Neville Goddard (February 26, 1963)
The Bible is not a product of human beings; it is not constructed by man. It is the history of man’s discovery by God’s revelation of the changing name of God, and it increases in its value to man. In Genesis 4:26 we are told that a child was born whose name was Enosh, born to Sarah, and men began to call upon the name of the Lord. That is the first time that man began to call upon the name of the Lord. The word Enosh means “mortal man,” something that is fragile, something that simply wears out and disappears. Mortal man began to ask concerning his origin: Why am I here, what is the cause of the phenomena of life?
The next time we see it is in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. This is the night, we are told, a man called Jacob (the supplanter) wrestled with God, and when it came to the breaking of the day God said to him: “Let me depart.” And he said: “I will not let you depart until you bless me.” And God blessed him. Then he said to God: “What is your name?” and God answered: “Why do you ask my name?” He would not tell him, so Jacob called the spot where God touched him “Peniel,” which means “the face of God,” for said he “I have seen God face to face and yet my life is preserved.” Then as the sun rose Jacob faltered because where God had touched shrank. It was the sinew upon his thigh. That is what man at that level of consciousness believed to be the creative power of the universe.
Today, 1963, you and I are witnesses to the most fantastic things that man has conceived. Missiles in space that can reach the sun, these IBM machines, electronic brain – but nothing that man has ever devised or brought to birth can compare to a child. Nothing in this world that man can conceive is comparable to the brain of a child. For the child conceived the instrument that now frightens us. We have a bomb, nuclear bomb, but that can’t compare to the brain that conceived it, no matter what we do with it. Read Genesis 32, where man once thought the sex act was God. The very act of producing the most sensitive thing in the world is the form of a child. (There isn’t a part of the world that someone hasn’t erected phallic images in its worship of God.)
Now we turn to the Book of Exodus, where the name changes because it wasn’t yet revealed. Man began to call upon the name of the Lord, but they didn’t know what to call upon; they thought it was sex. Read Exodus 3:13-15, how God reveals himself to his chosen vessel, Moses. And Moses said to the Lord: “When I come to the people of Israel and I say to them, ‘the Lord, your God, has sent me unto you,’ and they ask me ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say? And the Lord answered: “I AM who I AM.” The words are every form of the verb “to be” – “I AM that I AM” – I will be what I will be. “Say unto them, ‘I AM has sent me unto you.’” So when you come to the people of Israel, say to them the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you, and this is my name forever: “I AM.” No other. And this will lead you out of the wilderness into the promised land. That was the second grand revelation of the name of God. Man thought it was the creative act. Who could deny that nothing in this world that man has ever created was comparable to that of a child – nothing. And he has to trace it back to his origin of the act, and all of a sudden it came out of this fantastic organism. And then comes a revelation of another kind, that the name is “I AM.”
Then comes the final revelation, which we find in the New Testament, and he brings something entirely different that man has not seen before. He reveals the name as “Father.” “Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given unto me, that they may be one as you and I are one.” He gave them the name that was his name and the name was ‘Father” – the final revelation of God to man concerning who he really is, his father. “So in many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by a son.” If he has spoken by a son, then he is [a] father. And so God speaks to man in his final days through his son, and the son reveals to that man that he is the father of that son, and then – and only then, does man know who he really is. But until that day comes take the second revelation of the name of God, which is “I AM” and use it and use it wisely. You can use it for anything in the world. You are told if you blaspheme against his name you must be stoned to death, as told us in Leviticus 24:16: “Anyone who blasphemes against the name I AM,” and the name has already been revealed in Leviticus 3. Exodus 2 revealed the name. Now if you blaspheme against this name, stone him to death.
One who was born of a Hebrew woman who knew an Egyptian man, cursed the name of God, and they listened to see what God would say to do to such a man: stone him to death. Stone does not mean that you take stones and throw at him, as people will do. The stones are the literal facts of life. How could I blaspheme against the name of God? With God all things are possible, so his name is “I AM.” And I dare to say: “I am unwanted; I am poor; I am ill; I am completely ignored in this world.” Well, this is blasphemy against God. For it is not what I really want in this world, or for anyone else that I love. So here I am blaspheming against God.
I am told in John 8: “Except you believe that I am he you shall die in your sins.” “Sin” is missing the mark. If I don’t believe that I am the man I want to be, I remain where I am at that moment of not daring to assume that I am the man that I want to be, and remain in that limitation, so I die, missing the mark. So the being you really are – if the second revelation is true (and I can tell you it is true, that his name is “I AM”) – it doesn’t mean you worship something on the outside when you say, “I am.” And the day that you actually contact it as though the “I-thou” concept was within yourself, you feel who you really are.
Now here is a true story which I heard this last Saturday. I am not a member of the Turf Club, but I go occasionally when I am invited and someone takes me. So last Saturday I and my wife were taken to the Turf Club. I was introduced to this little man who sat just one row below. Strange, weird little fellow, and then they told me his story. He had come here penniless from Kentucky. How he got the money necessary to buy a small little plot of land, I do not know, that was not told me; but he bought a small little plot of land in Ventura County. He wanted to have oil, so he would sleep on the land itself. He didn’t build some little shack – he slept right on the ground. With his head to the ground he would hear oil coming in, he would smell oil, and he would come home sometimes in the morning at 6 A.M. and his wife was distraught. “What has happened to you?” He was sleeping on the land bringing it in.
Today the man – I would say he is ten years my senior, which is 68, pushing 70 – he has no financial problems. He has given away fortunes. He is worth over six million, so he told me himself, but now he has another problem, and he has forgotten the name of God. His present problem is boredom. He goes to the track five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday. If he drops ten thousand, it’s no problem, if he drops twenty thousand, that’s no problem. But he is bored and he is not physically well, and he doesn’t remember how he brought oil into being by the name of God. When he put his head on that earth and began to listen, who was listening? If you would say to him: “What are you doing?” “I am smelling oil.” That’s what he would say. You have called the name of God. “I am smelling oil. I am hearing oil,” is what he would say. He brought it all in, but he doesn’t remember the name of God.
Now he is saying: “I am unwell.” He is blaspheming the name of God. You are told: The man who blasphemes the name of God, stone him to death.” The stone is “showing the facts of life,” so he is showing the facts of life. “You aren’t feeling well, are you?” So you see all the things in the world wrong with him, and you tell him. These are the stones, but he has forgotten and those around him don’t know. He once used the name of God wisely and brought wealth into this world. He could bring health into this world if he would use the name of God.
“It is my name forever,” said God in Exodus 3. But I will reveal a still greater name as man begins to awaken, and the final name is “Father.” And so: “Show us the Father,” and you’ll be satisfied. “I have been so long with you and yet you do not know me, Phillip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how then can you say ‘show us the Father?’” So here, I tell you, I am the father, and no one knows he is the father. ‘Holy Father keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me,’ that they may be one even as we are one.” There is no way in this world that you and I will know we are one, save through this last act of God revealing himself, when he gives you his last name, which is “Father.” I am the Father, that I do know, and you will be the Father of the same and only begotten Son of God. And when you see him, as I have seen him – and you will see him, and you are his Father – then you and I are one. For I can’t be the father of your son and not be you. And that is God’s final revelation to man on this level.
So, “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.” And the son reveals the nature of the father. No one knows the father except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. Until that day comes, use the second revelation – which is forever his name – and use it wisely, as we are told in the 9th Psalm, 10th verse: “Those who know thy name trust in thee.” If you know the name. The name is the individual himself. God’s name is I AM and that is God. So tonight if you know the name, believe it, trust in his name. And you listen as though you heard what you would hear, were you the man you want to be, and trust in his name, and he will never forsake you.
Here the name changes as man begins to awaken as God, and the final revelation – I know of no greater chapter than the 17th of John, where he reveals himself and gives himself to man. “Holy Father glorify me with thine own self.” He doesn’t want any other glory. It’s God himself giving himself to man, for that is his purpose. And when he succeeds in his purpose the man to whom he has given himself is God and God is “Father,” the final revelation. Therefore, there must be a child. Where is the child if I am a father? And here comes the child into being and he is David, God’s only begotten son. “David, thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee.” That is concealed in man until that last moment when the veil is lifted and the fatherhood is revealed to man through the nature of the son. There you see David, and David tells you who you are. You are his father, he calls you father, and calling you father, then the 89th Psalm is fulfilled: “I have found David” and his cry unto me: “Thou art my father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.” And you see him and yet there is no change in your I AM-ness. The self that becomes his father is the same self that it was before, only a far greater self. It includes fatherhood, but the same sense of I AM-ness. You haven’t changed your distinct individuality, but now it is enlarged to include fatherhood, and that father is God. And you tell it to the world in the hope you can make it as clear as it is to you.
Whether you accept it or reject it, it is true and the day must come, in time, when each individual will have the same experience and he will pass through it all. Until that happens use his name wisely, as revealed to us through his prophet Moses in the 3rd chapter of Exodus. Use it for wealth, health, or recognition, but don’t blaspheme against the name of God. “Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
So, we are told: “They took up stones to throw at him, because he had offended them, that he had blasphemed the name of God for he claimed ‘I am God.’” That was blasphemy on their level and they took up stones to throw at him. What stones? They told him they knew his father. They knew his earthly mother, his brothers, and his sisters, and they named them. They said: I know your father and mother, Joseph and Mary, and they named the four brothers. They implied multiple sisters. And then they began to show him the facts of life, and the facts contradicted his claim. Therefore they were stoning him with the facts of life. These were the stones. Then he disappeared out of their midst. He could not argue with that mind, because they knew exactly his physical background, and he is telling them: “If you will receive what I tell you, I will give you power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This verse is something entirely different in Greek physiology. “To be born of blood” they meant that the seed of man mingled with the blood of woman, and from this union came a child. To be born of the “will of the flesh” is by sexual impulse. It wasn’t born that way. To be born of man is to have human parentage. It wasn’t born that way. It was born of God. Something entirely different, where man suddenly awakes within himself and he steps out of his own skull to find out that all along he has been sleeping.
Then you read these words in Revelation 1:18: “And he thought himself alive and he was dead.” Here a man was dead, and all along he believed he was alive. The whole vast world, the sleep is so profound, it is so deep, he doesn’t know he is sleeping. And the sleep is so deep he is likened spiritually to a dead man. Then one day, in God’s own wonderful time, he awakens himself in man and brings him forth, and then he awakes for the first time to realize all through the ages he has been dead but he didn’t know it. But now he is resurrected by the mercy of God. He thought he was asleep while he thought he was awake, and yet he was dead.
In the meanwhile, you who think yourself alive, try this principle by the use of God’s name. It will not fail you, I promise you it will not. For one thing bear in mind this: you may have wealth tonight and have it heavily insured – furniture, jewelry, furs, but you left it when you came here tonight, left it wherever you have this outside wealth. You may have stocks and bonds, they may be insured, but you left them wherever they are, maybe in vaults, your homes. Standing here just about two years ago I left this platform and looked out and saw these enormous flames and all these beautiful homes burning. They were all left behind wherever the people were, all consumed in a matter of moments. But one thing you can’t leave behind, and you always take it with you after you find the name. Can you go any place where you can leave behind your “I AM”? Where can you go in this world where you will leave behind you the only power in the world, “I AM”? “Those who know thy name put their trust in thee.” Not in the bank, not in their social position, their financial, intellectual, or any other position. “Put their trust in thee,” Who are you? “I AM.” So everyone who came here tonight brought that name with them. When you leave here you are going to take it with you. Maybe you don’t know you carried it with you. You can have a treasure and not know you have it. If I had a billion dollars deposited in the bank but I didn’t know it, I could die of starvation for want of a dollar; and yet I could sign a check if I knew I had it, and would withdraw it for my earthly need.
You can’t leave behind you God’s name. He’s put himself into you, your very being, your own I AM-ness – that is God. And because it is God, don’t blaspheme against the name. Use it wisely, use it lovingly, and I tell you: “What are you hearing?” And you tell me: I am hearing so and so, or I am thinking so and so. Well, see to it that what you are hearing, feeling, what you are thinking, is in harmony with your highest ideal. For you will draw it out just as this man drew out his oil from this little bit of dirt, and today he is worth millions – but bored. You will be able to use it wisely through your earthly days, and maybe in this embodiment the final one will be revealed to you, but only God knows when he reveals the final one.
I can talk about it and tell you about it but I cannot lift the curtain for you -only the son himself can reveal you as the father. I can tell you: you are going to be the father, that I do know, but I have no power to tear that curtain and show you David. He and he alone will reveal you as the father. “No one knows who the son is except anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.” But I will tell you: one day he is going to tear that curtain from the mind and stand before you and call you father. You will know exactly who he is; there will be no doubt in your mind whatsoever. You are looking at your only begotten son. Begotten not by any woman in this world. Begotten out of your own wonderful being – your mind, and it’s David. And he will be just as he is described in the Book of Samuel, no doubt about it.
I can’t tell you the thrill that is in store for you after it happens. You are so excited you can’t think of anything but. You may bore your friends, you may bore everyone that you meet, because you can’t think of anything but this enormous event that has happened to you, this heavenly thing that has taken place. You may be a single man, a man who has never known a woman in this world, but all of a sudden you are a father, and you are a father in the true sense of the word. Then you will know he was “not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” and he calls you father, and you know God is his father. He tells you exactly who you are.
Then you have to walk the earth for the remaining years shut out, because you are still wearing the garment of flesh. And although you are now heir to a present and to a promise that has already been fulfilled, you still cannot share it with others, so that it cannot become to you actual or fully realized in you until you take off the garment for the last time. And then you are one with the heavenly host. Everyone is destined – you can’t brag about it, you can’t crow about it, because you didn’t earn it. It was all God’s plan from the beginning: “He who began a good work in you” at that moment brought it to completion “at the day of Jesus Christ.” And Jesus Christ is God the Father. Therefore, if Jesus Christ is God the Father, and David calls him “Lord,” who are you? Are you not then Jesus Christ? Then you realize the words: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee, unless of course you fail to meet the test.” I hope you realize that we have not failed in our effort.
Eventually you will read the words: And the whole thing disappears, and there was Jesus only. Moses was present, Elijah was present, they all saw the glory of God, and when it all subsided there was Jesus only. For at the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that he is Lord, the glory of God the Father. It is only Jesus and he has one son and he is sharing his son with you – not walking the street with you as a friend, but as your son. He gives himself to every being in the world, and there is no way he can prove that he actually gave that gift of himself to you, save as David, his only begotten son, as your son. The Bible in miniature is in John 3:10. “And God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son.” People think he gave his only begotten son and his name is Jesus Christ. No! Jesus Christ by his own confession is God the Father. “You see me Phillip and yet you do not know me. He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say show us the father?”
So the son given could not be that being who calls himself father, and the father is Jesus Christ. Who called him father? David. So he asked the question; nobody asked him. He said: “I am the Father.” Then where is the child? So he brings up the question: “What do you think of Christ?” and they said: “The son of David.” Then why does David in the spirit call him Lord? If David calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son? And no one asked any further questions. David in the spirit calls him “Adonai,” a word used by every child when it refers to its father. Every child spoke of its father as “Adonai,” translated in the English: “My Lord.” So David called him “My father.” So he tells you who he is and who David is relative to himself. So David is going to call every being in this world: “my father.” And because God is one and his name is one, and at that name every knee must bow, you are destined to know yourself to be Christ Jesus, or God the Father.
But until it is revealed to you, use his name as revealed through his prophet Moses. “And when you go to them just tell them ‘I AM’ has sent me unto you.” Lead them out of the wilderness into light by my name. When you can lead yourself today, no matter where you are, whether you are now bewildered, whether you are unwanted (as you think you are), or unemployed, (as you may be) – lead yourself from these states of barrenness into states of fruition, a fruitful state, in the name. Just simply assume “I AM”, and you name it, hear it, smell it, see it to the best of your ability, and to the degree that you remain loyal to what you are imagining and hearing, you will actually externalize it in your world. Don’t judge it before you try it.
Now if what I have said this night offends, should it be in conflict with what you believed when you came here, again I go back to Scripture: “And he offended them and then they sold him for thirty pieces of silver.” Let me go back into the Book of Leviticus. Here we are told: “If an ox gored a slave, male or female, then the owner of the ox must pay to the owner of the slave thirty pieces of silver and then the ox must be stoned.” The symbol of Christ is that of an ox. If the Christian doctrine offends, well then he has gored you by whatever he has to say. And now, having gored it, the slave will be censured, that he must be sold for thirty pieces of silver. So, you always fulfill Scripture. The word will always be fulfilled. The prototype of Jesus the Christ was Joseph, and he was sold for twenty pieces of silver. Twenty means “disappointed expectancy.” Thirty is divine perfection. Reduce it to a three and three is also associated with resurrection. On the third day the earth rose up out of the deep. So here, if I should offend you by what I say, then make me sorry for my thirty pieces of silver, for Scripture is all about me. For “If the ox gores and in any way hurts a slave” . . . then the ox must be stoned with the facts of life.
People will always throw the bricks at you and remind you of “When they knew you,” or even as they know you – for we are all limited as we wear these garments. No man in this world can tell me while he wears the garment that he is not limited. President Kennedy is frightfully limited in his office as President. Bricks are coming all over the place – what he promised in his campaign to get the office, and what he has delivered. And the conflict between what he promised and what he has delivered so far, you could throw all the bricks in the world at him. And he is fully aware of it. You can throw it at the Pope, throw it at the Queen of England, throw it at any person in this world for the lack of getting any ambition of theirs. If I took you into my secret and told you my ambition, and you as a friend know I have not realized it, and you throw [at] me all the rocks in the world, and remind me of what I told you against what I have accomplished – that is true of every being in the world. Nevertheless, whether you accomplish them or not, go back and apply this principle towards the fulfillment of your dreams.
I can tell you: in my own case, small as it has been, it has all been when I was faithful to the use of God’s name. When I dared to assume that I am what at the moment reason denies and my senses deny it, and I remained faithful to it, then I invariably realized it. There have been unnumbered times when I have not been faithful to it. I coasted, as we all coast after a while. Then we are jacked up suddenly and we have to go back to the use of the name. And so, “Those who know thy name put their trust in thee.” Not in anything outside of thee. And your name is “I AM,” and it is your name forever and forever. So put your trust in the name of God by walking out of here tonight in the belief that you are already the man, the woman you would like to be and see the world as you would see it, were it true. And to the degree you remain loyal to that assumption, to that degree you will externalize it and reap it as fruit within this world.
Now let us go into the silence.