Neville Goddard (May 06, 1969)
“Examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves! Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Now, faith is not complete until through experiment it becomes experience! When you test the Christ in you and prove from experience that it works, then you have the faith. But first you must find who Christ is, where he is, and what he is. You are not called upon to test a tradition of man as something on the outside, but Jesus Christ who is in you!
Perhaps you heard on the news tonight that the Catholics have just eliminated forty saints. For hundreds of years millions of people have prayed to Saint Christopher, yet now they are being told that he never existed. How many St. Christopher medals and figurines were sold to protect those who went into battle or traveled afar? Believing he was the saint of the traveler, how many put their faith in him? Santa Barbara was named after Saint Barb, who is now believed to be non-existent, yet the cause of the recent broken oil line!
If you will read scripture carefully (and not go along with the herd) you will see that there is no intermediary between yourself and God. No priest or saint, minister, truth teacher, or so-called healer can be an intermediary between you and God. Christ in you is your hope of glory. You must examine yourself to see if you are holding to this faith. Test yourself. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? If you do, put him to the test. He is your power to create, your power to imagine everything – be it good, bad, or indifferent.
The 14th chapter of the Book of John begins: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” This statement is repeated in different ways over and over again by the master of souls – who is Christ in you, for when he awakens fear is abolished. Awake, he urges you to fear not, be not afraid, be not troubled. A tyrant could not exist without fear. He must scare us to death before he can rule us. By slaughtering millions (and you are afraid you will be next) he has you under his power. But if you know you and your family cannot die, you will not be afraid and there would be no tyrant. Tyranny can exist only in a frightened world. So, Awakened Imagination begins the 14th [chapter] of John by saying: “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am there you may be also. Now the place you know and the way you know.” Then Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ and he replied, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’ Then Philip said, ‘Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.’ And he answered, ‘I have been so long with you and yet you do not know me Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ ”
Let us take this verse on this level first and then take it into the higher level. In my Father’s house are many mansions. The word translated “mansion” means to stay in a certain place; state; relation; or expectancy.” There are infinite states from which you may view the world. You may enter a state and abide there until it becomes your home or you could be simply passing through for a moment, but it is a state, one of your Father’s mansions. Choose the mansion in your Father’s house that you would like to enter. Assume you are already there. Feel the reality of the state surround you and you have arrived. Your dream is now true, but you must abide there!
When you leave this auditorium tonight you expect to return to the place you left to come here. At the moment this auditorium is solid and real, while your home is only a mental image. So what is a home? It is the state to which your thoughts most constantly return. Are you thinking from the state you desire? Or is your dream just a passing fancy, a daydream you enjoyed for the moment and then dropped? You can tell if you abide in your house of desire by watching your thoughts, for the state in which you most constantly return constitutes your dwelling place.
When you imagined you were the person you wanted to be and heard your friends rejoice at your good fortune, you entered that state and prepared a place in which to dwell; for at that moment Christ in you was speaking to the outer, rational you. As your own wonderful human imagination Christ is telling you that he knows you are afraid, that you have obligations in life which must be met, but to not be afraid for “I will go and prepare a place for you.” Knowing this, close your physical eyes upon the world round about you and let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, for all things are possible to Christ in you! Let him prepare the state, for he is the way to its fulfillment.
Closing your eyes against the facts of life, dare to assume you are seeing and hearing what you would see and hear if your desire were true. Now, tune it in as you would a radio. If, when you turned on the radio four or five stations are heard at the same time, you couldn’t stand the confusion and would turn the radio off. So it is with your imagination – it must be fine-tuned. Now no radio or TV is comparable to you, for that which the mind creates cannot be greater than the mind who created it. We are amazed at the perfection of a little instrument called a radio because it can produce sound out of the nowhere, yet the mind that is so amazed is the one who created it. Our radio or television can be carried around the house or yard with no connection to a charge of electricity, yet the sound and picture come through perfect, and any station (or channel) can be reached by merely a flick of the wrist. At this moment everything that is being broadcast or telecast in the world is in this room, but we haven’t tuned it in.
Now, you have an instrument infinitely greater than any radio or television, but it must be turned on and fine tuned. Think of a friend who would truly rejoice in your good fortune. Tune him in until his is the only voice you can hear. Let him tell you of his thrill because of your good fortune. Listen carefully until his voice is crystal clear and you can hear the sentence you put upon that voice. Now, believe in its reality. If you will, you are living by this principle and not merely accepting the Christian faith as a substitute for living by it.
Can you imagine the turmoil which is going on in the Catholic world tonight now that the courts have cut off forty of their so-called saints? Half of my family is Catholic. I do hope that my Protestant brothers, who did not marry Catholic girls, will be big enough to mention it. I recall about twenty years ago my wife and I visited a Catholic family. At the time my wife said to me: “They are ardent Catholics, but don’t know a thing about you except that you are a Protestant and not saved.” After a lovely dinner we sat around the pool and watched their three sons swim. Each boy wore a St. Christopher’s medal around his neck. One was three years into the priesthood when he quit, joined the army, and returned minus his hearing. Another returned without a foot and the third minus an arm. They told me that they believed that without this medal they would have died. Well, I wonder what will happen to that family when they learn St. Christopher never existed! The only Christ who ever existed is within you as your own wonderful human imagination. There never was another.
When one being awoke to discover all that was foretold in scripture was taking place in him, he knew who the Messiah really was. He told his story, while some believed and some did not believe him. Those who heard and believed him wrote his experiences in the form of a story, because truth is far more acceptable when told in story form, as in our four gospels. But one day we will be big enough to hear it without the story form to support us.
Redemption was foretold in the Old Testament, but not understood by those who recorded it. The prophets who prophesied the coming of the Messiah searched and inquired concerning this grace that was to be ours, and it was revealed to them that it was not for them to know. The time had not yet come, for it was for us. Now that the horrors have been fulfilled, the Messiah who was buried in us before that the world was is beginning to erupt in the individual. Everything said of Jesus Christ will be realized in you individually, for the Bible was written about you.
Now, before the Messiah comes, you can put his word to the test. If Christ is your own wonderful human imagination and all things – be they good, bad, or indifferent – are made by him, you can imagine unlovely things and perpetuate their image. To say that Christ makes only the good and a devil makes the evil is false, for the devil is just as phony as Christopher. When you doubt the power of Christ in you – that’s the devil. Unless you actually believe that “I am” is the being you are seeking and pray only to him by exercising your human imagination, you will never reach your desire, for awareness is the only power that can give it to you.
Tonight, ask yourself what you would be aware of hearing, seeing and experiencing if your desire were now fulfilled. If what I tell you is true and your imagination is the creator of all things, then you should be able to prove his power in the testing. I tell you: there is no intermediary between yourself and God. If you will but test this power within you, it will prove itself in performance. Then you will know who Christ really is.
Now, no one comes unto the Father except by me and I am going to tell you exactly how to come to the Father. It is not spelled out in scripture. I searched, but could not find him until he revealed himself to me. One day he will reveal himself in you, for you will see a lad, chosen by God to be his son. The lad will be ruddy in complexion, very handsome, with beautiful eyes. He will be in his early teens. As you look into his eyes you know exactly who he is and who you are. Then and only then do you know you are God the Father. So, no one comes to the awareness of being God the Father except by the revelation of David, for he is the one through whom you come to the awareness of Fatherhood.
In this same 14th chapter of John, Awakened Imagination asks this question: “I have been so long with you 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?” David is one with his father. He is united to the Lord, having become one spirit with him. So, the only way you can ever find the Father within you is to bring forth his son, David. We are told in the 89th Psalm: “I have found David. He has cried unto me ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’”
The word “found” recorded here, if taken on the surface implies David was lost; but the word means, “to bring forth one who is behind you.” David, eternal youth, was put into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end when he brings forth that which was behind all along, waiting to come out. You will never know you are God the Father until David appears and calls you Father. It is he who stated in the 2nd Psalm: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord, he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.’” In my own case I felt an explosion in my skull, and when everything settled I saw my son leaning against the side of an open door, looking out on a pastoral scene. As he turned and looked at me standing at his right, I knew I was his father, fulfilling scripture.
The gospel is the truest story ever told but men, because of their traditions, have voided the world of God and built a stupid concept called “saints.” What man on earth could be a saint? The only saints are the redeemed, those who form the body of the Risen Lord. May I tell you: everyone is predestined for that redemption. Not one will be lost, so why pick someone out and call him a saint only to later deny he was ever a Christian? They even took Saint Nicolas off their list, claiming he never existed! Here are mortal men, without vision, appointing themselves judges of saints!
I tell you: regardless of what you do here as a mortal man you are redeemed, for redemption hasn’t a thing to do with the man’s ethical code. It’s entirely up to the being within a man who – having played all the parts – awakens to receive the crown of righteousness which has been waiting for your return. The moment he awakens you are redeemed. But your friends know you as mortal and have not the slightest concept of what this power is. Browning said in his “Reverie”:
“From the first, Power was – I knew
That, strive but for a closer view,
Love were as plain to see.
This is true for: prior to power, was love. In my own case striving for love did not reveal it to me. Only when God in me unveiled himself as love was it plain to see.
As love, you will exercise your almighty power in the world to come. To have that power here, before you were incorporated into the body of love, would cause havoc in the world; for the God of whom I speak is infinite love and almighty power, and that God you are, but you will not know it until your journey is complete. Only when he completes the journey will he unveil himself to you – his emanation – by embracing you into his own being. At that moment you will cease to be another, for you will become one with the Living God. Then you will tell your story to all who will listen. Some will believe you and others will disbelieve, but you will tell it until you take off your mortal garment for the last time to become one with the Risen Lord who is made up of all the redeemed of humanity. And in the end, when all are redeemed, this being who was before that the world was will be more powerful, more wise, and more glorious, because of his journey into the world of death.
Tonight learn to fine-tune your imagination. Knowing the voice of your friend, tune him in. Determine the words you want him to say and listen carefully. Tune him in until his words are fine and clear, then believe you heard him. Think it really happened. If you will, it will come to pass. When, I cannot say, for every imaginal act is like an egg and no two eggs (unless they are of the same species) have the same interval of time for hatching. The little bird comes out in three weeks, a sheep in five months, a horse in twelve months, and a human in nine months. Your imaginal act has its own appointed hour to ripen and flower. If it seems long, wait – for it is sure and will not be late for itself.
An imaginal act is a creative act, for the moment it is felt, the seed (or state) is fertilized. It will take a certain length of time to be born, so start today by assuming you are the man (or woman) you would like to be and let the people in your mind’s eye reflect the truth of your assumption. Be faithful to your assumption. Persist in this thought, for persistence is the way to bring your desire to pass. You don’t persist through effort or fear, rather knowing that your imaginal act is now a fact; wait for its birth, for it will come.
Now, a friend wrote, saying that in her dream she was walking down the street holding a fish in her hands. The fish appeared to be dead, yet she could feel it pulse. Determine to keep the fish alive, she found a cup, filled it with water, and placed the fish inside. Then she awoke, hearing a male voice say: “Oh my darling.”
Every dream contains within itself the capacity for symbolic significance. A fish is the symbol of the power of the human imagination. Imagine yourself depressed, and imagination will throw you into the pit of depression. Imagine yourself free, and your imaginative power will bring you out, for your imagination is the savior of your world. When you become lost in the reasoning world, your imagination is not fed with your desire, for reason negates its flow. Christ, being your human imagination, is not limited by the reasoning world and all things are possible to him. If you would ignore the facts and walk in your imaginal acts as though your wish were already fulfilled you are feeding Christ, and he becomes alive within you once more. Her dream, created by her own being who is Christ in her, was telling her she is neglecting herself. Knowing what to do is not enough. Knowledge must be acted upon. It is so easy to accept the Christian faith and use it only as a substitute for action, and so difficult to live by it; but only as you live by your imagination can you ever know who you really are.
I had a similar experience as this lady’s, but mine was in another form of the symbol of Christ, which is the pig. One night I found myself in a nursery filled with everything that grows. As I started to leave I looked down to find a little runt of a pig at my feet. Picking him up, I placed him on a table, broke off some branches of a nearby tree to cushion him, and began to search for food to feed him. Then, as happens in dreams, the scene shifted. I am now in a vegetable market with the pig at my side. He has grown in stature but is very thin. Suddenly I realized that he was mine, so I turned to my little daughter Vicki and said: “Go get me some food that I may feed my pig.” She replied: “Daddy, I don’t have any money.” Then I said: “You don’t need money here, for all of this belongs to us.” Going over to a stand of crackers, piled in the form of a pyramid, Vicki took a box from the base, causing the entire pyramid to come tumbling down.
Opening the box, I began to feed my pig when my brother Victor came by and, taking what appeared to be white, creamy grease, he spread it on my crackers saying: “This will give it sustenance.” Suddenly a lit candle appeared within the mixture and I said: “The candle is lit and it must never go out again.” Then these words from scripture came to me: “His candle is lit upon my forehead and by this light I walk through darkness, for the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.”
Prior to this vision I had discovered that my imagination was the only God who ever existed, yet in spite of this discovery I had not fed it. Rather I continued to use the rational approach to life by planning my life on a reasonable basis. Knowing of a power that did not need reason was not enough; I had to exercise this power within me. And then I was determined to exercise my imagination on behalf of myself and others. I saw my candle was lit and knew that from then on I would not let its light go out or get dim for lack of use.
Paul said: “I am a steward of the mystery.” The word “steward” means “the keeper of the pig.” We are told to follow the example of the dishonest steward and falsify our records. To be a steward of the mysteries, however, the pig must be fed so that you know what you are talking about. You must exercise your powerful imagination morning, noon, and night and never neglect it.
If tonight you gave a man a million dollars to invest well, he will neglect to feed his pig because to him he has it all. Then one night he will see his pig and realize what he has done to the power within him. If you are a musician and stop practicing for a week you will not be qualified to give a concert. Only when you practice daily are you qualified. And so it is with your imagination. It must be exercised daily and then one day you will discover the Christ within you, who is God the Father, who comes only through his son David calling you Father.
Now let us go into the silence.