The Word of God: Ramblings

This morning's reading from Goldsmith's Beyond Words and Thoughts began with a discussion of God's Word. I decided I didn't really have a good and clear definition for what is meant by God's Word so I explored my mind a little and remembered that decades ago, I had been sitting in on an Anglican clergy discussion group about God's Word. I remembered hearing that word had somehow been mistranslated and the original translation should have been work. As I read Goldsmith, I corrected word to work and this gave me a slightly different interpretation of what Goldsmith was writing about. Follows is a quotation with word rewritten as work:
     "Contrary to all human belief, supply is the work of God, and unless we are receiving the work of God, we are not receiving supply. 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every work that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' Bread alone does not suffice. No, we live by every work that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Daily we pray for bread, but not for baker's bread. We pray for the bread that is the work of God, and the way in which we receive it is to open our consciousness to receive that Work which is the bread of life, the meat, the wine, and the water."

What a difference it makes to this passage if each word is rewritten as work. I then had to contemplate what was meant by work. The first thing that comes to mind is the first law of thermodynamics: work is heat and heat is work. What does this mean to the quote, above? In my mind, heat is energy and physics. Therefore, when Goldsmith suggests that "supply is the work (word) of God, he might mean that supply is the energy of God. Is energy Spirit? I want to figure this out so that I know what I am looking for or at least, where to look for it.

Of course, Goldsmith might really have meant to use word in which case, I presume that he is talking here about being in a state of listening so that one can receive guidence. God's guidence doesn't always appear as words or thoughts, though. Some people report receiving hunches and outward signs as being God's guidence to them. Others suggest that emotions or sensations of fatigue and hunger, are also God's guidence. Maybe even fear is a communication from God. If God is communicating to us through these other methods, then surely It is using work (energy) as much as words to guide us? It certainly makes more sense to think of bread as being the work of God, rather than the word of God.

If I have any chance whatsoever of understanding instructions in spiritual books, I first have to define what is being really said. I remember hearing that works such as Essene gospels and a book I read decades ago and which title I have forgotten, but remember that it was about an Englishman's exploration of Sufiism, suggest that there are three levels of interpretation to these books: a story level for everyone, and two other levels that can only be understood by those ready to understand them.

I am still attempting to figure this passage and the rest of this morning's reading out, although I am sure that advanced students of the Infinite Way and similar teachings would say that there is nothing to figure out. I know from this passage that one is supposed to be focusing on receiving God's grace and finding the kingdom of God within. Seek you first, etc. Still, my humanhood thinks it needs to derive meaning from all this so that it can get it right. And I know that those very same advanced students of the Infinite Way, etc. would tell me that there is nothing to get right. Yes, I intellectualize this stuff and that is supposedly not necessary; however, in order for all those advanced students to teach and write, they too must have intellectualized what they had discerned so that they could share it.