Neville Goddard (November 22, 1968)
The Psalmist said: “Those who know thy name put their trust in thee.” The name of God is synonymous with God himself, so when you know God’s name, you will put your trust in him. The Book of Exodus tells the story of Moses, who questions God, saying: “When I go to the people of Israel and say to them: ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they ask: ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say?” And the Lord answered: “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you; this is my name forever and by this name I shall be known throughout all generations.”‘ Now you be the judge. Do you trust your own wonderful I amness? I hope so, for God is the I AM that is your I am. Awareness is the Lord your God, who will bring you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Make no graven image of anything that is in the heavens, the earth, or the water, and bow before it; for there is only one God, and he is your own wonderful I amness.
Recently a lady wrote thanking me for teaching her who Jesus Christ really is. Then she said: “On my job I lift a typewriter every day. The other day, while moving it I strained a muscle in my lower back and experienced great pain. Remembering the story of the father who had his seven-year-old son revise the scene where he was hurt, in my imagination I picked up the typewriter without any pain. Having eliminated its cause, I felt no need to request help on the outside and within a few days my back was fine once more.
Then she continued: “I was raised in the Catholic faith. Shortly after the experience with my back, I had this dream. Entering the side door of a Catholic church, I walked across the church to the opposite side without genuflecting. As Mass was over and everyone was leaving, I turned to join them, when I heard the words: ‘Now you will face the altar and get down on your knees, because a priest is watching you.’ Turning, I saw a man robed in black, and I replied: ‘I will not, for I do not believe in anything outside of myself.’ Then I awoke.” What a marvelous experience! In the state called dream, where attention is the servant rather than the master, this lady remembered the teaching and put it into practice. Priest or no priest, she would not stand before any man-made altar and bow.
“I (your own wonderful awareness) have brought you out of the land called Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall make no graven image unto me, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, on the earth or in the waters. Do not bow down to them or serve them.” (Exodus 20) In spite of these commandments, millions bow before man-made altars and little figurines they call Jesus Christ, because they do not know the Lord. If they knew him, they would know his name is I AM. The Lord is your I am, and there is no other God. Speaking from within, awareness tells you he came out from the Father and came into the world; again he is leaving the world and going to the awareness of being the Father of all life! Coming out from yourself, you and God the Father are one!
The full significance of God’s name is known only in the light of its consummation. God is the Word. His name is manifested when he, the Word, is made flesh. You are this one who is the Word made flesh, for are you not flesh and blood? And don’t you say “I am”? You will never know the full significance of God’s name, however, until you consummate it.
There are some questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, such as the one asked by John: “Do not keep us in the state of uncertainty, but tell us plainly, are you the Christ?” (John 10) If the Christ of an individual’s personal expectations is meant, then the answer is No. But if you mean the Christ who was buried in the skull, the one who rose from that state of death and came out of that tomb, unaided, to find three witnesses of his birth – then my answer is Yes, I am He. If you mean the Christ who found David in the spirit, who identifies him as his Father, I am he! And yes, I am the Christ who tore the curtain of my own body from top to bottom, and, as the son of Man, rose like the serpent in the wilderness. And if you mean the Christ on whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, then I must answer: Yes, for I know from experience that I am He.
Now, the words “God” and “Lord” mean I AM! Awareness is the foundation of all life, while the words God and Lord cover it up, like a mask. Rather than calling upon the Lord’s name, call with his name. To do that you must say I am! And because all things are possible to God, anything can be called forth with his name. The minute consciousness is connected to desire, you have called it forth with God’s name. If your desire is for wealth, fame, or health, call it forth by claiming: I am famous, I am wealthy, or I am healthy. Do that and you are calling with God’s name. We are told to not take God’s name in vain; for if we do, he will not hold us guiltless. The minute you say: I am a nobody, I am unwanted, or I am no good, you have taken God’s name and conjured exactly what He has assumed – be it good, bad, or indifferent. Any assumption is yours! Now that you know God’s name, put your trust in the true God who is your own wonderful imagination!
Now, many bold assertions are recorded in the Gospel of John. When you read them, do not think another person is making the statement. Know that the being in the depth of your own soul is speaking. Although the words seem to be spoken by another, and – like Moses – you may think they are coming from without, if you are conscious of them, they are within you. The first bold assertion is: “I am the bread of life.” Coming from within, this life comes to feed the multitudes. One day you will feed the multitudes – not with bread made of flour, but with the desires they want to express. You will feed the blind man eyes that see, ears for the deaf to hear. The lame will walk and the poor will be affluent, for you will know yourself to be the bread of life which came down from heaven.
In my vision, thousands of people in different states of want were waiting for me. As I glided by, the blind, halt, lame, withered, and shrunken became remolded in harmony with the perfection I knew myself to be. They fed on me, as I granted everyone their wishes. When the vision was over and a heavenly chorus cried out: “It is finished,” I, the Word made flesh, descended to this little world once more to tell my story. I have finished the work I sent myself to do. I came out from the depths of my own being, to expand my I Amness into a greater translucence and luminosity.
Everyone came out from Self, destined to discover that Self to be God the Father. You have always been the Father, but, coming out from that I Amness, you think you are another. Turn around and think only of yourself; for you are Imagination, asleep, dreaming your dream of life. You are God the Father! One day God’s son will reveal you to yourself. He will not appear as Jesus Christ, for Jesus is I AM and Christ is his creative power. It is David who will appear and set you free, for when you see David you will know who you are.
Now, the second bold assertion is: “I am the light of the world.” This light is consciousness. One night I felt myself sink into infinite, pulsing, golden, liquid light, of which there was no circumference. I was its center, and knew myself to be the infinite light of the world. Another time, I entered a room which appeared to be animated and independent of my perception; yet when I stopped an activity in me, everything froze, proving once again that I was the life of the world. You are destined to know you are the way, the truth, and the life, from experience.
Awareness is the only way to the knowledge of being the Father, as you will never find him external to yourself. Only when God’s son makes you aware of being his father, will you know who you really are. When you see David, you will know in the depths of your soul that you inspired him to write the words: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord, and he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.’”
As the Word, you sent yourself into the world to fulfill all that you said you would. In the beginning you were the Word which was with God and was God. You are the Word which went forth from God’s mouth and will not return void, but must accomplish that which you purposed and prosper in the thing for which you were sent. Coming out from the knowledge of being the Father, you brought with you the pattern of salvation. This you will fulfill, as it is this pattern that takes you back to the knowledge of being the Father you have been seeking. You came out from yourself and entered the world of men by falling asleep to your true awareness. You will return to that awareness when you learn to trust the one and only God, who is your own wonderful human imagination. Forget all the little isms; there is only God! When you say I am, you are speaking as God. Add any word and you have placed a limit on an infinite being. That which is unlimited, abides by his own law and becomes that which he believes himself to be – whether it be unwanted, sick, helpless, or poor. Believe in a world of your own creation, and – because all things are possible to imagine – the moment you become aware of anything, you have given it the power to project itself on your screen of space.
People are forever searching for something beyond the veil. Men who are considered high in the Christian church use mediums for such a purpose. One such man, a bishop of the Episcopal church, requested a medium to ask his son if he had seen Jesus. Then the son, supposedly speaking through the medium answered: “No, they talk about him, but I haven’t seen him yet.” Can you imagine such a question from one who, as the Great Father, blesses and baptizes? All of this worldly nonsense is not the Christian faith. A Christian must have faith in Christ, God’s pattern by which he will be saved. But this is not the Christ the world is looking for. They expect some glamour boy who is beautiful on the outside. But Christ is the eternal pattern which God established in the beginning. Knowing he would fulfill his word, he came into the world, becoming flesh. And when the pattern unfolds within him, Christ has returned to the being he was before that the world was.
If you really believe in your I Amness, you must test yourself by daring to assume you are now the being you desire to be. Walk as though you were, and if this is a true doctrine, your desire will externalize itself on the screen of space. Test yourself every day, and then one day you will experience everything described in the Gospel as happening to one called Jesus Christ.
Everyone says, I am! We are all the same God! There can’t be a billion little I am’s running around; there is only God whose name is I AM. When you say “I am”, it isn’t “we are,” is it? Of course not, it’s one I am. Here is a universally diffused individuality fulfilling what it intended to do, which is to gather itself once more into the same one body to know itself to be the one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of us all. Regardless of what part you play, you return to a unit of being where no one is greater than the other, for there is only God.
As I look into the world, I know that everything I see is myself pushed out and everyone is going to fulfill the story of Jesus Christ, in detail. It’s a definite pattern. If you do not fulfill the pattern as described in scripture, but have a similar experience, it is a foreshadowing that the pattern is coming. Then wait, for you are predestined to fulfill scripture, in detail. It takes 1,260 days from your awakening in the skull called Golgotha, to the descent of the Holy Spirit in the bodily form of a dove. Then you become a witness until you depart this world and enter the celestial sphere where all the fathers have returned to form the one Father. So be encouraged! You are a divine, infinite being. In the world of Caesar you may seem to be a little man (or woman) struggling to pay rent and make ends meet; yet you own the world, because it is housed within you, and it is all yours!
Start now to put your imagination to the test. Jesus Christ is in you and you will not fail if you call your desire forth with God’s name. Sleep in the assumption that you already are the person you desire to be, and firmly expect the evidence to appear in your world.
The last bold statement in the Book of John is: “I am the true vine.” If God’s name is I AM and it is synonymous with God Himself, then I – the vine – will grow and produce the fruit I AM aware of. If you dare to remain conscious of any state, it must appear! Claim for yourself that which you would like to experience. Then put your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of Christ within you. When the first act takes place, count the days, and you will discover the last act will appear exactly 1,260 days later. After that, you will linger to tell your story to those who will listen. Not everyone will, for they are interested only in things of this world. Show them how to get their things until they hunger for the promise. Then Christ will unveil himself in them and they will discover they are God the Father. Yes, I am the way, the truth, the life, and the vine. But when I come to the end, I AM the Father.
So many lovely things are taking place in those who come here. One lady told me she heard the words: “I am the resurrection and the life. Believe in me and you shall have everlasting life.” Then a few days later, as she returned to this world from the depth of sleep, the word “resurrection” was ringing in her ear. A complete transformation is taking place in the soul of many here, and they are now believing to the point where they are controlling the dream world, and are no longer its victim.
I urge you to take me seriously, and put my words to the extreme test. There is no other way to the knowledge of being God the Father, except by me. No man comes to the Father except by me. Diets will not do it. Holy retreats will not do it. I am the way and there is no other way. I am the truth and there is no other truth.
Now let us go into the silence.