Neville Goddard Lecture, GOD’s Promise to Man

GOD’s Promise To Man

Complete Neville Goddard Lecture Audio Available in Members Area

GOD’S PROMISE TO MAN

This is one of the most difficult subjects I have to tell. Had I not experienced it I wouldn’t dare attempt it. God’s promise is true; he who promised it is faithful, and is being fulfilled in every being in this world and the unnumbered beings to come. The first statement of it, you find in Genesis 17. We are told on the surface that Abraham was ninety-nine and he was promised an heir, a son. If you are familiar with the story, he had a son who was described as a “wild ass” in the 16th chapter. That one was born of a servant of the household of Abraham, born of Hagar, born of a slave; and the Lord said unto her: “You will have a son and his name will be Ishmael (“God hears”). He shall be a wild ass of a man; his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him. Abraham wanted a son born of Sarai. He was ninety-nine and she was ninety. This is all symbolism. He was told he would have a son and his name would be Isaac (“he laughs”). Then we are told that God fulfilled his promise, and he who was ninety-nine and she ninety brought into this world a son called Isaac. That is the first suggestion of God’s promise to man. Prior to that everything was preparatory, how to prepare man. To prepare us for this moment in time that we would become receptive enough, sensitive enough, to receive this promise. We are told in the book of Galatians that the one promised was Jesus Christ. Listen to the words carefully: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your offspring,’ which is Christ.” Here we see the one promised was Jesus Christ. Your offspring, Jesus Christ. Now we turn to Acts 26. Here Paul is brought enchained before King Agrippa. And the king said to him: “You may plead your own case, you may defend yourself.” And he said: “Here I stand on trial for my hope in the promise God made to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, and eagerly, earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead.” Here is our hope: if the dead is not raised, what does it matter if you build the greatest monument in the world to yourself; if you made billions and you are not raised from the dead, what does it matter; or all the accomplishments of the world, if it wears out like a garment and that is his last moment? “And here I stand on trial for my hope in the promise, made by God to our fathers.” Why am I on trial? I believe it. So, here is Paul’s plea before the king: “Why am I on trial?” Now let me tell you my own personal story about it. I heard it, as you have heard it. I was raised in the Christian faith, as many of you were, and I heard it as my mother and father heard it, and I didn’t understand it. No priest, no rabbi, no minister tells it. They spoke of the Bible, or you go to a medium to hear and commune with someone who is supposed to be dead, and they all bring voices back. It hasn’t a thing to do with it. It hasn’t a thing to do with any medium and extra-sensory perception – it’s something entirely different. Here I move across space in this world, and then a moment when I least expected it – in fact I didn’t expect it, I hadn’t the slightest idea what this was all about.

That is why I am so encouraged, because I did not expect it; I did not look forward to it in this life, therefore I know the promise will be kept and everyone will receive it. I did not earn it. No man is good enough to earn it. The promise is unconditional. So, here I am, a normal man with all the limitations and weaknesses of man. If I had to go back to my fifty-eight years, all the things I would judge harshly, if I sat myself in judgment. And I, who could not conceive myself worthy to receive this fantastic gift! One night I went to sleep quite normally in the city of San Francisco, and in the wee hours of the morning a most intense vibration was taking place in my head and I begin to awake. Instead of awakening on the bed in my hotel room, I am awakening in my skull to find my skull not a room – my skull is a sepulcher, a tomb, and I am fully awake in my skull – alone. For the first time in eternity I really was awake. There was one moment of panic, and after that moment of panic I began to feel around, and I felt the base of my skull and I pushed and something gave, and out I came, head first, just like a child being born, and down I came, inch by inch by inch. I pulled myself out of my skull and there I lay on the floor for a few seconds. Then I arose, and looked back at the bed and there was my body on the bed. It was ghastly pale, tossing my head from side to side. Then I heard this wind – a fantastic wind, as described in the book of Acts – and here came a sudden wind from heaven. I looked over to the corner of the room because it came from that direction, and then I looked back to the bed where the body was and the body was gone; they removed the body, a body that was so real only a few seconds before. But here sat three witnesses, three men; they didn’t see me and I am more real than I have ever been in eternity. I suddenly became aware of the reality of my own invisibility. I am more real than anything in eternity, and yet no one sees me.

I can see them, I not only see them, I can discern their thoughts. Their thoughts are to me [as] objective as you are. They are all curious about the wind, but one is the most curious and he got off the bed and started toward the same direction that I thought the wind originated. As he started over he looked at the floor and he said: “Why it’s Neville’s baby!” And they together asked in the most incredulous manner: “How could Neville have a baby?” He doesn’t argue the point; he lifts an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and places that infant on the bed. Then I took that infant in my hands, looked into its smiling face – it does that – and I asked it: “How is my sweetheart?” And this heavenly smile broke upon its face – and then the whole thing dissolved, and I am on my bed in the hotel in San Francisco. That is the beginning of the unfolding of God’s promise: “I will give you a son.” Now the son is not some little son that I have, say who is now thirty-eight years old. Let us now go back to the interpretation of that son as we find it in the book of Luke, for Luke interprets this picture for us. Tradition has it that there were three men in the field, and he said to them: “This night God is born, a savior is born who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you; you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11) They say: “in a manger” – I tell you from experience: lying on the floor. The babe is not the thing that happened, the babe is a sign: “This shall be a sign unto you.” An event took place this day in eternity: the fulfillment of God’s promise to man. “And this shall be a sign unto you, you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the floor.” And they went and found as they were told, the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

End of Sample, for Complete Audio of this lecture click on the links above to access Members Area or Join Us Today!