In “Prophetic Sketches,” Neville Goddard presents biblical stories as inner allegories that mirror the individual’s spiritual journey. He reads Genesis’ account of Joseph in a coffin and the Exodus as symbols of the soul’s entombment in the mortal body and its eventual liberation through vibrational awakening, described as the ’last trumpet.’ The resurrection of Lazarus becomes a prophecy of the inner Christ within each person, prefiguring personal rebirth. Goddard stresses that true transformation comes from imagination—our creative power that shapes reality—and that every detail of scripture holds a hidden, original meaning to be uncovered. He exhorts listeners to look beyond literal interpretations and engage these prophetic blueprints to realize their own Godhood within.
The stories recorded in the Bible are prophetic sketches of events predestined to take place in the individual you!
We are told in the seventh chapter of John: “We know where this man comes from, yet we are told that when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.” Speaking of the Father and the higher realm to which he now belongs, Jesus says: “A time will come when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but tell you plainly of the Father.” Trying to convince man of man’s own Fatherhood from which he came and to which he will return, Jesus said: “I came out from the Father and I have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.” Now, where does he speak plainly? In the 14th chapter of John, saying: “He who sees me has seen the Father,” and in the 10th [chapter] of John, when he states: “I and the Father are one.”
Now let us take the first great sketch as recorded in the Book of Genesis (the seed-plot of the Bible). The Book begins: “In the beginning, God” and ends, “ in a coffin in Egypt.” In the 37th chapter it is stated: “Behold this dreamer cometh.” The one placed in the coffin is the dreamer, called Joseph. It is he who dreams that the sun and the moon and eleven stars come down and bow to him. And while gathering the sheaves, he saw his sheaf stand erect while all the others bowed to him. And when the father heard of these dreams, he said: “I and your mother and brothers will bow to you and serve you?” Well, time proved that it was true, for Joseph became the sovereign ruler over all. This outline, this prophetic sketch, is all about God! “In the beginning God” 9and the first and the last are one). :”I am the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last.” In the beginning God laid himself down in a coffin in Egypt. He dreams the dream of life in the coffin of you, for there is nothing in this world but God. Your “I am” is the God of scripture who is buried in the coffin called by your mortal name.
Now, Genesis ends on a mute note a coffin. It’s the overture to the exodus, where God is led out of the coffin in which he was placed, bringing with him the man in whom he is buried. This exodus is accomplished by signs and wonders. The foundation of the entire drama is the resurrection, for you cannot enter the New Age until you are a Son of the resurrection. “This age” is the age of death, while “that age” is the age of the resurrected.
The first sketch is given to us in the 11th chapter of the Book of John. It is the story of Lazarus, which means “God has helped.” Now, Lazarus is only mentioned in the Book of John, yet in the 10th chapter of the Book of Luke his sisters Martha and Mary invite Jesus to be a guest in their home. Now, surely if the story of Lazarus was to be taken on this level, he would have been mentioned in Luke, but his story is a foreshadowing of that which is going to happen in you!
Many signs and wonders are incorporated into this story. When told: “He whom you love is ill,” Jesus turned to his disciples and said: “The sickness is not unto death. It is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified.” Having waited two extra days, he turned to his disciples on the fourth day and said: “Lazarus is dead, but let us go to him.” Then to the sisters he said, “Your brother will rise again.” When Martha said: “I know he will rise in the resurrection at the last day,” Jesus replied: “I am the resurrection.” Then the stone is rolled away and Lazarus is resurrected.
Prior to the resurrection the statement is made: “By this time he stinketh, for he has been dead four days.” Why was this remark included in scripture? Because the evangelist who had the vision was recording his own personal experience. Only when you have had the experience can you see how these events are tied together. And when this first prophetic sketch has been fulfilled in you, the new age has begun.
As I said earlier, we are all buried within the coffin of ourselves; but we don’t know it and will not know it until the last trumpet, on the last day. It is a mystery in which we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead will be raised, raised into the immortal body to wear immortality, as told us in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
The Mormon Temple has a statue of a man blowing a trumpet, but the word “trumpet” means “reverberation; to vibrate.” And may I tell you, when that day comes upon you, you will know a vibration such as you have never known before. Centred in your head, it comes in the twinkling of an eye, at that last trumpet. This statement implies that there are other vibrations, but this is the final one, for from it you will awaken and rise from the dead from the coffin in which you are buried.
I never once entertained the thought that I was in a coffin, that this skull of mine was a tomb. I looked upon my skull as something very much alive and hoped that it would not be injured, for everything that I knew in this world I had brought forth from this head of mine. Yet, when the vibration possessed me I began to awaken as I have never awakened before, to find myself completely entombed in my skull. I was alone and the tomb was completely sealed. There was no way out except by rolling away the stone, which I did from within, with no help from one on the outside. I knew intuitively that if I pressed, something would roll away from the base of my skull. I did it and came out, inch by inch, just like a child comes out of the mother’s womb. I who had been dead had awakened because of the vibration called the trumpet, awakened to realise who the Christ of scripture really is.
I have told you my story. I have finished the race and now the time for my departure has come. But when I depart I will send the Holy Spirit who will bring to your remembrance all that I have told you be reenacting the story of Jesus Christ, in you, casting you in the central role.
Who is Christ Jesus? The very breath of every being in the world. You could not live if Christ was not buried within you. His death turned your life onto a profound sleep. Those in great eternity see this world as a world of the dead, but in the third sketch of the resurrection, Christ awakens in each one of us individually, by the blast of the last trumpet.In the 27th chapter of the Book of Isaiah we are told: “I will gather you one by one, O people of Israel.” Each one of us is unique in the eyes of God, and each has his place in God’s body; therefore not one can be lost, but everyone will be called individually, in his own time.
When you read scripture don’t take any word for granted. Look it up in the Strong’s Concordance to determine the original meaning. The trumpet spoken of in scripture hasn’t a thing to do with any outside symbolism such as the one atop the Mormon Temple, which depicts a man blowing a trumpet to awaken the world with its sound. One by one, each will hear the trumpet call and enter the body of God, the only church of scripture. The word “church” means: “the assembly of the resurrected; the redeemed.” How can all be gathered into one? The same way that millions of atoms in your brain can be gathered into the human skull. It’s a mystery, the greatest mystery known to external man.
These prophetic sketches are sketches of events which will happen in you. In the 37th chapter of the Book of Genesis, Joseph – the one God loves most and who is the prototype of Christ Jesus – is made a coat of many colors. Entering Egypt, Joseph is sold into slavery and appears in the New Testament in the form of a slave, made in the likeness of man. But no one killed God. Did he not say: “No one takes my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again.” No Roman soldiers or Jews ever killed Jesus. The story hasn’t a thing to do with any race of men. These are prophetic sketches. They are adumbrated, faint outlines omitting all the details, all the figures. They show the individual, when it unfolds in him how Christ comes the second time. The drama unfolds in each individually, so in the end there is Jesus only. Not Jesus and a bunch of redeemed men. It is God’s power and wisdom (called Christ) in man that is resurrected, so in the end there is nothing but Jesus and his Christ.
When the question is asked: “What think ye of the Christ, whose Son is he?” They replied: “The son of David.” Then he questions: “Why then did David, in the Spirit call him Lord? If David in the Spirit calls him ‘Lord’ how can he be David’s son?” Man matures when he becomes our own father’s Father! You see, Christ, God’s power and wisdom, is buried in humanity. And humanity collectively is all the generations of men and their accomplishments. When these are all fused into a single moment of time, humanity is personified as David. And out of humanity (both the whole and individually) comes the Christ, as God’s power (which is God himself) coming from the Davidhood of Man.
In the 7th chapter of 2 Samuel, the prophet said to David: “The Lord declares to you, “I will raise up your son after you, who will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he will be my son.” I didn’t realise I was so sound asleep that I was dead, until the night when I was awakened and came forth from the coffin of myself. The Lord declared through his prophet Samuel that he will be my father, but I did not know it then.
Now we are told: “Do not touch me as I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Even though you are born from above you do not know you are God the Father, and will not know it until David, in the Spirit, calls you “Lord.” Only then will you be touched by the realisation of who you really are.
Everyone is destined to discover his Godhood, but we aren’t a bunch of gods running around. The word “God” in the sentence, “In the beginning God” is “elohim.” It is a plural word, a compound unity of one made up of others. Everyone will one day ascend to the Father and encounter David of Biblical fame. And when you look into the eyes of your son, David, your memory will return and you will know you are his father and he will know he is your son.
In the 22nd Psalm, David cries out: “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? The dogs surround me.” When you read that you may think of dogs surrounding a young lad, but the word “dog” in scripture means “the male temple prostitute.” When David appeared to reveal my fatherhood, homosexuals stood nearby looking concupiscently at him. Then I told them the supposedly ancient story of how David brought down the giant Goliath, thereby becoming victorious over death. This 22nd chapter of Psalms is used through the New Testament as messianic, and everyone is going to have the experience recorded there.
Don’t take any word in scripture for granted. Our scholars chose the words that made sense to them or made the sentence more beautifully expressed, but not necessarily the meaning the authors meant to convey. Take the preposition “in” as in the statements, “Scripture must be fulfilled in me” and “When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me.” Some scholars have changed the preposition to read “to” me, but when God’s son is revealed in you, you will confer not with flesh and blood. To whom could you go? In my own case I haven’t found a priest, a rabbi, a Christian Science teacher, Unity, or minister of any ism who will accept the revelation of David as the son of the Lord Christ Jesus. But if Jesus said: “I am the Father” then he must have a son, for how can a person be a father without a child? When Phillip said: “Lord show us the Father” he was told: “I have been so long with you Philip and yet you do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how then can you say “Show us the father?”
We call the pope the great father, yet he claims he’s a celibate. Extending his hand, he declares that the one hundred thousand who stand in the square and the five hundred million who watch him on television are his children. What a lot of nonsense. You have a child, a child who is the embodiment, the quintessence of all humanity. That child is David.To the Hebrew mind history consists of all the generations of men, plus all of their experiences, fused into a single whole. That concentrated time into which all are gathered and fused is called “eternity, a youth, a lad, a stripling.” This is what God has put into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Putting the quintessence of all humanity, its races and nations in man’s mind, when man has experienced them all, they are fused into a youth and personified as David, the one to whom God spoke saying: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.”
Now the statement is made: “We know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes no one will know where he comes from.” Why? Because he comes from within, for that’s where he died. Entering death’s door, the human skull, God lay down in his grave and shares with you His visions of eternity until He awakes. And when He awakes you are God. But you will never know that you are He until His Son reveals you.
Listen carefully to the words in the 20th chapter of the Book of John: “Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” How will you ascend? By God’s Son calling you Father. When it pleases God to reveal his Son in you, then you are sent. This comes five months after your resurrection. “Do not touch me as I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Here you discover that there are intervals of time between the resurrection and the statement: “I am leaving the world and going to the Father, for you go to the awareness of being the Father when David calls you Lord. And from that moment on, although you walk in the world as flesh and blood, you are in the world but no longer of it.
These are prophetic sketches which begin in Genesis and end in Revelation. You may ask why it was not made plainer, to which I will quote the words of Blake: “That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care, and the ancients discovered that what was not too explicit was fittest for instruction because it rouses the faculties to act.” When you were a child you thought as a child, you reasoned as a child, but when you become a Man you give up childish ways. The outer concept of life is for the child mind, but if you are hungry to go beyond the obvious and nothing in this world can satisfy that hunger but an experience of God, you have become a Man and are willing to give up your childish concepts.
I can’t tell you my thrill when I read the letters I am receiving from you who attend, telling of your awakening. We are all that one Father David comes to reveal. It seems strange to be gathered one by one to unite into a single man who is God, but it is true. I tell you, you have but one Father and you are He. Coming out from yourself, you entered the world, now you are leaving the world and returning to yourself. This you did for a divine purpose. Having reached the limit of contraction by taking upon yourself the limitations of man, there is no limit to expansion. Reaching the limit of opacity by limiting yourself to the physical senses, there is no limit to translucency. When you break these bonds you become more expanded, more translucent until you are above the organisation of sex. Knowing you are not male or female you will say: “Forgive them for they know not what they do, for whatever they do I am the cause. My every thought is a vibration, drawing to me that which it is implying.”
This was set up in the beginning. “As a man sows, so shall he reap.” It’s the law of identical harvest, called “seedtime and harvest” in scripture. There will be no change. You plant weal, you reap weal. Plant wheat and wheat will grow, all caused by the human imagination. As you imagine you vibrate and call forth that which you have imagined. Your world is forever bearing witness to what you are imagining. You may not recognise your harvest and deny you have ever had such a horrible thought, but no one did it to or for you, you did it yourself.
In the beginning you promised that you would take the consequences of your imaginal acts, good, bad or indifferent. And you can try from now until the end of time to change the outside, but only when you change your way of thinking can you change your world. Give a man something on the outside to support him and you have conditioned his world and he will curse you when you stop it. But show him how to use his imagination to attract what he wants and you have given him the gift of life.
In all of these prophetic sketches, prophetic behaviours are laid out from beginning to end. The life of Jesus is a prophetic blueprint which everyone will experience within himself. Every character spoken of in scripture is within you. The parable of Lazarus is unique in the sense that the character is named. Other parables begin: There was a judge; a rich man came; a widow, but no name given to the character.
In the 16th chapter of the Book of Luke the story is told of a poor man named Lazarus who, after death found himself in Abraham’s bosom. A rich man, filled with anguish, could not reach the state of faith. He found a gap between the two ages. This gap remains until God, in his infinite mercy, brings you from this age of sin and death up to that age of the resurrected. So the word “Lazarus” means, “God has helped.” In this world of sin and death we are awakening one by one to unite into the single Man who is God.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard’s hermeneutic approach in “Prophetic Sketches” reframes biblical narrative as an intimate map for interior transformation rather than historical reportage. By invoking Joseph’s burial in Egypt and the plagues of Exodus, he redirects the focus from external events to the psyche’s journey from limitation to infinite consciousness. This inward reading dissolves the boundary between sacred text and personal experience, allowing scripture to function as a living manual for awakening.
The lecture’s core metaphor—the soul buried in the ’coffin’ of the skull—underscores Goddard’s emphasis on vibrational mechanics of consciousness. The ’last trumpet’ vibration is not an external instrument but an interior tremor that breaks the stone of self-imposed death, enabling the individual to ’roll away’ the barrier to their own divinity. This vivid imagery serves to reorient spiritual practice toward direct inner experience and somatic resonance.
Central to Goddard’s teaching is the redemptive power of imagination. He posits imagination as the operative faculty through which consciousness waves shape material conditions. By illustrating how scriptural figures like David and Lazarus are facets of the imaginal self, he invites practitioners to actively employ their imaginative faculties to script their own resurrection and ascension narratives.
Theologically, Goddard dismantles conventional dualities—Father and Son, God and man—by revealing them as aspects of a unified consciousness. His redefinition of ’Christ’ and ’David’ as interior archetypes challenges institutional authority and external rituals, privileging instead the individual’s direct union with the Father. This radical nondual lens positions every believer as both the bearer and object of divine action.
Practically, Goddard’s directive to consult original Hebrew concordances and to meditate silently on the prophetic sketches equips students with tools for exegetical precision and experiential verification. By coupling intellectual investigation with black-screen meditation, he offers a structured pathway for readers to validate these esoteric interpretations through personal gnosis.
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