1952 New Washington Series Joel S. Goldsmith 9A-B - The Mystical Union

Transcription

1 1952 New Washington Series Joel S. Goldsmith 9A-B - The Mystical Union Good evening friends. In the marriage ceremony there is something to the effect that those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder, and to me that is evidently a bad translation. As a matter of fact it s a bad statement. The truth of it is this that which God has joined together no man can put asunder. It would be an utter impossibility for some power to appear greater than the power of God. Otherwise that power would be God. Now then, that which God has joined together no man can put asunder. Personally I wouldn t want to be the man who tried. What has God joined together? The Master s teaching, I and the Father are one that s the divine union. That is the mystical marriage. That is the only real marriage there is. All others are symbolic of that one. I and the Father are one, and that relationship was established by God in the beginning not in 1890 something or 1900 and something. That relationship was established in the beginning. I and the Father; before Abraham was I am. Even before that human birth date I have existed in the bosom of the Father, one with the Father, and that relationship cannot be dissolved by time, space, person, place, or thing. That relationship is immutable, eternal, immortal, harmonious and it is in that relationship that I am told, Son, thou art ever with Me you know that word ever thou art ever with Me. Ever means before, now, and after. Ever, thou art ever with Me and all that I have is thine. Only in the unbreakable relationship that exists between I and the Father can I find Allness, Infinite being in none other. It is for this reason that in the message of The Infinite Way we do not declare truths like I am perfect, or I am spiritual, or I am the Son of God, nor do we make statements like You are perfect, or You spiritual, or You are the child of God, but our statements always begin with the word God. God is Infinite being, all-inclusive being; God is immortal being, eternal being. God is infinite perfection. God is Itself the infinity of being, the allinclusive infinity of being, and God is the nature and character of my individual being and of yours. In other words, God constitutes my being. God constitutes my life. God constitutes my mind, soul, spirit, and body. God is the very essence of my form. God is the activity, substance, law, and reality of my being God is all that, and it is because God is that and I am one with God that that Allness of God becomes the Allness and infinity of my individual being Only in the relationship of oneness do I find Allness. Separate and apart from God I am less than nothing, but I cannot be separate and apart from God since the relationship of oneness was created by God in the beginning. Therefore, if there is sin, disease, death, lack, limitation, discord, inharmony in my experience it cannot come as reality, or as an actual condition. It can only come through my acceptance my acceptance of a selfhood apart from God, of a personal power, a personal being, a personal selfhood. In that belief I can sin, be sick, and die. Even though I and the Father are one, and all that the Father hath is mine, nevertheless a sense of existence has sprung up in the world that is called the prodigal son. The son was the son of the rich father, and all that the father had belonged to that son, That son was joint-heir with his brother to all that the father had, but a sense of dissatisfaction evidently came, and he decided to go off by himself and be something of himself, and he left the father s house, and he wasted his

2 New Washington Series substance in riotous living. In other words, he used up his own personal intelligence, his personal powers, his personal wealth, and was left poverty stricken. We as human beings are that prodigal. We are those who think, or who have accepted the belief, that we have an identity of our own called Joel, Bill, or Mary, and therefore, that we have a health of our own, we have a wealth of our own, we have an intelligence of our own, and every day we re using them up, and as we get older we have less of the health, and less of the intelligence, and less of the memory, and less of the faculties, and so on, and so on, until we reach the grave. And all the time that we have accepted that false sense, none of it is true. We have never left the Father s house. The same man that went up to heaven came down from heaven. It s all the same man; he had never left heaven. The experience of the prodigal son we are told is an Adam or mortal experience or belief or dream which never has actual existence or reality. We have never left the Father s house, except in the belief that we are a selfhood of our own, that we have entity and identity of our own, separate and apart from God. And in the truth teaching we have learned this: The prodigal, in the last desperate situation turned his thought back to his Father s house, and even before he reached his Father s house his Father came out to greet him with the royal robe and jewelry. Symbolically we understand that when we reach that situation in which we realize that humanhood has no more power to benefit us, that human good has no more power to enrich us or heal us, that even the human love of mother and father or child is powerless to save our lives, then we have reached the bottom, and we are ready to return to the Father s house and say, Let s try God. The moment that the opportunity is given to us to turn to a truth teaching, to turn to a teaching of God as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, in that moment we have started back to the Father s house. And if we persist in the path, although for many of us, it s a long, long trek, but if we persist in it ultimately we do come to that place where we see the Father coming out to greet us with a purple robe and the jeweled ring. Now, the entire journey from the Father s house to the end of the human road takes place in our imagination, and so the return is completely one of thought, belief, imagination since the place that you and I are heading for that is the Father consciousness we are already there, but because of this sense of separation that has sprung up not separation. There has been no separation between Father and son, between Father and child that which God joined together has never been separated. We have never left the Father s house, but this sense of separation that has sprung up is now being overcome by us. We, with every book we read of a spiritual nature, with every treatment we give or receive, with every prayer or meditation, we are taking one more step back within our consciousness to the Father s house, to Divine Consciousness. Now, we have come far along the path until we come to this particular point where we find ourselves tonight first of all, reminding ourselves that that which God hath joined together there has never been a power that could put asunder, and therefore, the relationship of Father and child, which existed in the beginning before Abraham was, exists now. And in spite of all the beliefs to the contrary, in spite of all the religious teachings that would tell us that we are worms in the dust, that we are humans or mortals, or not fit to approach the hem of the robe, in spite of all of the mistaken concepts of God and man that have arisen in this human world, we here and now must ask ourselves can we accept the statement that that which God has joined together no power in heaven or on earth could put asunder, and therefore, that we have the right to say, I and the Father are one. Now we are told that this relationship is a trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, yet the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are one.

3 9A-2 - The Mystical Union 3 Let us now, as we did this afternoon, realize within our own being this Father, Son, and Holy Ghost relationship, and let us carry it through to its logical conclusion. The word I is too often used, unintentionally, in an egotistical sense. For instance I am spiritual, or I am perfect, or I am the child of God, and when we say that we are referring to a human being. We are referring to the Prodigal Son part of our being, and the Prodigal Son never was the son of his father. It was the Son that was the son of his Father. The prodigal was the sense of separation in the relationship. When we say, I am spiritual or I am perfect, we are, more often than not using the word I in an egotistical sense instead of in the sense of humility, in the sense of the recognition of our true relationship with God. It is best understood from the lips of the Master when he says, I can of my own self do nothing. If I speak of myself I bear witness to a lie. Now that I that he was referring to, that could do nothing of itself, and that was bearing witness to a lie was that prodigal sense of separation from God. But in another way he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Thou seest Me, thou seest the Father that sent me, for I and the Father are one. I and the Father are one, yet the Father is greater than I. And it is on this last statement that we want to ponder right now: The Father and I are one, yet the Father is greater that I. So I ask you close your eyes and somewhere deep down within you, to yourself say the word I and say it in that same respectful gentle sense that I m using it. I, not I, Joel, I. I God in the midst of me, or let me put it this way. Let me remind you of these statements of scripture: I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you hear that I? I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you walk through the waters you will not drown. I am with you. If you go through the fire, the flames will not kindle upon you. I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Lo, I am with you unto the end of the world. I want you to see this I, this I at the center of your being is God. Now if I say. I am spiritual, that s a lie, but if I say, I am Spirit, and I will never leave you Joel, I m talking about the I which is God talking to the I Joel, which is the Son, and yet which is one. I, the Father, and I Joel the Son is just one, but I the Father is greater than I, Joel, since I, the Father is at the center of my being, and It is expressing Itself as I, Joel. But I, Joel has nothing in and of itself. It has no powers. It has no wisdom. It has no spirituality. It has nothing, but all that the Father has I, Joel have, but I, Joel have it by virtue of my oneness with I, God, and it is because I, God and I, Joel are both standing here, one invisible and one visible, one called the Word, and the other called the Word made flesh, and it s in that relationship that I find my wholeness, my completeness, and my harmony. It s in that relationship that Jesus said, The kingdom of God is within you. Do you see this I way down here? I will never leave you nor forsake you, Joel. Whithersoever thou goest Joel, I will be with you; your people will be My people. Whithersoever thou gets buried I will get buried too. We ll go together throughout the end of time because we were bound together in an unbreakable relationship since before Abraham was. Now I bring this to you for a very deep purpose. Heretofore we have looked out in the world for our good, or we have expected our good to come to us either from a person or even from a God. Now we re going to give up all sense of

4 New Washington Series demonstrating something, because we re going to realize that this I that is at the center of our being, which is God, is that which multiplied the loaves and fishes through Jesus when that much food was necessary. That same I at the center of Moses brought forth manna from the sky for the Hebrews when they needed it. That same I in the midst of Elijah enabled him to wake up and find cakes backed on the stone, brought him a widow willing to share, brought him sparrows carrying food, birds carrying food ravens, ravens carrying food. That same I at the center of Eddie Rickenbacker made fish jump up out of the water into the boat, made birds come and sit on his head when they needed food, and made rain come out of the cloudless Pacific sky. You can t do that. I can t do that. I can. I in the midst of you am mighty. That which we are doing now is called communion. We are now communing with God. We are now communing with the I at the center of being, and that communion is the Holy Ghost, or the descent of the Holy Ghost, or the advent of the Holy Ghost. Whenever you commune with God the Holy Ghost is present, and therefore, I, the Father, I, the Son, and the Holy Ghost we are all one right here, and right now, where you are, in your communion with the Father within you, the relationship of Father, Child, and Holy Ghost is established, and if you need food, turn within and receive. Don t say it to God let God say to you, I am with thee and all that I have is thine, and if you are in any danger, commune with God within, and commune until you hear the Father say, Be not afraid. Those that be with us are more than those that be with them for we have the Lord God Almighty on our side. In our development of spiritual consciousness we come to the place where we are not dependent on outer circumstances or conditions or persons. We are not dependent on world conditions or world beliefs, nor are we the victims of them. Since we approach, at some time or other in our journey on The Infinite Way, we approach a place in consciousness where we learn to do what we are doing now commune directly with the Father. Sit in quiet communion, listening for the still, small voice till one of these days we realize, I and the Father are one but the Father is greater than I. He that is within me is greater than he that is in the world. And then one day we hear those wonderful words, I will never leave thee. Lo, I am with thee unto the end of the world. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That I is I the Father at the center of your being, and that I is God, infinite, omnipotent, immortal, eternal, and your wedding, your marriage, your oneness to That is so complete that all of the qualities and quantities of the Father are yours. I ask you to see this: that you are infinite; that you are absolutely and completely infinite in every way, in every manner, and to every degree, but that infinity is yours by virtue of the fact of your oneness with God since only God is infinite, and that infinity has been bestowed upon you as the gift of God, as the grace of God, as your relationship of Father and child if a child of God, then an heir; if an heir, then joint-heir with Christ to all of the heavenly riches. There is no limitation in God therefore there is no limitation in God s manifestation of Its own being in you. When you can realize that God can feed thousands through Jesus, that God can open Red Seas through Moses, then you can understand that God can do all things through you.

5 9A-2 - The Mystical Union 5 Only the price to be paid is this: there must be communion, there must be a conscious oneness with God. Not merely a statement, I and the Father are one and all the Father hath is mine, that will not do. There must be periods of communion in which you feel, as some of you are feeling this moment, that oneness, that sense of infinite good pouring out into you, and out from you, through you, coming from a source deep, deep, deep within you that you never knew existed. In this communion, and this is the real essence of the message of The Infinite Way, in this communion you re not only one with the Father, but you are consciously one with the Father, and you become conscious of the Presence down there within you saying to you, All is well. I am on the field. And each day of your life, your safety, your security, your health, and your wealth flow out into expression only because of this communion. In and of your self you cannot do it, and you cannot have it. Only because of this relationship and there must be a way made you must open out that way within your on being through communion, quiet communion, one in which you learn to say the word I, not with any sanctimonious or holy expression, but simply with the humble realization that that I is God, and that I which is God is feeding, maintaining, and sustaining the I which we call Joel because they re one in the same I. pause That is why I said to you the other day it isn t your food that sustains you. This I at the center of your being it s your consciousness really, the divine Consciousness, God, Spirit. It really imparts Its qualities even to the food you eat. Your muscles have no strength of their own. This I at the center of your being, this divine Consciousness or Spirit is really the strength of your muscles and of your bones. The strength isn t in the muscles or bones in and of themselves. The strength is in God animating the muscles and the bones. God, Spirit, the I is the animating principle of every organ and function of your body. It s the animating principle of all that concerns your everyday existence. It comprises the substance of your friendships, the substance of your family relationships. It maintains the integrity of your being and the integrity of your relationships with all other beings but only in proportion as you commune, and allow the depth of this to be released into expression. Then you can say, The divine Presence has gone before me to make the crooked places straight. I shall not fear what mortal man can do to me. Though my mother and my father forsake me, that I at the center of my being will uphold me, sustain me, maintain me. The Psalmist says Whether shall I flee from Thy Spirit? Lo, if I make my bed in hell, Thou art there. Only if you remember this that this that we are feeling right now at the center of our being will be with us no matter what hell of experience we go through hell or high water, fire, war, plague, or famine. This that we are feeling at the center of our being will go through it with us, and in going through it with us, It will dispel every sense of discord and inharmony. If it has to open Red Seas, It will. If It has to bring manna from the sky, It will. Only remember to look there for your salvation, for your salvation is not to be found anywhere else, not lo here, nor lo there, but the kingdom of God is within you, and unless you learn to do as we are doing now, find holy communion,

6 New Washington Series sacred communion, and secret communion with the Father, we will not find it coming forth into expression as health, wholeness, harmony, peace, joy, power, and dominion. Making statements won t do it, but five minutes, ten minutes of the relationship that we are now experiencing with God will work wonders in our outer world. After such an experience as we are having, if you went out of here and somebody offered you a ticket to a prize fight or a ball game or a midnight movie, I think your answer would be, No, I have a pleasure that the world knows nothing of, and your friend might think you re crazy because they wouldn t see what it is that you have hidden away that s not visible to them, that would be all the pleasure you ll need for the rest of this night. In the same way, when the world offers us food or drink or pleasures or profits, we have the right to remember this right here and now we have discovered a Meat that the world knows not and you can say to the whole world, I have a meat that ye know not of. I m fed from within. And when the world talks of being in danger, I ask you, very humbly, because I m spending a lifetime at this now, I ask you to remember this: that safety and security are not to be found in bomb shelters. Safety and security is not to be found in government bonds or common stocks or bank accounts. Safety and security is only to be found in this communion in the secret place of the most High. We are told that God shall be a fortress for us a hiding place. We ve just discovered God at the center of our own being. There is our fortress. There is our hiding place from, if necessary, atomic bombs or any other kind, but that same sanctuary, that same fortress, that same pavilion in which we are to hide, which is the secret place of the most High, is our immunity from sin, disease, death, lack, and limitation. We no longer are dependent on the outer world. Oh, we will avail ourselves of it in the daily course. Our dependence will not be on it. We will still use dollar bills for exchange, but we will no longer think of dollar bills as our supply, because if we have found God at the center of our being, we have found our supply. We will still read Bibles, but we will know that our salvation does not lie in the book called a Bible, but the word of God which we found in the book. The word of God will be our salvation not the book in which the word is written. Our dependence and reliance will not be on external things, but on That which we have felt within our own being here tonight, the stirring of God, the feeling, the sense of the Presence. That will be our fortress. Let the bombs fly outside if we are hidden in the secret place of the most High. Let panics and depressions and whatnot fly if we are hid with Christ in God, if we live and move and have our being in divine Consciousness, if we dwell forever in the house of the Lord, in the consciousness of God s presence. You see, our entire lives safety, security, peace, harmony, health, and wholeness, all of these are derived from one place our communion with the Father within. Our communion with the Father within becomes the shelter, the tent, the dwelling place, the fortress, the rock, the pavilion. It becomes our medicine too. It becomes our surgery too, and it becomes our bone setter also. Our communion becomes all of that to us. The Father which speaketh to us in secret, shouts from the housetop in demonstration. That which we receive in the silence, we show forth in the visible world as demonstration. We receive it in secret but we reveal it openly like the heavens show forth the glory of God. The earth shows forth His handiwork. Yes,

7 9A-2 - The Mystical Union 7 the heavens and the earth stand still, and the whole glory of God is revealed in heaven and in earth. What God has done in secret is made manifest in the outer. We no longer declare, I am well, I am spiritual, I am rich, I am perfect, but as we walk up and down the street, the happiness and the glow of health and the evident wealth is shown forth without a single word from our lips. We don t even have to say it to ourselves. We can go in the mirror and find it looking right back at us. The harmony of God appears on earth as the harmony of man. It s still the harmony of God made evident and visible as the harmony of man since these are one. That is our indestructible relationship: I and the Father are one, and that relationship no man, no set of circumstances or conditions can ever put asunder. It becomes necessary for us however to remember that, because with every breath we breathe the world is shouting at us, You have no God. You have become separate from God. The world has no God. The world is Godless. There is no salvation on earth from God. All salvation lies in atomic warfare or something else. So with every breath we refute with the realization, What could ever dissolve the relationship that God established in the beginning before Abraham was of one? How can God become separated from the skies, and the oceans, and the earth? And more so, how could God become separated from the highest creation of all the sons and daughters of God? Now, as you study The First San Francisco Lecture Series which is my text book on meditation, you will see why I place such stress on it, on the book, and on the practice of meditation itself, since it must lead us to where we have been tonight, to that place of quiet, silent, communion in which we find ourselves consciously so one with the Father that all sense of personal selfhood drops away and God is revealed. Well, in a few minutes we re going to have an hour of prayer, so until then, thank you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you without all of the capacities, activities, nature, necessary to your experience and unfoldment, but do you see how there must be an opening of consciousness to that I that wishes to express Itself; that seeks to express Itself through us? Do you see why, if you will now go back through your days, and see how many of your days you have attempted your work, from rising in the morning without making room for this divine Presence to fill your soul, mind, and body, and purse? Do you see how many times you ve gotten up in the morning and began the day with I have much to do. I am busy. I have no time to stop now, I will meditate later, you ve filled it with this I that shuts out the I that stands there and says, Open unto Me. Let Me in and I will sup with you, yes, breakfast with you too, and lunch. I will never leave you comfortless. I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you walk through the waters, you will not drown. If you go through the fire, the flames will not kindle upon you. I will never leave you nor forsake you but do you not see how necessary it is that we begin our days in this self abdication, opening ourselves to that real I that can walk with us through the flames, as the three Hebrews going through the fiery furnace found the fourth man there the Christ. So, in every experience of our lives, we will find that other one, that Christ, only however, as we open ourselves in this humble, gentle way. It is not a way of effort. It is not a way of strife. There s no mental effort necessary. There s not a lot of hard thinking necessary. On the contrary. It s just the ability to be still, and all of a sudden feel that divine Presence, that assurance whithersoever thou goest, I will go, Thy people will be My people.

8 New Washington Series Be not afraid. It is I. You see that when you say, Oh, error isn t power, or Oh, God is all power, do you see why so seldom anything happens? It is not the words that you speak that have power. It is the word that you hear. It is the sense or feeling that you attain within you that is power. Moses couldn t stand at the Red Sea and say, Open up. The Red Sea would have laughed at him, but the power of God working through Moses would open the Red Sea for him or for you. Elijah couldn t ask the ravens to come and bring him food, nor could he ask a widow to share her last crust with him, but God speaking through Elijah could. Jesus had no power to multiply loaves and fishes. You ll notice in the experience of the Master that he lifted his eyes to the Father, and the loaves and fishes were multiplied. He opened his consciousness to the Father. And do you remember standing at the tomb of Lazarus, he said, I don t need to pray. As a matter of fact I guess praying won t do much good here, but the Father, the Father knoweth, and the Father through Jesus said, Come forth, Lazarus. Jesus knew that be couldn t say, Come forth, Lazarus and make anything happen only the Father, using the voice of the Master, and so he opened his consciousness standing there at the tomb and let the Father come through. We only let the Father come into our experience through these moments of divine grace, these moments of quiet, peaceful awareness, listening, receptivity. It is far better to leave all of our work, and all of our responsibilities for half hour, a quarter of an hour, three quarters of an hour oh, it makes no difference how time presses and how much has to be done. It will be done so much more quickly and efficiently if the Father does it. Never give into the belief that you haven t time for this, or that you haven t time for it early in the morning. You have. You have time for it at any time that you elect. Why start the day with that word I as if I, Joel had much to do, much to accomplish, and not much time to do it in, when in this silent meditation you will receive the assurance that I am with you. My word will be in your mouth. My presence will go before you to open doors, to be the smile on the face of those who greet us, only be still, be still and let this Presence take over. There are no deep truths that will change your world. There is no deep metaphysics to do miracles for you only the presence of God, and the presence of God will do for you what it did for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elijah. Elisha, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, John. (a long pause) Have you ever stopped to think what a marvelous thing happened on earth when Mrs. Eddy sent three thousand churches into existence throughout the world teaching the presence and power of God even to the healing of disease? Did you ever think what a marvelous thing happened when Myrtle Fillmore was enabled to turn thousands of centers all over the world, tens of thousands, millions of pieces of literature out into the world preaching the gospel of God at hand? Did you ever stop to think that neither of these women could have done such a thing? Neither had the capacity to do such a thing, only as they were moved by the Spirit of God, by the presence of God. There is no limitation in our experience if we open ourselves daily to the inflow of the Spirit and the mind of God. Then our lives become infinite activities far greater than we as humans would be capable of.

9 9A-2 - The Mystical Union 9 Let us, as we have today dedicated ourselves soul, mind, body, spirit, and purse to God, surrendered ourselves that this divine Presence would fill us let us repeat that every day. If necessary, wake up in the morning and do it before getting out of bed. It only takes a minute or two or three, but it changes the complexion of the whole day. Don t wait until noon. So much of your day is over by then. Do it early. Do it often. Then repeat it later in the day. Never forget that the greater degree of our consecration of ourselves to God, the greater degree of God-power comes into our experience. Thank you, and thank you.