1959 San Diego Special Class
Tape 269 Side 1

The Nature of God
By Joel Goldsmith
Part 1 of 5

Good morning! Yesterday I brought to your attention the fact that this class is really a God-miracle, and what you experienced was another proof of that miracle because for the first time in the entire class experience of over 12 years, our work went through two solid hours without even a stop to breathe or walk or rest, and that has never before happened. Also, it will interest you to know that many of our classes consist of only one-hour sessions and yet ours was a two-hour session and one that went straight through without interruption, and you were all quiet enough so that it did not disturb whatever it was that was going on in me. This is a miracle. This is a miracle. There are very few who can sit even for one hour in complete peace, and although our students have proven that they can, we have never tested them for two straight hours as we were tested yesterday. So that I again say to you that something is taking place in this class work that at this moment is not visible to us about which we have no knowledge, but which will in due time be made evident to us.
In other words, God assembled this class. God is giving this class, and the activity of God must result in what to human sense would be miracles. Of course, there are no miracles to God – it’s the normal, natural, spiritual way of God – but to our limited sense, every spiritual miracle is a miracle, is marvelous, is wonderful and awe-inspiring. Therefore, let me ask you to accept the fact that you are not merely participating in an Infinite Way class but, rather, that in some way we do not yet know, you are participating in a direct activity of God under God’s guidance and direction and protection, and that out of this experience, each one of us who has been led to the experience will find the reason that we have been brought to the class at this time.
Now, yesterday you will remember that we touched briefly on the nature of God. I am going to touch on that again because without the correct understanding of the nature of God, none of the principles of The Infinite Way will ever be clear to you nor will you rightfully understand how they operate or why. No one can ever understand this message of The Infinite Way unless they know the nature of God as it has been revealed in this work. The nature of God is nothing like what the human race has ever believed. It is for this reason that with the exception of a few chosen souls, no one in seventeen hundred years who has gone to church to pray has ever prayed to God. They have prayed to a concept of God. It may have been their own concept of God; it may have been their church’s concept of God, but it was never God. Of that you may be sure by this: There has never been a prayer to God that has not been instantaneously answered. It would be an impossibility to reach God and not instantly receive the answer. When we do not receive answers to prayer, it is because, as we were taught in Scripture, ye have not prayed aright. Or, as Paul said, this God whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Now, the true God of whom we read in Scripture, it is said, to know Him aright is life eternal. This true God, if you know him aright, you have attained your entire life’s demonstration, and you have no other demonstration to make. To know God aright is the demonstration of life eternal. That must mean life harmonious, life abundant. Therefore, you may assume that until spiritual harmony begins to unfold in your experience, that you do not yet know God aright, and that you are not praying aright. We need not concern ourselves about praying aright because when you know the nature of God, when you know God aright, it brings with it the understanding of how to pray.
Now, to begin with, God has nothing to give you, and there is no use of going to God for anything. If you will think for a moment of the sun in the sky, you will realize that the sun is shining and that from the sun there emanates warmth and light. And now, how would you feel if someone told you to pray for warmth or light? Or, supposing that it were night time and the sun had gone to a different quarter of the world and someone would ask you to pray for the sun to shine now. Now, you cannot pray for impossibility nor can you receive impossibilities. The sun cannot shine at night where you are at night if all of the greatest souls in the world were to pray for it at once. In other words, it cannot change its course because in the beginning before Abraham was, God set the course for the movement of the sun, the earth, the planets and all that concerns it, and you can never change this. In the same way, you cannot pray that your orange trees produce roses because you like roses more than orange trees or oranges. You cannot pray that two times two be other than four even if sometimes it might save a friend or relative from going to jail if you could just fix their books for them, but you can’t.
You cannot pray to God to change the orbit or activity of God’s work or world. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. To try to enlighten God as to your needs is foolishness for God is the all-intelligence of this universe. God is the creative principle, the maintaining and sustaining principle, and who would dare believe that their knowledge so far transcends God’s that they would dare tell God I need rent on Saturday, or I need health, or I need supply, or I need companionship. God being the infinite power of this universe cannot be influenced. Therefore, anyone who believes that their prayers will influence God to send forth health, harmony, wholeness, completeness, companionship, or supply to anyone has little understanding of the nature of that great infinite divine intelligence and divine love which God is.
God cannot be influenced. God cannot be bribed. There are still those who believe that if they tithe it will cause God to do something for them. This is heresy. Tithing is one of the most wonderful experiences that ever can come into the human life. Any individual who has ever been led to tithe – that is to set aside a proportion of their earnings or income for an impersonal purpose, whether for spiritual, whether for church, whether for benevolence – knows that there is no greater blessing to be enjoyed on earth – but not because it induces God to do anything for us, but because it releases us from the belief that we need a hundred percent of what comes to us and because it releases us from the selfishness that makes us believe that we do not owe divine love to our neighbor, that we do not owe a debt to our neighbor, even when our neighbor is an enemy.
End Part 1