Showing results by author "Neville Goddard" in All Categories

"He is our peace, who will make us both one by breaking down the wall of hostility, that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two, so bringing peace." This being of peace is a person, not a doctrine or philosophy. He is a person who breaks down the wall of hostility between you who are seated here and your true identity, who is a son of God, one with his Father.

Tonight's subject is in the form of a question: "Is Christ your imagination?" When we ask the question, we expect the answer in terms of our current background of thought, and quite often that is not adequate to frame the answer. Now, I am asking the question, and in order to answer myself, I should really clarify the terms, "imagination" and "Christ". I think there will be no problem tonight if I define - say - "imagination". I think you will agree with me when I define "Christ".

In the 64th chapter of the Book of Isaiah we read: "O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay. Thou art our potter; we are the work of thy hand." When you hear the words Lord, father, and potter, do you think of another? I certainly hope not.

Man is seeking the source, the cause, of the phenomena of life. In his search, he grows and outgrows his many concepts of God until he finds the one God he can never outgrow, and therefore can never lose. That is the God which he finds in a first person, present-tense experience.

Your true environment is in your imagination! All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination - of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. No matter what is taking place on the outside, it is but a symbol telling you what is taking place within; for the world is nothing more than yourself pushed out. Its image, alive in your imagination, overwhelms you.

In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he said: "I strive for you to have the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery of Christ." Now, you may think there is no mystery to Christ and believe as any Christian believes - that Christ is Jesus, the son of God; but Paul doesn't state that. What Paul is trying to do is change your fixed ideas of the past, in order for you to have the same assured understanding and knowledge of God's mystery of Christ that he has.

God is known by experience or not at all. I have experienced God. I can no more deny it than I can the humblest evidence of my senses, so I feel qualified to tell you how you are going to experience God. There is only God in the world. When you say, "I am," that's God forever and forever.

In the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, we are told, "The rock, his work is perfect." Then this question is asked: "Is he not your father who created you? Separating the sons of men, he fixed bounds to the people according to the number of the Sons of God." Today there is much talk about curtailing the population explosion. This we will never do, for the bounds are already recorded.

You read about the flood, and you think, "Well, certainly that happened unnumbered - if it ever did happen, it happened unnumbered years ago." This morning, as is my custom, I turned on channel KFAC. That is a radio station that plays through the day and night, 24 hours a day, only lovely classical music; only a few interruptions.

"We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done." (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination.

Tonight, I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me.

Every fact is a dream made visible, so I invite you to live as though your dream were already a fact! I am convinced that every dream (desire) I have dared to live in the now has gradually and unnoticed blossomed into fact in my life. I also know, not only from personal experience but from eternal vision, that the spiritual states of the soul are eternal. That like a traveler, individual man passes through states but the states remain forever.

The gospel is truly a mystery to be known only by revelation. In the 16th chapter of John we are told: "I came out from the father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and I return to the father." In these four short phrases we find the pre-existence of Christ, his incarnation, his death, and his ascension. I could put this in the first person, plural sense and say: "We came out from the father" for we're told in the first chapter of Ephesians: "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

In the 18th chapter of the Book of John, Pilate said: "So you are a king?" and Jesus replied: "You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world. For this I was born. For this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth." Then Pilate asked: "What is truth?" and when there was no response, Pilate left, saying: "I find nothing in this man worth condemnation." Having already claimed: I am the truth, and my word is truth, here we find Jesus making the claim: I came to bear witness to the truth.

There are three very firm statements made in scripture defining God. God is light. God is love, and God is spirit. John tells us here that God is light, a light in which there is no darkness. Now try to follow me closely. The final gift to man is God himself and God is a revealer. Man's knowledge of himself is based on his knowledge of the revealer. Scripture records what is said of the revealer. As he awakens in you, read scripture carefully and you will discover to what extent God has revealed himself to you.

I think you know how thrilled I am to be back here, for this is the one platform that grants me complete freedom. You know that. Dr. Bailes has never once restricted me or even suggested any condition. He gives me complete freedom of this platform, and for that I am really very happy, for I couldn't be here unless he did.

Now, we are told that Jehovah brought his people out of Egypt "with signs and wonders." All these signs and wonders are in the story of Jesus. We are told that Jesus is the representative of humanity. Take just one story, the story of Jesus, for it is really your story. Study it carefully; and once you have found it, in the light of all the signs and wonders in the career of Jesus. He is the Resurrection. That's the key to the entire thing. When that happens, all the other signs follow. They all unfold themselves in the individual.

Paul was the first man in history to be set free. His letters, forming a quarter of the New Testament, were written approximately 30 years prior to the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His first letter, chronologically speaking, was to the Galatians and began in this manner: "Paul, an apostle - not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead." That statement, if understood, tells the entire story of salvation.

According to a rabbinical principle, what is not written in the Old Testament does not exist. The life of Jesus follows this principle. He made no attempt to change the world of Caesar or its social order, but left it just as it is, for man to make mistakes and live as he desires. Urging man to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's, Jesus comes into our lives for one purpose and that is to fulfill scripture. I want to show you how this is done in 1,260 days.

Tonight's subject is "He Wakes in Me". I should say, "He wakes in us." Who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ, who is crucified in us. He was never crucified on anything outside of man, and because he was crucified in us, he must rise in us. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. And if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."