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A: That is the meaning of the statement: I will never leave you nor forsake you. This I, whatever it is that you call it—this depth of your inner being—this is the Power; this is the Presence. This is the Divinity, and It says from within, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Well then, you can go on yourself and read Scripture and see how it reveals that “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. As I was with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, so I will be with you. I was with you before Abraham was. I will be with you until the end of the world.”
Then you begin to perceive that what was meant wasn’t statements in a book, not anything you could think about, because you can’t think about what that I is. You don’t know what that I is, but as you go in intuitively to yourself, you’ll find that way deep down within you, there is a Presence. Now here you have what the Master called “the Father within me,” and what Paul called “the Christ.” Now after a whole hour of pondering the within, we begin to arrive at the fact that what was meant by “the Father within” or what was meant by “the Christ” is really that I that will never leave you nor forsake you; that I that was with us before Abraham was; that I which is really our own divinity, our own divine being, the Christhood, the divine Sonship of our being. And It says, “I will go before you to make the crooked places straight. I will walk beside you. I will walk behind you. Son, thou art ever with Me. All that I have is thine.”
Do you see now what the Father within is? Do you see what the Christ is? And do you see how you arrive at the awareness of It? You get within and ponder these things and then go beyond the depth of the reasoning mind until It springs up and commences to reveal Itself.
Now, do you see that the thing now that’s coming up from the depth of me was something that I didn’t think of, or reason out, or anything else? All of a sudden, it began to say, “I—I will never leave you,” and now we know what the Father within is. It’s that I. Well, why was it called “the Father?” I suppose that the Master knew that it was a creative principle—the Word was made flesh. He must have taught John that the Word became flesh.
In other words, the Word, this I that I am—It says so—It says It was God; It says that It’s I Am. This I that I Am was a creative Principle that became flesh, became form, became tangible as experience, as identity. And so it is that this I that is within me is the creative Principle of all the good in my experience. This I that is within me is the Father, or creative Principle. It is the Christ, or divine Son, the divine Sonship, the offspring of God, this I that is within me.
And so we have God, the Father; and so we have God, the Son. God, the Father; and then I—I, God, the Son, the spiritual divinity within me, which is the creative Principle of good in my experience, which is the source of strength. I can do all things through Christ, through this realization of “Well, I am the very Christ at the center of my being.” And do you see how all of this has to come out, not because somebody said it, not because somebody wrote it in a book, but because it became a living experience in our soul?
Now all healing work is a living experience within our soul. Anyone who tries to do healing work just because they have read all the words in a book, or because they know the statements of truth to make or the denials to make, will really fail, even though at the beginning they may have a little temporary measure of success. In the end, they will fail because healing work is not a product of the human mind. Healing work is not the product of your mind or mine. Healing work is not the product of thought. Healing work is the product of a divine inspiration or illumination that flows up from the center of our being. It far transcends anything that you or I may know.
If this weren’t true, the Master wouldn’t have said, “I can of my own self do nothing.” He would have been able to do a lot of things because he knew so much, but even with all he knew, he couldn’t do anything. It was only “the Father within me” that doeth the works.
The revelation is that there is a spiritual presence at the center of your being and mine, and this spiritual presence is empowered from on high with all the power of the Godhead—all the power! It gives us power to forgive sins. It gives us the power to heal disease, but it is a power derived from God, and it is all the power of the Godhead—it’s not a little bit of power. It’s not a spark of power.
When one is endowed with power from on high, it is the power to say, “Rise, pick up your bed and walk.” “Maiden, I say unto thee, arise.” “What did hinder you? Pick up your bed and walk.” It’s not a man talking. It’s a Spirit being voiced through the avenue of an individual consciousness. If it isn’t the Father saying it, then you can say, “Rise” all you like, and nothing is going to happen.
“I of my own self can do nothing” is one of the most profound statements of wisdom ever uttered. And so, as long as I of my own self can do nothing, there must be a period, even if it’s a split second, in which I know nothing, am nothing, desire nothing, but become a vacuum in order that It, this Word of God, this bread of life, shall spring forth through my lips.
Moses was slow of speech, but the Lord promised He would put the words in his mouth, and He did. And if you’re called before the magistrate, you don’t have to take thought [about] what you shall think. You don’t need clever thoughts or wisecracks or profound knowledge. You need the humble faith that enables you to say, “I can of my own self do nothing, but there is That within my being which can impart Itself to me, in all of Its wisdom, in all of Its glory, in all of Its power.”
1This copyrighted excerpt is from Recording 90A: 1954 New York Practitioner Class, titled “The Spiritual Source.” It is posted with the kind permission of the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection for the recorded classes and the copyright for the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available from The Infinite Way Office or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
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