Infinite Way Letter
May 1955
By Joel Goldsmith
Part 3 of 6
One Power – continued

There is no power in effect. There is no power in man-made thought or thing. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thought than your thoughts.” However, if we are not spiritually alert, we can be made to accept any kind of false teaching or propaganda if it is thrust upon us frequently and forcefully enough. Through the mass hypnotism of the press and radio we have all been victims of propaganda of one sort or another, but none of that could reach us if we but accepted the teaching that God, the Infinite Invisible, is the only Power
In our frantic modern day race for supremacy in armaments and material strength it becomes necessary to stop and ask ourselves: Where does all this end? Is superiority and bigness all there is to power? “…for by strength shall no man prevail….Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s….Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” Those who are materially minded have only the “arm of flesh,” but those who recognize God as the only Power can live without fear, and let the external power become as big as it wants. Whether it is a big fever, a big lack, or a big bomb, it is only the “arm of flesh,” but we have that which is Invisible. We have that which cannot be touched, for “No weapon that is formed against thee shall proper….” Just as David went forth to meet Goliath, armed only in faith in God, so can we meet any suggestion of inharmony by our recognition of the one Power.
Out of the teachings of two powers come the philosophies that cause men to disagree among themselves. There is no answer to their questions because they are working with an erroneous premise—good and evil. Always good and evil are wrestling with each other, and what a struggle there is until you can get close to that power of good and get it to help you. But watch what happens when you relinquish the belief in two powers and rest in the consciousness of the Christ. Then it is that you can understand the Master when He said, “Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” The Master proved His ministry by saying, “Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” The Master submitted to the crucifixion in order to prove there is no power even in death. And He also taught, “…all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
The mystics of the world, whether Krishna of India, Lao Tzu of China, Jesus of Nazareth, or John of Patmos, all have given us the revelation that God is One. The Hebrew mystics knew this truth when they taught, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” Throughout scripture you will find, over and over again, the assurances of God’s love for His Children: “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine….Even every one that is called by my name: for I have formed him; yea, I have made him….Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior….I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God…and who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.” And so, again and again, it is revealed that God is one God; that God is one Power.
“They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit….Who hath formed a God, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?” Each of us has made an image of God: one looks at it and sees Buddha, another sees Jesus. Each has formed a concept of what he thinks God is, and then begins to worship and pray to that concept. And all the time God is saying, “Only I am God, not your concept. Only I, the Invisible, am God—that alone is God.” And so it is that we must stop making images in our minds, stop picturing what God must be like and trust the unformed Invisible that penetrates and interpenetrates all being.
Understand that “the kingdom of God is within you.” Understand that “the place where thou standest is holy ground,” and even if it seems, at the moment, to be in hell or in the valley of the shadow of death, God is right there with you. We must cease this nonsensical belief in two powers, this clinging to a belief in a God that punishes and rewards, a God that is present when we experience a healing, and absent when we do not experience the healing we expect. God is never absent from us except in our convictions and fears that there are two powers, and our convictions and fears of other powers which we have set up in our own minds. We not only fear them—we sometimes fear God!
End Part 3