Joel taught that rising in consciousness to realized Christhood is not ultimately for our own benefit, but the means to uplift the consciousness of mankind universally and dispel the ignorance of truth that is at the root of all human trouble. He spoke often about how we as individuals can be an influence in bringing that freedom to the world.
On the first of each month, we post an excerpt from Joel’s writings on this topic. The following excerpt is from Chapter 12, “Do Not ‘Pass By on the Other Side,” in The Mystical I.
At this stage of unfolding consciousness, you are responsible for every picture that presents itself to your sight or hearing. You may not “pass by on the other side” of the road. It is given to men living purely in the human world to ignore the troubles of their fellow men, especially if they are of a different land, a different religion, or a different race. It is not so given unto you. The grace which you have received from God was given you, not for you: it was given as the fruitage of God which the world is to eat. “Take, eat; this is my body.”[1] You are a fruitful vine on which grapes grow: you are spiritually fed and spiritually clothed and spiritually housed. Give up your grapes; let your grapes go out into the market, into the world.
You owe a debt to God and to the world, and the debt is that you do not pass by on the other side of the road, but take note of every discord and every inharmony and bring to bear the activity of the Christ. Be a transparency through which the Christ dissolves the appearance. You do not necessarily have to think anything, but you must be still. You must be still for an instant, and let His spirit flow through you and dissolve the appearance. You may not pass by on the other side.
You are at a state of spiritual unfoldment where you have already been told to leave your “nets”—not to go anywhere or do anything, but just not to be concerned about your nets in the face of appearances. Rather cease your fishing for a moment and be “fishers of men.”[2] And how? Just by recognition. It takes only a moment, the blink of an eye, to realize that in the presence of the Christ, temporal power is not power. It has only the “arm of flesh.”[3]
You cannot serve God, whom you have not seen and do not know, except as you serve man, whom you do know. Your only way of serving God is in serving man. This is giving the first fruits unto God. The only way you have of neglecting your service to God is to neglect your service to man.
It is good and right that out of your material resources you share something with those who have less or who have nothing. That is a minor but necessary part of your spiritual development, because we all must acknowledge that we have very little in the way of material resources to give in comparison to the needs of the world.
You who walk in the Light have more to give individually than an entire nation has to give, for the nations can give only of material resources which are limited and finite, but you have living waters, you have spiritual meat, you have spiritual wine, spiritual bread. You have the word of Life; you have the spirit of God incarnate in you.
Above all, you have a moment of silence, so that in that silence the voice of God may thunder. This is the most precious gift in all the world. You have emptiness. You bring to God every day an empty barrel, an empty consciousness, praying:
Fill me today with all Thou art. Fill me with Thy soul, with Thy spirit, with Thy grace that my presence on earth may glorify Thee; that my presence on earth may show forth Thy glory, “with the glory which I had with thee before the world was,” the original glory of divine sonship. …
In the face of every appearance, whenever a human being appears to you, you are to lift up the son of God in him and realize God incarnate in him. Whenever an appearance of sin, disease, death, lack, limitation, or disaster presents itself to you, you are instantly to remember that in the presence of God-realized, in the presence of the realized Christ, temporal power is not power. In heaven or on earth, there is no power greater than I Am.
[1] Matthew 26:26
[2] Matthew 4:19
[3] II Chronicles 32:8