In this lecture, Neville Goddard urges listeners to emulate God by becoming wholly absorbed in their own creative dreams, just as God remained steadfast in His divine vision until its fulfillment. He points to scriptural examples — notably the creation narrative and the story of the Risen Christ — to illustrate how persistence in a vivid inner wish brings it into manifestation. God’s Word, once spoken, cannot return void; likewise, our imagined words and visions, if held with unwavering faith, will realize our desires. Neville recounts a vision where he appeared as the Risen Christ to a disciple, granting her authority and the courage to speak her intuition. He emphasizes that true recognition of Christ comes from love and obedience to the Word, not mere intellectual assent. Finally, he offers practical guidance: form a clear mental picture of your desired identity, persist without doubt or deviation, and trust that your inner dream will unfold as surely as God’s own creation.
It has been taught us from the primal state, that that which is, was wished until it were.” ( William Shakespeare )
God started with a wish, saying; “Let us make man in our image.” And we are told that we will be perfect as our Father is perfect, and holy as our Father is holy. Therefore, whatever God was, when his work is completed, man must be. We are told to be imitators of God as dear children, so we must discover how he became us in order to imitate him.
It seems God lives as one possessed by a dream. Jeremiah tells us: “The will of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.” God, refusing to turn back, remains lost in his dream until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind.
If you want your dream realised, imitate God by becoming totally possessed by your dream. Do this and you, too, will reach your desire’s fulfillment, just as God has brought – and is bringing – his dream to completion. Have an intense wish. Clothe it in tones of reality and imitate God by living as one possessed by a dream. Like God, do not turn aside until you have executed and accomplished the intents of your mind.
God began the good work in you and when he brings it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ, you will reflect the glory of God and bear the express image of his person. If God will not stop until that wish is completely realised, then you must be equally persistent. Regardless of things to the contrary, persist until your dream is completely realised.
See the story of Jesus Christ as God’s plan of redemption. Read the directions, and you will discover that it is only as the Risen Christ that Jesus makes himself manifest. When Judas asked: “How will you manifest yourself to us and not to the others?” he answered: “Any man who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my word for the word I speak is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
Scripture is the Father’s word. First recorded as individual expressions of the Risen Lord, each vision is complete within itself. With nothing in the paragraphs to indicate their chronological order, the writers wrote a story – which appears to be history, but it is not.
I will take one such paragraph, as it fits a letter I recently received. In it she said: “I fell asleep requesting a deeper understanding when you appeared as the Risen Christ and handed me the number 26. I have tried to understand this and can only come up with the number eight.”
If you add the two and the six together you have the number of the Risen Lord. It was on the eighth day (the first day of the new week) that Christ rose; therefore, eight is always associated with resurrection, regeneration, and the number of the Lord. But I gave her the number 26!
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, of which five are repeated and called finals. We have kaph as 20, but when used as a final it becomes 500. Mem is 40, whose numerical value becomes 600 when used as a final. Nun is 50, and when encountered as a final it is 700. When peh is first encountered it is 80, but as a final it becomes 800, as its tone does not change. The symbolical value of this letter is the mouth; in its final form it is the mouth of God: “My word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void but must accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
You are Christ, the Word sent forth from God’s mouth as his hope of glory. God is making you into his perfect image to possess all that he possesses, as God’s Word cannot return void. This is the mouth I have given this lady. Recently she has been wondering why – when she knows something intuitively – she is hesitant to speak out. Questioning herself, she fell asleep and saw me as the Risen Lord, at which time I gave her a voice of authority to speak out, regardless of what others may say.
Only the Risen Lord will be seen. I can tell you: I have ascended from earth and entered the highest heaven, but you will not know it until my Father reveals it to you. When asked: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” they said: “Some say John the Baptist come again, others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets of old.” But when he asked: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Risen Lord then replied: “Flesh and blood could not have told you this, but my Father who is in heaven, he has revealed it to you.”
Many will tell me they love what I teach, but walk away, not believing it to the point of application. But those who truly love me believe and apply my words. They are the ones who will see me as the Risen Lord. They will recognise a man called Neville – not as a man of flesh and blood, but as a completed pattern; for the pattern which God placed within me, has erupted. If you love the idea of completing such a pattern, then you are in love with me. Not as flesh and blood, but the Christ who has risen within me. When I manifested myself to this lady she knew I was Neville; yet she also knew I was the Risen Christ; thereby, having the same experience as Peter. Having heard and loving the message, Peter recognised the Risen Lord – while others heard it, but – not loving the telling – they did not have the experience. Such is granted through the discernment of love.
Many claim to love Christ, but worship an icon on the wall. Called the image of God, Christ is God’s plan, which was in the beginning with God, when he said: “Let us make man in our image.” Christ reflects the glory of God and bears the express image of his person. That image is found in the pattern. I have described this image in a more chronological manner than recorded in the Bible.
I know those who have fallen in love with the story which awoke within me. One who departed last July saw me as the Lord. Another lady here saw me as the Risen Lord. They did not see me as a man of flesh and blood, but as spirit, God’s power and wisdom raised out of the physical world and into the kingdom of God. Just as God has deluded himself and lives as one possessed by a dream to bring it to fulfillment, you can imitate him while you wait for his work to be completed in you. And if you are equally persistent in your dream, no power can stop it from coming to fulfillment. But you cannot deviate. You cannot turn from the dream to see what others are doing, or what they think about it; you must be willing to lose yourself, to be possessed by your dream.
No man of flesh and blood is Christ. “If any one says: ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is’ believe him not.” (Mark 13) When Christ comes, it is from within and its knowledge is without uncertainty. No one can ever deny the truth of what this lady saw. The man who stands before you now is full of weaknesses and limitations of the flesh. Tomorrow this lady could hear of some unpleasant happening in my life, but it would not disturb what she saw and heard when – in vision – she saw me as the Risen Lord and I gave her the voice of authority. From now on she will have the courage to speak out when she intuitively knows she is right.
Now, when you experience Christ and tell your friends, 99.99% of them will turn their back upon you, because they will see you as a mortal with human weaknesses, and you will not impress them. But don’t share your experiences to impress anyone, rather to show the truth of God’s word. Do that, and there will be a remnant who will believe; then you will appear to them as the Risen Christ.
Read scripture carefully and you will discover that no one saw him as the Risen Christ until after the ascension, which occurs while wearing the body of man. I know, for on the eighth day of April, 1960, I ascended; and from that day on everything in me has turned around, although I am anchored here during the day. I have been seen as the Risen Lord in New York, San Francisco, and all over, by ones who are in love with the word which they have heard from me. They love the hope I have held out to them, that in a body of flesh and blood with all of its weaknesses, there is a plan of salvation that will awaken and unfold in all. That plan is the Christ they love.
No man born from the womb of woman is Christ. If there is another Christ other than he who was crucified and buried within you, he is false, and false teachers teach him as another. Christ is God’s plan of redemption. “He has made known unto me the mystery of his will which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.” Christ is the word who is one with the individual who speaks it.
Imitate God as a dear child, by having a controlled dream. Make a composite picture of what you want. Ask no one to aid you or if it is right for you. Desiring life to be full, do what God does. Make a wish and possess it. Turn neither to the left nor the right, but persist, just as God is doing, and nothing can keep you from expressing it.
Then, when you have finished the work you came to do, you will understand that the furnaces you have gone through were necessary to bring you out as an image who reflects the glory of God and bears the express image of his person, for you will be endowed with life in yourself. Having become one with God, you will have inherited all that God is!
In my book, Resurrection, I have shared my visions in their chronological order. I know of no other book, including the Bible, which has given it that way. The Bible in its manuscript form is a series of paragraphs. These paragraphs were used to tell a story, because those who were eyewitnesses were leaving this world of Caesar, and if the events were not recorded, there would only be an oral tradition and confusion would reign. Luke starts his book saying:”Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of things that have been accomplished among us, by those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.”
The word Theophilus means one who loves God. Luke is writing his orderly account for the individual who, loving the word, enters the state of Theophilus and sees the Risen Lord.
Now, Luke did not claim to make an exact presentation of the source material, but to present it better than those who preceded him in the telling. He tells us that many had undertaken to compile a narrative, yet we only have four records. John tells us that we must be born from above, but he does not bring any of the symbolism into it. But because of Luke’s account, the world has taken the story as fact. Believing that Jesus was born from the womb of a woman, they believe he came in the same normal manner as all children do – with one exception, his mother did not have a husband.
Luke tells the story in its normal state, using shepherds rather than kings (as recorded in Matthew). Today’s scholars are convinced that the three kings Matthew speaks of were definitely inserted. The witnesses are three normal people, not kings; and the child is only a sign of your birth from above, which can happen when you are fifty or eighty, and has nothing to do with your so-called appearance in this world. While walking the earth as a normal, natural, individual it happens; and when it does you simply record the event next to the parallel passage in scripture. I ask you now to fall in love with my message of salvation. Christ rose in me. God’s son appeared to reveal me as God the Father. All is Self, as there is no other. I AM the being called Jesus Christ. I AM the plan, the Word which cannot return void, for I have accomplished that for which I was sent.
Believe me! Fall in love with my message, and Christ will unfold in you; and you, too, will tell it; and those who fall in love with what you say – in the hope that it will unfold in them – will have the joy of seeing you as the Risen Lord, for in the end there is Jesus only.
Because of the nature of the grace that He bestowed, we have different gifts. There are those who have the gift of the apostle; others the gift of prophesy; some are teachers, healers, or miracle workers. All will differ in the kingdom, but the gift itself is unmerited. It is not your due and cannot be earned. The measure of your gift determines the nature of the part you play in the body of the Risen Lord. All parts are important and good, and the least there is greater than the greatest here.
Those who see clearly – as many of you do – are prophets and are so very high in the kingdom. You are the voice of God Himself! Hearing what is being said from within, you are dictated to by the Spirit of Christ – who is yourself. How much closer to God can you get than to be his voice, than to be his mouth? That’s what the prophet is. But he is not granted the right to interpret what he hears and sees. That belongs to another aspect of being.
Start now to imitate God by having a glorious dream of the man or woman you would like to be. Don’t ask anyone if it is possible, for all things are possible to God. Don’t ask anyone if you should want it, simply claim it. Because there is no death in the true sense of the word; if your desire is not fulfilled here, it will be completed, so start your dream and imitate God. You could be ninety and still have things you want to experience, goals you want to realize, so claim them now!
Personally, I hope you will set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; but if you have no memory of affluence, and want to taste it here, become possessed with the idea and refuse to become diverted. Whatever your hunger may be, make it a part of your dream.
And dream nobly! Imitate God as a dear child! He started with a wish, saying: “Let us make man in our image,” and God has persisted in his wish as though it were true. Do as God has done. Take a wish and persist in believing it is true. Do not deviate; just continue believing in its truth, and in the end you will unveil your wish. You will project it on the screen of space, just as God has unveiled his wish as Jesus Christ.
As a man in whom Jesus Christ unveiled himself, I always thought myself to be the body of flesh, not knowing I was that glorified being who reflected the glory of God and bore the very stamp of His nature. I did not know I was perfect as my Father, yet I had not earned it. That I was as holy as my father, but had not earned it. It was all a gift, because it was my Father’s wish that I might possess it, and I did.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville begins by drawing a parallel between the divine act of creation and human imagination, presenting both as rooted in an intense, unwavering wish. He cites Shakespeare and biblical passages to establish that God’s persistent dream became reality; thus, human beings, created in God’s image, can achieve the same through disciplined visualization. This thesis reframes the traditional understanding of scripture as literal history, suggesting instead that biblical narratives function as symbolic visions to guide personal transformation.
The second dimension of his analysis involves the concept of the Risen Christ as an inner pattern or archetype rather than an external historical figure. By recounting his own visionary encounter as the Risen Lord, Neville illustrates that spiritual realization is experiential. Those who truly love and apply the Word will perceive the Christ within, overcoming the limitations of flesh and blood. This challenges believers to move beyond mere worship of icons toward direct, inner recognition of divine presence.
Neville’s hermeneutic approach to Scripture is notable: he argues that biblical paragraphs are individual expressions of the risen Word, lacking chronological markers and intended for internalization rather than historical scrutiny. He contrasts Luke’s “orderly account” with other gospel narratives to highlight that spiritual truth emerges in personal vision. This method reframes exegesis as an imaginative act, inviting practitioners to engage scripture as living, participatory drama.
Practically, Neville offers a step-by-step guide to manifesting dreams: choose a specific, noble desire; form a composite mental image; refuse correction or deviation; and persist as God does until the wish is unveiled. He underscores that the inner journey may require trials — “furnaces” — but these difficulties refine the believer into the express image of God. By concluding with an exhortation to silence, he points to contemplative practice as the crucible in which dreams are incubated and brought to birth.
The Bible Through Neville
Neville Bible Sparks
Neville Lecture Series
