Joel Goldsmith was one of the most original spiritual thinkers and mystics of the last century. He was also an extraordinary healer. At one moment of his career he was receiving over 130 calls for assistance, seven days a week 365 days in the year, proving the validity of what he writes here We feel the following text is extremely important for anyone wanting to explore the deeper dimensions of what is commonly called prayer.
Now remember this, the contemplative is never praying for anything, for anybody. The only motive of prayer is to commune with the center of our being, that which we call God. The only object of prayer is to receive, consciously, an inner assurance: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I am with thee to the end of the world. But remember, if I say those words, they are meaningless and powerless. But if I hear them within, they can raise the dead; they can raise the cripple; they can resurrect; they can renew, restore, regenerate.
Therefore, prayer becomes a complete listening attitude. The contemplative is never going to God for anything for anybody. The contemplative is going to God only for communion with God; only for the purpose of receiving inner assurances or reassurances – always for the joy of contemplating the nature of infinity. Therefore, prayer to the contemplative is not a mental exercise. Prayer is not a voicing of words or a thinking of thoughts; it is an inner contemplation in which attention is placed on hearing, receiving.
What that does in the external realm is to change pictures of inharmony to harmony, of sickness to health, lack to abundance, sin to purity, unhappiness to happiness. That is the effect of the invisible and inaudible Presence when It is released. And only a contemplative can release It because It can only be released in silence: Words and thoughts are the barriers which prevent the Spirit of God getting out into the world.
The only way to bring the presence of God and the power of God to this room* would be a complete inner silence in which a flow would take place from the within to the without. Then the presence of God would perform Its functions in the minds, hearts, souls of those individuals or bodies of the individuals who are here. Then they could say, “I feel the presence of God,” sometimes even see a form. But that can only come through a stillness, in quietness and in confidence. When there is an inner stillness, the grace of God rushes forth. We make a vacuum within ourselves so that it can happen.
*this text was part of a lecture given by JG
