Tithing is a custom which we honor in The Infinite Way as Joel did. Tithing is money whose source is God, which is given without expectation, for it is given as the first thanksgiving for the blessings which pour into our life. Tithing acknowledges that all good is from God, to us, through us, on to a spiritual activity we choose to honor. Joel's very closest, finest students tithed to his work for they knew that as their blessings came to them through Joel's work, the principles and his Consciousness, they had to pass the first portion on to the Spirit.
Occasionally, a student will rise in Consciousness to the level where they want to give of their first fruits to this work and to their teacher. In the Bible, this is typically, 10% of income before any other expenses. However, Joel uses many examples from those struggling to give 1% to the businessman who gave 90% and kept getting more and more to give. It is the principle that is important. Surely, we can see that the school teacher who gives $70 of a $700 check is understanding the principle more deeply than the lawyer making $500,000 who gives $1,000. It is not about the money or the amount per se, it is the regular giving of a portion to God.
We teachers, give of ourselves freely and hold no one in bondage. Students are free to express or not express their gratitude. However, tithing does change the relationship. Joel speaks of being accused of having "pet" students. He admits to this and says they are those who care about this work and love it like he does. They tithe to him and are his closest students. They are also the ones who get the most out of the work.
When a student recognizes the consciousness of the teacher and honors it, then the work is enhanced. The teacher, you see has been taught:
"The raising of funds must be done by the consciousness of the individual. Your consciousness must provide your support, your maintenance, and that of your spiritual activity."
And so, as the work continues, we are more able to establish and honor The Infinite Way as it was when Joel was here. If the teacher has a consciousness which lifts students, they will then, support and uphold the teacher and the work. Tithing is a key element of that support. It is Grace operating.
TITHING
How can we demonstrate being in the world and not of it?
Just to teach you one phase of it today I am going to take up the subject under the title of "Tithing" or "Giving".
Sooner or later we all are going to learn the value of gratitude, but that is only one little facet in the vast subject of Love.
Tithing is something that carries us to our highest sense of gratitude.
Ordinarily tithing is taken to mean that if we give ten percent or so of our income to some charitable or spiritual purpose, we will in some mysterious way have pleased God and so will be rewarded.
I think, personally, that this is one of the most dangerous teachings that can be given out for the simple reason that there is no word of Truth in it, and ultimately it will find us without a prop.
There is no virtue in giving when there is any sense of a future tense connected with it.
If our giving, whether in contribution to a charity, a church, or a teacher carries with it any sense or thought that we will receive some benefit from it, it is best not to give.
No.
Giving should always be from the standpoint of gratitude for that which ALREADY IS; for that which already has been ESTABLISHED from the beginning.
For instance, we cannot 'get' health and we cannot 'get' wealth; we cannot 'get' happiness or peace.
Those things were established FROM THE BEGINNING.
They were part of your consciousness, and they will UNFOLD in proportion to your turning WITHIN for that unfoldment, and in proportion to your devotion to the spiritual sense of life.
Now, if you can feel a sense of gratitude for that message, for the avenue through which that message is brought to you, and if out of the fullness of your heart you 'feel' that sense of gratitude that IMPELS you to give your 'mite' or your last penny, then you will find that tithing is one of the greatest blessings ever given to human consciousness.
There is no greater blessing than tithing when it is the outpouring of a sincere sense of gratitude for the revelation of God as your individual experience.
Certainly tithing in that sense is 'gratitude', and gratitude is one of the facets of love.
But there is even a stronger law than that which goes with tithing.
Humanly you believe that your present income is the 'limit' of your income, and humanly you do not know how to increase it.
If you did, you would be doing so.
Now, when we begin 'tithing' we certainly declare that this tithing is NOT coming from 'our' income; therefore it has to come from God.
It is not from me; it is from God.
It is GOD'S support of the activity of Truth in human affairs, or in human ways.
Let us assume for the moment that God, imparting Truth to human consciousness, compels us to interpret THAT IMPARTATION as a book or church or teacher.
(You must understand here that God 'needs' NONE of these avenues; God needs no mediator.)
God and you being ONE, all of this could be taking place in your consciousness without any 'person' talking to you; without any person writing a book.
Therefore, the fact that we are here, that these avenues are here, is our authority at this moment to interpret it as God's imparting of His Word in this manner, through these channels.
Why?
Only that you require these 'channels' for the Word of God to reach you until the time comes when YOUR ONENESS WITH GOD, your CONSCIOUS oneness with God enables you to accept the Message without all this.
Therefore since that is true, there must be these means provided in the meantime.
And when we say that 'God provides them' that is not really true.
No; God knows nothing about human teachers or teachings, human places or human worships.
For if God had made our churches, none would ever have been bombed or burned.
These WE create through our necessity for them.
We are not yet at that point of consciousness where we sufficiently realize our ONENESS WITH GOD so as to receive these messages without meditation [sic].
Therefore we need these places and teachers and books.
However, inasmuch as there is nothing personal about it, let us call ALL of this THE ACTIVITY OF MIND OR GOD, and let us see that the activity of Mind or God interprets Itself to us AS teachers, churches, and books.
And then let us see that the activity of Mind, acting through or AS us, must support that enterprise.
Let us agree then to call it a Transfer Agent for GOOD, and say: "I will contribute this particular sum every day or every week to this spiritual purpose, not out of 'my' income or the 'kindness of my heart' but merely AS A TRANSFER AGENT FOR GOOD (God) maintaining Its Own Infinite Activity.
You soon will find that not one penny of that tithing will be coming from your pocket and you will find further that ultimately your income will increase, not merely to make up that amount, but to go much further than that.
We are saying this only to point out to you here what actually does happen, for you are going eventually to carry this much further.
You will ultimately declare that every family obligation you have, or any other obligation, is not your personal responsibility but that of the Christ and is therefore not to be met out of your personal income.
Thus you will become THE TRANSFER AGENT for supporting your family or friends or relatives abroad, and so on.
None of it, you will find, will come from your principle - IF YOU CATCH THE CENTRAL POINT THAT NO PERSONAL DEMAND IS EVER MADE OF YOU, BUT ON THE CHRIST.
Not that the Christ supports the activity of this life, this job, this teacher or this book; no, no.
You yourself - THROUGH YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS ACTIVITY OF GOD..GOOD - have brought to you those who to our sense are avenues or channels of support.
You must make A CONSCIOUS DECISION that you will be the transfer agent.
As soon as you are presented with the need or the call, you will accept that the Christ has made a demand on the CHRIST OF YOU and that you can fulfill it, not out of your personal income, but out of that which the Christ gives you.
We read in the Bible that the widow had only a morsel, yet fed the prophet. Had the 'supply' come from the little she had, it would never have sufficed.
But the demand was not made on her personal supply.
The demand was made - ON THE CHRIST.
Again, four or five thousand people sat around waiting to be fed by Jesus 'with a few loaves and fishes'!
Jesus was never in a position to feed so many people from His personal store of supply, - never.
Unless Jesus had been able to see that the demand on Him was a demand ON THE CHRIST ITSELF; that it was The Christ making the demand on The Christ, it could not have been done.
And again, He healed the multitudes.
If any individual ever gets the idea that he has enough human understanding to heal a disease - Heaven help the patient!
No.
Every call for healing is a call on The Christ, and all a practitioner can ever do is be an avenue through which or AS WHICH The Christ is acting to dispel the illusion of sense.
It makes no difference if multitudes reach out for That, even if multitudes right here reach out for healing.
It would not be a personal or human man that would respond.
But The Christ, acting or appearing AS ME, could just as well meet the demands for a thousand as for one.
THE CHRIST IS UNLIMITED.
Never believe that any 'human' being has any quality of his own that will produce a healing, or that any of you have enough money to support churches or practitioners or teachers.
BUT AS THE CHRIST - any one of you could support all of this activity.
You have only to CONSCIOUSLY ACCEPT the responsibility.
You have only to say: "Father, I accept the responsibility to meet my generous share of the activity of the Christ movement here 'through' me."
But that does not mean you have the 'personal' responsibility of supporting them.
No, all the responsibility you have is TO MAKE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION THAT YOU ARE PART OF THIS WORK, and that just as The Christ is operating through the lecturer or teacher, so The Christ is operating through you for the benefit of this whole Christ activity.
Let us remember this subject: Tithing.
It makes no difference whether you make the decision to give ten, five or one percent, or twenty percent of your income.
The point is: YOU MUST CONSCIOUSLY MAKE THE DECISION TO BE A PART OF THE SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY OF THE WORLD AND TO FULFILL YOUR PART IN IT.
If you are called on for a healing; yes, if you should be called on to come right up here on this platform, this morning and finish the talk - BE READY!
If that call is made on you, it is only The Christ making a demand ON THE CHRIST, and any of you could fulfill it by consciously making your decision to be a part of The Christ Life.
There is a reason why all of this is important and it is NOT that of becoming healthier or richer humans.
No, it is that - YOU COME INTO THE REALIZATION OF YOUR CHRIST DESTINY - and stop being even 'good' humans.
We read in the Bible: "The EARTH is the Lord's, AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF."
How much of that is yours?
How MUCH is yours?
ALL OF IT!
All of it.
Why?
Because "Son, ALL that I have is Thine."
Do you see what I am trying to get at?
Not to make you a richer human, but to make you aware of the fact that - THE ENTIRE KINGDOM OF GOD IS YOURS!
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
All that belongs to the Father belongs to you.
"Son, All that I have is THINE."
You will never know that while you are counting it in dollar bills.
You will know it ONLY when you completely release yourself from the belief that you 'have' so much and 'have not' so much, and begin to make the acknowledgement that ALL THE EARTH belongs to the Father; BUT, ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH BELONGS TO YOU.
"Son, all that I have is thine."
What is the most essential point in becoming aware of God?
And that really is the most important question that can ever be asked.
There is no other question that is quite so important as that: What is the most essential point in becoming aware of God?
What is the most necessary step to us to take in becoming aware of God?
Well, the most important point, the most important step for us to take is this: TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD TO BE ALL THERE IS TO US.
When we acknowledge God to be OUR MIND; when we acknowledge God to be the LIFE OF US, the Soul, the Spirit OF US; when we make the acknowledgement that God is THE ONLY ELEMENT AND ONLY ACTIVITY AND ONLY LAW OF OUR BEING, we then have taken the most essential step in becoming aware of God.
There is no selfhood apart from God.
God is ONE, Infinite, Indivisible, APPEARING AS each 'individual'.
The ALL-ness of God appears individually AS 'you'.
You are not a part of God.
You are not a particle of God.
It is not like the 'drop with the Ocean'.
There is not that relationship at all.
YOU ARE THE ALLNESS OF GOD!
YOU are the ALL-ness of GOD!
The Allness of God 'appears individually' AS YOU.
It is like the allness of the number 12 appearing in EVERY number 12, whether as pies or grains of sand.
Always the entire number contains the TOTAL VALUE of 12.
And so, this TOTALITY OF GOD appears AS individual you.
YOU are ALL the Mind, ALL the Life, ALL the Intelligence.
You could not be 'more' Life, more Immortality.
YOU ARE IMMORTALITY.
You always have existed and always will exist and you cannot be 'more' immortal than immortality; cannot be more truthful than being Truth.
No, either you are ALL of the Truth or you are not Truth.
Can a person be ninety-nine percent mortal?
No.
Either you are mortal or you are not mortal.
There are human degrees of being mortal, but that is not immortality.
The same is true of EVERY facet of God.
You cannot be 'partly' intelligent and yet be of God.
You are the SUM TOTAL OF INTELLIGENCE.
Therefore, God's Infinite Intelligence is YOUR 'individual' intelligence.
And so, the most essential step is: "I, of mine own self, am nothing."
"GOD is the ALL-ness of me; the Mind; the Life; the Soul of me."
Then let THAT come through your so-called 'human' consciousness to make Itself known as AWARENESS.
It is for this purpose we have meditation, reading, lectures, class teaching.
All of these are avenues or means through which you become AWARE of your ONENESS WITH GOD; become aware of GOD APPEARING AS THE SUM TOTAL OF YOU.
The purpose of class teaching, lectures, reading, metaphysical literature is only to bring you to the AWARENESS that you are NOW what you always have been - THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD!
To repeat, the most essential point in becoming aware of God is making the acknowledgement that GOD IS THE SUM TOTAL OF ME; God is the Substance of my body; God is the actual Substance of my body.
Otherwise we would have God, Infinite All, and a human body.
