Purpose Revealed

When purpose is revealed, all falls into place. The revelation of purpose gives meaning to everything, and there is a purpose in this wonderful, vast creation of God. Paul said: “He has made known unto us . . . . the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.” [Ephesians 1:9, 10] There is a plan behind it all.

Now let us turn to the most disputed verse in Ecclesiastes: “God has put Eternity into man’s mind, yet so that man cannot find out what Cod has done from the beginning to the end.” [Ecclesiastes 3:11]

The Revised Standard Version translates it as “eternity.” The meaning of the word translated “eternity” will determine what meaning you would give to that verse. The word is “olam.” The King James Version translates it as “the world.” “He put the world into man’s mind.”

But the word is “olam.” It really means — in a sense — “history”; but history to the one who wrote it, the Teacher, consists of all the generations of man, including their experiences, and all fused into one grand whole; and this concentrated time into which all things are fused, they call “eternity.” It is from this that all things spring. Now that is in your mind.

All the generations that ever walked the face of this earth, all of their experiences, all that are walking today, all that ever will walk, God placed in your mind. You are not limited to this small, little section of time — threescore and ten years. He took Eternity! Therefore, He gave you Himself! But He hid the gift from the beginning of time to the end.

The gift is God Himself! Believe it, and the whole incredible story of the Gospel will become to you possible. And the day will come, you will experience the gift, and you will know how true it is. God’s purpose is to give Himself to you individually, as though there were no others in the world — just you, for the gift is so complete, it is not you and God; it’s you as God. God became as you are, that you may be as He is. [Paraphrase of Blake’s statement in “Jerusalem”] So in the end, you will not see another as God. It is you as God! This is the story.

Now, in the 4th Chapter of Ecclesiastes, at the very end of the 4th Chapter, he said, “I saw all the living that move about under the sun, as well as that second youth, who was to stand in his place; there was no end to all the people; he was above all of them. Yet those who will come later will take no joy in him. Isn’t that also vanity and the striving after wind?” [Ecclesiastes 4:15,16J

This “second one” spoken of in Scripture is the Lord from Heaven. It begins in the very beginning of Genesis. The “second one” was Abel, the slaughtered, the murdered. As we move through, the “second one” was Isaac, — not Ishmael, the first. We come on through, and it was Jacob, not Esau. A strange reversal of order takes place in all of these adumbrations in Scripture. They are all a foreshadowing of what God has planned for us. There is that “second youth” in us that has to be awakened, and that is God Himself! He is reproducing in us His own image, and that is called the “second man” or the “Lord from Heaven.”

I will share with you, as I’ve done night after night, my own personal experience of Scripture. The story is the only true story in the world. God’s eternal purpose is taking place in time; but it is an eternal state. It’s something that is continuous. It is permanent, in contrast to this fragmented state in time where we seem to begin, and all things that begin here end. But there is something that does not begin. It is continuous. It is in man. It is buried in man, and that that cannot begin or end is God-in-man.

Paul asked the question: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” [II Corinthians 13:5]

Well, the answer to that, if you are honest with yourself, if you have not had the experience, — you would say, “No, I do not. I could believe it, and I will believe it; but I do not know it. For, to experience it would be to know it. Not to experience it and only to believe it would be hearsay, but I want to actually experience it, that I may know it.”

Your purpose in this world is not what the world thinks it is. Therefore they said you do not rejoice. “Those who come later will not rejoice in Him” [Ecclesiastes 4:16, R.S.V.], because they will think their purpose is to make a fortune, to get a bigger house or more houses, to get a name among those who are departing this world, for all these appear, they wax, they vane, they disappear. No matter how long they prolong it, or they think they do, they all vanish; and they want to have some name among the shadows that are vanishing. There is a purpose, and the purpose is to awaken as God — God Himself!

The plan is definite in Scripture. He said, “I have come into the world only to fulfill Scripture.” That’s my purpose. “He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the unveiling in me of His plan, which is Christ Jesus” [Philippians 1:6]. He will unveil Christ Jesus in me. Well, when he does, “I am He.”

I have been taught that He dwells in me, but I have also been taught that He came from without. When one experiences the story, he realizes He is not from without at all. He was always buried in me — that Universal Christ, the Cosmic Christ. The whole of Him, riot a little piece of Him; but the whole is buried in the seeming part; and that individual, speaking of you now individually, will one day have the experience recorded in Scripture of Jesus Christ!

He said, “I am not of this world. I am from above. You are from below.” [John 8:23]

He isn’t speaking to the crowd on the outside. It’s taking place within the individual. I am speaking now to this conscious, reasoning mind “below” — this garment of flesh and blood, — you are from below. I am from above. I must be born from above. You, Neville, — the flesh-and-blood Neville — you were born from below — from the womb of a woman. I am being born from above — from that place where they laid me when I “died.” I died as God, to awake in man as man, and then to take that man in whom I am buried and raise him to the level of my Self as God.

He is buried in your skull. That is Golgotha. There is no other burial place for Jesus Christ. You can go all over the world looking for his so-called “holy sepulchre”; and you will not find it outside of your own skull. That’s where He is buried. And the day will come that you will find yourself awakening. You will awaken in your own skull, and you will be alone — all alone, and the skull will be sealed — completely sealed; but you now, having awakened within your skull, you have an innate wisdom as to what you should do. You have one consuming desire, and that is to get out.

You are completely sealed in your skull, and you are standing up alone; but you know if you push the base of your skull, something will “give.” And you do; you push it from within, and something rolls away, as described in Scripture: “And the stone was rolled away” [Mark 16:4J. You do it. And then you put your head through that little opening, and you squeeze, and you come out like a child being born, inch by inch by inch. And when you are almost out, you pull the remaining portion of your body out of your skull. And after a few seconds on the ground, you rise again and look back at that body out of which you came. It’s ghastly pale, tossing its head from side to side just like one in recovery from some great or major operation. Then you hear the wind that actually preceded the entire drama — a peculiar, unearthly wind.

Now, “wind” and “spirit” are the same word in both Greek and Hebrew. But you hear the wind; it’s a storm wind. You feel it in your head, and yet you seem to feel it’s coming from the corner of the room where you find yourself. You look over to that corner, not more than a few seconds; and as you look back, the body out of which you emerged has been removed, as told in Scripture: “They have taken away his body, and we do not know where they have laid it.” [John 20:2]

The body is gone; it has been removed. But in its place now are seated three witnesses to the event. In my own case, they were my three older brothers. As tradition has it, — it is not in Scripture; but tradition has it, the three who came to witness the birth were brothers: the king of Arabia, king of Persia, king of India; and they were brothers. In my case, they are not earthly kings in my family; they were simply my own wonderful, loving brothers. And there they sat, one at the head, one at one foot, and one at the other. The body was gone, but that’s where it would have been had it remained there: the head and the two feet.

They are equally disturbed because of the wind. My brother Lawrence was the most disturbed; and he rose and started towards the same direction that I started. He hadn’t gone more than a step when something attracted his attention, and he looked down on the floor, and he announced to my other two brothers, “Why, it is Neville’s baby!”

They, in the most incredulous voices, asked, “How can Neville have a baby?”

He does not argue the point. He lifts the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and brings it over and places it on the bed. He didn’t see because I am now Spirit. I cannot be seen by mortal eye. They saw it, and they came and saw the sign that was foretold by the angels. “Go, and you shall find this as a sign, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes” [Luke 2:12], — and that’s the sign that God Himself was born. “For a Saviour is born this day to you.” [Luke 2:11]

The only “saviour” in Scripture is the Lord God Jehovah. “I am the Lord God, your Saviour,” you are told in the 43d and 45th Chapters of Isaiah, “and beside me there is no saviour.” [Isaiah 43:11 and 45:21] So, the Saviour is being born. That’s exactly what is going to happen to you individually.

I took the infant up, arid then I looked into its face, and I said, “How is my sweetheart?” Then it broke into the most glorious, heavenly smile. As told you, “the name was called Isaac” [Genesis 21:3], which simply means: “He smiles.” The smile is a heavenly smile. While he is looking into my face and smiling, the whole thing dissolves.

Now we come to that “second youth”; and he comes (in my case) a hundred and twenty-nine (129) days after the “birth from above.” An explosion in my head -— the whole drama takes place in your skull. That’s where you were buried, and that’s where the whole drama is going to unfold. A hundred and twenty—nine days later my head began — there’s a vibration, and when it reached the limit — what I thought was the limit, it exploded; and then when the whole thing settled, I am seated at an ordinary table. Before me is a table; on it an enormous head severed from the body. Leaning against the side of an open door and looking out on a pastoral scene is my son David of Biblical fame. Yes, David of Biblical fame! That’s why I say the drama is permanent and continuous. It’s not something that took place, once and for all, two thousand years ago or four thousand years ago; it is taking Place now, and it will continue to take place until His purpose is fulfilled. It cannot he fulfilled until everyone experiences that predetermined drama — for the awakening of God in man as God, — that man in whom He awakes is God!

So, here is David leaning against the side of an open door and looking at me. I have never seen such beauty in my life. David has an unearthly beauty. You can’t describe the beauty of that lad of about 12 or 13. And while I drink him in and feast upon his beauty, the whole thing dissolves; and I know I am his father, and he knows that he is my son.

Until that moment in time, I had no idea there was any relationship between a Biblical character and the one talking to you now. It came as a complete surprise to me that the story told in the Bible is eternally true, and it’s all about us. That David is your “son,” but you do not know it. He put that in your mind in the beginning, “but so that you cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” That is the 11th verse of the 3d Chapter of Ecclesiastes. That is what He put in your mind. That is that “second youth” who is over all of them. As you are told, “He is prince forever [Ezekiel 37:21]. If he is “prince,” his father is “king.” “And the Lord will be king in that day, and his name shall be One; and all will be one.” He is king! The king has a son; the son is a prince. And David is the “prince” forever and forever.

So, here is the unfolding drama of God-in-you, and God is king. But He’s a father. Well, if He’s a father, there must be a son, and the son is David.

Now we read in the story of David:

I will tell of the decree of the Lord:He said unto me: “Thou art my son.Today I have begotten thee.” [Psalm 2:1]

And now the Lord speaks:

“I have found David, . . . . .He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father,my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.”

[Psalm 89:20,21]

You will find David, and only when you find him will you really know that you are God. You will not in eternity be persuaded by someone other than yourself. You can only know it — actually know it — by finding David, and David will reveal to you Who-You-Are. That was God’s plan in the beginning. That’s His purpose.

So He set it forth in Christ. Well, the word “Christ” is the Hebrew word “Messiah.” That wonderful poem of Browning, when he tried in his wonderful manner, through the use of words, to reveal the coming of Messiah, — he called the poem “Saul.” If you are not familiar with the story, Saul was insane — King Saul; and David plays the lyre — plays the harp and soothed him when he was demented. Now the story as Browning tells it is this:

David stands before Saul, and he said to Saul: “Oh, Saul, . . . .A face like my face . . . shall receive thee; a man like to meThou shalt love and be loved by forever: A Hand like this handShall throw open the gates of new life to thee!”

Then standing before him, he said: “See the Christ stand!”He is telling you who he is; he is the “Anointed One.” “Christ” means the “anointed one.’

“Rise and anoints him. This is he” [I Samuel 16:12], said the Lord to His prophet Samuel. “This is he.” Who are they speaking to? To Samuel. Of whom? He spoke of David. So Samuel took the ointment, — that is, the oil — the precious oil, and anointed David in the presence of his brothers; “and from that day forward the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.” [I Samuel 16:13]

Now you are told, “Those who come later will find no joy in Him.” [Ecclesiastes 4:16]

They are so eager to make money, so eager to get a name among shadows, so eager to build monuments to themselves, that they have no time for the story, — they are all about the shadow world. Now, what does he mean, he was above all of them? Well, if you can take it, may I tell you? all these “garments” [indicating the physical body] are shadows. They are part of the eternal structure of the universe. You are “wearing” these garments, and they are you only for a temporary part of your time. They became a part of you when you penetrated them and annexed the brains of them; and so for a little while they are a temporary portion of the soul — but only for a temporary part of your journey. It is not You. These garments –you burn them up — put them into the oven and reduce them to ash, but that’s not You. Throw it into the furnace, and that Fourth One comes out, the Fourth One being your Eternal Being as you. You are told in the Book of Daniel: “Throw them into the furnace,” — reduce them to ashes; but here is the Immortal You that cannot die. But while you are here and you are a part of that little world in which you live, you think it is you, and you’ll die to protect it and do anything to save it while you go about your business trying to make more and more of this shadow world.

He said, “Those who will come later will not rejoice in Him. Is that not a striving after wind?” It’s just like “striving after wind” to build up more and more of the same shadows.

So here, I am sharing with you what I personally have experienced. All the adumbrations of the Old Testament, which are put into the form of a story told as if it were true, — for that’s what is told; it is told as if it were true, and you were taught to believe that it was physically true, and it’s not physically true. It takes place in man. It is more true than any physical story ever could be, for this is eternally true.

Now the third one, you will find yourself, — and this is a marvelous one; the day will come, you will be split in two from top to bottom, and you will see at the base of your spine golden, liquid, pulsing, living light. Although it’s liquid, pulsing light, you know it is your Self; and you fuse with it; and then like a fiery serpent, you rise into your skull. And when you enter, it is just like thunder. You reverberate; your whole head begins one grand, marvelous reverberation. You think it’s going to split; but no, — it subsides, and you have gone hack into Heaven! That’s how you take Heaven, and you take it violently, as told you in Scripture. [See Matthew 11:12,13; and Luke 16:16, R.S.V.]

And then comes the climax; and the climax is when the Spirit descends upon you in bodily form as a dove and smothers you with affection, kissing you all over your face, your head, your neck. He remains on you when the vision begins to fade. Then the drama has been brought to its climax.

You then tell it to the best of your ability, either in the spoken word as I am, or you can write it if you can write. But you tell it to anyone who will listen. It’s not very encouraging if you read the end of Acts because he told it “from morning to evening . . . . some believed him, and some disbelieved him. [Acts 28:23, 24]

Well, the same thing is true here, because man has been taught to believe it is a physical story — a secular story. When I tell them the true meaning of it, then they turn their ears — that is, they clasp their hands over their ears, for they can’t believe that what they were told is not true secularly.

But I tell you, it is not historically true, if by “history” I mean things that took place here on earth. It is eternally true in the Spirit world. And that is what is going to happen to you; and when it happens to you, you will leave this world. And the next time you close your eyes and men call you “dead,” you will be one of those who look down from Eternity upon this world and see all this taking place, and it’s all under you. That is what he meant: “I saw all those who go about under the sun, and he was over all of them.” All these things are simply under his control. Everything here is taking place by those who contemplate it above.

So when we are told the story: He stood before the judge, and the judge said, “Who are you?” he said, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”

He said, “Are you a king?”

He said, “You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world.”

It hasn’t a thing to do with this world; he came only to bear witness to the truth, and the truth was the Word of God. So, he cane to express that Word, and the Word had to find expression in him; then he tells it to the world. “Some believed, and some disbelieved.”

There is no personal description of Jesus in the Scriptures. So, forget all the pictures that you have seen, no matter how good the artist. No personal description of Jesus in the Bible because you are the Lord Jesus Christ. And the day will come, they will know you to be Jesus Christ, regardless of your sex. And they will know you, identified as you are, — you are Mary, you are John, you are Jim, you are Stanley, you are Benny; and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. They will know you as their friend, and still know that you are the Lord.

So, everyone will be the Lord Jesus Christ, They all form “one Body, one spirit, . . . one God and Father of all,” — without loss of identity. You are individualized; and you tend forever and forever towards an ever greater individualization. You reach that climax of it all as what you are individually but as the Lord! And they will see you and know that you are the Lord, while you are walking this earth, may I tell you? Not in some after-death state.

When this thing happens to you, there are those in your circle of friends who will see you, and they can’t believe their own eyes, but they can’t deny what they saw. They will know you are the Lord. They will dine with you the next night, have a drink with you, tell you a joke; you tell them one, and still they can’t get it out of their heads that they saw you and you were the Lord. They know that you are the Lord, and yet you are the same friend they have always known. But they saw you as you really are after you have been born from above.

So, man must be born from above or he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Everyone will be born from above, for that One to be born is already in man dreaming. The Dreamer-in-man is Jesus Christ. You are dreaming this world. Now dream it nobly. Dream noble dreams. All can come to pass.

In your dreams dare to assume that you are the man that you want to be. Assume that you are it, and persist in that assumption; and that assumption, in a way you do not consciously know, will harden into fact. All assumptions if persisted in become what the world calls “reality.’ So, do not give up. The most fantastic dream can become true if you assume it and walk in the assumption as though it were true.

Night after night, sleep as though you are the man — the woman — that you would be or that you would like to be. And then, if tomorrow does not bring it to pass, it doesn’t matter. There are intervals of time between the assumption and its fulfillment. It’s like generation. So, if you dare to assume it, give it time. And then some bridge of incidents will be built for you without your conscious knowledge of it, and it will lead you across that bridge to the fulfillment of your assumption in a way that you do not know.

So, dare to assume a noble concept of yourself. Live in it as though it were true; and may I tell you? It will become true.

Now a lady wrote me this week and asked me if I could throw some light on this. She said, “I found myself in a dormitory. I recall the dormitory, for I was in that school from the age of 12 to 18. But here you are as an instructor, and you are teaching all of us how to solve puzzles. You did not actually do it for us; you allowed us to use our own talents, but you are instructing. You were the instructor teaching us how to solve puzzles, leaving us full freedom to make our own efforts.

“Then you sat next to me, and you asked me this, — and this puzzled me because I do not understand what it means. You asked me, ‘Do you know what twenty-seven is?’”

Do you know what twenty-seven is?

Now she said, “I do not, and I cannot throw any light on it whatsoever. If you can throw some light on it, please do.”

Well, there are twenty-two letters to the Hebrew alphabet; but really they are twenty-seven, for there are five finals. Twenty-two originals, but five are repeated and called “finals.” So, there are twenty-seven letters.

I would suggest to this lady to read the 27th Psalm tonight. Take the 8th verse. It’s a glorious Psalm. It is not long — a very short one.

Thou hast said to me, “Seek ye my face.”My heart says to thee,“Thy face, Lord, I seek.Hide not Thy face from me.” [Psalm 27:8,9]

That’s the whole drama, the Father and the Son, for no one can reveal the Father but the Son. And this is the Son — David — speaking. He is speaking to his Father: “Hide not Thy face from me.”

Yet you told me to seek your face.

My heart says to you,“Thy face, Oh, Lord, I seek.Hide not Thy face from. Me.”

That’s the drama.

Now in her letter she said, “Recently I have been having these dreams where I know I am dreaming. I am trying so hard to see what I am seeing, but I know I can open my eyes and see differently; but I am struggling to open the eyes and they won’t open.”

They are actually on the verge of it, my Dear. You must open the in-current eye, because you are going to see inwards into the world of thought — into Eternity — that which is ever expanding in the bosom of God, — what is it? The human imagination.

As someone wrote, they had their ears pierced — not the lobes of the ear, but the very center of the ear. Yes, they must be pierced, too, as told you in the 40th Psalm: “Ears Thou hast pierced for me.” [Psalm 40:6] You have made holes in them, that I may hear the heavenly sphere; we only hear the sounds out here — the noises. But there are ears to be pierced, and there are eyes to be opened. Then in-current eyes open up into the world of Eternity, into the world of thought, and forever expand; and that eye is the human imagination, which is one with God. For:

“Man is all imagination; and God is man,and exists in us and we in Him.”“The eternal body of man is the imagination,and that is God Himself.”[Blake, from “Annotations to Berkeley”and “The Laocoon”]

So, be careful what you imagine. I don’t care how trivial it is, it will come to pass. The whole vast world is nothing more than the confused imaginations of men and women. So, if it seems confused, it is because man is not in control of his imaginal acts. He thinks he can imagine anything with impunity, but he cannot. It all comes into the world to confront him, and to show him what his harvest is. He planted it somewhere along the way; and now here comes his harvest, and he doesn’t recognize his own harvest.

Now, this being my last night, — I have no plans for the future, — I am going to give you a full opportunity to ask questions. First of all, let us go into the Silence.

(Following the Silence): Now are there any questions? Don’t be embarrassed. This is my last night here; so take full advantage of it.

(A lady asks a question that is unintelligible on the tape.)

NEVILLE: The question is, — you will find it in the end of the Gospel of John when he asks Peter if he loves him. “Peter, lovest thou me?”

And he says, “Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I do,”

He repeats this question three times, and it annoys Peter at the end. That’s the story. [See John 21:15 and following.]

I can say in words that I love you. I want it carried to the depths of your own being; so I repeat it. I repeat myself here night after night after night, because people I think heard me, and then I discover they didn’t really. If they had heard me to the point of belief, they would live by it, because man lives by his beliefs. And when I find them not living by what they have confessed in words that they believed, I know that they really didn’t believe it at all, because man lives by belief.

Then I say, “Well, do you believe it? Do you really believe that what I have told you is true, that I was born from above? Do you really believe that David is my son, and he is the son of God; and therefore he revealed to me who I really am as against what I thought I was?”

You may say in words, “Yes, I believe you.”

Then I may find you after that disbelieving by your behavior. And so, at the very end he asks him three times; and you will find the word that he used to be “love.” There are different words. “Eros” is love on the lowest level, and man mistakes that for love. “Aphrodite”(?), that’s love — something entirely different. So, man thinks of sex. All right, I am not denying sex. Sex is a very important thing in this world — very important; but people will say, ‘I love you,” meaning sex. Others, an entirely different emotion permeates them.

I stood in the presence of Infinite Love, and it’s Man; but there was no feeling of sex about it. He embraced me, and our bodies became one body; we fused, when I answered his question. He said, “What is the greatest thing in the world?” and I answered, “Faith, hope and love; these three. The greatest of these is Love.” [I Corinthians 13:15] At that, he embraced inc. Now, our two bodies became one body. As we are told in Scripture, “The two shall be one.” [Matthew 19:5]

But on this level, sex plays a very important part; but the day will come, the body is going to be split in two from top to bottom, and that energy that went into generation will be reversed and move into regeneration. So, he asked the question at the very end of the drama.

Now, let me make this statement: When I said, “He asked the question,” — the Gospels were written by anonymous characters. No one knows who Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are, — no one. They are anonymous names. They were only relating their own experience, but they told it in the form of a story. So, here is an allegory.

An allegory is a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who reads it or who hears it to discover its hidden meaning and learn its truth. So, they related their own experience, whoever Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They took the name because a name in Scripture has great significance; it’s not just a title or, I would say, some little tag.

The name “Jesus” is the same as the word “Jehovah.” The same “Yod He Vau” begins both words. The root is the same. “Jehovah” is “Salvation.” Jesus is called the Saviour; that’s salvation. And so, the Saviour was born, — Jehovah was born in a man and they related their own experience and told it beautifully. But–

“Truth embodied in a taleShall enter in at lowly doors.” [Tennyson]

So, they told it in the form of a story, that it would be accepted that way; and then gradually as you accept it, it will unfold in its true form.

So, Peter was the one who denied him three times before the cock crowed. So, he is still reminding him that he did at the very last deny him. “You turned your back upon me three times, and I told you the cock would not crow until you had denied me three times, and then the third time you wept bitterly because you knew how prophetically true my words were.”

So, man will swear, “ I will live by this for the rest of my days.” All right, you don’t have to swear. Try it! Try living by it! It’s not the easiest thing in the world to watch one’s imagination morning, noon and night, and to actually control it as you would a boat at sea when you steer it in the direction you want it to go. But, it has to be done eventually. Therefore, get started now.

“If you say you love me, you will keep my word,” he says.

So Peter says, “You know I love you.”

Well, the only way you can love me is to obey my word. “Those who love me,” he said, “obey the word.”

“What must I do to be doing the work of God? [John 6:28]

“Believe in him whom He has sent.” [John 6:29]

Well, the only one you can believe in — what? A little man? No; believe in the teaching, for he tells you, “They aren’t my words, but the words of Him who sent me.”

So, if you really believe that, you will believe the words and live by them. So, he asked it three times and let Peter deny him three times.

Are there any other questions, please?

(A gentleman asks a question that is not intelligible on the tape.)

NEVILLE: That was a colored man in Barbados. His name was Jordan. I was a boy. Of course, I didn’t know the story until I was in my 20’s. It was never told me. But I am one of nine brothers and one sister. My brother Victor met the prophet Jordan. He was known as “the prophet.” He was light-skinned; he was a mulatto, and everyone looked upon him as one who really had the prophetic vision. And he met my brother Vic, and he said to Vic, “What number are you in the Goddard family?”

Vic said, “I am the second.”

He said, “Now, what do you want to be?”

He said, “I want to be a businessman.”

He said to my brother Victor, “You are going to be a very, very successful businessman.”

Now he said, “What does the third one want to be?” That was my brother Lawrence.

He said, “He wants to be a doctor.”

He said, “He will be a very good, successful doctor. But,” he said, “don’t touch the fourth one. He belongs to God. The Lord has sent him to do a definite work; so don’t touch him. You can’t persuade him to do anything outside of that work that God sent him to do.” So, I happen to be the fourth one. Now that is what my brother Victor told me when I went back after I was gone for twelve years.