6/9/69

Take nothing on external authority of a church or the Bible without pursuing it with ceaseless statements. Here we have all these statements in scripture, statements from the church and statements from individuals like the speaker. Do not accept it because it comes from the Bible, comes from a church, and comes from a speaker…not until you have found God or a living truth in what they say or what the speaker says. If I tell you something, I am telling you from my own experience, but still don’t accept it until you with ceaseless questioning prove it within yourself.

To accept it because a church said it or the Bible said it or Neville said it is really silly. You must pursue it with ceaseless, ceaseless, I would say, questions. Why? Because along the pathway of the Spirit world where you and I are traveling there are many Babels, and like Babel no two speak with the same tongue. One will tell you give up all meat and you’ll enter the kingdom of God; another will tell you give up so and so and you will enter, and no two will speak with the same tongue. So you will find it all the way as man travels the spiritual way, the road called the road of Babel. It’s not multiple tongues as we have it today—we can overcome that with someone translating for us—but when someone tells you this is the way and that one tells you this is the way and they don’t agree this is Babel. So here we find Babel along the pathway of the Spirit.

You will find it very restful if you always fall back on first principle. Tonight we’ll fall back on first principle: “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps.46:10). No matter what happens to you, let that be your first principle: Be still and know that I am is God and with God all things are possible. Well now, put that to the test. If you put that to the test regardless of any change in your outer world and it proves itself in the testing, then you are free. It doesn’t matter what one calls on this side, what calls on that side, you know you’ve gone back to the first principle. And you don’t have to give up this and give up that and do anything in this world to enter the kingdom of God. So we go back to first principle, which is “I am God.” That is the first principle. Is it true? Well, just test it.

Now, let us go back to some of the “I am” statements in scripture: “I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way. I am the truth” (Jn.11:25; 14:6). Well, is this really true? Long before I proved it to be true I took it in this way…being human I wanted certain things, as undoubtedly you want certain things, and so I took it getting things. Like a trip when I could not afford it and I didn’t have a nickel and the trip would cost quite a lot of money. So I took it, “Be still and know that I am God.” Well, if I am is God and all things are possible to God, what I am imagining within myself should come to pass. So I tried it and it worked. I tried it again and it worked.

Having proven this in my own experience, I waited then for the other great statement that “I am the resurrection.” Now, how would I go about that? I knew no way to go about that. How would I prove that “I am the light”? I couldn’t do that. “I am the way, I am the truth,” these I couldn’t do. I could prove it in the world of Caesar that “I am” does create things in my world if I have absolute faith in it. So I am…and I named it. I began to imagine that I am on a ship when I didn’t have a nickel and I’m sailing in a certain direction. Then I got a letter from the family saying that “you’re the only member of the family not present at Christmas. We’re enclosing a draft to buy passage. We’ll take care of all expenses on the ship, use it freely; and we’ll greet you on the ship when you arrive and take care of all expenses. This is simply to buy maybe a suit and some linen that you may need, and then the draft will take care of these things. We’ve notified the agency in New York City to issue you a ticket.”

Well here, this happened out of the blue. I simply assumed that I am on a ship sailing for Barbados, when suddenly after twelve years they were moved to ask me to come, and made it possible to come. I proved it there. Then I tried it and tried it and tried it, and when I kept on trying it I realized that statement is true: that God really is my own wonderful consciousness, my I am-ness, that is God! So when I’m told in that 46th Psalm, “Be still and know that I am God” I proved it (46:10). Then came these fantastic claims, well, how did you prove that? I couldn’t by taking the same action…I had to wait.

Then I proved that “I am the life” first of all, for I found myself moved in Spirit into an environment and suddenly I’m seeing things that seemed independent of my perception of them; and yet intuitively I knew that if I could arrest what I am feeling within me, everything that I am seeing would stand still, because I was the life of everything that I perceived in this world. I knew it! I no sooner knew it than I tested it. I arrested the activity within me and everything stood still…not only the animate, say, men and women, but the so-called inanimate. Falling leaves could not fall, the little moving grass, yes, that could move, but it didn’t move after I stilled within me what I was perceiving: I was perceiving moving grass and I stilled the activity and the grass was frozen. The leaf was frozen, the bird was frozen, the people dining were frozen, the waitress walking was frozen…everything was frozen. I knew that statement is true, “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn.11:25).

I proved first that I am the life before I proved that I am the resurrection. Then came that day in my experience when I proved that I am the resurrection; because I felt myself resurrecting within the grave of my own skull, and that was proof of that statement in scripture that I am. Well, who resurrected? I did. Well, who is resurrecting?—I am. “I am the resurrection”; I have proved that. I have proved this then that I am the resurrection before I proved that I am the Father. He said, “I am the Father”…I didn’t know that. How could I prove that I am the Father? Suddenly, after having proved I am the resurrection then I prove by the Son who called me Father that I am the Father. He tells me that he sacrificed himself. I didn’t know that to be true. I knew that I am the Father before I knew that I am the one who was sacrificed, the one whose body was split in two from top to bottom. I read that in scripture, but I didn’t know that it was true until it was proven true after I discovered I am the Father. Because I am the Father it was the Father whose body was split from top to bottom. It’s only the Father who made the sacrifice. So here, I am the Father and my body is split from top to bottom. I proved that. But I didn’t know that I also was the one on whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form of a dove until it happened. So I proved that I am the Father before I proved that, and then that happened. So I tell you, from my own experience these things I now speak from experience, therefore I speak with the authority that can only come to one who has experienced them.

So I say to everyone here, if it comes from me or it comes from a church or it comes from the Bible, you simply pursue it with ceaseless questions until you have found God or the living truth in that which was said either from the page of the Bible or from the pulpit in some church or from here when the speaker speaks. Accept it, but then go back to first principle and ask these eternal questions of the one being that could answer it, and the one being is your own wonderful I am-ness. So is it true? For I am told, be still, that is be relaxed. No stillness physically and internally, I’m all tight…no, be relaxed. And just ask, are you really God? I speak now to myself, “Are you really God?” I can address myself as that as though we were two. “Be still and know that I am God.” Well, be still and know that I am, as though it’s another, is God. Are you, really? Well then, prove to me this. Now, God can do all things, so I will now ask and see if it proves itself in performance. Ask again and see if it proves itself in that…and keep on asking. When it proves itself here, well then, let these things you can’t put to the test but you’ve done it here, and see how it comes through in performance, and it will.

Then everything opens up in scripture. Then you see the wide difference between what seems on the surface the same thing. You read in the Bible that Christ is in us. That seems straightforward, Christ is in us. Then we read in the Bible that “we are in Christ” and on the surface it seems to be the same thing. It’s all the difference in the world! Christ in us is the hope of glory. That’s a universal son-ship, for Christ is the anointed one, and he is in every being born of woman…that’s a universal son-ship. All right, is it the same as “we in Christ”? It is not the same. That comes to you in the most marvelous way, I in Christ. If I am in Christ, I’m told in scripture that I’m a new creature. Christ in me does not make me a new creature. The Son is in me and through that Son I have life, for in him is life, and the life is in me. “In him is life and life is the light of men”…the consciousness of men…the very life of men (Jn.1:4). So he is in every child born of woman, Christ in us.

But it’s not the same thing as “we in Christ.” When “we are in Christ,” we are the elect, we are the called; we are called and incorporated into the body of the risen Lord. It is entirely different. So Christ in us makes us the son, for we are the son in the world. Then “we in Christ” is when we are called, when we are elected, and we are drawn into the presence of the risen Lord and incorporated into his body. That makes us entirely different. It’s not Christ in us any more; it’s we in Christ…all the difference in the world. And we find the entire book opening up page after page after page within us.

If I question everything that I hear from any pulpit, from any speaker and from the Bible, I must question everything and keep on questioning, until it actually proves itself in me. I must find God or the living truth in what I have heard or what I have read. So you trust me, I hope you do, but even though you trust me you question and question everything that I tell you. But whom do you question? Me? Do you go to some priest, do you go to some rabbi? No, they can’t tell you anything. Don’t go to anyone. Fall back on first principle and the first principle is, “Be still and know that I am God.” So I go to bed tonight…“I heard tonight and this is what I heard, is it true?” Ask yourself is it true? I tell you we’re living in this fabulous world of shadows. It’s so difficult to believe that this is a world of shadows.

This past Thursday morning as I was coming through to the surface, I was arrested just for a moment, to see the race at Belmont, and here I am seeing the entire race. I’m closer to the horses than anyone could be at that track. I’m closer than anyone could be on TV. I see it in the most vivid color, colors that were not revealed on my TV set…which is a nice color set. And here I’m seeing the horses coming up and here I’m seeing Arts and Letters first, Majestic Prince second, and Dike third. Although I’m seeing it in my vision I’m disappointed, because through sentiment I wanted Majestic Prince to come in first…just through sentiment. I do not know the owner, the jockey or the trainer. I know of them, but I do not know them. It’s simply a sentimental feeling I have towards that horse because he won nine, trained out west, born back east in Kentucky…but trained out west. The eastern riders made little of him because they thought he hadn’t really gone against real horses. Then he took the Derby, then he took the Preakness, and then they changed their tune. But I saw the triple-crown, the third one, and I saw where he came second and he couldn’t catch that horse.

This is Thursday morning…the race isn’t run for two more days. I woke at five, then had breakfast around six, and said to my wife, “Well, the Prince came in second.” She said, “Oh, no!” I said, “Yes I saw it, saw it just about an hour ago. He is second and he is second regardless of what the world will say and Arts and Letters came first. I saw it in the actual post position in which they finished.” Arts and Letters on the rail, Prince is second, could be in the second or third post, but he’s moving into second, and here is Dike coming up. I saw it so clearly, so vividly that if I had a billion dollars I would not have hesitated to put the whole billion on the nose of Arts and Letters. It could not be reversed; the whole thing was fixed.

So you ask yourself, what on earth is this world…just where is it and what is it? What part does it play in this entire world round about us? Here we find it a school of educated darkness. Man thinks he’s going to change it and in some strange way he’s going to improve this world, improve it and make it home. You don’t turn a schoolroom into home; it remains a schoolroom. This world is a world of educative darkness, it’s a school, and you aren’t in eternity going to turn it from a school into a home. There’s nothing in scripture that suggests that the kingdom of heaven is interested in improving this world. It’s only interested in taking people out of this world into itself, which is an entirely different world. We are in a school here and the whole vast world is in a school.

To what extent can we change it? That’s where I know revision comes in to make us make the effort. If you don’t make the effort, the whole thing is written just like a book that’s already been printed, it’s been finished. I have no desire whatsoever outside of a sentimental interest in revising that race, none whatsoever. When my daughter, who was out of town at the time in San Francisco, when she came back and we met on Friday, not a thing came up then. But on Saturday morning she was going off to our friends to the pool, and I said, “Are you going to see the race in color?” She said yes. “Well, this is how it finishes” and I told her. “Oh,” she said, “no! You stop your dream.” I said, “I can’t help it…that’s what I saw. So when you go to Jane and Sarge tell them, “Don’t get excited the race is finished.” 65,000 saw it at Belmont and 65,000 had a dollar or two dollars on the nose of this, that and the other, and 65,000 went wild rooting for this one to be a triple-crown winner. Tens of millions in our country saw it on TV and all are eager, and they didn’t know the race was run before that. The whole thing was completely finished. I saw it in detail, I saw the colors of the jockey and I saw all the colors that they wore. Even that they couldn’t change for everything was cut and dried. And you wonder, what is this world? Just like a schoolroom and the textbooks are all there and all these things are done.

Now you can bring about a little rebellion within yourself and revise certain things and make the effort. That is called, and rightly so, in scripture repentance, a radical change of attitude. But I had no emotional reason to change that, because my tie was only a little sentimental tie. There was nothing vivid about it in me, only this little sentimental tie. To what extent is this whole vast world losing itself trying to burst a brain to change something on the outside…and you can’t change it on the outside anyway. If one could only remember as they come through to the surface mind in the morning the little things they pass through, which are taking place tomorrow or the next day or next week in this world of shadows. But he comes through suddenly and quickly jumps out of the bed, washes his face, and here he is locked in the world of shadows, and he doesn’t know what he passed through.

So I say, everything I tell you, everything you read in the Bible, everything you hear from some pulpit you ceaselessly question. Keep on questioning and questioning until it actually proves itself so that you can find God or what is called the spirit of truth, the living truth in what they say. Whether it be the Bible, the pulpit or the speaker from the platform, is it true? I’m telling you what I know from experience and I know it is true. I know that you will one day find within yourselves that you are the light of the universe, so everything in the world that you think external and independent of your perception of it is really within you. The whole vast world is yourself pushed out and you are the life of it.

I can’t tell you my thrill the first time that it happened to me that I could stop within myself an activity and stop everything moving in my world. Well, I did it. The waitress couldn’t walk, the diners couldn’t dine, the birds couldn’t fly, the leaf couldn’t fall, the grass could not wave beyond what it did at the moment it stopped. Here I’m looking at a dead world. And then I released the activity…not there but in me. As I did it, everything continued as it intended and completed its purpose: the bird to a certain branch, the leaf to the ground, the waitress to the table to serve the food, and the diners to complete eating what they were eating. But they were arrested for eternity, because I in myself I am the life of the world.

So when you read that in scripture, “In him was life and the life was the light of men…and yet men knew him not” (Jn.1:4, 10). He is in man and man knows it not. That being begins to stir and proves himself to be the life of the world. He stirs in a man as that man, and the man discovers he is that being. The next thing he discovers is that he also is the resurrection. So you’re told, “I am the resurrection” (Jn.11:25). You say he’s dead? “I am the resurrection. Though a man died, if he believes in me yet shall he live.” And then comes that moment in time when I discovered I am the resurrection. I first discovered I am the life; then I rose from the dead, so I am the resurrection. But I didn’t know then I was the one spoken of in scripture as the one of whom the angels spoke saying that God is born. And the sign to prove to you that he is born is this…and the little sign was given to the shepherds watching their flocks at night. I didn’t know that and suddenly I discovered I am the one of whom they spoke. But I know that every being in my world that I address is that being, and one day he will discover he is that being. I knew that before I knew God the Father. I knew that I was God the Father before I knew that I was the sacrificed one, the one whose body was completely split in two from top to bottom. And I knew that before I knew that I was the one on whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove.

So here, I found these things are true. Now I know scripture is true, because I questioned scripture. But I started questioning scripture based upon law, for I was more interested then in things. When I had no money I wanted a trip. All right, so I wanted a trip. When I had nothing I wanted this and I got this. Then I began to tell it to others, and I wanted to see them do the same thing that I did. I couldn’t keep it to myself! I wanted to see others take this same principle and test it in their lives on this level, and they did. I told it to as many as would listen to me. I asked those who proved it to tell it to others and keep on telling it. Things you can’t put to the test here, because you prove other things on this level, then you have hope that things are equally true…and suddenly they become true. So, certain things you can’t put to the test, but you can put the law to the test in this world. Then you can accept the promises on faith based upon what you’ve proven by the law.

So I say to you, do you know what you want? You really know what you want? Well now, here is a simple way to get it: what would the feeling be like if it were true? Is that all? That’s all! What would the feeling be like if it were true? You feel as though you would feel, what you would feel, if it were true. Then what else, Neville? That’s all. Now having done it you walk in that state and see the world as you would see it if it were true, and you walk in that state. And forget it, completely forget it! He knows what you did. Well, who is he? He’s not outside; he is in you. He’s your own wonderful human I am-ness, your Imagination, your consciousness—that is God. Well now, try that. And when it works, try it again on something else. Tell a friend, share it and share the good fortune with a friend. Tell others and tell others and have them tell others.

Then take all the other on faith because you proved this in the world of shadows. Now the other is the world of reality. For truth…he is called truth, “I am the truth” and truth is the eternal reality. We are living in a world of shadows. When he declares in the I-am-ness no matter what he declares he is declaring eternal truth. So, he says “I am the resurrection” and that is eternal truth. “I am the life,” that is eternal truth. “I am the way,” that’s eternal truth. So when he makes these bold assertions with the “I am” preceding it, these are eternal truths. So anyone in the world who screams at you along the way from their towers of Babel telling you of some other way, forget it. There is no other way! You don’t have to give up anything in this world…no matter what you are doing…to enter the way. And there is no other God.

Now, it is not God the Savior’s pleasure that anyone should be lost as we are told; it is God the Savior’s desire that every man be saved. If it’s his desire, every man will be saved. I do not wish to go out on any limb and speculate as to numbers; I say everyone will be saved. When we are told in scripture concerning remnants and told in scripture concerning a certain elect, I leave that in abeyance. For there is a word in scripture, you’ll read it in the 1st Timothy (2:4), it is his pleasure, his desire that every man be saved. If it’s God’s desire and God is in us, every man will be saved. So I will not go out and say that because this one proved with himself first, that is, before another one, that he is the life, that he is the resurrection, and he is God the Father, that he differs in any way from another. I will not accept that. I will simply say I know I have experienced these things and I trust that everyone here before I depart, if I depart tomorrow, it will happen to you tonight and prove these thing, because you have proven in the world of Caesar many things. You’ve taken a certain objective and you’ve assumed that you have it when reason tells you that you don’t, and it worked. I could tell you unnumbered stories concerning dollars and cents…of people actually taking even a definite sum of money and proving it to the penny in what they’re going to earn, what they would inherit, and they do. They didn’t injure anyone, didn’t hurt anyone; they simply took this law at face value and they proved it.

So I ask everyone here to take all the things that I’m telling you and even though I tell you it’s true, still challenge it and have ceaseless questioning within you. But who do you question? Me? No. You go to the priest and ask him if I’m telling you the truth? No, the first thing he’s going to tell you is no, because he is Babel too. He’s along the way screaming at you in a different voice. Go to the rabbi? No, he’s another Babel screaming another voice. And so I ask you not to go to anyone, but go to first principle, and first principle is “Be still and know that I am God” (46:10). It’s a fantastic chapter that 46th Psalm. I have read where certain people in their little jokes claim that Shakespeare wrote it. You can start with the first…it’s the 46th Psalm…and you go through to the first word to the forty-sixth word, and the forty-sixth word is “shake.” Start at the end and go back forty-six words and it’s “sphere.” So they say Shakespeare incorporated himself into the book. Well, I mean it’s a funny thing…but nevertheless, all these things in the book.

It’s said that it’s called Luther’s Psalm. Well, Luther lived in the 16th Century. He did claim that this inspired his majestic hymn, the hymn that, I would say, moves everyone who hears it. But although it moved him to write the hymn he certainly did not lay claim to the psalm. It is a psalm of the sons of Korah and who knows who the sons of Korah are? Korah means “bald headed” like Elijah, “the shaven head.” Who knows who he is, who the sons are? But here is something that goes back a thousand B.C., and some little jokester found this Shakespeare in it in the 46th word, coming from the beginning to the 46th word, and starting from the very end back to the 46th word and it spells Shakespeare, so he said Shakespeare wrote it. But you and I know that this is one of these fantastic revelations. And in the tenth verse, be still, that’s all, “Be still and really believe that I AM is God.”

So tonight when you go to bed, don’t turn to any being in the world. Ask no one for any help, don’t turn any place and just within yourself say “I am”…now say anything you want, and believe it, as though you’re speaking to the God that actually created the universe, your own wonderful I-am-ness. Now you imagine anything. Who’s imagining?—I am. Well, that’s God. Imagine it and then go to sleep. You don’t burst a vessel, you simply imagine it believing that all things are possible to God and you’ve found him…he’s your own wonderful human I-am-ness, that’s God. Go to sleep and see if it works. I tell you it will work. You don’t need to get down on your knees and pray to any being outside of yourself. You don’t need to cross yourself before any little icon in the world. It’s all within you—your own wonderful human Imagination, your own consciousness, your own I-am-ness is God.

Not a thing in this world can really cease to be, for he created it in love…that same being that is in you, your own I-am-ness. The day will come—I know it must come as it happened to me—that instead of being as you’re told “Christ is in you,” you will be “in Christ.” So Christ is in you making you now a son of God. This is the universal son-ship, for Christ is Messiah and Messiah is the anointed one, and the anointed one is David (1Sam.16:12), and that is in you. That is the beloved. One day you will be in, and then you will find that instead of being the son of, that you are the father of. That’s when man matures…when he becomes his own father’s father. And the whole thing unfolds within us.

So do not take anything at all on face value. I know when I take the Bible and tell you that it is true that I have proven it is true. But don’t you take it, question it and keep on questioning. What do you mean that I am the resurrection? Tell me. What do you mean that I am the life, that I am the truth, that I am the way? And you question it. You will see the whole thing unfolding within you. Then you ask the question when the virgin said, the prudent virgin to those who had no oil, “No, go and get your own oil” for when the bridegroom comes they wanted enough, and you wonder why? That isn’t the teaching of God. Why does it not give to those who had none? One night you have the experience and you realize the bridegroom had not yet come. When the bridegroom comes, that union with the bridegroom reveals to the prudent virgin now they have limitless oil to give all…to give to every being in the world, no restrictions. Prior to the coming of the bridegroom they thought there was a limit to the amount of oil that they could give. But when the bridegroom comes…and who is the bridegroom? The bridegroom is the Lord.

We are told in Mark (8:38) and we speak now of an adulterous generation, well, who are these adulterers? The adulterer is one who has turned away from her spouse, and the spouse is the truth. You’ve turned from the truth, you’ve turned from the Lord, and turning from the truth you’ve turned into adultery. That’s all that it means—this adulterous generation. Hasn’t a thing to do with what the world would think. Anyone who has heard the truth or has been exposed to it and still will seek something outside, something other than what you’ve been exposed to, they have gone into adultery. They’ve turned from their spouse and their spouse is I AM. To turn to any source other than I AM as the cause of the phenomena of life is to become an adulterer. It’s just as simple as that.

If you saw the race last Saturday, you heard all these wise men after the race speculating as to what ought to have been done. Here is Arcaro who won many of these races, an outstanding jockey, and he said that it was run too slow, that the first section of it should have been run in eleven seconds instead of sixteen. They’re all now having this post-mortem concerning how frightfully the race was run. They could not have helped it! Not one person on that field could have done anything other than what they did. I saw it, but who would listen to one who can’t ride a horse? Who would listen to one who knows nothing of training a horse, what even to give them in order to keep them in form? I don’t know. I only know I saw the race and I saw it so vividly. I’ve never seen a race more vividly and I saw it exactly as it came in and told it at least to two witnesses, to my wife on Thursday morning and on Saturday morning around ten I told it—which is seven hours before the race was run back east at 5:30—to my daughter. I said you go and tell Jane and Sarge who’s going to win. If they know anyone who’ll take a bet, fix the bet put it all on Arts and Letters. I’m not putting any money on the race, but I know who has won, and now it’s like going to the same show twice. So when I sat down to see it, I couldn’t get excited. All my excitement was gone because I knew exactly who was going to win. So this one starts off, the other one starts off. There were six horses in the race, and they’re all moving back and forth to different positions, and I knew exactly the end, so what am I going to start screaming about? So you see, if everyone knew the end there would be no excitement.

We are living in a wonderful world, thinking we all are going to change things, but not a thing is changed on the outside. It can only be changed where I saw it, on the inside. But I had no interest, other than a sentimental interest, so I would not attempt to change it. I saw it just as it would have to come out…..unless someone who knows the law changed it from within. So I ask you to apply it and change these seeming inevitable ends from within, for you’ll never change it on the outside. But take everything that I tell you, and I tell you I’m telling the truth based upon my own experience. It’s not something that I’m theorizing or speculating about; it’s what I know that I’ve experienced. So when I hear someone from the pulpit and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and he’s quoting “I am the resurrection and the life” he thinks a being on the outside is saying it. He’s telling you of some being and he calls him “my Lord” and prays to “my Lord” external to himself as the one who is the resurrection, no! “Be still and know that I am is God.” That’s the one who is the resurrection. Where is he?—in you!

One day you’ll know he is the life…the life of what, this body?—yes, and everything in the world. He is the life of everything in this world. The bird that is flying, that you’ll even shoot; you are the life of it. Everything in the world you animate. You are the life of everything in this world. I know that, I know it from experience. What on earth would allow any rational being to believe for a moment that a simple man as the speaker would come into a restaurant and know in the depth of his own being that if he could arrest what he is feeling within him, which is a vibration, and stop the vibration that everything that he is perceiving is going to die and yet not vanish. It will simply stand still and it wouldn’t decay; it’s there forever. It could not decay; it’s frozen forever. It doesn’t slowly decay…it is…and it’s simply without life, because I am the life. Then I release the activity within me and everything becomes animated and continues to fulfill its purpose. Then you realize that statement is true…though I haven’t yet proven the other part of it. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” I first prove the life. When will I prove now the resurrection?

Well, it came in the same spontaneous unsought manner. I didn’t sit down to do it, it happened. And then came the night when I rose in the grave to realize I am the resurrected being. Then I am the one of whom the angel spoke when he said to the shepherds, “Go, God is born and this is the sign that you will find, and the sign will tell you that God is born.” This is a sign of his birth. I didn’t realize that it was all about me. Then I knew that before I knew, that is, five and a half months before I knew that I was God himself, God the Father. I knew that before I knew I was the one who was sacrificed for it all; that my body was the one that was split from top to bottom, and it was my blood that was the saving blood that would save the Son of man and raise him up like a serpent into heaven. And I knew that before I also knew what begins the story. For in the Book of Luke, the first beginning it is the 61st of Isaiah…in the beginning, and it came at the end…“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” I didn’t know that before I knew I was God the Father, and all of a sudden that happened.

So all these statements of scripture I know from experience that they are all true. And yet I ask you not to accept them because I tell you, but to question and keep on questioning, and keep on asking the one being that can give you the answer. He will give it to you when he reveals himself in you. And he reveals himself in you and you are placed in the character in the first-person, singular, in a present-tense experience having all these experiences. So I know that everyone in this world is going to have it. In what order he does it I do not know, I could not tell you. Let no one tell you that they can tell you. If they do, don’t believe it. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have so many days, weeks, months or years or lives to come. Challenge it now. You’re here to hear one who has experienced it. And you take it now and prove it to me now…that’s what you ask…and then let it unfold within you. Then when it does, not a thing in this world has any value. You wonder, what are they fighting for? Why are they all trying to get more and more of shadows? So they have a billion and they want two, and then they’ll become the richest guppy in the world, in the grave. You go and you read their tombstone, “He was the richest man on earth.” He survived, but he took nothing with him. He had the satisfaction of having most of the shadows of the world.

So criticize no one…leave them alone. They want more shadows? Pray for them if it doesn’t interfere with your ethical code. They want money? Pray for it. They want more homes and the have three or four now, pray for them. Do it simply. Ask the only being that can do it, which is your own wonderful human Imagination. You don’t do it with any struggle. When they ask of you, who is listening?—I am. Well, that’s he. Now he heard the request; you grant it. Just simply…don’t struggle with it…you grant it and just let it happen. If they tell you that it’s slow, make no comment. You heard it. He heard it when you heard it, because he is your own wonderful I-am-ness. So he heard it and you grant the request, for all that you ask of me in my Father’s name he will grant. So you grant it and you take it. When you see it working in their lives, just ask them to share it. Not what they got, not their money, but to share the news, the good news with others and tell them how they can become free by reason of this good news. Don’t ask them to give one nickel to someone else, no let them keep it. They want it, let them keep it. But you ask them to share it as you share what you found of God. You shared it with them so you share it with others.

I know when anyone calls me at home on the telephone, the minute I answer the phone if the request is within my ethical code it’s granted. I don’t do anything beyond that. Before I hang up that phone, I feel that they’ve actually told me that they have it. I get the mood, I possess the mood before they actually hang up that receiver; I feel it’s been granted. I go to bed not thinking for one moment about anything beyond that it’s been granted. Then they confirm it…if not tomorrow or next week or next month, some never confirm it. Well, that’s perfectly all right. Scripture teaches only one in ten will do it, so I’m quite resigned to that. The one in ten will do it and that’s enough for me. Nine will not come back to say thank you, but one will always come back, one in ten. You meet them months later, sometimes years later, and they will tell you, “You know, many yeas ago I wrote you or asked you so-and-so, and you know, it worked.” It worked…something on the outside, some impersonal thing. But they never told me until we were confronting each other seemingly by accident, and then they tell me. But I’m not surprised, because only one in ten will tell you anyway. Were there not ten of you, said he, and only one returned to say thank you (Luke 17:15). But he wasn’t disappointed…that is the average that will always return to say thank you.

But you do it, regardless if one comes back or no one comes back. Just share the good news with others and set them free in the world of Caesar, for this is really a terrible world, a world of disorder. And not a thing in scripture tells me that I am going to change this world. I am not going to make this world, which a schoolroom, into a home; it will remain a school. I would not turn it into a home and I can’t turn it into a home. It’s not intended to be turned into a home. But I’ve been telling you and tell everyone else that he is not going to turn this into a home, but to take us out of it into the eternal home.

Now, for anyone who is here for the first time this is what I mean by applying the law. It’s a very simple, simple technique. If I asked you right now to pray for me, the first thing you want to know is what do you want? You just can’t pray for you; what do you want? So I must voice it, I must name it so that within your ethical code it is all right and it’s acceptable by you. Well, it isn’t going to hurt you any if I tell you that I want…and I name it. If it isn’t going to hurt someone or hurt you, well then, I name it. All you do…for as you’re listening to my request you are hearing it. Well, the one who is hearing it is God, for you are hearing it. Who is hearing it? You say, “I am,” well, that’s he.

Now grant it: just feel you have it. What would it feel like to you now to say to me and to know it’s true, “Well, you have it.” You need not tell me in words, but in your own heart you feel that he has it, and go about your business. He has it! That’s all I would ask of anyone that they would in themselves actually have confidence in that imaginal act. For the imaginal act is really the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. I hope for this…so at that very moment you subjectively appropriated my objective hope and granted it. That’s all that you do. If you are faithful to that, no matter what I am doing I will get it. I may not come back and thank you—I would be one of the nine—but don’t despair, that is the average in the world. But do it for everyone in the world.

And don’t think for one moment like the prudent virgins that if they gave to this one, they wouldn’t have enough for themselves. They discovered that after they meet the bridegroom and union with him gave them a limitless flow of oil so they could give and give and give and never exhaust the flow. But they had not yet met union with the bridegroom. I have been united with him, so I can’t exhaust the flow.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

Now are there any questions, please?

Q: If you call everyone into your life then where do you draw the line at changing them to make them conform to what you want as opposed to what they want?

A: Well, personally I don’t change them, because I find in scripture the eternal question which is “What wantest thou of me?” I learned that lesson with a blind man. I would have thought any man who was blind and still young and healthy in body and in mind would want to see. So I said to him one day—his name was Clyde Munroe and we called him Brother Munroe—and he said he didn’t want to see. Then he gave me all the reasons why he didn’t want to see. He’d rather have the adulation that came with blindness than when he had sight as a young boy in Kansas City on a farm where no one cared whether he lived or died. He could see until he was about fourteen and then he went totally blind. Friends got together and sent him off to New York City in the hope they could do something for him with operations. They discovered that the whole thing was gone, the eyes were gone, might as well take them out. But then people read to him, because he didn’t read before, and they read him good books and he had a good memory so he could memorize the books. Then, because he was blind he could get permission to speak publicly in the public square. In New York City in those days it was allowed. So he had an American flag and a little box and he would get up with his long hair—he had long hair before the hippies had long hair, down to here. He looked like, well, the so-called traditional picture of a prophet. With a good memory and all these lovely poems people read to him he would simply spout. But he couldn’t tell how many listened to him and he would ask and they would say, well, Clyde, you had twenty tonight or thirty tonight. Oh, he said, that’s thirty people who would listen to me when not one person ever heard me before when I could see. So he had an audience and he loved it. He told me quite frankly that he didn’t want to see and he meant it. So in scripture the question is “What wantest thou of me?” You never take it upon yourself to say another one should do so-and-so.

You go into a home and you find a little argument. There are people who will jump to conclusions and say, well, she should leave him or he should leave her when that is part of their nature to have a little argument and they love each other dearly. Some nut will come in and give you all kinds of reasons what they should do. And all these psychiatrists…you find one fellow on TV all the time, just brought out a book, and he thinks he is the biggest ever. All these silly little children, all permissiveness, and you should do this and he plays this little, tiny part of a child. You want to slap him. Here is this stupid little thing, no discipline whatsoever, everything is just “allow me.” Well, you don’t do that.

We have a little dog, that is, our daughter has one, and we are baby sitters for the dog four days a week when she goes off to work. Well, he better behave himself in my place…I’m not going to have a kennel. So when he wants to go out I will always take him out and he has his own way of telling me. He’ll come and lick my foot and lick my hand as I’m reading the Bible. Today three times he came and licked my hand. I’m hoping he doesn’t lick the Bible. I don’t want to spoil it. So he licked my hand…that’s perfectly all right, licks my foot. When first I didn’t respond he goes and looks at me as though “Is he stupid, has he gone to sleep or something?” He comes back and does the same the same thing all over again. Well then, I know that he is right and I’m wrong, so I get up, put him on the leash and take him out and walk him until he performs whatever he’s supposed to. He does, he isn’t lying to me, and I always give him some little tidbit when he comes back. But he is disciplined. Well now, if he wasn’t disciplined, she couldn’t leave him in my home. I’m not keeping that sort of a house. So bring him yes. I love my daughter and she can leave all of her animals here. She has birds and a dog…if you’d allow it she’d bring an elephant. She loves all kinds of animals.

Well, I’ll take care of as many as she wants. I’ve taken care of the birds and the dog many a time when she goes away, say for a weekend. But every four days a week, because her maid comes on Wednesday, so we don’t get the animal on Wednesday. We get Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday…we have a dog and I have to walk him. But he lets me know when he wants to go out…he has his own sweet little way of telling me. I can’t delay too long, because should he perform then it is not his fault, it’s mine. He’s a disciplined dog. Well, every child should be disciplined. Imagine some man, because of this permissiveness, still performing these functions of the body at the age of manhood no matter where he goes. He’s an animal and not a disciplined animal. No, I say every child should be disciplined. The Bible teaches that if you love it, you discipline it; if you don’t, let it become an animal and then push it out into the wilds.

So I never say to anyone that I think you should really want so-and-so. I ask them what God in them is telling them: what do you want? Because, I know tonight there are millions of people in the world who would not want to change places with anyone in the world. In fact, everyone should be in that place where you don’t want to change places with anyone in this world. If people will think because this one has a billion dollars, wouldn’t you like to be in his place? So what?

Would anyone in this room tonight like to be in the actual shoes and be the person, say, Getty is? Well, he has a billion and a half, so what? From reports he’s found no happiness tonight. It hasn’t brought him any happiness. You’re happy with your wife or your husband, with your family and you go home knowing that you’re wanted. Such people will never know when they’re married that they’re ever wanted. Because girls can play some very interesting parts and make you think that you are the last thing in this world; in fact, that you are everything a woman could ever want…and all she really wants is your money. He will never know that he was ever wanted for himself. Well, a man must feel that he is wanted for himself. And so a woman should feel she is wanted for herself and not because she has money or social position. What percentage of the world tonight would actually believe that Jacqueline married Onassis for his looks and his physical prowess? What percentage of the world would believe that? I don’t think you’ll find anyone who’ll believe it. But she married him and she does have a half-billion dollars. With all her money it still was not enough.

Do you know it is never enough? When I made eighteen dollars a week at Macy’s, I said, O Lord, if I could only make twenty-five dollars, wouldn’t that be marvelous! I made twenty-five dollars and that wasn’t enough. If I could only make thirty dollars…couldn’t go too far, couldn’t envision more than that. Then I made thirty-five dollars and that wasn’t enough because it bought a bigger room in which to live. And then you did something else and bought a better suit of clothes. Then fifty dollars was not enough. I made $100 and that was not enough; then I made $500 a week and that was not enough. I’ve never made enough. Less than all is not enough.

Good night!