Showing results by author "Neville Goddard" in All Categories

When you are discussing Blake you are discussing one of the greatest spiritual giants of all time. You might just as well discuss St. Paul, for they had the identical visions, the vision of reality. Tonight we can cover only a portion of his gift to the world. In his "Auguries of Innocence" he says: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand/ And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, /Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand /And Eternity in an hour." What is the sequence?

Do not accept any statement from scripture, the church, or an individual (including the speaker) as true until you have found God or a living truth in what is being said. What I tell you I know from experience, but I ask you not to accept my words without questioning them within yourself. It is silly to accept something simply because the church said it, or you read it in the Bible, or heard it from Neville. You must pursue the thought ceaselessly by questioning yourself.

The Old Testament calls upon God to awake, saying: "Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever! Having hurled Himself into time/space, God is dreaming he is man and sees Himself as enslaved and cast off."

Tonight's subject is: "Have you found him?" In this question I am asking if you have found the source, the cause of the phenomena of life. I can tell you from experience that he is a person as I am, as you are. Called "the Father", he is the one of whom I speak tonight.

There is nothing that appears in perception which cannot be duplicated in fancy, and what the world perceives is all imaginative in character. Here is a graphic example: I am sure everyone knows what it is to detect the fragrance of a rose. Now smell is a chemical sense and depends upon contact for perception. But does one really need a rose to detect its fragrance? Cannot its fragrance be reproduced imaginatively?

The Reverend Dr. Trusler saw the Bible as secular history, and criticized Blake, saying he needed someone to elucidate his ideas. Blake responded by saying, "You ought to know that what is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the ancients considered what was not too Explicit as fittest for Instruction because it rouses the faculties to act. Why is the Bible more Entertaining and Instructive than any other book?"

As I promised last Tuesday, I now want to give you my personal technique [I use] when I pray for myself or for others, but for the benefit of those who are here for the first time, I want to say that we believe here that Imagination creates Reality. And because only God creates Reality, your Imagining and my Imagining are one with the Supreme Power men call God.

You will find tonight to be a very practical and yet a very spiritual hour, for I am going to speak to you of the Creator. In Paul's letter to the Romans he said: "All the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." Man is called upon to look at the made, in order to discover the invisible God.

All things exist in the human imagination, and I mean that literally. No one can know of imagination who has not tasted the cup of experience! In the Psalms we are told that in the hand of the Lord there is a cup that is bubbling over with wine which has been well mixed. And John asks: "Shall I not drink of the cup of salvation which the Father has given me, and call upon his name?" When we hear these words we wonder what it is all about.

President Hoover, a man who began his life here on earth in the state of poverty, yet rose to the highest office in our land, made this statement at a convention in San Francisco: "Human history, with its forms of governments, its revolutions, its wars, and in fact the rise and fall of nations, could be written in terms of the rise and fall of ideas implanted in the mind of men."

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.

To unravel the mystery of Christ from all the interpretations put upon it is quite a difficult task. We are up against all kinds of misunderstandings of the mystery. Most people believe that it is secular history, and the story has something to do with some historical occasion, and it isn't. It is salvation history. The whole thing is taking place in you, the individual. It's not taking place on the outside at all, but how to convince men that this is true?

You may ask how can a mortal man, born as we were born and who will die as we all will die, know that God only acts, but I tell you I know it from experience. I have experienced the Word of God and tonight I will tell you how I know that God and God only acts. The name of God is the key to understanding the biblical doctrine of God. In biblical terms the question is asked, "Does God exist? Who is our God? What is his name and what is his son's name?" For Israel, the personal name of God is I Am.

Christ is the reality, the God that is in man. It is he who breaks down the dividing wall between himself and man and makes of the two, one new man. Is this all done on the other side of the veil, or is there something that we can do on this side of that dividing wall? Let me share with you a story of a very dear friend of mine, one who has had most of my experiences. Listen to me carefully, for God speaks to man through the medium of dream and unveils himself through revelation.

At times I discover that I take too much for granted. Just because I read scripture all day, I'm inclined to believe most people do - and they don't. Yesterday a doctor who has been coming here for quite a while came to see me, and I realized that I had not made myself clear; so tonight I shall try to make this a very practical lecture, yet you will find it profoundly spiritual.

For most of us, our thoughts are like rambling sheep that have no shepherd. We are called upon now to rule the thoughts, to rule the mind. As you know, the kingdom of Heaven is as a man starting into a far country, and he calls unto himself his servants and gives them his property, his goods.

God does not dwell in us as something other than ourselves, for god actually became as we are, that one day we may be as he is. I tell you: you are the being who became man, the being Blake refers to as god. You, human imagination, did not begin in your mother's womb and will not end in the grave. As a pre-existing being, you emptied yourself of memory for a divine purpose. Tonight I will try to touch on that purpose.

Inspiration is a divine action which qualifies the individual to receive and communicate sacred revelation. The prophets, apostles, and incurrent eyewitnesses are those who receive such inspiration.

The Christian world claims to believe in Christ, but they do not know him for he must be found. This challenge is given in scripture. "Examine yourselves to make sure you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves!" If you want to find Jesus Christ you must test yourself!

Tonight's subject is on conception, both on this level and the highest level. The Bible is vision from beginning to end. Words such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and Isaac are used, but their stories are visions. Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture, so when I speak of Jesus, I am speaking of you raised to the level where you can make the same bold statement.