A: But when it says, “Ask and ye shall receive,” it doesn’t necessarily say ask for food or lodging. Remember that Scripture is not necessarily the complete word of God. It is illumination as it was received by inspired people at different periods of scriptural history, and it is just as possible that they can vary in their interpretation as we do in our mental and spiritual approaches.
Now I would interpret “Ask and ye shall receive” as “Ask for light, ask for guidance, ask for illumination, ask for direction.” In other words, as I was coming up through the period of broadening my concept of prayer, I saw that when Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” he must have meant that there are spiritual glories, spiritual supply, not for God, not for after death, because he was right here on earth preaching it. So my form of prayer was this: “Father, what is spiritual supply? What is spiritual life? What is spiritual marriage? What is spiritual business? What is spiritual body?” Because after all, the Bible tells us the body is the temple of God.
According to the way we’re taught, we’re almost disgusted with our own bodies, aren’t we? And it isn’t right for us to be so, you know. [There is] nothing wrong with the body. The thing that’s wrong is our concept of body, and I have gone to God with my prayer in just that way: “Father, what is this body that is the temple of God? What is this spiritual body that we should really be proud of and understand, not be ashamed of? What is spiritual supply? What is it that you don’t have to take thought for? What is spiritual life? What is health from a spiritual standpoint?”
Now, we know what health is from a physical standpoint—a heart that beats so much, lungs and liver and pulse, and all this and that. Ah, but that doesn’t represent life eternal. That represents life that’s over at three score years and ten, or three score years and twenty, whatever it happens to be. But what is that sense of health that would give us our immortality? And so I asked, and I knocked. Do you see? And I kept it up too—much knocking and much asking, much persistence, and it says because of your persistence, it’s opened to you. Do you see?
But once I realized that we were dealing with a spiritual religion, not a mental one, then I knew that there must be a spiritual answer to everything, and it has nothing to do with men’s concepts. Now men’s concepts of good health represent heart, liver, lungs, and all the rest of those things, and men’s concepts of wealth represent so many dollars. Do you see? Now then, the longer you try to demonstrate those, the more you’re trying to demonstrate men’s concepts. But now, what is God’s sense of supply? What is God’s sense of abundance? What is God’s sense of health? What is God’s sense of home? What is God’s sense of marriage? Certainly not what we see around here in the newspaper stories and on the air, right? All right.
And so my interpretation of that always has been “Ask.” Ask for light, ask for enlightenment, ask for a realization of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek it, ask for it, knock, storm it, do anything you like. Tear yourself to pieces, but—what is God? What is life? What is love? Then you’ll get the spiritual sense of it, which frees you from the mortal or material.
Now we have the scriptural quotation in Matthew 7: “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Ah yes, but now let us turn to Luke: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” There you have it. When you ask your heavenly Father, ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit. Then go back to Matthew, and you will learn this: “Ask of the heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit, and it shall be given you. Seek the Holy Spirit, and ye shall find it.” Knock, knock at the door of consciousness. Knock for a revelation of the Holy Spirit, and it shall be opened unto you.
1This excerpt is from Recording Recording 7B-2: 1952 New Washington Series, “Questions and Answers Including Supply, Tithing, Giving, continued.” 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 from The Infinite Way website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
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