A: You know, I could spend hours with you telling you why. But I think the best illustration of why is given in the story of John and Peter before the Temple Gate Beautiful in Jerusalem, where there is a crippled man, or a sick man, or a paralyzed man, impotent man, beggar, holding out his hands. But John and Peter say, “Silver and gold have I none. Such as I have, give I unto thee. Rise, pick up your bed and walk.” And here you have the reason for some of our delayed healings.
Supposing we were to say to the sick, “Now, you know I don’t have physical healing for you, but what I do have is an awareness of God.” What do you think most of our patients would say to us? “Oh, no. I’m looking for some of that silver and gold.”
Another illustration is the Master feeding the hungry. The very next day, they follow him across the lake to be fed again, and he’s a little bit angry. “I fed you yesterday.” Well, of course, their answer is that they are hungry today, too. Well now, he really didn’t feed them just to set up a bread kitchen for them. He fed them to show them the principle of omnipresent supply, but they weren’t looking at that. They were looking at the bread they could eat and then wondering about the next meal that this miracle worker could do it again for them.
Now, you know, he did feed them again, but only that second time. Why, in three years, didn’t the Master feed them about every week or so, or every day, or teach his disciples to feed them? And the answer is he wasn’t looking for students who wanted loaves and fishes alone. “You sought me for the loaves and fishes”—and that was a rebuke. “I wanted you to seek me for the principle of life, for the Christ.”
And you would be surprised how many students and patients still feel that the only thing they really want is to get rid of this pain, or this lump, or this lack, and if you’ll only do that, they’ll be oh, so grateful. But you see, we’re really not physical healers, and we’re really not demonstrators of supply. We are revelators of the principle of I. We are the revelators of the principle of life, and if you seek this kingdom of God, the realm of Truth, you’ll find that all these things will be added unto you. But you have to stop taking thought for a little while about the things.
Now, that doesn’t mean that if a person is in terrific pain, or some serious disease, or trouble of any kind, that the practitioner isn’t going to help and heal them, because you already know that you benefit by the practitioner’s state of consciousness. But it does mean this: If the healing doesn’t come instantly or as rapidly as you think it should, try to remember that there may be some principle that you have to learn; some principle that will change your entire life; some principle that will enable you to change the lives of others, and if you get rid of this problem before you get this principle, you will really have lost all that God intended for you.
And I’m glad to illustrate that for you in this, that in my first years in the metaphysical work, I went through quite a severe period of lack, and by not wishing to dwell on it, I will just say that it was a severe period of lack and that it wasn’t met instantaneously or quickly, and it presented a puzzle. Why? I was doing good healing work, but I was not demonstrating any abundance from it. Why?
And you see, I didn’t demonstrate abundance until a principle revealed itself to me, and this principle not only revealed to me my supply and my family’s supply, but it has been operating in the lives of our students all over the world, revealing their supply to them. And if it hadn’t been for the revelation of that principle, there would be no Infinite Way today, and there would be no Infinite Way activity around the world, because that principle has enabled me to travel this world all these years and ask nobody for money and have no memberships and no dues and no angels and no financial backers.
Why? The principle that I learned through my own experience of lack has been the principle that has supported and supplied this entire activity around the world, has certainly taken care of me all of the years ever since, and has done wonders for many of our students who have caught what the principle is. And I haven’t kept it a secret. It’s in my writings.
Therefore, don’t feel that you must be healed. Don’t feel that way. Feel that you must get this principle of life, for if you get that, you’ll have life eternal and all things added. But if you should get your healing and not get this principle, next week, next month, or next year, you’ll need another healing, and it may even be something worse than the condition that exists now.
That is why our work can’t be given to the world. We could go out to the world if we could promise, “I can give you health and supply.” But that isn’t our promise. Our promise is, “If your heart leans toward God, we can bring to you the realization and the revelation of God, and we can bring to you a living Christ that is closer to you than breathing and nearer than hands and feet, a living Christ whose name is I in the midst of you. “I in the midst of you am mighty. I in the midst of you am mighty.”
And all you have to do is abide in the I that I am. Let Me abide in you. Let the realization of I, let the realization of I as your true identity abide in you. Live with it morning, noon and night, and never fear what mortal man or mortal condition can do to you, because this I, the Christ of God in you, is ordained to heal the sick, raise the dead, feed the hungry and forgive the sinner.
1 This excerpt is from Recording 350A: 1960 Second London Closed Class, “I in the Midst of You.” It is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available at The Infinite Way Office website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.