Infinite Way Letter
February 1955
By Joel Goldsmith
Part 1 of 4
Grace
There is an area of consciousness through which you are instantly one with God, and with all spiritual being and creation, and through which you find instantly available all forms of good. This has been described as a Sea of Spirit, and it is as well the universal or divine Soul. In achieving conscious contact with this Sea of Spirit (or the Father within) you find divine Love pouring Itself into expression, so that you no longer live by personal effort alone, but by Grace. Rather than to seek your good from persons or things, tap this universal Soul and become a beholder as It pours forth as ideas, manifest as the human forms of good so necessary to your present experience. It is only as you learn to look to this Infinite Invisible that you begin to understand the nature of Grace.
Instead of seeking or desiring something already existing as form or effect, learn to turn within and let your good unfold from this divine Source, the Infinite Unseen. Let the practitioner and teacher seek activity from this inner source let the business and professional man look to the divine within. Let the sick and the sinner seek healing and perfection from within. Be ever alert, expectant of Consciousness unfolding as new and richer and lovelier forms of good, and you will experience the abundance of life—by Grace. To understand that your Soul is the eternal storehouse of all good is permitting the activity of the Christ to function in your experience through Grace.
What is “the Father”? The Father is universal Consciousness; the Substance of all form; divine Mind acting as your mind and manifesting as limitless ideas; immortal Life appearing as the harmonies of individual life. Seek everything in life from the kingdom within. Draw your good from the infinity of your own being. Touch that center, the kingdom within, and let the Father reveal your heritage. This is to live by Grace.
Grace is the gift of God. The Children of God live by Grace: we are heirs—“Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” The Father reveals, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine,” grace may be summed up as a release from all human desires in the actual understanding and achievement of spiritual realities.
Most men and women have a measure of faith that there is a God, a divine Power. However, to some there comes a conviction (or actual realization of God) which is termed an experience of Christ, after which their lives are lived by Grace. This spiritual experience is also known as illumination, or rebirth. In mystical literature it is sometimes spoken of as Cosmic Consciousness or Christ Consciousness. Those who have attained this Light have no further “problems” of existence, since they are fed, clothed and housed from the infinite inner Fountain of Life we call Christ.
The secret of Grace is contact with the Infinite Invisible, the universal center of being within you. The earnest seeking of the realization of the kingdom of God, through reading and studying inspirational literature and scripture, and through frequent pondering and meditating of God and God’s creation (leading to actual communion with the Father within) brings to your consciousness the touch of the Christ. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.” This leads to an awareness (sometimes, even a Voice) and some day you will know that “…he performeth the thing that is appointed for me,” and Grace will have taken over in your life. This moment of grace cannot be adequately described, since it appears in different ways to different people, but all who have received this Light understand the experience of the illuminated of all the ages.
While the bibles of the miraculous experiences of the true stories of the miraculous experiences of the illumined, the activity of the Christ, resulting in living by Grace, is by no means limited to the past. More than ever before, untold numbers of men and women have experienced the Christ, and are now living lives of beauty, health, harmony and joy—by Grace. With Truth now available to all who can read, spiritual illumination is a possibility to every earnest seeker. To live “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,” it is only necessary to earnestly desire a knowledge of God. “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.” The moment you receive the realization of the Father within, the moment you “feel” the atmosphere of Love, which is an inner awareness of the Presence, that is the beginning of your life by Grace.
End Part 1