The Son of God Awakes!

Joel Goldsmith was a great twentieth century Christian mystic.  His writings have been companions of mine for many years now, and I return to them from time to time for their wisdom, clarity, and uncompromising honesty.  So today, I want to look at three quotes from his writings, and what these words mean for us here and now.

First, what do we know about who we are?
"There is an existence, eternal in the heavens, eternal in divine consciousness, which has existed even before Abraham was.  Do you see?  I AM, infinite individuality, cannot be wiped out or destroyed or absorbed into another being.  I AM simply IS, forever.  As we find our true Self, as we come more and more into the realization of our spiritual individuality, we find a certain groove or rhythm in consciousness in which we individually 'fit'.  And when so located we find ourselves in outer circumstances or places or conditions of eternal peace and harmony.  This peace is not a static peace, but a vital state of spiritual being and activity.  This peace is sometimes a deep stillness within, a quiet joy in worldly affairs.  But sometimes it may appear temporarily as warfare, which represents the battle for the surrender, sometimes painfully, of our false sense of self with the realization of spiritual harmony and spiritual Selfhood.  In meditation, in quiet contemplation of the soul, we achieve or attain this groove or spiritual rhythm.  Then, and only then, do we know the government of the realm of Spirit, the recompense and activity of the Christ.  Then our values are no longer based on material estimates, but rather are measured by the infinite standards of the Kingdom, which is Love."

I love the idea of a divine groove or rhythm that is uniquely ours... and I love the awareness that uniqueness and individuality are not exclusive.  They are inclusive attributes, like the uniqueness of each snowflake is inclusive of the entire snow bank!  Only a false sense of egoic self sees separateness and exclusivity and competition among the unique ideas of God that we are.

Next, what do we know about Who God Is?
"We must come to know the nature of God, and to do that we must experience God.  We cannot go on talking about God; the time has come when we must experience God.  This is the most important part of our journey.  We must know God, really know God now, without waiting to know more or do more or to die.  We must experience God now, and this we do directly through our periods of silence, our periods of peace... the quiet listening to the still, small Voice within that reveals Itself to us." 

How willing are we to be quiet?  How willing are we to set aside frequent times during each day to simply be still?  Do we really want to experience God, or do we want to just talk and theorize, to look spiritual?  The Bible tells us to "Be still and know that I Am God."  We are all destined to directly experience God, the Truth of our Being.  

And what must we do to experience God?
"We read in the gospel of John, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father."  There is the crux of the whole matter.  No human being can see God or know God.  Only the Son of God, the Christ consciousness of you and of me, can ever witness and behold the presence of God.  In other words, it is not our human mind that will know God.  Never with the human mind will we see or know or understand God or spiritual living.  But the Son of God, the Christ consciousness, our spiritual sense, can behold the Truth that is God.  This is where the human world has failed... trying to know God through thinking, trying to know God with the intellect, trying to explain God.  It cannot be done.  God is discerned and known only through spiritual sense."

Our human attempts to know things by objectifying and intellectualizing are really egoic methods of maintaining our illusory separateness and autonomy.  We think if we can grasp something intellectually we are controlling it while keeping it at a distance.  These imaginary exercises are entertaining, and we have built enormous institutions and social constructs on these self-impressing edifices.  But ultimately there is only one thing to be known, truly.  And that is to return to our right mind, to the awareness of Oneness, the Christ consciousness that is called the Son of God.  This awareness is already sleeping within us, like the Christmas story of the innocent babe lying in a manger.  We have only to be quiet and gently awaken our sleeping innocence... and then, behold!  The Son of God awakes!  The awareness of the Allness of God dawns on us like the radiance of the Christmas star... the most natural awareness in the world.  Glory to God in the highest!  The awakening of the Son of God is our only real purpose in all the illusory undertakings of this weary world.

"The power of decision is our own.  And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God.  To recognize God's Son implies that all self-concepts have been laid aside and recognized as false.  Their arrogance has been perceived.  And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 10:1-5