Book References For Studying The Infinite Way

the nature of God. Take this one thought into meditation: What isGod? What is the nature of God? What is the character of God?What are the qualities of God? What is the true God? – not theGod we were taught to worship as children, or that we ignorantlyworship. Try to empty the already too full vessels, because theycannot be filled with the new wine. Empty your old misconceptionsand be willing to begin all over, even if you are seventy, with theadmission that you do not know God or you would be showing forthmore of God's Grace. Forget all that you have thought or beentaught about God and start afresh with this question, “What isGod?” The moment you begin to realize that God is Love you willknow that that love is flowing, unfettered, unlimited and free,because the nature of God is Infinity.It would be impossible for God to hand us just a thimbleful oflove; it would be impossible for God to give us ninety percent health,and it would be impossible for God to issue us sixty, seventy oreighty years of life. It is true that we are only demonstrating athimbleful of love and supply, and just sixty, seventy or eighty yearsof life and strength. It may be perfectly true that there is not muchlove coming in or going out from us, but that has nothing to do withGod. It has to do with some false belief that we in some way, if onlywe can find the magic formula, can start God's good flowing, or thatfor some reason we have stopped God's Good. Is it not ratherfantastic to believe that we should live only sixty, seventy or eightyyears in good health and strength when the only life we have is God,and God's life is infinite and is not dependent upon what we do aboutit? Life is dependent upon God's ability to maintain Its own lifeimmortally, eternally and indefinitely.Is it not strange that many have so few of the comforts of lifewhen the Master told us that Truth is the Comforter? He did not say alimited amount of comfort shall I send you, but he said TheComforter – The One, The wholeness of the Comforter, and all thistime we have been satisfied with a small portion because we havebelieved that is all we have earned or deserved.6

In making your will you should not ask how much each of yourchildren deserves and say, “This one has been fairly good, so we willleave him a fair amount, and this one wasn't very good at all, we willcut him out, but this one has been very good so we will leave him alarge amount.” No. You should say, “We have three children and wewill divide equally between them.” How much more bountiful is ourHeavenly Father, and how much less does the Father judge than wedo! God is not sitting in judgment or condemnation because ofour sins, because the only reason behind our sins, faults anderrors is ignorance.Are we responsible for our ignorance? No. We have listened firstto this one and then another, and through a feeling of obedience andloyalty and fear we have accepted these false beliefs, but we are notpunished for them.The School of Life is open to any of us at any time we wish tobegin, and in our enlightenment we will find freedom. It is only inignorance that we find discord, limitation, sin, disease and death. Inour enlightenment we find infinite abundance, freedom,immortality, eternality, so regardless of what your age may be,remember that there is only one subject on which you need to beenlightened: What is the nature of God?“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Can you seeGod as the great Love of the universe in whom is no hate, envy,jealousy, malice, revenge, or even remembrance of the past? Can yousee God as immortal, eternal, and infinite Life? If so, you can bringharmony into your bodies and lives overnight. It is only the beliefthat you are or are not doing something that is causing sickness andsin in the flesh. It is only the belief that the error lies within you, andit does not; so please try to remember this truth: Man can neverinfluence God. God is all good, and God's Grace endurethforever.Eliminate the use of I, me, mine, and center your thought whollyon the word God. No longer think about “what am I in relationship toGod?” Ask yourself these questions: Is God withholding any good?Can God withhold? Is there any reason for God to withhold?7

Does God have the power to shut off Its own benevolence, love,protection and care? There is no one on this earth great enough tomake God do more than God Itself is doing, and no sin great enoughto stop God from being God.In the fifteenth chapter of John, we read:I am the true vine, and my Father is the Husbandman.Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takethaway: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it,that it may bring forth more fruit.Now ye are clean through the word,which I have spoken unto you.Abide in me, and I in you.As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,except it abide in the vine;no more can ye,except ye abide in me.I am the vine, ye are the branches:He that abideth in me, and I in him,the same bringeth forth much fruit:for without me ye can do nothing.If a man abides not in me,he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;and men gather them, and cast them into the fire,and they are burned.If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;so shall ye be my disciples.As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you:continue ye in my love.If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;even as I have kept my Father's commandments,and abide in his love.These things have I spoken unto you,that my joy might remain in you,8

and that your joy might be full.This is my commandment,That ye love one another, as I have loved you.Now we will go back to the first verse: “I am the true vine andmy Father is the Husbandman” and “Ye are the branches.” Inyour mind's eye, visualize a tree trunk from which grows manybranches. Now, remove the trunk. All you have left are a lot of loosebranches hanging in space, unconnected with each other andunconnected with any thing, each under the necessity of supportingitself up there in the air. This is, of course, impossibility, and in ashort time each of these branches will have used up the little life thatwas in itself and fallen away. Now, let us restore the trunk of the treeand notice what has happened to the branches. We find them allconnected with the tree, and the tree itself is rooted and grounded inthe earth, from which it is drawing into Itself all the elements of theearth. From this great earth in which the tree is rooted, the moisture,the sunshine, the substance and minerals of the earth are being drawninto the tree, and all that is necessary for growth and development isflowing into the branches.“I [Christ] am the true vine, and my Father is the Husbandman.”The Christ is the vine (or the trunk) and we are the branches. Eachindividual seems to be a branch all by himself, unconnected, separateand apart from every other branch, and each is probably wonderinghow he can get along by himself. Where does he get his life, wisdomand supply? What supports him? Each one is hustling along,struggling and striving by his own individual efforts for happinessand salvation, as if that struggle would maintain and sustain his life.And here the Scriptures clearly state that we are branches but we areconnected with the Vine. The Christ is that vine, so although invisibleto human sense, each branch is connected with every other branch.None of us is separate and apart from each other, because we are allconnected with the vine. We call that the Christ, the Invisible Spirit ofGod, or the Invisible Son of God, and each one of us is connected toeach other because of this central vine or trunk. Now we find we are9

less dependent upon our own power and strength and wisdombecause we are connected with this central Nine.Because of this vine there is no need for us to live off eachother, or to struggle and fight against each other. We are united inthe Vine – we are One in Christ.We are one in Christ, but we go a step further and learn that myFather is the Husbandman. God, the Universal Truth, the UniversalLife, the Divine Mind, the Infinite Love, is the Husbandman, or theequivalent of the earth in which the tree is rooted and grounded. Weare branches invisibly connected to the vine, which in its turn is atone with God.“I and my Father are one.”“. . . The Father is in me, and I in him”and so this invisible Christ, the invisible trunk of the tree or the vinerooted and grounded in God receives all of good into It and pours itout unto us. Do you not see that our supply is not dependent upon us,any more than the supply of the branch of the tree is dependent uponitself? The branch is dependent only upon its contact with the vine,and the vine's contact with the ground, the Husbandman, or theFather within.In our experience this principle operates something like this: as astudent you are a branch, and when you go to a teacher or apractitioner, he may temporarily be the vine, the Christ – only,however, if the teacher knows that of himself he is nothing but thatvine. God, the Father within, is the Husbandman, and the teacher isone with the Husbandman. In his oneness with God, theHusbandman, all the truth, the healing and supplying power, flowsfrom the Father, through him, to you.It was through this realization that the Master was able to feed andheal the multitudes, and through this same realization any teacher orpractitioner can be the avenue through which Good flows to you. Is itdependent upon you? No. Is it dependent upon the practitioner or theteacher? No. It is dependent upon God's grace flowing through the10

vine into the branches, and as long as the vine remains rooted andgrounded in God, just that long is God flowing through the vine untoyou.Please remember that you will not always need a teacher orpractitioner to be your vine. That is only a temporary relationship.The Master told His disciples“. . . if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you .”In other words, after this truth has been demonstrated by contactwith a teacher or practitioner, and after you have gained wisdom inthe realization that the healing did not come from him but merelythrough him, from the Father within, you are ready for the next step.It is then that you will realize, “The Invisible Christ, the vine, isnot necessarily a person, not even a Jesus, but the Christ is thevery invisible part of me. Therefore, I, as the branch, amconnected with this invisible part of me, and it in turn is rootedand grounded in God. It is the Son of God in me. So, the Christ isin the Father, and the Father is in me.” That realization is thehealing Truth.At this point you may be wondering if there is anything you mightdo or not do, that would stop this flow of Good. Yes, there is onething. You can forget that there is an invisible vine to which you areconnected. You can forget that the Father is the Husbandman, andthat all of God's good is flowing forth. You can begin to believe that Iam separate and apart from you or that you are separate and apartfrom me, and that if you withhold something from me you willbenefit. “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth inme, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for withoutme ye can do nothing.” Unless you recognize your consciousoneness with the invisible Vine, the son of God of you, you can donothing. You will be purged, and you will be a branch using up itslittle old threescore years and ten of life, and finally you will dry upand fall off. You are purged, not by God, but because “ye did notabide in me and let my word abide in you.”11

The moment you set yourself apart as a branch and forget yourunion with the Invisible Christ, just because you cannot see, hear,taste, touch or smell it and so decide you do not have it – “O ye oflittle faith” – you will be purged. Always remember, even in yourdirest troubles, in your worst diseases, or in your most dreadful sin,that you are still connected with this invisible Vine, and that it in turnis rooted and grounded in the whole of the Father, the whole of theHusbandman. The very nature of God prevents God fromwithholding Its flow into the vine and through the vine into you andme. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall askwhat ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” But that does notmean that you are to ask in the sense of “Give me a more beautifulhome and a better automobile.” No, no, no. You merely have to askwhat you will, ask for the continuance of Infinite Grace; ask for thecontinuous realization of Omnipresence.“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss”God is Spirit and one does not ask Spirit for material things, whichis just what we do when we pray for things, and then wonder whythey are not received. It is then that someone might say, “Well, youdon't go to church very often, and you aren't very kind orforgiving, and you don't have your dishes washed by noon, so youreally are not very deserving.”God is the infinite Father. Think to what degree you are a father ormother, and then think of God as infinite Father. God is InfiniteFather, no respecter of persons, and through the invisible vine iscontinuously filling us with everything necessary for our unfoldment.“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit” Do youunderstand the meaning of that? Your father is glorified only inproportion as you bear much fruit, rich fruit. Your Father is notglorified by penny-pinching, or by going into a market asking forthe cheapest cuts of meat and the cheapest products. Your Fatheris not glorified when you have to get along with a third-handautomobile. No, no, no, that does not glorify the Father.The Father does not require that you have anything in the materialrealm, but what you do have of good is but the evidence of the12

Father's glory and not yours. If you do have a good home or a goodincome and begin to believe that you are responsible for thembecause of your understanding or your personal goodness, be notsurprised if you are cut off from them. That would be because youwere glorifying your own qualities, your own nature and character,and those you do not possess. “Why callest thou me good? None isgood, save one, that is God,” and when you realize, “The glory ofGod is showing forth through this good that has come to me,” youmay expect even greater fruitage because you have acknowledged theSource. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him” and He will give youunlimited and abundant good. “If ye keep my commandments, yeshall abide in my love.”The Master gave us only two commandments: one was to loveGod, and the other was to love your neighbour as your self, and sohow can you love God except in the realization of God as Love?How can you love God if you believe that He is withholding somegood or is punishing you, or doing something that you would notdo to your own children? You can only love and honor God if youcan see Him as glorious infinite Life – Life unfettered,unhindered and unaffected by man's virtue or transgression. Tolove God and your neighbour as yourself is to visualize that treeand remember that every branch is your neighbour and that yourneighbour is deriving his good through the same invisible Christfrom the Father, the Husbandman.It may be necessary occasionally, even while you voice this prayerfor your neighbour, that you temporarily lend or give him some of theworld's goods in order to help him over an acute stage of lack orlimitation, but you will never have to undertake to continuouslyuphold or support the deserving poor, because there will be nodeserving poor if you love your neighbour as yourself. Every timeyou see an individual in some form of sin, disease, lack, limitation,deformity, or even death, just catch a glimpse of our tree and silentlyrealize, “Thank God for that trunk.” That trunk unites us inoneness and enables each of us to draw from the one Infinite Source,and not from each other. It is then that you are loving God supremely13

and your neighbour as yourself; because you are knowing the sametruth about your neighbour that you are knowing about yourself.The Master was careful to describe 'neighbour' so we would notmake any mistake. Your enemy is your neighbour. When you pray foryour neighbour, be sure to include your enemy, for unless you prayfor them that persecute you and despitefully use you, and forgivethem until seventy times seven, you are just loving certainneighbours, and people have gotten into a lot of trouble for that.“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down hislife for his friends.”We lay down our life every time we declare, “I have no life –God is my life and God is your life.” God is the only life, the onlylove, the only substance, and the only supply. Every time you reachout to Truth someone is laying down his personal sense of life in therealization that his life, being God's life, is your life. Your life, beingGod's life, is His life, and it is One Life. So, when we give up thatpersonal sense of life and say, “This is not my life, this is the life ofGod, which is mine,” we automatically say goodbye to a sixty orseventy year span and are resurrected in the realization of God as theinfinity of our life.In these passages from John we catch the true vision of God, theInfinite Invisible, as the source of all good, which can in no wisewithhold any good. Good is forever pouring Itself forth individuallyin what we call the Son of God, the Christ, which is the invisible partof you, and then through that invisible you out into the physical body,out into the mind and Soul and Spirit of individual being to showforth the glory of God. We are warned, the branch cannot bear fruitof itself, so there can be no personal goodness, health or wealth.The branch must draw it through the vine from the God-head.“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away”might lead us to believe that after all God probably punishes a littlebit, but that is not true. If you do not abide in this truth, if you do notmaintain your conscious oneness with the Christ within you, andthrough it your oneness with the Father, you will be purged. It will be14

you separating yourself from God's Grace, and thus being purged,destroyed, burned up, withered away. To abide in this truth is to liveand move and have your being in this consciousness of your onenesswith the Christ, and the Christ's oneness with the Father.This, of course, does not mean that we are connected with people,but connected with the Invisible, so that were you set down inmid-ocean or in the desert, you would be able to say, “Ah, but I amstill a branch of the vine, and the vine is still connected with theHusbandman, God, and therefore the place whereon I stand isHoly Ground.” Every time we think thoughts of hopelessness anddespair it is as if we acknowledge that we are a branch cut off fromthe vine, and the vine from the Husbandman, and that we cannotreach either; yet all the time It is right here where we are. It is withinyou, and It is connected with Omnipresence.“I go to prepare a place for you . . .that where I am, there ye may be also.”You may be wondering “Where is I am?” Wherever you aresaying “I am,” that is where I am; and where I am; that is where youare. Wherever you are; there is the vine, and the Father, theHusbandman – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.You must always remember that the Husbandman, God, does notgive and does not withhold – It just continually Is. The vine ofyou, the Christ, is not sitting in jud

Book References for Studying The Infinite Way Page 4 of 4 God, the Substance of All Form Heart of Mysticism, The (Infinite Way Letters 1955-1959) I Stand on Holy Ground Infinite Way, The Invisible Supply Joel Goldsmith Reader, The Journey Back to the Father's House, The Leave Your Nets