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 3, “Seeing and Hearing,” in The Master Speaks.
Let us meditate on “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.” (Zechariah 4:6) We begin with a realization of the power of the Spirit. We have complete faith and reliance on the power of the Spirit: the power of the Spirit to express Itself universally; the power of the Spirit to manifest Itself as health, wholeness, bounty; the power of the Spirit to manifest Itself as joy, peace, dominion, harmony; the power of the Spirit to be a transforming power, changing this mortal scheme of existence and even eliminating it, if necessary.
We are familiar with the power of electricity and we know the power of dynamite. We know the power of the atom. Now let us realize the power of that which is invisible to human sense, that which human sense finds it difficult to accept. Let us come to an understanding of what is meant by the term the Christ or the Spirit. Let us really begin to feel the Spirit, and to know Its presence, Its power, Its government, and Its jurisdiction. The Spirit is a power in the consciousness of men—not just of one man or two or three. Spirit is a power in the consciousness of men. If knowing the truth will make us free, then let us know the truth and its universality. The time has passed for us to be thinking of the power of the Spirit only in terms of redeeming our own little human existence. Let us turn from undue concern for our life or our body and begin to see and realize the power of the Spirit as a universal force in the consciousness of men.
What difference can it make about the next ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty years of our human span? What is so important about them that we should be devoting our time and study to the things of the Spirit solely for them?
Let us see if we cannot catch the vision of the Master which was of a universal salvation, a universal Presence and Power, that would set all men free from material sense—material limitation, false appetites, false desires. Let us see if we cannot begin to understand that this infinite invisible Spirit appears as the health and the harmony of the universe; that this infinite invisible Spirit, Substance, appears as divine grace throughout the world, to all receptive thought, to all those who are spiritually minded.
If, then, we see God, the divine Spirit of the universe, as a universal Presence and Power, that will include within it the good of every individual, even our own good. That was somewhat the experience of Job in his praying for his friends. This is giving up using the Spirit, or God, for our personal purposes or our personal advantage. This is praying for the world. I see inwardly that we are spiritually one throughout the world; I see that there is an invisible brotherhood, an invisible tie, an invisible thread, reaching from individual to individual throughout the world, having its source and foundation in God. The Spirit, Itself, carries that message to all those who are receptive.