In this lecture Neville Goddard explores the infinite purpose of God and how individual desires fit within that divine plan. He introduces the metaphor of an egg or “nest” representing a conceived wish, urging listeners to ‘sit upon’ their desires nightly and maintain the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Drawing on biblical passages from Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the writings of Paul, he emphasizes that every vision has its appointed hour and will ripen in due time. Neville illustrates the power of sustained assumption with the real‐life example of a designer who naturally attracted a prestigious Lulu award by mentally dwelling on her success. He further recounts a student’s symbolic dream interpreting crucifixion and resurrection through Hebrew numerology to demonstrate imagination’s creative potency. Ultimately, God’s grand purpose is to ‘hatch’ Himself from humanity, and while that unfolds, we are invited to use our imagination to realize any goal we choose.
Tonight’s subject is “God Has a Purpose,” an infinite purpose, and no one will thwart it. But within the framework of his purpose, you and I could have unnumbered objectives, and no one, really, could thwart it if we really understand his law; the law that was given to us…how we, too, can realize these purposes. A purpose, in a strict sense, is a deliberately conceived plan proposing a certain action, or a plan to be executed within that action.
Now tonight let us take it first in the most simple way. Many months ago I asked a very simple question, “Why, why did you create the universe, just why?” I never doubted that there is a God, for I’ve stood in the presence of the Ancient of Days…but why? And the voice came from the very depth, “Hatching, just hatching.” So the very end of it all is hatching. Hatching what? He’s hatching out himself. Who by looking at a little worm, one of these little caterpillars, could ever predict his future as a painted butterfly? Who by looking at an egg, not knowing the contents, could predict the beauty of the peacock or maybe another beautiful, beautiful bird? Who by looking at man could predict Jesus Christ? Who in this world by looking at man could see that man is but the egg and out of man will come Jesus Christ? Not one will fail, for his purpose is that not one will be lost in all my holy mountain.
But within the framework of his purpose, you and I can take the same technique and we cannot fail. Now, it is for hatching. Well, we are not nesting correctly if we ever fall asleep in any nest other than the feeling of the wish fulfilled. For at night all the birds return to their nests. Through the day they have intervals upon that nest. You go out to make a living in the world of Caesar, and you may forget, and numberless things may happen that cause you to even forget for a moment that there is such a thing as a nest. But you must remember that there is on that nest that you built, as you prepared it or you conceived it, it’s a deliberate constructive plan on which you will sit. As we are told in Habakkuk, “I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord will say unto me, and what I will answer.” The next verse, Every seed, really, has its own appointed hour—for he’s telling us that all the visions, well, the vision is simply your little seed or your egg—“The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late” (Hab. 2:3).
For, there are different time intervals for all the different eggs of the world. I may have an egg based upon a yearly income, or an egg based upon a weekly income, or a monthly income. If I take it over a long period of time, well, then wait. If the first day, week, month or even the first six months are slow but I am faithful to that egg which is a yearly income, at the end of the year I will look back upon the most fantastic year I’ve ever had. So in the course of a day I will fly from that nest and do all kinds of things and forget; but at night let me return to that nest and keep that seed warm, keep that egg warm. And then do, as we’re told in Habakkuk, “I will stand upon my watch, and I will watch to see what the Lord will say unto me and what I will answer.” Well then, the Lord is simply the whole vast world pushed out, for the Lord is I AM. So I am sitting on this state and then I look upon my world, my world is myself fragmented, and that is what the Lord is saying unto me.When I think of my friends and see them mentally in my mind’s eye, what are they saying? Are they congratulating me? Am I accepting their praise graciously? Well, then I will now sit upon this nest and fall asleep in this assumption, in this state; for I am standing upon my watch and watching to see and to hear what the world (the Lord) will say unto me and what I will answer. What is my response when they say what they must say seeing me as their friend so successfully lifted up in this world?
So if you will do that, night after night, no power in the world can stop me from bringing forth from that egg—-which is simply my assumption—-all that it is implying…if I will do it. I may leave it and not really sit upon the egg. We have seen that in all the barnyards of the world, for eggs are dropped and no one thinks in terms of ever warming them or incubating the egg. But you and I, if I know what purpose really means—purpose in the strict sense is a deliberately conceived plan proposed for action or executed in it. I plan a campaign. And that action…but not only the action, something must be executed in it. Why am I planning the campaign, to sell merchandise? I plan a campaign or plan the campaign of war, why?—that I may be victorious in this action. So I will execute this plan in the action that I have now proposed. Well, the action is simply this night I will stand upon my watch and watch to see what and hear what he will say unto me—and how I will answer, knowing in my heart that the vision has its own appointed hour, it ripens, it will flower; and if to me it seems long then let me wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. So I simply stand on my nest and go to sleep in that state. If in the course of a day I can’t come back to it too often, it wouldn’t addle. If I am faithful night after night, it will not addle.
Just before I came on the platform, not more than one minute before, my very dear friend, who is here this night, she said, about two years ago a friend of hers won what she called—-I have never heard of this award before until tonight—-it’s called a Lulu, it’s like an Oscar in the fashion world. And so, it is given to some lady in the fashion field, whether you be in department stores, TV, radio, well, any aspect of displaying your fashion. She said when the friend won it, “I’ll win one too.” She did it just as lightly as that. But she did something about it and tonight she brought it, it’s in her purse, this lovely Lulu. It’s a little statuette, a first prize for her work. Only recently has she joined the May Company, and so for the May Company she’s been doing all of their displays, all of their advertising, and she won the Lulu. Just did it naturally. And this is not just for this city, every state west of the Mississippi is within that picture of the Lulu. So I tell you, sit upon your nest and let it hatch out. Everything comes out this way, but if you don’t have a definite objective, well, you can’t, so that you either succeed or that you fail.
But God has a purpose and his purpose is to bring forth from man Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God himself. He’s bringing out of us Jesus Christ. He will not fail. As we are told, “As I have planned it, so shall it be; as I have purposed, so shall it stand” (Is. 14:24). And, “the anger 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 clearly” (Jer. 23:20). In the latter days you will understand why you went through all the things in this world…because out of you is coming, actually coming, Jesus Christ. He could not emerge from man were he not actually present in man. So at this very moment he’s buried in every being in the world, and God is bringing him forth. When he brings him forth, he brings forth himself, and it’s you. But while he is bringing him forth, he has given us his own talent: The talent of using our Imagination to create everything in this world.
A letter given me this past week from this young lad who is here tonight, he said, “I found myself in the high school, and my teacher—-my teacher was the Latin teacher, her name was Miss Divine—-and as I entered, there was an examination taking place. And so I sat, and on the board were two columns; there were twenty-one problems. On the right side there were from zero to ten, say, eleven problems; on the left side from eleven to twenty. Down in the middle of the column on the right side there were two words that I had to define. They were separated by a word which I couldn’t quite discern, but the two words were crucifixion and resurrection. The left hand column, there were from eleven to twenty, and I couldn’t discern the words save two, and the words were map and route. And so, I took my paper, I began to define crucifixion; and I defined it by quoting the words of Paul from the 2nd chapter of Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me’” (verse 20). That’s how he put down the definition of crucifixion.
Then he discovered that his paper wasn’t big enough for all the answers, so he turned to Miss Divine—-bear in mind the name of this teacher, Divine—-so he turned to Miss Divine and asked her for permission to go and get a piece of paper. She said to him, “Go to my desk and get a piece of paper” so he did. He came back with a larger sheet. On his way back, he realized that in his pockets were all the answers to all these questions on a smaller piece of paper. So he sat down and tried to transfer from the smaller piece of paper to the test paper all of the answers. And then, suddenly, the test was halted, and then all the test papers were collected. Then Miss Divine began to read the answers as she got all these test papers together. And she turned first to the left hand column to the words map and route and she said: “Neville Goddard has the map and the correct route. If anyone wants the map and the correct route, let them go to Neville Goddard.” With that it was all dismissed, and then he took his papers and tore them up into shreds, and started towards the exit to throw them into the waste basket. She asked him for the papers. At first he said no, and then she glared at him, and with that he gave her these torn pieces of paper. Then with his books in his hands, towards the exit he walked out saying to himself, “I am expelled.”
Then, it was early in the morning, so he woke, wrote the whole thing down in detail as I’ve just told it to you, and then fell asleep. And this is the epilogue, the epilogue is marvelous. He heard a voice and the voice was the voice of the broadcaster, the announcer of the Angels, the baseball game. Bear in mind, they’re the Angels, not the Dodgers, they’re the Angels. And this Don Wale(?) said, “This is the fourth game that the Angels have played in the last twenty-four hours, and there are 400 people present.” The fourth game in twenty-four hours and there are 400 people present. Well, 400 is the numerical value of the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is Tau, and it has the symbolical value of a cross. Remember, he defined only one word—he defined crucifixion. The 400 were present. So he defined the crucifixion in his test. And then, there were four games, that’s the fourth letter, which is Daleth, which is a door. He said, “I am the door. Anyone who comes through any other way other than through this door (and I am the door) is a thief and a robber” (John 10:9). Twenty-four in the mystical Hebrew is a horse, it’s ___(??), and that is the mind. The whole thing is coming out of the mind of man. It’s the mind that man has to control. That is the horse, the unbridled beast that must be broken in by man and ridden by man himself. And so, he found the horse, told in the form of a number: in twenty-four hours. He found the door—-“I am the door”—-in the form of a number: four games. You wouldn’t play four games in twenty-four hours. And then there were 400 people present. They do get very, very small audiences, I grant you that, but not 400…they haven’t fallen that low. But bear in mind, they were Angels, they were not Yankees; not these, Angels. All of this is symbolism.
Well, what strikes me forcefully in the entire picture is not that Miss Divine—-there’s the name, she’s the teacher—-said that Neville Goddard has the map and the correct route…I love that in the picture. But what really to me is significant in the entire vision is his quote from Paul in the definition of the crucifixion. For when I stood in the presence of the Ancient of Days and he asked me, “What is the greatest thing in this world?” I, too, quoted Paul. I answered in the words of Paul, “Faith, hope and love, these three abide; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). At that, infinite love embraced me, and I fused with him and became one forever with the body of God. And I wonder, after his letter to me, do we all answer in the words of Paul? I’m asking a question. He shared with me his experience. I hope you will share with me your experience when a similar vision takes place with you, for I answered in the words of Paul and he answered in the words of Paul. He answered the one question, the crucifixion, and it came up in the epilogue, there were four hundred people present at the Angel game, and that’s the crucifixion.
And so, when you think the greatest figure in Christendom is Paul, really. Who has done for Christianity what Paul has done? You ask yourself a thousand times over, who then is the one who first awoke? Who is he that awoke? If we read the gospels, and the Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, anonymous names, unknown, completely unknown; no one knows who they are, and then you ask yourself this question concerning this fantastic creature that is Paul (the little one). Paul means “little,” and he is the “little one.” Then he tells you that “I am a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Benjamin means “son of the right hand.” “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thee at my right hand until I make of thy enemies a footstool for thee” (Heb. 1:13; Mat. 22:44). You ask…all kinds of things go through the mind concerning who is this one that we call “the little one” that is Paul.
He never denied his faith. In fact, he insisted that his religion was not a new religion it was the fulfillment of one as old as the faith of Abraham. He never gave up the Hebrew religion; he only saw the flower, the fulfillment of it. To him the whole thing was the unfolding of all that was prophesied and promised to Abraham. So, Christianity was simply the fulfillment of the faith of Abraham. We have in the western world these three great religions, the religion of Islam which is complete kismet, fatality, complete. They call themselves…most of them are named, and there are 400,000,000 of them, Abdullah (slave of Allah, complete slave of Allah). Then comes this great rock, the Hebrew religion, and it begins with faith, Abraham. He believed the promise made by God, God would fulfill, and he was able to fulfill it, and the promise was an heir.
All the way through, the promise continues in changing form. “I will raise up after you a son that will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:12). That’s the promise made to us: Raise up out of us a son that will be God’s son. God will be his father and that which he pulls out of us will be his son, something so unlike the form that we see here; and unlike the form called man as the butterfly is unlike the caterpillar; as unlike this glorious winged creature to the egg. So we are told in Philippians: “Our country is in heaven, from which we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform and change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power by which he is able even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20). The word translated “change to be like” means, literally, “to be of one form with him.” Actually, something is coming out of every being in this world that is Jesus Christ. And the form is that glorious form that is the form of God: “Return unto me the glory that was mine, the glory that I had with thee before that the world was” (John 17:5). So he gives man himself. He brings out of man, his egg, himself. He is hatching it out, and he is faithful.
All he’s asking of us that we be as faithful or try to be as faithful as we can to our modified desires as he is to his grand scheme, which is to bring forth out of man, himself. For, he’s bringing out of man, himself. No one’s going to fail because we aren’t doing it. But while he’s bringing it out, he’s asking us to take the talent that he gave us, while be are being turned over and over in this world, to take that talent and become what we want to be in this world. Do it for ourselves or do it for others. You can take any being in this world if you are faithful. And the faithful time is when you have the unbroken few hours of the night, just as you are settling down to retire into the deep, and you know the day’s over, and you’re simply going to relax into some state. Take that moment and then stand upon your watch and view the world to see what the Lord is going to say unto you. The Lord, being the fragmented I AM, everything that you’re doing, you’re saying, “I am doing it.” So, that’s the Lord viewing his fragmented self. And see what it is saying to you, is it sympathizing? Get off that nest! Is it now with great empathy? Alright, good! Are they rejoicing with you, all of them, because of your good fortune? Stay on that nest, and go sound asleep viewing the world from your watchtower, knowing in your heart that what you are sitting on mentally has it’s own appointed hour. It is ripening and it will flower; and if to you because of your anxiety it seems long, you know you must wait, for what you’re doing is sure and it will not be late.
So we’re told that his promise is faithful and sure. These promises are not some little thing done because of some emergency; they were done of old, and they are faithful and sure we are told. Not something that suddenly, because of some plan in the world of man, that God is now instituting some emergency thinking.No, his plans are of old. Man is allowed all the freedom in the world to make all the mistakes in the world, perfectly alright. He will correct it. He doesn’t condemn man, he corrects man. He corrects all kinds of things but allows us within the framework of his purpose to do anything in this world that we desire. He doesn’t have the same code that man tries to impose upon man. He allows us quite a wide range of everything in this world.
So I say, God has a purpose and his purpose is to bring forth himself out of his egg called man.But while the egg called man is living in the world of Caesar, he allows it to use a certain talent; the talent is the gift he gave of himself which is man’s Imagination. Man can take his Imagination and create anything in this world. You think of this story of the Lulu. For here is a lady who only recently started working for the May Company and how many artists must there be between the Mississippi and the West Coast who simply wanted that? This is a fist prize, this is not something down into the bottom of the barrel, this is the Lulu. I never heard of it until tonight, so she brought it in her purse and picked it up. It’s like an Oscar. It is an Oscar to those who are in her profession. And this covers the entire water front; this is not confined to department stores, it isn’t confined to TV or to radio or to moving pictures but to every aspect of the art world where ladies are involved in fashion. And she gets it! She’s only been there a few months and she gets it, because she wanted it…and she knows the principle; and the others who I think by her own confession will be equally talented, they didn’t know the principle. So they didn’t sit upon the nest and simply view it as she did. So she sat upon the nest.
So I say to every one of you, don’t get off that nest until it hatches out, and then go for a bigger nest and a still bigger nest.If anyone tells you that you shouldn’t want things, turn a deaf ear to them; completely turn a deaf ear to them. You’re not going to be enslaved by things if you know this principle. You’ll get things and be quite willing to drop them on the way. But you’ll simply test your talent. You’re exercising your talent; and a talent that isn’t exercised is like the limb that is not exercised, it atrophies, it does. And so, day after day you must take your dreams, your noble purposes, and simply settle down and nest them and simply bring them to pass in your world.Every one will hatch out, for we are told, “Not one is lost in all my holy mountain.” Not one child born of woman will ever fail to bring forth what God has demanded; and God demands only one thing: “I will raise up out of you a son that will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” That son will say of his father, “I and my Father are one,” because he is the creative power and wisdom of God (John 10:30). So when he comes forth, personified, he will say of the very power that drew him out of that body, I am the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). I am he. You are he. And everyone will come out…not one will fail.
So I tell you, try it.Try it over and over and over…and don’t ever admit failure, don’t for one moment admit it. The most impossible thing in this world, still try it. For here, we will not accept paganism, we will start with Israel, that’s where the whole creative world starts, really, and it’s based upon faith.Christianity is the fulfillment. If an orthodox Jew will not believe that it happened, alright…he will eventually. At least he has the faith that it is going to happen. But I tell you that it has happened. But I will go back now to that definition of my friend Tom with the crucifixion, and go to another aspect of it, which you find in the 6th chapter of Romans. He took his from the 2nd chapter of Galatians, but the 6th chapter of Roman: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (verse 5). So now Paul, the same grand Paul, is now saying to his, what he calls “my son Timothy,” and he said: There are those who are teaching that the resurrection is past already. They are misleading the people and turning them from their faith (2 Tim. 2:18). His condemnation of those who said it was past already, once and for all, is, well, you can’t quite describe the condemnation, uncompromising. It’s not past once and for all. It took place, it is taking place, and will continue to take place until everyone gives up that Son of God. It’s the Son of God in man that is buried that makes man alive. Were it not for the Son of God in man, then there would be no living being in this world.
So if I have been crucified with him, alright, I have enjoyed that death. I’m crucified with him, and in that crucifixion I have union with him. Now, certainly, I will also be united with him in a resurrection like his. Well, I can tell you from experience it has happened to me. So I know the joy of the union in my crucifixion with him, and I now experience the joy in my resurrection with him. It’s one. I do not differ from any child that walks the face of this earth, we’re all one. I can’t share with you that body which he has transformed to be like his glorious body. I tried it once and didn’t quite succeed in revealing the glory of the body that is one…but she is not far off from seeing it for herself. But here, it’s the most fantastic glory…the joy of this body. Human face yes. I will recognize you?—certainly, forever and forever. But I can’t describe the glory of the body; it’s something entirely different.
So we are subject to this humiliation of these bodies of blood, bodies of flesh…but not for long. And so, if someone this night…like my friend Tom who has had this experience…and you will say “Well, why should he have it?” No one knows Tom’s background. No one knows how long he has been treading this winepress in this world. No one knows it. And so, if in many ways you may think he is young or even limited in expression, don’t! Because the minute it happens to one, limitations fall away. These things that seem so wonderful here that we acquired through labor will not be used, because it’s all then a creative power in operation. So don’t judge anyone.And may I tell you, if perchance you should entertain such a thought, bear in mind the story of Job. Job’s story is the story of man. Here is the most cruel experiment ever performed on an innocent being, that which is performed on Job. Job in the very end didn’t condemn the Lord. He thought the Lord was justified in everything that he did. And then he turned from himself, for he felt sorry for himself, and he prayed for his friends, and as he prayed for his friends his own captivity was lifted (Job 42:10). So turn from self to a friend and wish them well. Well, that’s really what love is, to wish a friend well, and sincerely wish him well. May I tell you what will happen to you? You’ll simply bloom. Out of the nowhere things that are now hidden from you will come into view and they’re all yours by sincerely wishing a friend well.So when Job turned from himself and prayed for his friends his own captivity was lifted. So that is what we’re here to do. Turn to someone this night, I don’t care who he is, who she is, and see them in your mind’s eye in some blessed state. And feel the thrill that will be yours as a friend because they are what you’re now representing them to yourself as being.
Someone once said, and for years I had to agree with them and even to this day I would go along with them, that if someone is hurt, a thousand will rush in sympathy; and if some member of the neighborhood falls heir to a fantastic fortune, you don’t find the joy, you find envy. So we have so many words to express sympathy, compassion and all these things, but possibly only one which is not a good, not a good word in a sense because it isn’t known. You speak of empathy, how many people even know what the meaning of the word is when you use it? So it isn’t used. It’s used in cultured society among the educated. They know the meaning of the word but they don’t use it, because it’s not in use. They will use it in their writing and someone reading their works will rush to the dictionary for definition of the word, because we’re not given to rejoicing with those who have good fortune smile upon them.
In fact, one of the disciples whose name is only mentioned among the twelve, he’s not mentioned saying that he’s one of the twelve, is Thaddeus, and Thaddeus means “praise.” It’s so little exercised by man that there is no story of Thaddeus in the Bible. He’s only called. He is called…he has to be part of the awakened man, for the awakened man must have Thaddeus within him awake; but in the actual story he isn’t there. He’s only named among them, and he’s the tenth disciple, and the word is praise. How many of us can rejoice when we hear of the good fortune of another? We wonder, “Why didn’t it happen to me?” That’s the reaction. You read in the morning’s paper someone won $150,000 with a two dollar bet, some daily double in Florida or someplace or down in Caliente, and instantly you say, “I wish I had it!” No one thinks of the joy in that household, that moment when he goes home to his family with a hundred thousand dollars in cash. We think, “Why didn’t I make it?” So really empathy is an empty word until it becomes so alive that we use it as frequently as we use sympathy. We can sympathize with one who lost his home because he had a hot tip and put the house down on the horse that didn’t come in. We can sympathize with his wife at home who must now give up the house, but we cannot rejoice with her when he comes home with the fortune. So Job rejoiced in the good fortune of his friends, and as he did so his own captivity was lifted.
So to come back to our theme which is God has a purpose. That end you can accept as Abraham accepted it. He heard the promise, he believed it, and then in spite of the hell of the 400 years in this land where he was a stranger, where he was a slave of slaves, he still remembered the promise. He believed the one who promised was capable of fulfilling that promise. And then, “He rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56)…and went through hell faithful to the promise made to him by God. And so, you become that. I tell you he’s coming out of you, one that is completely glorified, and the body he wears is the body of God. Not some little tiny thing…something is coming out of all of us that is the most glorified thing in this world. It’s an immortal body and the body is the body of God.
But, before it comes out and you wear it and you are one of the immortals, while you are still telling the story and moving through the world of Caesar, use the same talent to play your own part of sitting on your nest.Night after night, take the most glorious idea. If you’re in business, augment it, double it, treble it. Let no one tell you that you’re too hungry, you’re too anxious, forget what they’re saying. You double it! You’re making x number of thousands a year, double it, you treble it, and test God and see if it doesn’t work. And so, when you go to bed this night you sit on your nest of an income and you name it; and then stand upon your watch and see what God is saying to you. And God speaks to you through the faces of every person in this world that you contemplate. So you think of me, and you’ve just written me the most fantastic letter of your good fortune, and hear me tell it from the platform. So think of me this night telling from the platform your good fortune. Think of your mother, if you have one in this world or if not in this world—-she’s still in this world, you know, for the world is simply sections within sections—-so think of her. Don’t think because she’s not physically present she’s not aware of it. Think of her and let her see your good fortune. Let all of your friends see your good fortune. And go to bed sitting on that view of things, which view implies the fulfillment of your desire. And see how it comes to pass. It may take twenty-four hours, some things hatch out in twenty-four hours, some things hatch out in a week, some things in a month, six months, a year. I do not know the time interval of your desire. But your desire, your mere wish is an egg, you laid it. Your wish…you laid an egg…I mean in the true creative sense, not in the theatrical sense. And so, you have an egg and then you simply sit upon your egg and bring it to pass. Let the whole thing come out in this fabulous world of yours.
Now let us go into the Silence
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Q: Neville, you said last week, last Tuesday that we are inserted into different time intervals as these wheels turn. They’re not turning together, they’re turning and we’re inserted. Now, once before you told us that once you ___(?) like this man, your example of a man putting coal down the cellar, he’s always doing that. Now I can’t reconcile that, would you explain it? I mean, if we’re inserted…we leave this sphere and are inserted into another wheel, are we still doing that?
A: No. First of all, the lady is asking a question based upon an experiment that William Ramsey made under a controlled withdrawal from this world. William Ramsey took ether, chloroform, and in his presence were nurses and secretaries, and they gave him these doses of chloroform as he asked for them, and he withdrew from this surface mind. As he went deeper and deeper into himself he recorded audibly for his secretary to put down what he was experiencing. And he said, I saw—-and he was in London and he saw a man delivering coal to a certain home, and said he to his secretary, “At this moment in time, one would think that that man was delivering coal because someone ordered coal; but at this degree of withdrawal, I would say that that man is delivering coal because he is part of the eternal structure of the universe. He is always at that moment in time delivering coal. So if you went back to, say, he delivered coal on the morning of July the 6th, on July the 6th of that year of that wheel, he is always delivering coal.” So when Hamlet enters the stage, at a certain moment when he has the argument with his mother and tries to persuade her to assume a virtue if she has it not, he is always at the moment of the play. He doesn’t bring it in at the first act; he brings it in after the murderous thing that the uncle and his mother contrived. So he does not ask the mother to assume a virtue until he knows the mother is in need of that radical change of attitude. So he couldn’t come before. But at that moment of the play, he’s always trying to persuade her to change her attitude. That’s the whole vast structure. But we are not the garment that we are wearing. We are that being that God is bringing forth. On the surface we are no more than the eggs; but buried in us is God and God is bringing forth himself, his creative power which is personified in scripture as his son.
Q: ___(??) where Jesus rose from the tomb and Mary approached him and he said, “Do not yet touch me, I have not yet ascended to my Father.”
A: Did you hear the question? “Do not touch me, I have not yet ascended to my Father.” First of all, this is a mystery. We can’t see it as a man getting out of any tomb…can’t do that. The drama takes place in you, Bill, the whole thing takes place in you. After it takes place in you and you’re completely ascended, everything that has happened as told in scripture or the gospel is only a revelation of the risen Christ. And so, in the appearance of a man, that great title “Lord” is conferred upon any man to whom Christ has risen. So he’s telling the story. The world is now his Mary as it were. And they’re trying to…you can’t touch it through the flesh, you can’t touch it in any way whatsoever. I have ascended but not completely until the body is taken off. And so, ___(??) while one is still in the body, while he still tells the mystery as he experienced it, let no one try to touch him to make something spectacular out of him. This man doesn’t need to be worshipped; he said, “Worship God. I’m a man just like you.” So he’s asking the whole vast world not to make an idol of him. He hasn’t yet ascended, but when he does he goes no place other than where you will be in the not distant future. So it’s a drama within a drama. It’s a mystery…if you tell as it has been told of some little place where someone came out of a tomb…and the only tomb out of which Christ ever rose is the skull of man. And he can’t show it to another. They either believe it or don’t believe it, and most did not believe. So he told them what happened. In fact those five words at the end of Luke are the most provocative words: “They related their own experience.” They told what had happened; and then to most people who heard it they seemed like the words of an idle tale, and did not believe it. And so, out of man comes this fantastic glorious being, which you may try to show to another, but the eye is veiled, they can’t see it. And even he who wears the garment is not aware of his glory while still in the body. But he knows what has happened to him and the whole thing that has happened in scripture has happened to him.
Of course, one translation of that same statement is this, “Do not hold me back.” That is what Moffat has. Instead of “do not touch me,” he has that translated “do not hold me back”…that you by your sense of loss will bind me to where you are. For, I’ll be always called by you for your sense of loss. Then do not hold me back, let me go. So the sense of ____(??) if someone that you admire as a teacher and hold them high in your mind’s eye is now departing from the world, your sense of loss and their feeling for you would hold them close. Do not hold me, do not keep me back; for I can serve better when completely free and then control from above.
Goodnight.
In the first part of the lecture, Neville Goddard frames God’s ultimate purpose as an unthwartable plan of ‘hatching’ divinity from within each individual. He contrasts this infinite blueprint with our personal objectives, showing how both cosmic and individual designs operate under the same law of assumption. The ‘nest’ metaphor — returning each night to the feeling-state of the wish fulfilled — serves as a practical technique for aligning personal desires with divine timing. By citing Habakkuk’s vision of seeds ripening in their appointed hour, Neville reassures listeners that faithfulness, not forced action, ensures manifestation.
The midsection skillfully weaves scripture and anecdote to validate his teaching. Neville’s account of the Lulu award winner exemplifies how a clear, felt intention can bring rapid, tangible results in the material world. Likewise, the high school student’s dream, with its symbolic references to crucifixion, resurrection, and Hebrew numerology, underscores the subconscious mind’s role as both author and audience of visionary experiences. These stories illustrate Neville’s core premise: imagination, when faithfully cultivated, becomes an incubation chamber for real-world transformation.
Neville deepens the theological dimension by exploring Pauline thought on crucifixion and resurrection. He argues that these events occur continuously within each believer’s consciousness, not exclusively in historical time. The rising Christ emerges from the ‘tomb’ of the human skull, yet remains unseen until one personally experiences the inner transformation. This mystical interpretation bridges Christian doctrine with psychological insight, inviting listeners to recognize their own divine potential.
In closing, Neville calls for mutual empathy and gratitude as practical expressions of spiritual maturity. He invokes Job’s story to show that intercessory love for others dissolves personal captivity. By rejoicing in another’s good fortune and sincerely wishing friends well, one nurtures the same creative power that hatches desires to fulfillment. Ultimately, Neville reaffirms that God’s purpose is to bring forth Himself from humanity, while we exercise our imaginative talent to create, test, and expand our own worlds.
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