"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 16 - The Secret of the Word Made Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and die Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the wodd knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were bom, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
--John 1:1-14

The Word becomes flesh, that is, the Word becomes the son of God in the consciousness of men. The consciousness of most men is dark so that it cannot receive or believe in the son of God. But to those who can receive, to those who have some measure of spiritual intuition, to them the son of God can come and be received, and because the son of God can be received even by one person in all the world, that makes it possible for all men, for us, too, to become sons of God.

All the mystics of the world have revealed that there is but one Selfhood, one Ego, one infinite Being. God created individual being, individual you and me, in the image and likeness of Himself, not through the act of human conception and birth, but He sent man forth into expression as the showing forth of all that He is and has — and this without any processes.

Because of this spiritual relationship with God, man is one with his Creator even though at some remote time he left his Father's house and decided to be something of himself, thereby becoming the Prodigal. He was not satisfied to share the Father's wisdom, His wealth, and His grace, so when he wandered away from the Father's house, from that divine I, he took unto himself the personal sense of "I," trying to make his way by means of his own efforts, wisdom, and strength, but failing—failing miserably. There in essence is the whole story of the human race. It is the story of the "natural man" who is not under the law of God.

That has been the experience of every one of us. Before we understood the nature of God and of individual being, we perhaps thought of God as some far-off being, probably sitting on a cloud or up in heaven, a sort of superhuman Father who rewarded us when we were good—if He happened to notice it—and who punished us when we were evil, which He always noticed. In those darkened days God was a kind of super-Santa Claus, who, if we succeeded in pleasing, might condescend to do something for us, and who, if we displeased, would hold us in some kind of darkness or inflict some punishment upon us.

In that darkened stage we had to rely on ourselves alone for our progress through life, earn our living by the sweat of our brow, go through life subject to all its laws — health, economic, and legal — many of them unsound and unjust, and live under the domination, sometimes of family and sometimes of government. We had no access whatsoever to anything of a spiritual nature that could solve our problems for us or be of any help in an emergency. We were human beings, unenlightened, unillumined; we were in darkness; we entertained a sense of a selfhood apart from God. God was a million light years away, beyond the stars; and in that sense of separation we believed that our sins and those of all our forebears were operating to keep us from God.

In our innermost hearts we felt dissatisfied and incomplete because we had not shown forth the wealth of the son of God, nor the health and perfection of life eternal. Feeling that absence, that sense of separateness and that incompleteness, we reached within ourselves and asked, "O God, where art Thou? Is there a God, or have I been deluded? Is there a supreme Being, or have I been fooling myself in trying to find One?"

This inner pleading testified to the vacuum somewhere within us, and this vacuum cried out to be filled. This vacuum, or sense of separation, may have appeared in us as sin, false appetite, disease, or poverty. What difference the form? However it appeared, it was really a sense of incompleteness, and this brought about within us a longing to be complete and whole. We may have interpreted this as a longing to be healthy, or to have a sufficiency of supply, or as a longing for companionship, but deep within us, our real longing was to be reunited with our Source.

Yet at that very same time this Word made flesh, this son of God, dwelt in us, but was shrouded about with so much darkness that we could not perceive It; we were not aware of Its presence. So in this spiritual darkness, brought upon us by our ignorance of the truth that within us is this Word made flesh, this Light of the world, we struggled by ourselves with whatever measure of human wisdom or human strength we had.

But whether we struggled for a healing or to be free of sin, false appetite, or lack, what we were really struggling for was to get back to our Father's house, to drop this sense of the personal "I," and once more rest in the assurance that we are not a prodigal. In that earnest longing and struggling, this false sense of self drops away, and greater harmony appears. In our ignorance we call that a healing. It is not: it is the more-appearing of our divine Selfhood.

Paul rightly declared, "Neither death, nor life . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God." In reality we have never been separated from God; we have never been separated from our good, from our wholeness and completeness; but from the time we were infants we have been taught about a personal "I," and we have, therefore, entertained this false sense of self which claims, "I am Mary," "I am Bill," or "I am Joel," instead of humbly realizing:

"Be still, and know that I am God." I at the center of me is God, and therefore, I live by Grace and by divine inheritance.

To live by that divine inheritance does not mean that we do not work. There is no provision in heaven or on earth for parasites. Regardless of the material wealth that we may inherit, we cannot sit by and watch the sun rise and set without working, and in some way making a contribution to this world.

So it is that even though we are heirs of God and, through our spiritual realization, do ultimately derive our good from God, we will work, and work more hours and more diligently than we did when we were working merely for a living because now we realize that we cannot manifest God's glory only eight or twelve hours a day: it takes twenty-four hours every day to show forth God's grace and God's glory. The whole of life becomes a matter of letting this spiritual Influence flow through, but because we are united with one another, every thing that flows through from the Father to any one of us is instantly shared by all of us.

Nothing can come into our experience except through an activity of our consciousness. It is through our consciousness that we entertain a sense of separation from God, from good—supply, companionship, wholeness and completeness—but it is also through our consciousness, when we consciously make ourselves one with the Source of all good, that we are restored to this realized oneness with God.

In his consciousness man either lacks or has. Within his consciousness he either separates himself from his good, or he meets up wii his good. Whatever it takes, therefore, to fulfill him at his prese: level of life can come to him only through an act of his consciousne: and that act must be repeated again and again until eventually culminates in conscious union with God.

Attaining union with God does not usually come at a single bound. It is more than likely to be the result of years of dedication study, meditation, and service, the earliest stage of which might be called the First Degree. When we come to this First Degree, we begin to leam that there is a God and that we are so much one with Him that He performs that which is given us to do.

As we persist in following the teachings of the Christ, learning to forgive seventy times seven, praying for our enemies, and resisting not evil, we draw closer and closer to the realization of our truw identity and the realization of the presence of God within us. But we cannot go into His presence with a cruel and condemnatory attitude toward life: we have to go in gently and peaceably, quiet and confidently, if we hope to hear that still small voice.

Gradually, we attain a conscious at-one-ment with the infinite Source of our being, a greater and greater awareness of Infinity. WE become more and more aware that there is a Presence that go before us to make "the crooked places straight." We feel that we are not alone, that within us there really is this Infinite Invisible, at times it seems almost as if It were within our chest, sometimes as if It might be sitting on our shoulder or standing back of us, but we are aware, even if dimly, that there is a Father, an invisible Presence and Power, and more and more we relax in It. All this is progress in the First Degree.

As we come toward the latter part of the First-Degree-experience we begin to perceive that we are living more by Grace than by effort, we are living more by a power that is doing things for us without our taking conscious thought, and sometimes doing them before we even know there is a need for them. Something seems to be going before us and changing the relationships between us and the people we meet.

The end result of passing through this degree is the gaining of a absolute inner conviction that where we are, God is, that the place whereon we stand is holy ground, that there is a He that performs that which is given us to do, that there is a divine Grace that provides for our needs, "not by might, nor by power," but by the very gentle Spirit of God that is within us.

In spite of this continuing awareness of a Presence within, there is yet another barrier that separates all men from the realization and demonstration of God: the belief that there are two powers. In the early stages of our study of truth, we seek God as a power because in our ignorance we would like to use God-power over some other power. But the greatest attainment at this stage of our unfoldment is the realization of God as One, not as a power over some other powers, but as the only Power. It is when we begin to come into the realization of God as the only Power that we no longer fear external powers in any form, not even "the armies of the aliens."

In going through the First Degree, a transformation of consciousness takes place, and in proportion as we attain an awareness of God's presence and a realization of the Infinite Invisible, we begin to lose our hate, our fear, and our love of the external world. We no longer hate or fear germs, infection, contagion, epidemics, or accidents; we no longer hate, fear, or love form in whatever variety expressed: we are beginning to attain the realization of the nonpower of all form. We do not fear earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, or floods: we understand that because of the infinite nature of spiritual Being these are not power. They are the "arm of flesh," nothingness.

Through the building up and strengthening of our realization of God as a Presence, as Law, as Life eternal, and as Peace, we are at the same time losing our fear of all material forms, whether appearing as condition or person. We are beginning to feel as the Master did before Pilate: "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." Through our enlightened consciousness, we perceive that all the evils of this world are but shadows brought about by the universal belief in two powers, and we are losing that belief in proportion as God is becoming more and more real as a Presence and a Power.

The enlightened consciousness is a state of individual consciousness — yours and mine — when the fear and the hate of external forms begin to disappear. Undue love for the things of this world also lessens, although that does not mean that we are not to appreciate the beautiful things of life, experience them, and if it serves a purpose, own them. It does not mean that we are not to enjoy a beautiful home, if so be it is brought into our experience; it does not mean that we are not to enjoy wealth, if wealth comes our way it means that we are not to be so attached to any form of materialilty as to make of it a necessity, a something of importance in our life when it really is but a part of the passing picture.

Losing our hate, fear, or love of the external realm is not achieving by the mouthing of words or the making of affirmations or declarations, but only by the developing of our consciousness through the realization of a divine Presence which in the end we realize to be our own Self, the very I of our being.

At the beginning of our spiritual joumey we were in darkness, gross spiritual ignorance; we did not know the truth. Because of this we were living in material consciousness: our whole sense of life was materialistic; everything that we thought of was from the material standpoint; and power was placed in matter or in form, either for good or foT evil. We were aware of ourselves as individuals living our own lives, fluctuating between successes and failures, all because we were limited to our own mind, our physical strength, and our personal sense of right and wrong.

One of the first things we learned was that we are not alone, that there is a Presence within us, a Presence greater than anything in the world, a Presence that in the beginning we call He, not for any particular reason because this Presence has no gender: It is neither male nor female; It is incorporeal and spiritual; It can never be seen, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled; It is known only as we experience It. We may say that we feel It, but we do not feel through any sense of touch that we have. More correctly, we might say we are aware of Its presence.

We practice this Presence, which we later identify as God, by waking in the morning and recognizing that God gave us this day, that God rales the day as God rules the night, and that just as God governs all the forces of nature, so does He govern us.

As human beings we are not God-governed, nor are we under the law of God; and for this reason anything can happen to us — anything from slipping in the bathtub to running out in front of an automobile, or picking up a tiny little germ and being laid low in bed and ill for weeks. Anything can happen to us until we become aware of the Presence and begin practicing the truth within ourselves every day.

As we continue in this practice, an inner stillness takes place. We become more quiet within, more peaceful; we have greater confidence in ourselves because now we know that there is Something greater than ourselves working with us, in us, and through us. It may be that we hear the still small voice speak to us as clearly as any person might speak, giving us specific instructions in a language that we cannot possibly misunderstand. Sometimes we are aware of a great light within ourselves, and just the presence of that light changes our entire outer experience.

There are many ways that this Presence can announce and reveal Itself to us, but one way we can know whether it is a true spiritual experience is that there are always signs following. These may be in the form of the healing of some physical, mental, moral, or financial discord. The experience may bring about happier human relationships with others; it may increase our supply; or it may find employment for us. In one way or another, a spiritual experience is always accompanied by signs following—what in metaphysics is called demonstration.

While this process is going on, something else is taking place at the same time. Intsead of putting our entire hope, faith, and reliance on the external world and instead of living by the world's standards of life, we now begin to see that there is a spiritual Something that is of far greater importance than the material. There is a Spirit within us, and it is this Spirit that is playing the most important role in our life.

If some need arises in our experience that involves a sum of money, we do not immediately set about planning, scheming, or figuring out how we can obtain that amount of money, but rather we realize, "Wait a minute! 'Man does not live by bread alone' — by outer effects; man does not live by money alone." Then we drop the problem, and very soon whatever is necessary for its solution comes into our experience. It may cost money, but if so, the money will be provided; or it may even come without the need for money. It is not money that is the need: it is the word of God that is the need, and when the word of God comes, it either furnishes the money, or whatever is necessary without money.

During the days of our dependence on human ways and means, if we were having a physical problem, such as the heart causing difficulty, our whole attention would have been centered on correcting the functioning of the heart; but now, through this practice of the Presence and through meditation, something within says, "Man shall not live by heart alone, by liver, lungs, digestion, or elimination, but by 'every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!'" Now we are not thinking in terms of heart, liver, or lungs; we are not thinking in terms of digestion, elimination, or muscles: we are realizing that man lives by the word of God. As a result of that realization, either the organ or function of the body is repaired, or we are able to live comfortably without it.

Through inner unfoldment we learn in this First Degree that whereas before we thought we needed things on the outer plane and our whole life struggle was to attain more of these things, now we relax from that struggle and realize that "man does not live by bread alone."

As we took our first faint steps toward the Kingdom, we were led to this spiritual revelation: "Know ye not that the kingdom of God is within you? Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Know ye not that the son of God, the Christ, dwelleth in you?"

These words came with some measure of conviction of their truth, and our heart answered, "This is what I believe, or what I would like to believe — that I am not alone in the world, that God has not sent me out into this world and then abandoned me. God has placed me on this earth that I may glorify Him. But how can I glorify God in any way, bound as I seem to be by my sins, my diseases, my false appetites, and my poverty? How can I glorify God in my struggle to survive, in my struggle to provide for my family? How can I glorify God?"

The answer is, "You cannot! But if the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you become the child of God, and are heir to all the heavenly riches."

Our first instruction in spiritual wisdom reveals that we are no longer to look up into the skies, and that the hills to which we look for our help refer to the high places in consciousness. When we return to the highest sense of our Self, to the Christ of God that is lifted up in us, we are looking unto the hills. Our vision turns within and upward into that altitude of consciousness where we can discern that the Word has become flesh and dwells in us.

When, in a flash, Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus was blinded to his ignorance, to his past, to everything that he had known before, and when all of his former beliefs were wiped out, he became a pure vessel, with his sight restored to him, a sight beyond physical sight — spiritual vision. He recognized that the Light shining within him was the Christ; he knew that the son of God had been raised up in him.

He dwelt alone with this sacred secret, retiring from the world to commune and tabernacle with this Word made flesh within him. He learned to be less concerned with the physical sense of life and its needs, wants, or fulfillments. Now he was lifted up in consciousness, and he was tabernacling in his mind with this Spirit that had been raised up, this Spirit bom in the lowly mental environment of the humanly wise, but spiritually ignorant, Saul of Tarsus. And just as Joseph and Mary carried the Babe down to Egypt for several years, so Paul carried his Christ to Arabia, hiding there and letting It grow and develop in him until he himself became so consciously aware of, and one with, It, that just as the old Saul had "died," now the new Paul began to live less and less, as the Christ lived in him more and more.

Finally, the day came when the Christ could speak to Paul, "Begin your ministry. Go out into the world and preach Me. Preach to all men that I, the Word made flesh, dwell in you, and not only in you, Paul, but in all those whom you address. Say to every one of them, 'The Spirit of God dwells in you.' And when your friends, the disciples, and others try to caution you to give this Word only to the Hebrews, for the Hebrews are the chosen of God, and only they are worthy to receive this Word, you will suffer their persecution; you will be tried for standing for the truth that the Word made flesh dwells in the consciousness of all mankind, whether Jew or Gentile, whether Christian or pagan. You will carry to the world the universality of the Word made flesh. You will break this bondage to one religion, to one teaching, to one teacher; you will reveal to all mankind that the Word becomes flesh, and dwells in the consciousness of all men, awaiting their recognition."

Paul went out into the world spreading the glad tidings to those of all religious beliefs: "I bring to you the message of the son of God. I bring to you the revelation of the Word made flesh that dwells among you as the Light of the world—as the Light unto your world. I bring to you the revelation that you are children of God. 'Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,' neither fasting nor feasting availeth anything: you are already the children of God, for the Spirit of God dwells in you."

The Word made flesh is the son of God, or Christ, and It is in the midst of us for the purpose of performing the will of God. In this very moment there is within us the son of God, the Christ, and Its function is to heal and to raise us out of our "dead" humanhood, to restore the "lost years of the locust," to forgive us whatever sins we have committed while in ignorance of our true identity. This Christ is forever saying to us:

I am come that you might have life, and that you might have, it more abundantly. Relax'. Rest! You have sought Me. I was here all the time, but now you have found Me.

Now you know the folly of sin; now you know the stupidity of it; and now you know something even more important: there is no necessity for sin. No longer is it necessary to steal, no longer is it necessary to bear false witness, to scheme, to plot, or to take unfair advantage, for I in the midst of you am mighty; I in the midst of you am your bread and your supply unto eternity. I am the source of opportunity and of inspiration. I am the light unto your world.

I am the resurrection, and if your body has been wasted away by sin or disease, I will raise it up again. I — the Word made flesh, the Christ that dwells in the midst of you — I am here to raise up your body from the tomb of sin, from the tomb of disease, and even from the tomb of old age.

Do not let even the calendar defeat you, for I am the resurrection, and I am here to resurrect you out of that old body into a body not made with hands, a spiritual body, eternal in the heavens. You do not have to go through physical death to attain this new body: just dwell in the realization of Me in the midst of you! Morning, noon, and night, ponder Me, think on Me, dwell in Me, trust Me, rely on Me.

Know the truth that I am in the midst of you, and I am mighty. I am performing the function of God in you and through you. I in the midst of you am the mediator between you and your infinite Source.

Those things that I receive from the Father, I bestow upon you. The gift of Grace, the strength, the healing power, the redemptive power, and the forgiving power that have been given to Me of the Father, I in turn give unto you. Look unto Me and be saved! Believe in the son of God, and that that son of God, the Word made flesh, the Christ, is in the midst of you.

Since "before Abraham was, I am" here in the midst of you. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Even if your parents forsake you, I will not forsake you. I will be with you unto the end of the world. I am to go before you to light your way and to prepare mansions fcr you.

Regardless of the trials or tribulations that face us on our human way, our recourse is to remember consciously the Word made flesh that dwells within us, and Its function. If we slip, Its function is to pick us up again; if we sin, Its function is to forgive us, seventy times seven.

After this truth has been revealed to us, we then begin a most difficult part of our journey because now comes that period when we have to make truth a part of our own being, and bring it to fruition in our individual life. The way to accomplish this is through practicing the presence of God.

Very soon this practice of the Presence becomes second nature to us, and we can hardly draw a breath without realizing that but for the grace of God, we could not draw it. The body of itself cannot breathe; the body of itself cannot stand on its feet. A body, separate and apart from consciousness, collapses and falls down. We cannot live a moment without the conscious realization of the function of this Spirit of God in us.

When the full significance of the meaning of the Word made flesh dawns upon us, and we realize that It is the mediator between God and man, we begin to see that this presence and power of mediation is in our consciousness, and therefore, all that the Father intends for us individually to have is ours by the grace of this realized, raised up son of God in us.

This continued practice of the presence of God leads to an inner silence and stillness, so that the turmoil of the world does not enter in, and when we sit down, we find ourselves in a meditation in which we come into conscious union with God, and we are witnesses now to the Christ that is living our life, beholders of Its glory.

We are no longer living by might or by power; we are no longer living by human wisdom, but by a divine Wisdom that flows out through us in what seems to be a human way. We live now, not by force, but by Grace, as if there were Something always out here knowing our need before we do, and supplying it. This comes about through the unfoldment and revelation that are attained in meditation when we have contacted that inner wellspring of life, that inner force which is our true Selfhood.

In relaxing from conscious effort, struggle, might, power, concern, worry, and fear, the glory of God can be made manifest through our personal life, so that all men may witness it and know that when the Spirit of God is come to individual life, that life becomes one of glory and of service. No one's life becomes glorified that he may go through life sitting on Cloud Nine: one's life is glorified that it may be a service and a dedication to the Creator of all, the Spirit of God that dwells in us.

During the First Degree, we come to the realization that there is this inner spiritual Substance, Activity, or Law, and that It is flowing out through our consciousness, becoming the substance of our new world. The man of flesh has "died," and in a measure that man who has his being in Christ is now beginning to come alive, resurrected from the tomb of material beliefs and risen into the realization of his spiritual identity.

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