A Lesson in Scripture

I call this tonight “A Lesson in Scripture.” You and I are here for one purpose and really only one purpose: to fulfill scripture.

So we’ll turn first of all to the Book of Luke and the first recorded words of the Lord Christ Jesus are, “How is it that ye sought me? Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” For they had complained that they sought him and they were worried and troubled, and he wonders “How is it that you sought me? Do you not know I must be about my Father’s business?” Well, put yourself into that frame of mind that your earthly parents seek you and you dare to say something of that nature to them, when you are the tender age of twelve.

Now this has reference to the 40th Psalm and the 4th chapter of John. In the 40th Psalm you read the words, “In the role of the book it is written about me.” Every man has to make that discovery that the whole vast scripture is all about you. It’s not talking about characters who lived unnumbered years ago. It’s not talking of individual beings, say, Jesus Christ, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on; it’s all about you. The whole vast book is all about you.

Now in the 4th gospel and the 4th chapter of that gospel, there’s a discussion between a stranger, a woman of Samaria, and the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s all about a well and water. Then after this, the disciples return and they say to him, “Master, eat. You’ve had nothing to eat” and he said, “I have meat ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:32-34). I have come only for one purpose, to finish the one’s work, the one who sent me. He sent me. Well, who sent you? Well, “He who sees me sees him who sent me. I came out from the Father and I have come into the world; again, I leave the world and I return to the Father” (John 12:45; 16:28). He who sees me sees the Father. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

So I perceived it in the beginning, but it had to have an agent to express it. Everything in this world needs man to express it. Well, may I tell you, God is man. In the very beginning and he made them in his image, male, female made he them, and called their name man. Read it carefully in the 5th chapter of Genesis, and he called their name man, and they were in the image of God (verse 1). So it takes man to express anything in this world. So he comes into the world to express and finish what he conceived in the beginning. So I conceive a certain state, but it takes a man to express it. And so, I send myself from the depths of my own being into this world to fulfill my purpose.

Now, “In the beginning was the Word.” The word logos translated “word” means “a plan.” It is a definite plan; it is God’s purpose. “And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is his Word? He made his plan. He made it known through his servants the prophets. We have it in scripture. The Old Testament is revealed, but not to the point where man quite understands it. It has to be expressed by man. The New Testament interprets the Old. The story of Jesus Christ is the interpretation of the prophecy as recorded in the Old. Read it carefully, everything said of him, because you are going to experience it. In the beginning was the Word. Now he is called “the Word” and “His name shall be called the Word of God.” So Jesus Christ is his Word, his seed, his creative power.

Imagination is the creative power of God; it’s the wisdom of God. Can you conceive of any greater wisdom than your own wonderful human Imagination? Think of something, just imagine it, and it’s right before your mind’s eye. Maybe you can’t draw a straight line, yet you can imagine your mother, who is gone from this world, your grandmother who is gone from the world, a child who may be gone from this world. Instantly before your mind’s eye you conjure this being and you can’t draw a straight line. What did it?—your own wonderful creative power which is your Imagination. That is Jesus Christ in you. He’s come into the world to fulfill the Word of God and everything must be fulfilled by Jesus Christ. It’s Christ in you that is the hope of glory. “Scripture must be fulfilled in me,” as we’re told in the Book of Luke, the 22nd chapter. It must be fulfilled in me, so I must be about my Father’s business.

Now everything said of Jesus Christ in scripture you are going to experience: The miraculous birth; the discovery of the fatherhood; the ascent into heaven; and the descent from heaven of the Holy Spirit upon you in bodily form, in the form of a dove. You’ll have it. Everything said of him you’re going to experience. Until then you cannot depart from this world of death. So, “Thou hast delivered me from the world of death” said the Psalmist…only after I have fulfilled scripture. For in the volume of the book it is all about me. So, everyone in this world…but we come in groups, small groups. One is sent from the depth of his soul to act almost like a magnet to draw those who are about to fulfill scripture.

Now here, this past Friday morning, my friend Benny, and here he said, “Neville, I’m cataleptic. I can’t open my eyes, just can’t move them. No effort that I could make physically could part my lids. And I am hearing within myself the cry of a child. I am hearing it in my skull…a child is crying. The child is crying and it’s a distress call, and I can’t open my eyes. The wind, an unearthly wind, is taking place. A strange, peculiar thing is happening…and I think of what you taught me. But I’m only thinking of you now and what I’m hearing. I’m associating what I am hearing and what I have heard from you about the sign that comes into my world bearing witness. Here, suddenly, I can’t control it, the wind is on me, the sound is there, and then a light, and it’s like a star jumping out of my skull. But instead of a star, as the star breaks through from my skull, it’s a child. And here is this child wrapped in its swaddling clothes. I lift the child in my hands and I say to the child, ‘Oh, my darling!’ And I knew that no one in eternity could take care of that child but myself. When I’m holding the child and expressing these qualities of endearment, it all disappears, but in its place I’m left a photograph of the child.”

Now, it comes that way in his case, he is left with a photograph of the child. So I ask you now to mark it down. It happened on the 20th day of the month of October. Mark five months. Five months from now it should, if the chronological order is correct as it happened to my friend Bob, and it happened to me, it should then happen five months from now, the coming of the wonderful Son of God who reveals him as the Father, who calls him Father. That Son is David. Now, I am not venturing any interpretation beyond what he tells me. I say the birth has happened. But, why should it happen in the same identical manner to any two when God is infinite in creation? Although all children come into the world seemingly from the womb of woman, no two births really are alike. In fact, the child coming out, though it’s a child, doesn’t have the same thumbprint, doesn’t have the same odor. There is something that is different in the way that it is born. And so, here, this happened last Friday morning. Only a couple of days before, he said, “In the Spirit, here you are giving a lecture, teaching the Word of God. And, those who were around you hearing the Word of God as you interpreted it to them, they said to you, ‘Tell us the story of Jesus.’ And you said to them, ‘The story of Jesus is a persistent assumption. That is the story of Jesus, a persistent assumption that you are what you want to be, that things are as you desire them to be. That is the story of Jesus.’”

Now let me tell you from this platform to this small crowd, it is right. But I’ll tell you, “Unless you believe that I AM he, you die in your sins.” I do not say that I, Neville, am he. These words come from within you. Unless you believe that you, yourself, are the being that you now worship on the outside, you remain as you are and die in your sins (unfulfilled desires). You’ve got to begin to believe that I am he. What?—believe that you are Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word of God that comes through you to fulfill scripture, which is the Word of God. “And my word shall not return unto me empty. It must fulfill its purpose and accomplish that which I sent it to do” (Is. 55:11). What did he send you to do? You’re sent into this world to fulfill scripture. That’s all you are here for.

According to a rabbinical principle what is not written in scripture is nonexistent. Yes, on this level I can be rich as anything in this world if that is my desire. But remember, the story of Jesus is persistent assumption. Alright, I can persist in the assumption that I am wealthy; anyone who is today persisted in that assumption. I could take you across this country and introduce you to intimate friends of mine, very, very wealthy. I would say ninety-nine percent of them are miserable. But they will all tell you the story. I think of one in particular now, she has a fortune in diamonds, but I mean a fortune. Tiffany offered her…when Tiffany who sells diamonds marked up, say, 300-400% offers you a hundred thousand dollars for one piece, you know what it is in their eye.

Well, she comes to dinner. When I go to New York City and she joins me for dinner. If you stripped her—nobody would believe it’s so valuable—you could take a half million dollars off of her body. And yet she’s not laden down with these things. One pendant here, one ring, one little brooch, and put it all together it runs in to hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is so fabulous you wouldn’t believe anyone would be seen on the street with it. Most people keep them in the vault, and insure, and never wear them and wear phonies or copies of them, but not my friend Ruth. But, she was born a very, very poor girl. But she told me, “Neville, I dreamed of marrying wealth. I simply persisted in the assumption that I am married to tremendous wealth.” She had no money; inherited no money. Her only claim to any honor is she is a descendant of the Adams who sat in the White House both as presidents, father and son. So she is an Adams. He, on the other hand, came out of another line of rascals and so they made fortunes. He came out of a biblical line. His great grandfather was a bishop in New York City, and therefore got good advice as to real estate and how to gobble it up. And so, that is his fabulous wealth. So she inherited by marrying what she wanted, but she lived in hell for twenty-odd years. Bore him three sons—one was killed in an accident and the other two are in the same world of phoniness, complete phoniness. But they have wealth, fabulous wealth. And at this present day, well into her seventies, her only desire, and she can get it if she wants to, is to be remarried to more wealth and more diamonds and more everything.

So I said, alright, the story of Jesus is a complete and undeviating persistency in the assumption that you are what you want to be. So, if you haven’t experienced wealth and that is what you want, do it may I tell you! If you have not experienced fame, assume that you’re famous. If you have not experienced anything, assume it. And the day will come, “I will send upon the world, said the Lord, I will send a famine upon the land; it will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the Word of God” (Amos 8:11). If it hasn’t come to you, well then, take the same story of Jesus and just simply have the biggest ___(??) in the world, the biggest home and/or homes, all the money in the world, everything in the world.

Because my friend, who the minute I go to New York City, she comes to every meeting. We get together at her home for dinner or I will take her to our restaurant, because today we don’t have a home in New York City so I can only entertain her in a restaurant. And so, we always get together. She’s a delightful person, well into her seventies. But, she’s honest, brutally honest with her desire. She said, “Neville, I don’t care, I just want more and more of what I have now. More diamonds, more emeralds.” And they are beautiful, may I tell you. These aren’t just little pieces. These are not just little things you go in and buy and spend ten thousand or fifteen thousand, and think you’ve got the biggest thing. Oh no, these are museum pieces. You’ve never seen such beautiful pieces in your life. They’re not numberless, but each is simply a museum piece. And each as it hangs upon her and the loveliest chain to support it, or the little brooch, or the little ring. And it’s not overpowering but here, a $50,000 ring there, and a $75,000 piece here, and maybe a $100,000 there. And that is how she lives. But she loves it! She said, “I have no hunger to hear anything about David. I want more and more to leave my two sons, more and more.” She is brutally honest with herself.

But I say to you who are waking, I hope the hunger has come to hear the word of God. So that it’s not for bread, more and more bread, for that’s bread…you can always convert it in to something that can buy bread…and it’s not a thirst for water, but for the hearing, with understanding, the word of God. As you are told, this is what I have come to fulfill. “I have come to fulfill scripture. And then beginning with Moses in the law and the prophets and the psalms he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 22:37; 24:27). Now here, as we go through Luke, he begins it first with what I’ve just quoted: “Why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business and my Father’s business is to fulfill and finish his works?” I’ve come to do that. Now, he comes into the temple and they give him a book and he opens the book. It’s Isaiah and he turns to the 61st chapter and he reads the first verse and a half of the 2nd verse. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to the suffering; to open the prison doors to all who are in prison.” He only reads one and a half verses then he closes the book and returns it. Then he said to those who heard him, “This scripture that you have just heard has been fulfilled this day.”

Now, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor…he claimed it was that day. Although it’s not expressed that way in Luke, he claims it was this day, as you heard it, that it was fulfilled in him. “For I have come only to fulfill scripture.” Well, what does he mean, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me”? He said, “I saw the Spirit descend in bodily form as a dove.” That was what he was telling those who could understand scripture: it has been fulfilled in me, and follow my pattern, because you must follow this—it’s the only way to the Father. “No one comes to the Father save by me.” So this day it has been fulfilled. What’s fulfilled? The Spirit of the Lord God descended upon me in bodily form as a dove. In what other way would you see it? It comes as the dove.

Go back to the ark…man is the ark of God, and the dove comes, bringing assurance that everything will be all right. Here comes the dove upon one and it remains upon him. And so, “Rise and anoint him, for this is he.” So, he’s telling you how he’s fulfilling scripture. He goes through the entire book knowing that everything written in that book is all about me: “In the volume of the book it is all about me.” I have not restrained my lips. I have told of your deliverance. I have told of your everlasting love. Where?—to the entire congregation, anyone who will hear it. They may not accept it. But I do know, within a certain group they will hear it because the hunger is there, and they will all begin to awaken. “You have delivered my soul from death.”

Now, here are the words in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah, “And thus sayeth the Lord God: Can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands drawing himself out of himself like a woman in labor?” Why do I see it? This is the Lord speaking: “If a man cannot bear a child, why am I seeing every man drawing himself out of himself like a woman in labor?” (Verse 6). Now the word mistranslated in both the Kg. Jas. Ver. and the Rev. Std. Ver. is the word “chalats”…the Hebrew word which is mistranslated “loins.” Hasn’t a thing to do with that. Take your concordance and look it up. It means “to take off; to pull off; to pull oneself out of oneself; to deliver.” So when we are told “And he has delivered my soul from death,” this garment is the garment of death: it dies. It appears in the world, it waxes, it wanes, and it vanishes, turns into dust. He delivered me from the garment of death. The same word translated “deliver” is the word translated in that 30th chapter as “loins.” Has nothing to do with any loins. It’s simply that here is something that is the most fantastic thing in the world: Can a man bear a child?

Now, let me go back to what I quoted earlier, “Male, female, made he them and called their name man”…just capital Man. There is a womb in male, female that is not the womb that I understand as my earthly mother’s womb. It is the skull of generic man. It is there that God has planted his word, and that word cannot return unto him void, but it must accomplish that which is his purpose and prosper in the thing for which he sent it. He sent it for only one purpose and that one purpose was to fulfill scripture. There was no other purpose in this world than to fulfill scripture; for he has an entirely different world awaiting those who fulfill scripture which is his word. So we’re told, “Thy word is truth.” So everyone comes into the world for one purpose. But you do not depart from life when the world calls you dead. You’re restored to life, just as solid as this, just as real as this, in a world just as real as this, to continue the journey until that hunger comes upon you.

But here, in this present group, I am drawing everyone to that final point. Here is Benny, out of the blue…and Benny comes up with this fantastic experience a few days after he saw me in the Spirit teaching the word of God, when they asked, “Tell us the story of Jesus.” Then on the heels of it, last Friday morning, about 3:30, 4 in the morning, comes this wonderful experience of a star bursting out of his head, coming out. But the whole being is crying, a child is crying. Now listen to the words of Blake, “The dead heard the cry of the child, the voice of the child, and began to awake from sleep. Everyone heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life.” But, he equates death with sleep—“The dead heard the voice of the child.”

Now, he starts it…this is his book called Urizen, The First Book of Urizen, and in it he starts it, that the serpent in the womb, and how it sheds its scales, and then it turns into a grating voice, and the voice became the cry of a child. It turned itself into the form of a child as it came forward. It started as a serpent in the womb of Enitharmon. And then Blake said, “And the dead heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep.” So here, he actually heard it in his skull, the cry of the child. It seems the most impossible thing in this world, but may I tell you, it is true.

Now, to encourage those who are not interested in that aspect of it, go back to what he heard me say in spirit: “the story of Jesus is a persistent assumption in any aspect of your life.” You want to be rich? That’s the story of Jesus; it’s a persistent assumption in the conviction, “I am rich.” For, “Unless you believe that I am he, you die in your sins.” So you want to be known? It’s a persistent assumption in, “I am known!” You want to be healthy? “I am healthy!” No matter what you want to be you have to declare you are it and it’s a persistent assumption. An assumption is an act of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please him. One has to have faith. Well, an assumption is an act of faith…when my reason denies it and my senses deny it and I dare to assume that I am the man that I want to be.

Maybe I’d rather, tonight, continue to worship a Jesus Christ on the outside, and go along with all of the sheep of the world; not be the shepherd, go along with all of the sheep, and worship something on the outside. Perfectly alright! In the meanwhile, maybe while I’m a sheep I would like to be well fed and feed on green pastures. Well then, it’s simply I am now applying this persistent assumption. And so, instead of climbing that steep hill, as most people do in this world, then feel myself to be feeding on lovely green pastures. But to do it there must be a persistent assumption. And so I must assume that I am well fed, that I am wanted, that I am known, that I am just being taken care of, everything is as I want it to be. But, to bring it to pass, there must be a persistent assumption. That’s the story of Jesus.

Now, God’s word will not turn back, we’re told in Jeremiah (23:20), until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter day you will understand it clearly. And that intent of his mind is that you become God. It is God’s purpose to give himself to man. That is his purpose and it will not turn back until he’s executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. Now in the final days, he’ll send a hunger upon you. And that hunger is not for bread, not for jewelry, not for these things, but for the hearing of the word of God. When it possesses you, nothing in this world will satisfy you but an experience of God. You’ve got to experience God. And it’s God’s purpose to give you himself as yourself, so you awaken as God, not you and God.

Because, here is the story: “What is the greatest commandment, Master?” He said, “The greatest commandment is this, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one.’” In the manuscript, the word here is Shema. The last letter is majuscular…in other words it is larger than the other letters in the word. And the word Achad, translated one, the last letter, Daleth, that is majuscular. So you put the two together and you find they spell a word meaning “a witness.” So when you read it, the sentence in these ten wonderful words—these are the Ten Commandments—this is the greatest of all commandments: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” But the way it’s written you must find eleven words, but it’s really, in Hebrew, it is “one Lord.” But the “one” comes last in the sentence, so that you read it “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one.” So if you break it down you get eleven, but you can so phrase that sentence it comes to ten. But, the first word, shemA, which means “hear,” the last letter is large, larger than the letters in the word. The last letter, which is achaD, translated one, the last letter is enlarged. Put them together, because as you read it this is important…the whole sentence is important…but the two together they are most important: a witness.

Now, when we come to the end of the Bible, that is, in the gospels, “You are witnesses of these things…but remain here until you are endowed with power from on high” (Luke 24:48). Well, what is the power? You’re told in Corinthians that Jesus Christ is the power of God. Well, endowed with power—until you are clothed with Christ Jesus. You wear him as you would a garment. “Put on the Lord Christ Jesus” you’re told. So wait for it…he’ll come. But it can’t come until he’s born within you. He’s born within you and you find the sign of his birth in the form of the child. Then he unfolds, and all these signs unfold, and finally you’re wearing the garment of Christ Jesus.

So I tell you, you are witnesses of things that you have heard, and all that I have told you, you will do. That’s what he tells us. Everything I have told you, you will do. For now I go to my Father—I am returning to the very source out of which I came. I came into the world, completely forgetful of the being that I am. I had to. When I first met my friend Abdullah, that’s back in 1930, 1931, when I came into the room Ab was talking. At the end of his talk, he came over, extended his hand, and he said, “Neville, you are six months late.” I never saw the man before. I said, “I am six months late? How do you know me? I have heard of you, Abdullah, so I know your name is Abdullah, but how did you hear of me?” He said, “The Brothers told me that you were coming…and you are six months late.”

Well, the reason I was six months late is because the one who told me of Abdullah was a Catholic priest. I loved him dearly, but I did not respect his judgment. I thought he was almost a moron. He went to Fordham University, but to me he was simply no one I would trust beyond the door. I would trust a dollar, trust him with anything, I don’t mean that way, but trust his judgment. His father was a rum runner in the days of Prohibition and left him two million dollars. He proceeded to lose it the first year on Wall Street. The only wonderful thing he did, he took the last $15,000 that he could salvage and gave it to a Catholic organization to take care of his mother for the rest of her earthly days. The day she died, the very night she entered that place, they kept the $15,000, but if she lived for twenty-five years they had to take care of her. So he took his last 15,000 and gave it to this home for Catholic ladies and there she remained until she died.

So I had no feeling about his judgment. So when he told me he met this marvelous man that I would understand, that he didn’t understand him, I postponed and postponed and postponed. One day I had no other excuses and so I went with him. We came in as Abdullah was talking, so I sat down on the very first chair. And so at the end of the meeting before he sat down, Ab came straight over and said, “Neville, you are six months late.” And when I said, “Well how? I don’t know you,” he said, “Oh yes you do, but you’ve forgotten. You’re six months late; the brothers told me you were coming.” He said, “Don’t you recall this?” and he mentioned thousands of years ago in China. I said, “No, I haven’t the slightest idea of anything but Neville. I know of no other part I have ever played. I am only aware of playing the part of Neville.” He said, “Alright. It’s a complete forgetfulness, as you promised that you would do to play the part you must play now.” And so here was Ab.

Now, last Friday night a lady gave me a letter, which I read when I went home. She said, “The previous Monday on the platform—my husband and I came; our friends who usually come with us didn’t make it that night—and Neville, as I looked at you, I could only see an ancient Chinese philosopher. I have seen my friends faces change from moment to moment, but this remained changed for your entire lecture until you went into the Silence. I closed my eyes and looked at you, it was still that same ancient face. And it bothered me, because no matter how I looked, it was not Neville, it was that ancient Chinese. So on the way home I tried to recall because it disturbed me, and then it came in a flash. Seven years ago, in an experience of mine, a psychic experience, I was walking up a hill with a few who were students of a class. The teacher was there. And as we walked up, I seemed to fall back from the group, and then to my side here is this ancient Chinese in a white garment. He beckoned to me and I followed him to a cave and here was a huge granite, a huge stone of granite, and the top was peaked. Then two hands came out over the top of the stone and it had a cocoon in it, and I knew it was myself, I knew it. He took it and broke it on the top of this peak of the granite. As it broke, water mixed with colorful oil came out and then the whole atmosphere was perfumed. Then came radiant-like heat rising. Light, but the light took on the sense of heat rising. And then this ancient Chinese took my hand and led me back to the group and they had not noticed that I was gone. Then I realized that was the face that you wore last Monday night. That was the face.”

Well, that’s what Ab told me in 1931. But to this day I know I have no knowledge of it whatsoever, because I swore in the beginning not to be confused, to empty myself completely and take upon myself the form of this slave, and become obedient unto this death, even death upon this cross. And to know nothing, but to have absolute faith in him who sent me, knowing that he and I are one. When it’s all over I have no other place to go but to return to him who sent me, and he and I are one. So, all of these things I had to completely wipe out, whatever part I might have played and I’ve played them all. You cannot arrive at the end of the road not having played all. But I do know from my intuitive knowledge that you play any role in this world…it’s like an actor, to play it an actor must feel to some extent the part that he’s playing and imagine himself the character that he’s depicting. And so I have to play this part and I have to imagine myself the part that I am playing. Now, when the signs come they only convince you more and more and more of the being that you really are. So all of these are signs…every one is a sign.

So I tell you, you are here because you are hungry for the word of God. You’re thirsty for the word of God. You could be this night at home before a TV and it’ll cost you nothing, and you’re at home, and it’s all free. But you gave up your time and you gave up your money to be here because you’re hungry. I’ve been sent to tell you not only of God’s word, which is the most glorious thing in the world, which is that you become God, that it’s fulfilled in you; but while you are in the world of Caesar that you can cushion all the blows by delighting in his law. His law is simple and it’s simply a persistent assumption in the claim that “I am what I want to be.” And so, if someone hasn’t the hunger for the word of God, let no one judge him. Let no one judge him! Tell him how to become what he wants to be. So you want what, you want money? All right, if I were you I would do this. And now you want to be happily married? Or you want to save a marriage going on the rocks? Well, were I you this is what I would do. I don’t care what she said—maybe she wants to get rid of me, maybe he wants to get rid of me—I’m not interested in what you want, tell me what you want.

Now, if I were you, this is what I would do. I would assume that I am exactly what I want to be. And if everything happened—and it will happen, may I tell you—a change of heart in her, or a change of heart in him, depending upon which one it is that is trying to fly the coop if you want her. But then you will say, “But he doesn’t want her or she doesn’t want it.” I’m not asking that. “What wantest thou of me?” You ask me to tell you the story of Jesus Christ? The story of Jesus Christ is a perpetual, persistent assumption. Well, in what sense? In whatever you want to be. “But it doesn’t work, a persistent assumption.” What do you mean, it doesn’t work? Are you assuming that you are now what you want to be? “Well, I tried it.” Well, that’s not it. I’m speaking now of persistent assumption. So you want to be the head of a business? But you say, “After all, he has sons that are coming into the business and they’ll take over, how can I be head of the business?” Would you like to be the head of the business, in spite of all the sons, the nephews, and all the things of the world? “Well, I would like to.” Well now, I’ll tell you the story of Jesus Christ, it is simply a persistent assumption. Christ in you is the power of God. Imagination is Christ in you and that is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So he knows how to bring it to pass, but it takes a persistent assumption. Are you willing to assume that you are the head of the business? Are you willing to assume that you are…and you name it? But are you now going to go home and say, “Well now that’s a nice little talk that he gave, but after all, he has a million in the bank and I have nothing and I’m in debt”? And so that right away…here is disobedience, lack of faith in I am he. That’s the fundamental sin of the universe. “Unless you believe that I am he, you die in your sins” (John 8:24). That’s the fundamental sin.

And the second sin—there are only two recorded in scripture that offends God—and that is eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, “That’s no good.” You say it’s no good? Well now, let me go across the world and ask another person if it’s good and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s good.” So you will say tonight to our admirals and our generals, “Would stopping the bombing of North Vietnam be a good thing?” “Oh no, that would be horrible! They’ll kill all of our boys. They will simply regroup themselves.” Then, let me go to North Vietnam and ask them, “Would that be good? And they’d say, “Certainly that’s good.” So what is good? What is good or evil? So, who is asking?

And so, would it be good? I’m not asking anyone but you, what do you want? Because, in the end, this whole thing is going to resolve itself to simply mirror the being that you are assuming that you are. And the day will come that you will be so saturated with everything in this world you will have had so much of everything that you are getting tired of it. You can’t take it, it’s sordid. And then you want one thing only, you want to hear the word of God. But I don’t think anyone until he’s saturated with wealth and saturated with power in the world of Caesar and all these things, really gets hungry enough to hear the word of God.

And so, that one memory haunts me. I remember that one. I do not recall the old, ancient Chinese at all, but I recall that one when I had so much wealth. I can’t tell you what I had. Not one home but homes and each home fully staffed, full complement of servants, from secretaries down to the gardeners, and that was a life of sheer decadence. I recall walking out of it and not returning. I didn’t die as men die, I walked out of it, willingly, deliberately, and did not return. Now whether they found the body or never found it or not, I do not know. But I do know I walked out of it, deliberately. It was nothing but something…I had all the money in the world, all the yes-men that one could ever have, and full complements of servants in all my homes, from secretaries down, and all my lovely gardens. One day I walked out, deliberately, and left it all behind me. Then about ten years ago, in one of my journeys in spirit, I walked back into it and saw it all. Saw it all occupied by those who usurped my place. And they knew it. Strangely enough, my secretaries knew me, all my servants too, and welcomed me with open arms, that I returned. I told them, “Only for a moment, only ___(??) see, and then again, ___(??). Came back here, right here to this world, with the whole vivid, vivid memory of it all.

So, I do not think until one completely saturates himself with the things of Caesar that they really are hungry enough for the word of God. But, I am convinced you are, even though you want more money. Certainly you want more money. You have obligations to society, so you have to pay Caesar’s debts. So you want more money, you want more of this, that and the other, but still the hunger is greater than that hunger for more of the things of Caesar. That’s why you’re here.

So I can’t tell you my thrill when Benny came home yesterday and told me that story. Now, I’ve asked him to write it out. I want it written out and give me all the details. What the child looked like, everything about him…give me all the details. It was his experience, it popped out of his head as a star but the star was no longer a star when it broke through, it became an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. And he fell in love with it and called it “my darling” and knew that only he could take care of it, no one but himself. But then it simply vanished while he held it and in his hand was left just a portrait of it, a picture of it. But the wind was present, the vibration was there, and the voice crying from within. So he couldn’t open his eyes, he was the dead. “The dead heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep.” And so, he awoke, and finally he could open his eyes, only with the memory of what he’d heard.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

___(??) they’re going to call it a day concerning publishing my books. They have so few left of any titles of mine. But I’m really vitally interested in the last one, the last chapter. I don’t think he has more than fifty copies. He may have a few more…I don’t think he has more. And so, if perchance you are thinking of a book that you either are going to keep or give, let me tell you, get the book. There is no record on earth that I know of that tells it as that book tells the story of resurrection; the story of the discovery of the fatherhood of God; the story of the splitting of the curtain of the temple and the ascent into heaven; and the descent in bodily form as a dove upon the one that he has chosen. I do not know of any, I’ve never read it in any book. And so, I have recorded it and I think for the first time it really is in print. It is only foreshadowed in scripture. But I have never read even a foreshadowing in other books. It’s foreshadowed in scripture, yes, it’s there and I’ve given you the related passages in this last chapter, called Resurrection.

And so, because he decided not to print any more, and I don’t blame him, he feels that he’s reached the point in time where they should retire. He can live here for a while and go to Canada for a while. They don’t have to…and why be confined? So as he told me this past week he’s called it a day. Maybe someone else will take it over, possibly, but I do not know. So, I can only tell you, for your sake, there are only a few left. There may be fifty, maybe seventy, I do not know. I don’t think he has more than seventy, from what he told me last week. So if you’re thinking in terms of a book for a present, because in no time flat you’ll be told on the radio only so many days to Christmas…and so if you are. But I would suggest that if you do not have one for yourself, get one. If you do not feel like it tonight, just speak for it so he can at least mark it for you.

Q: Would you repeat for us about testing the Spirit.

A: Testing the Spirit? My dear, when one becomes sensitive in this world the ear is bored. As we’re told in the 40th Psalm, he has bored ears for me. Our ears are deaf. We think we hear, we hear these outer sounds from here, but we can’t hear from within. A man sits down…even let this audible sound cease from the outer ear or with the outer ear, and if he is tuned, he’ll go beyond it into a spiritual ear and continue it, as one should practice. Then one day the ear opens and you hear voices coming from within, as though they speak from without, but they’re coming from within. But because the human Imagination contains everything, but everything, you will find these principalities and powers of darkness trying to deceive you. And so, you will hear something of great authority coming from within; and on the heels of it a voice will tune in, like, well, if you have a party telephone and the voices coming through at the same time. You don’t have a clear wire. And so, it will try to tell you that what you have heard is not so.

To be perfectly frank, here a lady had a vision ten years ago, and in that vision she saw, if you were here, she is on the top of the highest mountain in the universe, not the world but the universe, the Mount of Transfiguration. Her mind is held and she cannot divert her sight, it’s held to the horizon. And here, the clouds are below and she can’t look down, but she sees all these clouds in her own way. But she’s held to the horizon by some force that will not let her look down, but she’s above it on the top of Transfiguration then comes a little light…a little light…another little light in vast distances. Then suddenly the light breaks through and it’s a white light, flooding the entire area. And what was an imperceptible forward motion of a cloud now becomes a swirling mass of motion in every direction. She points and she says of the light, “That’s Paul.” Then comes another, coming through the clouds and it’s multiple colors, living color. The colors aren’t just color, it’s not just moving, but it’s alive. The whole thing is living. She points and says, “That’s Neville.”

Well, a friend of mine, who recently had the ear opened, and has been hearing some lovely things coming through, beautiful things, but there are interceptions and distortions with other voices. So the voice comes through saying to her, “That wasn’t Neville that was I.” Again, this voice will claim everything for itself, and it will tell you. So you’re told in scripture, in the 11th of 2nd Corinthians, “He will claim he was the angel of light”…speaking of the devil (2Cor. 11:14). The devil is the doubter, trying to put doubt into her mind as to the authority of what she is hearing. Then you are told in the 8th chapter of John, “You are a liar and the father of lies. You do not know the Father. I know my Father, but you do not know your Father. You are a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

So I ask everyone to test the spirit, test him, whether it be from God or from the father of lies. How would I test him? Ask a simple question if it is that wise. If it’s claiming what it’s claiming, ask a simple thing, “I have no plans for Sunday, tell me, what will I do on Sunday? I have no plans as to tomorrow morning’s mail, what mail will come tomorrow morning, tell me from whom?” I would even give him a little easy test, “Don’t even tell me the contents, tell me from whom?” You’ll find a silent voice. Or you might find someone wild within you because you dared to test him. So, you’ll find it. It’s part…because I contain everything within me, I have to contain opposition within me and this is the opponent within. But I would have but one God “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one.” Not two…I can’t have that; I must only have one.

I find it across the country. I go to San Francisco, go to New York, and you’ll find individuals that get burned up and it comes down to the point here, she’s not burned up with me, she only records what she heard. But here is someone taking my name apart, making it come out as the devil, or God’s devil, or this, that and the other. And they do it…but it doesn’t disturb me, because I have experienced the word of God. And what you’re told in scripture, they’ll call you everything. In the 10th chapter of John, “Why do you listen to him? He has a devil and he’s mad.” And so, you’ll find these things. I’m only asking you to test it. Test the spirit whether it be of God.

I’m telling you what I know from experience. I’ve been sent to tell you. I emptied myself to come through to do what I’m doing. And in the not distant future I’ll take this thing off and I’m going back to the source out of which I came. I am not entering a world of dream. This is a world of dream, if you do not know it. So I’m not going into the world of dream re-clothed as I am here; I’m going straight to the source out of which I came. But to come here I had to completely empty myself of all that I have ever done and completely forget and assume the limitations of this body, which is a cross.

There’s only a few years…sixty-odd years, what’s that? But, you become that magnet to draw just those at that moment in time that are coming into the state of waking. Just imagine a small audience like this tonight that I could point out at least, without any doubt, a half-dozen. Three definite and at least three more that have had the experience of the child in a foreshadowing. But three in actual and another three right here tonight in a foreshadowing. Look at the audience, it’s nothing. But as you climb the mount it gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

But everyone will tell it. You’ll have it, you’ll all have it, and then you’ll tell it. And take all that you’ve heard…you don’t have to write a book or change it, just tell it, in any group where you are, that the word of God cannot return void but it must accomplish what he purposed. It must, and it must fulfill that for which it was sent, and the word of God is Christ in you. So you only come for one purpose: to fulfill scripture. I have no other purpose. To what extent has scripture been fulfilled in me? Then I leave my name on the sand and the tide comes in, where is it?

They just celebrated in Russia, this is a big celebration, and it’s only a matter of ten years, a little over ten years, and there’s no more Stalingrad. One of the greatest battles of the Second World War was at Stalingrad. There is no more Stalingrad, it’s Volgograd. The tide came in a washed out the name altogether. There is no Stalingrad. And all the names of Stalin, they’re down. They’ve taken the name out of the books. He’s not even in the encyclopedias, as though he never was born. He is a non-being, he’s a ___(??). So when I play the part of this, that or the other, I’m always “I,” you’re always “I.” You never cease to be the “I.” So in the end, that “I” and there’s only one, it’s I AM, the name of God.

Goodnight.