Neville Goddard (September 30, 1968)
As Paul said to Timothy: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion.” Scripture is not secular history, but a mystery which is most important that we understand!
Speaking to his disciples, Jesus said: “In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you.” (John 14) The phrase “in that day” is an eschatological term meaning, “at the end of the journey.” In other words, when this age of Caesar comes to its end, you will experience the truth of scripture, and – understanding – you will say: “I am in the Father and you are in me and I am in you.”
It is in you, as a person, that the nature of God reveals himself in a series of supernatural experiences. When these take place in a first person, singular, present tense experience, all arguments, doubts, and questions regarding your true identity are hushed. From that moment on, like Paul, you will say: “When it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood. I did not receive my gospel from a man. I was not taught it. It came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
While in Barbados this summer, my sister asked if my Christ was once a man. My answer to her undoubtedly was the same Paul gave when asked a similar question. I said: “Was? He is the heavenly man!” Then quoting Paul I said: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
Do not think of Christ as some little boy who was born in some strange manner two thousand years ago. We are dealing with a cosmic principle, where God actually became man that man may become God.
The process has started. Resurrection has begun, but it is not over. Those who teach that the resurrection is over are misleading the faithful, for – like Paul – everyone can say: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Henceforth I regard no one from a human point of view. Even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.”
I have stood in the presence of the Risen Lord. I leave seen the Ancient of Days, who is gathering us one by one into his body to become one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.
You, as a person, will not be less than the Risen Lord, for there is only one Spirit. There is only one Lord and you will know yourself to be He! No one will be above you. I AM the same body, the same Lord, the same Spirit, the same God and Father of all. Without loss of identity, we will all know ourselves to be this one unity of being. We will know from experience that I AM in you and you are in me!
When I had finished explaining this to Daphne, I don’t think she was any more impressed than that chair over there. It takes time, but it is so important for you to let go of all intermediaries between yourself and God!
Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is the first book in the New Testament. In this letter, Paul declares his independence from men and his dependence upon God. He repudiates all authorities, all institutions, all customs, all laws that interfere with the individual’s direct access to his God. Paul had no intermediary. He never knew a human Christ, only the Risen Lord, who appeared to him as he appeared to me.
In my own case, I was taken in Spirit into the presence of the Risen Lord, and – strangely enough – when he asked me what was the greatest thing in the world, I answered in the words of Paul. So I ask you: who is Paul? Is he not the first of the chosen who broke the seal and discovered the mystery which was shown to Abraham?
Paul persecuted everyone who claimed to be a member of the way, when suddenly the revelation broke, causing him to proclaim the truth. It was Paul who said: “If I have been united with Christ in a death like his, I shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Paul did not claim that the resurrection was over. He states that the crucifixion is over, because the garment of flesh is worn by one who is crucified. God chose you in him before the foundation of the world. We will be united with him in a resurrection like his – not because of any acquired merit on our part, but because he chose to be united to us in a death like his.
You were chosen in him before the drama we call the world began. And any suffering you may go through here means nothing. Paul knew this, and said: “I consider the sufferings of the present time not worth comparing to the glory which is to be revealed in us.”
Now, the Old [sic] Testament tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwells in us.” The Greek word logos (translated as “Word”) means “meaning; a plan; a plot; a purpose.” Here we see that God had a plan, a purpose – which was to give himself to you one hundred per cent. This he has done; so whatever he was before he became you, you will know yourself to be.
It is in you, as a person, that the nature of God reveals himself. This you will know when you experience the entire story of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first person, present tense. Then when you tell those who love you, they will not believe you, because they know your weaknesses and limitations.
Knowing you are not schooled in theology, they cannot see the relationship between you and the one spoken of in the seventh chapter of John: “How does this man have such learning seeing as how he has never studied?” Like the Sanhedrin, they will not understand how a man with no learning could claim that the Old Testament had been fulfilled in him.
The prophets foretold of the coming of God, but they did not say how. Having taken upon himself man’s nature, God unfolds his nature in man, and man becomes God. If God was a father prior to choosing you, and he becomes you – are you not a father? Yes, but there is no way to prove this, unless God’s son appears to identify you. Only when God’s son unfolds within you, will you know that you are God.
Only the Risen Christ is aware of his true identity. It is he who says: “I am in you and you are in me, Lo we are one.” The Risen Christ is the eternal heavenly man, who is God. You are a man. Learn to adore your own humanity, who is God. Man is looking for some impersonal force to worship, but God is man!
When I stood in his presence, I answered his question in the words of Paul. Since then I have asked myself: who is Paul? Was he not the beginner of the Christian faith? Our New Testament records thirteen of his letters, all written twenty years prior to the gospels.
In his first letter to the Galatians, Paul went out on a limb by declaring his independence from all organizations. That was in the day when you could not get a job unless you were a member of the synagogue; yet Paul refused to accept any intermediary between himself and the Risen Lord, whom he had persecuted in his blindness.
One day the Risen Christ will bring you into his presence. He will incorporate you into his body by an embrace from which you will be one forever and ever. This I know from experience.
So when I tell you I am in you, I mean it literally, for I am one with the Risen Christ. I am speaking the words of the Risen Christ, not Neville. After we embraced, he sent me, yet he has never separated himself from me. How can I be one with the body who sent me? Because “He who sees me, sees him who sent me.”
Limited to the concept of three-dimensional space, we think of being sent out of the room while the sender remains; but in the Spirit world of which I speak, when one is united with the Lord he becomes one with him in spirit.
Dwell upon this being who became you. Return to the point of being chosen before that the world was. Try to remember when he made known unto you the mystery of his plan which gives meaning to your life – this mystery which was set forth in Christ for the fullness of time.
The Word, giving meaning to the world, was with God and was God. That meaning is Christ, a plan which cannot fail to fulfill its purpose, which is to unfold and reveal you as God. Walking this earth right now, you are God’s Word, moving towards fulfillment.
Now, while we are here waiting for God’s plan to unfold, we should continue to apply God’s law. Here is a simple story. My friend wrote, saying: “When my little boy was quite young, as a family we called the Sears’ Christmas catalog, the “Wish Book”. Our son would spend hours looking through the pages of toys, deciding what he wanted for Christmas. This we have done for the past eight years. I am enclosing a card advertising the current issue of that catalog. As you will see, it is now called “The Sears Wish Book!”
Whoever has that account thinks this is an original idea, yet my friend knows she is its creator. You see, there is no fiction. How can there be fiction in a world where imagining creates reality? For eight years her son has known the catalog to be a wish book, and now that has become its official name. If something you have imagined is delayed producing its reality for you, keep this story in mind.
I know we are all children and want our desires instantly fulfilled, but countries plan for unborn generations. Parents with large estates plan, not only for the present little ones, but for the offsprings of their offsprings.
You and I, however, are anxious and find it difficult to wait. Time and time again, ladies have told me they wanted to be married now, only to confess they are not yet divorced. I have heard them say there was only one man.
Either that man or no man, yet they have married another. What they really wanted was to be happily married. Claiming it had to be that man, I have asked: “If he dropped dead right now would you still have the urge for companionship? If you would, then he is not the only man.”
Know what you want in life and do not condition it. If your desire is to be happily married, claim you are. Wanting a certain home, claim you have it. Don’t think you cannot afford it, simply play the wishing game.
Find your desire in God’s wish book. Speaking to you through the medium of desire, make your desire real by feeling its truth. View the world from its fulfillment. Lose yourself in the feeling of possession and give it all the tones of reality. Fulfill every desire as you walk towards the fulfillment of your real purpose in life, which is to awaken God in you.
You are not going to become a little god to run around with other little gods, for there is only one God. Don’t forget the great Sh’ma: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” You are destined to awaken as that one God and Father of all.
When I awoke in this simple little thing called man, I wondered how this mortal being could bear such responsibility. Housed in this garment of flesh called Neville, aware of all of its weaknesses, God’s purpose has unfolded; yet I have no way to prove it to anyone.
I cannot convince you unless you have faith. I have shared my experiences in the written form, giving passages of scripture to support them. Having reached the end of the journey, I now know from experience that we enter human history to fulfill scripture.
I tell you: the story of Christ is an acted parable, a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who hears (or reads) it to discover the fictitious character and learn its meaning.
In the parable the actor takes a little child in his arms and says: “This is the kingdom of heaven. Unless you accept the kingdom as a little child, you cannot enter it.” One day you will be that actor, and the little child in your arms will symbolize your entrance into heaven. It is a signal of God’s birth – not from the womb of a woman, but from the skull of man, where God is crucified. His name is I AM. And when you awaken you will say, I AM awake. You will not look around for any other, for you will be alone; and from then on scripture will fulfill itself within you.
In the not distant future you will depart this world to discover that death will force you to modify, or radically change, any ideas which you have championed here. I received a notice today that my good friend, Randy, died. In 1952, while recuperating from a serious operation, Randy came to the hospital to visit me. He was my physician as well as my friend, but was not aware of what I teach. Seeing the Bible I had brought with me, Randy questioned my interest in it.
Taking the story of Esau and Jacob, I told him how Esau represented my outer world. That I could close my eyes to it and clothe Jacob (who represented what I wanted clothed in outer reality) with the skins of Esau. Believing in the reality of what I am doing, I deceive myself into believing that my subjective state is now an objective reality.
Well, to Randy that was not religion. To him religion meant going to church every Sunday morning and spending an hour there. That was something to be done, like walking with a cane because you had one and felt undressed without it. His week was not complete unless he went to church on Sunday. Randy has been gone now a few weeks and, undoubtedly is now modifying his beliefs – but it will take time.
You do not awaken there as some wise person. If you are foolish here, you are foolish there. If you are a thief here, you are a thief there. If a man is not a thief, no matter what is put before him he would not take it; therefore there is no temptation, no desire to change. Place all the liquor in the world before a man who does not drink and he will not be tempted. All of the world’s tobacco will not interest a man who does not smoke, therefore there is no temptation.
When a man is regenerated, he is no longer in the world of generation. Everyone could undress before him, yet he would not be tempted, because his energies have been turned up into regeneration.
Everyone will be regenerated and overcome without effort, for when the visions happen, you change. Change does not occur prior to the visions, because fitness is the consequence – not the condition – of the kingdom of heaven. You are not chosen because of your acquired merit. The minute the vision takes place, the consequence has occurred.
When you read the words of Christ in the New Testament, think of the Risen Christ, for the heavenly man is speaking. We are all rising into the one body of Christ without loss of identity. I will know you better and more intimately there than I could ever know you here, for the mask we wear here causes a barrier between us. But in the New Age we will be intimate eternal brothers, all sharing the one body as the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all.
Now let us go into the silence.