From-Our Spiritual Resources
Page 70
By Joel Goldsmith
Three Principles Basic to Spiritual Healing
The nature and purpose of treatment is to bring us to that state of consciousness in which God is realized. Therefore, when we go into treatment, which is a preliminary to prayer, we must make use of the correct letter of truth contained in the principles of The Infinite Way.

The first of these principles has to do with the nature of God. The spiritual healer must have sufficient understanding of the nature of God to be able to relinquish, or let loose of, his old concept of prayer and be satisfied to go to God without asking Him for anything or expecting anything of Him beyond what He is already doing. There must no longer be any attempt to influence God in anyone’s behalf—not even his own.

The spiritual healer will not use truth to overcome error, nor will he expect God to heal disease, reform sin, or exchange lack for abundance, because any spiritual healer worth his salt knows full well that God is already performing Its functions: God is eternally bringing forth all the things that not only are needed today, but which will be needed in the farthest future of which we can conceive.

The second important principle constituting the letter of truth is the instant recognition of the impersonal source of all the evil that has ever tempted man. Evil is never anything other than a temptation, a suggestion or an appearance. Regardless of the name or nature of the particular discord that confronts us, our patients, or our family, whether it is some form of sin, disease, or lack, we must remember that it has its basis in an impersonal source which we may call devil, Satan, or the carnal mind. It makes no difference what name is used as long as we understand it to be impersonal and from an impersonal source.

When that is thoroughly understood, coupled with an abiding conviction of its truth, we are ready for the third basic principle of spiritual healing as taught in the message of The Infinite Way: since God did not create the carnal mind, that impersonal source of evil, the carnal mind has no cause; it has no life, no law, no substance, no activity, no avenue and no channel of expression. In other words, the evil which appears as person place, thing, circumstance, or condition, and which to our dulled perception apparently has power, is a nothingness, the “arm of flesh” which Hezekiah cautioned his people not to battle, because the “arm of flesh” has no God-power, no God-ordination, no God-substance, and no God-activity.

An understanding of these principles enables us to withdraw from the battle so that we do not fight evil, thereby obeying Jesus’ great teaching, “resist not evil.” The moment that we can come into the presence of any form of evil with a relaxed mind, a mind that does not attempt to jump up and begin battling and denying it straight off, we are ready to see it dissolve into its nothingness. But if we take out our mental sword and begin to deny and argue against the evil, or if we attempt to overcome some power, we are lost.