06 Mar Neville Goddard Lectures: “God’s Purpose”
11/22/71
God became as we are, that we may be as He is. That is God’s purpose. That is His plan which He set forth in Christ for the fullness of time. But God Himself never left them, and therefore God cannot return. “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Therefore, God has never left humanity, and therefore He cannot return. And yet, in the promise of the Holy Spirit, the coming of a definite Divine Person is promised. Scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” So, a definite person is promised.
Now, this is my theme tonight: God and man are permanently made one in the person of Christ. God became as I am; but without Christ revealing it, I would not know it. God became every child born of woman, and yet that child would go through the ages and never know that God became it. The purpose is that he may become God. He will not in eternity know it, unless he knows it in the person of Christ.
Now, this is what I mean. I’ll take now the first book of the New Testament—the book of Galatians. Not in its canonical order, but in its chronological order. It was the first book written—either that or First Thessalonians—but it’s a toss-up within a year or two. And this is Paul’s …biography, his confession. He said: “I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached is not according to man. For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
He was not speculating, trying to set up some workable philosophy of life. This is something that came through revelation. Revealed truth is that which you cannot logically prove. It is something that is entirely different. It’s as real as this room—more so—but it’s something that reason cannot put its teeth into. Now this is my theme.
You mean God became me? And through the centuries I have walked with God within me, and He never left me—not for one moment. Not even in my dreams at night. He is the Dreamer in me, and the Waker and the Dreamer are one. I hear, He never left me, not for one moment, and I didn’t know it until Christ came. But Christ comes to us individually, not collectively. He comes to the individual and reveals to the individual who that individual is.
If you study the scriptures—for when it came to me, I certainly was the most startled person in the world. I was awed. I could hardly believe that the man I know so well—that did many things of which I am ashamed, and possibly today I am still capable of doing similar things—still, in spite of that, He came to me and revealed to me the Being that I really am.
Well, who is this Christ? As Paul said, he did not receive it from a man; he was not taught it by a man. I make the same confession: I did not hear it from a man. I was not taught it by a man. It came through revelation. I had never known for one moment anything about this revelation until the night that it happened. Oh yes, I had heard of Christ. My mother taught me Christ. In school, I was taught the story of Christ. But then I went out into the world; I saw pictures on the wall and they told me, “This is the artist’s concept of Christ painted under inspiration.” And here they are: forty or fifty different pictures of Christ, no two looking alike, each claiming it was inspired by the original Being. That is not Christ. What the churches teach concerning Christ is not Christ.
The Christ of scripture is daily. That is the Christ. There is no physical description of Jesus in scripture. There is a physical description of David in scripture. And when he comes, you know him instantly. There is no uncertainty as to who you’re looking at, and no uncertainty as to the relationship between you and the one that you’re observing. And then you go back, stunned, the next day and you search your scriptures to find that it was always there. He is the anointed one. He is the “Christed” one. He is the chosen one. “Rise and anoint him, this is he.” And then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily from that day forward.
And so, I have found David, and with my holy oil I have anointed him. And David then cried unto me, “Thou art my Father.” As I told him in the beginning, he was my son. There is the relationship. But you would not know in eternity that God became you—actually became you—and that you are permanently made one, but you would not it say, know the person, Christ. Not some immensity, not some enormous glow of light—that would not convince you that you are God. It could not convince you that you are the Father of the Son of God. All the power in the world could not convince you that you are the Father of the Son of God.
The Son has to appear. And when he appears, at that moment, in the twinkle of an eye, you know exactly who you are and all the darkness is gone. And now you know, and you walk in the light. You walk telling it to those who will hear it, giving a reason to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you—for it is now supported by scripture. Prior to that, you didn’t find it, and you’re not encouraged to find it. For no minister that I ever heard, no true teacher that I have ever heard, has ever voiced it. I never found it in a book that I’ve ever read. It was in the Bible, but I didn’t see it. All the other books that I read in my hungry search for the truth did not even breathe it.
When I first came to this city back in 1945, the lady who met me at the airport and brought me over to the hotel. And she didn’t quite notice the time. When I came to the meeting, I was almost at the time to start talking, but the head of the organization called me aside into his private office and said, “I’ve heard some very distressing things about you.” I said, “Like what?” He said, “I have heard that you do not treat the Bible as secular history.” I said, “No, I do not.”
I had not yet received the vision of the Son of God, but I knew the Bible could be interpreted psychologically, for I had proven it day in and day out—not only to my own satisfaction, but those who heard and believed what I told them, they too changed their lives based upon my interpretation of scripture. So he said to me, “From my platform, you cannot say, anything that I heard you were saying up in San Francisco.” I thanked him and, “I will abide by your decision tonight. I’m your guest tonight.” I was addressing his alumni, and there were about, I would say, five hundred present, all graduates of his institution. And so I spoke to the crowds who were there.
But I told him after the meeting, “I did what you asked me to do as of tonight. I was your guest to address those you graduated as teachers, but beginning tomorrow night, I am on my own. Whether I speak in this place or that place, or any place.” And then he said to me, “Well, you’re not going to give your Bible class outsideof here?” I said, “No, I came to give everything under your auspices. It was my agreement—a verbal agreement between gentlemen. If you want to break it, it’s perfectly all right with me.” He said, “No.” I asked, “Where is the room where I’m going to speak?” He said, “That room there.” I said, “Well, that room seats about forty people, doesn’t it?” He said, “Yes, that’s big enough.” He said, “You’re charging $40 for five talks, and I am the head of the institution and I don’t charge more than $25 for my talk.”
I thought, “Well, we are different people.” I am teaching the Bible as I know it, not as others taught me to believe it, and I am not going to speak in this place that seats forty people. I came three thousand miles under my own steam; and I brought my wife, and my daughter, and I brought my niece at my own expense. And I don’t live in a hubble, I am living in an excellent hotel, paying my own way. As I paid my own way out, I’ll pay my own way back. But I am not speaking here. So he said to me, “If you don’t speak here, you can’t speak for me at any place.” That was perfectly all right.
I said to the lady who met me—one of his students—”Go out and rent me a place. I promised that man I’d give him 40% of every penny that comes in, and I will take 60%. I pay my own personal expenses and he simply furnishes the hall.” That’s all. And for that he gets 40. But I was charging $40 for my five talks to be given in one week, Monday through Friday. So he went out and rented a place. He only paid, I think, $90 for the five nights.
And 208 attended that class. He said to me, “What must I do with the money?” I said, “Throw it in the ash can, give me 60% of that money and that’s all that I want, and I don’t care what you do with it.” He did nothing, for me; he tried to rub me out, he tried to stop me at the bloody door. And so you can take the money, 40%, which was a considerable sum of money. You don’t have to be a great genius to multiply 208 by 40 and then take off 40%. And her investment was $90! So she kept it, and he went through the ceiling. He wanted it, yet he did everything to stop me from doing it and now you want it. “No, we have had our day together, and that’s it.”
And so, from then on, I started coming on my own and not under the auspices of anyone else—just a gentleman’s agreement between Fred and myself for a few years I was with Fred. And that’s the story here. Paul did the same thing. And Paul made the confession that what he is talking about, he did not get from a man. He didn’t hear it; he wasn’t taught it. It came through a revelation. And the revelation was the true meaning of Jesus Christ. Then he understood who Christ really was.
The only scriptures Paul read were the scriptures of the Old Testament. There was no New Testament, for he hadn’t started to write yet; his book, Galatians, is the first book of the New Testament. And he read into the Old and listened to His word. “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, I conferred not, with flesh and blood.” It pleased God to reveal His Son in me. But he tells you first, that He who set me apart before I was born. Called through his Grace and then it pleased him to reveal his Son in me, before he was born. Paul is not speaking of any physical birth; before he was born from above. That is what he is saying.
The King James Version says, “Before he separated me from the womb.” No, He didn’t separate you from that womb. It is the birth from above of which he speaks, as we are told in the Book of John: “Except you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Paul is speaking of that birth, and before that birth took place in him, he was set apart.
The same thing happened in my case. Before I experienced the birth from above on the 20th day of July in 1959, thirty years before, I was set upon and called into the Divine Council. And when my name was checked off in the register, I was taken into the presence of the Ancient of Days—God Himself. His infinite Love was standing as a person before me. Then He embraced me. Our bodies fused. And I know from experience that the form of God is a living form, a forming form. Anyone who is fused with it, that actually formed into the image of God. That’s the only way that Christ could recognize you as his Father. You have actually to be formed into that Being.
So the embrace, that fusion—because His body is a forming, creative body—as you fuse with it, it starts now forming you into the image of Himself. Then comes the one who is born from above. It is that one who encounters God’s Son, and God’s Son recognizes him now as Father. So although God and man are permanently made one, man will not know it, save through the person of Christ.
Now, I say a “person” advisedly. Don’t think of Him as some impersonal force. He is not some impersonal force. It is a person, and he’s a youth—an eternal youth—and his name is David. But when the poet wrote concerning David, taking the Book of Samuel as his inspiration to write the poem, he has David speaking to the king, telling the king as he stands before the king: “Oh Saul, a faith like my faith shall receive thee, and a man like unto me thou shalt love and be loved by, forever. A hand like this hand shall throw open the doors of eternal life to thee. See the Christ stand!” He confesses he is the Christ, the anointed, the chosen, of God the Father. Saul could not see it. Saul was a demented king, and Saul only symbolizes humanity who has not yet encountered that revelation of the Christ as a person. And, he’s not anything that you see hanging on the walls that you see all over the place. He is the eternal youth. So beautiful you cannot describe the beauty of David. And so, every attempt has been made to put him into form and put him into pictures. Were I an artist and the scene remained.
Yes, I can see him in my mind’s eye. I can see the love that poured from me to him as I feasted on the beauty of my son.
I can see the feat that he accomplished with that severed head of the enemy of Israel lying before me on a table. I can see the entire drama now unfold before me as it did that night on the morning of the 6th of December 1959. So I tell you, the story is true and I was not taught it. I never heard it. It is not man’s gospel. It came to me through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So here, God actually became you. Literally became you. Say, “I am”—that’s the Father. But you do not know He’s the Father, and you will not in eternity know that he is the Father, and you are the Father. But, when you say “I AM,” you’re not pointing on the outside. You can’t say “I AM” and mean anyone other than yourself you can say we are and included but you can’t say I am and point to anyone outside of yourself.
Yet you can say “I am” and still not know that is God the Father. And you will not in eternity know that that is God the Father until the Son appears.
And when He appears, the drama is over. The mystery is over. It’s all been solved, for He stands before you, and here you look into your Son’s face, and the whole thing returns. At that moment God succeeded in His purpose. He actually gave Himself to you. He never left you and therefore He cannot return.
But there is a promise of some Divine person coming, and scoffers will come and they will scoff, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” But He comes in a way that no one knows. He comes privately. He comes suddenly like a thief in the night. So Christ comes to everyone as one unknown, yet one who in the most ineffable manner lets the individual experience who He is. So when He comes to you, you will experience not only who Christ is—I tell you He is David—but you’ll experience who you are. And I tell you who you are: you are God the Father. You are literally God the Father waiting for the coming of the promise. And when the promise comes, it is the Son coming to reveal you, for He sets the Father free. And if the Son has made you free, you are free indeed. But no other one can set you free.
Today men think, “If I only had a fortune, I would be free from the pressure.” Did you read yesterday morning’s paper? Well, here is a man, 47 years old, a personal fortune in excess of five billion dollars—not million, five billion. Now he blew his brains out, and they’re saying he was under pressure bringing about a huge merger of many banks in Sweden. The pressure was so great that he couldn’t stand the strain, and so he blew his brains out. Five billion dollars did not stop him from that act, and he had to do it. He came in on cue, and he departs on cue. That was his moment in time when he leaves the stage into another sphere. With five billion, all he could think of would be more billions. How many more billions do you want? In the world he had five billion personal fortune, and others will think, “But if I only had some money, I will be set free.” You’re only set free when the Son sets you free.
You can drop dead here now as he did yesterday with a bullet in his head, and he is no more free than he was one moment before he pulled the trigger. He’ll find himself in a world just like this one. And that’s why I repeat time and again: live so that mind can store a path worthy of recall. For the mind whose contents vanish, it remains—but he suffers loss. He will be saved, but only as through fire. Though we are passing through the furnaces, and we are moving from one state to the other, thinking now, “If I only had more of this, more recognition, more that,” it doesn’t work that way.
I feel your presence here, and your constant presence here assures me that you have fulfilled that passage in the Book of Amos, in the 8th chapter: “I will send a famine upon the land. It will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.” When a man is so hungry for the word of God that not a thing in this world can satisfy that hunger but an experience of God, he’s on the road, and there’s no diversion.
Let me now wait a little while. As a friend of mine said to me back in 1925 in London—I said, “Matt”—his name was Matthew—”I said, Matt, why don’t you become more interested in things of this nature?” For his father had introduced me to The Light of Asia and the Bhagavad Gita and things of that sort. He said, “No, I’m only 21, and when I get old enough like my father”—father was then 50—”when I get an old man like my father, then I become interested, if then. But I want to live first.” When I came back to New York City and he went off to India as a tea taster, a letter came from his mother about 6 months later after he went to India saying that Matt died. He caught some kind of a fever, and then in no time flat Matt was gone.
No tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow—he wasn’t hungry. He wanted the things of this world. He wanted all the things that, well, he thought young people should have. He wanted the sex world, he wanted money, he wanted position, he wanted honor—all his ambitions realized. But this? No, that can take its time.
I tell you, if you’re so hungry that not a thing can divert you, that nothing this night can tempt you to turn from it because the other seems more rosy, then you’re on the road. And the hunger is there—not for these things that they offer, but for the word of God. And what I have told you this night is the word of God, for it did not come to me in any other way save by revelation. It was revealed to me, and I share it with you just as it came to me. And when I get confirmation in scripture—for that is a witness; the Bible is a witness—now the internal witness is my own experience, and where two different ones agree in testimony, it is conclusive. So my inward testimony of the spirit agrees with the outward testimony of the letter.
So I went back and I read the story, and here it is staring me in the face. In the second psalm, and David tells of the decree of the Lord: “He said unto me, Thou art my Son; today I have begotten thee.” Well, it was always there. And in the 16th chapter of 1st Samuel, when he’s looking for one that he wants to make king, and they bring all these before him: “Are all these your sons?” “There is one more.” There is one more, but he’s tending the flock. “Go and get him. We will not sit until he comes.” And as he comes in, the voice speaks to Samuel the prophet: “This is he. Rise and anoint him.” And then the spirit of God came mightily upon him from that day forward.
And so I tell you, it’s a person. And you will not know—if I am a person, don’t give me a donkey as an offspring. I don’t beget donkeys or cats or things of that sort. It’s a person. I’m a person. If I’m a father, my son has to be a person, and it is a person. It’s not infinite light, and it isn’t infinite power—although that is said of the Christ: He is the power of God, and He is the wisdom of God—but the power is personified as that youth, and the wisdom is personified. So it’s a person.
And so when David comes into your world, he reveals you as God the Father. And yet while you wear these mortal garments of flesh and blood, you are restricted until that moment in time when you take it off for the last time. Then you are one with the Risen Lord. But because He is in everyone, where are you going? Is not the Kingdom of Heaven within? Where do you think you’re going to find me? I promise, as I’ve done before, I reveal myself. I have suffered to many; I will continue. And when this thing comes off, it will really be a revelation to those who have heard and who have believed.
Well, I know where I’m going, and yet I’m not going to go away from anyone, because I can’t get away from the being that I am, and the being that I am is God. Well, if God became all of us, where can I go that would be outside of you? And so now I am near to you, but when I take this thing off, they will never be so near—or rather so far away as even to be near—because nearness would imply separation. And I can’t be separated from you if I am one with God, and God is in you. So God actually became man that man may become God.
So when man discovers who he really is through the revelation of the Son, when he takes off the garment for the last time, where is he but one with the Risen Lord? And if the Risen Lord is in man, then where is that man going to be? And so I tell you, I’ll be not even there—or that would imply that I am still something external. No, you can see God as you see objects in space, but He knows who He is through His Son, and there’s no other way of knowing Him. So you know Him through the Son.
And so you will see me—what you’ll see me from within. Listen to the words of Paul: “And when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me”—the preposition is “in,” not “to me” as some translations have it, but the actual preposition is “in.” It pleased God to reveal His Son in me. And so that’s where you’re going to see Him. But He will seem to you as something external to yourself. But you don’t see self; you see yourself in your Son, and it’s the Son who reveals you.
So tell the story as it really ought to be told, and let man walk in faith in hope that one day he will encounter the Son who reveals him as God the Father. So we are told, “Set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Now He said, “He so loved the world He gave His only Son.” That Son, I tell you, is David. If you read the words in the red-letter edition, there these passages are all in red letters, and yet they are supposed to be the words of Christ. No, they’re spoken of Him, not by Him. The Evangelist is writing of it.
In the third chapter of the Gospel of John, it begins with the sixth verse. Do I tell you it’s all about you? The whole book is all about you. It is your biography, as told us in the 40th Psalm: “In the volume of the book it is all about me. I delight to do thy will, O my Lord.”
Now here are the words put into the mouth of Christ on the cross: “Into thy hands I commit my spirit.” That’s the 31st Psalm. But the completed verse is this: After he said, “Into thy hands I commit my spirit,” it goes on to say, “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” That’s the completed verse, and these are the words of David in the 31st Psalm. Therefore, who is uttering them? Who is the Christ?
In the 16th Psalm he now makes the appeal to the Father: “Thou wouldst not let my soul remain in hell.” So He raises them up. He actually raises them up within you.
May I tell you, it comes like an explosion. You come to the end of the journey. The climax is brought about by an explosion—not of matter, but of mind. Your whole mind explodes, and as it explodes you find yourself facing your Son. And here is David. And not for one moment is there any uncertainty as to who He is and the relationship. And one second before, you did not know it.
I was born from above and did not know it—or the birth from above took place on the 20th day of July of 1959, and this was the sixth day of December 1959—139 days later I discovered I didn’t know.
Because I was born from above and thrilled beyond measure that it fulfilled scripture. The witnesses were there, the child wrapped in swaddling clothes—he was there, everything was there—and yet I didn’t know. In fact, I’m born from above, but I didn’t know—may I tell you, I didn’t know what part He played in the drama to this extent. And I didn’t know it was He who revealed me as God the Father. But I know today He, and He alone, will reveal everyone as God the Father. That is David.
When we can find people who can become so prejudiced with a false concept, who can single out a race of people and try to rub them off the face of the earth—when that is the message through which God spoke, that was the message that came to the world. It’s an eternal message, and it’s true. And so those who speak of another Christ, they have the false Christ.
Jesus is God the Father. Jesse, who is called the father of David, means “Jehovah exists.” But Jesse is simply the Lord Himself, and His Son calls Him Father. And Jesse is any form of the verb “to be.” In other words, “I AM.” Who is your father? “My father is Jesse the Bethlehemite.” Your father is Jesse the Bethlehemite, and who are you? The son of Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Go to your concordances and start looking them up, and you come forward with the conclusion that if they’re all alone and you didn’t see it—that here was your Son. And because He was born—so-called born—3,000 years ago, you turn the pages over. But that’s old stuff. Means nothing to me today. It has no bearing on the 20th century. Why? It’s forever. It never comes to an end. It’s forever and forever.
The only way that man could ever be redeemed is not through any other way. There’s no other way. “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life—the only true and living way.” And there is no other way. And yet morning, noon, and night, there all new ways appearing on the surface, and new isms here and new isms there. They’re all trying to spread something that is a lie, is not based upon revelation. It’s simply people sitting down trying to work out some, what they consider a nice pleasing philosophy of life.
But I tell you, I’ve experienced it. That I stand here—I did not know, until I experienced it. I was just as blind as Paul, who went out to destroy everything that claimed what Christianity claims. He consented unto Stephen’s death—stoned him to death—and in spite of that he was chosen. In spite of all that he did, he was the one who was elected. He had all that it took. He had the fire. He had that something that would face prison and face anything rather than turn from the vision. He kept the divine vision in time of trouble.
And so he stood before King Agrippa and he said, “O King, why should it be thought strange that I have seen the risen Lord, seen the resurrection? Why is it strange that our people should think the resurrection is false?” But it’s all taught in scripture, but they didn’t see it.
If I am appealing to God the Father not to leave my soul in the pit, not to leave me in hell, and then I could say a few chapters later, “Thou hast redeemed me”—for then he knows that he has been redeemed, for he saw the Father. And if he saw the Father, having died—well then he must be alive, and could say, “I am the living way, the true and living way.”
So you take my word for it. I would not betray you. I would not lead you astray. I take my Bible seriously. In the third chapter of the Book of James warns man who would be a teacher that the judgment is harder on him who would be the teacher than on any other person. For you are warned in the third chapter of James to be very careful when you go out to teach. You teach the truth, and don’t bring in any other thing outside of the truth as revealed. I’m not speaking of mathematics, not speaking of any of these things. I’m speaking of revealed truth in scripture.
And the story is there, but it must be repeated in the individual. And everything said of Him in the scripture will one day be experienced by every one born of woman—but each in his own good time. For as we are told in the third chapter of second Peter, when they wonder about when it is coming, he said they do not know that a thousand years is as a day in the eyes of God. So they’re concerned about when is He coming, and a thousand years is only one day in the eyes of God. And so if you have 6,000 days—or years—of travel, it’s only six days before the image is completed, and you and God are perfectly made one. And then comes the revelation of the Son who reveals you as God, and you know you are permanently one. You are the Father of God’s only Son, and there’s no other way that you would ever know it.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Are there any questions, please?
With which one? Which word?
And I use James Strong’s Concordance. I find that exhausted every word in the verse. It’s based upon the King James version, but it’s easy to find the parallel in the Revised Standard Version. But that is based—that is the concordance. James Strong’s Concordance uses the King James version as its guide, but they take every word in the Hebrew, every word in Greek, and they define the original meaning for you. And you have sometimes a dozen definitions, and you can choose what you feel was the intention of the author, or you can go along with what they did. But I use the Revised Standard version most of the time. But I have Moffatt, I had Ferrar Fenton, Lightfoot, the New English Bible—I have so many Bibles. But I find it daily: I take my Revised Standard Version and read it. But if I do not like a translation, I will see what another one did, or another one did. And if I don’t like any of them, I take concordance and see what I would have done if I had that opportunity.
Now take that statement in Jeremiah: “Can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor?” Well, that didn’t satisfy me. I went from Bible to Bible. They all almost give the same meaning. So I started a search in the concordance, and the word that they translate “loins” is not that at all. But they could not bring themselves to believe what the vision is actually stating.
Now these are the words of the Lord spoken to His prophet Jeremiah, and He’s asking Jeremiah, “Can a man bear a child?” And He doesn’t wait for the answer from this prophet. He’s answering what He said: “Why then do I see every man with his hands drawing himself out of himself just like a woman in labor?” If you take the concordance and go through it, you’ll find that is the best translation of it. “I see him with his hands drawing himself out of himself.” And that’s exactly what happened.
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