"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 26 - "My Kingdom Is Not of This World"

To live in My kingdom is to live in the circle of eternity. "This world" is the world of mankind, but My kingdom is of an entirely different nature. My kingdom is not the realm of physical health. My kingdom is not the realm of material riches. We all know what constitutes physical health, but what is the health of My kingdom? What is the health of the spiritual kingdom? What is God's state of health, and the state of health of the son of God?

We know of what material supply and material wealth are constituted, but what are heavenly riches? What does it mean to be "joint-heir to all the heavenly riches"? What are the heavenly riches to which we are heir, and yet which we are not enjoying in the human scene? They cannot have anything to do with such things as money, investments, or property because "My kingdom is not of this world."

On the spiritual path, therefore, there is no use in going to "My kingdom" to get something for this world. We must seek first the kingdom of God; we must leam how to pray so that in praying to a God of Spirit we are praying only for heavenly riches, spiritual health, and spiritual companionship.

As long as we are trying to get material riches, physical health, or human companionship, that is what we will get, and it will sometimes be good and sometimes evil, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, because all materiality is made up of the belief in two powers —good and evil. But if we keep our consciousness aligned with spiritual reality and keep our desires in the realm of spiritual form and spiritual well-being, we shall experience the joy and the peace of spiritual oneness.

To seek to know the nature of heavenly riches, of spiritual health, and of spiritual companionship is not seeking for anything of a material or human nature: it is a resting in the Grace of the spiritual kingdom. The word "Grace" cannot be translated into such things as money, houses, or families. We have to leave the word "Grace" right where it is, and if we do not understand the meaning of Grace; we can always pray that God reveal His grace to us.

Getting rid of problems before we have attained spiritual wisdom merely opens the way for another problem, or seven problems, until we are compelled to leam to pray aright. For example, if a headache or any other ill can be removed without advancing us in spiritual understanding, what will have been gained except a temporary period without a headache? Sooner or later, another headache will come, and eventually we will have to take our stand and realize that this problem will be with us forever unless we are given the necessary wisdom with which to meet it. Just as Jacob wrestled all night long with the angel, praying that he would not leave him until he had received his enlightenment, or the spiritual truth necessary to the overcoming, so must we be steadfast in prayer.

Only our problems compel us to seek spiritual good. For the most part, human beings are content with good health, a sufficiency of supply, and moderate happiness in family life, and after these needs have been satisfied, many persons feel that there is little more to be desired from life. Those of us, however, who have had problems thrust upon us, not by God, but through our ignorance of God, and have had to go through some very trying experiences, know that but for those problems we would never have risen above the level of being good human beings.

To live the spiritual life and to pray aright means that insofar as possible we put the problem aside, and begin with the realization that God's kingdom is not of this world, so it is useless to pray for anything in this world. Let us therefore leam to pray for those things that are of My kingdom, and to seek only the grace of that Kingdom.

Our function on the spiritual path is to leam what the kingdom of God consists of. Isaiah said, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" The human being is that "man, whose breath is in his nostrils." Why, then, should we take thought about making that man better, healthier, or richer? Why take thought about him when we can take thought about the son of God? But first we must know what the son of God is.

The ancient Greeks taught: "Man, know thyself." And what is this Self, but the son of God in us. There is a part of us, an area of our consciousness which is the son of God, and yet how few of us have any knowledge of this part of our being or any acquaintance with our innermost Self? How can we know that son of God in us? Only by turning within where the kingdom of God is, taking the time to be alone to seek the kingdom of God within. If we have to beg God, then let us beg God to reveal Himself, to reveal the son of God in us, to reveal the nature of His grace and of the spiritual kingdom, and the nature of the heavenly riches to which we are heir.

As we give ourselves to the seeking of this spiritual kingdom, we discover that our outside world falls into place by itself; things begin to happen; and suddenly we awaken to find that the grace of God has brought us something of an unusual nature in the form of a healing, an enriching, a supplying, a companioning, or the teacher whose function it is to open our eyes. But these will not come while we are praying for them. They come, not by taking thought or by praying for them, but by dropping them out of our thought and letting God take care of our needs in His own way while we center our attention on what the kingdom of God realized is. All the enduring things of the material realm are added unto us when we do not pray for them, when we seek only the Kingdom, when our thought is no longer on the things of this world, and is centered on the spiritual kingdom.

When we have progressed sufficiently far on this Path, doubtless we, too, as was the Master, will be tempted to use spiritual power, and it is then that we must resist the temptation to perform miracles, and be guided by the Master's spiritual wisdom not to glorify or cater to the self. If we could turn stones into bread, we would not need God, and those of us who are on the spiritual path would rather be an hungered than to find ourselves not needing God. It would be tragic to come to the place where we believe that we have risen so high that God has no place in our life. Rather, then, than attempt to perform a miracle that will make a show of our power, we will put away the temptation to pray for persons, conditions, or circumstances and make our life of prayer one of spiritual seeking, a seeking for spiritual enlightenment and spiritual Grace, one of praying for the understanding of the nature of spiritual riches and spiritual fulfillment.

What is fulfillment? What does "in thy presence is fullness of joy" mean? How does that fullness express and interpret itself? What is the fullness of God? When we seek the understanding of that spiritual wisdom, all things will be added unto us, and they will appear in due course without our taking thought: we need only do everything that is given us to do every hour of every day and do it to the best of our ability, keeping our mind centered on God, the things of God, and the realm of God.

As has been pointed out before, one of the cardinal principles of spiritual living is that, to the transcendental consciousness, temporal power is not power whether it is of a physical or a mental nature. Only the grace of God is power, only the realized consciousness of oneness, of one power and of the non-power of all else other than God. Prayers have failed because they have largely been an attempt to overcome a temporal power which in reality is not a power. Such prayer is like trying to overcome the mirage on the desert or like trying to overcome two times two is five. How can we use a power over a non-existence?

The human world is filled with temporal powers: disease, money, politics, war, and preparations for war. To persist in the age-old prayer of "God, overcome our enemies," or "God, overcome those atomic bombs" is to waste precious time and energy because such prayers have never succeeded and never will succeed.

The struggle physically and mentally, and finally the attempt to use God to overcome the evils of this world, must fail because they are not power and do not need to be overcome. It is only our acceptance of the universal belief that evil is power that causes us to linger in evil conditions. The instant we accept God as Omnipotence, our problems begin to fade away.

When we realize that the Christ-kingdom is not of this world, and yet that that Kingdom is the only power in the world, then, when we are presented with an evil appearance, no matter who or what it may be, we stop and ask ourselves, "Is this spiritual power? Is this evil power of God? Can there by an evil power coming from God? Is not any such claim of power, therefore, only temporal power?"

The whole teaching of the Master was the revelation of the nonpower of that which appeared as power. To the blind man, he said, "Open thine eyes": he knew that there was no power to keep them closed. To the man with the withered hand, he was able to say, "Stretch forth thine hand": he knew that there was no power to stay the hand. Jesus' entire ministry was a revelation that what is called "this world," while it exists and he was given the mission to dissolve it. does not exist as power: it exists only as an appearance. That realization enables us to sit back in quietness and in confidence and realize:

God alone is power. This, that has been troubling me and that I have been battling, is an appearance that I am retaining in my thought as a mental image: it is not really a thing. I cannot win a battle over nothing, but I can relax in quietness and in confidence, and realize that this picture with which I am confronted is nothing but a picture — not a person or a condition, even though it may appear as person or condition.

As soon as we recognize evil as temporal power, we can inwardly smile and realize that this means no power because that which is not of God is not power. God has given us dominion over all that exists, and therefore, this that appears as effect is temporal. All power is invisible. This danger that is so very visible and apparent cannot be power and cannot be of God.

And as we sit beside a person who is ill, and realize, "I will not give power to this disease, this sin, or this false appetite. This is temporal power which means it is no power, and I will not believe in it," we shall find him getting better, and then we will know that we have proved, if only in a small way, that temporal power is not a power in any form.

The spiritual life is not the overcoming of evil but the recognition of the nature of evil: evil is not ordained of God; evil has no law of God to sustain it; evil has no God-existence, God-purpose, God-life, God-substance, or God-law: it is temporal, the "arm of flesh," or nothingness.

As long as we are praying for a God-power to overcome evil, we are resisting evil, but when we are anchored in the truth, we relax in the realization that this thing that is facing us is a mirage, not a power, and that we need not fear what mortal man can do to us, or what he can think or be. All fear of mortal power is dissolved— temporal power, material power, the laws of infection, contagion, calendars, or age—because we know that nothing in the realm of effect is power. All power is invisible, and that which is appearing to us as power is a mental image in thought, a picture, a mistaken concept of power.

Knowing this truth will make us free, but while we are knowing it our thoughts and action must conform to the truth we are knowing. We cannot be denying the power of effect and the next minute indulge in it, or to put it more bluntly, we cannot deny the power of effect and then hate somebody or fear somebody because he is a part of that effect.

If we are unable to do this one hundred per cent, or if occasionally we fail, we must not be disheartened. It is hardly possible for anyone to change overnight from a material state of consciousness to a spiritual state of consciousness, or to become wholly and completely spiritual after only a year or two of study and meditation.

Let us be grateful that from the moment we have set foot upon the spiritual path and begun to practice living this way, in some measure, we are attaining that "mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus," and in that measure, however small, we are demonstrating outwardly the fruitage of it. The point is not that we expect to attain Christhood in a single bound, but that with every day of this kind of prayer and meditation, we are attaining some measure of that Christmind. As we look out at the temporal universe, let us realize:

This world is not to be feared or hated or loved: this is the illusion, and right where the illusion is, is the kingdom of God, My kingdom.

My kingdom is the reality. This, that my eyes see or my ears hear, this is the superimposed counterfeit, not existing as a world, but as a concept, a concept of temporal power.

My kingdom is intact; My kingdom is the kingdom of God; My kingdom is the kingdom of the children of God; and My kingdom is here and now.

All that exists as a temporal universe is without power. I need not hate it, fear it, or condemn it: I need only understand it.

As we are able to understand the nature of the temporal universe, the forms of this world will begin to disappear: forms of sickness, sin, false appetites, and lack and limitation. All these will drop away, and in their place will be harmonious conditions and relationships, and these will be the showing forth of our higher state of consciousness.

Our world is the extemalization of our state of consciousness: as we sow, so shall we reap. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption: sin, disease, death, lack, and limitation. If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap life everlasting.

The word "sow" can be interpreted to mean "to be conscious of." If we are conscious that the spiritual kingdom is the real and that that to which the five physical senses bear witness is without power, temporal, the "arm of flesh," we are sowing to the Spirit and will reap harmony in body, mind, purse, and human relationships. If we continue to fear "man, whose breath is in his nostrils," if we continue to fear infection, contagion, and epidemics, we are sowing to the flesh; whereas, if we realize that all power is in the Invisible, we are sowing to the Spirit, and will reap divine harmony.

My kingdom, the Christ-kingdom, is the real, and it is power. All that we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, the temporal kingdom, is the illusion and is not power.

The spiritual path is a training ground where we gain the conviction that the temporal world is presenting merely a picture of temporal power, and temporal power is not power. The Invisible alone is power, the Invisible which is the I we really are.

Let us cany that idea into our consideration of the body. Because our body is visible, there is no power in it; it cannot be well or sick: the power is in the I that we are. If we believe that this body has power, we are giving power to the temporal universe. Looking out at a finite world and a finite body, we can change our entire experience by realizing:

Since you are effect, the power is not in you; the power it not in this body: the power is in me. I direct my body, and my body cannot talk back to me. I talk to it, and I assure it that I am its life, I am its intelligence, I am its substance, I am its law—that I which I am— and then the body has to obey.

Such a practice turns us away from looking for material good. We are not thinking in terms of a better physical body: we are "absent from the body, and . . . present with the Lord," and our whole attention is turned in the direction of spiritual harmony, not better human relationships, not better health, and not just more dollars, but to the peace and harmony of My kingdom:

My kingdom reigns here, not human good and not human evil — My kingdom, the kingdom of God.

If there is any human evil here, any sin, any hatred, envy, jealousy, or malice, what of it? It is not person, and it is not power. It cannot manifest, and therefore it has to die of its own nothingness. It is temporal, and it is impersonal; it is forever without person in whom, on whom, or through whom to manifest. It is the "arm of flesh," or nothingness.

Divine love, not human love, is the only power operating in the place where I am. Divine wisdom, not human intelligence, is the only power operating in my life.

Thus, more and more our attention is centered on God's kingdom and His grace rather than on form and effect, and then as we are absent from the body of form and effect, that body, form, and effect appear harmoniously.

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