Neville Goddard (May 07, 1971)
When we open the Bible, we are looking, not at secular history, but salvation history. Man, not knowing that, has misinterpreted most of the great truths of Scripture. They are all mysteries, and these mysteries are not matters to be kept secret; they are simply mysterious in character. We will take quite a few tonight and try to piece them together for you, and then tell you my personal experience that will lead you to your own conclusion. You may deny it, but they will leave you to come to your own conclusion.
They asked him, “What is the first and greatest commandment?”
And he said, “This is the first commandment: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.’ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
They asked him now concerning adultery and marriage and divorce. Then he goes back into the book of Genesis, the second chapter, concerning man and woman, and he takes the story and says, “Man leaves father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one.” It is stated, “and they become one.” The two become one. This is God’s arithmetic: One plus one equals one. On this level it equals two, but whom is he speaking of? He has just stated the First Commandment: There is only God. There is nothing but God.
We are told in Isaiah: “Your Maker is your Husband. The Lord of Hosts is His name.” If “the Lord of Hosts” is His name and it’s your Maker, and He is your Husband, well then, he cleaves to you until you become one.
Now we are told, “What God has joined, let not man put asunder.” Well, man makes every effort in the world to separate man from God. We speak of God as another. We are not conscious of the fact that we are one, and every priest, rabbi and other ministers in the world teach of another; therefore, there is no One.
He is telling us that God, our Maker, is our Husband. Well, if our Husband leaves everything and cleaves to us and we become one, He said, “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” It hasn’t a thing to do with the earthly relationship between male and female. Your true Maker is God, and God is Your Husband. You will become one! This, I tell you from experience. The 87th Psalm – there are only seven verses:
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song.
87 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia –
“This one was born there,” they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her.
6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah
7 Singers and dancers alike say, “All my springs are in you.”
It will give you such a wonderful, clear picture of it. Let us take it, now, in this form: “And David slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David.” Now we are told that David took the “stronghold of Zion,” and renamed it the “City of David.” We are told the City of David is now called the “City of God.” And we are told in this 87th Psalm that “the Lord loves Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” (Psalm 87:2) “Zion,” “Bethlehem,” “City of God,” “City of David,” “Jerusalem” are synonymous terms. He loves them all more – this one city – than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
We are told that Jacob got his name by first contending with his brother, and then they called him the Supplanter. He contended with his father-in-law, and he won out. With everyone with whom he fought, He won out. And finally he contended with God, as you read it in the 32nd chapter of Genesis, and when at the end he did not give in, the Lord changed his name to Israel – from the outer man to the inner man. Israel simply means “the man who rules as God.” In other words, God rules – God commands.
Jacob, now, is a completely transformed person, so he prefers the gates of Zion to all the dwelling places of Jacob, the successful materialist – the successful outer man, with all the great accomplishments of man, but what man has accomplished! He prefers the gates of Zion to all the dwelling places of Jacob.
Now, where is he buried? Well, he is buried in the City of David. It was once called Zion. We are told that he took Zion by going up the watershaft. He went up the watershaft; it seemed impregnable. And he conquered Zion and renamed it the City of David. That is where he is buried. And the City of David is one with Bethlehem, and these two are one with Jerusalem, and the three are the City of God, so here, it is one. Where is Christ Jesus buried? Buried in Jerusalem. Buried on Golgotha. That’s where David is buried.
But David said, “You would not leave my soul in hell, and you have promised you would not let my soul see destruction.” You find that in the 16th Psalm. Here, buried in the skull of man, is David. Everything said of David in the Old Testament is said of Jesus Christ in the New.
The 89th Psalm uses the words “of David” – “my chosen one,” “my servant,” “the first-born,” “Thy Anointed.” All these are terms used for Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In the very last book, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, the ruler of all the kings of earth – every statement there is said of David.
“I will make him a witness to all the peoples,” as, we are told in the 55th chapter of Isaiah: “I will make David the witness of all the people.” We are told; he is the first-born.
Well, here we see in the Old Testament, which is simply an adumbration – a complete foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in man. When it actually comes to fulfillment in man, they don’t call him David any more; they speak of him then as “Jesus, the Christ.” So, here he is called the “Chosen One.”
“If he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One, let him save Himself.” That you read in the 23rd chapter of Luke when he hangs upon the cross, and the wise men say, “He saved others. Let Him save Himself. If he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One, then let Him save Himself.” He is called “His Chosen One.” He is called “the first-born from the dead.”
Now, let us see what the 87th Psalm tells us. There are only seven verses. He tells us of this fantastic mountain that has been established by God. Then he tells us that God “records as he registers the peoples”, and he says, “this one” and “that one” was “born in her” – meaning Zion, meaning the place where David was buried. And he goes through, calling the people to be awakened – all buried in that one state.
When I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, after having seen my Angelic Being check off my name, look at me and the book and then simply check the name – the registered name – it’s there in the book. This is the time now. Then standing in His presence and answering His questions as He expected it: that Love is the greatest thing in the world, He embraced me. “And the two became one.” “He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” From that moment on, we are not two.
I had gone a-whoring. I had gone into harlotry, believing in powers outside of God – believing in this, that and the other, and then in that moment the two became one. And if today someone is afraid of me, as some people say they are, it’s only because they are afraid they may believe what I teach. They do not wish to give up a god outside of themselves. They are playing the part of the harlot, though they are virgin. If they have never known man, and if a man has never known a woman – has never known any sexual act, but believes in a god external to himself, he or she is playing the part of the harlot.
You can be tonight married and be running around all over the world – either male or female, but if you believe in the one God – “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” – it would have nothing to do with your sexual activities outside of your so-called earthly agreement. It hasn’t a thing to do with it. So, let no man put you asunder from that which you have been joined to. You have been joined to God if you are faithful to that one God. What is His name? I AM. There is no other God.
“I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty.” That means destructive violence. And you do first appear that way. And it is destructive violence; it comes in the earthquake, the volcano, the storm – everything. It seems that you are only sheer violence. “I have not appeared to them by my name, the LORD.” He appears first by that name to Moses, but he did not appear to Moses as Father, as Love. That comes in the end. When the two become one, you are united to Love – Infinite Love, and not one person in the world can ever divorce you from that union.
This is God’s arithmetic: one plus one equals one. So, in the end, there is only one. There is only God!
Liken this whole thing to an infinite brain, and God the Dreamer, and we the “brain cells” in the mind of the Dreamer. And He awakens us, one by one, and then we unite, and we become the Dreamer. Everyone becomes then that One Dreamer that is God, for there is only God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
And let no one change this from you and make you see Him as something other than your Self.
When He calls David, it is because He first awakens. He promised David He would not leave his soul in hell – He would not let his soul see destruction. And suddenly it’s within you, in your own skull! And the explosion takes place, and here is David.
So, you have kept your promise, “I made an everlasting covenant with David, my steadfast love for him.” And so, He kept His promise and he lifted up David – David, the Son. And when He lifts him up, it is because He first called you and united you with Himself, and you are one with God – there is no two now. The two become one. Now David will rise, because he is your son, because he is God’s Son. So, David rises because you have been united with the Lord, and no man can put you two asunder, because you are not two any more. You are one.
So, this is the story of Scripture: one Being; and all this is scattered, though all part of the brain of God. And one set after the other awakens. As it awakens, we become one with the Dreamer, and then because He is a father, the son must appear. And the Son calls you “Father.” Then you know Who-You-Are.
So, when asked to name the first and greatest commandment, he names that from the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy. He’s only fulfilling what He foretold. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Now, love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your might. And now a second I give you: Love your neighbor as yourself.
He takes six hundred and thirteen (613) commandments, two hundred and forty-eight (248) positive and three hundred and sixty-five (365) negative, and reduces them to two positive – only two commandments! And the two are really one, for if you love your neighbor as your Self, you are admitting that you are one. For he, if not yet awakened, he will awake, and he is going to be the father of your son. And if he is the father of your son, then he has to be you! So in the end, there is only God – nothing but God!
So, the sufferings are simply because of our departure from God. We put our faith in our stocks and bonds, our social position, our everything but being the One whose name we really bear. His name is “I AM.” And before I say, “I am Neville,” I have said, “I am.” “I am”, then I say, “Neville.”
You say, “What nationality?” I say, “First I am an American.” You say, “Well, what race?”
Well, I am taught to believe I am a Caucasian, so “I am” first, then Caucasian. And the One who said, “I am that,” He said, “I am” first. There is the same name.
And in the end, he is not going to have anyone other than David for a son. And I’ll tell you, regardless of the pigment of his skin, David is blonde. I don’t care what father – how black he is today, how olive-skinned he is today – when he actually becomes one with God, his son is going to be the blonde, blue-eyed, lovely, ruddy being described in the book of Samuel.
“Is it not said of him, “I have chosen one from the house. Go and see him. And then march before him the sons!”
“Are these all your sons?”
And he said, “We have one left, the youngest.” “We will not sit until you fetch him.”
So, they go and bring him because he was, now, feeding the sheep – feeding the flock. So, they bring him in, and the voice of God said to Samuel, “This is he. Rise and anoint him.”
He is called the “Anointed of the Lord.” And his father’s name – basically – is “I AM”; that is what it means. The son of Jesse – “Jesse” is “I AM,” and that is the name of God.
First, he is the “Chosen One”, now he is the “Anointed of the LORD.” All this is prophetic. And suddenly it comes. So, what I say of Jesus Christ – everything is said of David, therefore what is said of Jesus Christ is nothing more than a “Christological” reinterpretation of the story of David. It is all true, but it becomes alive in the one, and then you don’t call yourself Christ. You don’t call yourself anything, but you do call David, David.
You are still John, but you know Who-You-Are because if God is the father of David, and you have no doubt in your mind as to your relationship, then you are God. And you do not use the word Christ. You do not use the word Jesus. Simply, you are God, and David is your son, and that’s the story.
But man has been divorced from this knowledge, and every priest in the world still keeps man asunder by teaching what they teach. The day will come, they will not be able to put you asunder from the One with Whom you are joined and have become one. The two become one. “Let, therefore, no man put asunder what God has joined together.” And He joins you to Himself; and because He is the father of David, you have to be the father of David.
But unless you actually believe that God is your own wonderful human imagination, and all things exist in your imagination, and all things exist in God, you are still worshiping a god outside yourself, and you have been severed from your mate, for your Maker is your Husband, “the Lord of Hosts is His name.”
So, anyone in this world who sees something other than God as Husband – not only Husband, but one with Him – whether you be male or female – and you can turn to another source for your supply – another source for your power, then you do not know the Being that you really are! But the day will come, you will be called, and “the Lord registers” – records – “the people as He registers them. He will say, ‘this one,’ and ‘that one’ were ‘born in her.’”
Now, they give it the feminine: “born in her”, so Zion becomes the mother, for a man is buried, which is really a tomb. The tomb becomes the womb, and out of that womb you are going to be born. So, Zion, which is Bethlehem, contains it all, and everyone is going to come out of Bethlehem. He is born in Bethlehem. Who is born? God is! So, where David is buried, the Father is buried. So, “God Himself enters Death’s door with those who enter, and He lays down in the grave with those who enter,” and then when you awake after having this dream – the visions of Eternity, you will see the “garment that the female wove for you” – this garment [indicating the physical body]. You come out of it completely, and you are born, and you are one with God. And the symbol of your union with God is the little child. And the confirmation that you are God comes as David. He is the Son of God, and He is your son. There is no disturbance whatsoever as to this conviction. Beyond any conviction you have in this world, no man could disturb this. You are the father of David, and he is the Son of God.
So, what is said of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, it was first said of David. “He said unto me, Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.”
So, here the whole thing unfolds in man, and it will unfold in everyone, or one “brain cell” will be missing, and it can’t be missing. It’s an infinite Brain that we actually penetrated by the Infinite Being that was Love. But he first appeared as destructive violence.
Everyone seems to think that God is vile: He allows this to happen, that to happen, the other to happen. He always appears first to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as destructive violence, called “El Shaddai.” “El Shaddai” simply means “God Almighty”; and you only see Him in the light of power – sheer power. So, whenever He appears in man – maybe that man’s first appearance to those who love him and who follow him, will be as sheer power, but in time, they will see him as Infinite Love – Infinite Love.
So tonight, take the passages that I have quoted, read them. Read them carefully, and see how they all fall into place like a great puzzle. The whole Old Testament is simply a foreshadowing; it is a prophecy, a blueprint. And then when it is fulfilled in man in the New Testament, he who was called “David, the Messiah” is now called “Jesus Christ.” He was called the Son of God; Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. He was called the “first-born”; Jesus Christ is called the “first-born.” He is called the King of Kings; Jesus Christ is called the King of Kings. And you will find it all parallels, but here is one foreshadowing, and here is one realizing.
So, in the New Testament, the Old is fulfilled, and we call that one, which was formerly called “David, the son of Jesse” – we call him now “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The word “Jesse” means “God.” It means “I AM,” and God simply means, “I AM.”
So the whole thing unfolds within a man, and may I tell you, it’s all out of the skull of man. The skulls we have here in this world are only shadows of that Immortal Skull that you occupy. But because there can only be one, you will not be less than any being that preceded you in the awakening, because whoever preceded you is one with God, and God is one, and His name is One. Therefore, you cannot be less or more than God, and so when you are joined together, one plus one equals one. In this world it equals two, and that’s the division. That’s the conflict. But in God’s arithmetic, one plus one equals one.
And so whenever you are standing in the presence of Infinite Love, you will answer correctly. You are divinely prompted. You don’t have to hesitate for one second. You will say it, and as you say it, you are embraced, and as you are embraced, you are fused, and as you are fused, you are united to the Lord. And “He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” So, “one body, one spirit, one lord, one God and Father of all.”
So, here is an infinite brotherhood that together forms God the Father. And as a father, there must be a son, and the son is David. And David is the symbol of humanity. So, everything comes out, and that Perfect Being stands before you, and here he is – David!
A friend of mine – she isn’t here tonight, she wrote me a very sweet letter this past week. She said, “I had either a dream or a vision. It was very vivid. I saw a woman who had twelve daughters. In the vision, or dream, I knew the names of each. Eleven of them were born maimed: a foot missing, an arm missing – something missing, but one was born perfect, and she was a virgin who gave birth to a son. Her name was Glory. But all the time I was thinking of Mary” – for she was raised a Catholic and raised in the tradition, she was thinking of Mary, but her name was Glory – which is God Himself, as we told you last Monday, “I will make my glory to pass before you, and when I pass by” – therefore “my Glory” and “I” are synonymous. So, her name was Glory, and she was perfect. “And everyone wanted to know who was the father of her son. And all the townspeople tried.” She said, “I knew it, and she – Glory, she knew it. But we wouldn’t tell, because they didn’t ask us. And then someone said, ‘David is the father of the child.’ Then someone came forward and struck him on the head and knocked him down, and others came with knives, and he simply cried out because of the blow, and the two knives that they pierced into him.”
And then she awoke, and she wondered, “What on earth could this be? Because I can’t conceive in my rational mind that I would ever want to kill David.”
Well, all dreams are egocentric – all dreams. You are the dreamer, and the dreamer is God. It’s telling you a story. It’s a glorious story that was revealed to her. Here, twelve means either governmental order on earth or in heaven, but it’s order. Here is the one now, and the one’s name is Glory, and she brings forth a son, and no one knows the Father. The search of all in this world is for the Father – to find the identity of the Father. And they would kill the son – the only one who could reveal the Father. For no one in this world will ever reveal you as Father – my words cannot convey the conviction that is necessary to reveal it. It takes David himself to reveal it.
I could tell you from now to the ends of time that you are the father of David, but until the actual experience is experienced by you, you cannot have that surety. So here, the destruction that is still the old habit crying out to destroy. That’s why I said earlier, “Why do people fear me?” She feared me recently greatly, and thought me evil, because they are afraid they may believe me.
So, in the dream that followed this only a few days ago the crowd, called the townspeople, struck him over the head and knocked him cold, and then he cried out because of the pain. And when he cried out because of the harshness of the knives that went into him, she wondered, “Why should I” – the rational mind? No, the rational mind would not want to destroy David. But she’s not dealing with the rational mind. She is dealing with something deep within her that has been actually planted in her from childhood. It’s a difficult thing to overcome prefabricated misconceptions of the great mystery of Christ. But I tell you, he is David, and you are the father of David, and therefore you are God.
So, who is the father? God is the Father. But whom do they kill? They kill the son. The Father is invisible. They do not kill the Father. They always kill the Son. So they attempt to rub out the son, and that is told us in the great prophecy – or the parable, I should say – when they killed all the servants that came, one after the other, then he sent his son. And they took the son and said, “He is the heir. If we kill him, then we have the estate”, so they kill the son. And what then did he ask when the father – the king himself comes, what would he do to these servants, because they can’t kill the father. The Father is invisible, made known only by the Son.
So, they didn’t kill him. The attempt to kill him was made, but they did not kill him. But it has a lovely stride in the right direction, as far as this lady is concerned, because only a few weeks ago she was turned completely against the speaker because of something – a disturbance which must come to all of us in the household, and I became, in her eyes, an evil person – an evil spirit, an anti-Christ. Well, yes, I am completely anti-Christ as the world accepts Christ. I have been sent to betray the true Christ. And I’ll tell you who he is. I’ve told you who he is.
So, everything I have said about David – read it in the New Testament – it is said of Jesus Christ. What did he say? “I have come only to fulfill Scripture.” So what being am I fulfilling?
Well, was it said of David that he was the “first-born”? Now it’s said of me, but it must be David that I am fulfilling. Was it said of him, “He is my Chosen One”? That is said of me. I am the “Chosen One.”
Was it said of him that “he is the Anointed of the Lord”? Well, my first words in Luke, after the temptation: he goes into the synagogue as was the custom on the Sabbath, and they passed him a book, and when he opened to the page called the 61st of Isaiah, he began to read it: “And the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He has anointed me.” To anoint? They anointed David, and as they anointed David, what did they say? Read it in the 16th chapter of I Samuel:
“And so the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that moment forward.” He is quoting the 61st chapter of Isaiah, but it is David, who precedes the 61st chapter of Isaiah, and they came under the orders of the Lord, and they came to David, and then Samuel turned to the father, Jesse. “Are these your only sons?”
He said, “No, there is the youngest, but the youngest is tending the sheep.”
“Bring him in.”
Then the Lord spoke, “This is he. Rise and anoint him.” And then Samuel took the oil and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that moment forward.” So, in the New Testament in the book of Luke, as he actually began the ministry, as you are told – he came out of the wilderness where he ignored all temptation and he would serve only God. Then he took the book and opened it up and he said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.” So, he has anointed me. That is how he begins his ministry – actually quoting the words said of David in the 16th chapter of Samuel – I Samuel.
And you take every claim made of him – the King of Kings; they said it of David. He was the Shepherd; they said it of David, “He is my shepherd.” And now the whole thing is fulfilled, and the only one that stands before you, and he is not called Jesus Christ, I tell you. You are the Lord Christ Jesus, who is God-Awake-in- you, but because he is Father, there is a son, and the son remains David. So David calls you “Father”. And you know you are his father, and you know he is your son. There is no uncertainty whatsoever between you and your son. This relationship is forever.
So, He wakens cell after cell after cell. It’s only Himself. God is waking, and there’s nothing but God. So in the end, we are all God! But it takes all of us, completely awake, to be God the Father. Now you dwell upon these passages and try to put them together, and take what I’ve told you concerning my own experience standing before the Risen Lord – Infinite Love. And here we become one. We were two. I stood before Him. I was one, and He was one. Then I answered Him correctly: Love. When he said, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” I said, Love. And Love embraced me, and we fused. We ceased to be two; we are one.
And now, when he sends me into the world, “he who sees me sees Him who sent me,” if you see Me. Then you see Him. But if they do not see Him, they will put you out of the synagogues. In those days they were called synagogues, today they are called churches – places of worship. They will put you out; excommunicate you. In fact, they will kill you and think they are doing God a service, because “they know neither my Father nor me.”
If they only knew my Father, they would know me, for He Who sent me has never left me. And if you see me, you will see my Father. But you can’t see my Father through this garment of flesh and blood. Therefore, you can’t see me, because we are one.
Now, let’s enter the Silence.
[Following the Silence]: Now, are there any questions, please?
Question by a lady: You say you can tell us what we have to experience. What do you recommend as the easiest way to experience – the technique, or the way we enter this experience?
Neville: That question was asked in this manner in Scripture: “Lord, what must we do to be doing the work of God?”
He said, “Believe in him whom he has sent.”
It may not seem rational; it may not seem anything that you could use for Caesar’s world, but “believe in him whom He has sent.” He does teach a very simple law how to cushion the blows – the inevitable blows – of Caesar’s world, which I will try to explain on Monday. [See “Who God Really Is” (also titled “Step into the Picture,” 10 May 1971)] I can’t go on forever along one line, so on Monday I will take up that aspect of it, but it is secondary to this. This is the important thing. For if by that law you gain the world – change everything, as I said tonight, but they used words of Scripture, which – unless you understand Scripture, you would not see it, where He liked the gates:
“And the Lord loved the gates of Zion
(Psalm 87:2)
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.”
“Jacob signifies this whole vast world and all the comforts that you could, by the use of law, as he did – he used the law wisely. He deceived his father-in-law by using the wonderful technique of putting popular things – these things, like poplar trees before the female animals at the time of breeding. And naturally, when the bulls came through to sire the cows, they were looking at these stripes. And he made a deal with his father-in-law that the offspring that had stripes and spots all belonged to him, and those that were not – and the father knew that that’s an easy thing to win, for the simple reason he had all the brown cows – all of one color. And Jacob put different stripes on the foals and spots on the foal, and as they came up to be sired, that impression of that moment of intensity, they would reproduce in themselves what they were looking at. So, man always becomes what he beholds, especially at the moment of creation.
So here was the creative act, and Jacob outsmarted his father-in-law, Laban, and got all the cattle. So when they brought forth, not brown cattle, as they should, they brought forth spotted and striped cattle. So, he used the technique of mine to outsmart all of them: his brother Esau, his father-in-law, those in battle, and then at the end, the Lord changed his name from Jacob to Israel, the man who rules as God.
But he liked the gates of Zion, where all are buried, including his one son David. Now bear in mind the words, “And David slept with his fathers” – it’s plural: “David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David.” That is in II Kings, the 10th verse: “He slept with his fathers” – the will of the fathers, but only one son.
And we, the Father – we are individually the father of that one son, because there is only one God. It takes all the fathers to make the Father.