WE WILL NOT FEAR, BECAUSE GOD IS OUR REFUGE

In an attempt to understand the mystery of God, to explain what can never be explained, and to comprehend what can never be comprehended, man has used words. But words can never explain God. There can never be a word that is God. Not even the word God is God, nor the words Mind, Soul, Spirit, or Truth, for all these are effects objective to the person voicing them. There are no synonyms for God in absolute truth. Those that we have used are only attributes descriptive of God. Soul is an attribute of the purity of God; Spirit describes God’s immateriality; love, mine, principle, and law are facets, of God’s being. But none of these is God. Regardless of what word we utter. Even the word God, there is an I that utters it and, an it to be altered.

The Kingdom of God is within our consciousness, and when we turn in meditation to this infinite Consciousness to let it flow, we will show forth. More of the Limitlessness, which we are and always have been, and next year a greater degree, and a year after, still a greater degree. In other words, we are expressing as much infinite Consciousness as we can at the moment comprehend. Let us begin with the realization that we are not form. We are consciousness. By our devotions to meditation, we bring forth a greater degree and deeper awareness of God's consciousness. Consciousness forever express Itself as an individual form of intelligence.

Everything visible first had to have an invisible something to send it into form, and that invisible Something is consciousness, which sends Itself into expression as a seed, and all that comes forth from the seed. Were it not for Consciousness, there would be nothing expressed as form. Regardless of how beautiful a thing may seem to be, how wonderful, or how abundant, we must look behind it and realize that it could not exist but for the Consciousness that formed it. There is something about us greater than what we appear to be. Eventually, we will discover that that something is our consciousness.

To sow to the Spirit, does not mean that we have to avoid physical pleasure. It does not mean giving up our work, our profession, our home, or our family. It has nothing to do with what we do externally; It has to do with what is going on in our consciousness while our mind and body are performing their functions on the outer plane. What is going on in our consciousness determines whether we are sowing to the flesh, or whether we are sowing to the spirit, and whether we are setting in motion the karmic law of good order, comic law of evil. We do not always reap what we sow immediately or quickly. The mills of the gods grind slowly, yet they are exceeding fine. Sometimes a person may indeed live for many years in a measure of spiritual realization before the overcoming overturning comes, and He comes who's right it is. Then there are also those persons who indulge in every manner of evil and seem to be able to do it for a long period of years before their karma begins to operate.

With each meditation, there must be this surrender of ourselves to the Spirit within, together with a realization that God’s grace is our sufficiency and that we are in meditation for the express purpose of receiving the comfort of His Presence. The person who is one with God is merely the transparency through which God is living His life. His body is the temple of God, and his mind is the instrument of God, the mind which was also in Christ Jesus. That mind can be attained only in silence, not with words or with thoughts, although words and thoughts may be used as a preliminary step which we know as meditation, which plays a vitally important part in the development of our spiritual life. It is the meditation that makes teaching come alive because meditation is the connecting link between our outer life and our inner self.

The human race as we know it, is composed of men and women, living completely shut off from Divine Aid, Divine Substance, and Divine Providence. From the most ancient of times up to modern days, man has not only lived by the sweat of his brow but has engaged in conflict to gain his ends, whether in the case of individuals or companies under the name of competition or as a nation under the name of war. However,  most human beings are born and brought up in ignorance of their true identity. In ignorance of that indwelling Something, and, uninstructed by the Divine Master. This is the human race as we know it. These are the people we read about in the newspapers, those in prison, in the prison of lack, sin, and disease. The prison of political slavery and Ignorance. These are unenlightened and earthbound. However, from the beginning of all revelation, it has been pointed out that this need not be. That anytime we can turn within and begin our accent out of the tomb of our darkness, out of the prison, and into the light. Out of ignorance, into understanding

If we are willfully disobedient to the laws of God, we must correct ourselves and bring ourselves into attunement, and alignment with His laws. In so doing, the finger of God will touch us to His will and His grace. We must learn to relax, and stop trying to bring God to our mind or body. In that moment we would find that God has always been there. God has made a covenant with his image and likeness. We cannot make God do our will. But that does not leave us hopeless. Instead, it gives us added courage and strength, because we know there is no way, to sway, influence, or persuade Him. When we learn that, we will realize that instead of releasing God, we have released ourselves from finite concepts of God. Also, from our ignorance of skeptical beliefs about prayer. And from the belief that we knew more than God and have more love than God.

Jesus was wise in the world's ways and heavenly wisdom. He advised his followers against attempting to help people when they wished no help. He said "When you come into the house, salute it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it: if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you." People do not always receive their message. When this happens, there should be no controversy, no argument, and no sense of disturbance. However, as we abide in the conviction of the ultimate acceptance of truth by all, we should let our peace return unto ourselves and go calmly on our way.

The Universe holds nothing against us. No matter how many mistakes we have made; we are still perfect beings within, and the within may become the without, if we will carefully train ourselves to listen to the inner voice of truth which speaks to us in our moments of quietness. There is nothing in the Universe that wishes evil to anyone. Indeed, it is only as we experience good that God is expressed through us. The more completely we realize good, happiness, and success, the more perfectly we express God, and the more of God we become, that is the more God becomes personified through us.

We must understand the law of creation. God is our consciousness and, therefore, it is our consciousness that is creating, feeding, nourishing, supporting, and maintaining our bodies in their health, harmony, and beauty at all times if we so desire. We must, however, consciously realize that we are being fed, maintained, and sustained from within. If we do this, it will be done unto us. We may be inclined to ask, “Is this important?” Yes, it is the most important part of our development. There is only one thing important in this world, and that is showing forth God as our life, as our substance, as our safety, our security, our immortality, our eternality, proving that God is the only law unto our being.

How often had Jesus healed the multitude? How often had he healed individuals? How little healing power any of those people manifested themselves? How great was His sorrow when He said Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would love to tell you and show you, but you cannot accept it? The people were grateful for loaves and fish. But, Jesus was seeking thankfulness for a principle that he was showing forth and which they were unable to grasp. Three times or more, Jesus fed the multitudes. He fed four thousand, five thousand, seven thousand. Not only did he feed the multitudes, but he healed them and taught the truth to those who could hear. But after he had fed the multitudes on one side of the sea, he felt a heavy sense within himself that his message had not reached his people. He felt a sense of discouragement in the realization that they had failed to catch the vision.

We must keep our demonstration in the realm of Spirit. When we turn to Spirit for help, desire only spiritual good. We are living in a higher state of unfoldment than that of demonstrating things and persons. When we turn to God, let us pray for the things of God. Ninety percent of our failure to experience harmony is that we are turning to Spirit for material demonstration. We only have the right to turn to God for things of God, and then let God interpret those things in us. Let Christ interpret the things of God in terms of what appears to us as human needs.

There is only one way to find our heaven on earth and that is through inner contact with God. We should never undertake anything even a slight thing as going to the corner store without first making conscious contact with God. Nothing is ever what it appears to be in the human picture. We often think that we are doing something for a normal, natural, human reason and find that this was not at all the real purpose of what we did. We should know by now that as human beings, we are only a transparency for the Divine. Our purpose in studying spiritual wisdom is to find out, what the spiritual plan is, and what our path in it is.

 We cannot organize Christ as a physical body, or we will set up one member against another. We will have the mind fighting with the flesh, and the flesh with the bones, and the bones with the blood. The Christ is a spiritual being, and until we can see ourselves as disembodied we will be fighting the warfare between the Spirit and the flesh. We will be trying to use God, the intangible Spirit, to patch up the organized mass of flesh called a physical body. It is impossible to have peace in a church organization or to have peace in a physical body. If we accept Christ in our consciousness, we must take the next step also and see that the embodiment or body of Christ is the temple not made with hands.

The Christ, this great truth, comes to our human awareness. It is said that Christ is born in the manger, but that manger is our human awareness. What happens, then, to our human awareness? It begins to be dispelled. It becomes volatilized. This Christ, this great truth of the infinite Presence and Power, comes to us while we are yet depending on man, whose breath is in his nostrils. It comes to us while we are still depending on human government and organization. It comes to us to some degree while we are depending on dollars and investment, and to some degree while we are yet depending on medicine. It comes to us and says: Entertain Me a little while, and watch these other things disappear. Then, soon you will begin to love Me for My own sake, and not for the loves and fishes.

The mind that was in Christ Jesus is the mind of all people walking up and down the earth, but it is of no avail to them unless and until they consciously purge their thought or mind of the fear, hate, and love of error. Let us use the illustration of money. One way of purging ourselves, and thereby manifesting the mind that was in Christ Jesus, is to look at money – whether it be a quarter or a hundred dollars and ask ourselves What is it? Then we start with the understanding that as matter it is only a concept. At best, as a piece of matter, it is only a concept, and its value varies and changes. But, as a symbol of a spiritual idea, it represents exchange; it represents value. It may represent an avenue of gratitude. However, even in its spiritual significance, it is an effect. An effect of what? Of the Mind of God, divine Consciousness.

In man’s evolution, mankind was always brought to the point of self-choice and left alone to discover his true nature. If we are endowed with the attributes of self-choice and free will, mankind must be allowed to make this discovery on its own. Nothing is more apparent than man as he now appears, which is the result of evolution. However, to evolve, he had to have a Principle from which to unfold. Since man is intelligent, he must have been formed from an intelligent Cause. Consider any of Nature’s forces; they must have existed always, but so far as man is concerned, they exist to be used only after he has discovered them and learned how to make use of them.

The objective is to become one with the law of God, recognizing not even a healthy physical body, but only a purely spiritual body. However, we must not let our thought go out in an attempt to heal the world. That would only be an attempt to change the dream picture since war, depression, and accidents are not realities. We must not use our minds or our thought or our spiritual powers to try to patch up the illusion. Become one with God and stay on that level of consciousness. Do this as many times as you can during the night. Get the feeling of God’s presence. Soon the illusion will be dispelled. 

We have said that there is a spiritual, universal plan. Since God is infinite intelligence, God must operate or act as an infinite plan of good for its universe. Just as we plan our business and the details of our existence, so must infinite Intelligence in Its spiritual way, bring everything into one divine pattern, nothing out of place and no one out of place, but everything and everyone fulfilling the spiritual function that they were created to perform.

It is a very difficult thing to impart the idea of Christ's wisdom. Christ’s wisdom differs from human knowledge, even from human knowledge of the truth. Humanly, none of us knows what truth is. Certainly, no one knows with the human mind what it is. The wisdom of Christ is not in the realm of human wisdom or understanding. It is the knowledge that transcends all earthly wisdom. The things of God are foolishness with men. At the moment when we recognize that we know nothing about this, and we are not just being modest, at the moment when we go to the Father and humbly say, “I do not know what this is all about, Father,” at that moment we began to touch the hem of the garment.

We must understand the law of creation. God is our consciousness and, therefore, it is our consciousness that is creating, feeding, nourishing, supporting, and maintaining our bodies in their health, harmony, and beauty at all times if we so desire. We must, however, consciously realize that we are being fed, maintained, and sustained from within. If we do this, it will be done unto us. We may be inclined to ask, “Is this important?” Yes, it is the most important part of our development. There is only one thing important in this world, and that is showing forth God as our life, as our substance, as our safety, our security, our immortality, our eternality, proving that God is the only law unto our being.

Have you ever stopped to think how much time we spend trying to find some truth, or wishing that we might know some particular truth? We do not have to do that at all. If we can realize Jesus’s saying, “I am the truth”, then we will have it all. I am the truth! And when we have that, we do not have to look for some truth which I already am. Have you ever thought about how much time we spend seeking love? It is time wasted because it is always to be found where we never think to look for it. It is within our being. I am life, truth, and love. I am love. I am the only love there is in the world. I am all that God is; all that the Father hath is mine. Our mistake is that we look for love in or from some person. There we shall never find it.

Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit to be Tempted. Jesus had prepared for the test by fasting for forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: "Since you are God's Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread. Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth. Here we find the great inner meaning of The Temptation. That passage is the key to the principle of this entire teaching. The temptation was to demonstrate an effect, to demonstrate bread, to perform a miracle in the outer world, to center the thought and attention on the things of this world, that is, on the outer need.

It would not make any difference how wonderful our speeches were, how marvelous our statements of truth sounded; without that indwelling love, it means nothing. If our statements of truth are not imbued with a sense of God’s allness, they will be of no avail. It is not the speech, it is not the letter of truth that is important: It is the degree to which our consciousness is imbued with the understanding of God as love and life; the degree to which we have lost our ability to fear, to hate, or to love error of any kind.

There is a healing process that takes place when we sit in silence and peace. “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth”. The world can give a certain peace. It can give us an absence of noise, a quiet country place, or a boat cruise. That is the peace that the world can give. People travel to far places, but they travel by themselves and they return home with themselves. We cannot get away from ourselves. If we have a problem, we take it with us, wherever we go.

For what purpose were we born? It cannot be that we came to this experience merely to make a living, do housework, or whatever our lot in life is. Doing only those things means we have not found our destiny. The moment, however, that we identify God, infinite Consciousness, as our consciousness, we will break through our environment, regardless of how limited it may seem to be. The urge to find our purpose on earth will then come. There is a high purpose here for all of us.

Giving thanks is an acknowledgment of the Source. Giving thanks is an acknowledgment of the Cause. So when we say, Thank you, Father, I am, we are showing forth our conviction that our supply does not come from any human being, but comes from the Father. It comes, not from our human cleverness, ingenuity, or personality. It comes forth from the Father. Without the recognition that Consciousness is the source, there is no further demonstration.

We experience God’s unfolding in our consciousness through a revelation within our being. It is an experience that takes place from within. The Kingdom of God is within us. We are the individualization of all that God is: “Son all that I have is yours.” Therefore, our work is to allow our inner being to be part of our outer. For we will receive from the depth of our being the revelation of God’s nature. The impartation then is not from one intellect to another. It is divine Consciousness revealing Itself as an individual being.

We are not finite human beings: we are the life of God in individual expression embodying everything necessary for our experience. It is much like an individual seed. It contains within itself everything necessary for its unfoldment and development into a full-grown tree with fruit on it. The tiny seed, under an activity within itself, draws unto itself from its surroundings its particular needs without taking anything from the tree or the plant next to it.

The goal of all spiritual work is God-Realization. Understanding God’s nature is the most difficult part of our spiritual journey because it involves releasing every concept of God acquired throughout our lifetime. Nevertheless, freeing our concept of God has to be the first part if we are to truly understand God’s nature. We have looked to our concepts of God to bless us, but concepts of God, regardless of how lofty they may be cannot bless anyone.

When we begin to perceive the nature of God, we will know how to pray. When we know how to pray, all of God’s grace will manifest itself in our life because prayer is the connecting link between man and God. It is through prayer that we bring God’s grace into our individual experience and we are enabled to share it with others so that they, too, benefit to some degree from the grace that we have received.

It is about time that we get over the idea that there is a rewarding or punishing God. There is no God to reward or punish anybody for anything. God is not a man or a woman. God has no human instincts. God is spirit and God is love, and when we remember how parents love their bad children as well as their good ones, how much less cognizance must God take of goodness or badness? We do indeed receive punishment for our wrongdoing, but from what source does that punishment come? The punishment never comes from God: it is from the state of consciousness that brought about the sin.

This Christ peace cannot be achieved by praying to God to reform our neighbors not even our neighbors across the sea. It has to begin with us. Let us leave our neighbors alone, and secretly and sacredly go within, silently communing with the Prince of Peace within us, the Prince of joy, health, wholeness, completeness, and of spiritual perfection. Then, when we have attained some measure of Christhood we will not have to ask for peace from our neighbor, nor will we have to pray to God for peace, for peace will be flowing out from within ourselves to all mankind. Like a dove, it begins to spread its wings over this entire universe.

The full significance of Christmas can never be known except through an understanding of the unchanging nature of God. What took place over two thousand years ago was merely the revelation of an experience that has been continuous, not only since before Abraham but since before time. God did not create anything new two thousand years ago. The meaning of Christmas is that God planted in individual consciousness the seed that was to evolve as his Son. No one has ever existed, exists now, or ever will exist without this spiritual influence and power having been implanted in his consciousness from the beginning.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE PROMISED MESSIAH unlocked

Event Prophecy  Fulfillment

Christmas time is always a special time for almost everyone and especially for Christians. Using biblical scriptures the Event, the Prophecy and finally, the Fulfillment: The Birth of our Lord and Saviour are outlined.

• The Event: Born of the tribe of Judah! The Prophecy: Genesis 49:10: The Fulfillment Luke 3: 23-33: Luke 3:23:
• The Event: Born of a virgin! The Prophecy: Isaiah 7:14 The Fulfillment Matthew 1: 18-25: Matthew
• The Event: Descended from King David! The Prophecy: Isaiah 9:7: The Fulfillment Matthew 1: 1, 6-17:
• The Event: Jehovah to be his Son! The Prophecy: Psalm 2:7 The Fulfillment Matthew 3:17:

To walk this spiritual path we are taking, we need to understand that all conflicts must be settled from within. One may say how can that be if they exist out there in another person in our families and co-workers? It would be an impossibility to settle these conflicts if they were external to us, but the hope and the blessings are that they are not. There is no conflict going on in us, around us, or about us that cannot be resolved within ourselves. And when it is resolved within ourselves we shall see the outer picture change.

As human beings, we are made up of theories and beliefs. However, many of those beliefs are false. Much of our religious knowledge is based on false beliefs. These theories and beliefs also include false education and superstitions. For example, only a few people in all this land do not believe that God punishes and God rewards and that God will destroy all their enemies and discord if, through some kind of magic they can get on the right side of God.

All error is made up of the belief that there is power in certain forms of effects. There is also a belief in the power of germs. In some germs, they think there is an evil, deadly power, and in some germs a good and healing power. Such belief is untrue because it places power in form, in an effect called a germ, and there is no power in form or effect: all power is in the invisible God. The error is not the germ, not the weather, and not the climate; the error is in the belief that these things have power.

In seeking the conscious realization of God’s presence, all things are added peace, harmony, joy, health, and prosperity. However, they are the added things that come after some measure of realization of God has been attained. Today we are going to break that pattern. We are going to stop the pattern of seeking person and things, safety and security, peace and joy. We are going to stop it by turning our attention to seeking the Kingdom of God so that we may experience the joy of feeling His presence of God within, for, in his presence, all things are added.

The spiritual experience is sacred and should never be spoken of indiscriminately because our pearls would be trampled upon, and our faith may be taken away from us.

To expect anyone to believe what unfolds from within would be like trying to tell a blind person about the beauties of an orchid. The blind person has no way of visualizing what the orchid is like, nor do they on earth have any way of knowing what manner of life is lived by those who have their being in Christ.

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul tells us that a mortal being is not under the Law of God, neither can be, and it is not possible for a mortal being to please God. Because the people of the earth are mortal, they still have sin, disease, death, man’s inhumanity to man slavery, and poverty in their mists. Believing is, of course, the first step. However, there is still a journey to be taken. This journey is different from any type of journey. This is a spiritual journey leading to the Father’s house.

To acknowledge that the kingdom of God is within us – the power, the dominion, and the presence of the indwelling Christ is an important step in the direction of bringing about our resurrection from the tomb of sin, disease, poverty, unemployment, or the tomb of bad business. Another important step forward is to remind ourselves daily of the truth of withinness, that all good is already within us, never to be achieved but only expressed.

When a person comes into some measure of understanding of the nature of God, a change takes place in their life. This coming-to-know God aright is often referred to as illumination, and as illumination changes consciousness from a limited sense to one of greater capacity, a new life begins to unfold. Even a faint glimpse of the real nature of God brings an understanding of the Master’s revelation that the kingdom of God is neither lo here nor lo there, but is within.

Saul of Tarsus, the Prodigal Son, the woman was taken in adultery, the thief on the cross – what are these but you and me? It makes no difference for the moment whether we are earnest seekers as was Saul of Tarsus, the sinning woman, or the pleasure-seeking prodigal. The reference is still to us, to our human nature, to the mortal side of us, and in that very mortality is buried this Christ, this son of God which must be lifted, exalted, and recognized. When that Christ is recognized, then what happens? We become still.

In the Forty-sixth Psalm, there is an introduction to the nature of God. On further examination, it seems that this has been misunderstood and that could be one reason peace on earth and goodwill to men has not been experienced. However, it is up to us not to God, but us. We will not fear, because God is our refuge. If we can gain an understanding of the nature of God and Christ, we shall find that earthly conditions dissolve, and that harmony can be brought into our experience not only as individuals but as a united world.