1960 Maui Work
Tape 368 Side 1
Starting The Contemplative Life

By Joel Goldsmith
Part 4 of 5

So it is, then, that in this moment when you realize that God’s grace is very much like the sun hanging in the sky – it’s there; it’s available for everyone, even though temporarily there may be clouds hiding it, nevertheless it’s there. Your very recognition of this, and your lack of trying to get God to do something, your ability to refrain from trying to entreat God or beg God or influence God or bribe God, your very act of refraining itself brings the action of God into your experience.
The very moment you can sit back and realize, God is – not because of me, but actually in spite of me, still God is. And God is closer to me than breathing, the place whereon I stand is holy ground, and where the presence of the Lord is there is freedom and fulfillment. Therefore, in that moment when we learn to refrain from taking heaven by storm; in that moment when we are able to sit back in the realization, “Where I am, God is,” and be still, we have opened the way in our own consciousness for the Omnipresence which is already there to make Itself manifest, evident in our experience.
The error always has been trying to influence God: God go out there and destroy our enemies; God go out there and bring in to me my enemies’ possessions. All of this attempt to personalize God, or to get God to do something for somebody is an inability to understand that God is Spirit! That very statement itself is a freeing one and a healing one: “God is Spirit” – because there’s nothing you can do about moving a Spirit, or influencing it, or bribing it. There’s nothing to do but let It envelop you; let It pick you up; let It dominate you; let Its will be done in you.
Then you find that you have made yourself a transparency through which the Light can shine – but the Light that is already present within you, not a light that you gain from books, or worships, or teachers, but a Light that books or worships or teachers can reveal to you as having existence within you.
That’s the teacher’s function, is to unveil the Light that already constitutes your innermost Being, your innermost Self, your innermost Identity. The teacher’s function and the teaching’s function is to unveil the presence of the Spirit of God that is within you so that you can eventually say, “Thank you, Father. I and the Father are one.”
It is true, what the Father has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you; I will be with you to the end of the world,” and the teacher unveils this within you, reveals to you the Presence that is saying to you from within your own being: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; I will be with thee unto the end of the world.”
Therefore, the Master says, “He knoweth your need before you do; it is His good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Therefore, you sit back in this realization: the Father is within me, the Kingdom of God is within me; it is Its function to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to preach the gospel, to feed the hungry, to forgive the sinners. This Presence that is within you, this is Its function.
It has never left you. It never will leave you. You could change your religion seven times over, but that Presence would still be with you. You could live in a place where they never heard of a church, and that Presence would still be with you. It will never leave you nor forsake you!
And remember this. It is not dependent on anything. It is not even dependent on your having a right thought. It is always there, but your coming into the benefits of It is dependent only on your knowing this truth. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
You are the one who must learn to be relaxed in this recognition that there is this within you that is forever saying to you: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee; I have come, not to do my own will, but the Will of my Father that sent me; I have come to heal the sick, raise the dead, feed the hungry, forgive the sinners, and I’m closer to you than breathing.”
And as you realize that, and then live morning, noon and night in that realization, you find that gradually you receive confirmation from within yourself that this is true. You receive an assurance from within. Actually the Voice speaks to you, whether it speaks audibly or not is of no importance. As long as in one way or another you feel an inner assurance that you’re living by grace – not by might, not by power, not by force but by grace – by a divine grace that operates just as freely as the incoming or outgoing tides, or the rising or the setting of the sun – just as painlessly.
It isn’t a matter of earning it or deserving it. As humans, we can never earn or deserve the grace of God. That is why we are told that as humans, we must die daily, and we must be reborn of the Spirit. So as humans, we’re not going to earn it or deserve it. But the truth is that as Children of God, we are heirs to it! And all we have to do is recognize our Sonship; all we have to do is recognize this.
So you’ll find that as you ponder these basic truths, as you learn to come into a state of mind, a state of consciousness, that has always an assurance that there is an inner Presence, an inner Power, an inner Grace, and just relax in It, you’ll find that It does your thinking for you, It does your directing. It does your enlightening. It goes before you to make the crooked places straight. It is a healing influence in mind and body. It is a supplying Presence, but It does it without any help from us – just our ability to relax in It!
He leadeth me into green pastures, beside still waters. He maketh me to lie down. It’s always He . . . He performeth that which is given me to do. Not “I” . . . He! He perfecteth that which concerneth me.
But do you not see that He can’t do it if we take the reins and run away? If we take thought for what we shall eat or what we shall drink or wherewithal we shall be clothed. We’re leaving no room for any He. It’s all “me,” the very “me” that should be dying daily in order that “I” can be reborn.

End Part 4