Neville Goddard’s lecture “An Assured Understanding,” delivered on 13 June 1969, invites listeners to grasp Paul’s call for the riches of an assured understanding of God’s mystery of Christ. Goddard reframes Christ as the divine seed within every human being rather than solely a historical figure. He uses the parable of the prodigal son and the symbolism of David to illustrate humanity’s journey from divine source through earthly experience back to the awareness of Fatherhood. The lecture emphasizes the law of assumption and imaginal acts, especially through sleep, to nurture and awaken this Christ-seed. Ultimately, Goddard promises that each individual will one day hear David—humanity personified—call them “Father,” marking the full realization of God within.
Paul tells us that Christ is our human life. Now, if you took all of your experiences throughout all of the generations and condensed them into a single youth, it would be David. It is he in whom the Christ-seed flows. This is the same David who was anointed by the Lord and told that he would bring forth a son who would become the Lord’s son, being one with the Lord. In other words, David will bring forth a being who is his Father. That is the mystery.
Housed in you, a human being, is the Christ-seed, which will bud and flower into fulfillment as Jesus the Lord. Until David is formed in you, you can describe Christ in many ways, but “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” This is true, for the Holy Spirit brings to your remembrance all that you were told in the beginning.
To understand this, let us look at the parable of the prodigal son. In the story, the one who remained at home complained, because when the son who entered the prodigal state returned, the father killed the fatted calf, and gave him the robe and ring. He was given shoes for his feet and much was made over him. Then the father said: “Son, all that is mine is yours. It is right that we should make merry and be glad for this your brother was dead and he is alive, he was lost and is found.”
May I tell you: before you entered this world of tribulation and death you were God the Father, but you did not know it. You had to come into this experience in order to know that the world is yours and all within it. And, since it is all the Father’s, the only way you can know it is all yours is to become the Father. You could own the earth, but if you did not know everything in it was yours for the taking, you could die of starvation, not knowing how to appropriate it.
Before you came into this world you were, but you did not know that you were, so you were unaware of all that you owned. Leaving the awareness of being, you came here and became lost, as your consciousness wandered from state to state. But when your journey comes to its end, you will return to your heavenly awareness. Then the Father will embrace you and place his robe and ring of authority upon you. You will be given the fatted calf, which is a symbol of abundance. Shoes will be placed upon your feet to designate your freedom, for only slaves go without shoes. Then that which is personified as humanity will stand before you to reveal your Fatherhood.
This is not spelled out in the scriptures, but – as Blake said, (and he was quite the student of the scriptures): “That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.” The prophets and the apostles wanted to rouse man’s faculties to act. They did not spell everything out, so that man would dig and find the seed within himself.
Every child born of woman contains this incorruptible Christ-seed which possesses the power of self-expression and self-development. And every man is destined to mature and become his own father. If you come out of humanity, then humanity is your father; and if the symbol of humanity is David, and you come out of David, then he is your father – but not forever. Having planted the Christ-seed in humanity, in time it will bud and flower and bring to fulfillment all that was contained within it. And when humanity has done his job completely, you will look back to see
David – he who fathered you in the world of time – standing before you and calling you Father. Then you will have matured, for you will have become your own father’s Father. That is the mystery of Christ; for the Lord, speaking through his prophet Samuel, told you that when you are gathered together and lie down with your fathers, “I will raise up your son after you who shall come forth from your body. I will be his Father and he shall be my son.” Coming out of your body, he seems to be your son, but he is the one who is made to say: “My Father is he who you call God, for I know my Father, as he and I are one.”
Everyone will one day discover that he is God the Father, whose son is humanity, brought into focus as a single being called David. I hope you understand, as I cannot spell it out any clearer. I am telling you of my experiences of scripture. I am not manufacturing them, adding to, or speculating about them, but explaining scripture as clearly as I possibly can; for I, like Paul, strive for you, that you may have all the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ.
The term, “God’s mystery of Christ” is used to express both the human race and the individual who attained the ideal David represents. The human race certainly is not ideal. It is scattered and always at war, but when the race is finished, its experiences are brought together into one single, beautiful being. While humanity is scattered its beauty cannot be seen, but at the journey’s end all of its horror is brought together and personified as a glorious youth called David, the son of God, who is God himself.
It was God who buried himself in humanity, and at the end God comes out of humanity. Coming out, he is humanity’s son; but when David appears, he is God’s son, revealing his father. When that Christ-seed blossoms and fruits in you, individually, you will share the fruit of your labor by telling everyone who will listen to you of the mystery of Christ.
You will notice in the prodigal son story that it was the second son who went out. It’s always the second son. Cain killed Abel, the second son. Isaac, Abraham’s second son, was offered in sacrifice to the Lord. Then we are told that the Lord loved Jacob, the second son, and hated Esau. It is said that Judah fathered the twins of Tamar, who – when the first one came out – the midwife put a red string around its finger for identification; but when he pulled the hand back the second son, Perez, came out. Read the genealogy of Jesus and you will find all of these second sons recorded there, for that second son is not a child which comes out of the womb of a woman, but the choice of God. You were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Then you came out that you may know you are one with God and that there is nothing but God.
No matter how many billions of us there are here now and how many more will come, there are many who are left for a future age. They will come out eventually, but we will all be back as God the Father before we decide on another venture into the world of death. You are blessed because you are the second son and beloved by God. In the state of Jacob, God told you: “I am your inheritance.” How will you know this is true? You will know it when God’s son calls you Father, for when he does, you inherit God.
The story of scripture is the most fantastic, incredible story you can ever hear and accept. Can you believe that you will become your own father’s father? It’s incredible, but true, for that is exactly how the Book of Matthew begins: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Now, this genealogy is turned around, for the Bible is based upon a peculiar reversal of order. All through the Bible the second becomes the first, until the very end, when you find yourself coming out of humanity. Then humanity congeals and forms itself into a single being and stands before you and calls you Father.
I came out of humanity, for I came out of this garment of death and was born from above. Five months later I saw humanity -fused into a single being – stand before me and call me Father. Then I knew I had experienced that state in order to join the heavenly being called Jesus, the Lord. Now I am one with the personification of all those within whom the Christ-seed has erupted and flowered into fruitage, for David, the personification of the sum total of all humanity and their experiences, called me Father.
Dwell upon this and you will find David, he who was anointed with the destiny of lordship. Samuel was told to “Rise and anoint him.” Taking the holy oil, he anointed David in the midst of his brothers, and from that day forward David never lost a battle. Although David did everything man is accused of doing, the Lord never condemned him because David was always doing the Lord’s will. It was the Lord who said: “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will.” Everything is the will of the Lord. “As I have willed it, so shall it be. As I have purposed, so shall it stand. My spirit will not turn back until I have executed and accomplished the intents of my mind. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”
In today’s paper I read where the mafia (whoever they are) wanted to sell the A&P stores a certain detergent, and when A&P refused, two managers were shot and over a period of two years their warehouses were burnt, costing the stores over $50 million. One young twenty year-old lad was caught. He was used as the front man, while his bosses, with their billions, remain hidden. This is what is known as approximate causes. The young man will be judged and sentenced for a job he received $100 for. But in his mind’s eye he was proud to serve those who were so mighty.
You may wonder what good can come out of that experience, but it will. Time will prove everything is good, for all things work for good to those who love the Lord. There isn’t a thing that the Lord cannot resolve, because he is the master artist. That which you and I judge as discord will be resolved into perfect harmony. Then one day every experience will stand before you, collected into a single youth whose beauty is so great you cannot believe he could be the sum total of all of the horrors you have gone through. David is the personification of the human race and his beauty is indescribable. And who is his father? I AM.
So when the question is asked: “What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he?” they answered: “The son of David.” Then he inquired: “Why then did David in the Spirit call him Lord? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?” In the ancient days a child always referred to his father as “My lord.” When David stands before you, he is standing in the presence of one called Jesus and calls you: “My father; my lord.”
Like Paul, I am telling you who I am, and yet you do not understand. But now I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, for I and my Father are one. Remain where you are now until you are clothed with the power to understand the things I have been trying to tell you, for I strive for you that you may have all the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ.
I have shared God’s mystery of Christ with you this night. The word “Christ” is used as the human race completely personified in the ideal form as David – and also of the individual who realised that ideal. Everyone in whom that ideal is realised becomes one with the one and only Jesus. The minute God’s mystery of Christ is realised in you, you are the Lord Jesus, even though you still bear your present identity, and those who know you by your given name will continue to see you as their friend. But when you take off this garment it will be for the last time, for you are the Lord Jesus. And while you are here you can put your garment down in what the world calls sleep and – as the Lord Jesus – do your work by stirring those whom you have drawn unto yourself, into a quickening state.
Night after night I try to open your eyes so that you will not continue in the sleep of death. Then I return to this garment called Neville and pick it up again because of my obligations in this world. Every night I enter that wonderful awareness, but I know my true inheritance will not be mine until I take off this garment of flesh for the last time. Then without loss of identity I will be one with the Lord Jesus.
You came into this world for the purpose of knowing what you possess. It was given to you, but you did not know it and cannot know it until you leave your heavenly home to enter the world of death. The son who remained was told: “All that is mine, is yours. It is fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive, he was lost and is found.” Unable to take the challenge, the eldest son remained with the father and served him well in his own wonderful, unconscious way, just like the functions of your body serve you in their own unconscious way. Right now what you had for dinner is being digested, assimilated, built into your body as bone, tissue and blood. What you cannot assimilate the body will unconsciously expel from your system. It’s all part of you, yet playing their unconscious roles. You and I came out to play conscious roles in the body of God, and that conscious role is to be God himself, for there is only God awakening and the awakening will go on forever. There was a limit as to how many he would bring into this world of tribulation and death at any one time. They are measured by the number of the sons of God which he chose in himself before that the world was.
Everyone is destined to discover the fatherhood of God within himself. He will know this when humanity forms itself into a single being and calls him father. Every human part one could ever play, when summarised, is David – that one being you will one day come out of to be born anew. Then, having matured, you will realise he is not your father but your son; for David, in the Spirit, will call you father.
I hope this is becoming clearer to you, for it is so important that you understand the distinction between the two uses of the word “Christ.” He is not only the one in whom the ideal was attained, but is humanity which contains the ideal in the form of a precious, incorruptible seed. That Christ-seed contains within itself the power of self-expression and self-development, and will germinate, bud, and flower into fulfillment in you. Then the sum total of all of your human experiences will stand before you in all his heavenly beauty and call you “father.”
The story of Jesus is an acted parable to instruct us. When Paul realised this he said: “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you; before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Are you so foolish having begun with the spirit are you going to start worshiping some little being of flesh? Did you receive this understanding by works of the law, or by hearing the story with faith?” Well, the Christian world has ended with the flesh. They see Jesus as a body of flesh and blood, even though he tells us in the Gospel of John: “I and my Father are one and my Father is Spirit.” If you and your father are one and your father is spirit, are you not spirit? Are you who began as spirit going to end as flesh?
Today the entire Christian community worships a man of flesh and blood. But like Paul, I will no longer see any character of scripture as human; even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view I regard him thus no longer. Now I see the entire Bible as an allegory. Paul puts it quite clearly when he says: “The story of Abraham is an allegory.” As a devout Jew, Paul thought Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as men after the flesh; but when his eyes were opened he saw all scriptural characters as backgrounds – spiritual eternal states that culminate in the one in whom the ideal blooms. Then he knew he could not see the blooming ideal as flesh, when all the others are spirit. All of the characters in scripture are eternal states of the spirit through which the immortal soul passes and comes to that final state called Jesus, when the seed called Isaac which was planted in you in the beginning of time, comes to fruition. You will find that the second son is always sacrificed – Abel, Isaac, Jacob, one after the other, culminating in the one grand being who is God himself.
I hope I have made it clear tonight, for I strive for you that you may have all the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery of Christ. It is my hope that when you hear the word Christ you will not think of some historical being who lived 2,000 years ago, but understand the great distinction between the two uses of the word: one representing humanity in its ideal form, and the other representing the man from that human race in whom the ideal was attained. Everyone in whom that ideal is attained is Jesus Christ, and you will all know you are he without any loss of identity. That’s the great mystery. So when you read the Bible in the future, keep this important division concerning the use of the word Christ in mind. At one minute you are speaking in the name of the Father, and in the next moment in the name of the son. Learn to discriminate between the two, and you will see how the same awareness is playing the different parts.
You are playing your part right now by doing God’s will. You will play it just as it has come out, and as it will be consummated. And remember: in spite of the horrors of the world the end result will be beautiful. You will see this beauty of the summary when David calls you “Father.” That was the plan before the beginning of time. In the state of Abraham we were given a preview of what we would experience, but we did not know that at the end we would become God himself.
How could man believe it, when the son who remained complained that he never once received one kid. He could not understand how, when the one who was so wasteful returned, he was given the fatted calf, the robe, and the ring, and shoes were placed upon his feet. He was told, but he could not understand.
Many years ago I had a vision to illustrate this point. I came upon an enormous sea of sunflowers, each with a human face and each flower rooted in the earth. When one swayed, they all swayed. If one smiled, they all smiled. They moved in unison, while I – certainly not as beautiful as they – knew I was freer than any of them. Not one could detach himself from that ground. Not one could frown if the others smiled. Not one could stand erect if the others bent over, for everyone moved in unison. They were the sons who never came out. But I, having left my heavenly home and gone through hell up to that vision, knew I enjoyed a freedom they could not conceive of. I was free to walk among them, smile, laugh, cry, and bend over, while they could not do one thing independent of the other. They did not know that everything was theirs for the taking. But you who have gone out from the Father will return to the Father as the Father, knowing that everything is yours. Then you will understand that 50th Psalm: “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all within it. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. Were I hungry I would slay and eat.” Why ask any man’s permission to use that which belongs to you?
This is the story of scripture, but man is unaware of his inheritance until he is born from above. From then on he will not be concerned with making an effort to bring his desires into reality; he will know they already are real.
But until that day, apply the law towards any desire of your heart by assuming you have it. Sleep as though it were true and it will be drawn to you. Keep on applying the law towards these many ends until the Christ-seed bursts into bloom. And when it does, your fleshly body will come off for the last time for you will know you are the Lord Jesus. No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit comes he will bring to your remembrance all the things that I have told you by re-enacting the drama within you.
Having seen the preview of the play before the journey began, when the end comes you will enter the play to discover you are God the Father.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard’s hermeneutical approach dissolves the boundary between scripture and the individual psyche. By reading Paul’s letter to the Colossians as an allegory for inner transformation, Goddard encourages a radical reinterpretation of Christian doctrine. Christ becomes not an external savior but the self-realized I AM consciousness, the incorruptible seed latent in every child born of woman.
The lecture’s central metaphor of David uniting all human experiences into one perfected being underscores the journey of the soul. As the prodigal son’s return signals restoration, so too does the maturation of the Christ-seed signify humanity’s reunion with its divine source. This Edenic return is not an act of moral reform but the remembering and reclaiming of one’s original state of Fatherhood.
Goddard also integrates practical mysticism by prescribing the law of assumption as a living, experiential technique. Listeners are instructed to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, to “sleep as though it were true,” thereby programming the subconscious mind. This emphasis on black-screen meditation and imaginal discipline situates the lecture at the intersection of New Thought metaphysics and contemporary guided-sleep practices.
Finally, Goddard’s lecture transcends denominational orthodoxy through its allegorical reading of Cain and Abel, Isaac, Jacob, and other second sons. He reveals a cosmic reversal motif—the second becomes first, the many become one—culminating in the listener themselves as the Lord Jesus. In this way, “An Assured Understanding” functions both as a mystic’s map and a practical manual for self-realization.
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