Neville Goddard (April 12, 1971)
The mysteries of God are mysterious in character, yet they are proclaimed to all who can understand them. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians – the first letter, you read this in the 2nd chapter of I Corinthians. He is telling them a story that their faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, he speaks of a different wisdom altogether.
He said: “Yet, among the mature, we teach wisdom. It is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, for they are all doomed to pass away.” (I Corinthians 2:6) He speaks of an entirely different wisdom that he claims to be the secret – “the hidden secret of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.” (I Corinthians 2:7) Then he said: “For what person knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which dwells in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of god except the Spirit of God.” (I Corinthians 2:11)
Now we are told, after the Resurrection those who were closest to him still did not understand him. For when He appeared, they said, “Lord, will you now, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?”
And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you wait until you receive the power which will come upon you when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”
That is the power of which I speak, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then, with that power, you will be my witnesses, witnessing in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, but not until it comes upon you, and when it comes upon you, you are told, the Holy Spirit is one’s remembrance. “He will bring to your remembrance all things that I have told you.” The whole will come back, and then you will actually reproduce within yourself my story – that’s what He is telling them.
He now disappears. He has now revealed to them the true Exodus, that the Exodus of the Old Testament was an adumbration – a foreshadowing. Resurrection followed by the birth from above is the true Exodus from this world of tears, this world of bondage. So, the Jews celebrate the Exodus, and they are still in bondage, and the Christians celebrate the Resurrection, and they haven’t yet been resurrected. That whole thing is a drama.
When the Spirit comes upon you, which is the spirit of power, then “he will bring to your remembrance all that I have told you, which I have received from my Father.” So, within the individual upon whom this power comes, which is the Holy Spirit, the whole thing will unfold within him.
They completely misunderstood it, and they thought the restoration of a national theocracy was what was intended with the coming of Messiah. They did not realize that the truest coming of Jesus was the manifest power of the Holy Spirit, that when this power comes, it lifts you up from within yourself, and then you actually are the Being that the world yesterday celebrated about his Resurrection. You are that One spoken of in Scripture. But you will not know it and be a witness to this until the power comes upon you. And that power is the power of the Holy Spirit. Then the whole thing unfolds within you.
Now, you have heard of the story – you all know the story. Did you ever dwell upon the character called “Judas”? Today we speak of a man who is a betrayer of a trust – he is a Judas. He simply betrayed the trust – any kind of a trust. A man just died in New York City in prison who betrayed the trust of the Mafia. [Editor’s Note: Joseph M. Valachi died 3 April 1971, at age 67, having disclosed the workings of Cosa Nostra to 1963 Senate.] He was one of the leaders in the Mafia, and he gave to the FBI the true name, “Our Thing” – Cosa Nostra. No one claimed his body. There he was, he died in prison because there was a price on his head – a fabulous price to kill him. So, he was protected while he was in prison because he had revealed the secret of this thing that wormed its way into society called “Our Thing,” where they made billions that you could not put a finger on it; therefore it wasn’t taxable. But he betrayed it; so he was a Judas.
Well, that is not the Judas of Scripture. But who is this Judas? We are told that at the Last Supper he said, “The one to whom I will give the sop, for my time has come” – everything was done on order in the Gospel of John. He never moved. He resisted all action until the right moment. “My time has not yet come,” beginning with the second chapter. He said to the brothers in the seventh chapter, “My hour has not yet come.” He goes through the entire book stating that the time has not yet come; he is following a divine plan.
So here we find predestination in one, and we find free will both joined together in man. He teaches man to exercise free will, and shows them how to change the pattern of life, but he is under compulsion to fulfill the Father’s will. Everything must be done on time. So, the moment of betrayal has come.
In the Oriental custom, two would sit on a divan or couch. The honored guest was always the one to whom the host gave the sop. He would take the sop, dip it into the dish, and then hand it to the honored guest. So, “The one to whom I give it, he will betray me.” He turns and gives it to Judas, and Judas goes out quickly; and he said to him, “What you have to do, do quickly.” It is perfectly told, may I tell you, I know from experience. “What you have to do, do quickly.” And Judas goes out. Yet they do not understand who it is going to be who will betray him.
“Lord, is it I?”
“Lord, is it I?”
“Lord, is it I?”
Well, it is obvious the one to whom he gave it. Who, then, is Judas? He betrays the Messianic secret. Now, “No one knows the thoughts of God, but the Spirit of God.” Is he not, then, the Spirit of God? If he betrays God, only the Spirit of God could betray God, “for no man knows the thoughts of a man but the spirit of man, which dwells in him, and no one knows or comprehends the thoughts of God but the Spirit of God.” Then, is he not the Spirit of God? For, no one can betray me but the spirit of myself!
Now we are told there are two traditions as to his death in Scripture. Matthew tells it in the 27th chapter that he went out and hanged himself. In other words, he committed suicide. Jesus is made to say, “No one takes away my life. I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again.” So, here we find the suicide – the parallel. But in the book of Acts, it is said, “He swelled up, and swelling up, he burst in the middle. Then all of his bowels came gushing out.” (Acts 2:28) They were two entirely different traditions: one given us by Luke, for Luke wrote the book of Acts; and then we have the one in Matthew.
Now a friend of mine – and he is here tonight – he said, “This happened to me a year ago. I didn’t tell it because I didn’t know – it seemed so strange to me. But this weekend I was reading the 13th chapter of the book of John, reading of the Last Supper, reading all about the sop – reading of these things, and I wondered, ‘What nonsense! They saw where he gave the sop – to whom he gave it. Why ask all these questions? Is it I? Is it I? And then one whispered to ask him who it is.’
“The honored guest could not be across the street, the honored guest would be right next to him – the one whose head was on his bosom, and he dipped the sop and gave him, and said, ‘What you have to do, do quickly.’”
Now he said, “A year ago I had a vision, and in my vision I saw you dead. You were dead. You were dressed in white – radiant white, and your bowels were completely out. That was your death. Not understanding it, I hesitated to mention it because it struck me at the time that that would be Judas. And so, I saw you dressed in white – radiant white, and you were dead, and your death was caused by the swelling up and the bursting in your middle, and out came all of your bowels, gushing out.”
Here was Neville, and he was dead. He saw the perfect vision. I tell you, when it happens everything in you, “All you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your own wonderful human imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.” [Blake, from “Jerusalem”]
So, all these characters are within himself! And the nearest to him is the Spirit of himself, which is Judas. The word Judas is the same as Judah – the one mentioned in the genealogy. And speak
– of the genealogy, “Jacob [was] the father of Judah and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:2) It didn’t mention the first three brothers. It never mentioned the first three; it jumps over the first three and goes to the fourth one, Judah. Judah means the hand, but it’s the hand of God, the power of God. It’s the creative power of God, the directive power of God that can fulfill His purpose. And His purpose is to give Himself to man.
The story of Jesus is the biography of God. That’s God. Now, when that unfolds itself in man, God has succeeded in giving Himself to man – That man then tells it.
So, today here we single out an individual as though this thing happened on earth. It didn’t happen on earth. This is God’s plan. It is all written in Scripture. When it happens in you, you read Scripture to find the parallel, but the whole thing is taking place in a supernatural world – all within you. “He speaks to man through the medium of dreams, but He reveals Himself in vision.” It is God unveiling Himself.
So, one who comes into my world – and no one comes unless the Father within me calls him – he has a vision. He hesitated for quite a while to tell me because of the tradition concerning Judas. He was the one whose bowels, as he swelled up he burst in the middle, and all of his bowels gushed out. He was the one who betrayed the secret, as I betray it every time I take this platform. I am telling you the secret of God every time I take this platform. I am playing the part of Judas every Monday and Friday night. I play it every time I talk to a friend. If they call me on the phone, I am betraying the secret. “I have come, not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” So, I tell you the Law. I reinterpret the Law psychologically, and tell you that, “An assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.” [Sir Anthony Eden]
Two thousand years ago you heard that same statement told in this manner, “Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will.” It’s the identical thing told in a more modern form – the same thing. If you dare to assume this, that or the other, and persist in your assumption, it will harden into fact and project itself on the screen of space. That is the Law. It’s psychological.
Now the Prophets – they predicted the sufferings of the coming One, and told of the glory that would be His. First, He was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son; and those whom He predestined. He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.”
Well, you can’t take these five terms and come to any other conclusion than predestination. That is the Spirit-in-man fulfilling the Will of God, leading that man up to God Himself! For the story of the Gospel is God’s biography. When that story unfolds itself in the individual in the first- person-singular and present tense experience, now it’s his biography, and if it’s God’s biography and it is his experience, then who is he? He is that Power. When that power comes upon him, he is power. And who is the power of God? Jesus Christ. “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
When someone, now, puts his or her hand to the plow and turning back, he unfits himself for the Kingdom of Heaven, but the One Who called him will not allow him, or allow her, to unfit himself, or herself, for that Kingdom. And so, if he appears to her or to him as sheer power, it is for a purpose.
As we are told, “If one will not believe, having been called and having been spoken to,” as told us in the story of Gabriel (Luke 1:18-23), “And Gabriel came into the presence of Zechariah and told Zechariah that the Lord had sent him,” and then told Zechariah of the coming of the birth of John, and he said, “How will I know this? I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the Angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God” – that is, wherever the messenger is sent, God is with him, for the Sender and the sent are one. And the word Gabriel
means either the power of God or the man of God. You can translate it in either way.
So, now you want a sign? “Well, this shall be your sign: you shall be silent and unable to speak until that day when this thing is fulfilled.” And when he came out of the Temple, he could not speak, and those who waited on the outside in prayer while he lit the incense on the inside were dumbfounded because they knew something had happened when they saw him. He couldn’t speak; he was dumb.”
Then, when the child was born, and then on the 8th day, which was the day now to be circumcised, they wanted to know what to name the child; and they thought certainly Zechariah, after his father. And he made signs, for he could not speak, to bring him a tablet, that he could write, and he wrote on the tablet, “His name is John.” [John the Baptist] And as he wrote, “His name is John,” the whole thing was fulfilled, his mouth was opened, his tongue was loosed, and then he spoke. That was sheer power. “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” But in this world of ours, when I am put into the place of playing such a part, in His infinite mercy He takes from my conscious, reasoning mind that individual act that I am not left with it, that I will play in the depths of my own being – I will play anything that my Father, who is one with my Self, commands me to play, that they who would now stray from the path will be brought back into it.
If that little thing was only for one moment that you are dumb, unable to speak – and here for one moment there was no speech, but I tell you, this play is the Eternal Play. It didn’t close yesterday when the Bowl overflowed and all of a sudden they came out, when they reinterpreted the entire story and called it “positive thinking” or “positive decisions” and all this nonsense. This is the eternal story.
Wait until you receive power from on high, for the power will come and you will be overcome with the Spirit – the Holy Spirit, and “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it will bring to your remembrance all that I have told you.” And what have I told you? My life. I have told you exactly what happened to me supernaturally. That will then happen to you individually, and you will know that I told you the truth. That is the eternal story of the Gospel.
So when he said, “Among the mature, I too impart a wisdom, it is not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, for they are doomed to pass away. I impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.”
That’s what he imparted. Then he tells us in that same chapter, the 2nd chapter of I Corinthians, how it’s impossible for any person to know a man’s thoughts, except the spirit of that man which dwells in him, and therefore no one knows or comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
And so, He sends the Spirit upon you. So the real coming of Jesus – the return of Jesus, in the truest sense, is simply the manifested power of the Holy Spirit. That’s his coming. He can’t come in any other way. He becomes invisible. He departs this world, and then sends the Holy Spirit.
Well, the Holy Spirit comes like the wind, may I tell you – just like the wind! And when you hear it, it’s the most unearthly sound you have ever heard, but it’s wind. It possesses you, and then you wake. And you wake to find yourself entombed, and then you come out of that tomb where you have been buried, and then everything – the entire story now – unfolds within you, scene after scene without any deviation, and that’s the Being that you are. And when it happens and it comes to the very end, you know Who-You-Are. You are God Himself!
You are the Power of God that is Jesus Christ – “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And now you know the true Exodus from bondage. What you read about in the Old Testament was only an adumbration – a foreshadowing, but when it happens to you, this is the true Exodus when you are set free – set free because you have found the Son. “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” And the Son stands before you, and you know exactly who he is, and he knows who you are.
So, don’t close the book and wait for a year. “Set your hope fully upon the Grace that is coming to you at the unveiling and the revelation of Christ in you.” For that’s where He is! He is all buried within you.
In the meanwhile, use the Law psychologically. External observation means nothing. All the outside ceremonies mean nothing – absolutely nothing. It’s all just – well, that was my command when I was sent: “Down with the bluebloods” – all church protocol. That’s what it means. Down with it completely. Pay no attention to it – even to the little simple thing, which is a very pleasant thing: When you sit down to dine and someone calls upon you to say grace, say grace. Don’t be abusive about it, say it, but you know it means nothing. But do it if you are called upon to do it. We do not have it at home. We sit down and I thoroughly enjoy my meal that my wife prepared, and I thank her for preparing it. But if one calls upon you to do it, do it, but all outside ceremony means absolutely nothing. That was my command when I was sent: “Down with the bluebloods”
– down with all church protocol.
So, the so-called “kissing of the feet” [“The Shoes of the Fisherman” by Morris West] that you saw in this picture the other day and the washing of the feet of these twelve elderly men and kissing the feet – that’s out! It hasn’t a thing to do with real, real Christianity.
I tell you what it is from experience. He will wake within you, and then you will know every one of those Disciples – what aspect of your own being each represents. And that one who was closest to him, the one who was his friend, the one to whom he gave the honored piece – that was Judas, the Hand of God – the directive hand that could fulfill his purposed end by betraying the secret, as I do every time I talk to you. I betray the secret of God. I can’t betray it if I don’t know it. No one can betray what he does not know, and so one must first know it to betray it. But I am betraying it. I am telling you exactly how it happens. It happens in the way that I have told you.
It will come suddenly upon you – the Holy Spirit. It will come like a storm wind, and when it comes, you will wake to find yourself entombed, and then you will have the innate wisdom – for Christ is also the wisdom of God, not only the power of God – to move that stone from where it was. That was the seal. Break it by pushing it from within, and you will come out, and you will find surrounding you the witnesses to the Great Event that God succeeded in His purpose, which was waking you as God. For this is the birth of God, “not born of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.” And you come out, and the sign of your birth is present, and here is the sign wrapped – as you are told – in swaddling clothes. And you pick it up and in the most endearing manner you say, “How is my sweetheart?” and the whole thing vanishes, including the three witnesses who witnessed the birth.
Then comes the second Great Event, when he stands before you, and you fulfill Scripture, the 89th Psalm: “I have found David, and he has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.’” And then he stands before you. And this relationship is forever. It’s the returning memory, for you do not have the feeling that it happens now. It’s simply that your memory has returned, just as though you had suffered from total amnesia.
It’s not something that startles you; you have always known he was your son. That’s the feeling that I had. So, all of a sudden, he comes back. What comes back? Well, “the Holy Spirit is upon me.” Well, who is the Holy Spirit? He “who brings to your remembrance all that I have told you.”
“And did not David, in the spirit, call me ‘my Lord’?” Well, when he calls you “my lord” – which is the name of my Father, for all sons called their father and spoke of their father as “my lord” – so, “David, in the spirit, called me ‘my lord.’” He does it in spirit, not here on earth.
And then comes the grand severance of your body from top to bottom, and your ascent into heaven, separating the event called “Resurrection” from the “Ascension.” And you can count them. It’s not any forty days. You can count the whole thing up. It’s between – mine was on the 20th of July of ’59, and, the Ascent took place on the 8th day of April of 1960, and that’s when one ascends – ascends into Heaven. And the whole thing, as you are told, reverberates like thunder.
And then comes the Seal of Approval on the twelve hundred and sixtieth day. And that is the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove. And here he rests upon you. You bring him up, and he is smothering you with kisses when the whole thing fades. And then you come, and you tell it.
And so, the story of Judas – when he does betray, he does it quickly, I tell you. You are seated on the floor explaining the Word of God to those who are seated before you, and he is one of them. And suddenly he jumps up, and you know exactly what he is going to do. He is going to tell – you don’t use the word betray – he is going to tell exactly what he heard you say, you are speaking of the Kingdom of God. And he is going to tell that you are speaking of the Kingdom, and that you are the King, and he is going to tell the authorities concerning what you said. He has to betray the Kingdom, and he goes out and he tells it.
Then comes the authority in, and he unveils your arm, and his name who went out is the “Arm of God,” the “Hand of God.” He unveils it, and you see the relationship between the one who went out and yourself. Now you are completely unveiled when he nails into your shoulder that peg – that wooden peg and hammers it in, and then takes off the sleeve and takes the arm and it’s bare. And then you know the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, “Who has believed our report, and to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?” And as everything is placed upon that Being, he has then to bear the burden, but he will see the travail of his efforts – of his labour, and he will rejoice. He will be satisfied when he knows that he got through.
So, you can say to any one, if they see me in any role that seems a harsh role, then know that I consciously am not aware of it while I played that part. I have to play it, for this is a supernatural world of which I speak, it is a supernatural Being of which I speak, it’s a supernatural part that I am playing when I play those parts at night. And certain parts, I am relieved of the memory of them, for they have to be done – to “jack one up” – “having put his hand to the plow and turning back, unfits himself for the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Luke 9:62)
And what caused him to turn back? Doubt.
They questioned, and so when Zechariah said, “How will I know this? I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. How could she conceive and bear a son?” he said, “I stand in the presence of God.” In other words, I am speaking for the One who sent me, and He never left me. Therefore he stands with me. Now sheer power is going to make you dumb, and so he said to him, “You will be silent, unable to speak, until that which I have foretold has come to pass, because you did not believe the words that He gave me to speak. I spoke them, but you did not believe my words.”
So, you will see me in many roles. Many of you have seen me in different roles. Yet my conscious, reasoning mind has always been removed on my return from certain parts that I had to play, for I am under compulsion to play those parts, after being awakened. And my friend had to see me in that role to know who Judas really is. And I am Judas every time I betray the Messianic secret. And I am the one who told him to do it quickly.
That scene I recall vividly. “What you have to do, do quickly.” He certainly did it quickly. There was no time between his departure and the arrival of the authority who came in and severed my sleeve and hammered into my shoulder that wooden peg, on which he then placed the burden.
So, I tell you, this play is an eternal play. It goes on forever and forever and forever, and each one makes his exit – which is the Exodus – from this world of tears into a blissful state, but only in that way does he ever make the Exodus. So when they sing the hymns of how they were led out of bondage in Egypt into a world of freedom – and yet all are still as enslaved as they were thousands of years ago, then what are they commemorating? For when the real leader – the new Moses – comes; they would not recognize him.
The new Moses came and was called “Jesus,” which means Jehovah. God Himself came this time in the form of man. And that’s the new Moses, and his life is the pattern that man will one day imitate – actually experience, and therefore, it’s his pattern. It is his, and it’s the only way you will ever make an exit from this world. Death will not take you out of this world. You will die and be restored to life just as you are now, in a world just like this. It’s terrestrial, and you will still be making your effort as you do it right now.
There is no transforming power whatsoever in the thing called death. There is no transformation in death. You find yourself the same being. Young, yes, but that’s not transformation – the same identity. But that of which I speak is a complete transfiguration – a complete transformation of form. You are no longer this little garment. You are glorified, and you wear a glorified Body that doesn’t have the needs of this body at all. And wherever you go clothed in that Body, everything is perfect. There is no place you could go. Walk through hell; it will become heaven. And someone clothed in these garments [indicating the physical body], walking through heaven, would turn it into hell.
So, I tell you, you are in for the most glorious thing in the world. And what I have told you, I tell you from my own personal experience. I am not theorizing, I am not speculating; I knew that someone had to see me in that role, and he had this vision a year ago, but because of custom and his association with the idea of Judas as the one whose bowels – first of all, he swelled up, and swelling up he burst in the middle, and all of his bowels came gushing out.
And loving me as he does, and believing me as he does, he didn’t know how to associate that with the one that he so loves and trusts to tell the truth. Well, I can tell you, they are the same being, for he is the spirit of the one – the honored guest to whom he gave the sop. That is the honored position, not around a table as we have it here in da Vinci’s picture. There was no table, not in the Oriental world. You sat on a divan – not more than two at any one moment, and divans were around. And the host, if he ever dipped it, would take a piece of meat and dip it, and the one to whom he gave the meat or piece of bread – that was the sop – the one to whom he gave it, that was the honored guest. As we today, sitting around the table, we seat the honored guest to our right, and here that is the honored position. But there, the one whose head was on his breast – and he just simply said, “Who is it?” Who is nearest to you but your spirit? “So, no one knows or comprehends the thoughts of God but the Spirit of God.”
So, if God was ever betrayed, He could only be betrayed by the Spirit of God. It had to be revealed. It could not be discovered by any philosophical reasoning. No man in this world, as you are told in Scripture – “Man could not find God.” All the wisdom of man could not find God. God had to reveal Himself, and the revealing is the betrayal of God. He betrays Himself by unveiling Himself to man. And this is the story as it is written and told us in Scripture.
You set your hope fully upon that moment in time when it comes to you. It is called Grace in Scripture. “Set your hope fully upon the Grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Well, Grace is simply an unearned, unmerited gift of God to man, and that gift is God Himself. So you are raised from the level of being a Son to the level of being the Father.
Now, let’s enter the Silence.