Neville Goddard lecture
If I could persuade you to believe what I hope to convey tonight, your entire world would change. You hear the words God, Jehovah, Lord, Jesus, and Christ, and you think of something greater than yourself, someone you would worship. Tonight, my purpose is to show you that God and the “I” of man are one. When you say “I am,” that is the God of scripture. Confined as you are, you might think, “How could it be? God created the universe and sustains it, yet here I am, like a little worm, living for three score and ten years, and then I vanish.” But let us turn to scripture.
In the 16th chapter of Matthew, the question is asked of the disciples, the followers who have heard Him: “Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” They reply, “Some say John the Baptist come again, others Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then He says to them, “But who do you say that I am?” The spokesman, Peter, answers, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood could not have revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
Here, He equates the Son of Man with the “I” of man—not the organ that sees, but your sense of awareness, your consciousness, your human imagination. He equates the Son of Man spoken of in the Old Testament, brought forward into the New, as nothing more than the “I” of man, and He calls it the Christ, defining Christ as the Son of God. In the New Testament, Christ is defined as the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, the “I” of man is the power of God and the wisdom of God. If man does not know it, he will not exercise that power or wisdom.
Tonight, I am trying to persuade you that when you say “I,” before you say anything else, that is the power and the wisdom of God. You cannot separate the power of God and the wisdom of God from God. In the end, you will say, “I and my Father are one,” for He is called the Son of God. We are called upon to test this. If it be true, can we test it? I hope you’ll put it to the test when I tell you that your own wonderful “I” is God. Though prior to this, you believed you were just a little something moving across the earth for a few years, hoping for some restoration but with no assurance.
Now, I tell you that you really are God. Your own wonderful consciousness, your human imagination, is the God of scripture, and there is no other God. Imprisoned as you are in these bodies of flesh, you did it for a purpose. Let us see what scripture tells us about the Son of Man, now equated with the “I” of man: “No one has ever ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” You’ll read that in the third chapter, the 13th verse of John. So, you are a pre-existent being. No one can ascend into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Your ascension, as shown in the next verse, the 14th verse, is like this: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” That is all imagery, yet it is true. You descended into generation, into a world of death where everything begins, waxes, wanes, and then disappears. But there is something in you, flowing in this garment that does die, that is pre-existent, and its home is heaven, which is harmony. You gave it up completely, pretending that you are a man. You descended into man, becoming man with all the weaknesses, limitations, and restrictions of man to experience this world of death and decay.
There will come a moment in time when you will ascend from this restriction, taking with you the experience that is yours because of this restriction. You will ascend in the same manner that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. That was a foreshadowing. You will rise from the base of your spine up your spine into your own skull, for heaven is within you, and you will rise like a fiery serpent without any loss of identity. The form you wear, I hesitate to describe. I will tell you that your face is human, your hands are human, your voice is human, but do not ask me to describe the body that you wear. It is infinite power, infinite wisdom, and yet it is a form. You are that fiery being that descended, not because of any wrongdoing, but as part of a predetermined plan to come down into the world of death and decay and overcome it.
If, coming down wearing these garments, we knew who we were while pretending to be men, we could not accomplish it any more than an actor on stage pretending to be Hamlet can actually play the part. He has to assume it fully, but even then, he knows he is the great actor who will go home to his lovely abode after the play. In this play of God, you do not take off the garment. You wear it for your three score and ten, or by strength, four score, or even longer or shorter. But the “I” of man is the God of scripture. Put it to the test.
Before we go into the testing of it, let me clarify what I said in the last lecture, prompted by a question asked here. I had said in the previous lecture that there are ranks in heaven as there are on earth, for this is only a copy. Everything here is a shadow, a copy of the eternal realities. Believe me, when you say “I,” before you say “I am John,” “I am Bill,” “I am this,” “I am that,” you are declaring yourself to be, and that sense of being is God. That’s God. Now, what are you going to put on it? All things are possible to God.
You could say now, as you’re seated here, after first affirming that “I am,” you could then assume that “I am” whatever you want to be. If you believe what I tell you about your own “I am-ness” and remain faithful to what you have assumed, that assumption will harden into fact. When you pray in the true sense of the word, you do not pray to any external God. Everything He creates is from within Himself. On this pattern, the individual awakens within himself. And who does it? The “I” of man, and that is God.
Tonight, you can test it. You are called upon to test it. Test yourselves and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. Examine yourself to see whether you are holding to the faith. What faith? Not someone telling me that I am a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim, and holding to that faith they talk about. No, the faith that I am talking about tonight is that your own wonderful “I am-ness” is God. Test it to see if you are holding to that faith. If you are holding to that faith and all things are possible to God, you should be able to prove it in the testing.
Having convinced myself through experience, I have come to the conclusion that because I am aware that “I am,” that is God. For if by Him all things are made, and without Him is not anything made that is made, and I start from scratch, only imagining a state, and then boldly assume that it is real, that I am actually experiencing that state now, and then in the not distant future that state crystallizes in my world, well then, I have found God. I have found the source of the phenomena of life. My only concern then is to share it with others and tell them, for we are all one. No one is greater than the other, not fundamentally. In his claims of what he is in the world of Caesar, he may have more money or hold a certain position, but basically, the same creative power in the man tonight behind bars serving life is the same creative power in the one who sentenced him to life. There is only one God.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. The word translated “the Lord” is Yod-He-Vav-He, properly translated as “I am.” When you go unto the people of Israel and they ask you, “What is His name?” and you claim that the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, and the God of Isaac sent you, you say unto them, “I am has sent me.” That’s my name forever, and by this name, I shall be known throughout all generations. But man finds it difficult to keep the tense, so he speaks of “Thou art” or “He is,” and he never actually comes down to the fundamental and knows it as “I am.” I am the cause of the phenomena of my life, good, bad, or indifferent. I have to live with it and change my assumptions if I will change the world in which I live.
Now, can I help a seeming other? I say you are myself pushed out. Can I help another? Yes, because there is only one. If your request of me comes within the framework of the Golden Rule—something that I would like done to me—then I can willingly help you. If you ask of me that which does not come within the framework of the Golden Rule, do not ask it of me. I grant you complete freedom to go elsewhere and seek anyone who will tell you they can do it in spite of what he said. Go ahead. But if anyone asks of me any request, all that I do is this: it is so simple. We are told in scripture, “Whatever we ask of Him, knowing that He hears it, it shall be done for us if we know He hears it.” Can you imagine you, seated here on the surface of your being, a rational being, knowing something that the depth of your own being that encompasses you doesn’t know? So, you know, and you think, “Well, He doesn’t know.”
Read that in the story of Ezekiel. You’ll read it in the 38th chapter. These are the elders of Israel who went into the dark room and carved on their walls all gruesome things, saying within themselves, “The Lord does not see it.” The Lord is speaking to His prophet Ezekiel, saying, “The elders of Israel say that I do not see them. Watch what they are doing, making all these abominable things within the great cavern. They will all reap them because I see everything that the elders of Israel see, but they think because it’s dark and it’s a cavern, no one knows what they are doing. But God doesn’t know it.”
I’ve said time and again, there is no fiction in this world. When you pray, go within and close the door. The senses deny all that seems so obvious, and your Father who is within will reward you openly. Commune with yourself, for you and the Father are one. So, you communicate. What does He tell you? Exactly what was asked of you. He heard it, and He has all the ways and means that you, on the surface of your being, know not of. He will do it. You can ask anything of one if it comes within the framework of his code of ethics. Don’t ask anyone who knows how to pray for something that does not come within his Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s as simple as that. Most of the requests would come within that rule. So, you simply hear it and then drop it completely. In the depths of your own being, you are still hearing it, and the Father knows all means and ways. He singles out the best way to externalize it.