FAITH IN GOD
"Now test God by thinking of a friend. Hear him congratulate you on your good fortune. See his face light up with joy and feel his presence. Do that, and you have performed a magical act, for God has acted and all things are possible to God."
FAITH IN GOD
5th Feb 1968
In the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, faith is described as:
“The assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so things seen are made out of that which does not appear.
In the Hebraic world, the rabbi is the father of his congregation. Paul called his followers his little children, saying:
“Although you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. I became your father in Jesus Christ through the gospel. I urge you then to be imitators of me”
Defining Christ as the power and wisdom of God, Paul tells us we have many guides. In fact, there are as many guides to your success as there are people in the world. Ask someone how to get a job and he will say you must know the right people. Another will tell you that you must have an education, and still another that you must join the right club or live on the right side of the street. You will be given as many directives towards your objective as there are people you ask.
Although our guides in the operation of this law are countless, as we apply it our creative power will become personalized and take on form, as it did in Paul. And when that happens there is no one to turn to but self. That is why Paul urges everyone to test himself, otherwise he will not realize that Jesus Christ is in him and fail to meet the test.
Paul tells us that the world was created by the word of God, and John says Jesus Christ is that word. (Revelation 19). Jesus Christ is he who created the world and all things within it, be they good, bad, or indifferent. And who is He? Your own wonderful Human Imagination! God’s creative power – as pure imagining – works in the depth of your soul, underlying all of your faculties, including perception. He streams into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy.
This is what I mean when I ask you to test Him. I am not in the habit of wearing a flower in my lapel when standing at the platform, but today I was thinking about asking you to hold a rose in your hand. As I did, I held a red rose in my imaginary hand and felt its soft, velvety touch. At that moment I called forth a rose which was not seen with my mortal eye but seen and felt in my Human Imagination. This evening that unseen reality became seen, as a lady came with a red rose and asked if I would wear it.
God is a protean being. It is He who is playing the part of the lady who gave me the rose I imagined.
There never was another Jesus Christ and there never will be another! He is the creator of the world and all things in it, even a simple little thing like a rose. When the lady decided to pick some roses from her garden, she had no idea she was executing a simple experiment on my part. This afternoon I held a rose in my hand, thereby calling a thing that was not seen as though it were seen; and tonight the unseen becomes seen. That’s how the world was created by the Word of God, who is the Human Imagination.
Have faith in Jesus Christ, not as some being on the outside, but as your own wonderful Human Imagination. If anyone says: “Look! There is Christ,” or: “Here he is,” don’t believe him; for Jesus Christ is the creative power of the universe and He is in you as your very thought!
Although it does not yet appear what we shall be, we know that when He appears, we will know him, for “we shall be like him.” As your father in Christ, through the gospel I teach I urge you to be imitators of me until Christ is formed in you. Then the true meaning of the fatherhood of God will be revealed, and you will know yourself to be the Father. Everyone and every living thing in the world is a part of being played by the one and only Father, who is God. The whole is contained in the feeling Father, and the world is pushed out from every Father.
Omnipresent, God is alive in you now, so I ask you to test Him. Would you like a better job? Greater income? Greater recognition?
What would you do right now if it were true?
- Now test God by thinking of a friend.
- Hear him congratulate you on your good fortune.
- See his face light up with joy and feel his presence.
Do that, and you have performed a magical act, for God has acted and all things are possible to God.
You do not have to devise the means necessary to make your imaginal act come to pass. He who thought of the friend and saw the whole thing will build a bridge of incident across which you will move to the fulfillment of that which has been done. That is Christ!
Certainly this lady is not in the habit of bringing me flowers and I never wear one on this platform, but I couldn’t help but when I saw all those lovely roses and heard her say: “I cut these from my garden today. Will you please wear one tonight?” Then she picked out a red one. I had painted that picture vividly in my mind’s eye and she played her part perfectly. So I ask you to try using your Imagination in this most simple way.
Now let me share an experience of a daughter and her mother. The daughter wrote, saying:
“While in the silence I heard the crying of a child. It was not the cry of a baby, but of the ages. It was a sound I knew would arouse man from his deep sleep and set him free to eternal joy. I have seen and heard many things in heavenly spheres, but nothing compares to the cry of this heavenly child.” Her experience reminds me of Blake’s words when he spoke of the daughters of Beulah, saying:
“They heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep. All things heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life.”
In the mother’s letter, she said: “In my dream my daughter called to say she was alone and the baby was due. As I entered her apartment, I realized it was not my daughter on the bed, but a friend. Then I realized I was holding a newborn child wrapped in a blanket and knew it was mine. The scene changed and I found myself in a hospital. My daughter appeared, saying: ‘I have gotten in touch with my father, Neville. He is coming to see me.’ Then you and I are standing looking at the child, as he smiled, displaying perfectly formed lower teeth. Looking at me you said: ‘Have you forgotten that all the children in my family are born with perfectly formed teeth?’ Then you turned and walked away.”
In the Old Testament, David cried out:
“Arise, O Lord and break the teeth of the wicked.”
And in the New Testament, those who refused to accept the doctrine of Christ wept and gnashed their teeth as the door opened and the righteous entered the kingdom of heaven.
Loving the glamour, the praise, and honors of men, man pays no attention to the invitation to enter the kingdom by applying this principle. Instead, he follows countless guides in Christ by feeling he must meet the right people and live on the right side of the tracks in order to succeed. So when the moment comes and those who abide by the gospel of Christ enter the kingdom, those who chose the countless guides will show their remorse and anguish by gnashing their teeth.
When Christ is formed in you, I will no longer be your father. I have introduced you to Him and fathered you while your faith is child-like, but when Christ is formed in you, you will know yourself to be the Father.
In the world you may think yourself wise in the language of God, but if David does not call you Father in the spirit, you do not know what you are talking about! You will never know that your Human Imagination is being formed into the likeness of God the Father until it is revealed in you. When your Imagination is completely formed, you are born from above to discover the Fatherhood of God. You will see the sacrificial cross that God crucified Himself on split from top to bottom as you ascend into the kingdom of heaven. And the Holy Spirit will descend upon you in bodily form as a dove. On that day God the Father will abide with you and all you will feel is love.
In the meantime, test Jesus Christ, God’s creative power in you as your Human Imagination! Do you want a better job? More money? Whatever you want to claim it just as simply as I did the rose. Put on the feeling of possession and wear it as though it were true right now. If it is a better job you want, where would you sit if you had it? How would your mate see you? Sit behind that special desk and let your wife (or husband) see you there. Live as though it were true and have faith in Jesus Christ, the creative power and wisdom of God.
People have personified this power and hung little icons on the wall. They cross themselves before these little things made by human hands. But God is like pure imagining in us. He works in the very depths of our soul underlying all of our faculties, including perception, and streams into our surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy.
You can catch God in the act of creating by holding a dozen roses in your arms, smelling them, and feeling their soft, velvety petals. As you fill a lovely crystal vase with water and place the roses in it, observe the stems though the crystal. Look closely and you will even see the water level in the vase. As you do this, God is streaming into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy.
Imagination is defined as spiritual sensation. Come, let us now sense spiritual things that are not physically present. Right now I want you to feel a tennis ball, then a baseball, a volleyball, and a golf ball. They all feel different, do they not? If you can discriminate between these different balls, are they not real? If you can touch a tennis ball and spiritually distinguish it from a baseball, it must exist, even though it is unseen by mortal eye.
So you see: you can behold a thing that is not seen by the mortal eye as though it were, and if you do your faith in Jesus Christ will cause the unseen to become seen.
Jesus Christ is contemporary, not some being who lived two thousand years ago. God Himself came and comes into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. As your Human Imagination, He is your very being. If all things are made by Him and you can trace the origin of an event to its imaginal act, you have found Him.
All things were made by the Human Imagination and without Him was not anything made that was made. If during the day you imagine unlovely things, they are going to happen! The world believes that Jesus Christ is another, but the great Hebrew confession of faith tells us:
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
There is only one creator. It is the Human Imagination who kills and makes things alive, wounds and heals. Whether you use or misuse your creative power, the same being will bring it to pass. So if you desire lovely things, you must imagine lovely thoughts. Your friends are your own lack or limitation made visible. Like Job, pray for your friends and your own fears will be lifted.
In Hebrew, the words for faith are “amen” and “emet”. In the 3rd chapter of Revelation, God’s creative power is called “the Amen”: “These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness.” And in the 1st chapter of 2 Corinthians we are told that all the promises of God find their fulfillment in the Amen. “That is why we declare the Amen through him.”
The God in you and in me is He who made these promises. As a physical man called Neville, I can do nothing, but I can do anything that I imagine! Imagining a thing and thinking it is done is saying amen in the belief that, because I imagined it, it must come to pass. How it will happen, I do not know. I only know it will, just as the rose appeared this evening.
I ask you to test your creative power every moment of time. Live with absolute faith in Jesus Christ. He is a person because you are a person. As you imagine a state, the creative power of the world will bring it into reality. Claim a glorious future for yourself by making the future the present. Have your friends congratulate you on your good fortune now, and have faith in Jesus Christ, knowing he is your Own Wonderful Human Imagination!
Now let us go into the silence.
