Eternal States

Tonight’s subject is “Eternal States.” States…by states I mean states of consciousness and these are conditioned. Unlike the Promise that is unconditioned, states of awareness are all conditioned. You can’t be in one state of awareness and expect to reap the fruit of another state. To reap the fruit of a state you must occupy the state, and any state in this world can be occupied. You are free to move from state to state, but man is not aware of it. The Bible teaches us how to do it. We are told, “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers” (Ps.1:3). In all, not a few things but in everything that he does he prospers if he knows how to operate God’s law. It’s not as difficult as you’ve been told. In fact, it is not difficult; it just needs application on your part. Like all arts in this world there must be a certain method, and then there must be a certain practice and persistent practice, so that you actually master the technique of moving from state to state.

Now here is a story told us…and I’ll tell you the story, and you go home and read it, and see if you do not see it through different eyes. The first one to really start the battle, who conquered, was Joshua. Joshua is Jesus. It’s spelled the same way. It is spelled Joshua in Hebrew, and then translated into English it would be Jesus. Jesus and Joshua are Jehovah, same thing. So the battle starts, really, with Jehovah. It’s the sixth book of the Bible. The first time that this thought appears in the Bible you’ll find it in the 13th chapter of Genesis. It’s the separation of Abraham and Lot. Abraham said to Lot, “If you go to the right, I will go to the left; if you go to the left, I’ll go to the right. The choice is yours. So you take it, you take the first choice.” And then he looked out at the valley, it was the valley of the Jordan, and it was well watered and so fertile and so real that Lot chose the valley of the Jordan. Then Abraham went into Canaan, and then everything was given to Abraham.

Now when you read “the valley of the Jordan” you may be inclined to think of a place, the Jordan as a river, and a magical valley well watered by that river. Today if you hear the word Jordan, you think it’s biblically…you think of a river in the Near East. That’s not Jordan. If you have a concordance, you look it up. Here is the meaning of the word: “To descend; or, speaking of the individual, the descender.” But we’ll take it “to descend; to go down to a lower region; right down to the boundary; to the shore; to the enemy.” These are the definitions in the James Strong’s Concordance for the word Jordan. You go down; it’s going down, right down to the boundary, to the shoreline, to the enemy. In the four gospels, the work of Jesus, his entire work, begins at Jordan. He goes right down into Jordan where he is baptized.

If you will see it through my eyes, right now this very room, this is Jordan. No water around, but this is Jordan. If I took you into my confidence and I told you exactly what I have in the bank, and what my obligations to life are as against what I have in the bank; what my income is over the years as against what my outgo is; if I showed you my social background, my intellectual background, my entire background, and completely confessed all these facts of life, I have led you right into my Jordan. That’s my Jordan. Have I any ambition to transcend it? Can I get beyond the Jordan? Have I any desire to get beyond the Jordan? Well then, this is the story of the motion from state to state. It is all starting with the Jordan—looking at my world and seeing exactly what I have as against what I want in this world. When I know exactly what I have by looking at it honestly, I am right at the Jordan. So he doesn’t evade the issue, he comes right into the Jordan, God himself, and assumes all the limitations of the flesh; blinds himself completely to all that he really is, and takes upon himself all the weaknesses, all the limitations of the flesh. So my reason dictates the facts of life and my senses affirm it, or confirm it. Here is my Jordan. And then I want to go beyond what I am, the man that I am, can I get beyond the Jordan? So that’s the entire story.

Now, we are told Moses could not get beyond the Jordan. If you want to read it, in the 3rd chapter of Deuteronomy, he could not get beyond the Jordan. The Lord said to him, “Joshua, my servant, will do it” and so it was given to Joshua to go beyond the Jordan into the land that the Lord had promised. Now, these words are addressed to you, not to some being who lived thousands of years ago, these are your words, addressed all to you: “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you.” “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have”—listen to the tense—“I have given to you.” Not something held in abeyance; when you tread upon it I have given it to you. Now comes a picture, “Prepare provisions; for within three days you are going to pass over this Jordan, to possess the land that I the Lord your God gives you.” That’s the 1st chapter of the Book of Joshua (verse 10). The last chapter, the 24th chapter, it ends, “Choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Jordan, or whether they will be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell.” And they made their decision: We will serve the gods our fathers served beyond the Jordan (verse 15). That was their decision. Then he said to them, “You are witnesses against yourselves. You have chosen that you will serve the gods your fathers served.” And then they answered, “We are witnesses” (verse 22).

Now, this is how I make my decision to go beyond the Jordan. It was taught me graphically back in l933…always beyond the Jordan. I looked at my Jordan, and I didn’t have a nickel. I had no bank account and I didn’t have a nickel, and there was no one to whom I could turn to borrow any money. Why, five dollars in 1933 would be like asking for $2,000 today. Very few had five dollars. And what I needed at that moment nothing under $1,000 could do it. I wanted to go on a trip. I didn’t have a job, living in the basement on 75th St. in New York City, overrun with cockroaches, I mean really a mess. Anything in New York City on that ground floor is just like that even in the best areas, but this was not the best area. I desired to go to Barbados, and I simply confided, I confessed to my friend Abdullah. As I confessed my limitations, my lack, everything, I was right down at the water’s edge and showing him this wide stream that was Jordan, and telling him of a land beyond the Jordan. It was 2,000 miles away across water. And he said to me, “You are now in Barbados.”

Now, we’re standing physically together. He is not in Barbados, he is in New York City in his home on 72nd Street, and he tells me, I could touch him, that I am in Barbados. He would not discuss it with me after that day. I could not bring it up to ask him, “How am I going to go to Barbados?” He would not discuss it. I could not consider means if I am already there. How could I consider how I’m going to get there when I am already there? Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you…it’s past. “Are you standing in Barbados? Are you sleeping in Barbados? Are you preparing your ___(??) for Barbados? Are you seeing the world as you would see it were you in Barbados? Have you prepared this food? Have you seen the world as you would see it? Are you seeing New York 2,000 miles to the north of you when you sleep this night? How can you tell me that you don’t have the money to go to Barbados when you are in Barbados? Well, if man is all Imagination, man must be wherever he is in Imagination, for man is Imagination itself. So are you now in Barbados? Well, you can’t discuss with me how you’re going to go there, the ways and means are not to be discussed because you’ve gone there. So you are in Barbados.” That’s crossing the Jordan, and only Jesus, Joshua, Jehovah could do it. Because Jehovah’s name is I AM, the only prayer of mine that is answered is that which I am. If I must call with his name and his name is I AM, I don’t say, “In the name of Jehovah do it, in the name of Jesus Christ do it, in the name of Joshua do it,” or any other being. The only name that answers is I AM. So where am I? Well, I say, I am…and I name it. So here is the Jordan; and suddenly there is no Jordan, I’m on the other side. It’s behind me now, I’m on the other side; I am dwelling in my wish fulfilled. I have changed the state.

So I’ve decided not to serve the gods my fathers served. Now, I’m a witness against myself if that’s my decision. I will not serve the Amorites in whose land I now dwell: I dwell in the land of my senses. I refuse now to serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land I dwell. I can’t deny I dwell in this land, but every moment of time I can cross the Jordan. And man has to cross the Jordan to dwell beyond it. That’s what Abraham had to do. And so, he lived by faith, and the promises became his, not Lot. Lot was destroyed. He lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. The whole area, wife turned into the pillar of salt, and the whole vast place was burned. Abraham went out into a land he didn’t know, all in Imagination, all in faith.

So you want…and you name it. You want more money, and you just name the money, I don’t care what it is. God doesn’t judge you. He has never judged anyone. It’s man who judges, but God doesn’t judge anyone because God is infinite mercy.And so, Jehovah’s gift does not depend upon you doing anything to undo Jordan. You only go beyond it, that’s what you do, because Jehovah is without money, without price in the continual forgiveness of sin. So one stands before you and confesses his limitation, he shows you his Jordan. Well, he tells you what he wants in place of what he has and he tells you of a land beyond Jordan. You say to him what my friend Ab said to me, “You are it now.” You want a nice wonderful job that pays more than you ever earned before? You have it now. He looks into your face and he thinks you’re mad. That’s what I thought of my friend Ab, but I so respected him I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t tell him that you’re mad, you’re insane, because I loved him. I respected him. And so, I walked away from him dumbfounded—“I am in Barbados!” And here I am walking the streets of New York City without a nickel, without a penny in my pocket, going back to my ___(??) on 75th Street. And I am in Barbados! And then in a way that I could never have devised I was in Barbados within six weeks, all as a gift. Three heavenly months in the island as a sheer gift; and returned to this country not only after having spent three months, at some cost to them, but brought back several hundred dollars in hard cash that they gave me when I got aboard the boat. But I didn’t ask them for one nickel, not a penny. All was given because I went beyond my Jordan and lived in the state of my wish fulfilled.

So tonight, when you know what you want, you go beyond the Jordan. If you are right down at the water’s edge…listen to the definition, “to descend to lower regions, right down to the boundary, down to the shore,” and then the last word, we find, “the enemy.” Who is my enemy? So when he comes out of Jordan in the Book of Luke, the first one that meets him is the embodiment of Jordan and it’s called the devil. So here, Jordan is the enemy. So he now becomes personified, and so the personification of Jordan takes on the form of the monster that is called the devil, called Satan. He said, “You are the Son of God? Well then, turn one of these stones, turn a stone into bread.” “Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4). “If you are the Son of God, well then, stand on this pinnacle and cast yourself down.” Then he quotes scripture, For did he not give his angels the command to hold you up, lest you dash your feet against a stone? “You shall not tempt the Lord thy God.” Then he offers the entire kingdom for his wish. The embodiment of his senses is telling exactly what he is; for he took upon himself all the limitations of the flesh. He did not leave one little opening that he could see eternity and therefore be the being that he really is; completely shut the door on eternity and took on all the limitations and the weaknesses of the flesh.

Then, from within he began to apply his law, his divine law, wisely. As we are told in Paul’s letters to Timothy, “The law is good if used justly.” It is good if you use it justly. You can forgive every being in this world, and grant every request that comes within the framework of love. If anyone asks you this night to hurt someone for them, you have no ears to hear it. To injure someone, you have no ears to hear it. But if they told you the most horrible story about themselves, you can forgive them because they’re only in a state, and so they’re expressing a state. They just came from someplace where they stole. They did something that is horrible, something you hope that you would never do, that no friend would do, but you don’t judge them harshly for having done it. You ask them, “What do you want?” Well, they would like to be free of this picture, alright, beyond the Jordan. You take them from where they are. In your mind’s eye you put them beyond their Jordan into a state of joy, where they would never entertain the thought of taking advantage of another. And you see them through such eyes, right into the state of beyond the Jordan.

So Blake could say, having seen these infinite states and the infinite possibilities for man, “I now judge no one. For I do not regard either the wicked or the just to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil.” It falls into a state. So, you and I are all day long, we don’t know God’s law; we’re right down at the water’s edge, at the shore, watching the Jordan. And there we stay…we can’t get beyond the Jordan. It seems so wide and so deep we can’t get beyond. But only Joshua was given the command to do it. If you read the story carefully, the battle was not completed, was not consummated, until the time of David. And so we are told, to him that conquers, I will give to him and grant to him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and am sat down with my father on his throne. And so, in the very end it is David who brings about the complete destruction of all these beliefs in things other than God. When he takes off the head of the monster, it is then he sets his Father free in the kingdom of heaven.

And so here, I tell you this day, your Jordan is just where you are now. If you’re in the desert, you’re right down at the water’s edge, and that’s your Jordan. In the desert you may be thirsty and dying of thirst, you want to get beyond this parched ground into some oasis. You’ve got to actually put yourself into the oasis, just as though you were there, and then believe and trust God implicitly to devise the means by which you are moved from where you were to where you are now assuming that you are. And in a way that no one knows you’ll go there. I try to live by this morning, noon and night, but still wearing the garment of flesh I am always at Jordan. I must always make the journey beyond the Jordan.So every morning when I get up Jordan confronts me. The morning’s mail brings not only requests for help, news from friends across the way, and bills. So every morning’s mail there is a bill, which means you’ve got to face it, you can’t duck it. You’ve been using the gas, using the lights, you’ve been using your department stores, and so because you have credit you take it. And so, all of a sudden you must confront the evidence, and here it is, comes the bill. So that’s my Jordan. Now I’ve got to go beyond it and dwell with it all behind me as paid…not torn up and thrown away but all paid. And so, every day I’m at my Jordan.

So every day who goes to the Jordan and starts his wonderful work in this world? Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination, that Jesus Christ. So when you say “I am,” you’re calling on the name of God. So you’re told, “Whatever you ask in his name”—that’s not a good translation—when I ask in his name, I ask with his name. To ask with his name for wealth: “I am wealthy.” Not in words, but in the state I feel wealth. I put it on as I would a garment and feel it, and then allow it to hatch out in my world. No desire to pile it away because I feel insecure; no, that I can always cross my Jordan. If I know God’s law, I don’t have to pile it away for some rainy day. No, I can always cross the Jordan if I know God’s law. So every morning you are at the Jordan, because you come right down to earth from wherever you were at night.

At night it may be some heavenly vision, a wonderful dream, some wonderful communication between God and yourself, where God instructed you and advised through the medium of a dream. But when you wake and the familiar things are on the wall and you know where you are, back to earth you come, right back down to the Jordan. You start your day there and from there you’ve got to go beyond the Jordan. So I will extract from you this day a promise, who would you serve? I’m not going to say you must serve the gods of your fathers; you may serve the gods of the Amorites. That’s your choice. So choose this day whom you will serve. He doesn’t say you must choose it; he’s giving you the privilege of choice: Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Jordan, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell. You’re always in that land of the Amorites whenever you wake in the morning, and there is the Jordan. But the gods of your fathers, they are beyond the Jordan.

So if you now have a certain sum of money to meet in order to hold a job, you’re a salesman, and so double it, treble it. You aren’t doing it, God does it. Actually believe in him, so you can actually, as I told you earlier, you can say “Amen” to that. All of a sudden you think of something, you think of the person that you will be at the end of the month, when the report comes in and the sales manager sees the report and he congratulates you on what you’ve done. So you put yourself before him at that moment in time when he’s going to do this. Then you start the day. But you are faithful to that ending; you saw that ending. Then in a way you do not know, instead of signing up, maybe, a hundred small accounts, you may settle for one. That one may not come till the last day, but it will dwarf the hundreds beyond your wildest dream. It doesn’t have to be unnumbered little ones; you only want a big one at the very last day of the month.

So you go beyond your Jordan into that land that has been promised you. “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread I have given to you.” What a promise! To actually feel yourself in it! I can’t tread over there unless I’m saying to myself, “I am” and that becomes here. I must make there here to tread upon it. I have to make Barbados here. And if Barbados isn’t superimposed upon New York City, no, New York City must move relative to Barbados. So if I actually brought Barbados here, then I’ve displaced Los Angeles. And where would Los Angeles be in my mind’s eye if I’m standing and treading on Barbados? Well, I would see it to the west of me, approximately 5,000 miles. I mean northwest of me…not quite 5,000; 3,000 across the country and we are in the Atlantic and south by another 2,000 miles. So it would be 5,000 going around-about manner, but not as the crow flies, say 4,000 miles. So I would see L.A. as I think of it 4,000 miles to the west of me. So I’m treading then where, on Barbados, and wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you.

So I will sleep this night viewing the world. As I view the world, I have prepared my provisions; these are my provisions I’m feasting upon. For in three days…now it doesn’t mean three days, three twenty-four hour periods. Three is resurrection, for “on the third day the earth rose up out of the deep.” It’s like the eight; eight is a new beginning, a new day of the week. So on the eighth day he rose, but the eight was a new beginning. It was the first of a new week, of a new age. But three in the beginning of the creative power is resurrection, for on the third day the earth rose up out of the deep. So on what would be the third day of this vision—it could be in one hour, it could be in a day, it could be in three days, it could be in three weeks—but that means that then the thing that is unseen (for it’s in the deep) you’re going to bring it up out of the deep. It’s going to be seen not only by you but seen by the world. For the earth, your earth on which you are now treading will rise up out of the deep.

And so, your Jordan will be behind you, but only for a while. Tomorrow morning the same Jordan will come back and your senses will be dictating to you what are the facts of life. So your senses and your reason every day of your life until you take this garment off puts you, everyday you start it right at the Jordan, at the water’s edge. So you learn the art of moving beyond the Jordan to that land beyond the Jordan. And who does it? Joshua does it, and Joshua is the Hebraic form of the Anglicized word Jesus. Jesus can do anything because Jesus is Jehovah, Jesus is God; and when you say “I am” before you say John or Mary or Neville or any other name, before you put any little tag on it, that’s Jesus. Now trust him implicitly.

So, where am I? Well then, view the world to see where I am, for I’m located by looking at the world. What I see mentally is only locating me. If I see you and on your face is an expression that you see in me the man that I want you to see, well, then you’re telling me where I’m located in my own mind’s eye. Now feed upon it, prepare your provisions, and in three days, I will take you into the land that I the Lord your God give you. In three days I’ll bring it out, and so what you are now treading upon I the Lord your God have given you. It’s all done the moment you start treading upon it.

So these are the infinite states. And not because you are worthy of it, forget the so-called worthiness, forget the so-called sin in the world the world talks about. No, he isn’t judging you. The spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of sin. When you know that man is only occupying a state, you can easily forgive him. No matter what he’s done he was in a state, and because he was in that state he had to express the contents of that state. A man feels sorry for himself; he’s in a state; and things must happen in his life to make him all the more convinced that he had good reason to be sorry for himself. Because everyone must turn against him and make him feel that he is unwanted in this world because in his own mind’s eye he was unwanted, or he felt himself unwanted. But that was only a state. He is wanted because he is as loved by God as any being that ever walked the face of this earth. So everyone can get out of a state if he knows he’s only in a state. But strangely enough, when we are in these states they seem to be the only reality. A person who is in any state, elated or deflated, whatever the state is, he thinks it’s the only reality; and everything else is simply like a cloud, that it isn’t real, it isn’t altogether something with substance only because he’s not occupying it. And so I always felt that one of the great weaknesses of the world is the continual construction but deferred occupancy. They don’t occupy it. One must occupy the state.

I tell you from my own experience, in ’33, when I tried time and again to open up the discussion with my friend Abdullah, he just turned his back to me and walked right into his little study room, wouldn’t discuss it with me. Then you learned afterwards he was teaching the most marvelous lesson in this world. You said you believed, you actually said you believed in God, and you took his word honestly. You’re told not to change these words, in the 4th chapter of Deuteronomy, Do not add to or take from these words (verse 2). Do not add to them; don’t take from them. What is the word? “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon that”—not something else—“that have I given to you.” So, “You told me, Neville, you’re in Barbados. Didn’t you agree with me you’re in Barbados? Didn’t you say when I asked you whether you would serve the gods of your fathers who dwelt beyond the Jordan or will you serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell? Right now you’re poor and you couldn’t go even on a bus, far less a ship, and you want a ship that takes you ten days at sea, and feeds you three times a day, and gives you all the comforts of a nice ship, right to Barbados. That takes money. So you tell me you don’t have any of these things. Well, you’re at Jordan. Now come, you’re in Barbados. Now you’re going to tread upon Barbados…that is beyond your Jordan. Now, are you faithful to the gods your fathers served, or are you now going to be faithful to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell? That’s where you’re dwelling right now, because you say you haven’t anything. Well, then you haven’t anything, remain just where you are.” And so, he had no compassion on any of us. You either believe or you didn’t believe.

And so, he was trying to teach us this wonderful art of moving from state to state to state. And when you catch on, you don’t turn to the left or the right. Let the other fellow take the first choice. And so, Lot takes the first choice, he wants this wonderful fertile land, it’s so green, so well watered, “I’ll take this, the land of the valley of the Jordan.” “Alright, you take that; I’ll take the other one, the unseen one. I will dwell beyond your Jordan in the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. I don’t know it, but I’m told by the Lord it’s a land flowing with milk and honey. I’ll take that one.” So Abraham, the faithful one, took the land that was unseen by mortal eye, and he lived in it, and then came the grand fulfillment of all of his promises. But they didn’t come to Lot. So man wants security here, he wants to build more and more to feel secure against the so-called inevitable rainy day. And so, he gets his rainy day.

But may I tell you, every day of your life you wake and you’re always at the shore, and that shore stretches out, and it’s always Jordan. This is Jordan. But when you read the story, if you don’t really read it with the eye of the mystic, you’re going to think of a huge body of water where a man came, and they’re all Baptists and they’re all being baptized. And so they all went out and almost got drowned. No, there wasn’t any body of water, hasn’t a thing to do with any body of water. Although today there are millions of them who go in droves—we have them in Barbados too—and they delight in it. Sunday morning when you see a hundred or two hundred out to sea, all being dunked, all being pushed in, with lovely white robes—they come out like drowned rats, all of them, lovely white robes. That hasn’t a thing to do with Jordan. Jordan is every moment of a man’s life when man faces the facts, and he doesn’t know where to escape. There’s no place to go…here are the facts. You either meet them—well, you can’t meet them if you don’t have a thing—but beyond the Jordan you can meet them. That land is always the good land. So Blake said in his wonderful little poem, if you put the words into the mouth of a child, “Father, O Father, what do we here in this land of unbelief and fear? The land of dreams is better far above the morning star.” Just imagine, “the land of dreams is better far.”

So I had a dream. I didn’t go to sleep and lose my dream. I had to stand right where I was and have a dream, a waking dream, and hear the sound of the coconut leaves on top of my mother’s home, and actually hear it. For Imagination is spiritual sensation. So I know if I slept in that room I would hear that coconut leaf; and the window is open, and I would smell the tropical odors as they come through the window. I would see what I would see only were I in Barbados. And so I would think of the place where I lived only a little while before in New York City, and see it there, a way north, 2,000 miles north. And then in this treading out of the land I fell asleep. Falling asleep the three days came quickly. And the three days…and one morning a letter under my door, and here, a little draft fell out for only fifty dollars, but the letter said, “A ticket awaits you down at the steamship company. Go and get it, because we’re all expecting you for Christmas.” And so, I sailed on that lovely ship.

Everything worked so beautifully. I went in and got the ticket, and the man said, “I’m sorry Mr. Goddard but we have no space for you first class. But you can go third class until you hit St. Thomas, and then someone disembarks at St Thomas and then you can go first class from St. Thomas to Barbados.” I said, “Thank you, I’ll take it.” So I took it. Went back to my old friend, Abdullah, I said, Ab, I’ve got it, they sent me a ticket. I didn’t ask them for it. They sent me a ticket and they justified sending it in the most wonderful, sweet, loving letter why they sent it, and they justified it. He wouldn’t talk to me. He said, “You are in Barbados. Not you’re going to Barbados.” Even then he wasn’t going to discuss it with me. Then one word he did add, he said, “You are in Barbados and you went first class.” Here, I’m going third class…and I’m in Barbados and I went there, it’s all behind me, first class.

So forty-eight hours later I went down to the steamship company, we’re sailing at noon, put my ticket in expecting to go third class, and the man, his name was Mr. Smith, he said, “Mr. Goddard, we have good news for you. We have a cancellation and so you’re going first class.” He wasn’t surprised, that was the agreement. They agreed. To what would you consent? Would you be a witness against yourself? And then I answered, yes, I’ll be a witness. And so a witness to God’s truth…that’s what you witness…that’s the only thing you witness to in this world: God’s word. God’s word is truth, you’re told. Well, is it true? Did you prove it? I proved it. Well then, you’re a witness to it. Don’t give me any argument how you’re going to get there and how you’re going to go there and what path you’re going to go: You are in Barbados.

So now go and talk Christ and only Christ, and tell the whole vast world about Christ; that all things are possible to Christ. And so you go and you talk about it. You never tire of telling the world that he’s as free as the wind if he knows God’s law. So the law is simple. You ask no man’s permission to use God’s law. And so, blessed…a wonderful beatitude is pronounced upon the man who will delight in the law of the Lord, for in all that he does he prospers…not a few things but in all that he does. But bear in mind, tomorrow morning when you wake don’t be surprised to find yourself getting out of your bed and your feet in the water of Jordan. It’s going to be there again. But you know what you did, and so off you go again.

So I’m in Barbados and can’t get out because there aren’t any ships going from Barbados, for this was another year when the war was over. The war broke in the end of 1945, and the first ship out of there I sailed. Not thinking of return, I had no permission to come back into this country. I didn’t have any of these things, but I’m off for Barbados. Then I’m told in Barbados there isn’t a ship, not one ship before September, and I’m committed to a series of lectures in New York City in 1945 beginning the first day of May, and I can’t get out. So again, I start treading the water. So I walked up the gangplank of a ship that I saw in the bay. Not that day, but I walked up. And then a little while later they called me, and they had a list that long of people waiting. They jumped me over the entire list and put me at the top, and never justified why they did it. But I walked up the gangplank, not alone, taking my wife and my daughter with me, and so we all sailed on that ship. So I went beyond my Jordan. My Jordan there was a list that long and there were only two ships serving this little island, along with another three dozen islands, and the demand in this island alone exceeds anything they could possibly ever take out in the next few months. Then we had Trinidad, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, all the islands, to be served by these two tiny little ships. And so in spite of all their requests and their demands, my name was jumped in Barbados over all these and put at the top of the list. And I sailed and got in on time to give my series in New York City.

So I tell you, it doesn’t fail. So you find yourself at the Jordan. Don’t cry, here’s the Jordan, alright, beyond the Jordan. You promised God…for the Lord is asking you a question, “Will you serve the gods that your fathers served—they served the gods beyond the Jordan—or are you going to serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell?” And so, they all tell you, you’re in Barbados, and you can’t get out. That’s where the Amorites are, right there, and you are in their land. But now you can get out if you will serve the gods of your fathers, and they dwell beyond the Jordan. So beyond this barrier was my place called New York City. So I went up the ship and then got off in New York City. That’s exactly what I did.

So I say to everyone, you can do it. Don’t think that one person in this world is more loved by God than another. Don’t believe it. Because a man today that seems so kind and so wonderful, he is…he’s only in a state. He’s in the state of kindness, which is a lovely state to be in. A state of consideration, that’s a state. One’s in a state of horror, that’s only a state. But the occupant of the state of horror is just as perfect in the eyes of God as the one in the state of love. These are only states. And so the occupant is divine, the occupant is Christ Jesus. It is Christ Jesus in man that one day will be awakened in man, and that man in whom he awakes will be one with him. So when he rises in us, we are like him and he’s like us (1 John 3:2).

And so here, these are states. Tonight when you go to bed, be honest, look at your Jordan. If you like it, stay there, perfectly alright. If you’re satisfied with the day, there’s no reason to change it. But if you’re not satisfied with the day, beyond the vision of today there is a state that is the solution of today’s problem; you dwell in that state tonight. Then the words are, Provide or prepare the victuals, prepare the food that you are going to use. And the food is simply, it’s all mental. So you look at the world and see it as it would be seen were you now the man that you’re now assuming that you are. Falling asleep in that state, seeing the world as it would be seen were it true, you find yourself lifting it out of the deep. For within three days you will go across this River, and then you will enter the land that he gives you; and it resurrects, it comes out of the deep, the great earth on which you’re treading. So this is something that everyone should practice.

Now bear in mind when you read the word prayer, well, what is prayer? Is it not defined in our concordance as “a motion towards”? Is it not defined as “nearness at, accession to, nearness at or in the vicinity of”? That’s how it’s defined, “at or in the vicinity of.” So I want to be…and I name it. So I’m drawing nearer and nearer, and finally I feel I’m in it. How do I know that I’m in it? Well then, look at the world, mentally, and see if you are located properly. Because if you’re in it, the world is a frame of reference and it should tell you where you are. If this very moment I suddenly begin to see the Empire State building before me, then I look to my right and I see a way down on 34th Street, why, that’s the corner of Macy’s, then I look over to the Eastside, well, if I’m looking at this enormous building and I can feel it, I must be there. Then how do I know I’m there? Well, think of Los Angeles, and I see Los Angeles in my mind’s eye 3,000 miles to the southwest of me. And think of something else…then finally you’re located. So you must be there if everything else is as it would be were you there. And then fall asleep. Then suddenly things begin to happen; radical changes take place in your life to compel that journey. So don’t do it lightly, because if you do it lightly even to disprove it, you’re going to prove it. And when you prove it, it may not be convenient to make the trip, but you’re going to make it anyway.

That happened to me. I had no desire to go to Barbados in a certain year, l941, but it snowed in New York City and in no time flat we had twelve inches of snow. And so, to get rid of the snow, I slept in Barbados. Just to be ___(??) I felt the warmth of Barbados. Got up the next morning, there were twenty inches of snow, so I’m still in New York City with my Jordan. And I’d completely forgotten it. Then came the summer and my wife and I made arrangements to go to Maine for a month, a little vacation in Maine. Sent off the check, sent off the request for our vacation in Maine, then came a cable from Barbados that mother was dying and there was no time to waste, come and come right away, come immediately. So my wife and I sailed in twenty-four hours. A ship was pulling out in l941…and no British ship was going, no other ship was going because war was on. Well, we were not yet at war, this was the end of August, and so we got aboard the American ship, the Royal McCormick, The Argentina, this lovely big ship. And we were all lit up like a Christmas tree at night, so that no sub could mistake us for a British ship. Huge big American flag on the side, on both sides, and every light on the ship burning all through the night that they could not use that as an excuse and say that we were dark and they thought we were British and then sink us. So in four and a half days we were in Barbados.

I had no desire to go there. I went and sent my money off to Maine, got my whole thing done for Maine. But, you see, back in January when it snowed, in February when it snowed, I had lost myself in treading out the winepress, and those three and a half days came beautifully…but it took eight months. In eight months the three days came and what I was treading out being in Barbados came to the surface, and I had to go to Barbados. And it was not my plan. So I went to Barbados and got back, but it was not my plan. My plan was to go with my wife to Maine and have a lovely month in Maine. But that whole thing was cancelled because I, in February, treaded out the warm clime of Barbados, and slept in it just as though it were true.

So I say, don’t do it lightly, because I speak from experience. I did it in a light mood to get away from snow, and then it happened to me. I got away from…the thing I wanted most was to go to Maine. I certainly didn’t want to go home to see my mother dying, but that was the urgency of the call. The only thing that could have taken me away from my plan in Maine was just such an emergency. Any other request I would have thrown it out, but not when a cable comes saying that mother has no time to be with us any longer, and come now. Well, you couldn’t fly, there weren’t any planes. You had to go by boat, and luckily this lovely big boat was sailing in twenty-four hours. So off we went.

So I tell you, try it. Try it and try to master the technique of using God’s law wisely. And every time that you exercise your Imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you are exercising this law wisely, any time you do it. So if the request is made of you tonight for anything that is not a murder or to hurt someone, it’s good. And don’t judge them, no matter who they are they’re entitled to their request. They’ve confessed to you where they stand. For when they say, “I want so and so”, they’re telling you, I’m right down at Jordan, right down at the water’s edge and I can’t get across the Jordan. Take them across the Jordan in your mind’s eye. Take them out of that state and put them into the state of their wish fulfilled in your own mind’s eye, and you sleep in that state for them. And then you’ll take them across their Jordan. So they’ll get it when the three days are over. And those three days, it will resurrect, it will come out of the deep and they will have it. But the very next day they’re still going to be at the Jordan. Every day of your life you wake in the morning, after your heavenly vision, to come down and start the day at the Jordan.

You will find there always will be those in the world, “If it is so, turn this stone into bread for me.” I had that in New York City on this marathon. “You say imagining creates reality? Turn that yellow pencil into red for me.” And so you always get it. If I said to him, this professional philosopher, that “Man does not live by bread alone,” you know what he would have said? “What arrogance. Why he is quoting the scripture as though he actually said those words.” And if I told him I did, he would have dropped dead. Who else could have said them but Jesus Christ? And who is Jesus Christ?—your own wonderful human Imagination. But if you don’t know it, well then, he still said it anyway, but you were walking in your sleep then when you said it. If you don’t know you said it, you said it as a sleepwalker.

But the day will come you will know you said it. For the whole book is about you. The whole vast book from beginning to end is all about you. There’s no other being it speaks about other than God; and it’s only speaking about God, and who do you think you are, a worm? All ends run true to origins. If your beginning is a worm, your end is a worm…and the scientists are right, little worms will get you…and so, you’re only worms, maggots. But if your beginning is God, the end is God, for all ends run true to origins. So, if the origin is God, the end is God; and so you will awake as God if the origin is God. But if your beginning is a worm, call it by any other name, spermatozoa, it still ends as a spermatozoa, it’s a worm. But I tell you your origin is God and your end is God.

Now let us go into the Silence.