Reading Time: 20 minutesNeville Goddard 6/12/1970
[The very beginning of this recording is unintelligible.] 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, – that’s the end of
the sentence, – 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.
So, forget the individual, and think only of the reality of that individual; and the reality of the
individual is the Lord Jesus Christ. He sleeps in man. He will awake in man as the man in whom
he awakes. You will meet him playing all the parts of life. And you will know the story that he
told you is true. You will see him cast in the role.
Let me share with you now one that was shared with me this week. “In my dream I was on my
way to a finance house for a loan. I went straight through the door into the office of the one who
owned the company; and to my astonishment, here it was you! You stood behind the desk piled
high with letters. You were nothing more than radiant Love, and I knew I needed no collateral –
nothing; that if I asked you for the moon, you had the power to give it. You would have snatched
it out of the heavens and given it to me. You were simply a helpless slave of Love – possessed
by Love and obedient to all the commands of Love, and I said to myself, as I left, ‘What a
radiant, radiant fool! Not a thing in the world could be asked of him that he could not grant!’
“As I went out, I encountered a woman. She was the very limit of despair, and I knew she had
gone to every one, and turned now to you as the last resort, for she had emptied all channels. But
I also knew as she went through that door, her every request would be granted. And then I came
out, and I knew any man who got through that little door would find the answer to his every
request, for behind that door was nothing but Love; and all the facade – all this outside
appearance of business – was all a mask – all a masquerade. The letters, the piles of paper, the
desk, and the building itself was only a masquerade hiding Infinite Love and who was behind
that door.”
Well, I told you, I stood in the presence of Infinite Love, and He embraced me, and we became
one; and then He “sent” me to tell you the story as it would unfold within me. His Word is true,
and the One He sent, you will find him playing all the roles.
Now I will tell her now: when you go home tonight, read the 55th chapter of the Book of Isaiah.
“Ho, every one who thirsts come … he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine,
buy milk, without money, without price.” [Isaiah 55:1] And he who comes to Me, I will make a
covenant with him, as I did with my loving David, and made him a witness to the people forever.
[paraphrase of Isaiah 55: 3, 4]
Here, a witness – and I am talking night after night about this witness to the Fatherhood of God.
In this same chapter:
“And the Word that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return unto me void,
but shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
[Isaiah 55:11]
So, everything granted behind that door – as you call it, “the little, narrow door” – cannot return
void. It is His to give and yours to receive if you ask for it. And she knew in her heart that any
man who got through that door would receive every request that he made, for there was nothing
there but Infinite Love and the power to grant it.
Now this is not something special for the speaker. Every one in whom the story unfolds will play
that part. And, may I tell you? It will unfold in every one, because God Himself is the reality of
every child born or woman; but man has completely misunderstood the signs, and he turns back
in time two thousand years ago, and he cannot see that the whole thing is contemporary. The
whole thing is taking place now. It’s not over. It is forever taking place, – but the same story. It’s
not another story. And this story of salvation is completely bound up with a special history. It’s
the history of Israel. There is no other history. But an Israelite is not one who descends from
Abraham after the flesh, but the “elect of God” of any race or nation in the world.
We are called, one by one, into His presence. Fusing with God, we are “sent,” and the one “sent”
and the One who sends him are one. They are not two. So, the Sender and the “sent” are really
one from that moment on in Eternity, for that one discovers who God really is. “And this is
eternal life, to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” But Jesus
Christ is one with the Sender; and every one who is incorporated into the body of Love and
“sent” is Jesus Christ. He bears another name in the world. He bears the name of John, the name
of Peter, the name of anything; but he is Jesus Christ! He is the only one that is “sent.”
So, he is the one who knows from his own experience that everything said of Christ in the story
unfolds in him, and there aren’t a number of little “christs” in the world. There is only one Jesus
Christ; and so any one who has the experience of Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ! But it’s not what
the world is looking for, and so they ignore it, and turn their back against him. They want
something on the outside, some majestic figure, some great-looking being to come into their
world and enslave their enemies. And it’s not so at all. So, the whole drama begins with this
mighty act when God awakes within man.
So, when they say the whole thing is done through His resurrection, I wouldn’t criticize that
statement. Some scholars criticize it, but I will say, Yes, His – speaking of it. But really, you’ve
got to come down closer. It’s your resurrection, because when the resurrection takes place in
you, you don’t see another. It’s your Self. You are the Being who becomes awake within your
own tomb – your skull.
It is you who comes out of your own skull. So, then at that moment you are “born.” So, as Peter
said, “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” I would not
quarrel with that statement; but Jesus Christ is the true identity of every man. He doesn’t make it
clear enough, but it’s when you are awakened from within yourself, you are at that moment –
without loss of identity – you are still Jan, you are still Bill, you are still any one whose name
you bear; but at that moment you are Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ fulfills Scripture, and you will
fulfill all the Scriptures. And others will see you in the different roles, and therefore they will be
witness to the event.
You are that witness called “the first who rose from the dead”; and, because he is the first, and
He-in-you rises, you are still the first. You are not the ten-thousandth or the millionth; you are
still the first, for only one rises from the “dead.”
So, when he calls his people out of Israel, the representative of his people is Jesus Christ; and
therefore it is Jesus Christ he is calling out of the graves, and He is calling His own Being out.
But when he calls them, he comes, bringing with him the being with whom he is united, and they
become one. For, “He who is united with the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord”; and in that
long dream – this horrible dream – you became united to the Lord. And it is the Lord that is
coming out, but He comes out as you! Yet you are the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now when we are told in Galatians: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive
the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with
the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? [Galatians 3: 1-3]
Are you going to see Jesus Christ as a little man of flesh in the outer world? You have heard the
story, and you have accepted the story in the spirit in which it was told. You didn’t see a man; it
was portrayed. Do you know what the word “portray” means? “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
was publicly portrayed.” To portray a thing is to represent it in a drawing, in a painting, in an
engraving, or on the stage acting. That is to portray a certain thing.
Well, here before the eyes of the Galatians, Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
How could you ever dramatize it? I’ll tell you. I know of no way. You could explain it – yes, in
words as I have tried to explain it; but how could you dramatize it on the stage? The night it
happened to me, only in memory, for it was the fulfillment of the Second Psalm. And when I led
this enormous crowd in this wonderful, gay procession to the House of God, and the Voice said,
“And God walks with them,” and a woman to my right asked the Voice – no one saw the face;
they only heard the voice.
And she said, “If God walks with us, where is He?”
And the Voice answered so all could hear it, “At your side.”
And she automatically turned to her left and looked right into my eyes, and then she began to
laugh, and she was hysterical – it struck her so funnily. And she said to the Voice, “What! Is
Neville God?”
And the Voice replied, “Yes, in the act of awakening.
Then the Voice spoke only within me, – it didn’t come from without, – and the Voice said from
within me: “I laid myself down within you to slept and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed”
– and I knew what he was dreaming. He’s dreaming that He is I. At that moment my two hands,
my head, my right side, and my two feet became vortices – whirling vortices, each a vortex; and
that was the Crucifixion, when God became as I am, that I may be as He is!
He actually crucified Himself upon me, and started the dream, dreaming that He is Neville, and
when He completes the union, He awakes in me as Neville. And then to prove it’s true, all that
he said concerning the one that he “sent,” called Jesus, unfolds within the speaker. And
everything said in that story unfolded within me. So, as I stand before you now, I can actually
say there isn’t one thing left out that I have not experienced. I am only now waiting for the final
taking off of this outer garment [indicating the physical body] when I am one with the Being
who “sent” me, in essence – in reality, yet without loss of identity.
So, he asked the questions “Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you going to
end now with the flesh?” – and see a little being after the flesh? There is really only one body,
one spirit, one lord, one God and Father of all; and all are being called, but they are called
individually, one after the other, one by one, to be united into that One Body and that One Spirit,
and become the one Father of all.
So here, Jesus is a sign. If you tell that to the world, they will not believe it. And you tell them
the signs that you call “miracles” every one is going to experience, and others will see you in the
role of the story.
There is a lady here tonight, – I see her here with her husband, – saw me stepping into the boat
on the beach when she was exhausted and could not reach me; and then having entered the boat
with these fishermen in this ancient world – and here, I got out of the boat, and as I turned, she
recognized me. She didn’t know. I was dressed in white – a long white robe; but when I got out
and stood upon the beach and she recognized me; and I said to the fishermen, “No, I will wait
until dawn.”
She thought she had lost – lost out in her attempt to reach that boat and to reach me. But when I
said to them, “No, I will wait until dawn; there are others to come,” then she felt the relief that
she had not failed. Exhausted as she was in her attempt to reach the fishermen and reach that
boat and reach the speaker who entered that boat, and he was exhausted and placed his head
between his hands and waited in that state. Well, that is recalled in the Bible. That whole story is
Scripture.
All these are signs. So she saw one sign to prove the truth of what I am saying here. Another saw
it in another way, another in another way. These are witnesses to the truth of what I am talking
about. But there is another kind of a witness that He is looking for.
You yourself become the central witness, the one known as Jesus Christ, as told us in the first
chapter of Revelation: “He is the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead.” The first chapter,
the 5th verse of Revelation. Each in turn will play that part, but he will play all the other parts;
and those that come to him, as you have come here, – you are going to see me in all the different
roles as my friend to whom I gave in-current eyes that she may become an in-current eye
witness. And she saw me here recently in the role that I have just told you, playing the whole
chapter – the 55th chapter of Isaiah. That is what she saw, – playing the role. Come, no money.
You don’t need the money. You don’t need anything to buy what I have to offer.
Well, what have you to offer? You name it. I have that. “For the world is mine, and all within it.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,” he said, “for the cattle on a thousand hills are mine.”
The world and all within it, – that’s mine! “All mine are thine and thine are mine.” Well, you
name it, for it all is God’s and all God’s belong to the one that He “sent,” for He and the “sent”
are one.
So, she said, “I felt you could have given me the moon, had I desired it, and would have
willingly, for you are the victim of your own Love, possessed by Love, and could not do
anything but obey the commands of Love.”
I tell you, God is Love. He’s Infinite Love. And He willingly gives everything if you come into
His presence; and she knew any one who got through that little door, that that one could receive
anything that he voiced, because He would have voiced it and His words could not return unto
Him void; they had to be accomplished. No matter what He sent them on, they had to fulfill the
purpose for which He sent them.
And so, you need money? No, you don’t. I share with you what I have discovered. All you need
is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. That’s all that you need to do, because He is within
you. Though asleep, He still grants the wish, for that is His Law. Assume the feeling of the wish
fulfilled. Though reason denies it, though your senses deny it, don’t waiver in that assumption.
You assume it. Persist in the assumption, and that assumption will harden into reality, if you call
reality these concrete things in the world. But really, these are the shadows. The reality was the
invisible state that projected itself into what we can the “reality”; but the real Reality was
invisible. Have faith. Have confidence in that invisible state. Assume it, “wear” it; it will
externalize itself.
But here, everything said in the Old Testament is adumbrated. It’s a foreshadowing in a not
altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. When it comes into the fulfillment of itself in
the One Being in whom all the Promises found their “yes,” – it is said, in Jesus Christ all the
Promises of God found their “yes” – their fulfillment in Him. Study it carefully.
If you don’t understand what is meant about Crucifixion – you just heard it from me. The
Circumcision, we are told so clearly, but you can’t see it in the Old, – in the Book of
Deuteronomy they only speak of the circumcision of the heart. It speaks nothing of the flesh. The
flesh signifies an invisible, spiritual reality. Then what is that circumcision? It unveils the head
of creation, the organ of creation, and He is called the Creative Power of God. That is the organ –
the Creative Organ of God. Who? Christ is. What is this circumcision?
As we are told, “circumcise with a circumcision made without hands,” a circumcision in the
circumcision of Christ. Then what was it? On the eighth day he was circumcised. I tell you, it is
the eighth month. The child is born, and then you find the Fatherhood of God through David 139
days later, and then 123 days later you’ll find this great act, which is really spiritual circumcision
of the heart. Why? In this sense:
“Do you not know that you are the Temple of the Living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in
you?” and that temple must be torn in two from top to bottom – the curtain of the temple? And
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Then what is this circumcision of the
heart? How is it done? Well, this is going to be the blood that you are going to take into the Holy
of Holies; and on that day a bolt of lightning splits you in two from top to bottom, and at the base
of your spine is the golden liquid light – living, living, pulsing light. It is the blood of God. But
you look at it, and you know it’s your Self. For are we not told the life is in the blood? And did
he not say, “I am the Life,” – “I am the Resurrection and the Life”? So, I am the Life.
I looked at it, and I knew as I looked at it I am looking at my very Self, “O my Redeemer and my
Creator!” – my very Self. And then I fused with it, and then ascended into the Holy of Holies
like a fiery serpent; and I took the blood, not of bulls, not of calves, not of lambs, – not of
anything on the outside; I took my own blood. It was the blood of God! And it was the temple of
God that was torn in two – the body. “Do ye not realize ye are the Temple of the Living God,
and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” So, I saw the Spirit, the Life, and it was in the blood; and I
knew it to be my Self. And I fused with it and then I went up – right up like a fiery serpent into
the Holy of Holies where the outer man cannot enter.
The outer priests cannot enter. They go in with the blood of a calf, the blood of a turtle-dove, the
blood of a pigeon; but they come out still conscious of the sins of the world and their own sins.
This – you are completely exonerated, and you exonerate all the world no matter what they do.
So, you go up with the “blood.” That is the Circumcision. Now, how on earth are you going to
dramatize that on the stage? So, the dramatization that Paul spoke of in that third chapter of
Galatians is simply an adumbration.
If some one today had the courage and the ability, – there is only one medium that I know of that
could really tell it, and that would be the movies. They can do strange things with the camera and
with lighting. I can’t see how it can be done on the stage without the aid of a camera, but I could
tell them in detail, as you could because you have the record of it, exactly how it happens.
Now how on earth are you going to tell of the birth of God? As it is depicted year after year at
Christmas in all the Christian churches of the world? That’s not the birth. This is a spiritual birth.
How are you going to depict it when it begins with the Resurrection? And the story is told that
he’s only been born; he hasn’t yet been crucified. In the beginning he was crucified! The drama
begins with the Crucifixion. “We have all been crucified with Him,” Paul tells us.
“I have been crucified with Christ.” But now the Resurrection is taking place. When it takes
place, then you are “born from above.” It’s the second side of the coin, the birth. So the
Resurrection comes first; then comes the “birth from above,” the same night. How would you tell
it? You can tell it in pictures.
A man with the imagination to conceive the scene all taking place in the skull of man, – and a
man is sound asleep within his own skull and doesn’t know it. His daily habits could be that of a
carpenter, that of a mason, a lawyer, a banker, – anything in the world – digging ditches, – but
anything. And then he goes to sleep; and while he sleeps, he awakes. The camera could do it. A
man who has any knowhow in the use of a camera and great imagination could find the man
sleeping in the enlargement of his skull; and then something of which he was totally unaware,
which is himself – his true identity – awakes within his skull to find that it is completely sealed
and it now resembles a tomb; and yet, it is a skull, as told us in Scripture. It’s called “Golgotha,”
which is the Hebrew for the word “skull.” It’s called “Calvary”; that is also “skull.”
So, within your skull you come out, and then all the imagery then surrounds you. Are you not
told in Scripture that the imagery is a sign? Well, Simeon comes by spirit into the temple. He
comes all in the spirit and comes into the temple, and man is the temple of the Living God. So
where is he going to go? He goes right into man in Spirit! And here he finds on the floor a little
child, and he picks up the child, announcing whom it represents and what it represents. He
announces that it is – and he calls you by name. If your name is Bill, it’s Bill’s child.
Other witnesses are present, and they deny that Bill could ever have a child. How could he beget
a child? All this could be done beautifully, and what a shock it would be to the hundreds of
millions of people in the world! But a jolt of that nature would really take this wonderful “ship”
and scrape all the barnacles off!
You could make a short story out of it and simply tell it – tell it beautifully and clearly and use
just the things that you’ve heard from this platform, for I am telling you exactly how it happens.
Not one story in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke or John – tells it in the true chronological
order. They have taken this homogenous tradition, and from that body they have unraveled a
story – a beautiful story, but they have not told it chronologically. It begins with the
Resurrection, and the second act is the Birth the same night. And then the discovery of the
Fatherhood of God is the second big act. And then the third is simply the severance of the body
from top to bottom and the ascent of a being carrying his own blood into the Holy of Holies – up
his own spinal column into his own skull! Then the last and final act is the descent of the Holy
Spirit in bodily form as a dove. Well, that could be done easily. That is a simple matter, but use
your imagination to find how to do the others. I wouldn’t tell you. I know nothing of the camera.
I know nothing of the tricks of light and things of that sort. But you could tell the story in the
most glorious way, and it would be an awful shocker!
Talk of these strange, filthy things today that shock people. That is a shock, but not this kind of a
shock. This would be a shock beyond shocks to ask every one to put their faith completely in this
and hope that the day will come that the unveiling will take place in them, for this is true
Christianity. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism.
Judaism is the Promise. That’s the big tree. And Christianity is the fulfillment, the fruit that tree
bears. And this is what comes out; and when it happens to you, everything said in Scripture you
will play. And others that you’ve called; especially those to whom you have given your eyes and
made them in-current eye witnesses, they will see you in these different roles, and they will
know beyond all doubt the truth of what you talk about. Even at the moment, if in one night it is
not completely understood, they will understand it eventually because they will see you in the
role. They will all see you playing these different parts.
They will see you playing the part of Power. They saw me playing the part of Love. It’s not
completely the Love of which I spoke, but she did see me playing the part of Love. One day she
will see me in that absolute role of Love; but then, by that night, she will be called, and called for
a purpose to be “sent.” And she will not be “sent” until she is incorporated into the very Body of
Love. This night she was not incorporated into the Body of Love, but she does know of the
existence of Love, and Love is man, for God is man!
So, Love is not some impersonal force. It IS man. It takes a man as the agent to express Love.
She saw it actually embodied in a man, and knew that man, and knew him to be a radiant fool.
What a radiant, glorious fool! He gives everything away, and it’s his to give. And no one going
through that door could ever fail to receive everything that they wanted, because he is possessed
by Love, and the slave of the very Love that possesses him.
So, I tell you, you keep this in mind; and someday when I am gone from the scene you can be the
one who can brush it up for them, because you have your notes – you have a record of it, exactly
how it happened. And these are the four Majestic Events of God. The first is His Mighty One –
the awakening of God in man. That is the Resurrection. At that very moment he is “born from
above,” and he comes out of that sealed tomb where he had been sealed and dreaming for these
unnumbered centuries – dreaming as though he is on the outside and that the drama is taking
place on the outside. He has been dreaming it and dreaming it.
And then from there, you move into the next scene. It is a simple scene. And may I tell you? the
whole imagery of the 22d chapter of the Psalms comes into being. The whole thing actually
comes into being. Here you stand before your son, and David this time – and I can correct one
little thing, because in the 17th chapter of First Samuel when David stands before the insane king
– the king made by man and not by God – he didn’t know the boy’s name and he didn’t know the
boy’s father’s name; and it was essential that he discover the boy’s father’s name, for he had
promised to set the father free of the one who brought down the enemy of Israel. The enemy was
– the first time – Goliath, for he was a man, as we are told in the Scripture – from his birth he
was a man of war. So the whole vast conflict of the world, and this one brings him down, and he
has his severed head. It’s an enormous head. But when he stands before the insane king, he holds
the head in his hands. The night that I knew Who-I-was and who my son was, the head was
there, buy it was on a table before me. It was not held in his hands; it was on a table – this
enormous head, the head of a giant.
And then the same people that the 22d chapter speaks of, – for they speak of these harlots; they
are male harlots in the service of the priests of the temple. There were two handsome, handsome
men – very, very attractive men. They were looking concupiscently at my son David, and I
warned them, pointing out the head, that he is Invincible – he had never lost one battle. He is the
invincible warrior. And then I pointed to the head of Goliath and showed them the head that he
had just brought down – that youth, that son of mine. But there they were looking – “eating him
up” mentally, with the most concupiscent look on their faces as they looked at David. It was
David looking at me and still with a glance towards that pastoral scene, for he was shepherd
tending the flocks. And this whole scene is perfect.
And at the very end of that chapter: “Look what God hath wrought. He sees the turmoil, the
travail of his soul, and is satisfied when he contemplates what the end result of it is. And when
he saw the fruit of his travail, he was satisfied; and the book ends. “And see what God hath
wrought.” He actually kept his promise that he would not leave his son David in the pit. He
raised him, and David is resurrected, and he stands before his Father and knows his Father and
calls him “Father.” And the father knows that he is looking at his son David. Now that is an easy
way to dramatize that; but the Crucifixion will be a difficult one, but you can do it. The birth and
the resurrection will be difficult, but it could be done.
There is one picture of Turner. It was shown in New York City. Unfortunately I didn’t see it. My
wife was it. It was the day of the closing of the exhibition; so I didn’t get over to see it. And she
came back and said, “Oh, you just missed the treasure of your life.”
Here is the picture of Turner, and it was a skull – a human skull; and in the depth of the skull is
this Being rising – rising in the skull. So he must have had somewhat of a vision, and he caught
it. It was displayed in New York City. It was called the Turner Exhibition.
She went over and she saw it. She said, “Oh, it was the last day and I couldn’t come back to get
you.” I missed it when it came to this city. I wasn’t here; but it was the human skull, and way in
the depth a peculiar light and a man rising in the light within the skull.
Well, you could do that as Turner did it on the canvas. Surely, with the camera and the knowhow of today you could do it and see some one rising within his own skull to find it completely
sealed, and with the know-how of how to come out of it – to push that stone from within and roll
it away, not from without, but to roll it away from within, and then to come out, and to find the
imagery all around him of the infant and the witnesses to the event. Then you certainly could get
the sound.
An unearthly wind accompanies this entire scene– just a peculiar wind. Well, you can do that
with all the tricks that people do on TV and in the movies. And you can make this the most
glorious drama and bring it up to date so you would not have to write that third chapter that Paul
wrote to the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the
spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?”
Well, you wouldn’t have to challenge the world that way. Let them see it. Did you receive the
spirit by the seeing of the story and the hearing of the story? You could have it dramatized –
have some beautiful voice actually explain it from the words of Scripture.
This is something for you to dwell upon. I won’t be here to help you, but you can do it. You
know it, and you can tell it. But this story is nothing more than a sign from beginning to end. The
first 39 books – the Old Testament – they are all adumbrated. And the New fulfills it. It
completes the drama, what happens in the interval between the end of the Old Testament and the
beginning of the New.
Now let us go into the Silence.
