Neville Goddard
09-26-1969
"All
are Men in Eternity. Rivers, Mountains, Cities, Villages,
All
are Human, and when You enter into Their Bosoms,
You walk In
Heavens and Earths;
Just as in Your own Bosom You bear Your
Heaven And Earth,
and all that You behold, though it appears
Without, it is Within,
In Your Imagination of which this
World of Mortality is but a Shadow."
(William
Blake's Jerusalem, Plate 71:17)
You may ask yourself
what Blake is talking about, yet this is the language of the Bible.
Biblical language evokes rather than describes. It is telling of
another world, another Man and another age; for in truth, all of the
places in the Bible are human.
In the Book of
Revelation, John sees Jerusalem become a woman, descending out of
heaven adorned like a bride for her husband. And in the 5th chapter
of Micah we are told that Bethlehem is that woman out of which God
comes. Listen to the words carefully: "You, O Bethlehem, are so
little to be among the thousands of Judah, yet from you will come
forth for me, one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of
old, from ancient times. Therefore, he will give them up until that
time when she who is in travail has brought forth." Then we read
in the 63rd [Chapter] of Isaiah, "O Lord, thou art our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is thy name." Here we see the Ancient
of Days as our Father and Redeemer and, like Bethlehem, we are all in
travail, redeeming everything and bringing forth the Father of all
life as our very self!
One day you will know an
imaginative world where the mountains, rivers, cities, and villages
are human. Everything will be possible to you there, for when your
imaginative faculties awaken, every thought is objectively real. I
don't care what it is, your every imaginal act will instantly become
an objective fact. This we are told throughout the Old Testament, but
its language evokes and man finds it difficult to understand.
In
the 14th chapter of Jeremiah you will find these words: "Thou,
Lord are in the midst of us. We are called by thy name; leave us
not." The Lord's name is "I am." How could anyone
exist and have the name "I am" taken from him? If you
couldn't say "I am" you would cease to be. You could suffer
from total amnesia and not know where you are, who you are, or what
you are; but, because God remains faithful to his pledge, you can't
stop knowing that you are. And that which is buried in your soul must
come forward, and when it does, you are God.
You don't
boldly claim, "I am God" without any assurance that you
are. That would be silly. To walk the streets proclaiming, "I am
God," not having had his plan of salvation unfold within you,
would be the height of insanity. But when he reveals himself in you,
you don't proclaim it to anyone, you simply know it and live by this
knowledge. And the only way he will ever reveal himself in you, as
you, is to have his son stand before you and call you "Father."
Then, having fulfilled the 89th Psalm, you too will say: "I have
found David. He said unto me: 'Thou art my Father, my God, and the
Rock of my Salvation.'" When this lad stands before you, you
know exactly who he is and who you are, for this relationship was
established before that the world was.
Knowing you are
the Eternal God who is Father, you will share this fantastic
knowledge, not expecting a hundred percent acceptance, but allowing
everyone to respond to what you say. Seeing your weaknesses and
limitations, some will believe you and some will disbelieve. Don't
let it matter to you, simply tell it and go your way until the end of
your allotted time. Then, with the discarding of your garment of
flesh and blood, your weaknesses are removed and you awaken as God.
Those who heard and accepted your experiences will prove your words
in the not distant future and they, too, will awaken as the Ancient
of Days.
Mortal eyes cannot see the being I really am. I
know I am the Ancient of Days. I never began and I will never end. I
appear to have begun in time. That is because I buried myself in my
creation, in time. I am the Melchizedek of scripture - he who has no
father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of days, or ending of
days. I am eternity, buried in and waking in my creation. And because
I am the Father of all life, my son, David - the personification of
everything I have given life to, through experience - will stand
before me to witness my fatherhood. David's father was called Jesse,
which means "I am." It is that father who, recognizing
David, says: "Thou art my son, today I have begotten
thee."
This experience will be yours when you come
out of the fiery furnaces, which each one of us must and will go
through. Did the Lord not tell us: "I have tried you in the
furnace of affliction (experiences) for my sake; for my own sake I do
it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to
another." There is only God, so he cannot give his glory to
another. Having buried himself in his creation, when he rises from
his burial place, he is still God, but enhanced beyond measure by
reason of becoming his own creation and rising in it, individualized.
We are all members of a body which shares in this grand play of
rivers, mountains, cities, hills, and villages - all of which are
humanity, all men in eternity.
Have you ever reclined in
a chair with your eyes closed as in sleep and pictured a stream of
water so real you could put your mental hands in it and they are wet?
When you cupped your hands and brought them to your mouth, could you
feel the water going down your throat? If you have, you know that the
state you have entered is very real and personal. That is the power
which is in store for you. That is your power tomorrow, when
everything will be at your disposal, all based upon your own
wonderful human imagination, for that is God.
Taking
upon himself all the weaknesses and limitations of the flesh, God
became as you are, that you may become as he is. And when he awakens
within you, you are he. If you will believe in your own wonderful,
imaginative world, everything will be under your control - but
everything! And you will know that everyone in your world is within
you, to be contacted at will. That no one can escape you; and when
you rise within yourself, everyone rises with you. That is the story
of scripture.
While you are here you can test your
creative power based upon your desires. You may desire something you
think you cannot afford, or you don't have the time or the know-how
to enjoy it. You can think of a thousand reasons why its possession
is impossible; but - hearing that imagination creates reality - you
can imagine you have it. But to imagine is not enough; you must have
faith enough in your imaginal act to believe in its reality. When you
imagine you are the person you want to be, you must firmly believe
you already are it; then wait in faith for your assumption to appear
in your world, for that imaginal act has its own appointed hour. It
will ripen and flower. If it seems long to you - wait, for it is sure
and will not be late.
The link between your imaginal act
and its fulfillment is your faith, which is nothing more than your
subjective appropriation of your objective hope. Hoping your desire -
subjectively appropriated - is true, faith is your link to its
objectivity. Act as God, and simply let it be so. God said: "Let
there be light, Let the sun appear. Let the moon appear." After
his imaginal act, God let everything appear, sustaining it by faith,
knowing that without faith it is impossible to bring it to pass.
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not yet seen." If you have faith in the reality of your
imaginal act, it must objectify itself in your world.
Now,
in order to really understand scripture, you must have some knowledge
of the experiences recorded there, because they are not of this
world. The Bible speaks of the New Man who is in you. It is that Man
of Spirit that I am appealing to, as he can believe in the reality of
an imaginal act. The outer you knows a reality which it can touch,
see, and hear. Its belief is based upon the evidence of its five
senses and reason. But I am appealing to the Christ in you, who is
your own wonderful human imagination, and one with the Lord. This
magnificent creative power is buried in you and will rise in you -
not as another, but as your very self. This will be done when the
wall of perdition, which divides the two of you, is broken down. If I
speak of him I am implying the existence of two; but when I say, "I
am," I am speaking of only one. So Christ becomes one with me by
becoming my very self. But I will not know that I am he until I have
experienced everything scripture tells me only happened to him.
My
rebirth is the result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, for it is said that he rose from the same grave in which he was
buried. Since there is only one skull, only one grave, and I awoke
within my skull to discover I am alone, am I not the one who lay down
there to sleep? If asked who was having this experience, I would
answer, "I am," and "I am" is not two - "I
am" is one. I awoke in Golgotha - my own skull - and I came
forth from that skull, as it is said that Bethlehem will bring forth
someone for me, one who will rule as God.
Try ruling as
God! Knowing that all things are possible to your imagination,
imagine something that your reason and senses deny, and see if it
works. If it does, then did you not rule your world as God? That's
how God acts. He imagines and lets it appear. And who is he? The
Ancient of Days.
In the Book of Daniel, you are told:
"There came one, like a son of man, who was presented to the
Ancient of Days and they became one." The word translated "son
of man" is the Aramaic for the word "I" or "one."
That's all it means. So when Jesus uses the word, "son of man"
he is designating his function as the mediator between the world of
man and the kingdom of God. In the Book of John he says: "O Holy
Father, I have made known unto them thy name, the name thou gavest
me." Here he tells you the name is "Father," saying,
"Holy Father." Now he wants something else. "May the
love with which thou hast loved me be in them and I in them,"
for the Holy Father wears the body of love.
When you
step into the presence of the Ancient of Days, you see God in the
human form divine, which is infinite love. And when he incorporates
you into himself through an embrace, you fuse with love, thereby
becoming the Ancient of Days. You know this because you feel it, but
love cannot be seen with mortal eyes; and when you tell your story,
those who hear you will say: "You? Why you are not yet fifty."
In the speaker's case they would say: "You are not yet seventy,
yet you know Abraham?" And I would answer, "Before Abraham,
was I am." They would then pick up stones to stone me with the
facts of life.
Your birth certificate, place of birth,
your social, intellectual, and financial backgrounds, are all
cataloged, all available as stones to be thrown when you dare to
claim that you are known by one who - as a forefather - lived
unnumbered centuries ago. One who not only rejoiced to see your day,
but saw it and was glad. To claim that you not only know him, but
came before him, does not make sense, but is true. That which has no
origin, buried itself in that which began in time, in order to raise
that which began in time to its own level - which has no
origin.
Here we find the story of Nebuchadnezzar and
Melchizedek all rolled up into one. Nebuchadnezzar was an insane king
- just like Man in this world. And Melchizedek, who has no father or
mother, no origin, no beginning or ending in time, is buried within
Nebuchadnezzar. Rising in that which began in time, he transforms
time into eternity. Here again we have the story of the coming of the
Father.
To find the Father of all life is all that is
worthwhile. What else is worth finding? To find a million dollars
would be wonderful for the moment, but one day the money will be
gone, for everything dies here. Even the very heavens are dissolving;
but your imagination cannot dissolve, for he is the Father who was
before that the world was. So when imagination rises in you, you are
God, even though you are still in a garment which wears out. And when
the world calls you dead, it is because you have returned to the
Father, as the Father.
As imagination rises in you, you
understand the words: "I came out from the Father and I have
come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to
the Father." Now the same "I" makes this statement:
"Go to my brothers." If we are all brothers, we do not
differ from this one "I" in whom the whole thing took
place. The gospel is only the record of experiences seen and heard in
the soul. So, "Go and tell my brothers I am ascending unto my
Father and their Father, to my God and their God." There is no
other Father but the one Father, and no other God but the one God,
who is in us all as our own wonderful human imagination. When you
say, "I am," that's he, and there is no other God.
You
will not know you are God, however, until scripture becomes alive and
fulfills itself in you. For that purpose and that purpose only did
you come into the world. You did not come here to put things right,
as the priesthoods would say. This world is a schoolroom, where man
is searching for his father; and how long, vast, and severe the
anguish before he finds his father, is long to tell. I do not know
when God will awaken within you; but I do know that he will, and then
you will see the reason behind it all. So leave the world just as it
is and make no attempt to change it.
Every day
politicians are trying to change the world. We have many who claim to
be our saviors, yet each - like the Hitlers and the Stalins of the
world - have clay feet. Still, people will believe in them and you
can't stop them, because they are dreaming. Being all imagination,
you can't stop man from imagining, and imagining creates reality.
Tonight they are trying to stop cigarette smoking. They tried to stop
alcohol back in 1919, and in their doing, those who lived in the
gutter became billionaires, making billions that they could not - and
did not - declare for taxes. Al Capone made 130 million dollars net a
year for fourteen years without paying taxes. They got him for a few
thousand on some small infraction - but what happened to the 130
million a year? So, the do-gooders will do it all over again. Now
they are going to start banning cigarettes; and instead of receiving
six billion dollars in taxes from the industry, the money will go
into the hands of those who will see to it that those who want
cigarettes get them.
Man never learns his lesson. I can
remember prohibition well. I came to New York City in 1922 and
remained there until 1952, so I know New York City well. Old man
Rockefeller, the one who really made the fortune, owned about six
blocks between 5th and 6th Avenue. His entire family occupied one
block on 54th Street. Before Radio City was built, he owned and
rented out the two- and three-story buildings there. One day his son
said: "Do you realize that all of those buildings are
speakeasies?" Here was a Baptist - who gave millions for the dry
campaign - renting houses to be used as speakeasies. So you see, you
can blind yourself to anything.
I tell you: prohibition
is stupid. You can educate a man out of a state, but you cannot
prohibit him from occupying it. If I told you I would give you the
earth if you would not think of a monkey for the next 24 hours, I
would keep my earth, for you could not do it. Every commandment that
is negative will be broken, for "God has consigned all men to
disobedience that he may have mercy on all." The moment I give
you a command that is negatively worthy, I have consigned you to
disobedience. There is only one commandment which is not negative.
That one is "Love thy father and mother." Every commandment
has to be broken, yet man thinks he is so holy.
A man
who recently celebrated his 100th birthday was asked what he thought
contributed to his longevity, and he answered, "Smoking! I have
been smoking every day of my life since I was eight years old."
Another lady, dying of throat cancer at the age of 30, told reporters
that she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. My mother never
smoked or drank, yet she died a very painful death at the age of 62.
My father drank like a fish. He broke every health code. He never
read anything concerning what he should eat in order to live, he just
lived. He ate what he wanted when he wanted it. He drank what he
wanted when he wanted it, and died at 85 from sheer exhaustion.
Having these two examples before me, I don't believe in this nonsense
relative to what I should eat and drink. I will wear out this body
just as I have a suit of clothes, and when I do, men will call me
dead; but I will not be dead, I will be one with the Awakened Christ,
for I have experienced scripture. David, in the Spirit, called me
Father, so now I know my name and will return to that
awareness.
Remember, the Bible evokes, it does not
describe. There are three kinds of writing: journalism, literature,
and scripture. You can study journalism or literature, but not
scripture; for it is all revelation, all vision - written to evoke,
not describe. As the visions possess you, you will discover that
everything in scripture becomes man. The rivers, mountains, cities,
villages - all are man.
In the 4th chapter of his book,
Daniel shared his vision, saying: "I saw a watcher, a holy one
come down from above and heard him say, 'Cut down the tree, cut off
its branches, strip its leaves, scatter its fruit, but leave the
stump bound in iron and bronze.'" Now the tree becomes a person.
"`Water him with the dew of heaven. Take from him the mind of
man and let his habitation be among the beasts until seven times pass
over him and he learns that the Most High rules the kingdom of men
and gives it to whom he will, even to the lowliest among men.' “The
tree spoken of here is the tree of life, which grows in the human
brain. It has been cut down to the root; but out of that tree of life
(called Jesse) will come a shoot, which is what the Father is waiting
for. He is waiting for himself to come out of man, individualized as
the man he is bringing with him.
So God - he who created
the world and all within it - descended into his creation. And when
he rises, in all, he wipes away time and space as we know it, and
becomes the only reality.
Now let us go into the
silence.