1956 Barbizon Plaza Private Class for “25”

Joel S. Goldsmith

154B – Contemplative Meditation 3/4

Can your understanding or mine save anybody or heal anybody? No. Only God can raise up. The same Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, the same Spirit that raised up Christ Jesus will quicken also your mortal bodies. Be still and let the Spirit of God descend upon me.

The first step in a meditation should be this contemplative step. Not trying to blank the mind, because it’s impossible. Nor trying to shut off thought. It isn’t possible. But being very quiet, very still, and contemplating some facet of truth. Be still. That’s the first step. Be still and know. That’s the second step. Be still and contemplate that I am God. I…I am God? Yes, I am power. I am is presence. I am is the law. I is the law, cause. Know that I am God. I am is God. I am is power. I am power. I am law. I am cause. Be still and know this.

I am is “nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet.” I am is here, where I am. I am never except where I am. I am never absent from where I am, and I am God. Here and now the Spirit of God is upon me. The Spirit of God comforts the mourner, visits the sick, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry. The Spirit of God is the holy comforter, the savior, the redeemer. Be still and know that I am that. I am. I am that. I am. I am that. I really am. I is closer than breathing.

Before Abraham was, I am with you Joel. Joel, I am is with you before Abraham was. I am is with you unto the end of the world. And I am is God. I am here and I am now. I am within and I am without. I am all things unto all men. I am is the mind of Christ Jesus, and I am is the mind of me. I am is the only wisdom, the only love, the comforter. I in the midst of me is mighty.

Just be still. Be still and know, I am is God. Whither shall I flee from I am? If I make my bed in hell, I am is there. If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I am is there. Be still. Be still and know that I am, and that I am in the midst of thee; that I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Is it not said, He that is within you is greater than he that is in the world? Be still and know that I am in you, greater than any circumstance or condition. Do not fear them. They have only the arm of flesh. We have the I am in the midst of us.

Seek me while I can be found. Contemplate me in the midst of you. Contemplate truth. Contemplate divine love. Love? Love? Yes, the Father is love. He knoweth your need before you do, and it is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Indeed I am is love. Because love is within me, I am is within me. Love protects me and enfolds me, maintains and sustains me. I am upheld in love in the I that I am—in I am. Contemplate the power and the beauty of such truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Have I not been doing that? Why I am sitting here knowing the truth. Knowing the truth about God, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience. Knowing the truth about God as law, life. Ye shall know this truth about God, about omnipresence, and this truth shall set you free of the discords and inharmonies of human belief. They have only the arm of flesh. I shall not fear what mortal man can do to me. I shall not fear any person, any power, since I am is with me, and I need only open my mouth, and he will put the words there, or the word, the word that does not return void, but does that whereunto it is sent.

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Whithersoever thou goest, I will go. But suppose I sin? I will never leave thee. I will never condemn thee nor criticize thee. I will forgive thee and just warn thee not to let it happen again. Not warn you, because if it does, I’ll forgive thee again. I’ll forgive thee seventy times. I’ll forgive thee seventy times seven.

But in between each time, you’ll be punishing yourself. But if you keep coming back, you’ll be forgiven again and again and again, until there isn’t any power left in you to even desire sin. Don’t fear your sins. I have overcome the world. I will overcome your sins. Only don’t run away from me and hide. Come back. Come back inside. Acknowledge me. Be still and know that I am here.

What is truth? What is truth? Be still and know I am truth. I in the midst of thee am truth. Contemplate. Contemplate the I am. Contemplate the truth. And don’t you see that as you do, minute by minute goes by, but with each minute you’re becoming more still inside, more quiet, more at peace, more receptive, more listening. And then all of a sudden no more thoughts come.

Now of course you see the purpose of this, is this. If you will take up contemplative meditation, contemplating some truth. First, consciously thinking it yourself, and then gradually let it switch to where it begins to come into you. Oh, sometimes it’s going back and forth. You are thinking some truth, and then another truth comes into you, and then you contemplate or ponder it. You voice silently something, and then you hear silently something.

It’s a going back and forth, but always in such quietness that eventually you come to a place where you can’t think any more truth, and no more truth comes to you. And it makes no difference now if you stay here in this poised center for two or three minutes or two or three hours. As long as you do not permit it to become a mental thing; that is, a thing of strain. If you’re sitting there in as complete a state of peace as I am this minute, makes no difference if you sit up all night in it. But the very minute that it becomes a mental strain, or that you have to begin thinking thoughts, or your body moves, stop it.

There is no power in a mental meditation. The power is in an inflow of Spirit. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. In quietness. Be still and know. Not mentally agitated. It won’t help. Be still and know. But supposing I am mentally agitated. Then keep on knowing until you become still. Don’t wait to meditate until you’re still, start meditating when you’re agitated. But use quieting, peaceful quotations of truth, until the quietness comes.

When the quietness comes, you can remember, He performeth that which is appointed for me to do. Isn’t that nice to know. He performeth that. And as you say that, you can almost feel that this He or It is really going all the way across into Africa to get the students ready for us. In between, be still, be calm. If a thought comes, let it come. When it quiets, let it be at peace. I in thee and thou in me. Now in this silence I can say, “Peace be still. Peace be to this congregation. Peace to the storm at sea. Peace to mental storms, moral storms, financial storms. Peace. My peace give I unto you. Not a worldly sense of peace, My peace. I may voice that, or I may hear that, or I may feel that in contemplative meditation. My peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Peace, be still.

Perhaps I’m speaking it, or perhaps God is speaking it in me, or through me. Makes no difference in this quiet period, in this calm stillness. Spirit’s at work. There is a Spirit in man. There is a Spirit in man; even this is enough to know. There is a Spirit in man, and I can trust man to that Spirit. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of truth that is active in my consciousness. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of truth that is active in my consciousness. He that is in me, is greater than he that is in the world. Not bread alone, but the word.

Whither shall I flee from thy spirit? Thou in me, and I in thee, one. Thou seest me, thou seest the Father that sent me, for I and the Father are one, and all that the Father hath is mine, and all that the Father is, I am. Just to know Thee, whom to know aright is life eternal. No other purpose, no other plan, just to know Thee.