Now, in our ordinary life, it is very difficult to accept God as Omnipotence, that is, the all and only Power. Don’t forget that for centuries we have been taught that there is power in disease, and there is power in sin, and there is power in fear, and power in storms, and power in germs, and power in climate, and certainly power in bullets, and power in bombs, and power in hate, and power in jealousy. It’s all ridiculous; but the point is that we’ve accepted it, and we’re demonstrating it, because we are demonstrating our beliefs. We are demonstrating, not so much our personal beliefs, as the universal beliefs, which we accept.

One of the terrible mistakes that has entered the metaphysical world, at least some parts of it, is the belief in mental power, as if thought had power. Now, this has made it very difficult, because if you’re going to accept good thought as having power, I don’t know how you are going to avoid accepting bad thought as having power. And then you’re in a dilemma, because there’s more bad thought around you than there is good thought. There’s more evil thought in the universal mind than there is good. And, of course, the whole universal mind starts out with the fact that if you are born, you must die. So the moment you’re born, you are on your way.

Now, once you perceive that the only power there is to malpractice or to the thoughts of negative thoughts—envy, jealousy, fear, hate, domination—the only power there is, is the power that universal consent has given to it. And it is for this reason that you yourself must know the Truth, if you would be free. Now remember, every time we even have a cold it is the result of mental malpractice. Not somebody sitting around wishing a cold on us, because mental malpractice isn’t that simple. Mental malpractice is a universal belief or a belief universally accepted. And the mere fact that the whole of the medical world accepts the germ theory means that we are under that universal malpractice. And the only way to come out from under it is to do it by an act of your own consciousness and declare within yourself, “How foolish, how limited, how thoughtless can we be as to accept any power but the Power of God or any law but spiritual Law?” Think for a moment, if God is Infinite, and God is the only Lawgiver, and if God is Spirit, then the only law that can be is a spiritual Law. And you are now under no other law but spiritual Law, if so be you know this Truth. If you can accept the Omnipotence of Spirit, then you must accept the Omnipotence of spiritual Law.

And what happens then to this material law or mental law? The moment it touches the consciousness of one who is knowing the Truth, whatever is untrue dissolves and disappears. In other words, in the presence of Light, there is no darkness. And whatever darkness claimed presence, when Light entered is no more. So it is, when the Light of spiritual Truth enters your consciousness and you realize even for a moment, God is Spirit, and God works through Law, God is the only Lawgiver; therefore, God works through spiritual Law.

Well, you watch the miracles that begin to take place in your experience but only by your acceptance of Truth, and not only the acceptance of it, the continued remembrance of this in the face of all evidence to the contrary. It doesn’t mean that your acceptance of this may, in one fell swoop, save you from all future colds. It does mean this that there will be far less of them in your experience, and you will meet them more quickly. Not only this, you will meet these claims, appearances in the experience of your friends, or relatives, and eventually patients, and students in proportion to your ability to ignore the appearance for a moment and stand fast in the revealed Truth of God as Spirit and all Law as spiritual.

Now, through meditation something comes into your experience of an entirely new nature. And I would like to explain how this happens and some of the fruits of it. Suppose for a moment you just think of yourself and your own life. Think of your own mind, your own education, the things that you personally have learned in life, the friends you’ve made or haven’t made, the resources that you have or have access to, just as a fruitage of your own life since birth. So that, if you are called upon to know something, you could say, “No, that wasn’t encompassed in my education or experience; therefore, I can know nothing about it.” Or, if you are called upon for a sum of money that you could say, “No, that is beyond the limit of what I have or have access to; therefore, I can’t meet that.”

And so, think of the many demands that could be made upon you in life, and then think of what you have to meet them with. And this gives you the history of our human selfhood limited to our own education, to our personal experience in life, to our own economic resources, to our own integrity, you may say. Now, let us see what happens the moment you enter the life of meditation and of prayer. There is a kingdom within your consciousness—a realm—within your consciousness that is Infinite. The reason for this is that I and my Father are one. This is our relationship to God. Man actually is one with God. There is no visible evidence of this. We all seem to be encompassed here in this height or width. But it isn’t actually so. In the middle of this room, there is an invisible Tree. You’ll never see it with your eyes, but it’s there. And you and I are branches on that Tree. And, therefore, we have access to all that that Tree has.

Now, for a moment, visualize a tree. A fruit tree. They’re common enough here. Orange tree, lemon tree, pineapple, grapefruit tree. And visualize it when it’s barren. See, see a barren fruit tree in front of you within your eyesight. And now remember look at the branches on that tree that are bare. Aren’t you ahead of me now? Can’t you see that the branch in and of itself is nothing, that the branch in and of itself never will have an orange on it but by virtue of its connection with the trunk of the tree, and on down into the branches, and the branches contact with the Earth. And this means with the sun, and the air, the rain, the cold. Now, in its due season, there will be oranges on this tree. And just think, not by virtue of the branch but by virtue of its oneness with the tree.

Now, the tree says to the branch, “Son, all that I have is thine, and all of the oranges that are formed in Me are going to flow out onto the branches, which are you.” This is our relationship to God. This is our relationship to the Source of All-Good. We are branches connected with an invisible Tree. And we of ourselves are nothing. Even Christ Jesus said, “I, of my own self, can do nothing but the Father within me—ahh—I and my Father are one. All that the Father hath is mine. The Father doeth the works through me. The very works that you are calling me Master for I’m not even doing, but it is because of my contact with the Father that it is being done through me.”

Now, think that the very moment you close your eyes in meditation or keep them open, if you prefer, but you might want to do it while you’re driving an automobile, and it’s best to keep your eyes open while driving an automobile, although there are some people who can drive it blindfolded. But don’t let’s try it, until we’re ready to walk on the water. All right, eyes closed or eyes open. Think for just a moment that I and my Father are one. I’m a branch of an infinite Tree—the Tree of Life. And I can hear that whole Tree whispering in my ear, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I hath is thine.”

Now, if you’re in the inventing business, composing business, writing business, designing business, decorating business, architect business, builder business, you can’t do it of yourself. You can’t even do it well by reading a lot of books. They will only be helps on the way. Eventually, you have to go to your Source for new designs, for new inventions, for new discoveries. You have to go to your Source for new tunes or new plots, except in The Infinite Way. We only need one plot here, and we can write as many books as you’d like to read and just use the one plot. But outside, you seem to need many, many different plots. Our plot, our theme is evident to you tonight. I and my Father are one, and all that the Father hath is mine. And my consciously knowing this Truth brings it into manifestation.