Neville 02-08-1963
GOD’S PROMISE TO MAN
Neville Goddard
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 everyman 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.
You who know certain protocol concerning the navy or our government, who will be concerned about our
President who we know as Washington, and we want to know whether he is in the White House or not. If
you understood this protocol you will look to see a displaying sign, and if the presidential flag is flying you will
say to your friends: “He is in residence.” If it is not flying he is not in residence. It doesn’t mean the flag is the
president, it only signifies his presence. This is a sign unto you: “You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying on the floor.” It signifies the event that took place this day in eternity; it is not the event. The
event is invisible to mortal eye, for no one saw me. I saw them and read their thought but they could not see
me. They only found the sign. They came to find the sign, as they were told in the spiritual world: “You shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying on the floor.” And they came and they found it exactly as
they were told; but they couldn’t find the event, for the event was invisible to eyes on this level.
So here is God’s promise to man that he will bring forth, out of man, himself. He is buried in man. And here is
a sign he has succeeded in bringing himself out, individualized as you. It’s a little sign, the sign is that of “a
babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the floor.”
Let us go back to the Book of Samuel. We are told that something happened in man. It is the second event
of God’s promise. First, we will take Ecclesiastes 3:11, the most disputed verse in that book and possibly in
the Bible: “God has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he shall not find out what God has done from the
beginning to the end.” The word translated “eternity” in the Revised Standard Version is “Olam.” In the King
James Version that world is translated “world.” “He put the world into man’s mind.”
Follow me closely. Now go back to the Book of Samuel. A king – his name is Saul – turns to his lieutenant,
Abner, and he sees a very handsome youth standing before him whose name is David, but he doesn’t know
who he is. He said to Abner: “Abner, whose son is that youth?” and Abner replied: “As your soul liveth, O
king, I cannot tell.” He said: “Inquire whose son that stripling is.” No one knows. Then David comes in from
his conquering mood and he brings the Philistine’s head in his hand, Goliath. And the king turns to the youth
now, he said: “Tell me, whose son are you, young man?” And he replied: “I am the son of thy servant Jesse.”
(We’ll come to that in a moment, but we’ll go back.) “Abner, whose son is that young man?” The word
“young man” is “Olam” (translated “eternity”). “Inquire whose son that stripling is.” The word “stripling” is
“Olam.” He turns to the boy himself: “Tell me, whose son are you, young man?” The word “young man” is
“Olam.” What did God put in the mind of man? The Bible tells us, but because we can’t understand it, that
God put eternity into man’s mind, but the word translated “eternity”means “young man, stripling, youth.” So,
what did he put in man? I will tell you from experience what he put into man’s mind: he put David.
He put David into the mind of man. It’s the second act of the fulfillment of God’s promise; because he
promised in the previous chapter (1 Samuel 17) to set the father of this youth free in eternity. He took eternal
youth (symbolized as David) and put it into the mind of man, and promised that anyone who conquered the
enemy of Israel (the Philistine) that his father – not he, but the father – would be free. So he is looking for the
father. Listen to the words: “Whose son are you?” I’m not asking you about the boy. “Whose son are you?”
If I ask you “Whose son are you?” I am curious about your father, not concerned about you. For the promise
is: the father must be set free. So, here is the great mystery.
Now, a few months later, a similar vibration from that which preceded my own birth from above took place.
This time there was an explosion, an expansion beyond the wildest dream, and when the dust settled, as it
were, I am looking into the face of David. There is no doubt in my mind I am seeing David and there is no
doubt in our relationship. He is my son and he doesn’t have any doubt in his mind that I am his father, and he
calls me “Father” (fulfilling scripture, the 89th Psalm): “Thou are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my
Salvation.” So David has been hidden in the mind of every being in the world. At a moment in eternity when
man is ripe for it, there is an explosion, and he sees David and David is his son. No one knows who the
father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. Now what is the significance of
this? It is God’s purpose to give us his son. There is no way in the world that he can give us his love- if God
is a father – unless God be a father, unless he gives us fatherhood. I can’t be a father unless there is a child
and his only begotten son is David. Psalm2: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you.” He looks upon
David and calls David his only begotten son. He takes his only begotten son, translated in the Bible as
“Olam”, buries it in the mind of man, and then gives to man himself – giving to man his son. If I am the father
of God’s only begotten son, I and God are one.
In the world where I still must wear a garment of flesh, that full inheritance is denied me. It has not yet
become actual, or at least not fully realized, so long as I wear this garment of flesh; but my visions reveal the
fulfillment of his promise in me, complete inheritance of the world when the garment – which is the veil hiding
me from my inheritance – is taken off. So here: “Whose son are you young man?” “I am the son of thy servant
Jesse.” The word “Jesse” is the root of the word “I AM.” It is any form of the verb “to be.” It is the root of
the word JOD HE VAU HE [pron. yod hey vav hey] which we translate, “Jehovah.” He is telling you that his
father is Jehovah, the only God. All scholars are agreed that the genealogy given to David in the Book of
Ruth and Chronicles has been added. They try to give sense to the scripture, but the most [comprehensive of
all the] works on scripture in existence is the Encyclopedia Biblica. The Encyclopedia Biblica claims that in
the earliest of all known manuscripts, there is no father beyond Jesse. David has the father, Jesse, and Jesse
has no father. There is no genealogy of Jesse in the earliest known manuscripts in the Hebrew tongue, but
men trying to give sense to this have added a genealogy. They go back from Jesse all the way to Adam,
which we now have in our Book of Luke and Matthew, but the earliest known manuscripts start with Jesse.
He has – like Melchizedek – no background, because God has no father. So the father of David is Jesse,
which means “I AM,” and “I AM” has nothing behind it. It has no origin of ties in itself. So when you see
David, God has completed himself and has given you himself. There is no way he could give you himself and
yet not give you his son. If he restrains his son and didn’t give you his son, he didn’t give you himself, for he is
a father. If I give you fatherhood, then where is my child? And then the child comes before you and reveals
your fatherhood.
Eternal youth was put into the mind of man, and then comes that moment in time when men discover who he
is – and it’s all God. So the promise, I tell you from experience, is true. We are told in 2 Corinthians 1:20,
speaking of Christ Jesus: “In him are all the promises of God fulfilled. All the promises of God find their
affirmation, their fulfillment, in him. Well, who is Christ Jesus? Christ Jesus is God the Father. How do I arrive
at that point? Scripture, plus experience. In John 14:8, the disciple Philip said to him: “Lord, show us the
Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him: “‘Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know
me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” But no one
asked him: “Where is your son?” Read the story. No one dared ask him anything. A child bears witness of
fatherhood. So no one asked him anything, so he brings up the question – not in the same chapter, because
the Bible is a mystery, you have to dig and search. So when no one would ask him a question, he turned to
them and said: “What think ye of the Christ, whose son is he?” And they, based upon tradition, began to
speculate, and they asked him and made all kinds of statements. They said: “The son of David.” He said:
“Then why did David in the spirit, call him ‘Lord’? If David thus calls him ‘Lord,’ how could he be David’s
son?’” The word translated “Lord” is “Adoni” and every child referred to his parents as “Adoni,” (meaning
“my father, my Lord”). He tells you he fulfilled the 89th Psalm. If David thus calls him, “Father,” how could
he then be David’s son? I tell you the story is all wrapped in you, unfolding in you, and in the end you are heir
to the universe, because you are one with God and all of us together have the same son.
Now I am individualized and so are you, and every being in this world is destined to be Christ-like, without
losing his individuality, not in eternity; and yet you and I are one because we have the same son. You are
destined to be David’s son – you are destined to be David’s father. Right now you think he lived 3,000 years
ago; I tell you he is buried in you. He is raising his son, lifting up his son out of you, and when he lifts his son
out of you, at the same time he resurrects you as himself. So he resurrects you and his son and gives you the
relationship of father-son – you being father, and his son – his only begotten son – is your son. Therefore, who
are you, but God the Father? We are all destined to be God the Father, and yet individualized. I know I will
never lose my individuality and you will never lose yours, and yet we are one. We are one because we have
the same son, and the son’s name is David.
Now his power-laden work really began at the descent of the dove. Everything before that was simply
preparatory. This is a true experience, the descent of the dove. All this symbolism is true; it will happen to
you. I will tell you how it happened to me. No one sees it outside of the one to whom it happens, as told us in
Mark 1:10). It will come just as unexpectedly as all the others come. You go to bed quite innocently, as I
did, a perfectly normal day, no excitement – and then in the wee hours of the morning this will happen. You
will suddenly see the strangest transparency – transparent beyond the wildest dreams, translucent. Then
suddenly twenty or thirty feet over your head you will see a beautiful dove, a light beige like natural linen.
[Lecture PROPHETIC BLUEPRINTS, p. 2, and p. 7.] The olive-skinned dark woman implied that man’s
future was relative to his present large bowel – like the caterpillar, whose future is the butterfly.
Man’s future is so fantastic you can’t describe it in words. He is not the caterpillar that feeds upon the leaf;
relative to it he is the winged creature, as described in the Book of Ezekiel and Isaiah; this winged seraphim,
whose body is one of light; face human, yes, hands human, feet human, but the body – no. He has no need for
the large bowel; he doesn’t need any food to sustain himself, for now he is a life-giving being, life within
himself. Therefore he is a being of radiant light, although he does have human features, hands, and feet. As
she said that to me, I am still holding the dove; then I felt myself crystallize once more, and I am back in my
bed.
All the others preceded it. It started in 1959, on the 20th day of July, in San Francisco. Then came the
revelation of David in the month of December 6, 1959; then came the splitting of the temple (which is the
body) on April 8, 1960. Then came that interval of a few years until the first of this year, January 1st, where
the dove descended. Knowing my scripture, I knew then that his work really began. That power laden-work
started at the descent of the dove, which symbolized the Holy Spirit.
What I have told you this night is true one hundred per cent. I can promise you, as you are promised in
scripture – having realized it in myself – you will realize it. You do not earn it; it is a gift, it is all grace. God’s
promise is unconditional; God’s law is conditional. If you want to apply God’s law toward anything in this
world, it is all conditional. You can’t be in one state and not suffer the consequences of not being in another
state. So, if I would be in the state of being healthy I must assume that I am. We are told: “Call upon his
name.” That phrase: “Call upon his name” is not properly translated. It is: “Call with his name.” How will I call
with his name? His name is “I AM.” If I would call with his name, and his name is “I AM,” I would say: “I am
healthy.” As we are told: “Let the weak man say “I am strong.” I am calling with his name. Don’t call upon his
name, as you are taught in the churches. “In the name of Jesus Christ give me so and so.” It won’t work but if
you will call with his name as to finances: “I am wealthy.” – His name is “I AM.”
If I stood here as a judge, and took Neville and threw him over there and sat him before me and asked him
to defend himself, knowing what I know about him, I could not give him what has been given to me – which
thrills me beyond measure, because I know everyone will get it. If I really felt in my heart of hearts good and
clean and wholesome and all these things in the world, then I might feel sorry for the rest of the world, but I
don’t feel that way. I know what I have done, I know what I am capable of doing, and because I know these
things are not me and yet I was called and given this gift, I know everyone will be given it. As you are told in
scripture: “If it comes by law then it is not by grace.” It did not come by law, it came by grace. “The law was
given us by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Everyone will be called in God’s own good time and given fatherhood, and fatherhood is given you through
his son. No fatherhood – no son. Who is the son? The son is David; and Jesus Christ, as you have been
taught to believe is the son – He is not the son; Jesus Christ is God the Father. “When you see me, Philip you
see the father, how then can you say, ‘show us the father.’” People can’t quite understand that mystery, but
he really is God, the Father. Anyone who becomes the father of David is Jesus Christ, even though he does
not lose his own individuality. And everyone in the world is destined to be the father of David, as Jesus Christ
is the father of David. He can’t be a father and not have a son. When he tells us: “I am the father,” then where
is the son? So he brings it up: “What say ye of the Christ, whose son is he?” “The son of David.” “Then why
does David call him father?” If David thus calls him father then how can he be David’s son? That’s the story.
Everyone is destined to be the father of David, and being the father of David they are Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ – himself the father. That is God’s promise to man. If we try to rationalize it on this level it will not
make sense. The priesthoods of the world do not know the Bible, so they teach it differently.
He sent me to tell you. Either you haven’t heard it or maybe you have forgotten it. I have come to remind
you, because in some peculiar way it does rest upon your hearing it and your acceptance of it. So man must
first hear it and man must accept it, as told us in the Book of Hebrews. There is quite a difference between
receiving the promise and receiving what was promised to you. What promise? When you receive the
promise, you are declared heir to the kingdom; when you receive what was promised, you obtain the
inheritance – that is the difference. When you write a will and the attorney records it – you hear I have written
a will and so you are now heirs to my estate, but you are not yet in possession until my will is executed.
So I tell you in effect: God’s promise is faithful and true, and everyone who has received it must continue for
a while. He can’t restrain it; he has to tell it in the hope that many who hear it will believe, for it is based upon
the belief in the promise. So I tell you what is going to happen, in the hope you will believe it. On the other
hand, if you are wanting God’s law, and you want money, or things, or something else in this world – apply it.
You’ll get it. “What would it profit a man if he gained the whole vast world and suffered the loss of his soul?”
You know that story. He had more grain than he could possibly put into the barn. “O foolish man, do you not
know that your soul is required of thee?” (Luke 12:16-20) But man does not care. He does not believe
God’s promises.
So, tonight, as small [an audience] as we are, may I ask you to believe. Every word I have told you this night,
I have experienced. It happens to every being in the world. Believe it. Yet, I am as fragile a man as you are.
But in spite of the weaknesses of the outer man, God’s promise has been fulfilled in me.
Now let us go into the silence.
QUESTION: If we do not experience the birth in this present embodiment, will we still experience it in the
future?
ANSWER: It is difficult for man to believe it, but the most denied book in the Bible is Ecclesiastes. In the 1st
chapter, we are told: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there
is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already, in
ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things
yet to happen….” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11) Time is bent, curved; it is much larger than seventy years, and man
cannot go back and really remember things seventy years ago. The scripture is much larger than that. Each
fulfills his destiny within that time wherein he was sitting. You will realize the part with modification, and then
God, in one moment – his mightiest of all acts – will resurrect you. You are lifted out of the grave – for this
(the body) is the grave where man is encased – and man is God. Golgotha means “skull.” The priesthoods of
the world try to justify it by trying to find a little area in the Near East where they claim they have found it.
They tell the faithful around the world, and they believe it. “Christ in you is the hope of glory.” Christ will be
resurrected, and you and he are one. “Jesus Christ is your Maker” and he is your husband, and he has to
leave all and cleave to you.
Neville Goddard, Summa Theologica, Manly P Hall, A Course In Miracles
