Nicol C. Campbell
My Path of Truth
The School of Truth
Johannesburg, 2nd ed., 1954.
[1] So many of us after having asked for guidance, and not having received it, feel that God is not really very close to us.
I suppose I have repeated this affirmation, at least as an affirmation to myself, "And call upon me in your day of trouble, and I will deliver you", many, many hundreds of times.
I wonder why it is that in spite of our tremendous longing to know God, and of our seeking after Him, He appears to make any contact with Himself so difficult. Some ask for guidance and feel they do not get it, others ask for prosperity and do not receive it, others ask for happiness and it does not come to them either. No, it is not difficult to understand why so many people begin to lose faith in this Power that we call God.
They look about them and see poverty, misery, sickness, and unhappiness, and they say to themselves, and justly so: "If God is good, and if He desires happiness and peace and well-being for every human creature, and if He is All-power and All-knowledge, why does He permit these things?"
We see in the world today more chaos than in times [2] hundreds or perhaps thousands of years back, and we begin to wonder in our hearts if God is capable of helping us.
We are so finite and so filled with worldly thoughts that fear has played a tremendous part in our lives.
How is it possible for God, either as a person or as an abstract principle, to manifest His law of good, His will of good, in our daily living?
In our work in the School we receive thousands of letters every month, and we speak to hundreds of people, and they all seem to be seeking one thing. Some say it is health, others happiness, others success, or opulence, but, when you analyse it, you find that they are actually seeking to be assured that God's will is good, for all these outer manifestations that the heart appears to long for represent purely the confirmation, to you and me, of the Presence of God in us.
A young woman once said to me: "I should hate to think that I am being made a fool of. I can believe in God and I have seen countless manifestations of His will of good or what I took to be His will of good, unless what I saw was just a coincidence. Look at my neighbours and friends, good people, they think Truth, they live Truth, and yet they seem to be just as poverty-stricken, unhappy, and unsuccessful as others--probably a great deal more so, and in contradistinction there are numerous instances of people, apparently unbelievers in the Presence of God, who yet have an abundance of worldly goods."
Now I say to you, without any fear at all, that, if I thought it possible for any human being to escape the [3] law of Divine Justice, and to reap unjust rewards in his life, then I would have no faith in God, for I am convinced that as a man sows so must he reap, until he comes under the Law of Grace. I am not the type of person that can fool himself that something is true when my reason tells me that it is not so, I am far too practical.
I am not prepared to accept negativity as a reality manifesting in your lives if I know, really KNOW, that you have been working according to spiritual Law, and at the same time see good filling the lives of others who have apparently not been doing anything of the kind!
I cannot be such a hypocrite as to teach you about something that I say I know you can use as a guide and an inspiration in your lives if I am not certain that this is the absolute truth. I cannot make-believe and bluff myself that it is so, just for the sake of fooling myself; nor am I prepared to trade on your unhappiness and, when you come to me for help, say to you that God can make you well, give you success, happiness and opulence unless I know, without a shadow of doubt in my own mind, that He can do so.
If God is All-knowledge and All-power, and if He is the very Presence of Life there can be no limitation, as far as He is concerned, in the life of any individual.
I know, of course, that we ourselves limit Him in our thought and consequently see limitation in our lives. Nevertheless I believe that He is the All-knowledge that knows how to overcome that limitation, and, being All-power also, He is able to enforce His knowledge, exactly as I can enforce mine with regard to a wayward child of my own. If I see my son harming himself, I do [4] not sit by and let him reap the evil to the bitter end, my love prevents me, and I take him by the hand and say: "My child, this is wrong. Let me, with my greater intelligence, point out the pitfalls, let me show you wherein you are hurting yourself."
My very love would compel me to do this, even in the case of my enemy's child.
Now if God is All-presence--that is if He is everywhere evenly present at the same time as Infinite Power--and if He is All-knowledge too, then He can, and will, change your condition if you have the courage to demand that of Him; if you will say to this Power--this Presence that we call God-- "I know that You are Law, that You are Personality, that You are Spirit, and I realise that You are in Manifestation because everything that is material is a manifestation of Your Life and Your Power. Furthermore, I know that You are limited according to the quality of my faith yet, despite the negations that I am harbouring, express Yourself, Your Divine Perfection, in and through me NOW, for, no matter what my attitude may have been, I have faith that You can overcome all limitation brought about by my doubt, distrust, or fear.
"Since You are Omniscience, You know how to do this; being Omnipotent, You have the power, which none may gainsay, to bring it to pass--and--above all, You say to me, 'Concerning the works of my hands, command ye Me', therefore, though my life has hitherto been filled with unhappy conditions that I, through my own ignorance, have created, I can still turn [5] to You saying, 'Father, I am trying to have faith in my spoken word, which is Your Word spoken through me, and I say now, I do command You, Omnipotence, to wipe out the effects of my errors. I am calling upon You, in my day of trouble, to remove these conditions of my own making which are crushing me. The problem is too big for me to tackle. I command that You now manifest Yourself as the solution, in spite of me and my lack of faith."
Does this appear to be blasphemous? I did not coin those words:-- 'Concerning the works of my hands, command ye Me'. They were given in the Bible, not only in the Christian Bible, but in all other bibles, and it is true that this tremendous power can eliminate from your path, can eradicate from your consciousness, every single negative thought that you have sent out. It must be able to do this if It is All-knowledge and All-power; It cannot see limitation, for, as I have told you, times without number, God is limited, not in Himself at all, but only according to our consciousness of Him, our concept of what He is, what He has, and what He can do.
You must have courage and confidence when you talk to God; or do you bow your head in fear? It is said that we have to fear God to please Him. Fear God to love Him! How can we love Him if we fear Him? Does not perfect love cast out fear? How can I fear God? How can I fear my own Spirit? How can I fear this Omnipotent Power that is good and Whose will is good for me? Do my children fear me? Do your children fear you? If they do, it is to our discredit.
God--the Universal Substance, Universal Intelligence [6] , Infinite Power--is everywhere evenly present, pressing Himself in us, through us, and about us, waiting for us to know that, according to our ability to command, He will manifest for us.
It is as though I had companioning me, someone with tremendous power, who said to me: "I know all your mistakes. I know that everything evil in your life has been of your own creating; but you cannot create evil out of my Substance of Good, darkness out of light, lack out of abundance. Look! There before you is your poverty, your disease, your unhappiness, but I have the power to help you. Ask, ask me, and I shall do it. Do not be afraid of me, for I am your help in time of trouble. I WILL deliver you."
We have seen countless persons cured of chronic diseases that had taken years to manifest in their bodies and were yet cured instantaneously. How? In the Bible it says:-- "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth shall pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled." If that is so, how did it come about that these, who had only just come into Truth, were suddenly healed? They had not had a chance to study metaphysics, they knew nothing about the science of right thinking, right living, and right action. Someone had merely told them that, if they had faith, they would be healed. And they had that quality of faith. But how had it been done? Surely there is a contradiction here? Has it not been said, 'As you sow, so shall you reap'? And yet at the same time we are told that there is a Law of Grace that can wipe out the debt, and that is true. The debt, no matter how big it is, can, [7] and will be, wiped out, and we shall enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God when we have faith in Him, in Love, and in His Law of Grace. Until then we shall reap as we have sown, but, when we turn to Him with all our hearts, His infinite love will flow in to set us free.
What are we, worms of the dust--born as it is said, in sin? Can we make God an accessory before and after the fact? Or are we, rather, the temples of the living God, the very Presence of Life manifesting Itself on this plane of consciousness?
If I want something from my Father and I know it is in His power to do it for me, I go to Him and say, "Father, I have made a mess of my life. Look at me; I am unhappy, sick, poverty-stricken, and wretched, and You have all the good there is, riches, radiant health, happiness; it is in Your power to help me. As Your son I come to you; help me! I am sorry that I have erred." And what does God do? He is our Father, He loves us, and, if I know anything about God's love, I know perfectly well that He will succour me without the slightest hesitation.
But just as perfection cannot be aware of imperfection, light be aware of darkness, or health know disease, so is God of too pure eyes to see iniquity, and He has to wait for us to raise our state of consciousness, and glimpse perfection, that we may claim it. Then His love for us floods our being pouring all good--joy, happiness, health, and supply--into our lives.
If the human father who has but an atom of the love of the Universal One, if we who are evil know how [8] to give good gifts to our children--how much more will God, Who is our Father in Heaven, give good unto us?
All you have to do is to claim your good. You need no longer concern yourselves with confusion, misery, failure, and poverty, you will say, confidently, to the Universal Power, "I command that Your will be done through me, for it is Your bidding that I do so," and you will command It with authority, in the realisation that it is not you, the physical, who command, but the Spirit within you, speaking through you. You will try to realise that the Universal Substance now fills your mind, body, and affairs with peace, health and abundance, and you will wonder how you could have wasted so many years, afraid to use your faith which is the very power that we call God--ALL GOOD. You will find that affirmation, concentration, meditation, and visualisation literally drag you to the manifestation of your desires. When you ARE good, you can never be separated from your good. You can never be separated from your own homes, your own abundance. You are the Universal Substance of Life in manifestation. Command It! Wealth, happiness, peace, success, whatever you need. All was prepared for you before the world was, and there is an abundance of good here for you, more than you could ever require till you pass on to the next plane of consciousness. It is you who have consciously separated yourselves from your good, but it is only now that we are beginning to realise that the fault has lain, all along, with us.
God is Infinite, God is Omnipotent, God is Omniscient and He is NOW bringing into our lives His good to [9] spare and to share. Is not that the kind of God you want? Man makes his own God. If you want a God of vengeance and wrath you can have Him. If you want a God of Love you can have Him. You can choose. You choose your Fate, your destiny is God, good.
Your fate is what you make through your faith. This poverty, unhappiness, and lack is what you have consciously invited, but now you are going to refuse to accept such negativity. You will command that your Father, Who is All-knowledge and All-power, bring into being that which you desire. And you will not give up until it is done; you will knock and knock and knock at that door of your consciousness, where the Presence of God abides, until He manifests His peace, happiness, health and supply. Does not that give you a sense of freedom?
We, who are so deeply inhibited--so filled with complexes, and with such a confused idea of God--, are continually breeding greater confusion in our minds, and yet we wonder why we have such chaos in our lives.
Put doubt out of your minds and just command the universe. No matter how you define it, or how you define God, demand of the universe what you desire: and then do not express doubt and fear, or wonder what is going to happen. Be expectant, God's will is good--take my word for it, for the time being, that His will is good, is happiness, peace, love, and abundance, to spare and to share.
Go--anyone of you--to the seashore and pick up one tiny grain of sand and with that in your hand recognise [10] that it represents the size of our little planet in comparison with the rest of the vast universe. Then look around you at the billions upon billions of grains of sand and remember that God controls the whole of Creation, and you will have some idea of His omnipotence. Then, as you realise that not only is He all the power and this infinite knowledge, permeating every single thing in space, but that He is right within you too, you will understand that there is nothing you cannot accomplish.
The immense Power that made you and me and the universe, that created everything we see around us, and all that we cannot see as well, is there for us to command. There is nothing, and no one, that can interpose between us and It when we consciously align ourselves with It. It says to us, down the ages, "Call upon me in your day of trouble and I will deliver you. Concerning the works of My hands, 'Command ye me.'" Does not this give you a wonderful sense of power? It must, if you realise that this Omnipotence is interested in you, is within you, desiring and longing for you to command It for your own good, and to learn to know It as your own, personal Father.
And when we--all of us--come to recognise this loving relationship, we shall no longer be under any law that would limit the expression of His Life more abundant through us and for us. Then do we come under the Law of Love, the Law of Grace, and we know that His Spirit within us, the indwelling Christ, is mightier than all circumstance, and in humility and gratitude we can--each and all--affirm, "Now AM I a son of God!"
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