1950 First Portland Series

Tape 5 Side 1

Atmosphere of God

By Joel Goldsmith

Part 4 of 5

The Master’s teaching was not to save us from having to feed ourselves or heal ourselves, but to show forth a principle of life. If our work is conducted in a Christly manner, we will heal those who come to us, but we will at the same time offer them the opportunity of learning the principle of healing so that no healings in the future will be necessary, or less and less of healing. Because it is true—and this I’m sure that everyone in this room has witnessed—that as you go on in your truth studies, problems become fewer and of lesser intensity. That is virtually true with ninety-nine percent of truth students. They do not have as many problems; they do not have as serious problems as they had before they came to truth. They shouldn’t if they are really learning a spiritual system of life. And it is so. If we learn this principle, if we seek the principle itself, then the problems disappear of their own accord, without even specific treatment or specific work.

If however, we keep on going to practitioners and heaven knows, I was in a position to watch it for years. How the telephone bell rings, “Will you give me some help here.” And then, “Oh, it was beautiful. I will mail you a check. Thank you.” And then not hearing again until, “Oh, will you give me some help? Another problem….” And what was happening in between? Oh, they were just waiting between one problem and the other.

That is not the function of this work. That is not the function of the leaders of these centers, just to be continuous healers of the same individuals. Yes, continuous healers, certainly: Because as everyone receives one or two healings, it should result in their bringing another two or three into the work. And then these new ones should have the benefit of the healing and the older ones should go on and learn more and more of the principle until they, in turn, become healers. Not necessarily professional healers, that isn’t necessary.

As a matter of fact, the day should come, and we in The Infinite Way are trying to bring that day closer when there will be no professional practitioners. We, in our work, are not providing for professional practitioners. We are trying to see that every individual who becomes a student of the books and of the classes learns enough of the principle to do their own healing work and that for their friends and relatives who seek it. And so in time, even the businessmen should be healers. They should have at least an hour a day set aside in their offices or after office or before office to do healing work for those who require it, since God is no respecter of persons.

This principle can’t withhold itself from anybody. It makes no difference what your background may have been: businessman or housewife, Jew, gentile, protestant, common, unclean, saint, sinner: it makes no difference. Whatever it is is wiped out in the realization of the principle that I am the light of the world. And I’m the light of the world, not through any power of my own holiness or my own understanding, but by virtue of the fact that God is the Spirit, the law, the divine Presence operating in my consciousness. And I can trust that God, I can trust that consciousness to perform Its own miracles. I of my own self can do nothing, the Father within me, He doeth the works … I can do all things through Christ … I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me.

And now we come to a mystery of mysteries. We have spoken, up to now of the I as God, and now we are going to speak of the I as devil. For be assured that the I is a devil. Yes, the I is a devil. I, Joel, and there I’m in trouble, I, Joel. The moment there is an I, Joel, there is going to be rent day, and tomorrow’s meal time is coming around, and somebody’s got to worry for poor little Joel. And usually it is Joel who does the worrying. Oh yes, there is a personal sense of self which is a devil, and the moment it demands attention, the moment, I demand attention, that I is the devil. The moment I need rent or clothing or transportation or vacation that I is the devil, and I can assure you of this: it will never be spiritual, it will never be immortal; sooner or later it’s going to have to learn to die daily. It’s going to have to die very thoroughly, too; a very complete death.

There is this I, which we have been taught is our personal selfhood; the I which must be catered to, which sometimes gets lonesome, and then demonstrates companionship—sometimes not too good. And it demonstrates supply and sometimes too much of it for its own good. This personal I can do all things that the real I or God can do, just like, you remember, the magicians of old could do almost anything that Moses could do. Yes, the little I can fool you into believing that it is God, that it is spiritual, that it is the Son of God. It can do all things that the real I can do, except one: it can’t live forever. Someday, that little I must learn to die daily. Someday, we must come to a point in our development where we say, “I am through demonstrating. I am through seeking something for myself. I’m going to realize that the I of me being God, it maintains and sustains Itself and I can live now without taking any further thought about I.”

When we successfully do that, we have died daily. We have then been reborn of the Spirit and the I that comes forth then is found to be a Self-maintaining and a Self-sustaining I. That brings us right up to the teaching of Paul which every one of us would do well to try to understand spiritually. Now listen to it: I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. Just think, every time some demand were made on you personally, some demand that you felt you could not fulfill, or perhaps didn’t see any reason to fulfill. And then you were to reverse that with, “Now wait a minute. That I of me is not being called on to fulfill it, but rather the Christ that liveth as me, It fulfills it.”

Oh, let us illustrate that with a feeding by the Master. Supposing Jesus felt that he were called upon to feed the multitude. Could he have fed them? No, he had no storehouses and he had no barns. He had no treasure laid up to draw upon. And so he knew I can of my own self do nothing, the Father within me will have to do this. Why he looked up to the Father and prayed.

Now, supposing a demand were made on us that we felt was just too much for us or too much to expect of us or more than we could fulfill. Watch how simple it is when you realize, “Wait a minute, that demand was never made on me as person; that demand was made on me as Christ, on the Father within, on the Christ of my being. It can fulfill anything and everything to the feeding of four thousand or five thousand or seven thousand, and women and children, too.”

Yes, supposing these calls are made upon us for healings and your first reaction is, “Why call on me? I haven’t enough understanding for that. I can’t do that. Oh, I haven’t done enough healing work for that, I’m going to send you down town to my practitioner.” No. If you only remember that no practitioner can help or heal even if his name were Jesus Christ. And remember that it’s the Christ that lives in me or as me, that does the work. Then you remember that the Christ of you is sufficient unto every case that you’re called upon. You will never be called on for anything more than you can fulfill. Why? The same Christ of you is calling upon you. There is only one intelligence; It wouldn’t make a demand on you that you couldn’t fulfill.

Mortal mind will never call on you for a spiritual healing, you may rest assured of that. It will get itself wiped out. And that’s the last thing in the world it wants. When a call is made on you, it is the spiritual center of somebody that is talking through them. It is the Christ of their being seeking to find outlet. And so, the Christ of their being is calling unto the Christ of your being and you need not fear to answer. Just start off with the realization, “Well thank you Father that I, Joel, am not being called on for anything like this. But the Iwhich I am, the Christ which liveth as me, that infinite power which is God, It can do all things. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

End Part 4