Neville Goddard (March 29, 1968)
That which is most profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical. We are told: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ for your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all of these things shall be yours as well.” Here is a priority. Your heavenly Father knows you have to eat, drink, and clothe yourself, and they will all be yours if you will but put first things first; and the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, for God is in his kingdom and when you find the kingdom you find God.
While reading a book you may be aware of the phone ringing or someone entering the room. Although your attention is on the book, it does not exclude these events, which are marginal. So if, when you hear the story of the kingdom and how to enter it, your attention remains there, your heavenly Father will care for all of your marginal needs as you modify your concepts concerning God’s plan of salvation.
My parents (along with multiple millions of others) believed their children must be baptized in order to be saved, and they took me before the baptismal, where I was baptized in the name of Christ before I was aware of it. They, like hundreds of millions, have lived and died never changing that concept. But scripture read correctly tells us to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” That Abraham believed and his belief was accounted unto him for righteousness, so now you see what righteousness is. Righteousness in not a belief among beliefs, but the belief. You must find out what the belief is really is. I know from experience that the belief is that I will be born from above and receive God’s gift of himself through his Son calling me “Father”. Having heard this from me, are you convinced to the point where you can, in the immediate present, modify your concept of Jesus? To the degree your belief in God has been modified will you find corresponding changes in your outer world, for you are always living in and thinking from a body of beliefs. You can believe you are healthy, wealthy, successful, or a failure, and to the degree you accept this belief will you express the state. But fundamentally, what is your concept of God, for only as you seek his kingdom will you discover that God and his kingdom are one.
From this platform I teach that I and my Father are one. Being one, my Father can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation. What is there in you that can’t even be near? Imagination! You cannot separate yourself from imagination. You can’t claim: “I am” and point to it as something on the outside. It is impossible to separate yourself from the sense of being, so in the sense of I AMness, you are imagining. If this sense of oneness is your Father, do you really believe in him? If so, to what extent does your confession in words conform to your deep, deep conviction?
Matthew makes this statement: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Think not I came to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. To set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, for a man’s foes are those of his own household.”
In this statement, Matthew is not speaking of any physical conflict, but the conflict of the spirit. He is telling you that your foes are spiritual, all within your own household. Not the house other individuals share with you, but your spiritual house called the kingdom of heaven.
Now, as this new concept presents itself like a sunburst, will you accept it? Being new, it is now in conflict with what you formerly believed. This is new wine which is not yet fermented, and if accepted cannot be put into the old skins (the old beliefs), for if you place unfermented wine in an old skin it will burst. There must be a new belief to think from. Will you accept the fact that your own wonderful human imagination is He whom the world calls God? Will you accept this idea and allow it to ferment? Acknowledge your true self and live in that belief? Or will you say: “It’s easier to live with my wife (or husband) if I don’t confess it. I tried, but it upsets the household, so we continue to go to the same church and do the same things we have always done in the outer world.”
You must be willing to acknowledge me (your own wonderful human imagination) before men, for if you are ashamed of me, the Father who sees only the heart will deny you. But when you make any modification in your basic belief, it will take precedence over your beliefs of the past. If you say: “I am rich” and your concept of God remains as before, you are speaking from the surface of your being; but when you change the core and speak from your new concept of God, your world changes.
If you believe what I have confessed openly to you, do not be ashamed to acknowledge it openly before men. Although you may not at the present time have the experiences to support your claim, do not be ashamed of the good news that you have heard from me.
Not everyone sought Christ. Some found him and brought others. In the Book of John we are told that Andrew found his imagination to be Jesus and told his brother Peter. Philip found him and brought his friend Nathaniel. Peter and Nathaniel were not seekers, but were introduced to the truth. And who did they find? The one of whom Moses and the law and the prophets spoke, Jesus of Nazareth. Where is he? Come and you will see that the drama is supernatural. Having heard the truth from one who has experienced it, do you reject my words or do you accept them? If you accept my words and toy with this idea to the degree that you become enamored, you will modify your former belief concerning Christ Jesus. Tonight one billion believe in a little personal being who walked the earth 2,000 years ago, because they do not understand the concept that is the vision of Jesus Christ.
Now listen to these words of Blake: “No individual should appropriate to himself or to his emanation any universal characteristics of David or Eve; of the Woman or the Lord,” and he is right. Any appropriation of universality by an individual is a denial of the unity of all in the divine manner. To think that I (Neville) and I alone will have this experience, that it is mine and will not be shared by others, is denying the universal brotherhood of all. David is not just my Son, he is our Son. For any individual to appropriate this universal characteristic of David to himself is wrong. If he dares to think he differs by that unique experience, he will be broken on the rocks of experience, for David is unique to everyone.
Blake then goes on to say: “A Vegetated Christ and a Virgin Eve are the Hermaphroditic Blasphemy.” To take this divine being and turn it into some corporeal form with a vegetated body is hermaphroditic blasphemy. This body called Neville is Christ’s emanation. It is not a direct descendant of David, for he does not belong to this world, but to God’s eternal plan, which is to give himself to you; and the one and only way you will know this to be true is when David calls you “Father”. And since God’s plan is to give himself to everyone, no individual should ever appropriate these universal characteristics of David to himself alone. He must share it with his universal brother.
When Blake used the word “hermaphroditic” he meant “contradiction.” If Blake read a book, which stated a certain principle, but contradicted itself in the reading, to Blake the book was hermaphroditic. To him all orthodox religion was hermaphroditic, because they contradict the principle they teach. Saying God is merciful, they kill in the name of God – so where is the mercy? So Blake is speaking of a contradiction of principle. In the beginning you were Spirit, but now you are turning and worshiping a man of flesh? That’s hermaphroditic blasphemy. But even though you once believed Christ was a man after the flesh, once you have experienced the kingdom you will see him thus no longer. Paul was taught that Christ was a being outside of him who walked the earth, when suddenly it pleased God to reveal his Son in him. “Then,” said Paul: “I conferred not with flesh and blood.” From that moment on he publicly proclaimed the good news which he had received in the spirit.
Here is a story of a man who learned to turn to no one on the outside for help, for all help came from within him. As a very young boy he was one of a very poor family of five who lived in Russia. At the age of eight he was running errands to earn money to help feed the family. Having never had a square meal, a new shirt, slacks, or shoes, he knew the horror associated with a minority group, as his family were Jews.
This lad had a job taking large amounts of money to a bank to be exchanged into small denominations. One day he noticed that the teller’s copper coins resembled the silver ones, and as he returned the money to his employer he began to play a little game with himself. Assuming the teller had given him silver instead of copper, he dreamed of the wealth that would be his, had the mistake been made. The very next day the teller made the mistake. Giving him silver instead of copper, the young lad pocketed the money, went to another bank and changed it into the right denomination then, returning to work he gave his employers the money they expected. Having been taught what was right and wrong, the boy wrestled all through the night with his conscience, but in the morning he took the money, bought a new pair of shoes, a new shirt and pants. Then he went to a restaurant and ate to his heart’s content. No, he never returned the money, but he learned a great lesson from this experience.
The world, upon hearing this story, would say he was wrong; but when we came out from the Father we ate of the tree of good and evil, and there isn’t one person in this world who has not violated that code. He may not have the courage to violate the moral code openly, but the drama of life is psychological. The child was hungry. Having entered the world of experience, he learned how to use the creative power of his own wonderful human imagination. In the interval he has given back to society ten thousand times more than the small amount taken, not to compensate, but because of the lesson learned. After the First World War Russia collapsed and, penniless, he came to Paris to work as a street cleaner. Then he remembered what he had done so many years ago, and from that point on he rose and today is a multi-millionaire in a legitimate business, applying this simple principle that an assumption, though false, if persistent in will harden into fact.
Now, a letter came this week in which the gentleman wrote: “In my dream I had an enemy and we were slated for a duel in which one of us would be killed. All of the townspeople gathered around to watch, and I was favored to win. Pinning my enemy to the ground, I began to strike him, but could not do it. You see, by nature I am a pacifist and I don’t want to hurt anyone. So I drew my sword and placed it into his body, making sure it entered only three inches. Then a man came forward and realizing what I had done he shook his head, and the grumbling crowd walked away as I awoke.”
Let me tell him tonight: your dream was an adumbration, a foreshadowing of the day when your belief in Christ as your own wonderful human imagination will be one hundred per cent. On that day you will cut yourself in two with one wonderful blow and release the imprisoned splendor there. God’s creative power is within us all with his head down into generation. One day you will find that power, fuse with it, and up you will go into heaven as the imprisoned splendor you will know yourself to be.
If anyone ever asks you what you think of Christ, tell them that he is your own wonderful human imagination; that he became you, with all of your weaknesses and limitations, that you may be God the Father. May I tell you: when you really believe this your outer world will change to conform to the inner changes that radiate from you. Your world is forever mirroring and reflecting all of your beliefs, so any modification of a belief will cause a change in your outer world. So instead of working on little things like wealth, health, and fame, work on the major concepts of Christ by learning to know him through exercising your own wonderful human imagination.
Ask any man on the street if he is a Christian and he will say: “Yes”, but his definition of a Christian may be entirely different than yours. My sister Daphne is a pillar of her church. She considers herself a Christian and I believe I am also, but we have entirely different concepts of Christ as a plan of redemption. If, tonight I asked the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury if they were Christians, I am quite sure they would say yes, but their definition of Christ and mine would be miles apart.
I tell you: Christ is the vision of redemption. Free the vision! Don’t vegetate it! Don’t put it in a corporeal body and make it some little thing that dies. Christ is in you, yet he belongs to an entirely different world. While you walk this world in these garments that decay, Christ unfolds and lifts you into the world of eternity.
Believe me. Dwell upon my words, for as you do the visions will unfold; and as far as your outer world is concerned you will never have to question what you shall eat or drink or wear, for you will have no need to be concerned about the marginal things of life. Start now to center your focus on Christ and don’t be concerned about the fringe. Seek the kingdom of heaven by turning your thoughts inward, and wonderful things will appear to come out of the nowhere. In my own case I never thought of or contributed to any money my parents made, yet when my father made up his will, all ten children shared equally. So while I was about my Father’s business, completely absorbed in the kingdom of heaven and not concerned with dollars and cents, money grew in a foreign field. I had no knowledge or concern for its growth. Trusting my brothers implicitly, I have never once entertained the thought that anyone would ever take advantage of me, and no one has.
So I tell you, go about your Father’s business, dwelling upon his kingdom, and all things will take care of themselves. But don’t be ashamed to acknowledge him before men. Be like Paul who spoke up, saying: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” When the vision becomes your experience it will not matter to you what the world thinks. You will know with such certainty that you are the Father of God’s only begotten Son, that no one can shake you. A good Christian might question you, saying: “You – the Father of Christ?” and you will say: “No, I’m the Father of Christ’s Son, David. In the Spirit I spoke these words to David: ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee,’ the same words, which were spoken to David by the Lord.”
Now, Christ Jesus is the Lord. He did not come after David, but before him. God the Father gave himself to us; therefore everything comes after the Father. I now know that I also am God the Father, for he gave me himself and there is no way he could prove it other than through his Son David calling me “Father”. Prior to that I thought I was Neville Goddard, born in Barbados as a member of a very large family. Physically that is who I am, but in the spirit I know I am not, for God gave himself to me; and to prove it his Son, as described in the Book of Samuel, called me “Father”. This same Son will call everyone “Father” and then we will all be brothers. In spite of all the conflicts, horrible as they are, in the end we will discover everything was just a play – a play which was essential for God to give his gift to Man, and that gift is God Himself.
Now let us go into the silence.