Showing results by author "Neville Goddard" in All Categories

You will find tonight very practical, and yet I assure you, very, very spiritual. Christianity has to be continually redeemed from secular history, for Jesus Christ is the human imagination. As Paul tells us in his first Letter to the Corinthians: "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed upon us by God."

Start tonight. Feel yourself into your desired state of consciousness. What would you be conscious of feeling if the world reflected your desire right now? I encourage you to use feeling, just as Isaac did in his story. As Isaac, you cannot see your desire as objective to yourself. It is Jacob, smooth-skinned and with no external reality while this objective world is Esau. You must clothe Jacob with such external qualities that he will feel objectively real to you.

I am quite sure you are going to find this an interesting series. Tonight it is "The Law of the Identical Harvest." In the very beginning, God established the Law of the Identical Harvest. And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: Plants bearing seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and it was so." (Genesis 1:24)

The dream of life unfolds on this level, as well as on a higher one. On this level we see things happen and are given reasons for wars and revolutions, as well as the geological causes for the convulsions of nature. But we do not know and cannot perceive their hidden cause, for it lies in the imagination of man. All things spring, not from the ostensible causes to which they are attributed, but from that which is hidden - man's own wonderful human imagination!

We are told that when Jesus found Philip, he said, "Follow me."

Then Philip told Nathanael, "We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote."

Philip is one who is interested in the workings of the mind. Looking for one who is searching for the source of the phenomena of life, Jesus finds one in whom he can reveal himself.

A little practice will convince us that we can, by controlling our imagination, reshape our future in harmony with our desire. Desire is the mainspring of action. We could not move a single finger unless we had a desire to move it. No matter what we do, we follow the desire which at the moment dominates our minds. When we break a habit, our desire to break it is greater than our desire to continue in the habit. The desires which impel us to action are those that hold our attention.

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

In the second chapter of the Book of Luke the story is told of Jesus' parents, worried and seeking him for three days, finding him and complaining, to which Jesus said: "How is it that you sought me? Know you not that I must be about my father's business?" I ask you not to put yourself in that frame of mind. Your earthly parents seek you and, at the tender age of 12, you dare to say to them: "I must be about my father's business."

God's almighty power and wisdom expresses itself most characteristically in the acceptance of what the world calls weakness or foolishness. Matthew tells the story of one who - knowing himself to be the personification of God's creative power and wisdom - questions himself.

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

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

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

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

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

As Paul said to Timothy: "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion." Scripture is not secular history, but a mystery which is most important that we understand! Speaking to his disciples, Jesus said: "In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you." (John 14) The phrase "in that day" is an eschatological term meaning, "at the end of the journey". In other words, when this age of Caesar comes to its end, you will experience the truth of scripture and understanding.

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

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

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

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

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