Neville Goddard Lecture, The Artist is GOD

The Artist is GOD

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THE ARTIST IS GOD

God is the great artist, and there is no artistry so lovely as that which perfects itself in the making of its image. God has but one consuming objective and that is to make you into his image, that you may reflect and radiate his glory. On this level however God exists as the human imagination, for the human imagination is the divine body called the Lord Jesus. On the highest level God’s great artistry is concentrated on the making of his image; on this level he – as you – can do the same. A friend may say he would like to be a doctor; another friend wants to be a successful businessman, or a dancer. Every desire is an image. As the artist, lowered to this level, you can form images of your friends. And if you persist in your assumption, in time your friends will radiate and reflect your artistry. God is the great dreamer in man, bound in a deadly dream until he forms the image called Christ, in himself. Only when Christ is formed in man will he awaken from his dream of life. Now, on this level you can be bound in a dream, too. Perhaps you would like to be a great artist. That is your dream, your image. How would you feel right now if you were? Can you believe your assumption is true even though your reason and senses deny it? Can you persist in your imagination, as the highest level of your being persists in his image?

We are told: “When you pray, believe you have received it and you will.” Prayer is not a lot of empty words, but imagination braced in feeling. Every Sunday people go to church, say the Lord’s Prayer, and come out of the building just the same as they were when they went in. Their words were empty, as no prayer was answered. Now they are going to stop praying to their demoted mythological saints, for that is all saints are. The 115th Psalm describes these so-called saints, and tells us that those who believe in them are just as stupid as those who make and sell them. While here in this world, I asked myself how I would go about being the artist who could make myself into the image of a successful minister of the word of God. I knew I would have to start on the highest level by assuming I had finished what I was starting to do, and I knew I would have to remain faithful to that end, that image. This I have done. The most creative thing in us is to believe a thing into objective existence. Can you believe that something is already objective to you, even though your mortal eyes cannot see it?

Can you walk, drenched in the feeling that it is an objective fact, until it becomes so? That’s how everything is brought into being, for all things exist in the human imagination, who is God himself. Imagination is the divine body called Jesus, the Lord. If you are willing to step out, asking no one if it is right or wrong, and dare to walk in the assumption your image is true, it will come to pass. Let me share with you a simple story. A very dear friend of mine who lives in New York City was born in Russia of a very poor Jewish family. He knew what it was like to be frightened when he heard the Cossacks were coming, for they burned homes and caused pain for the sheer joy of frightening people. Joseph was the eldest of a family of five, a boy not more than nine or ten when his mother died, leaving his father to maintain his family alone. Little Joseph found a job taking money from a store to the bank and having it changed into smaller denominations. He had never known what it was like to wear shoes, but wrapped his feet in newspapers or whatever he could find to keep them warm. His clothes had always come from charity, but he – like all men – brought his innate knowledge with him when he came into this world. So, one day, as he watched the cashier changing the money he brought, he noticed that the big copper coins, when rolled in paper, resembled the silver coins, even though their value was widely separated. Then he said to himself: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he made a mistake?” and in his imagination Joseph took the money rolled through the window to him in the assumption that the mistake was already made. He then walked back to the shop, filled with the sense of joy. Reason told him no mistake was made, but he thought of all the things he could buy if he had the money. He would buy a pair of slacks, a pair of shoes, and eat until it came out of his ears – a thing he had never experienced before. He had the satisfaction of walking those many blocks in the mood of having what he wanted. The next day, when Joseph returned to the same teller, the man made the mistake.

As Joseph left the bank he wrestled with himself, but his poverty and embarrassment were greater than his ethical code; so he went to another bank and changed the money into the correct denominations and kept the overage. That night he bought himself a pair of slacks, new shoes, and ate at a restaurant until he could eat no more. He told me that although he wrestled with his conscience all night, he could not justify his act; but he learned a lesson. He learned that Sir Anthony Eden was right when he said: “An assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.” Sir Anthony did not need position or money, but he knew a law which undoubtedly he used through his years. Today my friend Joseph is a multi-millionaire. I am quite sure he is far, far richer in Caesar’s dollars and cents than Anthony Eden, for Joseph learned and lived by this knowledge. He never duns his customers. When they are long overdue in payment, Joseph sits alone and mentally writes a letter thanking the man for the receipt of his check – and within four days he receives it. If poverty would teach this lesson to everyone, all should be born equally poor. Joseph now lives in an apartment in New York City where he pays $12,000 a year in rent as well as $45,000 a year rent for his street business. He now has businesses in Paris, Puerto Rico, and Brazil, for he learned how to move. Leaving Russia at the age of sixteen, Joseph found a job driving a garbage truck in France, where – seemingly by accident – he met the great dancer, Anna Pavlova. She suggested he follow in his father’s footsteps and make undergarments for women, which he did and is now famous for.

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