25 Apr Neville Goddard Lectures: “Have You Found Him?”
3/26/65
Tonight’s subject is “Have You Found Him?” This is the question I would like to ask of everyone in the world, really. But asking it here, it is my hope that everyone could reply, “Yes, I have, I have found him.” This is a strange presence of whom we speak here. Naturally, we speak of Christ, but when I speak of Christ, I do not make a mental picture of a man that walked the earth 2,000 years ago. Like Paul, “I do not regard Christ from a human point of view; even though I once regarded him from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16 RSV). Something entirely different takes place in us.
We are told in the Book of Matthew, in the 16th chapter, that the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to him and to test him they asked him for a sign (verse 1). Well, that was customary if someone said he was sent from God. If a prophet appeared in the world, and he claimed he was a prophet and said he was sent from God, then it was necessary to ask him for the sign. He said to them, “There would be no sign for this adulterous generation except the sign of Jonah”…that’s the only sign (verse 4). What does it mean “the sign of Jonah”? Well, the only message that Jonah brought to the world was repentance. He said to Nineveh, repent and be saved; if you do not repent, you will be destroyed (Jonah 3:1-5). They believed him. He had no credentials, none whatsoever, yet they believed him and were saved. Repentance is not regret, not remorse, but a radical change of attitude towards life, towards everything in the world, a radical change. If I change the inner attitude of my mind, I will bring about corresponding change in the outer aspects of my life. That is law. It is entirely up to me to change the inner attitude of my mind. If I succeed in doing it, no power in the world can stop the corresponding change in the outer part of my world. So, they believed and it happened.
But Jonah means more than one who taught repentance. Jonah is the Hebrew word for dove, and dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. As we are told, “We are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” This you read in Paul’s one letter to the Ephesians, the very first chapter (verse 13): Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Now, that, too, is a sign. He’s only asking for a sign. So tonight, I want to tell you that everything is a sign. There are two kinds of signs; but all signs follow, they do not precede. So when I use the law of repentance, signs will follow. If what I tell you is true, they must follow. But there is another series of signs, the signs of salvation. Man should think in terms of the supernatural character of this series of signs that come at the end of his journey.
Now, let us take now the first aspect of the word Jonah: “There will be no sign except the sign of Jonah.” Well, about a year ago this lady and her daughter came to the meeting. I know them well, I know the mother very well; she’s here all the time. The daughter, naturally, could come only at rare intervals. That night we were speaking of the creative power of God, that Imagination creates reality, and if Imagination creates reality, and it is said of Christ Jesus that all things were made through him, and without him were not anything made that was made, well then, Christ Jesus must be our own wonderful human Imagination (John 1:3). We took that theme and developed it through the evening, asking everyone to test it. To conceive a scene implying the fulfillment of a dream, and then believing in the reality of the scene and what the scene implies; for its potency is really what it implies. Alright, so I would construct a scene, and simply believe in the reality of this imaginal act; and if it proves itself in performance, well then, I have found the creative power of God. If the creative power of God, as told us in the first chapter of the Book of Corinthians, 1st chapter, the 24th verse, that “Jesus Christ is the power and the wisdom of God,” well, if I test it and it proves itself in performance, well then, I have found who Jesus Christ is. I have found him as my own wonderful human Imagination.
Now, in the audience that night sat this mother and this daughter, and, naturally, all the others who were present. I said, “If what I say any night is true, signs must follow to support the truth of what I’ve said.” So that night, on the way home, the mother said to the daughter, “How did you like it?” She said, “I liked it very much…not only that, what’s more I believe it.” Alright, so she believed me. That night she had a dream and she dreamt she saw a little serpent, a live, live serpent, and she picked it up and put it in her purse. That was the dream; this followed her visit here. Now a serpent has always been, as other symbols of the world, the symbol of Christ. She saw a living Christ, symbolized in a universal language as a serpent. She did what here on this level she never would have done. I doubt that anyone here, male or female, seeing a serpent would pick it up alive and put it in a purse or a pocket, but that’s what she did, put it in her purse. Well, a purse is where you carry valuable things. So she valued what she just heard.
Now the Bible has only one source of dream: all dreams, all visions proceed from God, as told us in the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers (verse 6). So, all dreams proceed from God and God speaks to man through the language of dream. So there she saw the symbol of Christ. She accepted it; she believed what she heard here from this platform, that Imagination creates reality. For, the Bible claims that “Jesus Christ is the creative power of God…and by him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So here, she found it, and she identified her own Imagination with Christ. A symbol had to follow, and there she saw the symbol, the symbol of the serpent. She so valued what she found and believed in she put it in her purse. Then she woke. So the next day she called her mother and told her mother of this simple, simple dream. If everyone here could only believe that their own wonderful human Imagination is Jesus Christ, really believe it, there is nothing impossible to that belief, but nothing! Nothing is impossible to God if one really would believe it. But if I use the word Christ and instantly the mind jumps in time 2,000 years ago and you see a man, or I use another name and you see something else, you don’t quite believe this story.
Today, a friend of mine, who is here tonight, called me to tell me that two days ago he had this experience. In a dream…and bear in mind God is speaking to all of us through the medium of dream. We may be past masters at misinterpreting the dream, but he still speaks through the dream. He found himself in a circle. There was a schoolmaster or a teacher, and he sat to the left of him, and this man made a bold negative statement, “I do not know of any passage in the Old Testament where Christ is promised.” No one responded, that’s what he said; then he asked a question, “Does anyone here know that Jesus Christ is crucified within you?” and he rose and raised his right hand. He didn’t give any further demonstration of his knowledge, but from the depths of his being he knew that Jesus Christ was crucified within him.
So today, he knows the truth of that statement in the 6th chapter of the Book of Romans, “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (verse 5 RSV). So he knows today…regardless of the three billion who walk the earth…for in the depths of his soul he responded to that challenge, “Does anyone here know that Jesus Christ is crucified within him?” and he raised his right hand…he knew. So here in this wonderful revelation of Paul, the 6th chapter of Romans, he knows tonight he has been crucified with Christ in a death like his; and now he lives in that wonderful statement of hope, “Set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” within you (1 Pet.1:13 RSV). He has to resurrect it. The one who’s going to resurrect within him is his own being, and it’s Jesus Christ. When he rises within you it’s not another; it’s your own wonderful being, your wonderful human Imagination, that’s Jesus Christ. Let no one tell you it’s another; there is no other. I stand before you speaking not from theory, I’m speaking from experience, that when he wakes within you it’s you who wakes. The word translated in our language “resurrection from the dead,” look it up carefully, it means “to rise; to be stirred from a profound sleep; to lift up within oneself.” This is exactly what happens.
Now listen to these words…they called him, “Behold, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” (Mat. 11:19). When you read that you think a man who is a gourmand, who simply gorges himself with food. If you say a man is a glutton and a winebibber, you think of a wino, a man who’s a drunkard. In fact, the modern translation of the word is drunkard. A friend of publicans and sinners…the new translation is tax collectors and sinners. But take a biblical concordance and look up the words and see what they really mean. Behold, a glutton, “one who shakes as in the wind and scatters profusely.” What does he scatter?—the Word of God. He scatters it in the wind that every mind, which is really the soil of God, could take it. Some would be simply like a highway, it won’t take root; and some like thorns, all cluttered up, it will choke it; and some like a hard rock, it will grow over night and then wither tomorrow; and some, prepared to receive it (Mat. 13:18). For man, called Adam, means “the red earth” and this called Adam has to be prepared to receive this scattered Word of God.
So he’s called a drunkard and you think a man who simply imbibes heavily. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. The word winebibber is the root of the word dove. It is taken from the word Jonah. So here is the Holy Spirit who walks the earth and scatters his Word to everyone who will listen. Some hear and throw it out. Some get it eagerly…it may work over night and they think “I’ve got a little secret now, I will just control the world”; but there was no depth in that mind for it to really go deep and become a real, wonderful tree. So, a glutton and a winebibber; a friend of publicans and sinners, what is publican? Look it up…”one who has a definite aim in this world, one who knows exactly what he wants in this world.” That’s how it is defined in my biblical concordance, which is James Strong’s Concordance; to me the most exhaustive concordance that I know of, and I have many of them: One with a definite point, a definite goal in the world. But a sinner is “to miss the mark.” He has a definite goal, but he doesn’t know how to achieve it, so he can’t achieve it. And here comes the one who scatters the Word of God and shows him how to achieve it.
Well, how would I achieve it? If tonight you believe me, signs should follow in two ways: You should get it, you should realize it in this world; and then signs come from the depth of the soul to confirm your belief in what I’m talking about. Like my friend with the little serpent…she really believed me. She may tomorrow neglect it because of the rush of the day. She has four little girls, she’s married, and there are problems in any family life. So she may tomorrow by the pressure forget for a moment, but the soul has already responded and the soul has told her that she has accepted as true that Jesus Christ is her own wonderful human Imagination. For it came in symbolism and you can’t conjure it; it’s not something that you can evoke, it just happens. All things spring from the depths of the soul in the universal language of symbolism.
If tonight you really believe it, you can now take your objective, form a little scene in the mind’s eye which would imply that you’ve realized it, believe in the reality of that scene and feel whatever it is implying has taken place. Feel the thrill of that accomplishment. You should have two symbols then; you should have the thing actually coming to pass in the world in the not distant future, and then in the depths of your soul some wonderful dream or vision that God conjured from the depths of your own being to reveal your acceptance of the law. So, “Show me a sign, master.” They didn’t want a sign…those who asked for a sign didn’t want the sign, they wanted him to conjure some little thing and have a little trick. He said to them, “If one rose from the dead, they still would not believe. So don’t ask me to raise someone from the dead, for if one rose from the dead they would not believe.” So, not one thing is going to be happening on the outside, like a little trick. No tricks. I tell you the law, you apply the law, and you’ll get a sign outwardly. The success that you seek you will get. The help you seek you will get. The conditions in your world that you seek you will get. These are all signs, everything is a sign. If you really believe in the reality of your own imaginal act, believing that your own wonderful human Imagination is God and your imagining is God in action. God in action is a power and that is Jesus Christ. Believe it! If you really believe it, it would prove itself in the testing.
After that, in the depths of your soul, these visions begin to take place. Then comes the very end of the series of the visions. And you can’t evoke them, you can’t bring them to pass, they just happen. The last one is when it’s sealed and that is the dove, told us in the 1st chapter of Ephesians, “Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” What does he seal me for? He seals me and that sealing is the guarantee of my inheritance. When I take off the garment then I will acquire possession of it. No one here still wearing these garments of limitation can completely come into his possession while he’s here. He’ll have the symbol of it, and the symbol will be seen; for all the symbols precede, the signs precede, they do not follow. So I will know my inheritance by the sign…and the sign has come. So I am sealed, and the guarantee of my inheritance is a completed fact. I’m waiting patiently for it. When this thing is taken off and then I acquire possession of it. The possession of it is simply to his glory. So that is the purpose of it all.
So tonight I ask everyone to ask himself a simple question, do I really believe in Christ Jesus? I expect that everyone here will say yes, I believe that…but that’s not enough. Do I really believe that my own wonderful human Imagination is Christ Jesus? Can I really say yes to that? Can I then test him? As we’re told in the last chapter of 2nd Corinthians, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Come test him and see” (13:5). We’re invited to test this power. Well, we test the power in a simple, simple way. If today you seem to be satisfied with what you have, maybe some friend in your neighborhood is not, and if he’s a friend, you could take that friend without his consent into your mind’s eye and represent him to yourself as you would like him to be. You’re not asking for any praise from him; he doesn’t know that you’re doing it. But it should be a thrill to you to see him conform and actually move from what he is to what you would like him to be; and see the joy in his life when he becomes the embodiment of what you are now assuming that he is.
You take a total stranger, without his knowledge, without his consent, and bring him into your mind’s eye and talk with him mentally. Actually feel the reality of what you are doing, and then trust it, trust it implicitly. In fact, faith is to hold God trustworthy. Alright, God is your own wonderful I-am-ness, and as you begin to imagine that’s God in action. Hold him trustworthy and see this thing actually move into your world and objectify itself in your world. If it proves itself in that manner, then you’ve found him. So, you can say I have found him. Not everyone finds him because they were seeking him, you know. They find him as the Bible tells us…Philip found him and then he called his friend Nathaniel. Nathaniel couldn’t believe it. Then Andrew found him and he called his brother Peter. Peter wasn’t seeking him. “Come, we have found Messiah, the one of whom the prophets wrote.” “Well, how do you know?” “Come and see” (John 1:41). So they came and they brought him to see the one that Andrew had found. Peter wasn’t seeking him…and so, you may bring a friend here one night and they’re really not seeking anything but they may believe more than you who brought them. So, you feel that you have found him…not the speaker but the message…for that’s Christ; certainly not the thing that stands before you…but the message that is Christ. And so, he just simply looked into the world and said I will never hereafter see anyone after the flesh: “Even though I once regarded Christ from a human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” He sees him entirely differently now, something rising in us. And so, “When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16).
Now, he makes the statement that what he is teaching is not new, not a new teaching at all. This is not new…if you never heard it before, may I tell you, it is not new. This is as old as the faith of Abraham; this is simply the fulfillment of his faith. So he made the statement, “I am the seed of Abraham. I’m of the tribe of Benjamin.” Know what Benjamin means? That’s a confession…he’s telling you exactly what happened to him…for Benjamin means “the son of the right hand.” So if he tells you, I am the son of…I am of the tribe of Benjamin…he is telling you he has experienced resurrection. For we are told in scripture that resurrection is identified with the motion to the right hand of God. Those who are resurrected move to the right hand of God, the place of honor. He tells you, I am of the tribe of Benjamin, the son of the right hand.
But if you don’t think that it means these things, just go and look it up in your concordance. Take nothing for granted. What person reading it just as you and I would read it…a glutton means not a glutton who gorges himself but one who scatters; the prodigal, that’s what it means, one who takes the Word and he simply is prodigal with it. He simply throws it all over the world; he tells it to everyone that he meets…and that’s the glutton. And he’s a winebibber; he’s the Holy Spirit who does it. A winebibber?—yes, he’s Jonah, he is the dove, and he walks the earth and he tells it to everyone. Who’s telling it? The Holy Spirit is telling it. To whom does he tell it? Who are his friends? Those who have objectives but they can’t realize them, the publicans and the sinners. So he said, “What do you want?” “I know exactly what I want”—-that’s a publican—“but I don’t know how to get it”; therefore, you’re sinning. Then he tells you how not to sin. How not to sin? Yes, put yourself in the end, always to the end. If today I want something, I go to the very end which is fulfillment. Then I view the world from the end. Instead of thinking of the end, I think from the end. If tonight I desire to be elsewhere, wherever that elsewhere is, I would put myself there. And to prove that I am there, I would think of here. It could not be to me, while I’m thinking of it, here; it would have to be there. If I’m in New York now, New York isn’t there, now New York would be here, and Los Angeles would be there. So I would think of Los Angeles to prove that I am in New York; and in my mind’s eye Los Angeles would be there, relative to where I’ve assumed that I am.
I take the same spatial law and use it in a temporal manner. If I want it now, July 4th, to realize something, I don’t wait for July the 4th, I assume that this is July the 4th. How would I know that it is? Well, the flags would all be out, and all the things would be closed, every public business is closed, all businesses are closed. It would be a national holiday…no mail, but nothing…just a holiday. But the flags are always flying on that day. Well then, in my mind’s eye I would see it and then feel the fulfillment of what I desired back in the month of March. So I will collapse time. I will take the same technique and apply it to everything in my world, and always view the world from the end instead of thinking of the end. So when I know what I want, I assume that I have it, and to prove that I have it, I think of my world and the world must reflect my position that I’m occupying. If it does not reflect it, then I haven’t occupied it.
So this is the technique of this simple principle. If I really believe it, my visions and my dreams will prove it to me; because God speaks to me through the medium of dream and makes himself known in vision, and all of my dreams and visions would reflect this state. So when my friend could stand and say, “I know that Jesus Christ is crucified within me,” he did it automatically from the depths of his soul…so he knows. I have been saying that to him and to you for as long as you have been coming here, but now he knows. It’s not an intellectual concept…he actually knows. And I have told you, I have had the experience of the crucifixion, and it’s the most glorious sensation, isn’t painful at all. It’s sheer ecstasy when these hands begin to whirl as vortices, and the head a vortex, and the side a vortex, and the two feet vortices. You can’t describe this sheer ecstasy of emotion, not painful at all. It was a deliberate act of God becoming man that man may become God. So I know from my own actual experience that I am crucified with Christ Jesus, and the life I now live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and became me (Gal. 2:20). This is actually the creative power that is here now, nailed to me in this whirling vortex, these six points like the Mogen David, the six-pointed star.
The day will come—-and it has come in my case—-that he simply awoke within my skull. He stood up. Who stood up?—-I stood up. And everything said of him I experienced. So these signs all began to unfold from that moment on. Every sign as recorded in scripture concerning from his resurrection through to the descent and the sealing of the Holy Spirit…as “he was sealed with the promised Holy Spirit as the guarantee of his inheritance.” What was his inheritance?—the kingdom of God, he inherits God. Everyone inherits God, as told in scripture, “I am the portion of your inheritance” (Num. 18:20; Ezek. 44:28). God gives himself to man, so we inherit God.
So tonight I ask you to really believe it and then let the signs take place. You don’t manufacture the signs, the signs simply come. They come in response to your belief. But if you don’t really believe it and you hope for a little gain, just a temporary gain, and you have a mental reservation that you’ll go back to some little church where he still is outside, and he’s watching in some strange wonderful way to see that you don’t go astray into some weird philosophy, well then, you get a little based on your temporary belief, you get a certain sign on the outside, but you don’t get the great depths of the soul coming to the surface in vision.
But here you can have both. I give you only one sign, he said. There will be no sign for this adulterous generation. What is adultery in the Bible? It doesn’t mean sex…hasn’t a thing to do with sex. It means to depart from the true God to the false gods of the world. Whether you call that other god astrology, numerology, teacup leaves, or call it by any other name, any belief in a power outside of your own wonderful human Imagination is to commit adultery. You may say, Well, I know, I know this thing isn’t really permanent. And they will say, it doesn’t really compel, it doesn’t really; it will simply in some way impel but it doesn’t really compel. Well, that’s justifying that little, still little belief in a power outside of yourself. If you will say, well, now this is just for fun, read my cards just for fun, or now read me my teacup leaves just for fun. It isn’t just for fun at all and you know it. You want to look into the future through the teacup leaves or through the cards or through something else. You don’t really believe in Christ Jesus as your own wonderful human Imagination.
So when you have all these little things on the side, you may not know it—-you may have never gone astray from your husband or your wife, and you’ve never entertained a thought concerning another—-and yet you are, in scripture, an adulterer. You’ve gone, in scripture language, a-whoring…you’ve gone to other gods. For if you will now come back to this one God, the only God, which is your own human Imagination, and believe in him implicitly, trust him a hundred percent, he will not fail you. Cannot fail you! And then signs will follow, and then the other signs will follow these signs: the signs of the soul will follow. You unlock the door after you first repent. For, “I will give you only one sign, the sign of Jonah” and Jonah’s first message is repentance…that comes first. The name tells you who he really is: he is the dove. The dove comes at the very last of the series of events. You will get him if you start repenting.
Repenting? Alright, I don’t like what happened today. Instead of complaining, see what happened today, change it radically in my mind’s eye, as though I took a bunch of letters and rearranged them and made the whole thing spell a different sentence. It comes out differently. Take any letter or group of letters and rearrange them into the words differently, and then change the whole vast world, change your world today. If you do it, then you’re repenting. If you repent, the sign of the dove will come. That comes automatically at the end of the series I call salvation history. It begins with resurrection and moves rapidly in a matter of three-and-a-half years from resurrection to the seal of the Holy Spirit. But before that, practice the art of repentance. So the first words put into the mouth of Christ Jesus, in the earliest gospel which is the gospel of Mark, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” These are the first words put into his mouth: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel” (1:15). Believe this good news. It’s such fantastic news!
And so tonight, let me remind you of this lady—who only came, I think, twice in her life—-but she meant it when she said to her mother that night, “I believe him. I like what he said, and furthermore I believe it.” And that very night she has a dream confirming her belief, for she saw the symbol of Christ. She so valued it she placed it where you keep all valuables, right in her purse. Now, no lady in this audience tonight finding a little serpent would pick it up, far less put it in her purse. But in the depths of the soul, this is a different symbolism altogether. The purse is a symbol of that where values are kept. And the serpent is a symbol of Christ…he who fell with me from innocence into the world of experience to rise into the world of Imagination. For that is the whole Promise: innocence, experience, Imagination. I embrace the fires of experience and I am consumed as its victim, and then from the ashes I rise, the prophet of Imagination. Just like the little butterfly, or little moth whose God would be a flame. It goes in search of some knowledge of this God. Two are sent and they come back with uncertain information. A third, moved by intense desire, goes towards the flame, and folding its wings beneath it, it plunges headlong into the sacred fire until it becomes one substance and one color with the flame. “He only knows the flame who would in it burn, and only he could tell who n’er to tell returned.” Completely consumed within the flame, and that flame is your own wonderful human Imagination.
But there are those who can return, and do return, sent by God to tell you who Jesus Christ really is, to tell you of the mystery. You quickly unfold after you have been sent. To see him is almost an essential to being sent. As Paul said in the 9th chapter of 1st Corinthians, (verse 1), “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the risen Christ?” Here is a qualification that is a must for one who is sent. So to be called is to be sent. When you are called, you stand in the presence of the risen Christ who is God himself, and then you are sent. Sent to do what? To preach one thing: to preach the risen Christ—the crucifixion of him which is on every child born of woman, and the risen Christ. He’s already risen and that rising is taking place. Everyone will rise, but everyone must first know he is crucified with Christ.
Well, tonight you try it. You try putting this to the test, to the extreme test. I don’t care what you will say. A friend of mine who was here tonight, his company called a strike. They all voted for a strike, couldn’t get together with management and so they voted for a strike. He voted too, and said he at the meeting—at the union, he’s a union man—-here they all, well, they were divided, yet ninety-eight percent voted for the strike. But he knew…he said, as far as I’m concerned, I could make it through the strike, I could live as I now live, but many of them, with their wives and children, couldn’t live with this strike. Nevertheless, together ninety-eight percent voted for the strike. He said and he explained to me in this union language, which I’m not quite familiar with it, that you’ve got to first vote the strike before you can get together on a contract. If you don’t vote the strike, you’ll take what management offers. But if the strike is voted, then between the voting of the strike and the discussion things can happen.
Well, at that union meeting, this man who has not one home—as he thought he had— completely cleared but he has two homes, an income producing property. The last thing, naturally, he’s going to get right down and oppose any settlement, not thinking of the other members who have wives and children. He had money. So he got up and he opposed any reconciliation; he was completely against it. My friend, who is here tonight, said, “Strangely enough, I who voted for the strike, I felt a power lift me off my seat and I was lifted off my chair, and I opposed his argument…and all these faces who I worked with in the factory, all glued upon me with anger coming out of their eyes. But I simply took the other position, not to have a strike, and I gave my reasons for it all. The next day, no one at the factory would speak to me. But it was settled, amicably, to the benefit of all. Now they’re all my friends.”
But he said, “I couldn’t sit in the chair, something pulled me right off the chair and made me speak. I said, ‘If this thing is true, it’s not a one-way street; it’s for all. I will now apply this principle as I understand it.’” He applied it to the benefit not only for the men of the union but management. You can’t get a one-sided street. In other words, both must benefit or it’s going to close. This very large factory was jacked up by one person who never thought that he would ever do it. But he got up and simply the words poured out of him, and the whole thing was resolved amicably to the satisfaction of both. But one man spoke for the entire crowd because he had money. So they can strike for a year…he still had money coming in. Strike for four years, he had it coming in. The others didn’t. And this one was moved to do what he did. So you’ll be moved, too.
So tonight, take your wonderful dream, a noble dream, and don’t modify it, make it something wonderful. And believe in the reality of what you are seeing, actually believe in it, knowing that the one who is seeing it is Christ Jesus…and what you are seeing is implying something…and what it implies is what you’re actually extracting, and go sound asleep in confidence that it’s done. May I tell you, it will be done. And then signs will come, maybe this very night, because there are so many symbols that represent the universal Christ. The serpent is one, a fish is another, the pig is another. Oh, there are many symbols. And you have no doubt as to who comes when the symbol comes. They spring from the depths of your soul and spring so easily, without effort.
Now let us go into the Silence.
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Q: Would you explain the difference between dream and vision?
A: Yes, my dear. I think you all know what a dream is. A vision to me is to be in a dream awake completely unmodified by the conceptual mind, something outside of the range of reason and yet completely awake. A dream…we all know what a dream is when we return to this level. While we are dreaming it seems more real than anything else.
Q: Does a dream necessarily have a meaning?
A: Every dream has significance. The most stupid dream in the world has meaning, the most stupid dream. But I wouldn’t go looking in a book for them. There are dream books and that’s stupid. But every dream has a message from the depths of the soul which is God to the surface itself, which you call self. But all dreams have meaning. As you are told, “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream” (Numbers 12:6). The Book of Job: “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction” (33:14). Well, he seals it in a dream…he tells you to what extent you have believed his word…so all dreams have meaning.
Q: (inaudible)
A: No, I know repentance in the world is understood as a regretful thing. I repent, therefore, I regret, I am remorseful. That’s not the meaning given in the Bible. The Bible is simply “a change of mind.” That’s what the word actually means literally, “to repent.” Look it up. It’s simply a radical change of mind…not a little bit but a radical change. So-and-so is not what I like, well, now suppose now other things change in her world or his world or their world, so that it favored me and I like what I see now. Well, now assume the change is taking place, and then that is a radical change of mind. As a very able educator James brought out and he said, “In his lifetime, in his generation, the greatest revolution was the discovery that by a change in attitude one could change the outer aspects of life.” And so that is what I mean when I speak of repentance. I don’t get down on my knees and pray, I don’t feel remorseful, I simply do something about it. Of course, many of us become so lost in the feeling of hurt, we do nothing about it. In fact, we don’t want to do anything about it. Some people dislike someone and you say, “You know, you could really like them.” “But I don’t want to.” They really mean it, they don’t want to. But they could actually change the attitude of that one relative to themselves, and then they would really like them.
But we’re living in such a fabulous world where everything is possible. If I told you the stories that I receive day after day; some would make you sick and some would lift you to the heavens. I got a call today from New York City…and we think, well now, we have problems…and problems, simply a lack of money or something. Well, here’s a lady who calls me and, well, she’s really rejoicing. She’s the first wife. The other one has been married now…it’s her second who married her husband. She divorced him after she saw this relationship and now he dies suddenly this week. Now her request is—-she has millions and millions—-her request is when the will is read her two sons will have it all…yet he has sons by the second. Well, I could not hear one thing about that, I couldn’t pray for that. I could just talk to her on the telephone and kid her along, but could I really pray for a thing like that? But she thinks calling…”Alright, you call him, he’ll push a button.” Well, I can’t push a button that way because it doesn’t appeal to me…whether the second, Marie, got him and now will get his maybe twenty-odd millions he will leave. And so…but she has her millions and her two sons they will have theirs. So what would you do in a case like that? And we think we have problems! With all of her millions she still has a desire for more.
If you had her jewelry you could open the most fabulous store right here in the most fashionable neighborhood. Invite her to dinner and she comes through the door wearing $150,000 worth of jewelry on her, and I mean $150,000. These are pieces that are simply out of this world. I’ve seen pieces that Tiffany’s offered at $50,000 for one piece. She doesn’t wear it all on her, and she’s not laden. May I tell you, when she comes through the door, they are so valuable…it’s always in perfect taste…just one pendant hanging around the neck, couple of rings, couple of earrings, and just these few pieces, and $150,000 stands before you. And she calls about money!
Q: Neville, in the 27th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus is delivered to Pilate and the multitude, would you tell me what the symbology is? They shout to crucify him, what does that multitude in there…?
A: Well, first of all, Bill, we’re telling a story and you’ve got to tell it in story form. The entire four gospels, they’re all stories. They vary a little, but if one takes the…you take the 27th, 26th of Matthew…well, take the same story in the Book of John, when he stands before, seemingly, another; there is no other (19:11). And the “other” thinks he can do something for him or to him. He said, I can set you free or I can crucify you. And he said to him, “You have no power over me unless it were given to you from above”…not a thing you can do to me. He is telling the world what the world is almost incapable of believing. I have seen it, I have tasted of the power of the age to come. And he is telling everyone in this world that you’re puppets, that you are simply victims of the most cruel experiment, but the end will justify it. He said, no one, if you stand before Pilate and Pilate said, “You will not talk to me? Do you not know I have the power to set you free and the power to crucify you?” He said, “You have no power over me were it not given to you from above; therefore, he who delivered me into your hand, he has the greater sin.”
Now, here stands God embodied. But on this level he’s being operated on by the depths of his being who is meditating him, and putting him through all the furnaces of affliction. But in the end, he is one with the being who is now meditating him; and in the end, when that meditation is broken, he is one with the mediator, he’s God. So I see now the scene, a crowd outside that could take advantage of me, they have no power were it not given to them from above. And I must pass through the furnaces, still repenting—-I must practice the art of repentance, waiting to that end. So I will practice repentance and try to steer my ship from all the shoals and all the horrors of the ocean, moving towards a predetermined goal. Then the signs will come into being.
But I have seen it. To come into a room and see it all stand still, and know that they have no power in this world to move one inch, they are dead, and then to release it in me and then they move on. So I have tasted of the power that is to be mine in the age to come. You can’t conceive of that power! Suppose that power were granted us today at this level, suppose it were, do you know what you could do? We speak of nuclear energy…why that’s nothing. That’s like a little cracker. What could you do if you disliked, say, the whole Chinese race? Suppose you disliked them, and there were 700 million, you could arrest the entire nation by arresting you, and then in your mind’s eye order them to march towards the sea, and like lemmings they would all go out beyond their depth, and it would be the end of China. Just imagine what you could do if you controlled such power and you were not awakened to the God that is love! No one could have it on this level, because while we wear these garments of flesh, we are still capable of violence. And so you have…(tape ends).