If I tell you that you have forgotten who you are, that travelers from Eternity pass into bodies of flesh and blood and forgetfulness, travelers to Eternity pass to the Father, and remember. Now, this is exactly what is going to happen to you one day.
WHO AM I? : Neville Goddard – 15th July 1968
You’ll find this an interesting series, for so much has happened since we were here a year and almost 10 months ago, so we have to incorporate all the things that have happened, those I’ve met across the country, and those who come to the lectures in L.A.
Tonight’s subject is: Who am I? That is the eternal question. If I told you who you really are, you wouldn’t believe me; but I will tell you how you’ll know one day that you really are the Being that I am going to tell you that you are. If I tell you now that you are the Lord Jesus Christ, you would not believe me, and you would think that I am blaspheming; and yet I am telling you the truth. There’s only one way you will ever know it, and there is only one way another will know it of you.
In the 16th chapter of the book of Matthew, a question is asked, “Who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others Elias, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets of old.’ And he said unto them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:13-16)
He accepts the confession of Peter, but warns not to say it or to express it to another until he has first re-interpreted this popular concept of Messiah in terms of his own experience; but he said to Peter –
“Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, He has revealed it.” (Matthew 16:17)
No man can tell you, to persuade you, that you are. I could stand here from now to the end of time, and you are not convinced; but I’ll tell you this night how you will one day be convinced. There’s only one way you will ever know you are Christ Jesus, who is God the Father, and that is through His son David, who will call you, “Father.”
There is a poem by Browning; he calls it “Saul.” It’s based upon the First Book of Samuel, the 16th chapter, the 14th through the 23rd verses; and in this, Saul is laid low with an evil spirit, and David restores him to health by playing and singing to him. Then David becomes a prophet, and prophecies the coming of Messiah; and then he says to Saul:
Oh, Saul, it shall be A face like my face that shall receive thee;
A Man like to me Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever;
A Hand like this hand Shalt throw open the gates of new life to thee!
See the Christ stand!
[End of Stanza 23, from “Saul” by Robert Browning]
He paints a word picture of the one Being that is going to reveal to a man who has lost his mind – for Saul had lost his mind, and did not know who he was.
This very moment, if you know a family – I am one of a very large family: nine brothers and one sister. If one of my brothers this very moment became the victim of total amnesia, and the rest of us stand in front of him and try to persuade him that he is our brother, he’s not persuaded. If I brought all of my friends who know him intimately and tried to convince him that he is of a certain family, of a certain identity, you could not persuade him.
If I tell you that you have forgotten who you are, that travelers from Eternity pass into bodies of flesh and blood and forgetfulness, travelers to Eternity pass to the Father, and remember. Now, this is exactly what is going to happen to you one day. In my audience in L.A., as of today, there are over twelve who have had the experience.
One day an explosion will take place within your head and when the whole thing settles, as it were, standing before you will be David of Biblical fame; and there’s no uncertainty as to the relationship. You will know that David is your son and he will know that you are his father, in fulfillment of Scripture – the Second Psalm.
“I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day I have begotten thee.” (Psalm 2:7)
You will never know that God gave Himself to you in any other way than the one way, when His Son calls you “Father.” When he calls you “Father,” you will know who you are. And then you could tell it for the rest of Eternity, and no one will be convinced until they have this experience concerning you.
Now I tell you, there’s only one body; that body is the Lord Jesus Christ.
“There’s only one spirit; there’s only one hope, only one lord, only one faith, only one baptism, only one God, Who is the Father of us all, Who is through all, above all, and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
This is how you will know that the man who dares to claim it really is what he claims. Now, let me give you the experience of two ladies from L.A. I know what I have experienced. I could write it, as I have; I tell it to others, not convincingly because it seems, as I told you earlier – it seems blasphemous, for you and I have been trained from infancy that a man who lived two thousand years ago was the Christ, and only the Christ, and no one else is Christ – in spite of Scripture that tells us, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (II Corinthians 13:5, RSV)
If you are perfectly honest with yourself, you will say, “No, I don’t know it at all”; but read it in the 13th chapter of II Corinthians, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” And he who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord, and that he shall change our lowly bodies to be of one form with His glorious body?
Well, now, here are the two experiences: A lady finds herself in a large interior; the entire front is glass. There are marble columns, and it’s very sparsely furnished. There is but one chair, and she finds herself seated in it.
Looking through the glass, she sees a carriage – self-propelled – come into view. A door opens automatically and out steps from this door the speaker dressed in normal clothes, wearing an Inverness cape. I came into the place where she was. I ignored her; I showed no recognition of her, but began to speak on “Power” – Infinite Power.
And she looked, and she said, “Why, this is Neville, but it is God – It is Neville, and he is God!” and she kept on repeating this.
Then I came to the end. I still did not recognize her; I paid no attention to her – just proclaiming Power. Then she said as though by appointment the carriage came into view once more. I turned and re-entered this carriage and vanished. The whole thing vanished. It was sheer power.
When I was sent to do the work I am doing, it was Power who commanded me. I was first embraced by Infinite Love, and I fused with him; but while I’m one with Love – and it’s Man, the Risen Lord – I was taken before a being who was Infinite Power. Now, you might think it’s another being – no, God plays all the parts. God is a Protean being, like Proteus, the legendary sea god in the service of Neptune: he could assume any shape, any form – any body in the service of the One who sent him.
So Infinite Power is the same being who is Infinite Love and we are told in Scripture that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, in seeing me speaking only of Power, and Infinite Power, she knew who I was. I could tell her from now to the end of time, I could not persuade her. She would have to have it shown to her by the only Being that could show it, and that is God. For God speaks to man through the medium of dreams, but He reveals Himself through the medium of vision, as told us in the 12th chapter of the book of Numbers. So, had she not had the vision herself, I could go from now throughout time, and I could not really persuade her of the truth of what I’m talking about.
Then another lady said, “I came upon a scene. It was an enormous scene, and every type of person was present – all different nationalities; and strangely enough, they heard you in the tongue wherein they were born. And you are simply standing, not in the water, but standing on the beach; but at your back was an infinite body of water – a huge lake, but you saw no shoreline. And there you were, clothed in a white robe, and you were speaking to the entire crowd.
I knew you were Neville, and yet at the same time I knew you were Jesus! And there was no uncertainty in my mind. I knew, ‘This is Neville’ and I also knew, ‘That is Jesus’.”
Now, that seems insane, but I know from experience every one in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s only one body. You do not lose your identity.
You remain what you are. You are John, you are Mary, you are Peter; you remain the individualized being that you are, and yet you are Jesus! Yet, you are God! And every one is destined to be all God. There’s no room in Eternity for two gods – no room in Eternity for another. But you and I, separated from God the Father, in the sense only of losing memory as to who we really are, that is the separation.
If this very moment I cannot remember who I am, I haven’t gone any place, but I certainly am separated from the being that I knew myself to be. So, when I say that we are separated from God, I mean it in that sense.
So, separation from God is at once a tragedy and a triumph. It’s the “Fall,” and yet it is the beginning of a new creation. And this separation, which is now incarnation – and complete incarnation is essential to individuality – a complete incarnation which will now entail complete forgetfulness of the Being that I am when I drink that “cup of forgetfulness.”
He said, “Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given to me?” (John 48:11, RSV) The drinking of the cup is forgetting who I am, and believing that I am a little being of flesh and blood.
Every one came out from the Father. He said, “I came out from the Father, and I came into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” (John 16:28, RSV)
So, coming out from the Father is simply forgetting the Being that I am, and believing myself to be this fragmented being, seeing billions of us, and I am now at war with my fragmented self, not knowing that everyone I meet is my very Self “pushed out.” There is no other.
Until this experience happens in man – when it happens in a man, he does not go and shout it from the housetops, he tells it to an intimate circle. And in that small circle, still only a very few will ever really know it – those who have had the experience of meeting him in an entirely different world, for this drama is not secular. This drama of Scripture is a supernatural drama. There is no secular history in Scripture; the whole thing unfolds within the depths of the soul of man and everyone is destined to have this experience.
When the question is asked: Who am I? You cannot ask it of anyone, save to one like a Peter; but Peter has the revelation, not from a book, not from reasoning. He didn’t sit down to rationalize the picture. It was unveiled to him from within him. So the voice said: Flesh and blood could not have told you this, but my Father who is in heaven – and Heaven is within you – has revealed it (Matthew 16:17, paraphrase) – has unveiled it in a way that you saw the truth of what you now declare. So I accept your confession.
But now, then, let me re-interpret this concept that man holds concerning Messiah. It’s a false concept. They expect Him to come from without; and He never comes from without – He comes from within. And He comes so suddenly that no one is prepared for Him. It comes “out of the blue,” as we are told in Scripture: “just like a thief in the night” (I Thessalonians 5:2). When He comes, no one is expecting Him.
I know, in my own case, these four major things in my life were certainly not expected.
The first, one night in this city, and that was the birth from above. Now, we speak, and we are told in Scripture: “Unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, KJV) Well, I had no concept – none whatsoever – that that birth was literally true. I thought that was simply a figure of speech: that I, a big man, grown man, the father of children – and I must be born again?
Well, I acted like Nicodemus: How is this thing possible? How can I, a man – a natural man – enter once more into my mother’s womb and be born; when at the time that I was reborn, right in this city (San Francisco) my mother was gone from this sphere. Now, how could it be?
I didn’t realize that day, which was in 1959, that that drama was literally true until, within me, the whole thing began to unfold – when my whole head became the most intense vibration, and I found myself awaking – awaking from a long, long sleep. And where did I awake? I awoke within my skull.
My skull was a tomb, and it’s sealed; and then I came out of it like a child coming out of the womb of a woman, and then the entire drama of Scripture confronts me.
Here the wind, as told us in the 3rd chapter of the book of John, when he tells Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” And that word translated “again” is the Greek word “an-o-then,” which means “from above,” – that is, from God, – literally from above; not from the womb of woman below, but from the Womb of God above, which is the skull of man.
That’s where the Real Man began to dream this strange, peculiar dream of mine. And that’s where man will awaken. And out of that tomb man will come.
So, he awakes, and awakening is the Resurrection. He awakes from the long, long sleep; it was so profound, it seemed like the sleep of death – for you are in a tomb, and you know it’s a tomb, yet you know it’s your skull. And out you come!
Then the wind – a peculiar, unearthly wind – you feel it and you hear it. Your attention is diverted from that body from which you’ve just emerged. You are only diverted for a matter of seconds and when you look back, the body is gone, in fulfillment of Scripture. “Where have they taken the body?” (John 20:15) The body’s gone! But in its place you’ll find three men.
In my case, they were my three older brothers. There they were where the body had formerly – just a few seconds ago – lay. They, too, are disturbed by the wind and one, who is now gone from this world, arose and started toward what he thought was the cause of the disturbance. He took not more than a couple of steps when something attracted his attention on the floor and, looking down –
“Why,” he said, “it’s Neville’s baby!”
My other two brothers said,
“How can Neville have a baby?”
With this, he doesn’t argue the point; he lifts the evidence. He lifts a little child wrapped in swaddling clothes and puts it on the bed; and then I lift the little infant, and in the most endearing terms I said,
“How is my sweetheart?”
The child had the most heavenly smile. As it broke into this smile, the whole scene dissolved. That was the first of the major acts. Then came the other three mighty acts to complete the four sides of man.
So, I know from my own personal experience – I am not theorizing – what is in store for every child born of woman. It doesn’t even matter if those that you know beyond the veil do not have this experience. They’re not dead! Nothing dies in God’s Kingdom. They are restored to life – instantly restored. That I do know from my own experience. No reincarnation, — they are restored; and they are young and new – same bodies in a world terrestrial, just like this, and unaccountably new – I can’t describe it.
How can someone drop at the age of 90, withered and shrunken, in pain; and when you see them, within a matter of moments, they are only 20 years old? They are not little babies. They are young – unaccountably new. No limb is missing. If they had a limb missing, it isn’t missing. If they had hair missing, teeth missing, legs missing, it is not missing. If they were blind, they are not blind. The body is restored – but not resurrected.
Resurrection differs completely from restoration. All bodies are restored. It’s a miracle. And the Being is still continuing in a world just like this. Those who are resurrected do not enter that world. They are in Heaven. They are one with the body of the Risen Christ – without loss of identity. And every one who is restored – and all are restored – they continue in a world just like this one, with the same problems. They marry there, too, and they are just as afraid of dying there as they are here; and they die there too, to be restored again. And this restoration goes on until they awake in the tomb of their own skull, and when they have the birth from above.
So, who am I? The very one spoken of in Scripture. You ask that question, “Who am I?” And the answer is: I am the Lord Jesus Christ! But you don’t know it really until you experience it. But I promise you; you will experience it. Not one can fail for the simple reason it’s God, and God alone, who is playing the part. He is playing all of the parts.
So when David comes into your world, there is no other way that you will ever know that you really are the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, listen to the words carefully. No one asked him the question. The Sadducees, who are called the scientists of his day – they did not believe in the Resurrection; so they said to him, to trip him up:
“Master, Moses said that in the resurrection a man’s wife” –
First of all, he paints the picture. He said Moses said if a man is married and dies leaving no offspring and he has brothers, then the second should marry the widow to raise up offspring for his brother. Well, there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no offspring, and the second took her. He died, leaving no offspring, and the third took her. Finally all married; all died, leaving no offspring, and then she died. Now, tell me, whose wife is she in the resurrection? And he answered –
“You do not know Scripture, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are they given in marriage. Those who are accounted worthy to attain to that Age, they neither marry nor are they given in marriage, for they are sons of the resurrection. They are sons of God, and the Son of God is one with God, for I and my Father are one. But those who have not attained to that Age, they continue marrying, and they are given in marriage.” (Luke 20:28-36, RSV)
So, here is an entirely different concept from what is taught concerning what is your future. Your real future is Jesus Christ. There is no other body. There is no other spirit, one being, fragmented.
Now, see how it was told us in the Old Testament. It’s the 82nd Psalm.
“And God had taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods He holds judgment. And I say, ‘Ye are gods, all of you – sons of the Most High.’ Nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O ye princes.” (Psalm 82:1, 6, 7)
It is said by scholars that this is the most difficult passage in the entire Bible to understand; that if at one time the ideas were perennial, they no longer are understood by the scholars of the world because it can only be known through vision. One man – now listen to the words: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4) Therefore, who fell? The One Man. He fell for a purpose – nothing wrong. Not a thing was wrong in that Fall!
If I put you in garments of passion, as you are – these are all garments of the animal world, filled to overflowing with passion – and then I tell you under threat of death you must not entertain one concupiscent thought, you never convicted me. If you tell me the result of my concupiscence is death – well, then I must die.
But nevertheless, “I say, ‘Ye are gods . . .’ and you are going to die like men. You will fall as one man, O ye princes.” (Psalm 82:6, 7)
So, the One Man is scattered, like a rock being broken and fragmented. And every one now is to be gathered together in the same One Being – one body, but glorified by reason of the experience.
Well, now, Scripture tells us, I didn’t do wrong in the Fall. Our priesthoods tell us that we did wrong. Well, then, listen to these words:
If disobedience drove me out from the Father and caused me to lose the identity of my own being, which is Jesus Christ, and believe myself to be a little animal, then what are these words doing in scripture from the 11th chapter of the book of Romans:
“God has consigned all men to disobedience, that He may have mercy upon all.” (Romans 11:32, Moffatt’s translation)
So, if disobedience drove me out, the cause of my disobedience was the One who clothed me this garment of skin, for He put me in an animal body, and then threatened me with death if I entertained a concupiscent thought. Well, how could I help it? What man in this world, if he has any red blood in him and is healthy, could have helped it? Even if you went to the extreme and emasculated yourself, you still would entertain the thought. If you are impotent, the thought is still there. While the energy is turned down into generation, you cannot help it.
When the curtain of your body is torn in two from top to bottom, and then the energies are reversed into regeneration, you can take all the world and expose them in the nude before you, and there is no desire. You couldn’t entertain a concupiscent thought. But until that moment – when you are turned down into generation, then you are condemned to death by reason of the fact He Who first told me I must not eat of this is the One who said to me He made me disobedient. “For he consigned all men – consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” (Romans 11:32)
So, in the end, all return – all are forgiven, and everything is perfect. Man, when he’s down, can’t believe that. He wants to punish; he wants to hurt; but then you’ve never stood in the presence of Infinite Love. You cannot be in the presence of the Risen Christ and feel any emotion but Love. It’s impossible to feel anything but love, and you are looking right into the face of the Risen Christ.
He asks a very simple question:
“What is the greatest thing in the world?”
And automatically, as though you were divinely prompted, you answer:
“Faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of all these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13, RSV)
At that moment, He embraces you, and you fuse, and you become one with the Risen Lord. And he who is united with the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
Are we not told: “If I have been crucified with Him in a death like His, I shall certainly be one with Him in a resurrection like His”? (Romans 6:5)
So, the Crucifixion is over for all of us. The Resurrection is taking place, one after one, after one; and not one will fail. So, all have once been crucified with Christ – every one.
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4)
So, His Crucifixion was our crucifixion.
Now the Resurrection has started; and one after the other, He is being awakened within the tomb of their own skull, and the drama unfolds within them, and out they come. So, in the end you shall only be the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when you are told in Scripture they saw the law personified, they saw the prophets personified in Moses and Elisha; here is Jesus transfigured before them. And when their eyes were opened, it was Jesus only; for Divine Mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus – only that one body. And yet, you do not lose your identity; but those who have the vision will see you and know you, but still know that you are Jesus. They will know you, and still know that you are God and the Power of God.
“And Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (I Corinthians 1:24)
So, this question is not something that man can answer. Flesh and blood cannot tell you that you are Jesus Christ.
I could stand here and use every argument in the book, but you will still be un-persuaded. You will go out saying, “That man is either insane or it’s sheer blasphemy,” for it’s in conflict with what the churches have taught you.
But I am not speculating, I am not theorizing; I speak from experience. I tell you what I know from my own personal experience. I did not read it in a book, I was not taught it by a man. It simply came by a revelation of Jesus Christ in the same manner that you read it in the very first chapter of the book of Galatians.
“And Paul said, I did not receive it from a man; neither was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:12)
And he tells you, there is no other doctrine, and he made this claim in a statement of Scripture before the Four Gospels were written. In fact, it was not only written before the Four were, but it was an already established school of thought. The earliest book in the New Testament is Paul’s Letter to the Galatians; and no one dates it later than 52 A.D., and yet our Gospels go anywhere from 70 A.D. up to 95 A.D.
So, a generation after Paul’s letter appeared instructing the Galatians – and then came his Thessalonians, and then came his Corinthians; and these all predated the Gospels. So, I know that the story of Jesus Christ is the story of every child born of woman; that we all fall together, and all will rise in our own good time. He calls us, one by one by one.
In the meantime, He tries us in the “furnaces of affliction,” as we are told in Isaiah:
“I try you in the furnaces of affliction. For my own sake I do it. For my own sake I do it, for how should my glory be given to another? I will not give my glory to another.” (Isaiah 48:10)
You have to become Him to receive His glory.
And the day will come that we will take off these garments of flesh and blood and put on the body of glory, which is yours. You took it off for this experience, and you came out of Heaven to have this experience. You’ve had it, and you’ll return glorified. And that’s how The Infinite Being expands.
There is no limit to translucence, to expansion; there is only a limit to contraction, and man is the limit of contraction. Man is the limit of opacity, but the day will come that you will break the shell; and then you will add to the glory of the Body of God; for your glory adds to that glory, and it all expands and expands beyond measure.
Now, this may be a little different from what you had last year, or even in previous years; but this is based upon the experience of the last year and ten months. Not my own personal experience, for they go back to 1959, but I mean this confirmation from those in the audience.
Now, a lady will have the experience in this manner: She will follow the pattern, not of Abraham, but she will follow the pattern of Sarah. And Sarah was too old to have a child, for it is said of Sarah: “It has ceased to be with her after the manner of women” (Genesis 18:11). In other words, she would be incapable of conceiving a child and carrying it to fruition, as you’ll read it in the book of Genesis. So, a lady has it in this manner. I could give you a dozen from my audience in L.A.; we will take one.
She has two brothers. She hasn’t seen these brothers in forty-odd years. She has a landlord, whom she looks upon as a younger brother. She was away from home one night, a thing she rarely does unless she leaves the city; but she was in the city and someone was distressed and asked her to “please sleep here tonight.” But she said, “I’ve got to go home first of all and tell my neighbors where I am because they depend upon me. They are elderly ladies.”
She said, “All right, but do promise me that you’ll come back.” So she did. She said, “I’m in a strange home with a strange person in a strange atmosphere, and here I am in the wee hours of the morning, when I feel this peculiar breeze and vibration in my head. It increases in intensity.
When it reaches the apex of intensity, suddenly here come my two brothers that I haven’t seen in over forty years, and my landlord. My oldest brother said, ‘but she is too old to have a baby.’”
Well, they all agreed, but he picked up the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and put it in his sister’s arms.
Now, this lady is 77 years old – a retired schoolteacher of L.A. It comes in her case as it comes to Sarah – too old to have a child, but this is not a physical child. This is a supernatural experience. So, she heard the words: “But she is too old to have a child” when the infant was raised from the floor and put into her hands.
After that, she found herself in a canyon where she lives. Unlike my experience, she’s in a canyon – the rugged side of a canyon; and here comes this blond, blue-eyed lad. And said, “I did not have to ask him, “Whose son are you my lad?” I knew he was my son, and I knew he was David of Biblical fame.”
She’s had every experience but the dove, and that takes nine months and two years after the third mighty one. She will have it, because she’s had the first three.
So, a man differs in this work from a woman. She takes the pattern of Sarah and he takes the pattern of Abraham – but the identical picture as related in Scripture.
So, you dwell upon it tonight, even though you cannot completely accept it. You dwell upon it: Who Am I? Is he telling the truth? Does Neville know what he is talking about? Has he really had these experiences? Ask – just ask, and see if you cannot get from within yourself an answer to the truth of what I am talking about. I tell you; the answer will come. In some strange way, God will answer, for God is not a being afar off. God is within you. He is never so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation.
God cannot even be near me. Why? Because His name He gave to me. Well, what’s His name? I Am. Can you find anything that even is – well, you can’t say “I am near”; it’s the One; it’s the root, it’s the very center of your being.
My hand is near, my head is near; my friends are near. But I can’t say, “I am,” and entertain this word “near.” And I Am is the name of God forever. If “I Am” is His name forever, well, then, He cannot be far off. In fact, He cannot be even so far off as to be near, for nearness implies separation. That is who you really are; and that Being which is “I Am” – that’s God! That’s the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when He asks: “Who do you say I am?” – he could have said, “You are the Power of God,” for the word “Christ” is defined in Corinthians as the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.
One day you will have the experience, and you will see someone who has made the claim – without boasting; and you will come upon a scene, and the scene will unveil itself before you, and you will know her claim, or his claim, is a true claim, for you will know him to be Jesus, or know her to be Jesus, and you still will not think it is not the being you know. There is no loss of identity, and yet – Jesus. And you come back to your waking state here, and there is no uncertainty in your mind as to what you’ve experienced. And who did it? God-within-you did it. God unveils Himself within you.
Now, let us go into the Silence for a moment, and then have questions and answers.
Question: At the beginning of your talk, Neville, you said there is only one Spirit. At the present time there are a lot of books coming into the bookstores about necromancy and sorcery and witchcraft, and so forth. With what are these people who deal in the black arts dealing, if there is only one Spirit?
Neville: There is only one Spirit. Read Ephesians: “… one body, …” It starts with the body first: “. . . one body, one spirit, one hope, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, Who is above all, through all and in all,” as told us in Ephesians. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Don’t get away from the oneness of God. The foundation of the whole faith begins with that Shema, or the confession of the Hebrews: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6-4) You can’t get away from that.
When Jesus was asked to name the greatest of all the Commandments, he did not mention what we call the Ten. He quoted this Commandment: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” It’s a compound Unity – one made up of the many. That’s what the word means. The word “Elohim” is a plural word, and it’s one; but, yet, being plural, it’s made up of many. There are billions of us, but we are all part of that One Body. That One Body fell. That One Body shall rise, taking with it all, but in its own good time, into the new living Temple.
I don’t care what books come out. Many a person thinks because something is printed, it is true; but nothing could be more false than that. The morning paper that comes out – that’s printed. Is it true? Nothing but violence and publicity. I have a scheme I want to put over, and so I get with my press agents and they write all the lies in the world; and the paper prints it, and you read. And because you read it in the paper, it must be true. Well, nothing could be further from the truth! But because imagining creates reality, it will prove itself in performance – and God allows it! There’s nothing but God.
Question: When we have attained resurrection, do we still have to return?
Neville: You do not. After resurrection, you do not find yourself restored to life; you are one with the Body of God. It will come to every one, or one part of God would be lost, and that is impossible. He said, “It is not your Father’s will that one be lost” (Matthew 18:14, Moffatt’s translation)
Question: The Parable of the Sower would tend to make us think that some will be, because it says that some fell upon rocky ground and some fell in thorn.
Neville: All right. It’s happening right here tonight. There’s rocky ground here tonight. They’ll go through that door and say, “That man is nuts.” That’s rocky ground. Then there are those who will say, “Well, you know, I’d like to believe it, and I think I’ll try it.” Well, that’s among the thorns. They go out all enthusiastic, but the cares of the day will choke it; and then there are those not prepared for the revelation, and so that will be choked, but there are those present who will receive it and will bear thirty-fold, fifty-fold, a hundred-fold.
But every moment of time when this revelation is said, there are always those four grounds on which it falls.
Question: Just what does the resurrectee do?
Neville: What does he do? He’s part of the Body of God. He’s the creative power of the universe, without loss of identity. No loss of identity – that’s one thing I must assure every person who listens to me. You are not absorbed, and yet it’s one body. She saw me on the beach. She’s not alone; the other one saw me in the interior, and these two are not alone. Dozens find me on the outside at night beyond the world of dreams doing this work, teaching the Word of God, and they know the teacher is Neville, but they also know that he’s Jesus, and they also know that he is the Power of God; and some know he is God! And, yet, they all know I’m Neville. Yet, in this world, I’m as weak, I’m as limited and as fragile as the next. You take upon yourself the weaknesses of the flesh to reach those who are in the flesh.
Question: You say, “Beyond the world of dreams.” Exactly what do you mean?
Neville: Oh, there’s a world beyond the world of dreams, and that is where the real work is done.
Question: What is the world of dreams?
Neville: The world of dreams? Well, really, to be brutally frank, you are right now in the world of dreams. This is a dream – a nightmare. This is a dream. God Himself enters death’s door with every one who enters, and He lays down in the grave with them in visions of Eternity until they awake and see Jesus, and the living clothes lying there that the female has woven for them; and the living clothes are just a figure of speech. This is the living clothes (referring to the body) that the female – my mother – wove for me, and when I take it off after I awake, that’s the linen cloth, and I can’t take it off until I am He, for Jesus is the one who resurrects; He is the resurrecting one.
Question: I consider myself fragmented as of now because I haven’t had that experience (remainder of question inaudible on the tape).
Neville: Can you divide “I Am”?
Questioner: No; but I mean at this time, since I haven’t had that experience.
Neville: Well, it doesn’t really matter.
Questioner: It doesn’t matter?
Neville: As you are seated here, my dear, you say, “I am,” don’t you? Well, it cannot be divided, for that’s the unity of which I speak. That is God.
Questioner: Even now, before that experience –
Neville: Before that experience, you can claim, “I am He.” You are told that if you do not claim, “I am He,” you will die in your sins. (John 8:24) You are passing the buck to some other person to do it.
Questioner: Oh, do it right now?
Neville: Why, certainly! You don’t resurrect right now. That comes in its own good time; but you exercise the power of God right now, for the power of God is your own wonderful, human I-Amness. That’s God! So, when you say, “I am beaten” – all right, that’s the power of God, and you’ll be beaten. When you say, “I am wounded,” that’s the power of God, and you will be wounded; but if in the face of all things, you say, “I am wanted. I am contributing to the world’s good,” in spite of the absence of all evidence to the contrary, you will contribute and you will be wanted, for you are using the power of God.
Questioner: Right now?
Neville: Right now! You’ve got to use the power of God. There’s only God’s power. When you speak of the devil, what devil? Listen to the words of Scripture in Deuteronomy: “I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal . . . I raise my hand to heaven and cry, I live forever. There is no god beside me.” (Deuteronomy 32:39) The same one that kills is the one that makes alive. The one that blesses is the one that curses. So, man is the operant power, and he has to operate it. God became man, that man may become God.
Question: But most of us have put everything in the future. When, in the future, are we…
Neville: But “I Am” is not future. “I Am” is present. He didn’t say, “I was God”
“I am the Lord.” There’s no past and future; it is simply “I ” So, use the power now.
Any other questions, please?
Question: I can’t understand why I would – when I would be enjoying a sense of heaven, heavenly being – why I would choose to dream up this kind of a stupid experience.
Neville: Did you hear the question? It’s an interesting question. But, may I tell you, my dear, this is not stupid, a stupid experience. This was a plan. This is not something that is the result of some emergency thinking on the part of God. This was planned in the beginning of time. “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4)
Question: Well, why?
Neville: Why? To expand. If God was finished forever and forever, and could not expand, then He’s a finite god. He has to reach the limit of contraction to break it. He has to die to prove that He really lives. And, so, this is a constant wonderful challenge forever. Just imagine the joy when we all awake, and the whole thing seems to be the most frightening thing in the beginning. But we had faith, like Abraham – faith in God that He could die and still not die. And, so the power that comes as an increase of power and an increase of wisdom, an increase of luminosity – don’t let any one tell you God is a finished product.
Truth is an ever-increasing illumination.
Question: Why did the Kennedy’s have to suffer? They lost two boys –
Neville: My dear, I wouldn’t say the boys suffered. The family left behind grieves, yes. We do not ever recognize our own hearts. No one knows the thought of a man, but the spirit of man who dwells in him. Likewise, no man knows the thoughts of God, but the Spirit of God who dwells in Him. Who knows what thought those boys entertained? The three of them were killed violently, and so was a sister. Joseph was killed in the war. His sister was killed, her husband was killed, and these two boys were assassinated. Who knows what thoughts they entertained? To be dramatic, I do not know. In other words, everything was done when the first was assassinated to identify his name with Lincoln – the same feeling – not McKinley, but he was assassinated too. But they tried to make it a Lincoln fiction, to set it for the future, and they’ve done it. So, if you want glory on earth, they certainly have it. They have it if you want it on earth; but all the things of earth will vanish, and leave not a trace behind them. Everything here is going to pass away as though it never were; and all will awaken.
Now, here, I say you cannot violate Scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me. David is described in the 16th chapter of First Samuel as a blonde lad; he’s described as ruddy – ruddy with beautiful eyes, implying blue, blue, wonderful eyes and a ruddy complexion. (1st Samuel 16:12) In my audience the blackest man I personally have ever seen – and I was born among black people on Barbados – and we have them blue-black in Barbados; but Benny is the blackest man I have ever seen.
Benny is the father of David, and he knows it. Benny has had the experience of the birth from above. And what was the child? A little babe – a little rosy-cheeked baby son. It would be impossible for Benny to marry the blondest woman in this world and produce a light child – I’m telling you, he’s so black! You have never seen any one as black as Benny – Benny Gould, a big, strong, strapping fellow. He’s had the “birth from above,” and that child that was placed in his arms is a little blonde, blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked child. It’s the Christ Child. The Christ Child is the child, and David is a blonde, and Benny – he doesn’t object to my using him as an example to prove that we are not black or yellow or pink or white. We are spirit. But God is a protean being, and the same God that plays the part of Neville plays the part of Benny, for Benny says, “I am” – that’s God; and I say, “I am” – that’s God. Look at each other, and I can’t see how we could come out of the same parents. And we don’t come out; we are the parents! We are the parents.
Inaudible Question:
Neville: My dear, God didn’t will it, but God gives man complete freedom of choice. Listen to these words: “I set before you this day life and death, blessings and curses, good and evil. Choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:15) It’s entirely up to man. If I were not free in my choice, I were a puppet. If I had to be good, I’m no good! But give me choice, and let me make mistakes.
Man will not recognize his own harvest. It couldn’t happen without a cause, and the cause is in the imagination of man. Imagination creates everything. That’s God-in-man!
So, if I want to make a fortune, and I have the means, and that is to sell guns – well, what’s happening now? What a lobby, that when two hundred million people really want laws that will protect the neighborhood! I have to register my car. Why can’t I register a gun? They don’t say I can’t have a gun. They say you’ll have the gun as you have a car, but there must be a license for it, and a renewal year after year; so if they come into my house and I can’t produce that license – well, then, they will question me: Was it stolen? Did I see it? Did I give it away?
I must keep track of that thing that I bought with a license; and, yet, after this whole thing that has happened in our world – there were three: Martin Luther King and the two Kennedy’s; and the demand of the entire nation is to have a license. Other countries have it, but we still say, No. What a fantastic lobby to get to these people who are the lawmakers!
Well, if he insists on doing it, he’ll do it. You can’t stop a man from imagining. Put me in jail and throw away the key, but you can’t stop me from imagining. And who knows who is “treading the winepress”? (Nehemiah 13:15) It could be some woman in jail who is thinking that she is injured, that she is not entitled to that treatment; and she is carrying on in her mind’s eye the most dramatic scenes – and they aren’t love scenes! These are all seeds that are being planted; and when the seeds come up for recognition, we don’t even recognize our own harvest.
Well, I think the time is just about up. I’ll take one more.
Question: I remember a passage which says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) What does it mean by “my words”?
Neville: He is the word. The written word must be matched by the Living Word. Scripture must be fulfilled in me; so I come as the Living Word. If I am the Living Word, then what takes place in me must parallel what God wrote through His Promise in the written word.
Inaudible Question:
Neville: Discriminate. Heaven is simply the final unity of humanity with God, because that one Body, wherever God is, that’s harmonious. That is Heaven. Heaven is harmony. So, wherever that Body is, there is no conflict. That’s infinite creative power and wisdom and love; so union with that Body is heaven. So, Heaven is really the final union of humanity with God. And there is only God. There is nothing but God. So, all things will pass away, but God cannot pass away; and He redeems us, one by one by one. Where? In His own Body.
Whose body is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. So, when a man says, “Well, now, I’m a very wise person. I have a PhD, and I have all these degrees, and so and so, and I don’t believe one word of what you say,” it’s perfectly all right.
Then they will say I am an atheist. Do you know what the Bible calls an atheist? He can be the wisest thing among men, but read the 53rd Psalm: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” – only the fool; so what he calls “the fool” is in the eyes of God wiser than what he is in the eyes of God. He has to go through so many furnaces to burn off the nonsense he’s acquired in the world of men. All these are “furnaces through which we go. The loss of a child, — that’s a furnace. A broken friendship, — that’s a furnace. All these emotional conflicts – these are furnaces. They are not furnaces where you walk through actual fire. These are the fires, and they linger and burn; and so all these are the fires of earth that I’m put through; and in the end, it’s Infinite Mercy redeemed. I didn’t acquire it. Let no one brag, let no one boast.
No one can, by acquiring merit, earn the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s Grace, Grace – Grace – Grace, and still, more Grace! And, so, my fitness for the Kingdom is not the consequence of what I did; it’s not the result of it.
It’s because God so loved me, He just simply picked me up. With all of my nonsense – with all of my weaknesses, He picked me up at that moment in Time, with unclear hands – unclean all over; but as I fused with Him, I was made clean.
Inaudible Question:
Neville: No, it’s not a God out there, but I’ve got to convey between two people who seemingly – you seem to be “out there.” I’m speaking of one God all the time, but I repeat again, as I said earlier; God is a protean being. A dream is an analogy of it. In my dream there are a thousand characters that occur in my dream. I conjure them all, and I am the being playing all the parts because I am a protean being. Yet, in the dream I run from myself, scare myself to death – until one day you wake up to realize that it’s all yourself “pushed out.” This whole vast world is the dream of God.
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