Neville Goddard (January 08, 1963)
Tonight’s subject is “Prophetic Blueprints.” Now we could take it on this level, but I will not. To summarize it on this level, may I tell you: if you could conceive of an infinite might as a great computer, and if the imaginal activities of all of us – every man, woman and child in the world – make us free to change this activity at any moment in time, then you could predict the future for this level; for this level is the outpouring or outpicturing of the imaginal activities of men, women, and children in this world. You can prove it in your own individual life by setting a goal and imagining that you are at the end of that goal. Remain faithful to your goal, and no power in this world can stop it in your peculiar individual life. Take it and multiply it by the world, and you will see what it would be on this level. You will see that you and I are free to imagine things that are in conflict with God’s purpose, and in the short run we can accomplish them. Yet, it is God’s purpose that is ultimately the only true end and that is realized. So, tonight we will take it from a higher level.
If you would know your future, study the story of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the actual realization of God’s prophetic blueprint for man’s redemption. Everything said of Jesus Christ will one day be said of you, individually. Everything that he ever experienced, you will experience. Jesus Christ is only the fulfillment of all that was told us in the Old Testament. The old is the plan, the plot, the purpose of God – and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that purpose. There is a rabinnical principle that what is not written in Scripture, is non-exisistant. Now, when they speak of Scripture, they meant only the Old Testament. There was no New Testament. The drama of Jesus was this principle. As I stand here tonight, I am speaking from experience. I make no claim to be any other than the man you know me to be. I do not differ from you at all – just a man with all the weaknesses and limitations of any man in this world. Yet, I know this story to be true, and I know it to be true from experience. The five words in the end of Luke could summarize the entire Gospel: “They told what had happened.” Moffit describes this phrase in Greek. As he translated it: “They related their own experience.” Tonight, I will relate my own experience, to tell you how true this is.
The entire drama of Christ Jesus took place in the fall of man. It did not take place on the surface, like this. It did not take place here at all. Therefore, no one believed him. At the very end of the journey a few – just a remnant – accepted it, and the rest rejected it because he could not share with the world what he had experienced in the depth of his own soul. The cue was given in the earliest of the gospels, Mark. Here, we are told the very first sign to appear: “Immediately the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit like a dove descending upon him” and then we hear the words – seemingly from out of space – “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”
Now it is said (if you read it carefully): no one experienced this but Jesus. It is recorded in scripture, but he must have told it, because no one saw the heavens open or saw the spirit like a dove descending upon him, but him upon whom it descended. If Mark records it as an experience, then it could only be an experience that was told him by the one who experienced it. The other gospels modify it somewhat and imply that John saw it, but they pull forcefully upon the earliest gospel, which is Mark. I can tell you my experience of that scene, and it is true. The same simple man, limited as I am, had that experience. No one saw it from this level. I can tell you, and you can either believe it or reject it.
You are told: “Immediately the heavens opened.” It does, suddenly, and you see nothing but infinity, translucence, infinite expansion- and hovering above you is a dove of a light beige color, and the dove is looking at you and you look at the dove unconcerned, and it is all anchored on you. It remains there over you, seemingly without effort on its part, and yet it is alive and looking at you. Then you automatically lift your hand (in my case it was my left hand) and it descended and perched on my index finger. I brought it down to my face, and it smothered me with kisses. I had the impulse to take it across my head, and it kissed and kissed me.
Then a woman on my left made this statement: “He loves you.” I heard no voice saying: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” I only heard the woman’s voice, and she said: “He loves you,” meaning the dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. Then she said to me: “They (now using the plural, and speaking of birds) do not come near man,” And she gave me the reason: “To them, we are like a large bowel – a consuming bowel, and we give off to them a most offensive odor, so they try to avoid contact with man. But this one pierced this ring of odors and came through because of his love for you.” And the only sign of “I love you” was the demonstration – the actual physical demonstration – of a dove smothering me with kisses all over my head and ears and neck. So I know that story is true. I can share it with you only in words. You may believe it or disbelieve it. The choice is yours.
We are told in John 7:3-8: “So his brothers said to him, 銑eave here and go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works you are doing. For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ For even his brothers did not believe in him. Jesus said to them, 閃y time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil . . . Go to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to the feast, for my time has not yet fully come.’” The disciples had not yet seen any demonstration of the power of which he spoke.
Our time is always here, and this time is curved, and we are moving on a circle that is a recurring circle, and we have a short memory and cannot remember the things that have happened; therefore we cannot foresee the things that are going to happen, for this is a wheel of recurrence. Our time is always here, but he has tasted of the power of the New Age and can only describe the satisfaction of that power of the New Age, but cannot demonstrate it to the satisfaction of anyone in this age. Here he speaks of this power and he knows, and tells them quite firmly: “You will experience it.” He knows everyone will experience it. It was on this level. In this age none believed it – it is too fantastic. He rises into a world completely subject to his imaginative power. Now, here is a sign: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Bear in mind the symbol: this [the body] is the earth, and I, if I be lifted up from this garment called “earth,” I will call all men unto me.
I see in the audience tonight a gentleman who wrote me a letter last Saturday. His experience preceded mine. He is much younger than I am. He does not look any older than my son, who will be 39 in May of this year. In his letter he said it happened to him in 1940. In my case, it happened in 1941. I was coming through the Caribbean Sea on a freighter from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad to Mobile, Alabama. I retired early that night. Suddenly I am lifted up from this earth, and as I am lifted up, a heavenly chorus comes into view and they are singing: “Neville is risen, Neville is risen.” Here I am – I do not need the sun, or the moon, or the stars for light, for I am light unto myself. It is not brilliant, but it is luminous beyond the wildest dream – but it is a gentle light. Then I came upon an infinite sea of human imperfection – the blind, the withered, the halt. I had no human compassion, may I tell you. As I walked by, there was not a shred of human compassion in me. I simply demonstrated this new power called, “the power of God.” As I walked by, I fed every one of the thousands waiting for my appearance. Not everyone wants meat or bread. I gave them their most urgent need. One wanted eyes, another wanted arms for empty sockets – and lovely eyes were molded into empty sockets and arms into empty sockets. Everything that was missing in the human body came into being as I walked by. As I came to the end and the last one was completely satisfied with whatever he needed, then this chorus exalted: “It is finished.” Then I – in a world of luminosity, of infinite expansion – contracted into this world of opacity, and reached the limit of this contraction called “earth,” which is the body I am now wearing. Here is this experience verifying the truth of that statement that “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.”
These experiences are adventures of the soul. It did not take place on this level. To this day, in 1963, our most brilliant scholars, reading this ancient manuscript do not understand it, because you cannot grasp it without these experiences. And here is one who has had them, and I am going to say to you: I am confident that some of you present tonight must have it before you taste death. Of that I am convinced. This is the statement made in Mark 8:36: “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Then he said: “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” (Mark 9:1) I tell you: there are some seated here tonight that will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. It has all to do with the age to come, and you will taste of the power of that age to come. In other words, you will experience that power before you taste death, for all things in this world die. These are mortal garments and they all die. Who are you? No one knows – no, not the angels of heaven, only the Father. When the curtain begins to lift in him and Christ is in him, wherever he goes there is a remnant – whether ten, or a thousand, or a million – a remnant present will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power. Who you are, I do not know. That is hidden from me.
Listen to these words: “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired about this salvation. They inquired what person of them was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory.” It was revealed to them that they were searching not themselves, but you. Not the things that are now announced to them by those who preach the good news – things unto which angels long to look; therefore, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Here are men organized by divine providence for spiritual communion, and from the depths of their soul Christ is speaking. Listen: “Christ in them predicts this.” Not Christ on the outside – there is no Christ on the outside. If any man tries to influence you to trust him as a leader, do not believe him. Christ in you is slowly being unveiled, the only Christ in the world. “The prophets who prophesied of the grace, that was to be yours,” meaning God’s gift of himself to man, unearned, unmerited – you cannot earn it. It is too good. No one could ever in this world earn it. It is given to you by God. You will receive it as an inheritance. God tells us “They shall have no inheritance; I AM their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I AM their possession.” (Ezekiel 44:28) You inherit God – you inherit his kingdom, for there cannot be a kingdom without a king. You inherit the whole as he slowly unveils himself in you, and the plot of his unveiling is described in the New Testament.
They searched the scripture (the Old Testament) and could not find the Christ of whom they were told. They searched it from beginning to end and could not find who he is. “What person of them was indicated by the Spirit of Christ in them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and his subsequent glory?” They could not find it. Have you ever had a toothache? Who suffered? Christ did. Have you ever been cut? Christ was cut. You witnessed a friend go through “the gate” and you wept? It is Christ weeping. Christ suffers. There is nothing but Christ, and he is your own wonderful human imagination. He suffers until the moment of that last day, when he begins to unveil himself in you as you.
And so, the prophetic blueprint for you, individually, is revealed to us in the New Testament. You cannot find it in the Old Testament until it begins to unfold itself in the New, and then you go back and see where the prophets have recorded it – but they could not understand it. Like all of us, they were looking for a person. Where will he come from? They asked a simple question. When Christ comes, no one knows where he comes from. The last words asked him by Pilate were: “Where do you come from?” He does not answer. If he answered he came from a certain area, he is not speaking of the outer garment, and he could not tell them because they would not understand it. So, that is the fulfilled scripture in the last book of the Old Testament.
Suddenly he appears in a temple, and no one knows where he comes from. Who appears? The Lord. He appears so suddenly in you that you do not have the slightest idea what is taking place. (Malachi 3) And suddenly you are in possession of a power no being on earth dreams of – greater than any power on earth. What power on earth could take unnumbered eyes and hands and arms and legs and mold them in perfect bodies? They cannot make a hair of your head. Here, a man walks by, unmoved by human compassion, and he could make anything appear that was urgently needed. He is exercising a power. Seeing this human imperfection, the question is asked: “Who sinned? This man, or his parents?” “Neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God be made manifest.” What did I care who sinned, when I saw the blind and the lame and the halt made perfect! It is an entirely different world into which we are all moving.
Every being is moving into this world, and God’s will surely will be manifest, even by the cruel surgery of war. “He has made everything for its purpose – even the wicked for the day of trouble.” His purpose is to give us himself, that we may inherit God. We inherit God, that we may live and function as God in an entirely different age. But you do not change your identity. I have not changed my identity. From my own experience, there will be a radical discontinuity of form. The lady said to me: “We are to them (the birds – the symbol of the Holy Spirit) but large bowels giving off the most offensive odor to these beings of peace and gentility. The dove is not only the symbol of gentleness and peace, but the symbol of the creative power of God. When he is smothering you with kisses, he is transferring to you the creative power of his own being. Slowly the whole thing begins to unfold in symbols – actual mystical experience – and you will see that that offensive area of your body will be completely transformed. You cannot describe it to anyone. Identity remains; hands, feet remain, but what that large bowel is transformed into, I cannot tell you.
Look for the large bowel on the leaf in the cabbage patch and you see the caterpillar – but you cannot see the butterfly. Suddenly comes the state of the limit of contraction -or chrysalis – unmoved. Out of that seemingly dead state comes the butterfly. You could not have predicted it when you looked at the large bowel consuming the leaf. Something altogether different comes out. Hands, feet, legs remain, but what the transformed bowel is, is a power beyond the wildest dream of man. It creates without the divided image it sees. It does not need any transforming itself. It, in itself, is life. You are life in yourself and need nothing to sustain life – no food. I know on this level when one enjoys a good meal, it may not be the most desired anticipation. But in that age, you are life in yourself. No need of any substance from without. You will have these demonstrations of the power of the New Age. I am speaking from experience.
There is a strange reversal of order in these experiences. The first experience recorded in Mark is the descent of the dove. In my many mystical experiences, that has been my latest. It happened on the 1st of January of this year. So, I do not know. I will not speculate. He has nothing recorded earlier than that. How close to departure from this level, I have not the slightest idea. It makes no difference to me at all. The earliest recorded in Mark is my last experience. Those he recorded all the way down, coming to the end, were my earliest experiences. When he said: “I am the Light of the world,” I have had that experience. It happened when I had just turned twenty. An infinite sea of liquid light, and I am it. That comes late in the story as he unfolds it, and the one that comes first, is my latest. If this thing recorded for us in the scripture is by design or by accident, I do not know. If the evangelist recorded it by design and mixed the things up so you would not question as to how they would unfold, I do not know. It could be that the parchments were dislocated. We had no printers in those days. I only know: if I told you the story as it has unfolded in me, the order of arrangement would radically change, because we are all unique in God’s eyes, and the experiences would naturally come differently.
My friend who is here tonight had this experience in 1940. I do not think he could have been more than a boy in his teens. He was a scoutmaster. He was happy with the boys and felt delighted with their accomplishments. He went to bed feeling pleasure with the accomplishments of the day. This night, he too, was lifted up on high and heard this heavenly chorus. I heard the words: “Neville is risen.” In his letter to me, he used the pronoun “he.” Whether he heard that as recorded in scripture, or his own name called, I do not know. I heard my own name called over and over, and that was the theme of this heavenly chorus as it swelled through the heavens. But because we are different in God’s eyes, these eternal experiences would take on certain changes as we individually experience them. We could sit tonight in a concert and no two here would have heard the same thing. But I do hope you will hear and believe it. There are some seated here tonight who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. One here tonight – and he has not left this garment of flesh – has tasted of this experience. There is always one, everywhere, who has tasted the unveiling of Christ. Everyone will be Christ-like without losing his distinctive individuality. Not one will fail, because God would fail, and that is an impossibility.
So I tell you: believe this prophetic blueprint of which I speak this night. It may not be to the satisfaction of those who want a bigger and better job tomorrow. But that is simple – all that is easy. You can have a plot and plan contrary to God’s purpose, and execute it. But you will not thwart God’s purpose. He is not concerned whether you are rich or poor, known or unknown. He does not care about these superficial values on this level. “What does it profit a man who would gain the whole vast world and forfeit his soul.” Yet, there are such men. I saw in this morning’s paper – and undoubtedly he has left hundreds of millions behind him – suddenly he fell back and is gone. The dust to dust returns from whence it was taken, and the spirit returns to God.
Don’t for one moment forget this, when people tell you they need not suffer. They predict the sufferings of Christ. Only through suffering can you turn into Christ. God is looking for the guileless heart, not the guileful heart. He does not care how you can out-trick any being in the world. He is looking for other than that. He is looking for the heart of the Israelite: only the pure in heart can see God. Nothing in this world matters but the unveiling of Christ, and Christ is buried in every being. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He actually became me, and I did not know it. I went about my business between receiving the promise, and receiving that which was promised.
There is a vast difference between receiving the promise and receiving what is promised. When we receive the promise, we are recipients of the inheritance. We are declared recipients of the inheritance. When we receive what is promised we obtain the inheritance. And, between these two points, of receiving the promise that I will inherit God, and actually receiving what is promised – that is God Himself – lies the life of the individual.
And, so, we move from receiving the promise to receiving what is promised, and we pass through hell. That is the Hades through which Christ passes after the crucifixion. In the beginning we are crucified with God and then come all of these experiences. And then comes the end, and the end is an unveiling process. And everything said in the gospels about Christ Jesus will be one day experienced by you as your own personal experience, and then and only then, will you know who Christ Jesus is. Revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ in you. And when you are unveiled, then you resurrect.
Now let us go into the silence.