In this lecture Neville Goddard identifies the biblical “I AM” and Jesus Christ as the personification of the creative power of God, which he equates with human imagination. He argues that true spiritual power is not external—in money, status, or nuclear energy—but resides within each person’s imaginative faculty. Drawing on scripture from Exodus, Corinthians, Psalms, and Genesis, Neville reinterprets traditional stories to reveal an inner mystical history rather than secular events. He challenges listeners to test for themselves whether Christ truly dwells within by practicing imaginal acts until their assumptions externalize into physical reality. He emphasizes that turning to anyone or anything outside oneself is a failure of faith and a worship of false Christs. Through parables and a dream narrative, he illustrates how entering a desired mental state is equivalent to an unbroken union with divine creative power. Ultimately, the lecture calls for personal examination, faithfulness to one’s imaginal act, and the realization that fulfillment of scripture is achieved inwardly through the imagination.
We are told in the Book of Exodus: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM the I AM. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I AM I did not make myself known to them.'” And if you read the 1st chapter, the 24th verse of 1 Corinthians, you will discover that the I AM (the creative power of God) is personified as Jesus Christ! Now you and I are called upon to find this creative power. The Christian world claims to believe in Christ, but they do not know him for he must be found. This challenge is given in scripture. “Examine yourselves to make sure you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves!” If you want to find Jesus Christ you must test yourself!
Are you really convinced that Jesus Christ is in you? Have you tested him? If you have and are still not sure, then you have failed the test. Ask the highest leader of the Christian faith down to the lowest if he believes that Jesus Christ is in him, and if he is not convinced that the creative power of the universe is within and personalised as himself, then he has failed to meet the test regardless of what his man-made rank may be. You can attend all the churches in the world, give to the sick and poor on the outside, but if you do not know from experience that Jesus Christ is in you, you have failed the test. I tell you that Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagination, who is the eternal creative power of God. If you do not know that, you do not know Jesus Christ! You may say: “He is a person.” Well, you are a person, aren’t you?
Jesus Christ is God the Father and God the Father is Spirit, And those who worship him do so in Sprit through the art of feeling! I have imagined a state and seen it externalise itself and become a physical fact that I may share with another. This I have done unnumbered times and taught others to do it. So I have found him and know him to be the only creative power of the universe. Everything in your world which is now a fact to be shared with others was once only imagined. And if you know that Jesus Christ is the creative power that brings things into this world, that all things must be first imagined, then you have found him. Having found him, you must learn to trust him and live by this principle. Do this and you will find yourself moving into the stream of eternal life by fulfilling scripture and knowing that “All power in heaven and earth is given unto me.”
The true meaning of power is “effectiveness in achieving a purpose.” Today as a nation we have the power of the atom bomb, but are not willing to use it because it is not our objective to wipe out cities; so where is the power that could bring about our purpose? Man does not know Jesus Christ, therefore he thinks there is power in nuclear energy, in money, in his intellectual or social position; but the only power is Jesus Christ who is the human Imagination!
I was born and raised in a Christian environment, yet I did not learn this truth in Sunday school, in church, or at home. I was taught to believe in a being outside of myself. Some person who was born two thousand years ago who was crucified on a wooden cross by people who did not believe he was the Son of God. This is the story my mother taught me as her mother had taught her. The story comes down this way, yet it is not the true story of scripture.
I tell you a mystery: Christ in you is the hope of glory, for God, your human imagination became man that man may become God. This is a mystery that we are called upon to test, for the power that created the world became as you are, that you may know yourself to be all creative power, as He is! I did not receive this knowledge from a man. I did not read it in a book, nor did I ever hear of it from another. It was revealed to me that God, in man, is his own wonderful human imagination!
Having no place to turn, or no one to turn to, I began to experiment; and as it proved itself in the testing, I found myself fulfilling scripture. Instead of another, I was playing the central role fulfilling the only belief! Then I began to tell it and those who heard and believed began to test themselves, and as they did, they moved into the mainstream and scripture fulfilled itself in them.
We are told: “Remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Scripture personifies this fantastic power as Jesus Christ, but man is taught that Jesus Christ is some distinct individual outside of himself and turns to him to grant his wishes and respond to his prayers. Then one day man hears who Jesus Christ really is, and turning to no one on the outside, God reveals himself to that man as I AM. God said to Moses: “I made myself known unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I AM I did not make myself known to them.”
If God’s name forever and forever is I AM, how can you look outside of self? You cannot point to another and say: “I AM.” You can observe this or do that, but you cannot point to another when you say:” I am.”
Having revealed himself as Almighty Power, then I AM, God’s third revelation, is that of Father. And if God is a Father, he must have a Son. The world has been taught to believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, but I know from revelation that Jesus Christ is God Himself. There is a son, however, as told us so clearly in the 2nd Psalm. That son is David, who says: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.'” I tell you scripture does not record secular history, but supernatural history. Its message is sacred and hasn’t a thing to do with anything that took place in a secular manner.Yesterday I read where someone in Ohio, who claimed he had traced his background back to David, died at the age of 84 or 85. Of all the nonsense of the world, if he meant it secularly. David is not a character of human history, but the eternal state one enters when he believes in God’s power as his own imagination, exercises it, and enters the mainstream and awakens. Personifying God’s creative power, David will stand before you and call you Father, revealing you to be one with your creative power.
Listen to these words carefully: “The high priest said to Jesus, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of Blessed?’ And Jesus answered, ‘I am, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power.'” This he said in fulfillment of the 100th Psalm: “The Lord said unto my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand til I make your enemies your footstool.'” Here we see Power equated with a man! So God’s first revelation is that of sheer power. Then comes his name, I AM, which is followed by his true character, which is that of a Father who loves.
It is God’s purpose to give himself to everyone, and – being a Father – when he gives himself to you he gives you Fatherhood. First he gives you Power, then the awareness of being that power as you test yourself.
Now I ask you to examine yourself. When confronted with a problem, do you turn to someone on the outside for its solution, or do you believe that all power resides in your human imagination? Do you believe in the hydrogen bomb, meeting the right people, or living on the “right” side of the street? Or do you believe in your own wonderful human imagination? I have found he of whom Moses and the law wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, to be my human imagination and I turn only to him for the solution of my problems. I do it by asking myself what I would see if my problem dissolved and its solution rose in its place. What would I hear? How would I act? Having discovered Jesus to be my imagination, I act as though the problem was solved, and have found from experience that I have brought things not seen by mortal eye into the world to be seen by all. I have proved it and encourage everyone to try it. Examine yourself to make sure, really sure, that you have completely accepted Jesus Christ as your human imagination, so that when confronted by any challenge you turn to the only Jesus Christ and not to a false one. If you turn to anyone outside of yourself you have turned to a false Jesus Christ and failed the test. Turn only to God and not to anyone or anything on the outside. No one can tell your future, for your future is to fulfill Scripture, and you have no other!
I received a letter last week from a lady, who said: “In the dream I knew I was twenty years old, just married, and living in the Basque country among the shepherds. My husband was driving an old truck. I sat next to him with my sister-in-law next to me. In the rear sat my brother-in-law with my father-in-law directly behind me. Having spent the night on a mountain top, we travel over dusty, rugged mountainous roads as I become very tired and weak. My father-in-law had authority over everything, and knowing the way, he said: ‘Just one more curve and we will be home.’ As the final curve is completed I see a heavenly valley covered with green grass and a sparkling, crystal-clear river flowing through it. In the distance I see a beautiful home with barns and flocks of white sheep. Two shepherds are there with their crooks, their dogs, and a flock of geese. Then I turn around, and as I face my father-in-law I see he has suddenly grown tall and young. As I look at him I remember having seen that face somewhere in the dim, dim eternity. Then the face became brilliant and as I dissolved into the brilliance, I awoke.”
In this letter my friend played the part of Tamar, as told us in the 38th chapter of the Book of Genesis. Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ: “Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah and his brothers.” In the story, Judah left his brothers, married outside, and had three sons. Choosing Tamar for his first son, Er, who displeased Jehovah and was killed, Judah told his second son to marry her and raise offspring for his brother. Knowing that every offspring would not be his, but his brother’s, Onan spilled his seed so that Tamar would not have a child. Displeasing Jehovah because of this act, Jehovah killed him, for the command was to be fruitful and multiply and increase the world. The third son was not given as he was too young.
Then came the day when Judah went down to observe the shearing of the sheep, as he was rich and had enormous flocks. Tamar, upon hearing of his visit, took off her widow’s clothes and sat in a public place, veiled as a harlot of the temple. When Judah proposed, she asked: “What will you give me?” and he replied: “A kid from my flock.” Asking for a pledge that the kid would be sent, he gave her his ring, his bracelet, and his staff, and knew her intimately. Three months later it was brought to Judah’s attention that his daughter-in-law, Tamar, was pregnant. When Judah heard the news, he said: “Let the law be fulfilled. She shall be burned to death.” When they came to execute the law she took the ring, the bracelet, and the staff and sent them to Judah with the message: “The man who gave me these is the father of the child.” Upon seeing them, Judah said: “The sin is mine, not hers,”
Now don’t think of Tamar as having union in a physical sense, but union with a state, for every time we enter a state there is union. In my friend’s vision, everyone present was an in-law, telling her that she has entered the mainstream. She has had union with memory, and no power on earth can stop her from bringing scripture to its fulfillment, for her father-in-law is the one spoken of in the 49th chapter of Genesis as “the lion’s whelp, and from his hand the scepter will never pass.” She has entered the state which leads her up to the climax as Jesus Christ, who is God the Father!
The day will come when you will reach the Fatherhood degree and David will stand before you and call you Father. Then you will know a power that is greater than the human mind can fathom. You will know real power. It hasn’t a thing to do with the ability to destroy a nation. Tonight we could release X number of bombs and destroy every city in Russia and they could do the same thing to us – so what? May I tell you: the millions who would die on both sides would not be dead, but still trying to find the Father! Everyone is really searching for the Father of all life, and that Father is Jesus Christ. Although men have created pictures of him, Jesus is not on the outside. We are told: “It does not yet appear what he shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” God’s son cannot appear and not be just like the person to whom he appears. You will never see him as someone coming from without, but coming from within you. He will call you father in the Spirit and then you will know who you really are!
In the meanwhile you can exercise your power on this level if you will accept this challenge. Examine yourselves and make sure you are faithful to your imaginal act! Let no one else examine you, but test yourself! Have you completely accepted the fact that Jesus Christ is in you? If you can answer, “not quite” then you have failed the test. If, like one billion Christians, you believe in some other Jesus Christ, you have a false Christ. And you will never find him by going to church or giving to the poor, for he is not on the outside, but in your own wonderful human imagination!
Let no one prophesy for you! The only prophecy you are destined to fulfill is scripture. When someone tries to tell me what some astrologer or medium said I get so annoyed I want to shout: “Have you ever heard me?” Believe in all that nonsense, and you worship false Christs! If you want to be famous in this world of men, use this principle and you will shine for your little moment, but I ask you: are you in the mainstream of fulfilling scripture? Do you really believe in the only Jesus Christ, who is your human imagination? I say: there never was another Christ and there never will be another Christ.
Now, some will say that is blasphemy, just as they did long ago. In the 14th chapter of the Book of Mark, the question is asked: “Are you the Christ?” And Jesus said: “I am; and you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power.” Then the high priest said: “Do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy.” And in the Book of John, when accused of blasphemy “because you, being man, make yourself God” Jesus said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I say, you are gods’? If scripture says you are gods, and scripture cannot be broken, is it blasphemy for me to say I am the Son of God, and the Son and the Father are one?” If you are creative power, you must be one with the creator, who is a person as you are, as I am.
So I say to everyone: accept Christ as your own wonderful human imagination and don’t falter, for scripture must be fulfilled in you. It is not done physically! I have experienced a physical birth, for I was born in Barbados and just as you, I know the limitations of the flesh. I came into this world with nothing and do not have much today. But because I didn’t have much, I had to stand upon my own two feet and believe in myself. Asking no one to help me and not stealing from another, if I had nothing I went without it. I have seen those who had more than they needed, but I didn’t take it from them, I simply pulled in my belt. I have walked fifty blocks to find a friend who had a dime to buy some soup beans. When he could not be found I would return and perhaps the next day earn a quarter to buy the beans, but it never occurred to me that because others had food and I didn’t that they should give it to me. I was determined to believe in myself and because of that I got into the mainstream of life and scripture began to unfold in me. No one owes me a living; all I have to do is trust Jesus Christ, trust my human imagination!
I have no desire to pile up a lot of money. Why pile up a million shadows? My desire is to tell you who Jesus Christ really is. He is your own wonderful human imagination. There never was another Christ and there never will be another. If you will trust him – and I use “him” advisedly because God’s creative power and God is a person (and you are that person) – you will never fail, for he will never fail you! Tonight if you know what you want, just believe that you have it. Sleep as though it were true, and because Christ is in everyone, he will use as many as necessary to aid the birth of your assumption.
In the end of the Bible, the 22nd chapter of Revelation, Jesus Christ is speaking, saying: “”I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” And in the 2nd chapter of the same book it is said: “To he who conquers” (who witnesses the truth of scripture) I will give the morning star.” In other words, he gives you himself as God the Father. He is the root of David. The root of a tree is its father. God the Father is the root of David, for David is all Spirit, not a being of flesh and blood. He is the eternal state of the Son, who calls everyone to come to the mainstream and climax as the Father. So the story ends when you have finished the race and kept the faith, for you are given the morning star and know yourself to be the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star!
Tonight test yourself! I will not test you. I am not here to test anyone. I only urge you to examine yourself to see if you are really keeping the faith, or are you going to call a friend and tell him how horrible things are and appeal to him on the outside? I ask you: are you really keeping the faith? Do you always turn to your imagination and, no matter what happens, do you remain faithful to the state imagined? If you do, you have passed the test. But if every little rumour, doubt, or fear can move you around like a pawn on a chessboard, then you are not keeping the faith! It’s entirely up to you. Are you testing yourself or not? Can you say within yourself: “I always turn to my imagination when confronted with a problem and solve it there. Then I remain faithful to that imaginal act.” If you can, you have passed the test. It’s just as simple as that.
May I tell you: we remain in this world of death until we enter the mainstream and come to the climax. You can’t believe how much this world is really a world of death, whose life is in you as your human imagination. Life itself is an activity of imagining where everything is a symbol. Your closest, dearest friend, your wife, your mother, father, brothers and sisters are all symbols, all dead symbols revealing to you who you really are.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard’s reinterpretation of scripture transforms well-known biblical narratives into allegories of mental states. By personifying God’s creative power as human imagination, he bridges mystical psychology and Christian metaphysics, urging a shift from literal to symbolic understanding. This radical hermeneutic places responsibility squarely on the individual to awaken divine potential within.
His insistence that Jesus Christ is not an external historical figure but one’s own wonderful human imagination challenges traditional church teachings and critiques organized religion’s reliance on intermediaries. By framing external worship and charity as insufficient without the inner test, Neville underscores his core teaching: true faith is experiential and validated through direct imaginative practice.
The lecture’s method—the art of feeling into an imagined state until it becomes real—embodies Neville’s famous Law of Assumption. He presents practical steps: define the desired outcome, embody its sensory and emotional qualities in imagination, and remain faithful to that state despite external circumstances. This process is both psychological and spiritual, aligning the conscious mind with an inner Christ that births material manifestations.
Neville uses scriptural examples—the “I AM” revelation to Moses, the Davidic psalm, and the Tamar vision—to illustrate stages of spiritual development: power, name, fatherhood, and sonship. Each stage represents a deeper realization of one’s divine identity. The Tamar parable, seen through a dream narrative, symbolizes the believer’s fruitful union with memory and mainstream of scriptural fulfillment.
By concluding with an exhortation to self-examination and silence, Neville emphasizes personal accountability and the necessity of inner work. The lecture functions both as esoteric teaching and guided practice, providing listeners with a framework for meditation, self-testing, and empowerment. It reinforces his message that imagination is the sole avenue through which scripture fulfills itself and that the believer must claim the identity of creator to live the promise of divine power.
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