Neville Goddard
03-15-1968
I
tell you that imagination creates reality and I ask you to imagine a
state, any state, which would imply the fulfillment of your desire.
It doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks; it’s
what you think that matters to you! If you create a scene which
implies the fulfillment of your desire and dwell in it until you have
an inner conviction that it is real, what does it matter what another
thinks?
In the Book of Habakkuk (which means “to
embrace”) the prophet speaks to the Lord as: “Thou who
art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” Then he asks the
question: “Why are you silent when the wicked swallows up the
righteous? I will take my stand upon the watchtower, to see and hear
what people say to me and what I will answer.” Now the Lord
speaks, saying: “Write the vision plain upon the tablets so
that he who runs may read it. For the vision has its own appointed
hour; it ripens and it will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it
is sure and it will not be late.”
There are those who
try to rush everything into being. They try to force birth from
conception, but it cannot be done. There are many experiences not
recorded in scripture, and I am not here to stand in judgment of
anyone as to whether they have experienced scripture or not. But I do
know from experience that on this level, if you dare to assume you
are what you want to be, your inner conviction, your feeling of
certainty will bring it to pass. When you embrace the desired state,
you have assumed its impregnation, and its fulfillment has its own
appointed hour. It will ripen and flower. If the state is slow in
objectifying itself wait, for it is sure and will not be late.
I
know that when I was told I could not get out of the island of
Barbados for at least six months and I desired to leave immediately,
I assumed I was walking up the gangplank of the ship. I felt the
dampness of the rail and tasted the salt air of the sea with the
feeling of certainty that I was leaving for America. I made that
gangplank so real that I hadn’t even broken the spell before
the phone rang and I was offered passage for the following week.
Although I had been told that I was on the bottom of a list of over
two thousand names, my family and I were singled out to board that
ship. So I know that the truth of any concept is known by the feeling
of a certainty, a peculiar knowingness that it is true.
You
can take this same concept into all levels of your being, for any
desire is a concept. You can move into any desire and express it. Ask
no one if you are entitled to it or if you did it - only you know
what you did. It happened to you. Now wait for the vision (the
desire’s fulfillment) for it has its own appointed hour. It
ripens, it will flower. If it seems long then wait, for it is sure
and it will not be late.
Returning to the overall picture of
God’s rising in Man, let us go back to the Book of Exodus,
where we are told: “The time that the people of Israel dwelt in
Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And at the end of four
hundred and thirty years, on that very day all the hosts of the Lord
departed from Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord.”
Then Moses is told to keep this night in memory.
Scripture
teaches a mystery. “Great indeed is the mystery of our
religion.” The word “mystery” is defined as “a
religious truth revealed by God that man cannot by reason alone
discover.” Here is a doctrine of revealed truth.
We are
told in the 15th chapter of Genesis that “You and your
descendants will be enslaved for four hundred years.” Now, the
number four hundred is the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew
alphabet whose symbol is the cross. Your body (of beliefs) is the
cross referred to as four hundred, and as long as you wear it you are
enslaved in a land that is not yours. But in the end you will be
brought out with great possessions!
In the 12th chapter of
Exodus, thirty years has been added to the four hundred, and in the
New Testament it is said that Jesus began his ministry when he was
about thirty years of age. In this world you are enslaved, and here
you remain playing your part until you are embraced, impregnated, and
thirty years later Christ is born in you and your trials and
tribulations are over! So four hundred does not mean years, but
thirty does. Four hundred records the length which Blake calls 6,000
or 8,500 years. Call it what you will, it is the period of time man
plays his part in this world. Then comes the moment when, as Man, you
are selected, called and embraced, and told to stand upon your watch;
for the sign has its own appointed time to ripen and to flower, and
that time is thirty years!
My friend, Benny, does not remember
the embrace, but I remember it well. It was in 1929. I was fully
aware of the embrace, just as I was fully aware of its fulfillment in
1959, so I can tell anyone from my own experience how it happens, but
I can’t tell you when if you cannot remember the embrace. Only
after impregnation can I prophesy as to what, and when these things
will come into being.
But I do know that God’s law
reflects all the way down to this world of Caesar. I do not know how
long it takes for each egg to hatch in a nest, but I do know each one
will hatch in its own time. And so it is with an assumption. If I
desire to be wealthy, I may not know how long it will take me to
reach the conviction that I possess great wealth, but when I feel
wealth is mine I have conceived. Conception is my end. The length of
time between my desire and its conception depends entirely upon my
inner conviction that it is done. A horse takes twelve months, a cow
nine months, a chicken twenty-one days, so there are intervals of
time; but it comes down to the simple fact that the truth concerning
every concept is known by the feeling of its certainty. When you know
it, not a thing can disturb your knowingness!
In my own case,
as I felt the gangplank under my feet and the salt mist on the rail
of the ship in Barbados, the phone rang and passage was mine. There
have been other times when it has taken longer. Unfortunately we do
not keep an account to see how long it takes to come about after we
have done it. But a concept is an egg and remains so until occupied.
Occupy your desire! Feel its certainty and you can prophesy its
fulfillment.
Although I did not know what would become of it,
I kept a record of what happened to me in 1929, so when I was born
from above and raised from within myself in 1959, I looked back to
discover that it was thirty years. I discovered that Jesus began his
ministry when he was thirty years of age, and that Israel made their
exodus thirty years after the four hundred recorded in Genesis. We
are going to celebrate this exodus in the immediate future as the
Passover, “a day to keep in memory forever.” For “this
is a night of watching by the Lord. On this day the Lord will bring
the entire host of Israel out of the land of Egypt” and they
will come out one by one. So if someone tells me a story that is not
part of my experience, I cannot confirm it or deny it; I only know
that my experiences parallel scripture.
But I say to you:
everything has its own appointed time. It ripens and will flower. If
fulfillment seems long, wait, for it is sure and will not be late.
Everything comes on time, but we do not know the time interval
because we do not record the conception. In my case, I keep a diary.
I check scripture to find out where the passage is that I have
experienced and record the date beside it. Now I know the length of
time it takes to fulfill scripture. I also know that when it comes to
the world of Caesar, I have received confirmation while in the
silence. I have exploded right into the now and, having felt the
thrill I knew it had to happen, but I did not know when. It could be
a day, a week, or a month. Three weeks ago I heard good news for a
friend, and today I received confirmation that it was completed. I
will not catalog that event to say that particular desire equals all
desires, because a desire can be as different as a chicken’s
egg is from the egg of an elephant. I do know, however that events of
scripture do have definite time periods. Scripture fulfills itself in
God’s time, and you cannot delay it or hasten its coming.
A
friend wrote me this week, saying: “I found myself sitting at a
table looking at a beautiful plate containing a raw steak, when I
heard the words, ‘Eat it’. Obeying the command I then
heard voice say, ‘You have eaten the body of God.’”
This lady has fulfilled the 51st to 56th verses of the 6th chapter of
the Book of John: “My flesh is the bread of life. He who eats
thereof has eternal life.” She has completely eaten the body of
revealed truth and eternal life is now hers. I cannot tell her when
she will be called, but she has accepted the revealed truth, which is
the body of God.
Another letter came, telling of how this lady
spent the day working on her husband’s books. She was so very
tired that as she fell asleep, she said: “Father, I cannot take
every aspect of the day and change it, but I can imagine that it
never happened.” So she began to create a scene which would
imply that all the problems of the day were resolved, when out of the
nowhere she saw an enormous scene of mountains clothed with
magnificent trees. As she watched, she discovered that her mental
activity caused the trees to move. And that the world pictured on the
outside adjusted itself to be in harmony with her thoughts. Then she
said “I came to the conclusion that my God is a God of action,
for I saw everything I was imagining taking place now. I feel as
though the world is moving in me like being on parade.” That’s
how God sees Man. We are forever adjusting to his perfect being. He
is looking out, yet everything is taking place within.
Tonight
I ask you to take the most fantastic thing in this world and find an
inner conviction within yourself that it is yours, for the truth of
any concept is known by the feeling of certainty which that
conviction inspires. Once you have that inner feeling of certainty,
don’t ask me to confirm it. What would it matter what I think?
Do not be disillusioned if your experience has not been mine. Believe
in yourself and trust your inner feeling. Test yourself and if it
works on this level it will work in the depths of your being.
If,
in my imagination I climb a gangplank, and as I look with nostalgia
at the little island of Barbados and the phone rings, offering me the
passage I desire, am I not influencing my outer world? Was the phone
call not reflecting my mental activity? I arrived at the point of
feeling a peculiar certainty, and that certainty was its
inspiration.
You can always tell the truth of any concept by
the feeling of certainty which it inspires. When you imagine seeing
the world as you desire it to be and are inspired as to its truth, it
doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. I don’t care what
it is; when you know what you want, you can make your desire so real,
so natural that you will reach a feeling of certainty which no power
in the world can stop. When that feeling is yours, drop it. Don’t
ask anyone if what you did was right or wrong; you did it and that’s
all that is necessary.
Now let me share the letter I received
from Benny. He said: “Friends of mine (Negroes), a man and his
wife, invited me to a party. On the way we stopped at their home,
where a group of Caucasians in their teens were having a party.
Suddenly my friends appeared in the doorway, coat and hat in hand,
and said, ‘You stay and mind the children.’ I was
shocked, but turned to look at the boys and girls, when out of the
nowhere a blond, blue-eyed, fair skinned lad came toward me, and as I
looked at him I knew he was David. He looked me in the eye and said,
‘I know that our Father will never leave us.’ At that
moment I knew my son David, yet I also knew I fathered them all. This
was on Wednesday. The following Friday as I told this experience to
my friends, I awoke to discover that I had been dreaming, for I awoke
on my bed.”
Here is the doubling of a dream, the
confirmation as told us in the 41st chapter of Genesis. Now, you
cannot violate the story of scripture. David is described in the 16th
chapter of 1 Samuel, and you will not change this description no
matter who you are. The Christ child is not described, for he can be
black, pink, white, or yellow. There is no description of Jesus
either, but I will tell you who he is. He is the Ancient of Days as
described in the Books of Daniel and Revelation. When you see David,
he is the youth of the ancient one he observes. Benny is now wearing
a very dark skin, but in the eyes of his fair skinned, blond and
blue-eyed son David, Benny is the Ancient of Days, the Holy One of
Israel. The one we recognize and call Benny now knows himself to be
the Risen Lord. Now I will tell him that on the 8th day of July he
will be split in two from top to bottom. I know, for the vision has
its own appointed hour, it ripens, it will flower. If it seems long,
wait, for it is sure and will not be late.
Now the Book of
Ezekiel begins: “In the thirtieth year the heavens opened and I
saw visions of God.” Ezekiel gives you a day and a month,
meaning nothing. The important thing is that in the 30th year the
heavens opened and visions of God were his. “And as I looked,
behold, a stormy wind.” That’s exactly what happens. An
unearthly wind comes in that thirtieth year, and you are born from
above, born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. Jesus Christ is God’s pattern of salvation buried in you.
His death in the most literal sense is your life, and his
resurrection is possible only after he impregnates himself.
God
the sender and Man the sent are one. Falling in love with the one he
sent, God impregnates him. He plants his seed, which takes thirty
years to germinate and [is] his mission to start. This experience
comes to Man after he has borne his cross in this wilderness world
for thousands of years. In spite of the horrible things that take
place in the world, when the individual is called and embraced, what
does it matter what he has to go through before he awakens? In a
short period of only 30 years he will be born into an entirely
different age, for during that time he is taken out of this age and
placed in that age, the age of the kingdom of heaven.
Now,
because you know this concept, don’t feel that you are better
than someone else, you are creative power. Stand upon your tower and
watch to see what God will say and how you will answer. Do this by
assuming you are the person you want to be and seeing what you would
see if your assumption was real. Remain there until you feel its
certainty, until you reach the point of satisfaction, until you are
convinced of its truth; and although the world may collapse around
you, you will become that which you have assumed you are.
In
the 21st chapter of the Book of John it is said that if all things
were told concerning Jesus Christ, the world itself could not contain
the books; so do not think that because I have not had your
experience, that it is not true - but do not try to force me into
accepting it. Believe what you choose and go your way this night. My
pattern has followed scripture completely, from the embrace to the
descent of the dove, but I am not saying it is the only way.
I
am saying, however, that you can be the man (or woman) you want to
be, but not by simply wishing. You must make the effort to look at
the world mentally and see it reflect your fulfilled desire. And when
it does you must remain in that state until you reach the inner
conviction that what you are seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and
hearing is true, clothe yourself in the feeling of its reality - and
explode! Do that and you are pregnant. And what do you do after
pregnancy? Nothing! You simply wait for its birth to appear in its
own appointed hour. And it will! When you least expect it your desire
will objectify itself in the world for you to enjoy, whether it be
health, wealth, or fame. That’s how God’s law
works.
Now, to the one who had this experience the other
night, I know you are anxious to give it birth right away, but what
is thirty years in this fabulous eternity? You were awake when it
happened, and you will never lose its memory. Should you depart
tonight to find yourself a young lady of twenty, you would only be
fifty when you brought forth the Christ child. Then you would see the
complete pattern fulfill itself in three and a half years and enter a
new age, which is the world of eternity. My dear, you are destined to
know departure from this world of death and entrance into the world
of eternal life as you move from darkness into light. But your
reaction was natural.
It reminded me of a story I heard in New
York City. This young girl came rushing into the subway, and standing
in front of a gentleman she said: “Would you please let a
pregnant lady have your seat?” Jumping up, terribly disturbed,
the gentleman said: “When is the baby expected?” And she
replied: “I don’t know, it just happened.” But this
lady knows it will be thirty years, but what is thirty years when you
have been called, you have been selected, you have been chosen. You
are one of the elect!
Now let us go into the silence.