4/22/68

We are told in Isaiah, the 55th chapter, that “My word goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return unto me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (verse 11). This is the same Word spoken of in the beginning of John, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (1:1) and “The Word became flesh and dwelt in us” (1:14). It’s translated “among us,” but that is a mistranslation and leads man astray. If I said tonight that there is one among us who will speak to us, you look around and you think of another. But the preposition is in, not among.

And so, the Word became flesh and dwells in us. John uses the plural “us.” He did not assume a man, a person, but man’s nature. It is not this or that person that was assumed but our nature; and by putting on our nature he became the type on which it is molded. The whole thing is God, for the Word is God: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The word translated “word,” the word logos, means “a pattern, it’s meaning, it’s a plan.” So here is a plan…there’s a purpose behind the whole vast creation, and that is the forming of Christ in man. For it’s called in the scripture, “And his name shall be called The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13) and they’re speaking of Christ Jesus. So forget Christ Jesus as a man that you call a being on the outside that you worship, and think of him as this Word, this plan, this pattern man, that took upon itself our nature. Having put upon itself our nature, it now becomes that type on which our nature is being fashioned, is being formed, and when it’s completely formed, well then, it unveils itself, and we are it. So he didn’t become John or Peter or Neville or Grace, he simply took human nature and then unveiled himself, and we are he. So that is the story as I see it in scripture and as I have experienced it in my own personal life here.

Now, here is the story of indentured labor. Indentured labor is labor that is simply a contract binding one to work for another for a given period time, like an apprentice. An apprentice worked for the master craftsman for a given period of time, then was free to even compete with his master. I know in the West Indies in Trinidad and British Guiana, a couple of hundred years ago we had indentured labor from India. These Indians were sent out as really slaves for fourteen years only. They were not permanent slaves; they were simply slaves for a definite period of time. Having served fourteen years they were set free and given a certain acreage and a home in which they lived and they were free to compete with the one who had them working for him, or them, for that given period of time. So in scripture we read, “And the Lord God said unto Abram, ‘Your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be slaves, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years”—that means indentured labor; there’s a definite term attached to this labor—“After that they will come out with great possessions” (Gen.15:13). After they have served their slavery and frightful oppression, but it will not go beyond that time. Well, 400 is simply the numerical value of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter Tau. It has a symbol and the symbol is a cross. So we bear and wear the cross, and this [body] is the cross. When we take off this cross at the very end, when that Word unfolds itself within us then we are set free, we are redeemed.

Now, redemption in scripture meant what today people do not realize…in fact, it has almost wholly lost its primary sense. It originally meant “the regaining of an article which was put in pledge by repayment of the loan for which it was given in pledge.” So, we were sent in, not willingly we are told in the 8th of Romans: “And the creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly but by the will of him who subjected him in hope…that he would be set free, that he would obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God” (Rom.8:20).

Now you and I can be alive and have no consciousness of why we are just simply alive, living animated bodies, but not life-giving spirits. To make us life-giving spirits we are subjected and sent into slavery for a definite period. He who sent us will redeem us, for he put us into slavery and he redeems us by his own blood. There’s no other way to redeem us. The price of the ransom is the blood of God. And so, he actually becomes us, and all of us are playing the part, moving towards a definite goal, a definite end, and there is no change in that end. “My Word shall not return unto me void; it must accomplish that which I purpose”—that’s his purpose—“and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” When it returns, what is it but myself. Here are my sons equal to myself; for they are my Word made real…and the Word is God. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” So if his Word is in us—“for the Word became flesh ad dwelt in us”—if it dwells in us, the Word and the Word is God, when it unfolds itself in us what is it other than God, but now God with life in himself. So now we are one with God as we return. And the whole plan is revealed to us in scripture…how the Word unfolds.

Now here, we go to Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew thought eternity is not what the world thinks that it is. This is a closed circuit, it’s a plan. When we speak of history, history is simply “all of the generations and all of their experiences, fused into one single grand whole; and the concentrated time into which the whole is gathered and from which all the generations spring is called eternity.” Now we are told, “He has made everything perfect in its day and he’s put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what he has done from the beginning to the end”…only at the end (Ecc. 3:11). That he put into man. Man goes through all of these generations, all of them; he doesn’t avoid any, he doesn’t escape any. At the very end, when he comes out he sees the result of his journey. The result of his journey is the discovery of himself as God, and that discovery is revealed to him by God’s only Son David calling him Father. For the word Olam translated “eternity” means “the youth,” means “the lad,” means “the young man.” These are the terms used concerning David. “Whose youth is that? Enquire whose stripling he is” (1Sam.17:56). Nobody knows. And, “Who are you, young man? Whose son are you?”

So here we find the king is asking a question, and this king is Israel’s first king made by people. His name is Saul. He is rejected by the Lord; Jehovah rejects him. Because man judges by appearances…they think a man, because he’s tall and he’s majestic and he’s all these things and he’s prominent, he’d be the perfect king. So man picks a leader based upon outward observation. But the king is now rejected by the Lord who sees not the outward appearance, he sees only the heart (1Sam. 16:12). He selects a youth, and so David becomes Israel’s first king by divine choice…while Saul was the first king by human choice. So he is the second king but the first by divine selection, that’s David. He brings him out after all the generations that I go through and you go through. At the very end we are confronted with a being, a youth, a lad, and he is what we brought forth as a result of our journey through it all. He is the result of that journey and no one is going to fail in the journey”: “For my word cannot return unto me void; it must accomplish that which I have purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” It cannot come back void. At the end of the journey the result is that you are God. And you do not know that you are Lord unless God’s Son calls you Father. So, “I have found David and he’s cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation’” (Ps. 89:26). Here is my anointed one, the firstborn of every creature, we are told. We only have one firstborn and that firstborn is always David…he’s the only one. Everyone is bringing him at the end of the journey, but only at the end are you going to find him. You’re not going to find him before the end.

You may want to find him tonight, and I do not blame anyone for wanting to find him tonight, but you cannot find him until the end. When the end is reached, David comes forth as the automatic result of the journey, and it takes the whole vast journey to bring him out. This is like one grand Creator, The Word, actually possessed me, and so by actually putting me on, my nature, not Neville, putting human nature on, he becomes then the type on which my nature, which is human, is fashioned, where it is molded, where it is formed. When it is completed and the work is done, he unveils it. Then before me I see the result of my frightful pain and that is simply David calling me Father.

Benny came home on Saturday, and with all this confusion in the atmosphere about racial conflicts…and two days before, he had this experience, this vision. He said, “I found six Negroes, men with knives, and they were violent, and they were coming. Their whole bodies were all lacerated but healed, these scar tissues all over their arms.” One person arrested his attention and he said to him, “Don’t you know this whole thing is wrong? This is stupid, this violence of yours, it is evil, it is wrong.” For one moment the face was arrested as Benny held him in his mind’s eye. He said to Benny, “Even if I wanted to stop it, I couldn’t.” Man is under compulsion…it’s a play. How are you going to stop a play and change it because you don’t like the lines given to you at this moment, the part to be played? Because you do not like violence, are you going to stop murdering Hamlet tonight and change the play? Hamlet is murdered every night that the play goes on, and when the curtain comes down he’s taken off the stage. You can see them lift him up and take him off the stage, and the whole thing is one of violence. Well, you can’t alter the play. Within the framework of the play we can find out what this Word means and change our way of life here by the same principle that animates this world.

Now, the Word did not assume itself to be this or that particular man as its habitation. It dwelt and dwells in us. So I do not assume that I am Rockefeller to feel wealthy, I do not assume a particular man but the nature of wealth is what I assume—the nature of this, the nature of that, the nature of the other—but not a man. “What brings you out to see a man shaken by the wind?” That question is asked so vividly in the Book of John. Did you go out to see a man? Everyone’s looking for a man. Stop looking for a man. There is no man in this world that really you should bow before, but none. I have yet to find the man that I feel is my superior. I can find a man that I respect greatly for his great talent as an artist…that I cannot duplicate or come near what he does. I can pick all the arts…for I cannot…I’m not qualified to pass an opinion on his work, whether it be musical, whether it be in painting, whether it be in any other form of art. But because of his great accomplishment in art, it has never occurred to me because I respect his ability and his accomplishments that I feel he is my superior. I respect Einstein’s great mind in Physics, respect it beyond measure, but do you think for one moment standing in the presence of Einstein I would feel him my superior?

Today, I went to the dictionary to look up the word “person,” just to get it clear in my mind’s eye, because I have a certain concept, and here is the definition of the use of “person.” It didn’t say who said it, but they quote it as though someone had written it. And the word “person” is used in this form, that “in my estate, in my station in life, I could never know a person of the trade socially.” So that’s how it’s used…“could never know in my social world anyone of the trade socially,” a person that is taboo. But, strangely enough I had that experience at a cocktail party one night. The lady who gave the party apologized profusely that she had invited two people who lived in the same building, who had a haberdashery store on Madison Avenue, and who were doing very, very well. But she had unearned income…in other words, wealth which she got from a huge, fabulous settlement in divorce, and because it’s completely unearned and she’s a member of all the exclusive clubs in the city of New York, she actually felt that she was above this couple who earned a living and had their lovely business on Madison Avenue, as haberdashers, and she apologized to me. Well, what am I going to say under the circumstances? So she expressed how this book, which is Webster’s, defined the word “person.” Of course, there are many definitions. The first and primary definition of it is simply “an actor, a mask, persona, playing a part.” That’s all that it means. So, here is a part, a person. What part are you playing? Well, she could not associate herself with that part because of her part that she’s playing…but she didn’t know that. She actually felt that she was something detached and something apart. Well, she couldn’t help it, and to this day she can’t help it…with all of her millions she just can’t help it.

So I say to you, God is playing all the parts…but all the parts. He’s a protean being, and there’s only one being playing all the parts in the world. So when Benny saw this violence and he was aware enough to explain he was actually seeing himself, but in this case of the past. This is all the past to Benny, for he’s come to the end of the road. He saw these six and he’s trying to tell them, but they couldn’t stop it. He could only arrest the attention of one and that one was bewildered for a moment. Just for a moment he realized that Benny was speaking the truth, and he said to Benny, “But even if I wanted to I can’t stop it.” He is cast in the role of violence and a violent one he will be, and he’ll go through to the very end. At the very end of the road, David will come out as the Son bearing witness to that will of God who went through the entire drama to bring out sons that are like himself, having life in themselves…not just animated souls but life-giving spirits. It takes this entire horrible drama to bring it out.

Well, we aren’t taught that. We’re taught about all the little niceties…you do this and you do that, as though you were going to change the play. You aren’t going to change the play: “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:28). That is the play. And you’re wanting to take these five terms, from foreknowledge to glorification, and in any way interpret them other than a certain measure of predestination? I can find myself tonight behind the eight-ball financially, and take the same technique and use it not as the world uses it (I am a certain personality other than this). No, I take the nature of wealth, the nature of health, the nature of whatever it is I want to express…but not a person who seems to express it and embody it in my world.

So we forget a person called Jesus as a man outside of self, for if his name is called the Word of God and the Word became flesh and dwelt in us, well then, stop it right there and do not look on the outside for anything that is a particular being that he assumed himself to be. He never assumed a person, he never assumed he was a person; he assumed that he was the nature, man’s nature. So you’re told he was not concerned with the nature of angels, but with the descendants of Abraham. Now the word translated “descendants” is the word semen—the Hebrew word which is translated in the King James Version is “seed.” It is seed…he took upon himself the seed before it took on any personality; for it is the very first original element of our nature, semen. That is the first, the very first, the original element of our natures. Well, he took upon himself that, not a personality. Before it becomes human in the form of being a personality, he takes it and now he molds our nature upon himself and he is the very image of God. He is The Word which is one with God. He is the pattern man. So in the end, it unveils itself, and here comes the perfect unveiling of God…and it’s you.

But may I tell you, in his infinite mercy he has hidden from us all that we have done, what we have been put through, the horrors of it all. But God wrote the play and God plays the play, and in the end everyone comes out and he is the author of the play…enhanced beyond the wildest dream of man as to power, a creative power, as to wisdom…because he tasted death. For, God is life, and he assumed this state which would allow him to actually taste the experience of death. So he tasted death.

Now, a lady writes…and here is this perfectly marvelous experience. It’s a very short dream. Here, “I saw myself. I came out of myself and the one that came out was an old, old woman. I was astonished at my age.” Now this is a young lady, her baby is only now just an infant, a year old, maybe less than a year, and she is an old, very old woman, and she’s astonished at her age. The old woman delivers a baby. She doesn’t do the actual delivery in a physical sense, but she delivers a baby and holds the baby in her arms. She knows she is this old woman who has just delivered the baby. That’s the perfect, perfect vision of the 18th chapter of Genesis, for Sarah was an old, old woman; it long had ceased to be with her after the manner of women, and she brought forth the promised child (verses 11-15). I can tell her she is on the verge.

In this 18th chapter it turns from the first-person into the third-person, and God is speaking to Abraham and telling Abraham of the Promise. Then in the same chapter as it goes on, when she laughed as though it couldn’t happen because of her age and his age, then the same one who stands before him, which he didn’t recognize to be the Lord, said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”…speaking of him in the third-person. He didn’t recognize him. He spoke of the Lord in the third-person. Then after the whole was over, she recognized it is the Lord who stood before me and I did not know it. For, it is man, and man is not looking for the Lord in human form, but in some peculiar abstract image, and it isn’t. God is man.

And so when this vision came to her, I can tell her that in the story he said to her, “I will be back in the spring of the year…at this time,” he said to her, “at this time next year I’ll be back in the spring and you will have a son.” Now, he’s telling her that; that’s how I would interpret this vision that she’s on it, she’s right within a matter of the immediate present of the birth of the child. There was simply the picture that is Sarah, an old, old woman coming out of herself, and she knows it’s herself and she delivered the child. She knows the woman holding the child is herself…that’s Sarah…a perfect, perfect vision of scripture, my dear.

Then she said, “I wasn’t asleep. I simply closed my eyes for a moment when I saw a huge ear and knew it was related to my ear. Then I saw a hammer and a spike. Didn’t see the hand, but invisible hands drove that spike right through the ear, and I knew it was my ear but it didn’t hurt.” Well, that’s the 40th of the Book of Psalms. If you read the footnote, you will see in the footnote that he bored ears for man—not that he made ears, you’ve got the ears—but it must be bored that you may hear. So the voice will come uninterrupted from within you, for you saw it being bored.

So everyone here is waking. But all in eternity will awake, even though they are going through hell tonight in many parts of this world. It’s not just South Vietnam or North Korea, but all over the world there’s violence. We have it in our city. And they do not know what they do: “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” Just as this one said to Benny, and Benny trying to plead with him, and he said, “Even if I wanted to, I can’t stop it.” So if he must burn, he’ll burn, and if he must burn down cities he’ll do it, and our politicians can’t do a thing about it. But you and I in our sphere, forgetting people, forgetting individuals and looking to anyone as a leader, who is a leader? But take the nature of everything in this world that you want to express, the nature…for you are The Word. Then you take the nature. What is the nature? What would it feel like were I healthy? What would it feel like were I wealthy? What would it feel like and I catch the nature. I don’t have to feel that I am any individual who is healthy or wealthy or famous in order to personify it. For that’s not how it is done. He did not assume that he is this or that being as his own habitation…he dwells in us. Who?—God. Because he’s The Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt in us…not among us, dwelt in us.

So you take it to heart and you apply it. Dwell upon it. As you dwell upon it the whole begins to unfold within you. But I am confident the people who are here in this group are all on the verge of waking…they’re all on the verge of waking. You couldn’t stand it…you could not come here were you not on the verge of waking. It would have not a thing for you…it would be simply talking in a foreign tongue. You would leave it, you’d depart. So, unnumbered heard him but few followed him because they could not follow him. It was not what they wanted. They wanted someone they could see on the outside to worship. They want to worship him.

I tell you from experience everything in scripture you are going to experience, and then you’ll know that you are he. He will simply awaken in you, and you are the being spoken of in scripture. Everything said in scripture is all about you. When that Word completely unveils itself, you stand amazed when it takes this David to reveal it. For, he is simply the result, the essence of the journey through these 400 years, and then you are redeemed. How am I redeemed? Well, the one who put me into bondage has to redeem me, and the only way he can redeem me is to give me himself. For, “life is in the blood” and he has to redeem me with his life. When I am split right down the middle, there I see that sacred drop of blood—that golden, liquid living symbol—I fuse with it, I am that, and I bring it back…so I redeem his blood. He gave his blood for me; I become it, and I return as his drop of blood; into the Holy of Holies I take it.

So I must be redeemed and he who redeems me gave a pledge. So it really means “to regain an article that in some wonderful way was put in pledge, and you redeem it by simply repayment of that loan for which you gave it in pledge.” So he sends me into slavery not willingly, but that I become as he is. To become as he is, he has to give me himself…and his life is in his blood, and he gives me his blood. So in the world I was in generation and division, and then I’m split; I move up into regeneration and union, into the one being who fell.

So you dwell upon it, and you’ll see how the whole vast world, even as it is, it’s a lovely world, wonderful world…with all of its horrors it’s still marvelous. You don’t have to be frightened in this world. You are The Word now made flesh. You’re flesh, aren’t you? And something is going on in you of which you may be totally unaware; and that is, that pattern man is the type on which you nature is being molded. So, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:7). When it’s completed he unveils it, and you are he. In the meanwhile, take the same technique concerning this world, and how he didn’t take a certain character, a certain person, to assume it…for having done so, then he would have advanced beyond all measure but no one else. He didn’t do that. He dwelt in us, not in this or that particular man but in us

And so, take the same technique and now what would it be like if I were…you name it…now you’re taking the nature of things. But don’t forget it! The minute they become wealthy they think it’s in the person and they forget the nature that produced wealth. When they become anything then they completely forget how it happened. Then you’ll find all these obituaries in the papers. And read tomorrow morning’s paper, they always pick out someone who is either very, very wealthy or very famous. He could be infamous but they pick him out. When Stalin died, one who was responsible for the murder of tens of millions of people, he had a huge obituary. When Hitler died having murdered millions, he had a huge obituary. So they always pick out people, persons…and no mention of this principle. They go unsung, for they don’t care, because they awake within the whole vast dream and willingly depart leaving it all behind. They willingly leave it all behind knowing that they can’t change it; for it was a play and still remains a play and continues to be a play until he redeems everyone from the play.

Now let us go into the Silence.