Neville Goddard (June 11, 1971)
It is in us as persons that God is revealed. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” [Philippians 1:6]. To say “Jesus Christ” is the same as saying “Jehovah’s Messiah.” Christ is Messiah.
This will not shock you because you have been coming – maybe all of you – for quite a while. It certainly would be a shock to the outer world to learn who Messiah is. But I am telling you from my own personal experience Who-He-Is. We are told in Scripture, “He is the Son of God,” [Acts 9:20]. I am telling you tonight who the Son of God really is; and you will never in Eternity find another Son – not in Eternity!
You and I were taught as Christians that Jesus Christ differs – is something entirely different from that of the Old Testament. Yet he is made to say, “I have come to fulfill Scripture,” [Matthew 5:17]. “Scripture must be fulfilled in me,“ [Luke 22:37]. “Then beginning with Moses and the law and the prophets and the Psalms, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” [Luke 24:27]. He came only to do the Will of God.
Now, in the 40th Psalm we are told:
“I delight to do Thy will, O God.Thy law is within my heart.” [Psalm 40:8]
This is the Psalm of David. It’s the 40th Psalm.
“I delight to do Thy will, O God.”
In the 13th Chapter of the Book of Acts, by the same author that gave us the Book of Luke, we are told – and this is the Lord speaking: “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will,” [Acts 13:22], — confirming the 40th Psalm, which is the Psalm of David: “I delight to do Thy will.”
Well, I am telling you from my own experience, the day is coming – and I hope it’s in the immediate present – that you will be set free. You’ll be set free only as you find David. “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed,” [John 8:36]. Well, who are you? You are God the Father. That’s Who-You-Are.
You came down and became man; but before you came down and became man, you had prepared a way for your Self to return, and only your “son,” which is the result of your experiences in manhood – the result is David; and when you see the result of your experiences, and know then – like memory returning – Who-You-Are – you are set free as told us in the Book of Samuel: He has promised to set the father of the one destroying the enemy of Israel – to set that father free.
So he inquired. But who inquired? The king. But the king was insane; his name was Saul. He couldn’t even remember that he met the lad and met the father of the lad prior. Here in the 16th Chapter, he has asked the father of the lad to let the lad serve him. In the 17th Chapter he is inquiring: “Whose son are you, young man?”
“Inquire whose son – whose lad – the stripling is.”
No one knows, because Saul is an insane man, as we are! You are not confined in some institution; but if you have lost your memory as to Who-You-Are, you are insane. You are suffering from amnesia. And in this case, although we are not violent, we are suffering from total amnesia, because we do not know our only “son.” That only son is David, named in the New Testament as Jesus Christ, which is Jehovah’s Messiah. And David is the Messiah. “Rise and anoint him, for this is he, and then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that moment forward,” [I Samuel 16:12, 13]. He never lost a battle, because the Spirit of the Lord was with him. But to find David, what else is worthwhile in this world?
Maybe tonight you could use, — and who cannot use, — a fortune? Any one of us tonight could use an extra sum of money, no matter what it is. If I had tonight millions, I could still use another few. If you had only a few thousand, you could use a few thousand more. Every one can use it. But what is that, compared to the finding of the Son? “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed,” as told you in the 8th Chapter of John.
If the Son – and man is looking for the Son, and he is complacent – he is satisfied, because he has been taught to believe one called “Jesus Christ,” born two thousand years ago is the Son. He has completely accepted that; he believes that, and he thinks that is going to set him free. It will not in Eternity set you free. You must find, in the spirit, David; and David, in this spirit, is going to call you”Father.” And when he calls you “Father,” your whole memory returns. And that is God-awakening!
You rise from the grave first, and still you do not know the Son. You are born from above, “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God,” [John 1:13] – born of your Self. You came out all by yourself. Yet, you are not free – not until you find the Son. And when you find him, it’s told you in the form of a parable. “For this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and he is found.” [Luke 15:32]
And the one who complained never left home. He remained in the land of Innocence; he never entered the world of Experience. You entered the world of Experience; and having gone through all the fires of this world, you come out as God the Father. To be a father, there must be a son; and the son, may I tell you? Is David. I will state it a thousand times over: there is no other son. “God and His Son” is the drama in this world. You – sound asleep and completely oblivious as to Who-You-Are, suffering from total amnesia – only one thing in this world can ever bring back to you your memory, and that is the discovery of David. And when you find him, suddenly memory returns, and the whole thing unfolds within you. And you are the One who conceived the play, and did not pretend that you are man. You actually became as we are, that we may be as You Are. So you became man that man may become God! but prepared the way for your return to your own Godhood.
Now we are told, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” [Matthew 5:48]. The word “perfect” is “telos,” which means “the end.” It comes at the climax. It means to reproduce faithfully the original. Well, God is the original. He comes down into this world, and in man reproduces faithfully Himself in man. And then He awakes having reproduced it, so that His Son “in the beginning” recognizes it, and brings back into His Eternal Being all of us.
So every one will awake. I can’t conceive of failure. I can’t conceive of one being in this world failing, because God the Father is in Him! Even if he dies as a little child, he once breathed. That breath was God. “Nothing is impossible to God,” [Luke 1:37]. The most horrible beast that walked the face of this earth in the form of man cannot fail to awake! I do not care what he is. Every being in this world, male and female, will awaken; and when they awaken, it’s because the Son appears.
“No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal it.” [Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22]
So in the fullness of time, He sends His Son into our hearts crying “Father.” And then, in that moment in time, the Son appears. He was always within us. The whole vast thing takes place within the Immortal Head of man. So when you depart, having found the Son, you will be part of the watchers, watching every one in the world; and they are all your brothers. And you will know that:
“What seems to be, Is, to those to whom It seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death; but the Divine Mercy steps in and redeems Man in the one body called Jesus.”
[William Blake, from Jerusalem]
And “Jesus” is “Jehovah.” “Jesus” is the word that means “Jehovah.” “Christ” is “Messiah,” the Son. So “Jesus Christ” is simply “Jehovah’s Messiah.” That Messiah is David. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. His Son – if he is a father, he has a son, and the Son is David. There is no other Son.
“So David in the spirit calls Him “My Father” [Matthew 22:43] – my rock – “the Rock of my Salvation” [Psalm 89:26] – he calls Him “my God.”
So Jesus is the man that is “born from above,” and the man “born from above” is Jehovah. He is God the Father; and if he is a father, there must be a son. “Where is my son?” Then the Son comes, and he’s David; and David brings back your memory, and you are set free. For: “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” This is the great mystery of the Christian faith.
It’s a mystery, not to be kept secret, but it is mysterious in character. Scholarship is not enough to grasp the mystery of Scripture. In fact, when Paul sets out the eighth rank in the Kingdom of Heaven, he puts the wise, wise men at the bottom. People completely misunderstand what it means to be one who speaks in many tongues. That’s the scholar. It hasn’t a thing to do with all this nonsense where people throw themselves into a trance, and then utter – bringing saliva into their mouth; it hasn’t a thing to do with that.
He mentions eight divisions, and you read it in the 12th Chapter of First Corinthians [I Corinthians 12:8-10]. The first is the apostle: that’s always the first. Then the prophet; then the teacher; then the miracle worker; then the healer; then the helper; then the administrator; and then those who speak in diverse tongues, — the scholar who will take our scripts and, year after year they will bring them back into their original position, because men invariably interfere with them. More so in the past then today, because today we have print; and we can set a type and reproduce a thing over and over. But in the past, until the middle maybe of the Fifteen Century, everything was script; everything was copied. Well, a man couldn’t take these volumes and copy them accurately; so he not only mis-copied, but he also inserted his own opinion. So the scholars who understood the vast background of language could take them and bring them back to their seeming original form. Yet they are the last in the ranks in Heaven.
The first is the Apostle. Well, who is the Apostle? The one who is called and sent. That’s the Apostle. You are called into the presence of the Risen Lord. You answer the questions He asks you, which is the highest of all; it’s above all the ranks, for Love is the greatest of all.
You could be the Apostle, you could be the Prophet; you could be any of these mentioned in the eight ranks, just as we have in Government. You come down from the head to the very lowest. In the Army, we start with the General down to the Private. We have it in the social world. But above all these ranks stands Love. And so, every one, one day, will be embraced by “the One Body, the One Spirit. . . . The One Lord. . . . the one God and Father of all,” and that Being is Love. So all will be equal, in spite of the parts we play in the world. So let no one “pull his rank” on you.
So he has been sent? Well, that’s all right; he is sent, and maybe he is a Prophet, and maybe he is a healer, and maybe he can work miracles; but let no one “pull any rank” on you, because eventually you are going to be part of the Body of God, and Body’s Immortal Body is LOVE. All will then be members of the Body of God: “the one body, the one spirit. . . . The one lord. . . . one God and Father of all.” So let no one “pull his rank” on you.
I have been called, and I have been sent. I am an Apostle. I stood in the presence of the Risen Lord, and He asked me to name the greatest thing in the world, and I answered in the words of Paul: “Faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.” [I Corinthians 13:15] At that, he embraced me, and our bodies fused and we became one body without loss of identity. I was not absorbed into some world soul. I was one with that body of Love, one with that spirit, one with that God and Father of all – but no loss of identity. Then I was “sent.” To be “called” is to be “sent.” But it was the embrace of Love that was the important thing, for that is above all ranks in the world.
So here, the day is coming – and I do hope it’s soon for every one here – when you will find the Son; and when you find him, he is David — David of Biblical fame, the David mentioned in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Chronicles, the David of the Psalms; that is the David of whom I speak – the one who could say:
“I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said unto me, ‘Thou are my son, today I have begotten thee.” [Psalm 2:7]
This is the David of whom I speak, and he is the Son of God; and Jesus Christ – Jesus is Jehovah, and “Christ” means “Messiah.” That is the “Anointed One.” And who was anointed? Was it not David?
“Rise and anoint him. That is he. And from that moment forward, the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him and possessed him;” and he lost not a battle, for the Spirit of God went with him.
So this is our destiny. You and I are destined to awaken as the Being that we really are. Now the word called “perfect” is “telos.” It simply means the “end,” the “climax;” it always comes at the end. And you will be saying these words, “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do. Now return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with Thee before that the world was,” [John 17:4, 5]. That’s what you will say! You are only asking for the return of what you gave up to come down into the world of “death.”
“I have finished the work,” – that is what the word “telos” means: to finish it, to accomplish it; “and having finished it, I am only asking for the return of what was mine before that the world was.”
And “glory” means God Himself. “Glorify Thou me with Thine own Self, with that glory which I had with Thee before that the world was.”
So what on earth could any one ask for that would be comparable to the discovery of the Son which brings his memory back? Well we are all suffering from amnesia. If I could only remember that I am the Father! And there, as father, there is a son – and find the son that could I some way call me and then bring back my memory. And he does! He calls you, and your memory returns; and here you stand before your own “son” – your only “son,” and then you know exactly Who-You-Are.
And you know how you did it! “Before that the world was,” you prepared the way for your Self to return. And he – your “son” – did everything that you willed him to do. And now you would not leave his soul in hell. You redeem him, and you bring him back. And you and your “son” return.
Now the “son” is the sum total of all the experiences of humanity, fused into a single whole and projected – personified, and it comes out as David. And that is David. You cannot blame any one for not completely accepting the false concepts that we have given to the world as we teach Scripture. Those who are grounded in the Old Testament, you can’t blame them for not – unless they have the experience. When they have the experience, they will not go along with the traditional Christian concept; they will see their own wonderful state unfolding: that the Old Testament actually is true – it unfolds. And it is true in the New, but not as taught by those who teach it. They teach it entirely differently. It’s not so at all.
God is the only Reality. There is nothing but God. And God is Love, and God is the Father; and as a father, there must be a child, and that child happens to be a son, and that “son” happens to be David.
So I am telling you what I know from my own experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing.
If today we go back two thousand years, we think the most important people who lived in the First Century A.D. would be the Caesars and the mighty powers of that day. They were the unknown fishermen. Name the others. The unknown fishermen of that Century were the most important.
So he comes into the world; and man, by his wisdom, did not know God. “So it pleased God by the foolishness that I preach” [See I Corinthians 1:21], said Paul, “to tell you of the mystery of God. And the weakness of man,” – he uses that – “and the humbleness of man,” – and he uses that – “and not all the false pride of the world.” Today we give awards to this one for being the best dressed. Well, she can afford a hundred thousand a year for dresses. The other one can afford another fortune for something else. And we give all these awards every year.
Ask me next year who was mentioned this year. They fade just as shadows fade. But we go back two thousand years when the unknown fishermen were the most important people who walked the face of the earth. And he called them, one by one; and as he called them one by one, he embraced them and sent them. No one can be sent unless he is first called; and when he is called, he is embraced. But who embraced them? While he was on earth? No. After he departed this world. It’s the Risen God that calls them. The Risen Lord calls them; and when you are called into this, may I tell you? The story is so altogether true: There is here the angelic being with a recording book. How on earth could that be seen by Daniel? But it is true. Here is a book that tall [indicating] – a book that wide; and here she stands – or rather, she is seated at a desk not unlike this, but it’s a big one, and she is recording – the Recording Angel. And when you are called into this Divine Assembly, you stand at her side, and she looks at you. She doesn’t say one word to you; she just simply records your name. She checks you off. Then you are taken, in spirit, into the presence of the Risen Lord, the Ancient of Days – that’s who he is – as described in Daniel. And he asks you the simple question: “What is the greatest thing in the world?”
And you answer automatically, as though you were divinely prompted: “Faith, hope, and love – these three: but the greatest of these is Love.” Then he actually embraces you. He has hands, he has a face, he has a mouth – he asks you a question. And here, he embraces you and you fuse as though you took a drop of water and dropped it into a bowl of water. It disappears in it without loss of identity. It becomes the bowl, and yet it is still individualized.
I did not cease to be aware that I am the being that I thought myself to be; yet I felt the ecstasy of the union. That was union. That was the true baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And then I was placed in the presence of another, who was Infinite Power; and it was he who sent me. He is the same one who embraced me, for God is a protean Being. He assumes any form that suits the purpose of the moment. So when I was sent, Power sent me; when I was embraced, Love embraced me. That is for Eternity, as told in the 8th of Romans: “Nothing in Eternity can separate us from the love of God” [Romans 8:39]. So not a thing that I will go through, having been sent, can separate me from that union with Love. But I was sent, not by Love; I was sent by Power. He seemed to be Almighty Power when he sent me. “Down with the bluebloods,” – not the social structure. Down with all external worship – it simply is an expression meaning all church protocol: everything that is something on the outside – down with it. It hasn’t a thing to do with Reality.
All the things you see when you go to church – all the crosses and all the things — down with it! Do not tear it down – ignore it. It hasn’t a thing to do with Reality.
So, Power sent me to tell you what I am telling you; but Love first embraced me, and therefore I am persuaded that not a thing in this world can separate me from the Love of God. No matter what I go through, it can’t separate me from the Love of God.
But I am telling you, you are God the Father. You will not awake until the Son appears. At that moment in time when he appears, your memory returns, and you recognize him in the most intimate, marvelous manner; and no power in the world can shake your confidence in this union of father-son. It’s the return of memory. Amnesia vanishes, and your Godhood returns. But you know every one is going to have the identical experience. You cannot boast, as you are told in First Corinthians, the 4th Chapter:
“What have you that you did not receive? If you received it, where can you boast?” [I Corinthians 4:7]
Of what could you boast? How could I stand before you and boast that I was embraced by God when it was a gift? God gives to Himself! So I can’t boast. I am not better than – if I precede you in a chronological order, I can’t precede you in importance, because we are all one. Every one is God! So if I preceded you – undoubtedly I have by a few years – it’s twelve years this coming month that it happened to me. It could happen to you tonight. It may happen to you at the end of a section of time. But when it happens, you have been one with me. I can’t be better than – and time will mean nothing if I preceded you in time. It hasn’t a thing to do with taking precedence over you, because we are one. God is one.
So here, the whole unfolds within man – the skull of man, the Immortal Head of man. That’s where the whole drama is.
If you dwell upon this, may I tell you? You will have such courage to face everything in this world. If business is slow, what does it matter? If someone that you love dearly is fading before your eyes – all right, you know, she or he is still the Being the you are. Nothing dies in this world. And so, it really doesn’t matter. If they fade and they disappear from your world, it still doesn’t matter because you are love, and he or she is love; and all, in the end, are one. All are one.
So you are encouraged to go through all the fires of the world – all the hell that one can put upon you, because we are all one, and we cannot come out until we are perfect. You must be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect. And that “perfect” means simply “fully made,” “fully grown,” a full man; and that full man is God. God is man. Let no one tell you that He is not.
He is not some impersonal over-soul. God is man! Man not knowing this on this level, he thinks He is some peculiar impersonal force. He is not an impersonal force; He is very personal: “One body, one spirit. . . . . one lord . . . one God and Father of all” – all are contained within this “One.”
So I ask you to be patient. And if you can’t completely grasp all that I am trying to say, believe me. I am telling you what I know from my own personal experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing. I have no intention whatsoever to set up some workable philosophy of life. I have no –ism, no desire to set anything in motion to perpetuate what I am talking about.
If any one has that desire, let them have it; but I have one. I do know that it will last and last and last, and grow, just as it grew two thousand years ago. For the time has come to tell you the truth concerning the Son. We have had it now for two thousand years – a misconception of who God really is. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. And the Lord God Jehovah is a father; and the Father has a Son, and that Son is David. That is the David of Biblical fame. And one day you will know it, and you will be so thrilled, you can’t conceive of the ecstasy that is yours when you see David, and David calls you “father!”
And then you go back into your own words because you dictated the words of Scripture and fell asleep. You are the Author of the Book! “In the volume of the book, it is all about me. I delight to do Thy will, O My Lord,” [Psalm 40:7, 8]. It’s all about me: the Father and the Son. This is the relationship.
And when it happens to you, you will tell it. And I am – telling you from my own experience that unborn generations will take what you hear tonight and tell it and tell it and tell it. I mean unborn generations throughout the centuries, for I’ve been sent to tell it.
The year was 1929 when I was called. In 1929 I was called and sent, and I did not understand anything concerning the mystery that happened that night. But He takes the lowest of men, the humblest of men – not the scholars. He takes those that no one would ever suspect; and if He takes you, well then, He is with you, and He unfolds Himself within you. So, in due time, thirty years later He unfolded Himself within me – in 1959. It took Him thirty years in preparation within me, like a gestation; and then suddenly He rose within me. Then I knew who He was.
He came to me as one unknown, yet one who in the most wonderful, miraculous manner allowed me to experience Who-He-Is. When I experience who He is, I realized I am He. There were not two of us then – just one. I was all alone in the tomb wherein I was buried, and I didn’t realize throughout the years that I was the One spoken of in Scripture – that I was the buried one.
Now let me comfort you. “We have been crucified with Christ” – not just a single being – “we have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, it is Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live, I live by the faith of that Son of God who loved me,” – his Father “gave Himself for me” [Galatians 2:19, 20]. He “died” to bring his Father back. This is part of the drama. The Father and the Son. Only God could do it! There is nothing but God in the world.
God is playing every part in the world; and in the end, when He awakes, his beloved David stands before him – the sum total of the Father’s experiences through death. And he conquers death. He comes out of death, as the Immortal Being that he is.
Now if you know of anything in this world worthwhile more than what I have told you tonight, name it for me. If tonight you owned the earth, and death, may I tell you? Is inevitable, what would it matter what you owned? If you were the most famous person in the world, what would it matter if death terminates it? I tell you that you are an Immortal Being, infinitely greater than any outside man in the world. No position could ever be given you comparable to the Being that you really are. You are the Immortal God. You are God the Father
If any one should doubt me tonight, I would not question you. You only know this much: I’ll meet you in Eternity, and we will laugh at your doubt! I would not care if you doubted or not, we will meet in Eternity. There will be no need for forgiveness, because we will simply be hilarious that in your present state of consciousness you could doubt that you are the Being I am telling you that you are. Having awakened from the dream of life, I am telling you Who-You-Are. And so, should you doubt it, I will only have to wait; and I will wait patiently and then embrace you lovingly as my brother, for we are all brothers. It takes all the brothers to form God the Father.
Every one is a Brother; and together, collectively, we form God the Father. You see, the word “Elohim” is a plural word. It’s a compound unity: one made up of others. We are the “others.” We are the Brothers.
So, “In the beginning God” – that word is “Elohim” a plural word –“said, ‘Let us make man in our image.’” That is a plural word, and the word is Elohim.” So we are the ones who make it in our image. It must be faithfully reproduced. What? The original. We are the original. It must be faithfully reproduced to expand the glory that is ours! When it is faithfully reproduced, then it is perfect, when you awake; but you have expanded by reason of the experience of coming into the world of “death.”
Now, if this is not practical tonight, may I tell you? It’s far more practical than anything that you would ever hear in the world. In the morning’s paper you read of prominent men. It’s always prominent if it is in the theatrical world and big, or if it has money. It doesn’t ask you how you got the money; but you could leave, say, fifty million tonight, even though you stole the fifty million, and you are going to get a long, long obituary tomorrow; but you aren’t going to take it with you. You will leave your fifty-whatever-it-is for others to either spend or invest as they do; but they aren’t going to take it with them.
I ask you to live nobly, because now you know Who-You-Are. Live so that you mind can store a past worthy of recall. Well, you are simply going to leave the little things behind you, but you will take over your past. I will know – you will know – when you go beyond. In my own case, I am not going beyond. I have finished the race. I can actually say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth is laid up for me the Crown of Righteousness” [II Timothy 4:*]. So, I am not continuing the race, continuing the fight; I will only continue it for a little while, to get off all that I am told I must get off before the curtain comes down, which in my own case – without being sad about it – I personally hope it isn’t too long. Personally, I hope it’s not beyond the immediate present. That is my personal hope. But I do know we all come in on time, and we go out on time. So I cannot tell anyone because no one knows that hour, that moment, but the Deep, and He doesn’t reveal it to the surface mind. He simply reveals it at that moment when you go.
But I as a being still living on the surface for a little while –it would be my wish that it would not be long delayed, because I have finished it. I have done all that I am called upon to do. “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do. Now return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with Thee before that the world was.” That is my prayer tonight.
I do hope that you will be encouraged, no matter what happens to you in the present or the future, to remember these words that you really are God the Father. If you are beaten down and you are ostracized and you are alone, remember: You are God the Father!
And remember my words: You are going to find your “son” who is God’s Son, and God’s Son is going to call you “Father,” and you will know you really are God the Father! And whatever clothes you have worn – how tattered they might have been in the world, when you hear it, you will be clothed in your Immortal Body.