LECTURE
BUILDING GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS
Nicol C. Campbell
© The School of Truth
Source p. 197, Aug / Sep 2008 - The Path of Truth
To those who are seeking the consciousness of God, I would suggest that they ask themselves the following questions: "Is there a God?" If you can answer this in the affirmative, proceed to question two: "What is He? Hatred? Sickness? Poverty? Unhappiness? Death? Or is He the divine attributes of health, happiness, protection, prosperity, vision, and all other qualities of good?" If the latter you can go on to your third question, the most important one: "Where is He?" If you have accepted Omnipresence as a Reality this will mean that He is all the qualities of Good there are, and all the Presence there is, so that there can be nothing apart from Him; in which case, who are you? Can you be outside of All-presence? If not, it is that you are yourselves, GOD-PRESENCE. Think about it for a moment! The Power everywhere evenly present at the same time, plus all the Good there is, IS YOU. If this is so - and it must be - there can be no room in your lives for His opposite, sickness, poverty, unhappiness, or lack of any kind. This is the logical inherence following upon your answers, but are you convinced that they are correct?
I was lying awake the other night and thinking, as I always do, about Omnipresence of God and Its tremendous importance, when there stole over me a wonderful sense of nearness, the understanding that all things are not only possible but certain with man because of his being God-constituted. The only thing that prevents manifestation is the fact that man is ignorant of his true nature. He is living in a state of hypnosis, in a fool's paradise of separation, sickness, misery and failure, and all that is required to transmute these negative conditions into positive ones is a knowledge of the Truth of Being, the recognition that there is not God and self, but that when the individual says "I am" he is declaring his veritable God-or-Good-nature, which consists of health, happiness and prosperity to share and to spare.
We who are dwelling in a fool's paradise, in the consciousness of separation, bereft of all authority and command, need to be awakened from our dream. We beg, plead, meditate, visualise and pray, we do everything we possibly can to produce qualities of Good in ourselves, but they remain external to us. What authority do you possess? What does your consciousness of dominion amount to? A lot of us imagine when we approach God that it will be by means of affirmations and proclamations, accompanied by much shouting that we shall produce in our affairs the qualities of Good we are seeking, but it does not work like that at all.
We decided that God is, and when we asked ourselves what He is, we recognise that He is Love, so Love must exist, not as a personality, but as a Reality.
It is both Creator and creation, a Divine Intelligence of Harmony and Order expressing Itself outwardly in myriads of forms. It is First Cause, omnipresent joy, health, happiness, protection, prosperity and all else we require and desire. We cannot have Love everywhere evenly present except we fit into It, but we imagine that we are made of negative qualities and that, though all around us, above us and beneath us is the Presence of God. It is not in and through us. We think we can destroy His Omnipresence with our dissent and that we are bad apples which contaminate the whole and ruin it. If this is possible, does it make sense? Of course not!
You are trying to discover what the Master asked you to accept. You are the temples of the living Presence of Love, Which is now your happiness and all that you crave, but you have to take It into your-selves: "Concerning the works of My Hands, command ye Me." That is specific, but how are we to do it! God is not a person whom we can order about, and even if He were, He is the macrocosm, we are only the microcosms, and we cannot command that which is infinitely greater than ourselves, any more than we could constrain the Prime Minister, as an individual, to do our chores for us. It is His will, not ours, that is decisive, but we are not dealing with a personality; we are treating with omnipresence as Love, and we command It by attuning our hearts to It. When we do this we become Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, the very Voice of God, of Power and Authority, so that we can say, "Let this condition in my consciousness disappear, or this flaw in my life fade out. Into the nothingness whence it came."
Of sickness we know that it is a lie of separation and no part of God, but rather an error of our way of thinking, our own lovelessness come forth into manifestation. A lot of noise, affirmations, or the old type of prayer we were taught to pray, will not bring our good into our lives, neither will the fact that we are students attached to the School of Truth cause everything to gravitate towards us. We can be Roman Catholics, Salvation Armyist, or Bush Baptists; our religion, nationality, social position or financial status will not affect the outcome, only the universal Power of Love, Which is us, you and me, can bring to pass for us.
Nevertheless, while we regard ourselves as God-creations instead of as Omnipresence-in-expression the hands necessary for our welfare will not open for us. This will happen only as we recognise that we are the Presence of Love, then it will be done unto us according as we release It.
At times there will be, or will appear to be, tremendous physical, mental, emotional or material opposition, but this will be a lie, necessary at the particular juncture where it occurs, for the extension or expansion of our knowledge. If we sit down quietly and in the light of Omnipresence, consider the man, woman, condition or circumstance that appears to be obstructing us, we shall see that our antagonist is ourselves, for we, individually, are that presence. There is nothing outside of us; we look into the mirrors of our minds, but once we have discovered Love, It will see through us with Eyes that are too pure to behold iniquity. We are so steeped in our error-awareness that we are always expressing negation; even before we have had time to think, we automatically give way to criticism and condemnation but omnipresent Love neither censures, punishes, nor holds up our good. We do that. We build up some colossal error whose size hypnotises us until we tap ourselves on the shoulder and remind ourselves that it is not of God. Omnipresence means "Allness" so how can evil exist in Good, or darkness dwell in light?
If Love is Allness then I and all with whom I come into contact must be Allness too, therefore whatever is at the root of my distress, cannot be other than myself.
If a man comes to see me because his wife or child has caused him unhappiness, I am not concerned with them, but with him, and so it is with your troubles; they do not need to be overcome, they exist only in your personal consciousness, so it is you who have to undergo a change of heart. If instead of the husband, the wife comes to me, the problem is hers, for whoever suffers from anything does so because it is part of his awareness, and therefore God's loving Presence can come through, he will have to eliminate the so-called reality of the condition from his mind.
Once you realise that I - God in manifestation - am self-sufficient, you will have no enemies, nothing to hurt you, nothing to oppose you, or deprive you of your Good. There will be no person or appearances to interpose between you and your God-awareness; you will be the fullness of your own happiness, prosperity and health, achieved not by talking but by knowing.
It will be hard when things are going against you and you yearn for some human sympathy and companionship to have to admit that no individual can supply these, but only your own state of consciousness. It is not easy to believe that God is your prosperity when you reach the retiring age and find that you have not saved enough to pay your way, and all channels are closed to you. When sickness has invaded your bodies and there is no one to help you, a feeling of complete emptiness comes over you. But let us take the long view and admit that, if these experiences compel you to turn to Truth and engender within you a consciousness of the Power which brought you into being as a self-sufficient entity, dependent not on individuals, but only upon GOD for your good, they will have been well worth while.
If I look back on my life, I remember that the problems that were presented to me alarmed me so, that I made such a noise telling myself of God's All-presence that I could not hear myself thinking about the condition. I had no faith and no awareness but I could not imagine the Master or any other developed soul raising a terrific clamour hoping by that means to reach the ears of God; such a one would be poised, peaceful and relaxed, knowing that Love was omnipresent health, happiness and prosperity. The empty vessel makes the most sound, and the person who lacks the consciousness of God, usually tells everyone how well he knows Him, while the man who has acquainted himself with but the outer edges of the Power of Love, lives It in himself and people, seeing and recognising It, flock to him in search of the knowledge he possesses. It is not talking that impresses but the good that has been made manifest in the life of another through his confidence and conviction, proves that All-power in heaven and earth has been vested in him. Can you now believe that all the Power necessary to change yourselves mentally, emotionally, physically and materially is yours, or rather you? Do you accept the Truth that, at this moment, the Power of Love is permeating you with its own qualities from the inner to the outer, from the centre to the circumference? Or are you still striving from outside of yourselves to get an answer to prayer. The Kingdom of God, Love, and His Substance is within you as well as outside of you, and you can choose the road you will take to It, certain that He will assist you in any manner you desire; but if you impose limitations upon Him these will clutter up your way. As long as you have not discovered Him you will not have come into your inheritance, and though He will not withhold His aid, you will not have the inner conviction that God IS and because he is I AM.
There are not two presences but only one, spiritual, emotional, mental and physical, which is God and includes you, to whom He has said: "I have given you dominion over all things, so concerning the works of My Hands, command ye Me. All you see around you of Good - health, happiness, protection or prosperity - if you bring your hearts and actions into tune with Me - is yours.
You will slip on the path and delay by the wayside; many times you will feel a sense of frustration and failure, but always deep in your hearts you will know that, in spite of the evidence of evil, I could not have created it.
There is only one Creator, Love, Which can fulfil Itself only according to Its own nature of Light, Understanding and Beauty. Do you want to discover this Presence for yourselves, do you want to come close to It, or do you still hanker after a crutch, some person or guarantor to act as a standby? How much do you desire God, what is the measure of your development, your consciousness of His Power? Are you content with the crumbs from the table, satisfied not to live but to exist, to have built yourselves a certain pinnacle of security which can be swept away at any time, leaving you to start all over again? Personally I would rather be dead than alive from moment to moment in insecurity. There are many things I do not know, and many I would like to understand, but I am sure of this, that if any man seeks God without compromising, he shall indeed find Him.
I am no different from the boy who leaves school for the university only to find that he must gather a great deal of information if he would solve the problems that are being presented to him there. He can grow only as the result of experience and at times it appears that adversity is the only adequate teacher; nevertheless I have often cried, "Why is the road that shall give us awareness of our Power and drive out our sense of separation so difficult?" We fall down because we are impatient and uncontrolled, eager for things we do not deserve (since we have not yet built up the awareness of them) but we have achieved a mental treasure in the discovery that we are able to create, but must attune ourselves to God - Love, Joy, Beauty - and allow Him to be fulfilled through us.
The conditions that pile up at times are but lies and when we bestir ourselves and put His truths in their place, they will disappear into the void whence they came, for they have no power and no real existence. There is only God, Omnipresence, Which is Love and occupies all time and space; It is in us in manifestation, and when we recognise this, we shall be able to say in trust and expectation, "Let it be done. Let the Truth enter my awareness and let the lie that is now facing me be eliminated from my consciousness." There is only God sustaining us every moment into eternity and waiting patiently for us to recognise Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in the knowledge - not the belief - the Master unfolded to us that we are all temples of the living God, having access to His spiritual qualities, which when we release them, flow up from within outwards like a quickening stream that bubbles up and brings refreshment to our hearts, minds, bodies and affairs.
When, like batteries that have run down, we become depleted, if we will turn to Him, trusting in the promise "Come seek Me with all your hearts and love, and ye shall surely find Me," we shall be recharged with His Vitality and Strength. He will ask for no return except that as we open our hearts to the Power flowing in from the inner to the outer, we begin to live It and distribute It.
You will all eventually discover that this Omnipotence is within you and that "concerning My works, mental, emotional, physical and material you shall command Me. Then will I restore unto you the years that the locusts have eaten, and you shall remember only the Good so that the dead past shall bury the dead forever more.
"This is the Path of Truth, the way of peace and happiness and effortless success that leads to a prosperity-consciousness that will astound you as it comes into being in you, not as the result of your works, but because of My Love Which sets you free.
"Give Me all your problems, your conditions of darkness, and I will flood them with My Light, and My Voice of Love shall encourage you and uplift you. My rod shall sustain and support you, and My Truth, Which is the only Truth, shall set you forever free."
Lecture Index
Return
The School of Truth
Return