THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH LECTURE TAKE UP YOUR BED AND WALK

Many people, orthodox and unorthodox, are concerned about their prayers not

being answered. According to them they pray, they meditate, go into the silence,

speak the word, take practical steps, and still nothing happens. Why?

Let me tell you - it is because they are looking for results. Think about this: If it is

true, which it is, that God is All-presence, and if contained in this Presence is the

fulfilment of every need and every true desire, then looking is an act of disbelief.

Say I want a pen and do not have the money to buy it. So I start looking to various

channels whereby it may come to me - family, friends, relatives, associates, etc.

But as long as I am looking for a pen I do not believe I have received it. If I believe

I have received it then I must go through the motions of having received it. I must

take out my pen mentally and begin to write.

My good people, you must be the thing you desire. You have got to live in the

consciousness of it as already done. Yet the human intellect plays tricks. It cannot

help looking for channels. It cannot help looking at the clock, at the calendar. So

the hoped-for result is always distanced from you. It never becomes yours because

you have not identified yourself with it.

I, like a child, play games. I sit at my desk, take out a pad and begin to write on it

mentally. I see myself writing and I see the writing on the pad. It may seem

ridiculous to you but, because everything real is in creation - not going-to be

created for me - my action confirms my understanding that not only do I have the

pen, but am myself the pen.

When the Master travelled about, they came to him for healing. He asked them,

"Do you believe?" and if they affirmed he would say "Take up your bed and walk."

That is how direct it is. He commanded them to be practical because he knew

everything real is already in Creation, does not have to be created by God for you.

More - it is at this moment in Creation as you. It is impossible for you to need

something, be it mental, emotional, physical or material, that is not already

accomplished for you. Your very desire is the thing itself in incipiency, God telling

you what He has already provided for you if you can accept it as already done,

identify yourself with it. Then you can already use it.

I did this when I started "The School of Practical Christianity", having been asked

to do this work by the United Truth Society. I refused to send around collection

plates or to suggest that we needed money to pay for the hall, and our pamphlets,

etc. I still say now that our enterprise is fait accompli. My business is to do the

thing, to act as though everything is already in place, to use my whole body - my

eyes, ears, hands, feet and the rest - in fulfilling what already exists. The tap is here

- turn it on. Do not try to find out whether there is water in the reservoir. The

whole reservoir of life constitutes you, is not separate from you. You and it are the

same Oneness.

It is hard when you are sick to believe you are healthy, when you are unhappy to

believe you are living in harmony and love, when you do not have money for food

to believe that the prosperity of God constitutes you. So also is it hard when you

first learn to play the piano - you have to play notes and chords over and over.

"Slowly" my teacher would say, "slower". I was instilling knowledge and skill in a

level of my mind below the conscious so that eventually I would be able to play

without thinking. Practice makes perfect.

This coin in my hand is the seed of all the prosperity in the whole universe. I have

never counted my money. I do not look in my wallet to see how much money I

have, or how much silver is in my pocket. I do not do this anymore than wonder

whether God really does constitute me physically. I simply do what I am driven to

do. I do it today - not tomorrow or next week or next month. You too must do it

today, no matter how difficult it may appear. Take up your bed and walk. And do

not look for the results of your courage, for the moment you start looking for

results you deny the truth that God constitutes you.

If I have to give a lecture and am feeling very tired, I never ask one of the other

lecturers to stand in for me. I listen to the voice of God within me: "Take up your

bed and walk. My spirit constitutes you. I will not let you down. Do your part."

And I am stronger after my lecture than when I began. The Master puts it so

simply: "Believe that you have received, and you shall have it."

Can you accept this in toto, that His love surrounds you and permeates you with

everything that you can ever need or truly desire? You must see it as done, you

must think it is done, you must feel with your whole heart that it is done, and

then act as though it is done. Then all the Power of the universe flows through you

and releases you from the lies of the intellect. The Light of Truth is switched on,

and darkness is gone.

A lecturer who worked for us for twenty years used to say to me "But we do not

have any money" and wanted each time to check our post box. I said to him "Why

do you keep running to the post office? That is canalising you know. Our supply

does not have to come through the post. You might as well sit in the office and

wait for a knock on the door - maybe it will be a student with a donation." The

basis of our work is "Give and it shall be given unto you" not "Give that you hope

you shall receive." It must be a gift of your substance (of which money is only one

form) without any tags attached. Give fearlessly.

Let me say once again: Never look for results. Never canalise. When things are

tight I give more - because I dare not limit myself. I give of my health, of my

happiness, of my own security.

God IS, and because God is I AM. Jesus-Christ wept because of people's unbelief,

this trait of human nature. People look at what they have and think it's diminishing,

but God's substance is an everlasting stream welling from within. There would be

no School of Truth today if we had looked for channels, looked into our pockets

and at our bank account. The bank manager once sent for me and said "You are

going through a difficult time, are you not?" I replied "What makes you think

that?" "Well, look at your statement - you have no credit. I thought I should warn

you." I said "You do not have to warn me. I am an intelligent person. I know what

we have or do not have in the bank."

I am very well aware of appearances, but that is what they are - appearances. At

times they can be very frightening but not once in all these fifty-odd years has God

ever failed me. Always, at the right time, never late, help has come and we have

had our answer, our demonstration. It depends on you and on me. If there is

limitation in your life do not question God, do not blame people. Look inside, for

within you is the Bank of Heaven Unlimited, unlimited in every form of substance

you need, from spiritual through to material.

"In Thee O God do I put my hope. I shall never be confounded or afraid. My soul

is at rest with Thee therefore I am fearless." Faithfulness - that is what He deserves

and asks of us. We are to depend solely upon Him and then our happiness, our

health, and all the things of a material nature that we need will always be fulfilled

for us. And remember, every hand is God's hand.

Do you think I don't know how difficult it is to believe this? Do you think I have

not prayed, and prayed, and prayed aloud to push out the thoughts of the negative

condition, the appearance? The secret is becoming composed: "Be still and know

that I am God. Before you call I have answered, and while you are yet speaking -

saying thank you - I have heard you. It is My will that you have received this." Our

senses contradict this Truth, especially when the whole world joins in. Join the

crowd if you want, fall in line with them, accept what they accept, but do not

blame God. "In Thee O God do I put my hope. This is the day that Thou hast made

and I rejoice - for my good, my health, my happiness and my prosperity." I accept

this Truth in toto.

I have had the death sentence given to me. I know what it feels like when a

medical specialist says "There is nothing I can do - it is just a question of months."

It came like a bolt out of the blue, and I was deeply shocked. But then I heard the

still, small Voice, ever insistent: "Call upon me in your day of trouble and I will

deliver you." And I prayed "God, this is a day of great trouble. Can You deliver me

or is my faith too weak? I know my faith is the 'X-factor'. Even though this verdict

has come from a specialist is it not the Truth that I am the temples - spirit, mind,

soul and body - of Your presence and that it can never be too late for You?"

I have observed that it is always in the eleventh or even the twelfth hour that our

prayer is answered, that we receive our demonstration, because it is only then that

we truly give up our striving to solve the problem ourselves and let go, and let God

come forth into fulfilment as the perfect solution. The medical pronouncement was

made in 1948. The people in the office were very concerned for me. I used to hold

on to the lectern in case I fainted, and that is the reason why I started using a tape

recorder - to find out if there was any discontinuity in my talk. I would have

momentary lapses of consciousness and simply carry on after them.

Be not weary of well doing, my good people, for in due course you shall reap, if

you faint not, if you keep on keeping on. You are God fulfilled, and all that God is,

is in you as you. This is not blasphemy - it is the very core of the Master's

teachings. Did he not say "The kingdom of God is within you"? And did not Paul

say "You are the temples of the living God"? His presence of love, and life, of

beauty, health, security and prosperity is in each one of us here today. I will not

limit God. I would rather throw my last cents down the drain than limit Him to

these cents. I accept Him in toto as the Universal Provider. He is not outside of me

but inside me.

Become as a little child and accept this. Do not try to rationalise it - you cannot.

You do not know how God works. Still the emotional turmoil within you, because

fear is inverted faith, faith in separation. If I separate myself from this taperecorder - switch off the current - it stops functioning. So does God stop

functioning through me - of course never fully or I would cease to exist - if I am

out of tune with Him. "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord," says the

Spirit of Truth. And in this dialogue you hear nothing of limitation, lack, disease,

poverty or unhappiness, only God fulfilled this day.

So, if there is one person who goes away today having accepted this, I will feel that

my work here has been done. The "X-factor" - the "X" stands for the crossing out

of negation, crossing out the lie, crossing out the poverty, crossing out the disease,

crossing out all limitation. Affirm this: "In God is my hope. I shall never be

confounded. It is fulfilled this day" - and so it shall be.

Go forth in freedom, with peace in your mind and love in your hearts. "I take God

with me, and I will radiate Him to all I meet, for this is the day that God has made

and I rejoice and am glad because of it."