I can tell you the story of a woman who was dying in California, had been given up by the doctor, and she made her estate over to her relatives so as to save a little taxes for them. And a neighbor of hers came in one day and said to the nurse; “I have a book here that I can’t understand, and I know it must be beautiful, maybe you’d like to read it to your patient,” and she gave her a copy of The Infinite Way. And the nurse read it to the patient, and the next night the patient was out of bed on the telephone and on Monday that patient was in Portland, Oregon for three weeks of classwork—day and night class work with me. Went back…She was seventy-nine years of age at the time. She lived six more years in beautiful health, passed on, and then there was $5,000 cash left in her will to The Infinite Way for its activities. Nothing human happened there. Do you see that? The will of God was made manifest in these particular ways. Right?

So it is, we have no way of knowing how God acts, but I do know the way or means by which It acts and that is this—that actually there is only one consciousness, and therefore, as each individual lifts themself, they reach the consciousness that can bless them and which they can bless. It has to be two way, otherwise It cannot operate.

So that, if I have been given, by grace, this wisdom, all those in the world who are saying: “Oh, God, isn’t there some help? Oh, God, isn’t there a way? Oh God, where are you?” They must eventually find me.

Oh, they will find me as Joel when that need exists, but they don’t have to. They can now find me as Infinite Way books, or they can now find me as the teachers, because they are all this same consciousness. So whether they find me as Joel, or find you as you and you and you, they are still finding Me, capitol “M”. They are finding that which they sought. They are finding God awareness. So they could be led to Joel at first when he’s the only means. Then they could be led to the books, then they could be led to the teachers and practitioners, but they would still be being led to Me because out of my consciousness has this evolved.

Now, it is in this same way that every teacher and every practitioner must be careful not to be a proselyter, not to become a book salesman from the stand point of just selling books. It’s a fine line that has to be drawn, because you must be ready to place the books where they will do the right good. You must be ready to prepare…and yet not just be a book salesman.

In the same way you are presenting the opportunity to students to come to you for instruction or healing, and those who have centers are presenting these centers and tapes and books and meeting, and classes. On the other hand you must be careful not to be soliciting for them, not to be proselyting for them, nor trying to hold students to them. Just remember this, if a student wants to come today, our function is to give whatever we can. If they don’t want to come tomorrow, that’s not our business. They are evolving according to their light. We may present a lesson to them, but we have no right to compel them to study it.

We can present tape meetings to them, but we have no right to urge it upon them, or compel them to attend. We are merely there as a light. It’s up to them to what extent they wish to avail themselves of that light. Then you will find that those who are hungry and thirsting after truth will avail themselves of it to the greatest degree, and the others you can do nothing about.

This we find in the healing ministry. How many people there are who have wonderful healings and then write and say thank you, and they’re not interested in another thing until they need another healing. Well, there’s no use of trying to tell them that you are wasting your life—that sooner or later this thing isn’t going to work for you. They have to find that out for themselves.

Let us agree that we have the pearl of great price, for we have. And that pearl is the awareness that God constitutes individual consciousness, my consciousness and your consciousness, the world consciousness.

Not that every one is aware of God as their consciousness, but that is what they have to eventually wake up to. If they’re going to search for God, the end of the search comes when they know that God constitutes their consciousness, that God is not to be found in holy mountains or holy temples or in Jerusalem or Rome or Boston, that God is to be found only as individual consciousness—yours and mine.

In proportion as we become aware of God as our consciousness we are illumined. That is our great pearl. But our great pearl has another side too, and that is that this illumination, which reveals God as our individual consciousness, also reveals that the nature of our consciousness is omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence. Therefore, I do not have to pray to my consciousness in the sense of telling it anything, trying to influence it, trying to buy it, or its favors. I have to relax in it!…because God’s thoughts are not my thoughts. There is no way that my thoughts could influence God or tell God.

Therefore, to accept my consciousness as omniscience means that I must sit in the silence, in the stillness, and let my consciousness speak to me through the still, small voice, or the thundering voice that makes the earth melt.

But the point is that I am illumined in proportion as I know that I do not have to seek outside myself, nor do I have to tell God, importune God, beg, plead, praise God, bribe God, influence God, tithe God, because God is omniscience. And, therefore, my contact with God is the attitude of listening.

Furthermore, my pearl consists of the fact that God is omnipotence. Therefore, I need no God powers. I’m not seeking a God, because there is no evil for God to overcome. What I am doing is becoming a state of receptivity so that the still, small voice can utter Itself though me, and this is the establishment of peace on earth, individually and collectively—not by praying to God to do away with wars and tyrants, but by letting our divine consciousness manifest Itself through the still, small voice, through silence.