In this lecture Neville Goddard opens with the assertion that Jesus Christ is not a historical person outside us but rather our own human Imagination, the divine creative power. He emphasizes the biblical admonition from Matthew 18:3 that one must turn (metanoia) and become like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven, illustrating this with playful stories about his young nephews and how a child believes anything it is told. Goddard shares letters from people who have used vivid mental imagery to manifest real-world results—paid-off cars, sold houses, trips home—by ‘keeping the sabbath’ of their assumed states. He recounts a dramatic dream-vision in which he withholds his power from a German soldier’s tribunal, then vanishes by awakening the spiritual eye. Goddard connects these examples to scripture—from Genesis to Revelation and the writings of Blake—showing that creative imagination is the true body of Christ, and that by believing and imagining as children, all things become possible. He concludes by inviting listeners to test this power in their own lives and to recognize the Father within themselves as revealed by the Son, the dynamic operative of consciousness.
Easter is over and a billion Christians believe that they celebrated the resurrection of Christ. May I tell you, 99.99% haven’t the slightest concept of who Christ really is, not the slightest concept. (Microphone problem) Let me repeat, we say that this great day is over, Easter, and one billion Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ. I say that almost all of them, almost without exception—but when you take a small number it makes no dent in a billion—they haven’t the slightest concept of who Christ really is. I tell you Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination…that is Jesus Christ. “The eternal body of man is the Imagination and that is God himself, the divine body, Jesus Christ” (Blake, Laocoon)…and we, fragmented as we are, we are his members.
Now, what do I mean by this? I mean it in a simple, simple way. Let me now quote scripture. They’re all arguing as to who will be the greatest in the kingdom. It happens all over the world, who is better than the other one, just who is better? And these are the words, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat.18:3). Unless you turn and become like children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. They are all asking about who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What does it mean turning and becoming like children? The word “turn” is translated sometimes “conversion, repentance.” It’s the Greek word metanoia, which means “a radical change of attitude.” I must become like a child? Yes.
A month ago, two little boys, my nephew’s sons, one four, one two and a half, on their way back to Thailand where he’s a flyer in the Marine Corp, they came out to spend the Christmas vacation with my family in Barbados. On their way back they were home. The little one, two and a half, Roger, and so I said to him one morning—it was only about four days on the way back, say five days—I said, “Roger, you know, this morning it was quite dark. You know what happened? The sun came down and got under my bed. Well, I didn’t want that, I wanted you to have a sun today, shining all over the world. You know what I did? I ran him all over the floor. He ran from me and ran all over the house. But I took him on the outside and I hurled him into space and put him back where he ought to be, so he could shine all over the world. Do you know that?” You know what he said? “I do.” He could believe anything in this world that you tell him. That’s what man has to become.
Man is actually weaving a body within himself that transcends all the limitations of the senses, completely transcending everything that man has ever heard of and yet capable of manifesting itself within the order of the senses. That is the body of Christ Jesus; that is the body that I speak of night after night. This little one…unless you become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, not in eternity, no matter how good you are. Good what?—so many of us will be good for nothing. We’re so good, we’re trying so much to be good, to be this, to be that, and it hasn’t a thing to do with entering the kingdom of heaven. It’s all your own wonderful human Imagination.
So I paint the most wonderful picture for you. If I can so arouse you to get you to participate in what I’m talking about concerning you, so you actually lose yourself in it just as though it were true, just as though it were true, do you know it would happen? It would happen in your world. It would become a fact, if you could only suspend this judgment of man in the world of the senses, completely suspend it, and simply lose yourself in what I’m talking about. So you say, “I would like to be” and I paint the most wonderful word picture of what you could be. Then when I get to a certain point, I get you to move into it and wear it as you would a garment, just as though you put on a suit of clothes, just like a garment. At that moment, you are living the imaginative life like a child. So, “Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” for that world transcends everything in the world known by the senses. So that is the Jesus Christ of whom I speak. I have no other Jesus Christ other than your own wonderful human Imagination…that transcends everything in this world.
I get letters in the morning, “But I am so good and my husband is so good. He never looked at another woman; I’ve never looked at another man. I know people who look at other women and other men and so many marvelous things happen to them. Why should it be me?” And how can you tell them and tell them over and over, you can be so good that you can be oozing true goodness and it means nothing. Hasn’t a thing to do with entering the kingdom of God. This is a creative power. I’m speaking of creativity; I’m not speaking of a little moral code that the world puts out. What is good here in this world isn’t good in Africa, isn’t good in Asia…they’re all different. So what is good? And the eating of the tree of good and evil we’re told simply annoyed the Lord. You ate of the tree of good and evil, and that was the one thing that displeased him. Another thing displeased him, and only two displeased him, is the lack of faith in I am he. You don’t believe that I am he, that displeases him, and if I eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, well then, that displeases him. So forget all the so-called good and evil and then fall in love with something all together wonderful as far as you are concerned. What would it be like were it true, just what would it be like?
Now let me illustrate it for you. Both are here tonight. Here, I’ll take a series of four. The lady writes me, “Last October, I imagined the pink slip on the dining room table. I went down to the letterbox, got the mail and saw my pink slip, implying that my car is paid for in full. That was one…then I kept the sabbath. In other words, I wasn’t concerned. I did it. I opened up the car ___(??) naturally, but I did this and then that would imply it was all done. I kept the sabbath, I didn’t break it. Then came November and in November a couple saw the house. I showed them several homes and having showed them several homes, which they didn’t care for, I discovered the kind of a house that they wanted and what they wanted to pay for it. So I went to the end and I assumed that they found the house; that is, I found it for them, and they were blissfully happy in the house. And then I kept the sabbath.
“In December, my mother called me from Kansas and asked me to come home this summer. For one fleeting moment I had a feeling of “what will I use for money?” and then I simply put my foot down and I simply assumed I am in my mother’s living room, she is blissfully happy, she is healthy, and everything is perfect. Then I kept the sabbath. I did not violate it. Then in January, I said to a friend, ‘You know, I’m looking for a house.’ I described the kind of a house. She said, ‘You know, I spoke to my neighbor only yesterday and I think that she will be inclined to sell her house.’ So I took this family over to see the house. It was the house. They bought it, they’re out of escrow. They are blissfully happy in their home, they paid exactly what they planned to pay, and the seller sold it for exactly what they wanted. It was mutual, it was perfect. Now, my pink slip is sitting on the dining room table. My tickets for Kansas City are bought plus, and now my cup is running over.”
Everything came out just as a child would imagine it. Not a thing in this world supported what she did. When the mother called, she hadn’t yet sold the house, she hadn’t yet bought the car, but she was keeping the sabbath relative to all these states. Then comes the sale of the house, and the tickets are bought, round trip to Kansas City plus, the car is paid for and she has the pink slip. That is “Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” It’s creativity. I’m speaking only of the creative power, not some little being in space called Jesus Christ. They insisted on having some little personification and he is Jesus Christ. I don’t want an icon. I don’t want any god in this world—“Make no graven image unto me,” the second Commandment. No graven image! I don’t care how you make it, that’s not it. I’m speaking of a creative power, your own wonderful human Imagination. That is Jesus Christ.
Now here, this chap is here tonight, he said, “Three years ago…I’m an advertiser…we all got together, friends of mine, all in the advertising field using magazines to sell products, and we had a bull session, trying to find out what could we do to create a greater, I would say, interest to read our product and what we’re trying to sell. We thought we had exhausted all kinds of type and color, combinations of type and color. So we simply let ourselves go in a wonderful daydream. All of us were intrigued with the Japanese accomplishments in electronics and miniaturization…taking things and bringing them down to practically nothing, little batteries so you could hardly see them and tape recorders in your car that you can’t see.
“So, as they let themselves go in this daydream, they thought, ‘Now what could be done? We’ve exhausted all type, we’ve exhausted all color, combinations of type and color.’ And this is what they thought, ‘Suppose we took these little batteries and put them in the back of the magazine and the little tape recorder. Then we’ll take what is now being developed, three dimensional shots, and then use metallic inks on certain sections of the page, so when you turn over the page suddenly you hear a voice, and here you get a plug for your product. Then this metallic ink will convey a current and illuminate sections of the page. You will see this page illuminated in three dimensions and a voice plugging the product. As you turn page after page, it’s all there, coming from the back of the magazine. Well, he said, that was a daydream, a lovely dream, and we had a hearty laugh, and then went back to the standard type and color, selling our products.
“A few weeks ago, I told a friend of mine just what I’ve told you, and he attended a luncheon party where a representative of Life magazine sat next to him at this lunch. This friend is a pollster. He takes polls about politics, polls about the market, polls about prophecies, all kinds of polls. When this man from Life discovered what he did for a living, he asked him if he knew what the public wanted from magazines that the magazines were not now giving. Having heard my friend just a few weeks before tell this story, he said, Well, what the public really wanted—he didn’t take a poll, he remembered what my friend said—and he said, “Well, what the public really wants is magazines that talk. He goes back to his superior at Life, tells the story, and it interests the superior. A conference is called, they all get together, and it seemed what a fantastic concept! They allocated several hundred thousand dollars to investigate this and turned it over to some scientific laboratory. They brought in their finding that it is practical and will be on the market in the year l975.” Now he said, “When I met in this bull session, I hadn’t the slightest idea that imagining creates reality. Now I know that that meeting where we all got together, that was actually the origin of the most revolutionary concept in publications as of this moment. But we completely laughed it off. We had fun, laughed it off, and forgot it. Now I know that was the origin of the entire ___(??). And here they are planning to bring out talking magazines, on the stands in l975.”
I tell you nothing is impossible to Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is not some little icon. People paint all these things…that hasn’t a thing to do with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination. “Man is all Imagination and God is man, and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the Imagination” (Blake)…and that, really, is the only Jesus Christ in the world. So the billion who went to church yesterday, they’ll say, I’ll go back home and they’re all asking, “I wonder how near I am to the kingdom?” And they’re so far removed. For unless—read it in the 18th chapter of the gospel of Matthew—unless you turn a radical change of attitude and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. A child will believe everything that you tell him in this world, everything in this world because a body is being formed in man that completely transcends the limitation of the senses.
May I share with you an experience of only two nights ago. Here, I know I am dreaming and here are all the nations of the world present. As happens in a dream, you taste of the power of the age to come in a dream right now. For you know all things are possible in dream, but it also is education. Here, all the nations greedy and as selfish as one can be; all nations, all races are selfish. They only join together in partnership to get advantage over another. As soon as they get advantage over another, if they could ___(??) one won’t believe they could take advantage of the other, they would. No such thing as partnerships among nations, save for advantage over others. And here, the German race or nation and the Japanese and they are in their own mind’s eye the master races. They hate the English-speaking people of the world. By English I mean Americans, all English-speaking people there, waiting for that moment to take over.
Well, I know I am dreaming…I know I am. And so, the German has now in some way taken control of this area. They are in control and I am in the area. So, this German soldier has been sent to take me over as it were and he asked me a very simple question, trying to humiliate the English-speaking people of the world…if they can only bring them down to just nothing. So he spoke to me in German and I said, “I do not understand you.” He spoke in French. “I do not understand.” He spoke in all the different tongues; I said, “I only speak English.” Then he said, “Where were you born?” I said, “In Barbados, in the West Indies.” He said, “Oh, then you must be a Negro. All West Indians are Negroes” trying to belittle me right down to the point. Because in his eyes Negroes were the very lowest in the world and they the Nordic, being German, most of all they were the best. So I said nothing.
Then he marched me towards my quarters. As we came toward a post where this man was stringing wires, a telephone post, and he was obviously a mulatto. He knew me and he knew that I was his superior in every sense of the word. Were we not in the presence of this man, the German soldier, he would have called me, Mr. Neville, but he dared not in the presence of the German soldier. And so, he just simply looked and I knew what he thought, and he knew what I thought. He knew that I was his social, financial, intellectual, spiritual superior…but not in the presence of this creature that was sent out to belittle me. All along I knew what I was going to do. I knew exactly what I would do at the end of the drama. So I played the drama, I went along with it. He said to me, “He is your roots.” I thanked him.
We kept on going until we finally came before this wonderful tribunal. And now they are about to put on the pressure, because they could not break me down intellectually. They could not break me down mentally at all. I went along with their little game. Now they’re going to put on the pressure physically. I knew that I possessed a body that transcended the limitations of the flesh, that I could at any moment have awakened and vanished from their sight and scared them to death….because, they were so wise, so wonderful. So I went along with them and I kept on playing my little part, knowing exactly all I had to do was to open my spiritual eye, and if I did it, I would vanish from the presence of these. So I wanted to get before the biggest of them all, the mental giants that they thought themselves to be. And so, I went forward. When I got before these who were so important—they represented the master race—and when they simply pronounced sentence of this physical torture, I looked and I began to smile, and vanished, and woke on my bed shouting, laughing my head off at this fantastic thing that happened. This is the power that is in store for everyone in this world—that no one will enslave you, no one in the world will humiliate you.
So, here we are in the world of exile. Listen to these words from the 1st Peter, the first chapter of 1st Peter. He speaks of the one, “If this one who judges all men impartially on the record of their deeds”—now here is one being, every one impartially—“then if we call him our Father, we should stand in awe of him while we live out the time of our exile” (1Pet.1:17). Here we are exiled. This is exodus; this is really the world of Egypt. We are all in the world of Egypt and we think the exodus is over. No, it comes, one by one, when he discovers who he really is. And so, if we say “our Father” and say it to the one who judges every man impartially on the record of his deeds, we ought to stand in awe of him while we live out this time of our exile. And so when you are brought out…and you are brought out always clothed in a garment that transcends the limitation of the senses. Then you still have a garment that can manifest itself within the order of the senses. So you manifest it in the order of the senses.
And now you’re in the presence of one who feels so superior and he calls you a Negro because you were born in the West Indies. It doesn’t really matter whether I’m a Negro or not. If I am formed and formed within me, what does it matter what I am? I know I’m Nordic, as far as races go, but whether I am Nordic or black as the ace of spades, what does it matter if I know who I am…who I really am? And so, he walks me by, tries to embarrass me, tries to humiliate me. The one knows who I am relative to him, and then I go before this fantastic tribunal. Now they put on the pressure. And here, I stand in their presence and I inwardly chuckle. I know exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to exercise the power that I am, which is the body that I possess. I’m going to open my spiritual eye and at that I would have to see the world into which the eye beholds. It will not be this world. As I open the eye, I vanish from them and I wake on my bed chuckling. I’m laughing so that I wake up.
That is exactly what I’m talking about. It doesn’t differ from my friend who had this fantastic bull session and now hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated to bring out in l975 a magazine that will talk, a revolution in publication. And my friend who has her car, so she has a car, and she has her tickets for Kansas City to go and see her mother, and the house has been sold and the seller and the buyer are happy, and her cup runneth over. What…it’s all Imagination. Hasn’t a thing to do with anything in this world concerning some little thing called Jesus Christ. If one could only forget him. Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination. Christ is the creative power of the universe as you’re taught in scripture. Listen to these words in the first chapter of Corinthians, “And Christ the power and the wisdom of God” (1Cor.1:24). It is the power of God, the creative power of God; but man insists upon some little icon on the outside and he wants some little thing, call it by this name or the other name.
So while I am here with you for just the remaining few moments—for what will be a few years or days or weeks in time, nothing—believe me, I’m telling the truth. I know it from experience. I have awakened from the dream of life. And those who are still lost in these stormy visions, I am trying to tell you what really you must seek. You’re seeking the God within yourself, the Father, the eternal being, and that Father will one day reveal himself in you when you find David, the eternal David of scripture, and David is going to call you Father. When David calls you Father, then you know who you are. You will never find the Father save the son reveals him, and David, in spirit, calls you Father.
May I tell you, there will be no change of identity, and yet, I know in my own case, I felt like the Ancient of Days. When David called me Father as I sat watching this heavenly creature, this unearthly beautiful being, David of scripture, I mean the psalmist, the one you speak of as David. When you’re told in the 2nd Psalm, “And the Lord said to me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’” that’s the David of whom I speak. That moment when my brain exploded and I sat watching my son, I had no change of identity, and yet I felt myself to be the Ancient of Days. Had someone seen me they would have seen the Ancient of Days as described in the Book of Daniel. That’s the being that I am, not the being who stands before you now; this is a little mask that I’m wearing. But the being that I really am is that Ancient of Days. I feel it. And when I saw David, that’s the being he called “my Father,” that’s the being he called “Adonai, my Lord”; for I felt myself that being when he spoke to me, and yet the identity doesn’t change. I have no sense of being another being and yet I felt myself to be this Ancient of Days, and yet, here the being that is speaking to you now called Neville. That’s the great mystery. And so, when you meet him, he’ll call you, too, because he can only see the one face. He can’t call multiple faces Father. So he only speaks the one face and that one face is Father and that’s the Ancient of Days. You wear it and yet there is no loss of identity.
So I tell you tonight I don’t care what you desire to be in this world. If I could so paint a word picture that I would inflame your Imagination to wear it as you would a garment, just as though it were true. Everything in our world that we now cherish came into being because some man or woman imagined that it was true. They did this inner ___(??) as though it were true and then it came into being, and you and I are enjoying it in this world. So everything is preceded by an imaginal act. There’s nothing in this world that you see that wasn’t first imagined. And because all things are created by God, and I know I imagined it, well then, I have found who he is. I have found him by knowing how I did it: I imagined and then it became a fact.
So just imagine, someone sitting here this night who not knowing that creation is brought about by imaginal acts—as he confessed himself in his letter to me, and I have it right here in my pocket—that here, a confession ___(??), “A few of us got together, having fun. What can we do to change the type? We exhausted all the use of type; we exhausted all the use of colors…all kinds of colors and type. And then what must we do? We have to find some way of reaching…and they all concluded that magazines must find a new approach to sell their product, and it’s the magazine’s problem to find some way of reaching the product of that reader who will be sold by the page that he’s reading. So you open the page and all of a sudden a plug comes on. And then, because of this metallic ink it conveys current and then the whole page or section they want to emphasize becomes luminous. So now they have conveyed audio, you hear it; and here you have luminosity; and then you have seeming motion. Well, here you have a three-dimensional picture. And here to allocate hundreds of thousand of dollars to see if it’s feasible and then, as he said, “May I say, I would call this—having just heard from my friend who heard from my magazine that this is in the works and it’s feasible and practical and will be on the market—I call this a progress report of our imaginal act of three years ago. When we did it we had a hearty laugh and not knowing for one second that that was creative. But now we know that was when a radical change took place in the art of publication.” So there’s nothing impossible to Christ and Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination.
So here, I call this the imaginative life. I know it is a shocking thing to those…it would shock my mother. If she sat here tonight, she would wonder “What sort of a son did I have?” The mother that I knew and loved and love dearly—she’s gone from this world since 1941—if she sat here tonight and heard me, she’d be shocked beyond measure. She would wonder “Did I raise this boy to speak like this? For this is not my son Neville.” But I’m telling you I know…I know from experience. I am not theorizing, I’m not speculating. I have been born from above. I have found David, in the fulfillment of the 89th Psalm. I have found David, said the Psalmist, he has called unto me “Thou art my father, my Lord, and the Rock of my salvation” (verse 26). I have found him. I know that I am the Son of man; and as the Son of man must be lifted up, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, I was lifted up that way.
Now listen to these words carefully, the 11th chapter of the Book of Joshua. People think that Jesus came into the world, no, Jesus comes into the world through your believing what I’m talking about tonight. He comes not that the world may see him; he comes in you. He’s in you, but you begin to awaken, and he comes to the surface in you if you believe what I’m talking about tonight. Now, listen to these words carefully. A man is dead, his name is Lazarus, and the sister Martha comes to what is called Jesus Christ. He tells her the most fantastic story that “I am the resurrection and the life; believe in me, all things resurrect if you believe me.” No matter what it is…you say it’s dead? “I am the resurrection, I am the life, you believe in me. Do you believe this?” Now, listen to these words carefully. “Yes, Lord.” She calls him first “Lord.” Listen to these, there are three titles now. “Yes, Lord; I believe you are the Christ”—that’s the second title; comes the third title, “the Son of God”—now listen to this—“who is coming into the world” (John 11:26, 27).
The King James Version translates that Greek phrase “who should come into the world.” Would that not imply it’s not in the world? The Revised Standard Version translates that Greek phrase “who is coming into the world.” Here is the creative power that is not in the world…but it’s coming in the world if you believe. So she said, “I believe.” And she first starts, “Yes, Lord.” Well now, what is this Lord? Here in the 110th Psalm, “And the Lord”—meaning Jehovah, Yod He Vau He—“and the Lord said to my lord”—Adonai, that is the grand I AM which is made up of all I ams—“said to my I am”—Adonai—“sit at my right hand”—the hand of power—“until I make your enemies your footstool” (verse 1). Sit here until I make all your enemies your footstool.
So she addresses him as the Lord, “Yes, Lord.” Then she calls him Messiah or Christ. Christ is simply the Greek for Messiah. “You are the Christ,” you are the Messiah. Now she calls him Son of God—the creative power brought forward beyond his wildest dream. Now he has a son, a creative power, which is only raising himself to a higher level. So she first said, “Yes, Lord, I believe.” He just said the most fantastic thing: “I am the resurrection. I am the life. Do you believe it?” “Yes, Lord; I believe”—she goes on—“you are the Christ”—one with Messiah, the anointed one—“the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Well now, you start to believe in this creative power and you’re bringing him into the world. He’s not in the world. He’s coming into the world from within you, for he’s buried within you; and he’s brought into the world as you believe in him and exercise this talent. Then he begins to resurrect in you. As he rises in you then he’s born, and you go through all the symbolism as foretold and recorded in scripture.
This is the mystery. And Paul who went out said this fantastic statement. Here is one trained to the nth degree in Judaism, defending the faith of the fathers, and believing that they were talking about a man called Jesus Christ; and suddenly because of his intensity it all began to awaken in him. Because you have to be intense about it, you can’t be lukewarm. As you are told in Revelation, the 3rd chapter: “Would that you were cold or hot! But, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out” (verse 15). One must be intense. So he was intense in protecting the traditions of his fathers. Then he saw that it was not what the world was talking about. He said, “Henceforth I regard no one from the human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from the human point of view, we regard him thus no longer” (2Cor. 5:16). He didn’t see it. And the world is still this very day in l967 talking about it. Henceforth we regard no one from the human point of view: It’s a creative power, not a little person, which I must worship. Even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer…these are the words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. I regard him thus no longer…I see him now as a creative power, all in me. I’m waking in this world and everything recorded I will experience. Now, go and tell it as you experience it, tell it to the world, that there is nothing impossible to Christ. But Christ is not some little thing outside, Christ in you.
One day you will discover that he is the Father that everyone in the world is seeking… that Eternal Father buried in man. So when you see me, he said, you’ve seen the Father. “And if I am a father, then there must be a son. And where is my son?” David is my son, who makes me aware of the fact that I am the Father. So, “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee” (Ps.2:7). And David comes, may I tell you. No change of identity, whoever you are this night no change and yet you feel yourself the Ancient of Days. I know I did. I felt myself the very beginning of time: I felt myself the Ancient of Days. Could you have photographed me at the moment that David called me Father, the nearest description to it would have been that which is told you in the 7th chapter of Daniel, “I came in unto the Ancient of Days.” I felt the Ancient of Days, that’s how I felt. But you don’t see yourself because you are the invisible God. Only your Son tells you. “No one knows who the Father is save the Son, and no one knows who the Son is save the Father” (Mat. 11:27). That’s what you’re told in scripture. So the Son, the creative power of the universe, reveals you as the Father of it all.
So here, you dwell upon this series that I’ve told you this night, this fantastic prophecy that is already in the works to bring a talking magazine into being. You open it up and the page will determine the plug you’re going to hear. So if you think you are buying more than you need today to save your teeth, wait until that comes on the market. What resistance would you have when such a thing comes on the market? You open the page and all of a sudden your teeth almost fall out unless you buy this product. That’s what’s going to happen.
And yet all sound asleep, may I tell you, sound asleep. So I do not regret it. All right, leave them sound asleep until they know who Jesus Christ really is. For in my vision with the German soldier, had I for one moment forgotten that I was the Father of David I would have been a victim of his tyranny. But I remembered. All the way along I remembered and remembered and remembered and I was chuckling inwardly. I knew exactly what I was going to do. And so, I went to the man…he greeted me, without calling me Mr. Neville, he smiled, but he knew exactly who I was relative to him. We kept on going and this one is trying his best to make me feel so little, a tiny little insect. I knew exactly who I was: I was the Father of David, the Son of God. If I am the Father of the Son of God, then I am God. And I knew as I walked by. As I walked by holding this consciousness within me, suddenly I come to this tribunal and they are now going to put me into the physical pain because I would not break under the mental humiliation. I knew exactly what I would do.
A little story that I love…it’s a story told of two men in the Egyptian wing in the British Museum and there’s a frightful fog on the outside, so you can’t see your hand before your face, it’s a raging fog. And it’s just about closing time. British Museum, this Egyptian wing, is nothing more than mummified objects. Here you find…everything is dead, everything is dead in this wing. And so, they know that they must depart because the time has come to leave the museum. One said to the other, “Say, do you believe in ghosts?” He said no and vanished. And so, that’s exactly what I did. They were just about to give me the screw and I opened my spiritual eye and saw the world that I would have to see if that eye were opened, and vanished from them leaving them completely bewildered. I knew they were completely bewildered and wondered “How could this so-called inferior race be so wise?” So they were completely startled with what they thought they had all plotted and planned.
But, that goes back…I haven’t time tonight to go on…to a vision that preceded it by several years ago. But every race and nation in the world is so selfish. Really, the individual only personifies that collective body called nation, called race. They will get together in partnerships only until it suits their purpose to break it and then take over. And that is nothing, because this is a world of death. Until you believe in Jesus Christ, you’re going to be in a world of death. Believe in him. All things are possible to him who believes in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination. You either believe in him or you don’t. If you believe in him, put him to the test. “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless of course you fail to meet the test.” As told us in the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, “Do you not believe, do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless,” said Paul, “you fail to meet the test” (verse 5). Put him to the test and see how this marvelous thing works your world.
Now let us go into the Silence.
* * *
___(??) in the world, they’re telling the story. And as far as I am personally concerned, I’ve finished the race, I’ve kept the faith, I’ve fought the good fight and only remain until that moment in time when I must make my inevitable exit. No one knows of that moment in time. It may come at any time. Whenever it comes, I know I have finished the race. So if it does not come before September, I’ll be back in September. Now are there any questions, please?
Q: What does the day of Pentecost mean?
A: Pentecost? Well, pente isn’t five. It comes on the fiftieth day after the so-called resurrection. That is when, as told in the Book of Acts, they’re all gathered together… and this unearthly wind. He promised that he would come, “Remain here until you are endued”—or clothed, the word endued means “to be clothed”—“to be clothed with power from on high”…proving that not one of them understood the drama. The drama took place, but they were not yet clothed in this power from on high or it would not be said at the end of the story, “Wait until you are clothed with power from on high.” Pentecost is when the power began to manifest itself in the form of the wind. The wind and spirit are the same both in Greek and in Hebrew, the word.
And so, you feel this unearthly wind possess you and then all that was told you…you see, the story of Jesus Christ is an acted parable, an incredible prophecy of what one day will really be the experience of the believer. It’s an acted parable and people think it is a secular historical fact. It is an acted parable. So I go back tonight into that 11th chapter of John, “Yes, I believe you are he who is coming into the world.” What is that? If I said to you tonight, “Well, tell me, do you believe that I am the one that is actually going to come into, say, San Francisco?” and you say, “Yes, I believe that you are the one prophesied who is coming into San Francisco.” Well then, I am confessing I am not now in San Francisco, am I not? Well, listen to the words…read them yourself in the 11th chapter of the Book of John, “I believe you are he who is coming into the world.” Then I must not be in the world. This power is not accepted. One billion Christians do not believe in Christ. They have an icon. They don’t believe in this power at all. What belief have they in Jesus Christ a little person on the outside?—they all do. And he’s not on the outside; Christ in you is the hope of glory. They don’t believe in that power at all. It’s on the outside, so they say their prayers to another. It’s not the Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is in you, your own wonderful human Imagination.
So, Pentecost is when he actually begins to stir within you. Wait until you are clothed with power from on high. And on high doesn’t mean out there, this is the on high. It comes all out of this wonderful brain of yours. And then you begin to awake and you find this power.
I say everything is possible to Christ, if you know who he is. He is your own wonderful human Imagination, that’s Christ. There never was another Christ and never will there be another. So, if one insists on believing that he’s some little thing…and there are hundreds of pictures of Christ. Each is considered the authentic picture. I know in New York City we go to the library on 5th Ave. and 42nd St. and find dozens of so-called authentic pictures painted by the different artists when he stood before them, and this is Christ. Of all the nonsense in the world! Are we not told in the 2nd Psalm, “Make no graven image unto me”? You can’t see this presence. You only know who you are by the Son who calls you Father. But you feel the ancientness of your being. The Ancient of Days isn’t described; he’s called Ancient of Days. You feel yourself the Ancient of Days but it’s not described. You cannot feel there’s anything prior to you. So in the 8th of John, “Before the world was, before Abraham was, I AM” (verse 58). And then they took up stones to throw at him and he departed. The word departed in ___(??) is to vanish. He’s telling the story in the world and the world will not believe it. So they’re going to put him into pressure now. They’re going to stone him. Because the command is, anyone who blasphemes against the name of God must be stoned to death. So they stone him to death and he vanishes from their sight. For the body in him has awakened and that body transcends the limitation of the flesh; yet it is capable of manifesting itself within the order of the flesh. So he’s within their world. And then he simply exercises the power of this body and vanishes from their sight.
Goodnight.
Goddard’s central thesis reframes traditional Christian doctrine: Jesus Christ is redefined not as an external savior but as the internal, creative Imagination that God has placed in each individual. By invoking Matthew 18:3 and the Greek term metanoia, he stresses a radical shift in consciousness rather than mere moral improvement. This mental and spiritual conversion involves suspending sensory judgment and embracing the boundless faith of a child.
Through vivid anecdotes—his nephew’s sun-game and the subscriber who visualized a pink slip and a sold house—Goddard demonstrates the practical application of the ‘law of assumption.’ He teaches that by ‘wearing’ an imagined reality as one would a garment, participants activate the creative power that precedes physical manifestation. ‘Keeping the sabbath,’ or resting in the assumed state, removes resistance and allows desires to embody themselves in everyday life.
The dream vision with the German soldier serves as an esoteric metaphor for inner liberation. By maintaining the consciousness of the ‘Ancient of Days’ and refusing to be humiliated, Goddard illustrates the ultimate sovereignty of the awakened imagination. The story underscores that no external authority can inhibit the power of Christ within once it is fully recognized and utilized.
Scriptural exegesis weaves through the lecture: passages from John 11, 1 Peter 1, Joshua, Corinthians, Psalms, and Revelation are reinterpreted as allegories of inner transformation. Goddard underscores that true faith is experiential and transcendent, culminating in the mystical union of Father and Son within the believer. The lecture’s eschatological dimension points to an ongoing ‘exodus’ from sensory limitation into the eternal kingdom through imaginative participation.
For contemporary students of Neville Goddard, this lecture crystallizes his doctrine of creative imagination as both practical method and mystical path. It challenges the listener to move beyond external rituals and icons, to test imaginative acts in daily life, and to cultivate childlike faith. As a result, ‘Become Like a Child’ stands as a pivotal teaching on self-realization, manifestation, and the awakening of Christ consciousness within.
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