A: And it can’t be defined; it has to be felt. The power of grace is the power of the Invisible. It isn’t something earned or won; it isn’t something that you wait for until it strikes you. It is something you bring into expression by the withdrawal of fear from “man whose breath is in his nostrils,” and withdrawal of faith in “man whose breath is in his nostrils.” And when there is no longer fear or faith, the power of grace comes into expression, and brings forth everything and everyone needed in our experience.
That is why, except to students who have read and studied for a long while, it is impossible to explain grace. But actually, grace is the operation of a law that can only function in the consciousness of those who have put up the sword, and who have also put up their faith in man whose breath is in his nostril, or in papers, or documents, or unions, or unitedness, and has witnessed his own faith and retired to the Invisible.
For some, this is too difficult because they must know how it functions, and why, and so forth and so on. And for these people, it’s hopeless until they have come to a place of rising above that which must be “reasonable.”
I know less about the workings of the Spirit than perhaps anybody else in the world, because I know nothing about it. I only know this—that it works, however it does. It works when there is no fear, and when there is no faith; when there is not even faith in right thinking; when there is not even faith in holding a right thought; when there is not even faith that God can do something; when there is just no fear and no faith, and there is just the realization.
Do you know that if you look out at this world, you can’t find one single trace of error, except in man and his works. On every other level, grace operates beautifully. But man has blocked grace from operating. By his fears and his faith, man has blocked God from operating. He fears effect, or he has faith in effect, and that’s the one thing that blocks out, blots out, the operation of the Invisible in our experience.
And you can watch it, because it operates proportionately. If you only lose a little of your faith in man whose breath is in his nostrils, or your faith in church, or political party; if you only lose a little fear of ideology, and if you only lose a little faith in the people and things in which you’ve had faith, and drop it all into the Invisible, you’ll watch right from the beginning that some measure of change will take place, and then you’ll know that it’s only a matter of proportion.
1This excerpt is from Recording 365B: 1960 Hawaiian Village Open Class, “The Dice of God Are Loaded.” 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 Office or by calling 1-800-922-3195.