Neville Goddard 02-09-1968
We are told in the Book of Exodus: “God said to
Moses, ‘I AM the I AM. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I AM I did not make myself
known to them.’” And if you read the 1st chapter, the
24th verse of 1 Corinthians, you will discover that the I AM (the
creative power of God) is personified as Jesus Christ! Now you and I
are called upon to find this creative power. The Christian world
claims to believe in Christ, but they do not know him for he must be
found. This challenge is given in scripture. “Examine
yourselves to make sure you are holding to the faith. Test
yourselves!” If you want to find Jesus Christ you must test
yourself!
Are you really convinced that Jesus Christ is in
you? Have you tested him? If you have and are still not sure, then
you have failed the test. Ask the highest leader of the Christian
faith down to the lowest if he believes that Jesus Christ is in him,
and if he is not convinced that the creative power of the universe is
within and personalized as himself, then he has failed to meet the
test regardless of what his man-made rank may be. You can attend all
the churches in the world, give to the sick and poor on the outside,
but if you do not know from experience that Jesus Christ is in you,
you have failed the test. I tell you that Jesus Christ is your own
wonderful human imagination, who is the eternal creative power of
God. If you do not know that, you do not know Jesus Christ! You may
say: “He is a person.” Well, you are a person, aren’t
you?
Jesus Christ is God the Father and God the Father is
Spirit, And those who worship him do so in Sprit through the art of
feeling! I have imagined a state and seen it externalize itself and
become a physical fact that I may share with another. This I have
done unnumbered times and taught others to do it. So I have found him
and know him to be the only creative power of the universe.
Everything in your world which is now a fact to be shared with others
was once only imagined. And if you know that Jesus Christ is the
creative power that brings things into this world, that all things
must be first imagined, then you have found him. Having found him,
you must learn to trust him and live by this principle. Do this and
you will find yourself moving into the stream of eternal life by
fulfilling scripture and knowing that “All power in heaven and
earth is given unto me.”
The true meaning of power is
“effectiveness in achieving a purpose.” Today as a nation
we have the power of the atom bomb, but are not willing to use it
because it is not our objective to wipe out cities; so where is the
power that could bring about our purpose? Man does not know Jesus
Christ, therefore he thinks there is power in nuclear energy, in
money, in his intellectual or social position; but the only power is
Jesus Christ who is the human Imagination!
I was born
and raised in a Christian environment, yet I did not learn this truth
in Sunday school, in church, or at home. I was taught to believe in a
being outside of myself. Some person who was born two thousand years
ago who was crucified on a wooden cross by people who did not believe
he was the Son of God. This is the story my mother taught me as her
mother had taught her. The story comes down this way, yet it is not
the true story of scripture.
I tell you a mystery: Christ in
you is the hope of glory, for God, your human imagination became man
that man may become God. This is a mystery that we are called upon to
test, for the power that created the world became as you are, that
you may know yourself to be all creative power, as He is! I did not
receive this knowledge from a man. I did not read it in a book, nor
did I ever hear of it from another. It was revealed to me that God,
in man, is his own wonderful human imagination!
Having no
place to turn, or no one to turn to, I began to experiment; and as it
proved itself in the testing, I found myself fulfilling scripture.
Instead of another, I was playing the central role fulfilling the
only belief! Then I began to tell it and those who heard and believed
began to test themselves, and as they did, they moved into the
mainstream and scripture fulfilled itself in them.
We are
told: “Remain in the city until you are clothed with power from
on high.” Scripture personifies this fantastic power as Jesus
Christ, but man is taught that Jesus Christ is some distinct
individual outside of himself and turns to him to grant his wishes
and respond to his prayers. Then one day man hears who Jesus Christ
really is, and turning to no one on the outside, God reveals himself
to that man as I AM. God said to Moses: “I made myself known
unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name
I AM I did not make myself known to them.”
If God’s
name forever and forever is I AM, how can you look outside of self?
You cannot point to another and say: “I AM.” You can
observe this or do that, but you cannot point to another when you
say:” I am.”
Having revealed himself as Almighty
Power, then I AM, God’s third revelation, is that of Father.
And if God is a Father, he must have a Son. The world has been taught
to believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, but I know from
revelation that Jesus Christ is God Himself. There is a son, however,
as told us so clearly in the 2nd Psalm. That son is David, who says:
“I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, ’Thou
art my son, today I have begotten thee.’” I tell you
scripture does not record secular history, but supernatural history.
Its message is sacred and hasn’t a thing to do with anything
that took place in a secular manner.
Yesterday I read where
someone in Ohio, who claimed he had traced his background back to
David, died at the age of 84 or 85. Of all the nonsense of the world,
if he meant it secularly. David is not a character of human history,
but the eternal state one enters when he believes in God’s
power as his own imagination, exercises it, and enters the mainstream
and awakens. Personifying God’s creative power, David will
stand before you and call you Father, revealing you to be one with
your creative power.
Listen to these words carefully: “The
high priest said to Jesus, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of
Blessed?’ And Jesus answered, ‘I am, and you will see the
son of man sitting at the right hand of Power.’” This he
said in fulfillment of the 100th Psalm: “The Lord said unto my
lord, ‘Sit at my right hand til I make your enemies your
footstool.’” Here we see Power equated with a man! So
God’s first revelation is that of sheer power. Then comes his
name, I AM, which is followed by his true character, which is that of
a Father who loves.
It is God’s purpose to give himself
to everyone, and - being a Father - when he gives himself to you he
gives you Fatherhood. First he gives you Power, then the awareness of
being that power as you test yourself.
Now I ask you to
examine yourself. When confronted with a problem, do you turn to
someone on the outside for its solution, or do you believe that all
power resides in your human imagination? Do you believe in the
hydrogen bomb, meeting the right people, or living on the “right”
side of the street? Or do you believe in your own wonderful human
imagination? I have found he of whom Moses and the law wrote, Jesus
of Nazareth, to be my human imagination and I turn only to him for
the solution of my problems. I do it by asking myself what I would
see if my problem dissolved and its solution rose in its place. What
would I hear? How would I act? Having discovered Jesus to be my
imagination, I act as though the problem was solved, and have found
from experience that I have brought things not seen by mortal eye
into the world to be seen by all. I have proved it and encourage
everyone to try it. Examine yourself to make sure, really sure, that
you have completely accepted Jesus Christ as your human imagination,
so that when confronted by any challenge you turn to the only Jesus
Christ and not to a false one. If you turn to anyone outside of
yourself you have turned to a false Jesus Christ and failed the test.
Turn only to God and not to anyone or anything on the outside. No one
can tell your future, for your future is to fulfill Scripture, and
you have no other!
I received a letter last week from a lady,
who said: “In the dream I knew I was twenty years old, just
married, and living in the Basque country among the shepherds. My
husband was driving an old truck. I sat next to him with my
sister-in-law next to me. In the rear sat my brother-in-law with my
father-in-law directly behind me. Having spent the night on a
mountain top, we travel over dusty, rugged mountainous roads as I
become very tired and weak. My father-in-law had authority over
everything, and knowing the way, he said: ‘Just one more curve
and we will be home.’ As the final curve is completed I see a
heavenly valley covered with green grass and a sparkling,
crystal-clear river flowing through it. In the distance I see a
beautiful home with barns and flocks of white sheep. Two shepherds
are there with their crooks, their dogs, and a flock of geese. Then I
turn around, and as I face my father-in-law I see he has suddenly
grown tall and young. As I look at him I remember having seen that
face somewhere in the dim, dim eternity. Then the face became
brilliant and as I dissolved into the brilliance, I awoke.”
In
this letter my friend played the part of Tamar, as told us in the
38th chapter of the Book of Genesis. Judah, the fourth son of Jacob,
is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ: “Abraham begat
Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah and his
brothers.” In the story, Judah left his brothers, married
outside, and had three sons. Choosing Tamar for his first son, Er,
who displeased Jehovah and was killed, Judah told his second son to
marry her and raise offspring for his brother. Knowing that every
offspring would not be his, but his brother’s, Onan spilled his
seed so that Tamar would not have a child. Displeasing Jehovah
because of this act, Jehovah killed him, for the command was to be
fruitful and multiply and increase the world. The third son was not
given as he was too young.
Then came the day when Judah
went down to observe the shearing of the sheep, as he was rich and
had enormous flocks. Tamar, upon hearing of his visit, took off her
widow’s clothes and sat in a public place, veiled as a harlot
of the temple. When Judah proposed, she asked: "What will you
give me?” and he replied: “A kid from my flock.”
Asking for a pledge that the kid would be sent, he gave her his ring,
his bracelet, and his staff, and knew her intimately. Three months
later it was brought to Judah’s attention that his
daughter-in-law, Tamar, was pregnant. When Judah heard the news, he
said: “Let the law be fulfilled. She shall be burned to death.”
When they came to execute the law she took the ring, the bracelet,
and the staff and sent them to Judah with the message: “The man
who gave me these is the father of the child.” Upon seeing
them, Judah said: “The sin is mine, not hers,”
Now
don’t think of Tamar as having union in a physical sense, but
union with a state, for every time we enter a state there is union.
In my friend’s vision, everyone present was an in-law, telling
her that she has entered the mainstream. She has had union with
memory, and no power on earth can stop her from bringing scripture to
its fulfillment, for her father-in-law is the one spoken of in the
49th chapter of Genesis as “the lion’s whelp, and from
his hand the scepter will never pass.” She has entered the
state which leads her up to the climax as Jesus Christ, who is God
the Father!
The day will come when you will reach the
Fatherhood degree and David will stand before you and call you
Father. Then you will know a power that is greater than the human
mind can fathom. You will know real power. It hasn’t a thing to
do with the ability to destroy a nation. Tonight we could release X
number of bombs and destroy every city in Russia and they could do
the same thing to us - so what? May I tell you: the millions who
would die on both sides would not be dead, but still trying to find
the Father! Everyone is really searching for the Father of all life,
and that Father is Jesus Christ. Although men have created pictures
of him, Jesus is not on the outside. We are told: “It does not
yet appear what he shall be, but we know that when he appears, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” God’s
son cannot appear and not be just like the person to whom he appears.
You will never see him as someone coming from without, but coming
from within you. He will call you father in the Spirit and then you
will know who you really are!
In the meanwhile you can
exercise your power on this level if you will accept this challenge.
Examine yourselves and make sure you are faithful to your imaginal
act! Let no one else examine you, but test yourself! Have you
completely accepted the fact that Jesus Christ is in you? If you can
answer, “not quite” then you have failed the test. If,
like one billion Christians, you believe in some other Jesus Christ,
you have a false Christ. And you will never find him by going to
church or giving to the poor, for he is not on the outside, but in
your own wonderful human imagination!
Let no one prophesy for
you! The only prophecy you are destined to fulfill is scripture. When
someone tries to tell me what some astrologer or medium said I get so
annoyed I want to shout: “Have you ever heard me?”
Believe in all that nonsense, and you worship false Christs! If you
want to be famous in this world of men, use this principle and you
will shine for your little moment, but I ask you: are you in the
mainstream of fulfilling scripture? Do you really believe in the only
Jesus Christ, who is your human imagination? I say: there never was
another Christ and there never will be another Christ.
Now,
some will say that is blasphemy, just as they did long ago. In the
14th chapter of the Book of Mark, the question is asked: “Are
you the Christ?” And Jesus said: “I am; and you will see
the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power.” Then the
high priest said: “Do we still need witnesses? You have heard
his blasphemy.” And in the Book of John, when accused of
blasphemy “because you, being man, make yourself God”
Jesus said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I say, you
are gods’? If scripture says you are gods, and scripture cannot
be broken, is it blasphemy for me to say I am the Son of God, and the
Son and the Father are one?” If you are creative power, you
must be one with the creator, who is a person as you are, as I
am.
So I say to everyone: accept Christ as your own wonderful
human imagination and don’t falter, for scripture must be
fulfilled in you. It is not done physically! I have experienced a
physical birth, for I was born in Barbados and just as you, I know
the limitations of the flesh. I came into this world with nothing and
do not have much today. But because I didn’t have much, I had
to stand upon my own two feet and believe in myself. Asking no one to
help me and not stealing from another, if I had nothing I went
without it. I have seen those who had more than they needed, but I
didn’t take it from them, I simply pulled in my belt. I have
walked fifty blocks to find a friend who had a dime to buy some soup
beans. When he could not be found I would return and perhaps the next
day earn a quarter to buy the beans, but it never occurred to me that
because others had food and I didn’t that they should give it
to me. I was determined to believe in myself and because of that I
got into the mainstream of life and scripture began to unfold in me.
No one owes me a living; all I have to do is trust Jesus Christ,
trust my human imagination!
I have no desire to pile up a lot
of money. Why pile up a million shadows? My desire is to tell you who
Jesus Christ really is. He is your own wonderful human imagination.
There never was another Christ and there never will be another. If
you will trust him - and I use “him” advisedly because
God’s creative power and God is a person (and you are that
person) - you will never fail, for he will never fail you! Tonight if
you know what you want, just believe that you have it. Sleep as
though it were true, and because Christ is in everyone, he will use
as many as necessary to aid the birth of your assumption.
In
the end of the Bible, the 22nd chapter of Revelation, Jesus Christ is
speaking, saying: “”I am the root and the offspring of
David, the bright morning star.” And in the 2nd chapter of the
same book it is said: “To he who conquers” (who witnesses
the truth of scripture) I will give the morning star.” In other
words, he gives you himself as God the Father. He is the root of
David. The root of a tree is its father. God the Father is the root
of David, for David is all Spirit, not a being of flesh and blood. He
is the eternal state of the Son, who calls everyone to come to the
mainstream and climax as the Father. So the story ends when you have
finished the race and kept the faith, for you are given the morning
star and know yourself to be the root and the offspring of David, the
bright morning star!
Tonight test yourself|! I will not test
you. I am not here to test anyone. I only urge you to examine
yourself to see if you are really keeping the faith, or are you going
to call a friend and tell him how horrible things are and appeal to
him on the outside? I ask you: are you really keeping the faith? Do
you always turn to your imagination and, no matter what happens, do
you remain faithful to the state imagined? If you do, you have passed
the test. But if every little rumor, doubt, or fear can move you
around like a pawn on a chessboard, then you are not keeping the
faith! It’s entirely up to you. Are you testing yourself or
not? Can you say within yourself: “I always turn to my
imagination when confronted with a problem and solve it there. Then I
remain faithful to that imaginal act.” If you can, you have
passed the test. It’s just as simple as that.
May I tell
you: we remain in this world of death until we enter the mainstream
and come to the climax. You can’t believe how much this world
is really a world of death, whose life is in you as your human
imagination. Life itself is an activity of imagining where everything
is a symbol. Your closest, dearest friend, your wife, your mother,
father, brothers and sisters are all symbols, all dead symbols
revealing to you who you really are.
Now let us go into the
silence.