HIS TO GIVE; YOURS TO RECEIVE
Neville Goddard – 06/12/1970
[The very beginning of this recording is unintelligible.] Now, we are told that
Jehovah brought his people out of Egypt “with signs and wonders.” All these signs
and wonders are in the story of Jesus. We are told that Jesus is the representative of
humanity.
Take just one story, the story of Jesus, for it is really your story. Study it carefully;
and once you have found it, in the light of all the signs and wonders in the career of
Jesus, – that’s the end of the sentence, – He is the Resurrection. That’s the key to
the entire thing. When that happens, all the other signs follow. They all unfold
themselves in the individual.
So, forget the individual, and think only of the reality of that individual; and the
reality of the individual is the Lord Jesus Christ. He sleeps in man. He will awake
in man as the man in whom he awakes. You will meet him playing all the parts of
life. And you will know the story that he told you is true. You will see him cast in
the role.
Let me share with you now one that was shared with me this week. “In my dream I
was on my way to a finance house for a loan. I went straight through the door into
the office of the one who owned the company; and to my astonishment, here it was
you! You stood behind the desk piled high with letters. You were nothing more
than radiant Love, and I knew I needed no collateral – nothing; that if I asked you
for the moon, you had the power to give it. You would have snatched it out of the
heavens and given it to me. You were simply a helpless slave of Love – possessed
by Love and obedient to all the commands of Love, and I said to myself, as I left,
‘What a radiant, radiant fool! Not a thing in the world could be asked of him that
he could not grant!’
“As I went out, I encountered a woman. She was the very limit of despair, and I
knew she had gone to every one, and turned now to you as the last resort, for she
had emptied all channels. But I also knew as she went through that door, her every
request would be granted. And then I came out, and I knew any man who got
through that little door would find the answer to his every request, for behind that
door was nothing but Love; and all the facade – all this outside appearance of
business – was all a mask – all a masquerade. The letters, the piles of paper, the
desk, and the building itself was only a masquerade hiding Infinite Love and who
was behind that door.”
Well, I told you, I stood in the presence of Infinite Love, and He embraced me, and
we became one; and then He “sent” me to tell you the story as it would unfold
within me. His Word is true, and the One He sent, you will find him playing all the
roles.
Now I will tell her now: when you go home tonight, read the 55th chapter of the
Book of Isaiah. “Ho, every one who thirsts come … he who has no money, come,
buy and eat! Come, buy wine, buy milk, without money, without price.” [Isaiah
55:1] And he who comes to Me, I will make a covenant with him, as I did with my
loving David, and made him a witness to the people forever. [paraphrase of Isaiah
55: 3, 4]
Here, a witness – and I am talking night after night about this witness to the
Fatherhood of God. In this same chapter:
“And the Word that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return unto me void,
but shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
[Isaiah 55:11]
So, everything granted behind that door – as you call it, “the little, narrow door” –
cannot return void. It is His to give and yours to receive if you ask for it. And she
knew in her heart that any man who got through that door would receive every
request that he made, for there was nothing there but Infinite Love and the power
to grant it.
Now this is not something special for the speaker. Every one in whom the story
unfolds will play that part. And, may I tell you? It will unfold in every one, because
God Himself is the reality of every child born or woman; but man has completely
misunderstood the signs, and he turns back in time two thousand years ago, and he
cannot see that the whole thing is contemporary. The whole thing is taking place
now. It’s not over. It is forever taking place, – but the same story. It’s not another
story. And this story of salvation is completely bound up with a special history. It’s
the history of Israel. There is no other history. But an Israelite is not one who
descends from Abraham after the flesh, but the “elect of God” of any race or nation
in the world.
We are called, one by one, into His presence. Fusing with God, we are “sent,” and
the one “sent” and the One who sends him are one. They are not two. So, the
Sender and the “sent” are really one from that moment on in Eternity, for that one
discovers who God really is. “And this is eternal life, to know Thee, the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” But Jesus Christ is one with the
Sender; and every one who is incorporated into the body of Love and “sent” is
Jesus Christ. He bears another name in the world. He bears the name of John, the
name of Peter, the name of anything; but he is Jesus Christ! He is the only one that
is “sent.”
So, he is the one who knows from his own experience that everything said of
Christ in the story unfolds in him, and there aren’t a number of little “christs” in
the world. There is only one Jesus Christ; and so any one who has the experience
of Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ! But it’s not what the world is looking for, and so
they ignore it, and turn their back against him. They want something on the outside,
some majestic figure, some great-looking being to come into their world and
enslave their enemies. And it’s not so at all. So, the whole drama begins with this
mighty act when God awakes within man.
So, when they say the whole thing is done through His resurrection, I wouldn’t
criticize that statement. Some scholars criticize it, but I will say, Yes, His –
speaking of it. But really, you’ve got to come down closer. It’s your resurrection,
because when the resurrection takes place in you, you don’t see another. It’s your
Self. You are the Being who becomes awake within your own tomb – your skull.
It is you who comes out of your own skull. So, then at that moment you are “born.”
So, as Peter said, “We are born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead.” I would not quarrel with that statement; but Jesus Christ is the true
identity of every man. He doesn’t make it clear enough, but it’s when you are
awakened from within yourself, you are at that moment – without loss of identity –
you are still Jan, you are still Bill, you are still any one whose name you bear; but
at that moment you are Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ fulfills Scripture, and you will
fulfill all the Scriptures. And others will see you in the different roles, and therefore
they will be witness to the event.
You are that witness called “the first who rose from the dead”; and, because he is
the first, and He-in-you rises, you are still the first. You are not the ten-thousandth
or the millionth; you are still the first, for only one rises from the “dead.”
So, when he calls his people out of Israel, the representative of his people is Jesus
Christ; and therefore it is Jesus Christ he is calling out of the graves, and He is
calling His own Being out. But when he calls them, he comes, bringing with him
the being with whom he is united, and they become one. For, “He who is united
with the Lord becomes one spirit with the Lord”; and in that long dream – this horrible
dream – you became united to the Lord. And it is the Lord that is coming out,
but He comes out as you! Yet you are the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now when we are told in Galatians: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask
you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with
faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with
the flesh?
[Galatians 3: 1-3]
Are you going to see Jesus Christ as a little man of flesh in the outer world? You
have heard the story, and you have accepted the story in the spirit in which it was
told. You didn’t see a man; it was portrayed. Do you know what the word “portray”
means? “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed.” To portray a
thing is to represent it in a drawing, in a painting, in an engraving, or on the stage
acting. That is to portray a certain thing.
Well, here before the eyes of the Galatians, Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as
crucified. How could you ever dramatize it? I’ll tell you. I know of no way. You
could explain it – yes, in words as I have tried to explain it; but how could you
dramatize it on the stage? The night it happened to me, only in memory, for it was
the fulfillment of the Second Psalm. And when I led this enormous crowd in this
wonderful, gay procession to the House of God, and the Voice said, “And God
walks with them,” and a woman to my right asked the Voice – no one saw the face;
they only heard the voice.
And she said, “If God walks with us, where is He?”
And the Voice answered so all could hear it, “At your side.”
And she automatically turned to her left and looked right into my eyes, and then
she began to laugh, and she was hysterical – it struck her so funnily. And she said
to the Voice, “What! Is Neville God?”
And the Voice replied, “Yes, in the act of awakening.
Then the Voice spoke only within me, – it didn’t come from without, – and the
Voice said from within me: “I laid myself down within you to slept and as I slept I
dreamed a dream. I dreamed” – and I knew what he was dreaming. He’s dreaming
that He is I. At that moment my two hands, my head, my right side, and my two
feet became vortices
– whirling vortices, each a vortex; and that was the Crucifixion, when God became
as I am, that I may be as He is!
He actually crucified Himself upon me, and started the dream, dreaming that He is
Neville, and when He completes the union, He awakes in me as Neville. And then
to prove it’s true, all that he said concerning the one that he “sent,” called Jesus,
unfolds within the speaker. And everything said in that story unfolded within me.
So, as I stand before you now, I can actually say there isn’t one thing left out that I
have not experienced. I am only now waiting for the final taking off of this outer
garment [indicating the physical body] when I am one with the Being who “sent”
me, in essence – in reality, yet without loss of identity.
So, he asked the questions “Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are
you going to end now with the flesh?” – and see a little being after the flesh? There
is really only one body, one spirit, one lord, one God and Father of all; and all are
being called, but they are called individually, one after the other, one by one, to be
united into that One Body and that One Spirit, and become the one Father of all.
So here, Jesus is a sign. If you tell that to the world, they will not believe it. And
you tell them the signs that you call “miracles” every one is going to experience,
and others will see you in the role of the story.
There is a lady here tonight, – I see her here with her husband, – saw me stepping
into the boat on the beach when she was exhausted and could not reach me; and
then having entered the boat with these fishermen in this ancient world – and here,
I got out of the boat, and as I turned, she recognized me. She didn’t know. I was
dressed in white – a long white robe; but when I got out and stood upon the beach
and she recognized me; and I said to the fishermen, “No, I will wait until dawn.”
She thought she had lost – lost out in her attempt to reach that boat and to reach
me. But when I said to them, “No, I will wait until dawn; there are others to come,”
then she felt the relief that she had not failed. Exhausted as she was in her attempt
to reach the fishermen and reach that boat and reach the speaker who entered that
boat, and he was exhausted and placed his head between his hands and waited in
that state. Well, that is recalled in the Bible. That whole story is Scripture.
All these are signs. So she saw one sign to prove the truth of what I am saying
here. Another saw it in another way, another in another way. These are witnesses to
the truth of what I am talking about. But there is another kind of a witness that He
is looking for.
You yourself become the central witness, the one known as Jesus Christ, as told us
in the first chapter of Revelation: “He is the faithful witness, the first-born from the
dead.” The first chapter, the 5th verse of Revelation. Each in turn will play that
part, but he will play all the other parts; and those that come to him, as you have
come here, – you are going to see me in all the different roles as my friend to
whom I gave in-current eyes that she may become an in-current eye witness. And
she saw me here recently in the role that I have just told you, playing the whole
chapter – the 55th chapter of Isaiah. That is what she saw, – playing the role.
Come, no money. You don’t need the money. You don’t need anything to buy what
I have to offer.
Well, what have you to offer? You name it. I have that. “For the world is mine, and
all within it. If I were hungry, I would not tell you,” he said, “for the cattle on a
thousand hills are mine.”
The world and all within it, – that’s mine! “All mine are thine and thine are mine.”
Well, you name it, for it all is God’s and all God’s belong to the one that He “sent,”
for He and the “sent” are one.
So, she said, “I felt you could have given me the moon, had I desired it, and would
have willingly, for you are the victim of your own Love, possessed by Love, and
could not do anything but obey the commands of Love.”
I tell you, God is Love. He’s Infinite Love. And He willingly gives everything if
you come into His presence; and she knew any one who got through that little
door, that that one could receive anything that he voiced, because He would have
voiced it and His words could not return unto Him void; they had to be
accomplished. No matter what He sent them on, they had to fulfill the purpose for
which He sent them.
And so, you need money? No, you don’t. I share with you what I have discovered.
All you need is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. That’s all that you need
to do, because He is within you. Though asleep, He still grants the wish, for that is
His Law. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Though reason denies it, though
your senses deny it, don’t waiver in that assumption. You assume it. Persist in the
assumption, and that assumption will harden into reality, if you call reality these
concrete things in the world. But really, these are the shadows. The reality was the
invisible state that projected itself into what we can the “reality”; but the real
Reality was invisible. Have faith. Have confidence in that invisible state. Assume
it, “wear” it; it will externalize itself.
But here, everything said in the Old Testament is adumbrated. It’s a foreshadowing
in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. When it comes into the
fulfillment of itself in the One Being in whom all the Promises found their “yes,” –
it is said, in Jesus Christ all the Promises of God found their “yes” – their
fulfillment in Him. Study it carefully.
If you don’t understand what is meant about Crucifixion – you just heard it from
me. The Circumcision, we are told so clearly, but you can’t see it in the Old, – in
the Book of Deuteronomy they only speak of the circumcision of the heart. It
speaks nothing of the flesh. The flesh signifies an invisible, spiritual reality. Then
what is that circumcision? It unveils the head of creation, the organ of creation, and
He is called the Creative Power of God. That is the organ – the Creative Organ of
God. Who? Christ is. What is this circumcision?
As we are told, “circumcise with a circumcision made without hands,” a
circumcision in the circumcision of Christ. Then what was it? On the eighth day he
was circumcised. I tell you, it is the eighth month. The child is born, and then you
find the Fatherhood of God through David 139 days later, and then 123 days later
you’ll find this great act, which is really spiritual circumcision of the heart. Why?
In this sense:
“Do you not know that you are the Temple of the Living God, and the Spirit of God
dwells in you?” and that temple must be torn in two from top to bottom – the
curtain of the temple? And without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin. Then what is this circumcision of the heart? How is it done? Well, this is going
to be the blood that you are going to take into the Holy of Holies; and on that day a
bolt of lightning splits you in two from top to bottom, and at the base of your spine
is the golden liquid light – living, living, pulsing light. It is the blood of God. But
you look at it, and you know it’s your Self. For are we not told the life is in the
blood? And did he not say, “I am the Life,” – “I am the Resurrection and the Life”?
So, I am the Life.
I looked at it, and I knew as I looked at it I am looking at my very Self, “O my
Redeemer and my Creator!” – my very Self. And then I fused with it, and then
ascended into the Holy of Holies like a fiery serpent; and I took the blood, not of
bulls, not of calves, not of lambs, – not of anything on the outside; I took my own
blood. It was the blood of God! And it was the temple of God that was torn in two
– the body. “Do ye not realize ye are the Temple of the Living God, and the Spirit
of God dwells in you?” So, I saw the Spirit, the Life, and it was in the blood; and I
knew it to be my Self. And I fused with it and then I went up – right up like a fiery
serpent into the Holy of Holies where the outer man cannot enter.
The outer priests cannot enter. They go in with the blood of a calf, the blood of a
turtle-dove, the blood of a pigeon; but they come out still conscious of the sins of
the world and their own sins. This – you are completely exonerated, and you
exonerate all the world no matter what they do.
So, you go up with the “blood.” That is the Circumcision. Now, how on earth are
you going to dramatize that on the stage? So, the dramatization that Paul spoke of
in that third chapter of Galatians is simply an adumbration.
If some one today had the courage and the ability, – there is only one medium that I
know of that could really tell it, and that would be the movies. They can do strange
things with the camera and with lighting. I can’t see how it can be done on the
stage without the aid of a camera, but I could tell them in detail, as you could because
you have the record of it, exactly how it happens.
Now how on earth are you going to tell of the birth of God? As it is depicted year
after year at Christmas in all the Christian churches of the world? That’s not the
birth. This is a spiritual birth. How are you going to depict it when it begins with
the Resurrection? And the story is told that he’s only been born; he hasn’t yet been
crucified. In the beginning he was crucified! The drama begins with the
Crucifixion. “We have all been crucified with Him,” Paul tells us.
“I have been crucified with Christ.” But now the Resurrection is taking place.
When it takes place, then you are “born from above.” It’s the second side of the
coin, the birth. So the Resurrection comes first; then comes the “birth from above,”
the same night. How would you tell it? You can tell it in pictures.
A man with the imagination to conceive the scene all taking place in the skull of
man, – and a man is sound asleep within his own skull and doesn’t know it. His
daily habits could be that of a carpenter, that of a mason, a lawyer, a banker, –
anything in the world – digging ditches, – but anything. And then he goes to sleep;
and while he sleeps, he awakes. The camera could do it. A man who has any know how
in the use of a camera and great imagination could find the man sleeping in
the enlargement of his skull; and then something of which he was totally unaware,
which is himself – his true identity – awakes within his skull to find that it is
completely sealed and it now resembles a tomb; and yet, it is a skull, as told us in
Scripture. It’s called “Golgotha,” which is the Hebrew for the word “skull.” It’s
called “Calvary”; that is also “skull.”
So, within your skull you come out, and then all the imagery then surrounds you.
Are you not told in Scripture that the imagery is a sign? Well, Simeon comes by
spirit into the temple. He comes all in the spirit and comes into the temple, and
man is the temple of the Living God. So where is he going to go? He goes right
into man in Spirit! And here he finds on the floor a little child, and he picks up the
child, announcing whom it represents and what it represents. He announces that it
is – and he calls you by name. If your name is Bill, it’s Bill’s child.
Other witnesses are present, and they deny that Bill could ever have a child. How
could he beget a child? All this could be done beautifully, and what a shock it
would be to the hundreds of millions of people in the world! But a jolt of that
nature would really take this wonderful “ship” and scrape all the barnacles off!
You could make a short story out of it and simply tell it – tell it beautifully and
clearly and use just the things that you’ve heard from this platform, for I am telling
you exactly how it happens. Not one story in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke
or John – tells it in the true chronological order. They have taken this homogenous
tradition, and from that body they have unraveled a story – a beautiful story, but
they have not told it chronologically. It begins with the Resurrection, and the
second act is the Birth the same night. And then the discovery of the Fatherhood of
God is the second big act. And then the third is simply the severance of the body
from top to bottom and the ascent of a being carrying his own blood into the Holy
of Holies – up his own spinal column into his own skull! Then the last and final act
is the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove. Well, that could be done
easily. That is a simple matter, but use your imagination to find how to do the
others. I wouldn’t tell you. I know nothing of the camera. I know nothing of the
tricks of light and things of that sort. But you could tell the story in the most
glorious way, and it would be an awful shocker
Talk of these strange, filthy things today that shock people. That is a shock, but not
this kind of a shock. This would be a shock beyond shocks to ask every one to put
their faith completely in this and hope that the day will come that the unveiling will
take place in them, for this is true Christianity. Christianity is the fulfillment of
Judaism.
Judaism is the Promise. That’s the big tree. And Christianity is the fulfillment, the
fruit that tree bears. And this is what comes out; and when it happens to you,
everything said in Scripture you will play. And others that you’ve called; especially
those to whom you have given your eyes and made them in-current eye witnesses,
they will see you in these different roles, and they will know beyond all doubt the
truth of what you talk about. Even at the moment, if in one night it is not
completely understood, they will understand it eventually because they will see
you in the role. They will all see you playing these different parts.
They will see you playing the part of Power. They saw me playing the part of
Love. It’s not completely the Love of which I spoke, but she did see me playing the
part of Love. One day she will see me in that absolute role of Love; but then, by
that night, she will be called, and called for a purpose to be “sent.” And she will
not be “sent” until she is incorporated into the very Body of Love. This night she
was not incorporated into the Body of Love, but she does know of the existence of
Love, and Love is man, for God is man!
So, Love is not some impersonal force. It IS man. It takes a man as the agent to
express Love. She saw it actually embodied in a man, and knew that man, and
knew him to be a radiant fool. What a radiant, glorious fool! He gives everything
away, and it’s his to give. And no one going through that door could ever fail to
receive everything that they wanted, because he is possessed by Love, and the
slave of the very Love that possesses him.
So, I tell you, you keep this in mind; and someday when I am gone from the scene
you can be the one who can brush it up for them, because you have your notes –
you have a record of it, exactly how it happened. And these are the four Majestic
Events of God. The first is His Mighty One – the awakening of God in man. That
is the Resurrection. At that very moment he is “born from above,” and he comes
out of that sealed tomb where he had been sealed and dreaming for these
unnumbered centuries – dreaming as though he is on the outside and that the drama
is taking place on the outside. He has been dreaming it and dreaming it.
And then from there, you move into the next scene. It is a simple scene. And may I
tell you? the whole imagery of the 22d chapter of the Psalms comes into being. The
whole thing actually comes into being. Here you stand before your son, and David
this time – and I can correct one little thing, because in the 17th chapter of First
Samuel when David stands before the insane king – the king made by man and not
by God – he didn’t know the boy’s name and he didn’t know the boy’s father’s
name; and it was essential that he discover the boy’s father’s name, for he had
promised to set the father free of the one who brought down the enemy of Israel.
The enemy was – the first time – Goliath, for he was a man, as we are told in the
Scripture – from his birth he was a man of war. So the whole vast conflict of the
world, and this one brings him down, and he has his severed head. It’s an
enormous head. But when he stands before the insane king, he holds the head in his
hands. The night that I knew Who-I-was and who my son was, the head was there,
buy it was on a table before me. It was not held in his hands; it was on a table –
this enormous head, the head of a giant.
And then the same people that the 22d chapter speaks of, – for they speak of these
harlots; they are male harlots in the service of the priests of the temple. There were
two handsome, handsome men – very, very attractive men. They were looking
concupiscently at my son David, and I warned them, pointing out the head, that he
is Invincible – he had never lost one battle. He is the invincible warrior. And then I
pointed to the head of Goliath and showed them the head that he had just brought
down – that youth, that son of mine. But there they were looking – “eating him up”
mentally, with the most concupiscent look on their faces as they looked at David. It
was David looking at me and still with a glance towards that pastoral scene, for he
was shepherd tending the flocks. And this whole scene is perfect.
And at the very end of that chapter: “Look what God hath wrought. He sees the
turmoil, the travail of his soul, and is satisfied when he contemplates what the end
result of it is. And when he saw the fruit of his travail, he was satisfied; and the
book ends. “And see what God hath wrought.” He actually kept his promise that he
would not leave his son David in the pit. He raised him, and David is resurrected,
and he stands before his Father and knows his Father and calls him “Father.” And
the father knows that he is looking at his son David. Now that is an easy way to
dramatize that; but the Crucifixion will be a difficult one, but you can do it. The
birth and the resurrection will be difficult, but it could be done.
There is one picture of Turner. It was shown in New York City. Unfortunately I
didn’t see it. My wife was it. It was the day of the closing of the exhibition; so I
didn’t get over to see it. And she came back and said, “Oh, you just missed the
treasure of your life.”
Here is the picture of Turner, and it was a skull – a human skull; and in the depth of
the skull is this Being rising – rising in the skull. So he must have had somewhat of
a vision, and he caught it. It was displayed in New York City. It was called the
Turner Exhibition.
She went over and she saw it. She said, “Oh, it was the last day and I couldn’t
come back to get you.” I missed it when it came to this city. I wasn’t here; but it
was the human skull, and way in the depth a peculiar light and a man rising in the
light within the skull.
Well, you could do that as Turner did it on the canvas. Surely, with the camera and
the know-how of today you could do it and see some one rising within his own
skull to find it completely sealed, and with the know-how of how to come out of it
– to push that stone from within and roll it away, not from without, but to roll it
away from within, and then to come out, and to find the imagery all around him of
the infant and the witnesses to the event. Then you certainly could get the sound.
An unearthly wind accompanies this entire scene– just a peculiar wind. Well, you
can do that with all the tricks that people do on TV and in the movies. And you can
make this the most glorious drama and bring it up to date so you would not have to
write that third chapter that Paul wrote to the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians! Who
has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as
crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the
Law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the spirit, are
you now ending with the flesh?”
Well, you wouldn’t have to challenge the world that way. Let them see it. Did you
receive the spirit by the seeing of the story and the hearing of the story? You could
have it dramatized – have some beautiful voice actually explain it from the words
of Scripture.
This is something for you to dwell upon. I won’t be here to help you, but you can
do it. You know it, and you can tell it. But this story is nothing more than a sign
from beginning to end. The first 39 books – the Old Testament – they are all
adumbrated. And the New fulfills it. It completes the drama, what happens in the
interval between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New.
Now let us go into the Silence.
––oOo––
Neville Goddard, Summa Theologica, Manly P Hall, A Course In Miracles
