spiritual life, and it is even more important in spiritual healing. It requires you to acknowledge that, regardless of how much you think you know about truth, it isn’t worth much when you sit down to heal. Then why do we spend so much time with the writings and recordings? So that we can develop a healing consciousness. While intellectual knowledge of the letter of truth is not the healing consciousness, studying the books and recordings and meditating on them in deep silence eventually produces the consciousness that heals.
But when you actually sit by the bedside of a sick person, or someone in pain, what you know is not going to help you. The healing ministry is bound up in the passage, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”—not in reading that statement, or reciting it from memory, or voicing it, but in demonstrating it, in bringing the presence of God into actual expression. Words and thoughts will not do that.
When you help someone in sin, disease, poverty, pain, or distress, it is wonderful to be able to remember the letter of truth: “None of these evils is power. None of these evils constitutes power. None of these evils is God-created, or God-maintained, or God-sustained, or God-ordained. There is no spiritual law in sin, disease, lack, limitation, death, unemployment, or unhappiness. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; there is freedom from sin, desire, disease, lack, and limitation.” But after you have said these things to yourself and contemplated them, you have to drop them and attain the actual presence of the Lord, without which there will be no liberty for anybody.
You sit in quietness, confidence, and receptivity, with both ears wide open, remembering that the still small voice is within you, and It must utter Itself. When It utters Itself, the whole earth melts; the whole world of error disappears when the still small voice speaks. That does not mean you are speaking. It means that you are in a state of inner peace, inner calm, inner expectancy, as if you are waiting: “I of mine own self can do nothing. My thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and it is God’s thoughts that make the earth melt. I will listen for Thy voice. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.”
A spiritual healing practitioner is a servant, not a master.
In the presence of an appearance of sickness, sin, or disaster, you are a servant, not a master. The more spiritually-minded you become, the more of a servant you become—a servant of God, waiting always on the Lord, waiting to be used, waiting for instructions on how to serve, who to serve, and where to serve.
Many people still believe that a spiritual master is a high-and-mighty person who wears a crown, but the opposite is true. The higher one goes in spiritual wisdom, and the deeper one goes in spiritual living, the more of a servant one becomes, first serving God, then serving man, and then serving God’s creation. It requires humility. We are masters only in the realization that we are but instruments through which or as which God operates. In being masters, we are servants.
At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. He didn’t behave like a mighty potentate and have them wait on him, because he was setting an example. He was telling them that they were to go out into the world with humility, “washing the feet” of the people, or in other words, serving them and helping them.
You will understand humility when you are asked to help someone who is very sick, dying, or badly hurt in an accident. You will know how little you know, how little you can do, and you might even be terrified. But that will be your salvation. You quickly get humble in the presence of a serious physical, mental, or moral condition because you see what Jesus meant when he said, “I can of my own self do nothing. If I speak of myself, I bear witness to a lie. My doctrine is not mine. Why callest thou me good?” You will know how it feels to be like Jesus, humbly knowing that here is a person dying, a person in pain, a person in labor, a person in sin, and knowing that you can’t do anything about it but sit there quietly and wait patiently for the spirit of the Lord God to be upon you.
The purpose of spiritual writings
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;” and in that, there is freedom for you from responsibility, fear, and doubt. In your freedom, your patient gains their freedom. In the presence of the Lord, fear disappears, fever abates, pain dissolves. But you will know that you did not make anything happen; it was the presence of the Lord. Then you will truly know that the purpose of spiritual writings is to inspire you, to lift you above appearances, above “this world.” You will know that the purpose of the writings is to give you the assurance that you need not fight; that the battle is the Lord’s; and to lift you in consciousness to where you discern that “I of my own self am nothing,” and you behold God at work.
Without the inspiration of Scripture and spiritual writings, we would still be living in the world of two powers, trying to use God to heal disease, reform sinners, or get supply. We would be far from our demonstration, just as the world is. It is only because of the revelations of spiritual truth in our writings that we know error isn’t a power to be fought; that we don’t have to seek a great power to destroy lesser powers; that we know the battle is not ours; that the nature of every form of discord is the arm of flesh, nothingness.
Through our writings, we know that we can rest in the Word and watch a disease, a sin, a fear, a fever, a lack, or a limitation destroy itself. Our writings and recordings give us the foundation that ultimately enables us to witness any form or degree of sickness, sin, fear, lack—even death itself—and confidently, calmly, and peacefully wait for the spirit of the Lord God to descend upon us, for the presence of the Lord to reveal itself. We are transparencies, like panes of glass through which sunlight can shine. Spiritual light fills all space. It is a reality, here and now, but there must be a transparency through which it can reach the Earth.
Being a transparency for the light of God
Moses was the great transparency for the Hebrew people. When the consciousness of Moses became a transparency through which the light of God could reach human consciousness, the Hebrews found their freedom. But when there was no Moses around, they went back to darkness and slavery until an Elijah, or an Elisha, or an Isaiah came.
When Jesus came, the great light of God found its way back into human consciousness. “I of my own self can do nothing, but that Light which shines in me, It does the work.” The works of God were made manifest among the Hebrew people because Jesus did not set himself above all others. He was humble: “I can of my own self do nothing. Why callest thou me good? It is the Father that doeth the works.” He made himself a transparency.
Paul was a great transparency, too: “I can do all things through Christ. I live, yet not I, Christ liveth my life.” The Christ is the Light, and Paul is the transparency through which that Light reaches human consciousness.
When you have the humbling experience of being called for help in a serious case and watching a healing take place, you know beyond all doubt, “Thank God, they didn’t expect me to do it. Thank God, I didn’t expect me to do it. I have witnessed how the Spirit worked in me and through me to perform Its mighty works, while I sat here as a transparency, an instrument, a channel through which the invisible Spirit of the Lord God could come to human consciousness.”
A room is filled with the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty, but any crime could take place there unless someone serves as a transparency for God. When such an individual is present, only liberty, freedom, harmony, peace, salvation, health, and purity could be in that room, because in the presence of the Light which is God, nothing that defiles or makes a lie can enter. If there were one Moses, one Elijah, one Jesus, one Paul, or one John in the room, they would be the transparency through whom the whole presence of God would fill the room.
You need not fight.
We have the correct letter of truth as a foundation, and from there, we build the consciousness that ultimately enables us to let go of it as we sit in meditation. If there is an appearance of sin, disease, lack, or limitation, we need not fight it. We need not fret about sin, disease, the evildoers or dictators of the world, or erroneous conditions, injustices, or inharmonies. You need not fight; the battle is not yours. In the spiritual quiet and peace of meditation, your consciousness is a transparency, and you will feel something, see something, or hear something. Then harmony will be made evident, sometimes instantaneously and sometimes slowly.
Your demonstration is not whether a healing is instantaneous or takes a month or a year. Your demonstration is simply being a transparency for the spirit of God to touch the consciousness of your patient or student. If they have any resistance, the healing might take days, weeks, months, or years. Meanwhile, be sure you do not condemn them, because even if they are resisting, it isn’t their fault. They are not doing it consciously; it is just their nature, and they can’t help it any more than we could when we were resisting.
Be very patient with your patients and students. They are doing the best they can at any given moment, and they can’t do more than that. Your function is to realize God for them as long as they request it and are willing to accept the help. If the issue is serious, you may need to work on their behalf two, three, or four times a day, and sometimes we have to continue for days, weeks, or months. Everyone would love to be healed right away, but it isn’t always possible. So we must be the transparency through which the Light comes, and if necessary, turn within for them every day. Stay with them as long as they stay with you.
Be sure of this: Your knowledge of truth will prepare the way for you so that you can sit down in quietness and confidence and wait and let your consciousness be the transparency through which the presence and power of God is made evident. Then you will know that “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
What about the “click?”
In this work, we speak of the “click.” When you feel that click, that deep breath within you, or the weight drop off your shoulder, that is evidence of Immanuel, or God with us. That is the sign by which we know that the presence of the Lord is here, and our work is finished. From then on, we can expect healing or harmony. It doesn’t mean that the full healing will take place, but it means that at least for the period of that treatment, the presence of God has been made manifest, and there will be some result from it. It may be so infinitesimal to the outer senses that we may not even be aware of it, which is why we may have to do another treatment. But you can be assured that there is a result from it. There could not be a realization of God’s presence without some result.
Always look for a change in consciousness.
The reason we do not always see the result is that we are not looking for the result; we are looking for something we expect to happen. The result we should be looking for is a change of consciousness, after which the lump, fever, or wound might disappear. But often we don’t look for the change of consciousness; we look to see if the fever has gone down, or the lump has shrunk, or the wound has healed. That is not right in the spiritual healing ministry. The physical body cannot be healed unless there is a change of consciousness within. Therefore, the signs that follow reflect the change in consciousness. The body begins to change, or the purse, or the business, or the relationship, or whatever the demonstration needs to be.
Be careful not to get trapped into asking your patient about a change in their physical condition. If you do, you are more of a doctor than a spiritual healer. Your question should be, “Do you feel uplifted? Have you felt a release? Are you freer from fear or doubt? Do you have more confidence?” Those are the signs that follow, and when they are present, you can be sure that the appearance will adjust, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly but surely.
Practice makes perfect.
When you sit down to do healing work, you are working with the principle “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” You realize, “Here where I am, God is. All that God is, I am. The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the Earth shows forth His handiwork. God is in his heaven, all’s well with His world.” With that, you have reassured yourself with the correct letter of truth. Then you can sit quietly, confidently, peacefully. After a few minutes, if peace does not come to you, or if thoughts begin to disturb you, get up and do something else for a while. Then sit down and try it again.
When you are new to spiritual healing, you may have to do this many times, always allowing at least 15 minutes between treatments, until you feel the touch of the Spirit and settle into inner peace or calm. It makes no difference how long you feel that peace; what counts is that you attain it, for with God, one second is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one second. God can do just as much in the blink of an eye as one of us could do working for twenty-five years. But the more often you practice, the more quickly you bring yourself to that state of consciousness in which you can settle down at will and be in the presence of God. If we can go into the higher consciousness often enough, we can do good healing work. But we must keep spiritually renewing ourselves to wash away the world’s mesmerism.
No one can tell us how we should pray.
Some days, it seems we are far away from the kingdom of God, and we have to spend more time in meditation. Other days, we seem to be so close to God’s kingdom that we don’t even have to give a thought to ourselves or to meditation. On still other days, if we don’t get into our sanctuary every 20 or 30 minutes, we find it difficult to attain the higher consciousness. We all have to learn this for ourselves. No one can tell us how, when, or for how long we should pray or meditate.
Joel illustrates his point about how no one can tell us how to pray by telling two stories. First, he relates a story of men on an island who had no religion, but who could walk on water. Second, he recounts a story about a young boy who brought his dead dog back to life. In addition, he recommends reading the 58th chapter of Isaiah, which speaks to the same point.
In our work, no one can tell us what a treatment, a prayer, or a meditation should be. We have the principles, but how we apply them is as individual as the child’s treatment was for the dog. We go to the kingdom of God within and let God teach us how to pray, or let God do the praying within us. We cannot go to God with formulas or made-up statements. With our thoughts, we cannot influence God to do our will, even if our will is good. We make ourselves servants of the Lord, and let the Lord instruct us in how to pray, to treat, to live, and to meditate.
Do not compare experiences.
It is not helpful to compare your experiences with those of others, because you will not have the same ones, and you risk being told that you are wrong and they are right. No one is ever wrong, and no one is ever right. If you are obeying your inner impulse, that’s all you can do. If there is anything to be corrected, the spirit of God in you will correct you. Each one must have their own experience and learn to be taught of God, to be the servant of God, and to accept orders, instruction, direction, counsel, and wisdom from God. You must not try to bring your own will to bear in treatment, because you will not bend God to your desire. But you can be so spiritually minded that God can bend you to Its will.
Spiritual healing can be simple or difficult.
We could say that spiritual healing is simple IF you can be still, quiet, and peaceful, and surrender your own will and be instructed by God. We could also say that spiritual healing is difficult, or even impossible, if you cannot do those things, or if you hope you can will a healing, or if you think you can influence God to do something. Again, it is a question of humility: “Thy will be done, O Lord, not mine.”
Study this lesson.
Joel tells us that if we intend to do spiritual healing work, we must study this lesson “a thousand times, if necessary,” until we bring ourselves to that place where we are clear transparencies through which the divine Light can shine.
Where do you stand on spiritual healing?
If you are unsure about the “what and why” of spiritual healing, it can be helpful to review the previous lessons in our study program. All the recordings will be available for the duration of the program and for four weeks after we conclude. All the study materials will remain available on the website.
Practicing Humility
Contemplate Scriptural passages about humility.
Practice spiritual healing.