Nicol C. Campbell
© The School of Truth
Source p. 197, Jul / Aug 2010 - The Path of Truth

"The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear?" - Psalm 27:1

How far do you trust God? What is your understanding of faith? Is it something nebulous, is it just prayer - going down on your knees and beseeching, or having a meditation or relaxation and then expecting all the good that you require to be poured out from God's kingdom into your lap - or is your faith something real, something that you use every single moment of your lives?

I meet hundreds of people of whom the ordinary man in the street would say, they have tremendous faith. Yet despite the fact of their spiritual growth, despite the fact that they have had many demonstrations, there always seems to arise a condition that is beyond their faith. They feel cut off from God. They feel that all the years they have been trying to know God, have been lost, wasted, and they run from one place to another for the confirmation of the faith they had, for just that human word - the expression of sympathy - that God will and does work, not only once in a life-time, but always.

They say, "I know that God is, and that I am His living manifestation. Why these fear thoughts? Why have I lost control of my faith? I know it is real; I have seen it work. Why is it that now, in this emergency, after all these years of building up a knowledgeable faith, I have this fear? After many discussions with different people, I have found that the answer to their question is not that they do not believe, not that they do not know that God is now working in and through and for them, but that they are not sure whether it is God's will that they should succeed. Always the element of doubt - "How do I know that such and such a thing should not happen for my good perhaps?"

I have often thought the same thing, when confronted with conditions which seem insurmountable. I do not have to try and persuade myself that God is working now. I do not have to build up the consciousness of His Presence by affirmation, because I know He is real. He works all the time, but my human, limited mind asks the same question, "Is this His will? If it is His will there is nothing that I can do. If it is His will that such and such a thing should take place, all my faith will not produce a single atom of demonstration relating to the solution."

Christ said in effect, "If you have faith, if you dare to trust God and act fearlessly, you are having that grain of mustard seed faith and you can say to this mountain of difficulty 'Be thou removed and cast into the sea' and it shall be done if you believe it in your heart."

But how do we know that God has not some other plan for our going to Him? We feel in our hearts and minds that what we desire is a direct path to God, but does God say, "No, I want you to come this way"? If he does, then as far as I can see, faith has its limitations. It is not according to your faith but according to the will of God, so you could never be sure!

I am praying for this and it is important that I have the desired result. To me it is important, and I am going to face up to this problem no matter how the negative condition may shriek out at me, and no matter that no human being can solve it. I am going to face up to it in exactly the same way as though I were going to demonstrate five Rands. There is no fear in my whole make-up, there is no doubt of the desired result, because I am so sure of it. Then I say, "Thy will be done" because I believe that His will is good. I believe that His will is health, happiness and all our needs met now, not in some after-life, because our after-life will be taken care of by the same Spiritual Power.

The point I am trying to bring out is that we say, "Thy will be done," and if good comes it is the Father's will, and if the evil comes it is still His will. That is merely confusing and leads nowhere.

I have got to be certain that faith is as fixed an immutable a law as the law of gravity or any other law. We are taught it shall be done according to our faith, with no other qualification, and it is done unto us. That has been my experience.

It is of no value to me whatsoever to come here and teach you what I believe, if I find spiritual law is limited or has certain limitations placed upon it. Therefore, regardless of conditions, when I say, "Thy will be done, Father," I mean "Eliminate from my consciousness anything that is not perfect, anything that has an element of doubt in it. Let me be sure of You, so truly sure of You, that at the last moment, when it appears impossible, when I am cut off from all human help, I can still turn to You and say "Thy will be done" and know Your will is good, Your will is happiness in our lives, health for our bodies and success in our affairs.

Yes, it is very hard at times to dare to trust God and act fearlessly. I have just returned from a part of the country where, despite the appalling conditions of poverty, the heat and the fever, despite every single part of nature that seems to be working against man, I have seen a garden in the wilderness built up entirely by faith, faith that nothing can deter. It is not where you are that is important, but what you are. If you could see some of the things that I see, poverty, disease and lack, I am sure there are many of you who would feel that God has indeed poured out a bountiful supply of everything that is good into your own lives.

I know it has taught me a very good lesson. You and I would never be able to stand some of the conditions I have seen. So will you make up your minds that in bringing about any demonstration, whatever it is - those of you who are starting out to prove Him and to apply faith in His changeless law - will you believe when you say, "Thy will be done," that you mean good to be done here and now? I could not have faith in God for one single moment if I felt that what we are teaching today was untrue, or if I felt that God was limited. I would not waste my time teaching it, not for one second, because I would never be sure. I would not be a hypocrite. I cannot say, "Go in faith; it is done," but with the mental reservation that I think it would be advisable if I said, "Thy will be done," because I do not know what God's will is.

I believe I am an expression of Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience, but I am in baby class. If I find my own faith is weak it is not because God's power is limited. The good which I desire has been in manifestation since the beginning, but if I fear, then I am destined to fail before I set out to have faith in God as health, happiness and abundance. I am frustrated because I think God may or may not bring it about.

Eliminate once and for all the thought that God is a personality. It is because we have been brought up to believe in the personality of God, that it is so indelibly imprinted upon our minds, and so we set a limit to His power. He works only through spiritual law, and He not only works through spiritual law, He is that law. That is how I want to work with God, to know He is absolutely changeless. If He were not, then faith is a valueless farce. Then I may as well say, before I start out in Truth, "Your will be done, and if it is good it is good, if it is evil then I bow my head to it because there is nothing I can do. You are all the power in the Universe and I cannot change Your will." But I have proved, hundreds of times, that God's will for me is only good - never evil - and so I know that faith in God is always rewarded with good.

I am going to believe, and hold fast to the belief, that what Christ taught is real, unadulterated Truth; whether it is for the removal of some minor condition, or of something that it is truly impossible for you or me to change, I shall always believe. I shall always hold on to the Truth that I am not dealing with something outside of myself, I am merely the directive agent of the Spirit of Life and knowledge and power within me, and that it has no option, no alternative, but to obey its own terms. To prove it I am going to do everything to dare to trust Him and act fearlessly, because I know there are always two paths in our lives - the negative and the positive.

Regardless of the conditions, or how they may scream out at me that they cannot be changed, I am going to do something - anything - that will make me have faith, to prove sincerely, honestly in my own mind and heart the power of God.

I shall hold God to His promise, not in any arrogant way, but by His own words: "Concerning the works of My hands command ye Me." I cannot command God in faith if I am walking up a negative path, because I know I am not having faith, so it behoves me to seek the first step which will indicate I am on the path of faith, and then fearlessly take the step, dare to trust Him. What am I doing when I act fearlessly? Am I not having faith? Am I not voluntarily cutting myself off from all human help - jumping out of an aeroplane without a parachute, as it were, or into the sea without a life-belt?

I am not trusting Him when I hold on to those aids, or any other human aids. It is when you trust him that God works for you. It is in these past years that I have learned that. Like you, I have been very afraid and worried sick; I have forced myself, compelled myself, against my own inclinations, to trust God, because I must be sure, I must know.

I must be so sure of God within myself that when you ask a question I must know He will work for you if you fulfill the conditions. I must know it, and not start worrying after you have left my office - "I wonder if it will work? What is God's will with that person? Do I know?" I can only teach you from my own personal experience. I am not interested in the experiences of others, except as they are a confirmation of my own. But they are of little value to me until they become my own conscious knowledge. The moment you can say with me, "I know," there is no longer the airtight tension which shuts off the good, but a clear, wide-open channel through which flows the substance of God, and it is for you to mould this into livingness as whatsoever you desire, without any limitations whatever.

Dare to trust God, and show it. Act fearlessly, even if you have to make so much noise that you cannot hear yourself think. I know that you are confronted with conditions that appear too large for you. I know how you are going to fear, and I know the type of thoughts that will run through your mind, so make a noise, drown the fear thoughts and the negative conditions, and flood them with the spirit of God that is already in manifestation in that condition.

All the money in the world, all the health in the world is valueless to you until you can say with Christ - the Spirit of God implanted in every single human being - "I know that it is my Father's will, the will of Life that I have His good NOW" - not tomorrow or the next day or next year, but NOW, this very instant, when you claim it, and act fearlessly. The more conditions crowd you, swamp you, the more still and calm you can become, because it is always at the darkest hour just before the dawn that His help comes and then, as if to show His love, He not only gives you the good you desire but He heaps it up, presses it down, runs it over with added good, not according to your needs but according to His love.
__________

Ref:  The Path of Truth, Vol. 30   No. 4.