This is one of three recordings from the 1963 Kailua Private Class used as source material for Chapter 5, “Rising to Mystical Consciousness in Prayer and Treatment,” in Beyond Words and Thoughts. While this recording is no longer available for listening on this website, if you are a subscriber to the Joel S. Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. The additional study material for this recording will continue to be available here on the Goldsmith Global site. To purchase the recording or the transcript, click/tap here.
This summary is provided simply to remind you of the content of the class. To download or print this summary, click/tap here.
We have nothing of value to impart until we ourselves can show it forth. For example, The Infinite Way reveals that God is individual consciousness, and that I can go to the kingdom of God within me seeking spiritual wisdom, and all the things of the world will be added to me. But I cannot teach that until I can demonstrate it; until I can turn within in silence and secrecy, seeking only the grace of God, and find that in my outer life, I have better health, or a greater sufficiency of supply, or greater happiness. Seeing that in me, others will ask what I have discovered.
First there must be the discovery and the demonstration of a principle. In this case, the principle was: God is Spirit, and God constitutes my spirit. God is infinite Consciousness and constitutes my consciousness. Therefore, my consciousness is infinite, and I must not seek my good in the world but go within and seek the kingdom. Since the kingdom of God is Spirit, that which it has to impart is spiritual, and to go to it for anything material is nonsense. So, my inner life becomes one of seeking more and more experience of this inner grace, without trying to translate it into physical health, physical wealth, or even physical peace on earth.
Our human concept of health might be a painless body and organs that function well. Our concept of wealth might be an abundance of money, income, property, or investments. But God is Spirit. So when we go within, we ask, “What is the spiritual kingdom? What are the spiritual children of God? What is the spiritual temple of God? What is spiritual health and prosperity?” Even a spiritual teacher cannot communicate this to us. The teacher knows only his or her own experience of the spiritual universe, and that experience cannot be told. So I must have my own experience by going within to “the Father,” or the “indwelling Christ” and saying, “Reveal Thyself. Reveal the temple of God. Reveal spiritual reality.”
I will not get the answers from the mental realm because “The natural man receiveth not the things of God.”[1] I must seek in the inner temple of my own being until the activity of the mind quiets and I am still. Then something within reveals, “I am God; I am Spirit,” and I know that I have attained some measure of spiritual discernment. Eventually God will reveal Himself, His kingdom, His temples of health, wealth, love, and all good.
Each individual is the consciousness of God formed as a temple, and if I remember that I am seeking only spiritual truth, eventually I receive His consciousness, His Spirit. It reveals Itself as “My peace,” which is a freedom from concern, doubt, worry, anxiety, and fear. It reveals Itself as “Thy grace,” which is my sufficiency. Then I can be “in the world but not of it.” Even death is no longer an enemy, because in the realization that God is my life and God’s love is governing me, I can never be separated from love or life, even in so-called death.
With this inner communion, a miracle takes place. I am no longer just a human being. I have a spiritual presence, a spiritual gift, a spiritual grace, a spiritual peace. There is much more to me now than appears outwardly. The world does not know what has happened, but people begin to say, “You have better health” or “You have greater supply” or “You have more success in business.” The world thinks that those outer things are the miracle, but they are not the miracle. Those things are the fruitage of the miracle. The miracle is grace; a spiritual inner life that has come to the awareness that ”The Father within me doeth the works,”[2] and “I can do all things through this indwelling Christ.”[3]
The world sees the outer things as the miracle because it is seeking health, wealth, and happiness. But you are not. You are seeking the miracle of inner grace. When you have attained it in some measure, those who have spiritual discernment come seeking the attainment of this inner grace. Sometimes they do not know that that is what they seek, and at first they may seek better health and wealth, and more happiness. But they will learn that they only attain those things when they stop seeking them and seek the Spirit, the Father within. At that point, some fall by the wayside.
As dedicated Infinite Way students, who have reserved an area of your consciousness for seeking God regardless of what you may be doing in your outer life, you must eventually discover this kingdom within, live within it, and keep it secret until someone comes who is truly seeking it, and not seeking just the fruitage. Then you can share with that one to the extent of their capacity to receive. As you continue to receive the inner grace, and it manifests in an outer more peaceful and happier life, more people will be led to you to be fed. You can offer at the level of their receptivity, but no further. Some in the world cannot yet accept the word of God, but are able to accept money, clothing, and other comforts that we can give. For those, we share at that level of love and benevolence.
Once you recognize God as your consciousness, as your meat, wine, and water, the substance of your life, let It feed you, prosper you, and let it appear outwardly as whatever form it may take. Then share it with those who seek it and share the “twelve basketsful left over” with the others. The human mind rejects what it does not seek, so never try to force a spiritual message on the world. If we leave the world alone, it will awaken to what we have and will want it.
The world will soon realize that it is the prodigal, and that it is not going to be fed substantially with food or gold, and it is not going to be protected by tens of thousands of bombs. The world is famished for a sense of safety and security and peace, and just as we hungered and finally found the Spirit, so will they. And before they are ready for it, these books are in print, and these tapes are in circulation. In other words, the feast has been arranged; the food is being prepared and set out.
Yet the books and tapes are not sufficient. In the background there must be the “ten righteous men” waiting, tabernacling within their own inner sanctuary, enriching their own consciousness, and storing up spiritual treasures so that when the hungry and thirsty come, they will be ready. The world will come seeking, and you must be prepared, and the preparation will come from the degree of silence and secrecy in which you maintain yourself. Those who come to you will feel that inner peace, that inner grace, and will be fed by it. Even if you say just a few words, those few will be a whole meal, because they will carry your deep consciousness with them.
God is Spirit. God is infinite, individual consciousness—my consciousness. Therefore, I turn within to my God-consciousness and seek only that which is spiritual. I seek the peace that passeth understanding and the grace that is my sufficiency in all things. Abiding in that peace and grace, I do not look to the outside world. Silently, sacredly, and secretly, I live and move and have my being within the spiritual temple of my consciousness. I live in and through God, and God lives as me. I relax my own sense of life that the divine life may take over, and it appears outwardly as the forms that the world recognizes as good. While these good forms initially draw the world to you, ultimately those who are drawn will come for “My peace” and “Thy grace.” This means that when someone comes to you and asks for help with a problem of supply or health, or relationship, or employment, you answer, “No, let me give you help to realize God’s grace, God’s peace; to realize Christ. Let what you seek be added but let us not go to God for that. Let us just go to God.”
The Infinite Way is asking students to come up out of the metaphysical into the mystical, where we let the activity of Christ be our demonstration, rather than some material result. When we were in metaphysics, we rejoiced when a human picture changed. That was considered demonstration. But it isn’t demonstration in the mystical realm. In the mystical realm, the demonstration is the realization of the Presence and the activity of Christ; the hearing the word of God; the attainment of “the meat the world knows not of;” the attainment of My peace.
The time has come for every Infinite Way student to recognize this, because now the entire human world is thirsting and hungering to get back to the Father’s house, and the world is not going to be saved by metaphysics. Metaphysics was only a step. The world will be saved only by the demonstration of Christ, which is our recognition of the omnipresence of the Christ; of that which eternally is, has been, and will be.
This is why we meditate. Only through meditation can you go inside your own consciousness, be at peace, draw forth the word of God, and then be in the world but not of it. But if you permit anyone to believe that you can go within and draw out something material for them, you will be deceiving them and preventing your own higher attainment. You must turn them gently away from trying to improve appearances and ask, “What does the indwelling Christ have for us?”
It does not matter how much truth you can say to anyone. What matters is the degree to which you can go within, become aware of the Word. and let It perform Its work. Our speaking and our memorized words do not dissolve the material world and perform miracles. It is the voice of God that we live by that does the work. The more the Word utters Itself within you, the higher your attainment will be. Ultimately, you won’t have a voice. Always, it will be Its voice speaking through you.
[1] 1 Corinthians 2:14
[2] John 14:10
[3] Philippians 4:13
In this class, Joel likens the world to the prodigal son, and foresees that the world is beginning to turn and make the journey back to the Father’s house. He calls on advanced Infinite Way students to prepare themselves to be ready to serve, emphasizing that when others come to us for teaching or for healing, what counts is not how much we know or can recite, but the degree to which we can go within, be at peace, draw forth the word of God, and let It perform Its work. We only develop the capacity to do this, he says, through meditation, and he reminds us that we have nothing of value to impart until we ourselves can show it forth.
In the spirit of that guidance from Joel, probably the best thing we can do as we work with this class in our study program is to strengthen and expand our practice of meditation.
Some of us will have no appetite for more reading and will want to simply focus on meditation. For others of us, reading something inspirational that reinforces the message of this class can be helpful to lift ourselves into a state where meditation comes more easily. If that is true for you, you might enjoy this beautiful excerpt from another of Joel’s classes. To view, print or download the excerpt, click/tap here.