Neville 10/23/1967
Neville Goddard
A LESSON IN SCRIPTURE
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 twelve, you dare to say to them: “I must be about my Father’s
business.”
This statement has reference to the 40th Psalm and the 4th chapter of John. In the 40th Psalm you are told:
“In the role of the book it is written about me.” Every man is destined to discover that scripture is his
autobiography. It’s not written about individual beings like Jesus Christ, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
so on who lived unnumbered years ago, but about the individual you! The 4th chapter of the Book of John
begins with a discussion between the Lord Jesus Christ and a woman of Samaria about a well and water.
After this discussion the disciples say to Jesus: “Master you have had nothing to eat” and he replies: “I have
food you know not of. My food is to do the will of himwho sent me and to finish his work.”
This is true. You have come into this world only to finish the work of himwho sent you. And who is he? The
Father. “He who sees me, sees he who sent me. I came out fromthe Father and came into the world. Again I
leave the world and return to the Father. He who sees me sees the Father, for I and the Father are one.”
Conceiving the thought in the beginning, God had to have an agent to express it. Everything in this world
needs man to express it and may I tell you: God is man. In the beginning God made man in his image.
“Male/female made he them and called their name Man.” Read it carefully in the 5th chapter of Genesis.
Creating Man to express himself, God comes into the world to express and finish what he conceived in the
beginning. Conceiving a state and knowing it takes a man to express it; God sent himself fromthe depth of his
own being into this world to fulfill the state.
“In the beginning was the Word (the purpose) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The
Old Testament is God’s Word (his plan) which he made known through his servants, the prophets. The New
Testament interprets the Old. The story of Jesus Christ is the interpretation of the prophecy recorded in the
Old. Read it carefully, for everything said of Jesus Christ, you are going to experience. It is said: “His name
shall be called the Word of God.” Called God’s Word, his seed, his creative power, your imagination is
God’s creative power and wisdom. Can you conceive of any greater wisdom than your own wonderful
human imagination? Think of something. The moment you do, it’s right before your mind’s eye. Maybe you
can’t draw a straight line, yet you can imagine your mother even though she is gone from this world. Think of
anyone and they instantly appear before your mind’s eye. That is your own wonderful creative power-filled
imagination who is Jesus Christ in you. It is he who has come into the world to fulfill the Word of God, and
everythingmust be fulfilled by the Jesus Christ in you, who is your hope of glory
.
We are told in the 22nd chapter of the Book of Luke: “Scripture must be fulfilled in me,” so you must be
about your Father’s business by experiencing everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture. The miraculous birth
will be yours, the discovery of the Fatherhood, the ascent into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
you in the bodily form of a dove. Then like the psalmist you will say: “Thou hast delivered me from the world
of death,” for you will know fromexperience that in the volume of the book it was all about you!
I have been sent fromthe depth of my soul to act as a magnet to those who are about to fulfill scripture, and
they come, each in his own order. Last Friday morning my friend Bennie found himself cataleptic. Unable to
open his eyes or move his body, Ben could hear within himself the cry of a child as he felt an unearthly wind
in his skull. Then a star exploded from his skull and a child wrapped in swaddling clothes fell into his arms.
Looking at the child he said: “Oh, my darling” and knew that no one in eternity could care for that child but
himself. As the vision faded he was given a photograph of the child.
The birth from above came to Bennie that way. He was left with a photograph. This happened on the 20th
day of October. Now, if the current record of order is correct (and it has happened to my friend Bob and
myself), five months fromnow Bennie will experience the coming of God’s only Son, David, who will reveal
him as the Father. I am basing my interpretation from what he told me, and I say the birth has happened to
him. Why should the birth occur in the same manner to any two when God is infinite in his creation? Of all the
children who come into the world, seemingly fromthe womb of woman, no two births are exactly alike, there
is always something different.
Only a couple of days before this happened to Bennie, he said:, “In the spirit you were teaching the word of
God when someone said: ‘Tell us the story of Jesus’ and you replied: ‘The story of Jesus is a persistent
assumption that you are what you want to be, that things are as you desire them to be.’“ This is true, for
unless you believe that you are the being you now worship on the outside, you remain desiring and die in your
sins of unfulfilled desires. You’ve got to begin to believe that you are Jesus Christ, the Word ofGod, which -
having gone out will not return empty, but will fulfill your purpose and accomplish that which you sent yourself
to do. What is that? To fulfill scripture. That’s all you are here for.
On this level you can be rich if that is your desire, but remember the story of Jesus is persistent assumption.
You can persist in the assumption that you are wealthy. I have many friends across this country who are very,
very wealthy, yet I would say ninety-nine percent of them are miserable; but they will all tell you the same
thing. I think of one in particular now. She has a fortune in diamonds. Tiffany, who sells diamonds marked up
300-400%, offered her $100,000 for one piece. When she joins us for dinner in New York City she wears a
broach, a ring, and a pendant, worth a half million dollars. Ruth was born a very poor girl and – desiring
wealth – she persistently assumed she was married to tremendous wealth. She had no money. Her only claim
to any social status was that she was a descendant of the Adams who were in the White House. He, on the
other hand, came out of a line of rascals. His great-grandfather was a bishop in New York; therefore, had
good advice as to his descent and how to guard it. Ruth married and lived in hell for twenty-odd years,
bearing himthree sons. Now well into her seventies, her only desire is to marry more wealth and have more
diamonds.
That is all right. The story of Jesus is a complete and undeviating persistence in the assumption that you are
what you want to be. If you haven’t experienced wealth and that is what you want, persistently assume “I am
wealthy.” If you have not experienced fame, assume you are famous, but “The day will come,” saith the Lord
“when I will send a famine upon you. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing
of my Word.” If that hunger hasn’t come to you, then take the same story of Jesus and fulfill your every
desire.
When I am in New York, my friend comes to every meeting. She is a delightful person, but she is brutally
honest with her desires. She wants more and more diamonds, more emeralds, more museum pieces. She
confessed that she had no hunger to hear anything about David, but wants more and more money to leave her
two sons. She wants more and more worldly illusions; but it is my hope that the hunger has come to you who
are here – not for more and more bread and water, but for hearing the word ofGod with understanding.
The Book of Luke begins: “I have come to fulfill scripture. Then beginning with Moses in the law and the
prophets and the psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Questioning his earthly parents, he asks: “Why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must be about my
Father’s business?”….fulfilling scripture? Entering the temple, he is given a book which he opens and reads
the first verse and half of the second of the 61st chapter of Isaiah, saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is uponme,
for he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor and suffering. To open the prison doors to all who
are in prison.”
Now, claiming to have come only to fulfill scripture, he tells you that the Spirit of the Lord God was upon him
that day. It is not expressed that way in Luke, but he says – as you heard it “this day” – it was fulfilled. What
does he mean? That he saw the Spirit descend in bodily formas a dove. It has been fulfilled in him and he is
urging everyone to follow his pattern, for no one comes to the Father save by this pattern. The Spirit of the
Lord God descended in bodily formas a dove. The same dove who returned to Noah in the ark. Man is the
ark of God and the dove – coming to bring assurance that everything is all right – descends upon one, and as
it remains he is told to “Rise and anoint him, for this is he.” Luke tells you how he is fulfilling scripture, for he
knows that “In the volume of the book it is all about me.”
Like Paul, I have not restrained my lips. I have told of your deliverance. I have told of your everlasting love to
anyone and everyone who will listen. They may not accept my words, but I do know that within a certain
group the hunger is there and they will all begin to awake.
Now, in the 30th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord speaks, saying: “Can a man bear a child? Why
then do I see every man with his hands pulling himself out of himself like a woman in labor.” The Hebrew
word “chalatz” (translated in both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version as “loins”)
means “to take off; to pull oneself out of oneself; to deliver.”When the Psalmist said: “He has delivered my
soul fromdeath” he was speaking of the physical body. It is a garment of death which appears in the world,
waxes, wanes, vanishes, and turns into dust. The word translated “delivered” in the Psalms, is the same word
which was translated “loins” in Jeremiah.
So, can a Man bear a child? Yes. Let us go back to what I quoted earlier. “Male/female made he them and
called their name Man.” There is a womb in the male/female unlike that of an earthly woman. This womb is
the skull of generic Man. It is there that God has planted His Word which cannot return unto him void, but
must accomplish that which is His purpose and prosper in the thing for which he sent it. That purpose is to
fulfill scripture, for God has an entirely different world awaiting those who fulfillHis Word.
We are told: “This Word is truth.” Everyone enters the world to fulfill the truth and will not depart untilGod’s
Word is accomplished. If God’s Word has not been fulfilled in you when the world calls you dead, you are
restored to a life just as real as this, in a world just as real as this, to continue your journey until the hunger
comes upon you and you will be drawn to that final point.
In his book called Urizen, William Blake tells of the serpent in the womb of Enitharmon who, shredding the
scales of death, his hissing changes into the cry of a child and
“The dead heard the voice of the child
And began to awake fromsleep
All things heard the voice of the child
And began to awake to life.”
You actually hear the cry of the child in your skull. It seems impossible, but may I tell you: it is true.
Now, to encourage those who are not interested in that aspect of the truth, let me go back to what Bennie
heard me say in the spirit: “The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption.” This is true in every aspect of your
life. You want to be rich? That’s the story of Jesus, which is a persistent assumption in the conviction that “I
am rich,” for unless you believe that “I amrich” you die in your sins and continue to claim “I ampoor.” You
want to be known? Then persistently assume: “I amknown.” Want to be healthy? “I amhealthy!” Regardless
ofwhat you want to be, you must declare you already are it and persist in that assumption. An assumption is
an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Your reasoning mind may deny wealth. Your
senses deny it too, but if you have faith you will dare to assume wealth, thereby becoming the man you want
to be.
Maybe, tonight you would rather continue to worship a Jesus Christ on the outside. Maybe you would rather
continue to walk with the sheep of the world and not be the shepherd, but you would like to feed on green
pastures by still waters, instead of climbing the steep hills of doubt and fear as most people do. You can, if
you will persistently assume: “I am well fed. I am wanted. I amknown and everything is as I want it to be.”
But remember: to bring all these things into being, there must be a persistent assumption. That’s the story of
Jesus.
Now we are told in Jeremiah that God’s word will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the
intents of his mind, which is that you become God. “In the later days you will understand it clearly.” It is
God’s purpose to give himself to man and he will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the
intents of his mind. So in the final days he sends a hunger unto your heart – not for bread, a larger home or
jewelry – but for the hearing of the Word of God. When this hunger possesses you, nothing will satisfy you
but an experience of God. And if it is God’s purpose to give you himself as himself, when you have
experienced hisWord you are God!
Here is the story: “What is the greatest commandment, master? “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord
is one.” In the original manuscript the word “hear” is “sh’mA” whose last letter is larger than the other letters
in the word. This is also true of the world “echaD” (translated “one”) at the end of the sentence. Put the two
words together and they spell a word meaning “witness.”
At the very end of the Book of Luke you read: “You are witnesses of these things, but remain here until you
are endowed with power from on high.” What power? The power of God called Jesus Christ. You are
destined to put on and wear the Lord Christ Jesus as you would a garment. Wait for it, for it will be born
within you. And when God’s power and wisdom is born, you will find the sign of his birth in the form of a
little child. Then all of these signs will unfold in you and you will wear the garment of Jesus Christ. So I tell
you, you will be witnesses of all that I have told you, for now I amreturning to the very source out of which I
came.
I came into the world completely forgetful of the being that I AM. I had to. When I first met my friend
Abdullah back in 1931 I entered a roomwhere he was speaking and when the speech was ended he came
over, extended his hand and said: “Neville, you are six months late.” I had never seen the man before, so I
said: “I am six months late? How do you know me?” and he replied: “The brothers told me that you were
coming and you are sixmonths late.”
I was late because the one who told me of Abdullah was a Catholic priest. I loved him dearly, but I thought
he was almost a moron. His father, a rumrunner in the days of prohibition, left him two million dollars, which
he proceeded to lose on Wall Street the first year. The only wonderful thing he did was to take the last
$15,000 and give it to a Catholic organization to care for his mother the rest of her earthly days. So, having
no respect for his judgment, when he told me about Abdullah I postponed going to hear himuntil one day I
could find no excuse. When Ab called me by name I said: “I don’t know you” and he replied: “Oh yes you
do, but you have forgotten. We were together in China thousands of years ago, but you promised to
completely forget in order to play the part youmust play now.”
Last Friday night a lady gave me a letter saying: “The previous Monday as you stood on the platform I could
not see you as Neville, but as an ancient Chinese philosopher. I have seenmy friends change frommoment to
moment, but you remained changed during your entire lecture. This bothered me, so I questioned the
experience on the way home and then I remembered. Several years ago in a psychic experience, I was
walking up a hill with other students to attend a class. Falling away fromthe group, I saw an ancient Chinese
in a white garment at my side. Beckoning me to follow him, we approached a cave where I saw huge granite
stone with a peak at the top. Two hands containing a cocoon covered the top of the stone. Removing the
cocoon, the ancient Chinese broke it on the peak of the granite, and water, mixed with colorful oil, came out
as life took on the sense of heat rising. Then the ancient Chinese took my hand and led me back to the group,
where they had not realized that I had been away. “Now I know whose face you wore lastMonday night.”
Well, that’s what Abdullah told me in 1931, but to this day I have no knowledge of it, because I swore in the
beginning to empty myself completely of allmemory and take on the form of a slave, but to have faith in him
who sent me.
Now knowing that he and I are one, I have no other place to go but back to myself, the
sender. Having played every part I have completely wiped out the memory, but I know that no one can arrive
at the end of the road until he has played it all. I do know from my intuitive knowledge that, just as an actor
must feel the part he is playing and imagine himself the character he is depicting, you will imagine yourself into
every part, and when the play is over for you, the signs will come to show you the being that you really are.
You who are here are hungry for the Word of God. You are thirsty for the Word of God. You could be at
home this night watching TV and it would cost you nothing, but you have given up your time and your money
to be here because of your hunger. I have been sent to tell you not only that you become God when he is
fulfilled in you, but how to cushion the blows in this world of reason by delighting in his law. His law is simply
a persistent assumption in the claim: “I am what I want to be.” Do not judge one who does not have the
hunger for the Word ofGod, but tell himhow to become what he wants to be.
Tell himthat the story of Jesus is a perpetual, persistent assumption in whatever he wants to be. That Christ in
himis the power ofGod and his imagination is that power and wisdom. Tell him that imagination knows how
to bring his assumption to pass, but that he must persist.
Now I ask you: are you willing to persist in the assumption that you are what you want to be? Or are you
going to go home tonight and say: “That was a nice little talk he gave, but after all he has a million dollars in
the bank and I have nothing.” If you think that, you are disobedient, for by that thought you have lack of faith
in “I am he!” That’s the fundamental sin of the universe. There are only two sins recorded in scripture that
offend God. One is: “Unless you believe that I am he you die in your sins,” and the other is eating of the fruit
of tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ask our generals tonight if it would be good to stop bombing Vietnam
and they would say No. Go across the ocean and ask the Vietnamese and they would say Yes – so what is
good and what is evil?
I amnot asking anyone but you!What would be good for you? Tellme, because in the end every conflict will
resolve itself as the world is simplymirroring the being you are assuming that you are. One day you will be so
saturated with wealth, so saturated with power in the world of Caesar, you will turn your back on it all and go
in search for the Word of God. I remember when I had so much wealth. I did not have one home, but many,
each fully staffed fromsecretaries to gardeners. That was a life of sheer decadence. I recall walking out of it
and not returning. Whether they ever found the body I do not know, but I do know I deliberately walked
away. Then about ten years ago in one of my journeys in spirit, I walked back into the world and saw it just
as it was before. Strangely enough, everyone recognized me and welcomed me with open arms, but I stayed
only for a moment then returned here bringing with me its vivid memory. So I do believe that one must
completely saturate himselfwith the things of Caesar before he is hungry for the Word ofGod.
I amconvinced you are here because of your hunger. I know you have obligations to society, you must pay
Caesar’s debts, so you want more money, but your hunger is greater for the hearing of the Word ofGod than
for things of Caesar. That is why you are here, and you are blessed by it.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard, Summa Theologica, Manly P Hall, A Course In Miracles
