Neville Goddard 10-21-68
"It
has been taught us from the primal state, that that which is, was
wished until it were." (William Shakespeare)
God
started with a wish, saying; "Let us make man in our image."
And we are told that we will be perfect as our Father is perfect, and
holy as our Father is holy. Therefore, whatever God was, when his
work is completed, man must be. We are told to be imitators of God as
dear children, so we must discover how he became us in order to
imitate him.
It seems God lives as one possessed by a dream.
Jeremiah tells us: "The will of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In
the latter days you will understand it perfectly." God, refusing
to turn back, remains lost in his dream until he has executed and
accomplished the intents of his mind.
If you want your dream
realized, imitate God by becoming totally possessed by your dream. Do
this and you, too, will reach your desire's fulfillment, just as God
has brought - and is bringing - his dream to completion. Have an
intense wish. Clothe it in tones of reality and imitate God by living
as one possessed by a dream. Like God, do not turn aside until you
have executed and accomplished the intents of your mind.
God
began the good work in you and when he brings it to completion on the
day of Jesus Christ, you will reflect the glory of God and bear the
express image of his person. If God will not stop until that wish is
completely realized, then you must be equally persistent. Regardless
of things to the contrary, persist until your dream is completely
realized.
See the story of Jesus Christ as God's plan of
redemption. Read the directions, and you will discover that it is
only as the Risen Christ that Jesus makes himself manifest. When
Judas asked: "How will you manifest yourself to us and not to
the others?” he answered: "Any man who loves me will keep
my word and my Father will love him and we will come and make our
home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my word for the
word I speak is not mine, but the Father's who sent me.
Scripture
is the Father's word. First recorded as individual expressions of the
Risen Lord, each vision is complete within itself. With nothing in
the paragraphs to indicate their chronological order, the writers
wrote a story - which appears to be history, but it is not.
I
will take one such paragraph, as it fits a letter I recently
received. In it she said: "I fell asleep requesting a deeper
understanding when you appeared as the Risen Christ and handed me the
number 26. I have tried to understand this and can only come up with
the number eight.”
If you add the two and the six
together you have the number of the Risen Lord. It was on the eighth
day (the first day of the new week) that Christ rose; therefore,
eight is always associated with resurrection, regeneration, and the
number of the Lord. But I gave her the number 26!
There
are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, of which five are repeated and
called finals. We have kaph as 20, but when used as a final it
becomes 500. Mem is 40, whose numerical value becomes 600 when used
as a final. Nun is 50, and when encountered as a final it is 700.
When peh is first encountered it is 80, but as a final it becomes
800, as its tone does not change. The symbolical value of this letter
is the mouth; in its final form it is the mouth of God: "My word
that goes forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void but must
accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I
sent it.”
You are Christ, the Word sent forth from
God's mouth as his hope of glory. God is making you into his perfect
image to possess all that he possesses, as God's Word cannot return
void. This is the mouth I have given this lady. Recently she has been
wondering why - when she knows something intuitively - she is
hesitant to speak out. Questioning herself, she fell asleep and saw
me as the Risen Lord, at which time I gave her a voice of authority
to speak out, regardless of what others may say.
Only
the Risen Lord will be seen. I can tell you: I have ascended from
earth and entered the highest heaven, but you will not know it until
my Father reveals it to you. When asked: "Who do men say that
the Son of man is?" they said: "Some say John the Baptist
come again, others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets of
old." But when he asked: "Who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God." The Risen Lord then replied: "Flesh and blood could
not have told you this, but my Father who is in heaven, he has
revealed it to you.”
Many will tell me they love what I
teach, but walk away, not believing it to the point of application.
But those who truly love me believe and apply my words. They are the
ones who will see me as the Risen Lord. They will recognize a man
called Neville - not as a man of flesh and blood, but as a completed
pattern; for the pattern which God placed within me, has erupted. If
you love the idea of completing such a pattern, then you are in love
with me. Not as flesh and blood, but the Christ who has risen within
me. When I manifested myself to this lady she knew I was Neville; yet
she also knew I was the Risen Christ; thereby, having the same
experience as Peter. Having heard and loving the message, Peter
recognized the Risen Lord - while others heard it, but - not loving
the telling - they did not have the experience. Such is granted
through the discernment of love.
Many claim to love
Christ, but worship an icon on the wall. Called the image of God,
Christ is God's plan, which was in the beginning with God, when he
said: "Let us make man in our image." Christ reflects the
glory of God and bears the express image of his person. That image is
found in the pattern. I have described this image in a more
chronological manner than recorded in the Bible.
I know those
who have fallen in love with the story which awoke within me. One who
departed last July saw me as the Lord. Another lady here saw me as
the Risen Lord. They did not see me as a man of flesh and blood, but
as spirit, God's power and wisdom raised out of the physical world
and into the kingdom of God. Just as God has deluded himself and
lives as one possessed by a dream to bring it to fulfillment, you can
imitate him while you wait for his work to be completed in you. And
if you are equally persistent in your dream, no power can stop it
from coming to fulfillment. But you cannot deviate. You cannot turn
from the dream to see what others are doing, or what they think about
it; you must be willing to lose yourself, to be possessed by your
dream. No man of flesh and blood is Christ. "If any one says:
'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is' believe him not."
(Mark 13) When Christ comes, it is from within and its knowledge is
without uncertainty. No one can ever deny the truth of what this lady
saw. The man who stands before you now is full of weaknesses and
limitations of the flesh. Tomorrow this lady could hear of some
unpleasant happening in my life, but it would not disturb what she
saw and heard when - in vision - she saw me as the Risen Lord and I
gave her the voice of authority. From now on she will have the
courage to speak out when she intuitively knows she is right.
Now,
when you experience Christ and tell your friends, 99.99% of them will
turn their back upon you, because they will see you as a mortal with
human weaknesses, and you will not impress them. But don't share your
experiences to impress anyone, rather to show the truth of God's
word. Do that, and there will be a remnant who will believe; then you
will appear to them as the Risen Christ.
Read scripture
carefully and you will discover that no one saw him as the Risen
Christ until after the ascension, which occurs while wearing the body
of man. I know, for on the eighth day of April, 1960, I ascended; and
from that day on everything in me has turned around, although I am
anchored here during the day. I have been seen as the Risen Lord in
New York, San Francisco, and all over, by ones who are in love with
the word which they have heard from me. They love the hope I have
held out to them, that in a body of flesh and blood with all of its
weaknesses, there is a plan of salvation that will awaken and unfold
in all. That plan is the Christ they love.
No man born
from the womb of woman is Christ. If there is another Christ other
than he who was crucified and buried within you, he is false, and
false teachers teach him as another. Christ is God's plan of
redemption. "He has made known unto me the mystery of his will
which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time."
Christ is the word who is one with the individual who speaks
it.
Imitate God as a dear child, by having a controlled
dream. Make a composite picture of what you want. Ask no one to aid
you or if it is right for you. Desiring life to be full, do what God
does. Make a wish and possess it. Turn neither to the left nor the
right, but persist, just as God is doing, and nothing can keep you
from expressing it.
Then, when you have finished the
work you came to do, you will understand that the furnaces you have
gone through were necessary to bring you out as an image who reflects
the glory of God and bears the express image of his person, for you
will be endowed with life in yourself. Having become one with God,
you will have inherited all that God is!
In my book,
Resurrection, I have shared my visions in their chronological order.
I know of no other book, including the Bible, which has given it that
way. The Bible in its manuscript form is a series of paragraphs.
These paragraphs were used to tell a story, because those who were
eyewitnesses were leaving this world of Caesar, and if the events
were not recorded, there would only be an oral tradition and
confusion would reign. Luke starts his book saying:"Inasmuch as
many have undertaken to compile a narrative of things that have been
accomplished among us, by those who from the beginning were
eye-witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also to
write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you
may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been
informed.”
The word Theophilus means one who loves
God. Luke is writing his orderly account for the individual who,
loving the word, enters the state of Theophilus and sees the Risen
Lord.
Now, Luke did not claim to make an exact
presentation of the source material, but to present it better than
those who preceded him in the telling. He tells us that many had
undertaken to compile a narrative, yet we only have four records.
John tells us that we must be born from above, but he does not bring
any of the symbolism into it. But because of Luke's account, the
world has taken the story as fact. Believing that Jesus was born from
the womb of a woman, they believe he came in the same normal manner
as all children do - with one exception, his mother did not have a
husband.
Luke tells the story in its normal state, using
shepherds rather than kings (as recorded in Matthew). Today's
scholars are convinced that the three kings Matthew speaks of were
definitely inserted. The witnesses are three normal people, not
kings; and the child is only a sign of your birth from above, which
can happen when you are fifty or eighty, and has nothing to do with
your so-called appearance in this world. While walking the earth as a
normal, natural, individual it happens; and when it does you simply
record the event next to the parallel passage in scripture. I ask you
now to fall in love with my message of salvation. Christ rose in me.
God's son appeared to reveal me as God the Father. All is Self, as
there is no other. I AM the being called Jesus Christ. I AM the plan,
the Word which cannot return void, for I have accomplished that for
which I was sent.
Believe me! Fall in love with my message,
and Christ will unfold in you; and you, too, will tell it; and those
who fall in love with what you say - in the hope that it will unfold
in them - will have the joy of seeing you as the Risen Lord, for in
the end there is Jesus only.
Because of the nature of the
grace that He bestowed, we have different gifts. There are those who
have the gift of the apostle; others the gift of prophesy; some are
teachers, healers, or miracle workers. All will differ in the
kingdom, but the gift itself is unmerited. It is not your due and
cannot be earned. The measure of your gift determines the nature of
the part you play in the body of the Risen Lord. All parts are
important and good, and the least there is greater than the greatest
here.
Those who see clearly - as many of you do - are
prophets and are so very high in the kingdom. You are the voice of
God Himself! Hearing what is being said from within, you are dictated
to by the Spirit of Christ - who is yourself. How much closer to God
can you get than to be his voice, than to be his mouth? That's what
the prophet is. But he is not granted the right to interpret what he
hears and sees. That belongs to another aspect of being.
Start
now to imitate God by having a glorious dream of the man or woman you
would like to be. Don't ask anyone if it is possible, for all things
are possible to God. Don't ask anyone if you should want it, simply
claim it. Because there is no death in the true sense of the word; if
your desire is not fulfilled here, it will be completed, so start
your dream and imitate God. You could be ninety and still have things
you want to experience, goals you want to realize, so claim them
now!
Personally, I hope you will set your hope fully upon the
grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; but if
you have no memory of affluence, and want to taste it here, become
possessed with the idea and refuse to become diverted. Whatever your
hunger may be, make it a part of your dream.
And dream
nobly! Imitate God as a dear child! He started with a wish, saying:
"Let us make man in our image," and God has persisted in
his wish as though it were true. Do as God has done. Take a wish and
persist in believing it is true. Do not deviate; just continue
believing in its truth, and in the end you will unveil your wish. You
will project it on the screen of space, just as God has unveiled his
wish as Jesus Christ.
As a man in whom Jesus Christ
unveiled himself, I always thought myself to be the body of flesh,
not knowing I was that glorified being who reflected the glory of God
and bore the very stamp of His nature. I did not know I was perfect
as my Father, yet I had not earned it. That I was as holy as my
father, but had not earned it. It was all a gift, because it was my
Father's wish that I might possess it, and I did.
Now
let us go into the silence.