A Spiritual Feast

If tonight should seem spiritual, do not be disturbed. May I tell you that such nights are far more important than other nights…should it seem the unpractical side. We are told in the 1st Epistle of John, the first chapter, “And this is the message that we have received from him and proclaimed to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” You read it in the 1st chapter of the 1st Epistle of John…I think it’s the 5th verse. Now is this a figure of speech or is this literal fact? I’m telling you from experience it is literal fact.

Now what does it mean that God is light? There are three statements that are very firm in scripture concerning God and defining God. This is one. Another is God is love. Another is God is spirit. Well, here we have God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. You follow me closely, the final gift of God to man is himself. God has given himself to man, but God is a revealer. Man’s not able himself…(interruption…) let us continue. God’s act in the most literal sense he became us that we in the most literal sense may become God. Now God is defined as light. As I have told you he is a revealer. I know myself only as I know the revealer.So I read carefully what is said of the revealer, and then to what extent has he revealed that in me? For he is awakening in me, he’s awakening in you, he’s awakening in everyone.

So is he really the light of the world? Here is one who makes the statement, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). “And here is the light that cometh into the world that lighteth every man that comes into the world.” Is it really true?Well, back in 1926 when I was twenty-one, it was a Saturday night, and several hundred young boys and girls gathered at the club in Larchmont, New York. I did not join the crowd because I was the guest of the manager, and he didn’t think that I should join those who were members and the guests of members. And so, I retired early and turned the night light on and began to read a book. Then, the next thing I knew the sun is up. When I went to bed it must have been nine; the next thing I knew the sun is up high in the sky, the light is burning, and the book is on my chest. I knew from the page I had not gone more than a page or two before I fell into a deep, deep trance, because the book had not been disturbed. In the course of that long interval of, maybe, ten or twelve hours I hadn’t turned over, because the book was on my chest, just opened this way. And then I woke to find I am cataleptic, a bit frozen but conscious. And I had returned from this experience: I became an infinite sea of vibrant liquid living light. There was nothing but myself. I was the light of the universe. Not one being existed. I was the light of the universe—no planets, no suns and moons, only light, infinite, a shoreless sea of light—and I am the light of the world. So I can say from experience that this claim is true.

When God awakes within man, he will know that these claims defining God are true. That he, the man in whom he awakes, is the light of the world, and if God is light, then he must be God. The whole thing awakes within man. And after this happens, may I tell you, every claim made in scripture concerning God he finds unfolding in himself. It comes like a tree unfolding. That God is love…he stands in the presence of a being who is infinite love, then he is embraced by love and he becomes one with that body. It’s human. It’s man. And he knows he is love, infinite love. From then on he has no other feeling but that body that embraced him. While he is, as I am now talking to you, I am wearing but a small portion, a small part of myself; just a spark of an immensity of my own fiery being. So I know from experience that I help and I teach and I do all these things more when I sleep than when I wake. For now when I sleep I pass beyond the world of dream into a world of Spirit-waking. And I know that the thoughts, the imaginations, all of these visions of many are but fiery darts shot from my own fiery self. And I know it from experience.

So I tell you that within us that same being is waking, and when he wakes we are the very being who awakes within us. And we become, for an interval, the new lamp of the world. But not here, but there, beyond the world of dream. For, here it is always he is rejected. “He came to his own and his own received him not.” He came into the world and they knew him not, and even his own brothers did not believe in him. And so, on this level it is always the same story. But he knows in whom God awakes who he is. When he rests, as the world would call him asleep, he passes beyond the world of dream into the world of spirit-waking. From his fiery being he shoots accurately into the minds of many, those that he wants to stir and change to accept the message that he’s brought.

Now here, let me share with you what was shared with me. The lady is here tonight. She said, “I had this wonderful experience. There was a huge, huge circular and raised platform and you were in the middle. All around in the circle, many rows, were people. In the first row were the deformed, they were all deformed, crippled, and while you instructed you took them one by one and instantly they were made whole. They got up, moved towards the back, and departed, every one. I came in with a little girl, little child,” she said, “in procession and sat in the back. I noticed a Madonna made of marble or stone, and suddenly as you taught and instructed all, all things are being animated, it, the stone statue, became animated. And I can’t describe our thrill. And that was it.” Then she said, “A few weeks ago I had this one, which is similar. I saw a hospital and you were a doctor. But in this hospital there was no surgery or drugs administered, but all came to you to be cured. As they came in, they were all cured, without drugs, without surgery. And it is my dream that such a hospital be here.”

She is here tonight, and may I tell you, no, it is not here. It’s not on this level at all. This level is for a purpose. This is the level of educative darkness. This is the level that you and I, infinite beings that we are…for when immortality took upon itself mortality it only put itself into a very small, little part of its infinite self. And that is what we see here. You are an infinite being, for you are God. Everyone is God. There is no one who is not God, but here just a spark in the immensity of our own fiery being is present. And because ultimately we are one, when one awakes and passes beyond the world of dream, he fires his arrows into the minds of all to stir them, just to take that spark and let it blaze. And suddenly, all that is said of God in scripture—and what is said of God is said of Jesus Christ; that is God personified in scripture—and all that is said of him you are going to experience. It need not be said of you and a new Bible written. It’s there, it’s permanent. You don’t need any credit on this level at all. But all that is said of him you will experience, therefore, it is said of you. And you ask for no recognition, because it was not granted then, it’s not going to be granted now. That’s part of the play. Even his own brothers did not believe in him, and he came to his own people and his own people received him not. He was in the world and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not. And that is the story.

So much is said of light in the scriptures. He enlightens every man that comes into the world, but everyone, because without this spark you couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t live. God actually became us that we may become God, and so God is awakening within us, unfolding. Everything said of him is unfolding in us. And the day that you are all light…and then all love…and then comes all Spirit, that no mortal eye could see you. For when you are born from above, although it is not here in this world, the witnesses to the birth are mortal; and they see the sign of your birth, but they cannot see you, because you are spirit. They talk about you as though you were not present. They speak of you in the most incredible terms, “How can he have a baby?” And you take the sign in your own arms and embrace it and hold it in the most endearing manner. Yet, they cannot see you because God is spirit. No one can see you who looks through mortal eye. So the witnesses to the event that God is spirit are mortal and cannot see him. But you know from the experience that God is spirit. That was a sign of his birth now into his own region. So you know that the definition of God that God is spirit is true. That God is love that is true. That God is light that is true. And you’ve experienced the three definitions of God.

Then you still find yourself confined to this little tiny garment, a small little portion of yourself. In this world you can teach and help unnumbered. Ask for no acclaim, no recognition, nothing, just simply teach it. But night after night as you fall asleep you pass beyond the world of sleep, of dream. And from that other world of spirit-waking you shoot your fiery arrows into the minds of those who follow you. And there you stir them, stir everyone, and then awaken them as you have been awakened.For someone shot it into your mind. At some time in your life you heard the same story, and having heard it, and slept in the world of dreams, someone who told it who knew it from experience shot the arrow into your mind and stirred it into a flame. Then he awoke in you, the same being, for there is only God. There is nothing but God in this world.

So God is awaking in everyone. And there is no race in God, no sex in God, no color in God…it’s just God. But he is light. So when we speak of darkness and light, is darkness a thing or is it the absence of a thing, like a hole in a sock? Would you call a hole in a sock a thing, or is it the absence of that portion of the sock? And so, I’m speaking of light, actual light, real living pulsing light. So he has not a thing to do with the pigments of skin. I wear all garments, black, yellow, pink, red, every garment of the world I wear. I am not more in one garment than I am in another garment. In Christ there is no Greek, no Jew, no bond, no free, no male, no female, just one. So he’s one in all. So he’s in everyone and he awakes in all. When he awakes, everything claimed of Jesus Christ you in whom he awakes will know it’s all about you. It’s not another at all, it’s all about you.

And when the day comes that you close your eyes and leave and depart this world, you have shot your arrows well and they will awaken. They may forget you in time, doesn’t really matter. The eternal story is told and recorded in the gospel. And so, you depart having played the central part. Your name may not be recorded here. It’s already recorded in eternity. You are God himself. That’s the being that you really are.

On this level, we can take it now and go from here to any fulfilled dream in the world.You are going to live the life that you have imagined, you know? Imagine well because you are going to live the life that you have imagined. You start imagining this night the most glorious thing in the world. No matter how wonderful it is, it’s nothing compared to the being that you really are, it’s nothing. You couldn’t conceive of anything in this world that would come near the being that you are. This is simply a little, tiny section of your infinite being. While you are here in the world of Caesar dream nobly, dream lovely dreams. And why shouldn’t you? You can realize everything if you are willing to imagine that you are it now. So you begin to imagine that I am the man, the woman that I would like to be. And regardless of what happens tomorrow or next week or next month, you persist in the assumption that you are already that which you want to be. And may I tell you, you will become it right now in this world of flesh and blood. It will all vanish yes, but why not prove it?And if you begin to taste the power that is latent in you, that you can conjure out of the deep things that seemingly are impossible by simply assuming that you are now that which you want to be, and if you dare to do it and persist in it and then it becomes a fact, then you’ll know this thing, at least this portion of it, is true.

The Promise you will take on faith. I tell you from experience it is true. I have experienced the fact that God is love. I have experienced the fact that God is a father. Who would have thought that one born in the year 1905, and my friend born in 1911, that we in this Century, from humble backgrounds—no background, no social, intellectual, financial backgrounds—and that we in this Century would actually experience the fact that God is the Father, and that we are the Father? Well, how could anyone have that experience and ever in any moment of time forget it? “I will tell of the decree of the Lord:” said David, “he said unto me ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee’” (Ps. 2:7). Here he’s talking to David and calling David his son, and telling David that you are my son and therefore, naturally, I am your Father. Who would have thought that anyone in this 20th Century would actually awaken to the point of being the father of one who historically is supposed to have lived 1,000 B.C., when he and I have no memory of anything beyond that little moment in time? I began to memorize when I was four, maybe three, so I can go back to when I was three. Certain things I can remember when I was three. Maybe he can go even further, but he can’t go beyond that, and yet, here we go 1,000 B.C. into the same memory. Memory jumps over 3,000 years and here we were the ones who decreed that “You are my son, today I have begotten thee.” And we were the ones, the immortal being, who took upon ourselves mortality to test our own infinite power; and then became a small, little part of ourselves, a little spark of our immense, enormous fiery being. And then, it flames and flames. Then fatherhood becomes once more part of our consciousness, and David stands before us and calls us Father. So I say, this is the thrill in store for everyone.

So when my friend saw this healing, I can tell you from experience…it was 1946 when unnumbered sat before me as I came by and as I walked by without effort every one was made perfect. For at that moment I was lifted up and a heavenly chorus sang my ascension. The word they used, “Neville is risen! Neville is risen!” As they sang out, every one before me was made perfect in harmony with the perfection springing within me. That is in store for everyone in this world. And in the end, we are all gathered into one being, only one being…and yet without loss of our identity. For, there is a friendship and a friendship would have to accept the existence of others. So God’s name is plural. It is a unity: It’s a one made up of others. So all these will one day be gathered into one, and that one is God, and yet without the loss of any identity.

You and I will simply rejoice in the experience, this fantastic experience where you and I deliberately went out, as you’re told in the 15th chapter of the Book of Genesis. He said to Abraham, “For a surety your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved there for four hundred years; and then they will come out” freed from that land of slavery (Gen. 15:13). So the 400 years is as long as I wear this garment of the cross. Four hundred is simply the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, whose symbol is a cross and its numerical value is 400. It’s called Tau. And here is Tau [the body], on this I am crucified. While I wear this garment I am enslaved, enslaved every moment of time while I’m here. I have to prepare the food, eat it, wash the dishes, do all the things of man, and perform all the normal functions of a man. Isn’t that slavery when God is housed within him? All the normal functions of a man I must perform daily whether I be king or serf, isn’t that a slave? And so, as long as I wear the garment of the cross I am enslaved.

But then “I will bring you out.” And he will bring everyone out. Why? Because he’s bringing himself out. It was only God who made the decision and only God who fell into this wonderful world for a purpose. As you’re told in the 82nd Psalm: “I say ye are gods, all of you, sons of the Most High; nevertheless, you will die like men, and fall as one man, O princes” (Ps. 82:1,6). Well, if we are called princes, then the Father is the king. On our return from the journey he gives us himself and we are the king. We return as the Father. We go out as “sons of the Most High” and his final gift to us is himself, and we come back as God himself. Because he is love, we know that much. He is spirit, we know that much. He is everything that is claimed of Jesus Christ in the gospels, and everything claimed you are going to experience. Light, yes, infinite light, and you know it. The last is Father and that you know when his son calls you Father. So, everything that is said of him you are going to experience.

Leave the book just as it is, don’t try to change it. I stand amazed, yet I cannot be disturbed about it when I read all the great scholars on this book. Today, I took the word light and went through my book on the word light. It’s amazing that the great scholars they cannot see it. They think it is a figure of speech, it can’t be true. It couldn’t be taken in a literal sense and so they try to give it every kind of interpretation. And these are the great minds of the day, men who are masters of the ancient tongue, but they know nothing because they haven’t had the experience. But I tell you it is literally true. All the precepts of Jesus Christ must be accepted literally. It will be experienced in a region so remote from that which man knows or even conceives, that you can’t even think of it. But there it does happen and you will know that you are the central character and the whole thing is unfolding within you.

On this level, you dwell on what I’ve told you this night. You’ll find it will pay off in tremendous dividends, really. You get to the point you feel that a wish is already fulfilled. You get to the point that as you wish, you feel “Oh well, thank you, Father.” Even though you know you are the Father, you can still address him as though it were another, but an intimate self. He who sent me is with me, he never left me; but, if you see me you see him who sent me, for we are one. I and the Father are one. And so, you can actually have a wish, and then say “Thank you,” and wait for its appearing in this world and it will. It will happen right in this world.

Now the same lady who wrote me this story concerning the hearing, she said, “I made every physical effort here to get a seat to see Burton. I called the agencies, I called friends who I thought had influence, I did everything. I said, what am I doing? Here I know this law. I made every human effort to get a seat, I can’t get a seat, and so I simply assumed that I sat right in that audience in marvelous seats and I saw the show, and enjoyed it thoroughly. A friend of mine, who is a writer in New York City, he called me and asked me to be available on a certain night that he is coming west. Well, where do you think after dinner where did we go? We saw Burton. I made every physical effort to get a seat. All the agencies I called, I sought them out, I called friends, I did everything; went to the box office, not one seat available. So I simply remembered what I’d forgotten and assumed I sat in the audience and I’m looking at Burton. Then, all the way, 3,000 miles away, a friend of mine who’s a writer is coming west, he wants me to be with him for the short interval that he’s here, and so we go to dinner and we go to see the show.” He might have gotten it in New York City, and, of course, they’ll say, ‘After all, out of town you can get it.’ They keep certain seats…they’re always justifying everything in this world. You’ll find it no matter where you go. But she didn’t ask for justification, she simply assumed she was seeing it though everyone said no. And then 3,000 miles away one comes to take her to the show.

So, don’t despair. You can be anything in this world that you want. In fact, you’re going to be what you’re imagining anyway. Man is imagining? He’s going to live it…I don’t care what it is. Morning, noon and night you can’t stop imagining, because the candle has been lit. As Job said that the candle upon my forehead…he speaks of the spirit of God as a candle upon his forehead and it’s lit. When it was lit by light, I walked through darkness. Alright, you’re moving through a world of darkness moving towards the fulfillment of all that you’re imagining, so imagine the best. Everything in the world is yours for the taking. Take everything.

In the end, you’ll come to the end and the end is God. The beginning was God but the end is God. For “I am the beginning and the end, I am the first and the last, I’m the Alpha and Omega.” So if the beginning is God, the end is God. So he can only bring out himself; he can’t bring out another. So out of himself comes all that goes to make God. For the name is a compound unity, it is Elohim. In the beginning God, Elohim, and that is one made up of others. And out of it comes all—you and I and those who come out. In the end, we go back as God, but this time we’re the Father…called as sons princes; and go back as the king. And that is the journey of everyone in this world.

So here, I tell you from my own personal experience that the story is true. I have experienced that definition of God, that God is light. So, when in that first chapter of the first epistle of John he claims, and he uses the plural, he said, “We will tell what we have heard from him and proclaim it to you that God is light and with him there is no darkness at all” (verse 5). He is speaking as though he had only heard it, that he had not yet experienced it. That’s the way it’s worded. “We will tell what we have heard from him and then we will proclaim it to you.” Now, in the gospel of John it differs somewhat. He puts these words, which undoubtedly are based upon his own personal experience, into the words of the central character and makes the central character say, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not be in darkness but will have the light of life”…because, he identifies light now with life. There’s something within man. He is all light and that light is life.

He animates and starts things moving, just as this lady saw the statue. It’s dead, it’s made of marble, made of stone, but as everyone moved from their deformed state into a perfect mold, a perfect form, and walked away in a gay mood, then she became animated and began to dance, the Madonna. You animate everything. For in the end you’re going to discover you’re extracted from this body of yours and all of these bodies are parts, eternal parts of the universe. You are buried in them. These are sepulchres and they remain dead. While you wear them they are animated, they seem alive, but, really, they are all part of the eternal structure of the universe. And you, the princes who fell as one man and then fragmented into all these parts, you are brought forth and brought forth as the king. For the one who fell was the king as princes. Then he gathers himself together and he’s only one being, and that one being is the Lord God Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ. And you are he.

It doesn’t make sense. Don’t expect it to make sense on this level, but I tell you it is true. For I know for a long while now, night after night, you fall abed and you move beyond the world of dream into a world of spirit-waking. From there you shoot your fiery arrows and they never miss. So someone will bring me a message, “I saw circles after circles after circles and a little, tiny circle in the middle, and then an arrow entered it.” I was thrilled that she brought back an ___(??), for that is exactly what has happened to me. I never miss! The smallest, little circle that is made and there your message penetrates. There it sets ablaze what was already there. So I tell you, your imaginings and your visions and your dreams are fiery arrows shot by a being who is all light.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

___(??) on a different level tonight. Believe me, you will find it a far greater lesson. You’ll sleep this night and your wishes, as you wish them, you’ll find them coming into being. They will if they are within the framework of love. If you ask that someone else be hurt, no, that is not within our sphere whatsoever.If you ask for anything that you want, perfectly alright. If it is at the expense of another, in my world there is no other, so we cannot accept it. But if it is for anything that you want, perfectly alright. But to ask for something at the expense of another, well then, don’t ask it of the speaker. But all the things in the world that really are lovely would hurt no one if you got them. How would it hurt anyone if you became wealthy? How would it hurt anyone if you wanted to be famous and you became famous? How could it hurt anyone? But not at the expense of another, no one need be hurt in this world for the individual to get what he wants, but no one.

And so, in the end, you’ll find we really are one. There is nothing but God, there’s only God, and he’s playing all the parts. And so, you want to play a very wonderful important part? May I tell you, the chorus is always ready. The whole vast world is your chorus. It will all be moved when you step forward and play the part…won’t hurt them because they only reflect you. Everything will simply mirror the being that you are.

Q: (inaudible)

A: How would I find the precepts of Christ? Well, a very good thing to do is to take a red-letter edition of the Bible and read the red letters. These are all his words, and so all the others are commentary, they’re editorial. So, if you say, “In the beginning was the Word” that’s not what he said. Go all the way through, all these are said of him and come all the way down to the first words recorded in red. Now, that’s where he begins to speak. That’s when the being is speaking from experience. So all these things…“I am the light of the world,” that’s what he claims. “God is spirit,” that’s what he claims. “I and the Father are one,” that’s what he claims. “God is Father,” that’s what he claims. So all the red-letter statements in the gospels, in the four, are all related to the words of the central figure and these are the words he speaks upon the stage. All the other words are spoken of him.

But he speaks those words recorded in red. And so, it’s like an actor stepping upon a stage. So he makes his entrance after it’s been prepared, where other actors come on first and talk about the one that is coming. Then he comes on the stage and then he tells his story. And ___(??) many words in red letters. But all the red letters are his words; all the others are simply commentaries. All the other actors are playing the other parts. What Peter said, what this one said, what others said, what John the Baptist said, all these are in black letters; but then the red letters are all the words of Jesus Christ. You only find them in the four gospels and just a few are mentioned in the Book of Acts… for Acts was once a part of the book of Luke…so just a few words are there.

Now, the most exciting thing to do with the Bible is to read the Bible as though you read the book called Jesus’ Bible. Suppose now you got hold of my Bible, you’d find it all marked up—where the night I was born from above I have it marked against the passage where it relates to that passage, and the night my arm was exposed, I have it all related, and all these are marked up. Now, suppose you took the Old Testament, for we only had the Old Testament, and then all the passages in the New Testament that are quoted from the Old are passages he underscored as it were; then that’s what the story is all about. So take the book and see all the passages of the Old Testament that meant so much to him against the ___(??). As in the Book of Luke, he said, “Now scripture is fulfilled this day,” quoting the 61st chapter of Isaiah, “and the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he’s anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” Well now, that’s the 61st of Isaiah. Well now, take that and read it. It only takes one and a half verses. He doesn’t quote beyond the first of the second verse. Take that and then that’s how it begins Luke. Go back into Mark and see how he begins it, “Now the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

So these are the first words spoken, all else prior to that is commentary, and then he is introduced in that drama. So he stepped upon the scene making that declaration. And, a fascinating study is to simply take the Bible, like you take a book, and any good Bible will have footnotes giving you passages that are related to that verse that he has just quoted or he has said. You go back and see what meant so much to him in the Old Testament, and then you are actually reading his private book, the book he marked up.

Goodnight.