XVII. Finding Me.
1914 original text, YOGeBooks typeset transcription; original text extent only
You have learned to “Be Still,” and you have perhaps felt My Presence within. If so, realizing I AM there, ask Me a question. Then, with a silent, earnest prayer to Me for an answer, but without anxiety, care or personal interest, and with mind a perfect void, wait confidently for the impressions that will come.
Should a thought come in answer that you recognize as what you have heard or read somewhere, cast it out immediately, and say, “No.” Father, what do You say?
Other thoughts may come from other human sources, but if you are alert you will recognize them as such and refuse to accept them. And then, if you persist in asking Me, you will finally get an answer that you will feel is really from Me.
145 learned to distinguish My Voice from all other voices, and can keep your personal interest wholly suppressed, then will you be able to hold silent communion with Me at will, without interference from others’ ideas, beliefs and opinions; and you can ask any question you wish, or another can ask you any question on any problem on which they need help, and I will that moment place in your mind the words to speak, either silently to yourself, or audibly thru your tongue to the other.
You, My Beloved, who have consecrated your self to Me, and are bending every effort to find union with Me, but instead have found apparently that every prop of the World’s support has been withdrawn or is being withdrawn, and that you are without money and without friends and know not where to turn for human help;
Learn, My Blessed One, that you are very, very close now, and that if you will only continue
146 guide you, resting and trusting absolutely in My Promise, I will very soon bring to you a Joy, a Fulfillment, a Peace, that human words and human minds can not possibly picture.
For you have obeyed My Commands , and you have trusted Me, and have sought first My Kingdom and My Righteousness, and therefore will I add all other things unto you, even those the World has denied you.
But you, my Dear One, who likewise have consecrated your self to Me, but who are still holding to some of the World’s standards, being unable to let go and trust wholly to Me;
You to whom, therefore, I have brought failure, disappointment, even poverty, in order to teach you the real value of all worldly things, their impermanence, their lack of power to provide happiness, their having nothing to do with My Real Life;
You, dear child, who cannot yet see this and your heart is full of anxiety and fear because coming from, or the money for next week’s rent, or for the past due mortgage;
Listen once more to My Words long since given to you in the Sermon on the Mount.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
“Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
“Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not; neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
147 field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed ?
“(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
“Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Do you need any more definite Commands or any more definite Promise than these?—You who have consecrated yourself to Me, and call yourself My disciple.
Listen!
148 Have you ever been in need but what I always appeared with help just at the right moment? Has there ever been a time when things looked dark that I did not bring Light?
Can you, with what you know now, look back over your life and see where you could have ordered it better? Would you exchange your Spiritual understanding for the earthly possessions of any one you know? Have I not done all this, despite the fact you have been rebelling and refusing to listen to Me all your life?
Ah, My Children, can you not see that money, home, clothes, food, and their acquirement, are only incidents, and have nothing to do with your real Life, excepting as you make them real by thinking into them so much importance, and letting Me remain only a side issue?
And if it becomes necessary for Me to take the things of the world away that you may learn the Truth,—that I AM the only important thing
149 Me,—I do this—as does the true physician who, in order that the patient may be assisted to health, first removes the cause of disease— that real and lasting Happiness and Prosperity can be yours.
And this applies to you also, My Child, you who have lost health, have lost courage, have lost all hold of your Self, and after weary years of seeking without from earthly physicians and remedies, following faithfully every instruction and suggestion given, in order to regain the Life you have lost,—you who have turned finally within to Me, with the faint hope that I may be able to help you.
Know, My Little One, that you, too, must come in complete surrender to Me, the One and Only Physician who can heal you. For I AM the Life Omnipotent within you. I AM your Health, your Strength, your Vitality. Not until you can feel ME within, and know I AM all this to you,—real and lasting Health is not for you. now going to tell you the means of obtaining all these things—Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Union, Peace.
In the following words lie hidden the Great Secret. Blessed be you who find it.
Be still! And KNOW,—I AM,—GOD.
KNOW I AM in you. KNOW I AM You, KNOW I AM your LIFE. KNOW All Wisdom, All Love, All Power abides in this Life, which is flowing freely thru your entire being NOW.
I AM the LIFE, I AM the INTELLIGENCE, I AM the POWER in all Substance,—in all the cells of your body; in the cells of all mineral, vegetable and animal matter; in fire, water and air; in Sun, Moon and Stars. I AM that in you and in them which IS. Their consciousness is One with your consciousness, and All is My consciousness. Thru My consciousness in them All that they have or are is yours—for the asking.
Speak to them then IN MY NAME.
150 with Me.
Speak in the consciousness of My Power in you and of My Intelligence in them.
Speak—COMMAND what You WILL in this consciousness,—and the Universe will rush to obey.