May I say to you also from that many years experience, that when the truth is revealed, as it will someday be revealed—the truth of mysticism, mysticism is the only practical way of life that has ever yet been devised.  Nothing, and no system—no system ever discovered or invented by man has proven to be as practical as the mystical way of life. Why?  Well let me show you why.  Certainly there is nothing more practical than good human relationships within our family circle, within our friendship circle, within our community circle.  And no one on the face of this globe following any teaching that has ever been discovered or taught, enjoys the family relationships, the community relationships, the business relationships of those who follow the mystical path.

Why?  Because first of all, I have taken the first step of recognizing the source of my integrity, the source of my qualities, and the infinite nature of my being.  And in doing that I have recognized this in you.  And therefore, watch this carefully, I approach you and you approach me without any desire to get anything, borrow anything, steal anything, defraud anything. In other words once I know the nature of my identity, of the divinity of my being, of my sonship with God, I do not need anything that you have. You, as far as I am concerned, are welcome to all that you have, and I will take none of it from you. I will neither envy it nor desire it nor be jealous of it because I have my own fulfillment in my divine sonship.  And therefore I release you; you owe me nothing.  Nothing!  Not even thanks.  For whatever it is that I share with you is not of myself; it is of my Father.  So if you owe any thanks you owe it to Him.  And therefore I do not even hold you in bondage to saying thank you.  In other words, in my relationship with you, I place no ties upon you.

Now this is true in my family life.  I share with them and they share with me, but we do not claim that each owes the other anything.  In my community life, I share with my community in every way possible, the practical way of philanthropy or the spiritual way of prayer, but I ask nothing in return because I recognize that whatever I am sharing with them is the gift of God through me.  Therefore they owe me nothing.

In this message of The Infinite Way, now in its seventeenth or eighteenth year, we have never had a membership, we have never had dues, we have never asked for a contribution.  Every individual who has comes to us has been free in coming, and free in going.  And never once have they been under an obligation to us for anything. Do you wonder they love us?  Do you see what it means to be set free, to feel that no one is clutching you; no one is demanding something of you; no one is feeling that you owe them something?  Is there anything more practical then than coming to the realization of your true identity and setting every individual free whom you meet?

Share and share liberally, but not of yourself.  Share the grace of God that has come to you. Let them share if they will, but do not demand it, and do not hold anyone in bondage.  No one, no one must ever be held in bondage.  Why?  “Because I and my Father are one,” and I want to abide in that oneness, and I want you to have the privilege of abiding in that oneness.  So the first measure of practicality we experience is this: There is a greater degree of love in our family life, in our community life, in our national life, in our international life.  A far greater degree of love because we are holding no one in bondage, we are holding no strings on anyone; we are holding no one under any obligation to us.

Then, just think of this: In this human picture, think of how dependent people are on each other, to the extent sometimes that the wife actually believes that she’s dependent upon her husband and what would she do without him?  Or a husband believes that he’s so dependent on his job, or his business, or his investments, and what would he do without them?  One nation is so dependent upon another nation.

Well just think of the word dependency in human relationships and think whether that is practical or not, or if that isn’t just a form of slavery and bondage.  But now, in our meditation we say, “I, the Spirit of God, stand at the door of your consciousness and knock, and knock for admittance.”  We, living the mystical life, we turn within and invite the Spirit of God, the I, the Son of God, to enter.  And what do you think happens right away?  The voice says, “I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” Poof—right out the window goes that fear, that dependence on somebody or something. Immediately I in the midst of you am come—this Spirit of God that you have bid enter you, that you have invited in, says, “Now that I am in, I am here that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly from me—the Spirit of God in you.”

Well, it is almost too good to believe until a day, or two, or five, or ten, the same voice says to you, “I am the bread and the meat and the wine and the water.”  This I, this presence of God that you have admitted into your soul is your food and clothing and housing.  Even more, I am the resurrection; if your body is dying or dead, if your pocketbook is dying or dead, if your family life is dying or dead, I, the Spirit of God in you am the resurrection. I will restore the lost years of the locust. And you say, “What? This in the midst of me? Where have you been all my life?”  “Oh, I have been here closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.  But you, where have you been? You have been out looking to friend and neighbor and relative.”  But the invitation was, “Look unto me and be saved.”  The Master in the fifteenth chapter of John tells us, If you abide in me, if you let me abide in you, this Spirit of God, the Son of God, you will bear fruit richly.

Well all you have to do is live this life for a week or two or three, and find out for yourself if it isn’t true that there is a spirit in you that goes before you to make the crooked places straight, and that there is an invisible spirit in you that goes before you to prepare mansions for you.  See if it isn’t true once you open your consciousness to the Spirit of God, the Son of God, if you haven’t found your savior, your mediator—not in a man, not even in a man who lived two thousand years ago.   Not in Jesus, oh, no, in the Spirit of God that Jesus announced.

Ah, you will find that this is so practical that you will even understand the scripture that says, I have never seen a righteous man begging bread. You will never see a poor man, a dead man, a slave man, who has opened his soul that the Christ may enter in—the Spirit of God may enter in.  Never, never!  Because, in the presence of God is fulfillment; In Thy presence is fullness of life.  Therefore, the moment you have brought the presence of God, the Spirit of God the Son of God to your consciousness, it acts exactly the way light acts upon darkness.  In the presence of light, there can be no darkness.  Now it isn’t that light does something to darkness, it is only because actually there is no darkness. What we call darkness is an absence of light.  And therefore, in the presence of light, there is no darkness and can be none.  And in the presence of the Spirit of God there can be no lack or limitation, no sin, no false appetite, no disease, no death. These all begin to evaporate, dissolve, disappear as the Spirit of God is made real, realized, in your consciousness.