1950 First Portland

Tape 4 Side 1

The Christ

By Joel Goldsmith
Part 3 of 5
Now, I’m going to go to the third step along the way of scripture and show you that this meat that I have within, or water or wine or resurrection, was, as Jesus called it, even before Abraham. It was not a new dispensation given to the world by a man named Jesus. It was not a new teaching; it was an ancient teaching; so ancient that he said, before Abraham was, and Abraham was the Father of the Hebrews, the originators, so to be before Abraham is to be even before there was a Hebrew race to know about it. And so, I’m going to take you now on a little journey through a part of our Bible and show you how universal this truth is about the meat that I have and the wine and the water that I have within me, and show you how the Bible reveals it as a universal law and truth about you and about me.
We will begin with Moses. Moses is a shepherd. Moses is almost an outcast. Remember, he killed a man, ran away from home, became a shepherd, and for many, many years he was out on those hills. And then one day—and I suppose that all those years he had been pondering this idea of God and undoubtedly, he had been worshipping the one God of the Hebrews, and that one God in those days was known as Ihram or Jehovah, and I suppose that in his worshipping of that God, he did as the Hebrews did then, and as the Hebrews do now, and most of the Christians: think of it as something out here or out there—anyhow, as something separate and apart from our own being. And then came that day of miracles when Moses realized, “I Am that I Am. I am He.” Oh, that changed the whole picture. No longer was he worshipping a God outside, but all of a sudden he recognizes It’s right here—I am It. That I in the center of me, that’s It. This is God and man right here.
And he changes and from just a man on the hills, a shepherd, Moses is now a leader of the Hebrew people. He is the one chosen to set the Hebrews free. What made that great change? Just the realization that God wasn’t up on a cloud. God wasn’t something separate or apart, but right here, I Am that I Am. And so Moses, in due course of events, begins to take the Hebrew people out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of bondage, out of ignorance. And the moment he does that, he runs into the usual difficulties that everyone has when they start to lift up or elevate the human race. They run into prejudice, they run into difficulty, they run into lack of supply, and all kinds of things beset them—enemies from every side.
But now notice the great thing that happens to Moses: at a time when it was necessary, a pillar of cloud appears to protect them. Out of where? Nowhere, it just happens though. At night a pillar of fire appears. Out of where? Nowhere, it just happens though—a pillar of fire—that’s all we know about it. They get out in the desert, they’re hungry and there’s no food and manna falls from the skies. You know better than that. Water from a rock? You know, as you begin to understand scripture from a spiritual standpoint, you’ll see what’s happening: The moment Moses knows that the kingdom of God is within him, that I am the center where the good of God is flowing through, that good begins to flow through in the form necessary to my unfoldment at a given moment. And if my need is for a pillar of cloud, that’s what comes. If my need is for a fire, a light, it comes; if it is for food, it comes; if it is for clothing it comes. What is it that’s coming and where is it coming from?
I have meat ye know not of. It’s coming from my divine consciousness, or rather from my conscious awareness of my divine consciousness. Now it begins to flow out and it appears to be flowing as manna from the sky or as money from patients or from students. It isn’t that at all. It’s my divine idea of Sonship becoming manifest out here in this world. If you took away this source of revenue, it would immediately open up over here as another source of revenue. If you took me out of the old business world, it would come through the practice. If you took me out of the practice, it would come through teaching. If you took me out of teaching, how do I know—it probably would be found growing on apple trees. One thing is certain, so long as I know that the kingdom of God is within me, I cannot be separated from my good.
And Moses discovered that great secret: I Am that I Am and in knowing that, the infinity of God appeared to Moses and to his Hebrew people, so that one with God was a majority. He was the only one who knew his true identity. And yet he could feed those multitudes of ignorant Hebrews: spiritually ignorant as well as culturally ignorant. And he could feed them and clothe them and house them, through his conscious awareness of his oneness with God.
Well, let’s go on a little further and come to our friend Elijah. Elijah has a very interesting experience. The Hebrews had returned to worshipping Baal. They had become idolaters again. The Hebrews had been in and out of that business throughout all times and I don’t mean by Hebrews just people who belong to the Jewish faith. We are all Hebrews, everybody is a Hebrew who gets in and out of trouble because of their lack of understanding of their true identity. These Hebrews had wandered away from the one God, away from the realization of where and what and who God is, and they began persecuting their rabbi’s, their priests, and Elijah tells us they were all killed except him, and these people were out chasing him to kill him too.
A very strange thing happens to Elijah out in the hills: He wakes up and finds that the angel of the Lord had baked a cake for him on the stones. He finds in the next verse that God, or the angel of the Lord, had sent food to him. He finds a little later, ravens coming, bringing food to him to feed him. He finds a poor widow coming to bring food to him. He finds a cruse of oil flowing and flowing without ever being empty. And in the terminology of the Bible, it happens this way: Once it is the Lord that did this to him, and the next time it is the voice of the Lord, and then the angel of the Lord, and finally the still small voice. What do all of those passages mean and what do all those terms mean? Lord, angel of the Lord, word of the Lord, the still small voice. They mean the same thing, don’t they? They mean that his consciousness of truth, his conscious awareness of his oneness with God appeared as his need. And in the end do you know how it appeared? He was told that God had saved out a remnant of seven thousand of those who had not bowed their knees to Baal. And he tells him where to go and find his congregation.

End Part 3