Scripture Must Be Fulfilled In Us

Tonight thrills me, really, because I have been waiting for confirmation since the first day of January, 1963 and now I have the confirmation. Been waiting for it! You see, scripture must be fulfilled in us. Everyone must fulfill scripture. And so you know your scripture and you wait for certain signs after the work is completed in you. But you yourself can’t evoke it in the other; yet it takes a seeming other to fulfill it for you. They are the witness to what has happened in you.

I tell you from experience—as I told it in the little book calledHe Breaks the Shell—having named the things, the experiences that I have gone through, I confessed at the end of it that I am relating my own experience of the great Christian mystery that you may know the truth concerning this mystery. It is the message of salvation as I myself have experienced it. In it, I made the statement in the beginning of the little pamphlet that we are resurrected one by one to unite into a single man who is God. It may strike one funnily, how could all of us be united into a single man who is God? But having had the experience I state it. Whether those who would read it for the first time would grasp it or not, it didn’t really matter. I had to tell it. So I tell you, history is under the control of but one God; therefore, I can state that it has an ultimate unity, one body, and you and I wearing that glorious body without any loss of individuality. No loss whatsoever of our individuality, and yet wearing the one body. For we are told, all have drunk from the supernatural drink. You read this in the 10th chapter of 1st Corinthians, all of us, we drank from this one supernatural drink, and the drink is from a rock. We drank from the same rock, and the rock was Christ. Everyone drank from that rock and we become what we feed upon.

Now, I have been waiting for this confirmation, as I told you, since the first day of January, 1963, when the dove descended, to confirm the unveiling of the image. But I had to wait for something. Now we take the earliest of the gospels, it’s the gospel of Mark. The gospel of Mark begins with this wonderful note, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It’s the shortest of the four gospels, but it ends on a negative note. The 8th verse of the 16th chapter is the legitimate ending of it, although scribes have added to it. But all scholars are agreed that these additions have been inserted. They are not written by the unknown author called Mark. And the very last verse of the original script (so we have it in manuscript form) is, “For they were afraid”…for they were afraid. It does not mention the resurrection. There is no account of the appearance of the risen Jesus. Here you tell a story, the most glorious story in the world, and you end it on a note that is negative. Why “For they were afraid”?

It tells us that a woman, or rather, there were women, they went early in the morning to the tomb and they found it empty. And a stranger on the inside of the tomb said, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see where they laid him. See the place where they laid him. And they fled from the empty tomb, trembling with fear, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” That’s how it ends. Now we have two endings supplied us which are not written by the author of the Book of Mark. One runs twelve verses and one runs two. They tried to give it an ending, like an unfinished symphony. Many musicians have tried to give a real end to the unfinished symphony, but they can’t match the original. This is not unfinished: We have to finish it. That’s why I have been waiting for the confirmation that I couldn’t do; it had to come from a seeming other. For here, there is an unwritten page that is left for all of us, each of us, to write. It is our record of what Jesus has said and has done in us. And so, this has to be to complete the package.

And it’s this…a friend of mine, who’s been my friend since 1945 in this cycle and been with me in business since 1952 when she and her husband took over my publications. So in 1952 they became publishers of all of my works.We have been friends and yet we have been in business, and if you know the publishing world that’s a difficult thing between author and publisher. We have never had any friction whatsoever, nothing. I never once questioned their statement, and they’ve never once questioned anything that I did in the work that I do. It’s been a lovely relationship. In the last few months, she hasn’t been up to par physically, so about two weeks ago her husband said to her, “There is tonight on TV a lovely travelog, The Grand Canyon.” Well, she always wanted to see it and she thought “Maybe he’s going to take me there on my vacation…but he said it was on TV.” And said he to her, “If you’re equal to it, then we can see it tonight.” She said, “I’m equal to it! I’ll see it.” So they viewed the Grand Canyon on TV, and as it came to the end—it was from ten to eleven—and as it came to the end, just approaching eleven, she felt drowsy and fell into a deep but short sleep, but a very deep sleep. Suddenly before her came this brilliant, brilliant light and it was man. She said…she described it to me, she said, “I couldn’t see the face, it was too brilliant. I couldn’t see the face, but here was man, a brilliant light, and I knew it to be Christ, yet I knew it to be you. And then he spoke to me: And you said to me, ‘Do not be afraid. I am with you always’” (Mat. 28:10, 20).

Then she said, “I woke, repeating audibly, I must remember what Neville told me, I must remember what Neville told me.” This she repeated three times. Her husband said to her, “What did Neville tell you? What did Neville tell you?” Then she thought for a moment, because she came from the depths…when he spoke to her she was still in the depth but speaking audibly…”I must remember what he told me.” And then it all came back, and she said to him, “He said to me, ‘Do not be afraid. I am with you always.’” Now these are the closing words of Matthew. Mark leaves them just untold, knowing that we have to finish it. Every one of us must finish it, for I can’t write them out. Matthew writes them out; Mark, the earliest of the gospels, leaves them unfinished. He leaves them on the negative note, and we carry them forward to prove I know I’m resurrected. But how could I prove it to another? I know I am one with the body of the risen Christ, but how can I prove it to another? One must see it and become the witness. Another must see it.

If I told you, what would that do to anyone? I have no companion, and you can only come into court if two agree in testimony…then it’s conclusive. Don’t bring one…you’re told that back in the ancient document of the law of Moses: To come into court to testify against another, bring two witnesses at the least, or bring three; and if two agree in testimony it is conclusive. But you cannot judge a man and convict a man on the testimony of one. So I am one. I must have, in this case, another to testify to what I have told you of the ascension, of the oneness with Christ.

So I told it in the little book, you can read it in the book, we are resurrected one by one to unite into a single man who is God; as we are told, “He will transform and change our lowly bodies to be of one form with his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). So you wear that body. So she couldn’t see the face, she could only recognize me by the voice. But she knew I was present wearing this body. Certainly it wasn’t this body, this veil that covers it. It was the body, the body of Christ, which is your body. Every child born of woman, it is your body. And may I tell you, you don’t earn it, it’s a gift. It’s given to you when God unveils himself. When the work is done he unveils himself, and you are incorporated into the single man who is God.

So she bore witness. Because six weeks prior to that she found herself in a similar trance-like state, in a room like this, and as she stated towards the end she noticed over here is a coffin, and she was curious, so she walked over and there she saw herself in a coffin. But she wasn’t disturbed, it didn’t frighten her. She said, “Why, that’s me. Well, if that, and I’m out of it, that is an awakening.” I would like to change the word resurrection to awakening, really. For in my own experience I awoke to find myself in my skull, knowing the skull to be a tomb. Well, if it’s a tomb, someone thought me dead and placed me there. I had no recollection of going into that place deliberately. I certainly didn’t do it wittingly. But finding myself there, someone must have thought me dead; or I was in such a profound sleep they placed me there believing, well now, he’s dead. I go back to scripture to find out how could they have done it, to find in the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans, “The creature was made subject unto futility, not willingly, but by the will of him who subjected him in hope”—and what was the hope?—“that the creature would obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” “For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” So we were all foreknown…that’s why we’re here.

So here, we find we drank from the rock. May I tell you from my own visions the rock became fragmented. The one skull became the billions of skulls. And you and I were subjected. Because the individual skull, you’re individualized. She knew I was Neville—in the presence of the Christ body she knew the voice was Neville’s. So you’re individualized. So when I tell you, I mean it, you will be Christ-like, without any loss of your distinctive individuality. This exalted cosmic Christ is the reality of every child born of woman. It is that being that is born from above; it is clothed in this that is born from below. But “that which is born from above is born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man but of God”…something entirely different…and it’s really only an awakening. That’s all I can tell you.

So in some strange way you and I pre-existed. So when we’re told we’re being formed into the likeness of God, we pre-existed. We were always God…completely fragmented into this restricted area of a little skull called the individual man, for a reason beyond the wildest dream of man. Then all of a sudden this skull breaks, and the thing is rolled away, and you come out. Another skull breaks and so you come out, you haven’t lost your identity. I came out, I haven’t lost mine. But we move into and are incorporated into one body. There aren’t numberless little bodies running, there’s only one Christ, only one God. And that’s the great mystery! How can I be wearing the body and you, without loss of identity, you’re wearing the body, and be all over God’s infinite universe at one and the same time? That’s the mystery. But it’s true. There is no loss of identity, none whatsoever.

So I have been waiting for this experience, for confirmation, and it has to come. So in Matthew, the very end, “I am with you always.” These are the words…you’re only fulfilling scripture…so “do not be afraid, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” The closing of the age is the final victory of God. When the whole thing is closed, that’s the final victory. And the word “I am with you always” is simply, literally, in the Greek it means “every day.”In other words, regardless of the nature of the day—some days are lovely, some are not—but regardless of the nature of the day, bear in mind “I am with you always.” That’s what the words are telling you. You may have a funeral today and tomorrow be heir to some great fortune, so regardless of the nature of the day always bear in mind the words that end the scripture of Matthew, “I am with you always.”You have to wait for that moment and it can only come from another. She reluctantly, may I tell you, told me it happened two weeks ago But her husband said to her, “You must tell this to Neville.” She had no intention of telling it to me. So the words in scripture, they told nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. How true can the words of God be! It was only his insistence that prompted her to tell me what happened.

Now tonight, for those who are here for the first time and if this seems strange, let me now take you to a practical application of this wonderful principle of God. “Those in great eternity who contemplate on death”—this is the world, this is death—for everything appears, it waxes, it wanes, and it disappears; then it reappears, and then it grows, and then it fades, and then it vanishes in our world. So this is the cycle of appearing and disappearing. But, “Those in great eternity who contemplate on death”—this state—“said thus, ‘What seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair and eternal death. But divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus.’” Only one body…all redeemed one by one into the body of Jesus.

But until that moment comes in eternity, listen to the law that they observed in the world of death: “What seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be, and it’s productive of the most dreadful consequences.” The same principle—what seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be. Well now, I could take this night and contemplate the most glorious thing for you, for myself, for anyone…just contemplate it. Well, is it based upon fact? It need not be based upon fact. Facts, forget facts! As Blake said, all that man really needs in this world is to work his Imagination to the state of vision and the thing is done. You take anything that seems to be…well, you can’t quite see it…but work it in your Imagination to the state of vision. When you reach the state of vision, the thing is done. Forget it after that…it’s done.

And so, what seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be. So you say what you would like in this world. Well, what would be true in my world as I look at it if this were true? What would I see were this true? Well, then I construct a scene that would be seen by me were this true. Does it seem true? Yes, it seems true. I see the smiles on their faces. They’re friends and they’re congratulating my friend on his good fortune, and so, that would imply his good fortune. Now that’s the scene that you set up, and you simply work it out in your Imagination until it seems natural, perfectly natural. And when it’s natural, forget it, it’s done! So in the world of Caesar while we wait for the unveiling of God’s image in us, we know the law: “What seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be,” and it will come to pass. Not a thing in this world can stop it, nothing can stop it. If you would share with me your experiences by trying it, I would have unnumbered case histories to share with those as I travel from here to the Coast. I would, if you would just share with me your case histories.

Have you ever looked at a carpet, a plain wall-to-wall carpet that has no pattern, just a plain beige or some other color, and instead of looking at it you look through it? Don’t look at it, you look right through it. You will be amazed what unnumbered but unnumbered—you couldn’t number them by the millions—of faces and combinations of groups and people that come out of that simple carpet. Just look at it, let your eyes go not at it but through it, and suddenly something comes. Well, you can form it. You can form it into the pattern, and, may I tell you, it becomes as objective as you are now. Do it with the wall. That would be a good wall…anything that is plain. But I like the little carpet we have at home; it’s a plain dirty beige. It was there years before we rented the place. And you look through it and suddenly out of some superficial little pattern on the surface, it enlarges itself and they become animated, and these things become alive in your world, everything becomes alive. And give it reality as you look at it, thinking what you want it to take, the form you want it to take. That’s taking Imagination and working Imagination up to the state of vision, and then the thing is done. Don’t discard it until you try it…try it first. And this is based upon this simple, simple principle: What seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be.

In the book called Behold this Dreamer, there’s a story told of Leonardo da Vinci, and he said to his friends, who did not believe him, that’s how he drew every painting. He would look at a motley wall, he said, with moss growing on it; and looking at the wall he looked through it and saw everything he ever painted. He drew from that motley wall. He saw in it and it took objective form, it became three-dimensional. You can turn them around; they become alive. They’re not dead pieces of sculpture, they’re alive. You can draw them just as they are if you have the talent to draw. Well, he had the talent, the great da Vinci, but he saw through things rather than looking at things. So Blake said, “I do not see with, I see through the eye. I no more consult my eye than I would consult the window as to the scene beyond it. I see not with my eye, I see through it.” Look right through it and then see what you want to see.

So here, what seems to be is to those to whom it seems to be. Even the most dreadful thing in the world…it’ll happen. There isn’t a thing happening in this world that wasn’t once imagined by some man or men, not a thing is happening! It just couldn’t happen unless it was stated in the Imagination of man. But that which must happen in all of us is recorded in scripture. It must happen. As we’re told, “You must be born again. Except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). You can’t. It’s an impossibility to see it with these mortal eyes, so you must be born again. To be born, you must first be awakened. They call it resurrection. I would not touch one word of scripture…that’s the word they use. I would use the word “awakened,” for I know from experience I had no sensation of being dead, I felt myself awakening. But it was a different kind of awakening. Instead of awakening on my bed as I’ve done over the years, I’m awakening in my skull. And the only thing that relates me to death is the place of the skull; for when I found myself in it, it was sealed and I had the sensation this is a tomb. So that’s where they got the feeling of the tomb.

So you’re told in this eating of the rock and drinking of the rock, they put him into a place hewn out of a rock. So they put him in a place all hewn out of a rock. Put who in the place? They put God there. There’s only God. There’s nothing but God in this world. It is God who became you that you may awaken as God. And then you awaken to find yourself in this and you know exactly what happened to you. But the very end, you go through life waiting for confirmation; you’ve got to find a witness. There must be a witness in this world to testify to the fact that they saw you risen, that they saw you, actually saw you. So the whole drama takes place while you’re still walking here. They see you and know you to be the risen Christ. And they’re confused. They’re confused because I know this man, I know all of his weaknesses, all of his limitations, and here he stands before me in a risen, glorious, luminous body, and I know who it is. And then the voice confirms it, and when vision breaks out in speech the presence of deity is always affirmed. Here comes the light. It’s the burning bush, but the voice breaks out of the burning bush, and the voice of God is present: “Say I AM has sent you.” It’s always when the voice appears—after vision appears, when the voice appears—then deity is confirmed. So she waited for something, not knowing what she’s going to hear, and she heard “Do not be afraid. I am with you always.” Having heard that, she came to. Still in the depth, but having said it audibly, her husband insisted that she bring it back. “What did Neville tell you? What did Neville say?” and finally from that depth the scripture came back, and this is what he said to me. And that is her story.

So since 1963, the first day of January, when that experience happened to me, with the dove coming out of a translucent world and descending, smothering me with kisses all over my head…this love, this deep affection, this dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit coming in bodily form upon me, I knew then as far as I’m concerned the book was closed. But I couldn’t depart. I have to wait for confirmation of these things, and they come now not from any more mystical experiences on my own part, they come from the experiences of others…the witnesses to testify that he is risen. And this happens to every child born of woman. Everyone must experience it, and everyone will experience it because God can’t fail! You cannot pick out the one who should be the one to witness it. If this night I picked out the one, I certainly would go to the one who bears my name, who is the mother of my daughter. That’s the one I would pick out, without hesitation. Of the three billion people in the world, I wouldn’t hesitate for one second if given a choice to pick out the witness to my ascended state. Without batting an eye I would pick her out; but it was not my choice to pick out the one who would witness to this ascension, wearing the body of the living, exalted Christ.

So I tell you, the story is true just as I have told you in that little pamphlet He Breaks the Shell. In the last chapter of The Law and The Promise it is exactly as I told it. I did not embellish it. Not for one moment did I add to it or take from it to make it more palatable, left it just as it is. So when I said we are resurrected one by one, that is from scripture, but they call it “gathering.” In the 27th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, “I will gather you one by one, O children of Israel”…one by one. And as he calls us one by one, he incorporates us into his body. There’s only one body, only one God. To fulfill scripture, again in the Book of Zechariah, “On that day, the Lord will be one and his name one” (14:9). Then we are told he will give you a new name. What name does he give me? He gives me his own name, as told us in the 22nd of Revelation. He gives me his own name…“and his name was upon their forehead” (verse 4). His name was upon their forehead. So he gives me his own name. She felt herself in the presence of the living Christ, but knew it to be her friend Neville. That disturbed her…couldn’t see the face. May I tell you, when one can see through that glory, it will be your face raised to the nth degree of perfection, but the same body, only one body!

So when we read, again in Zechariah: On that day he stood upon the Mount of Olives; and the Mount of Olives was split from east to west by a wide valley. And then the north moved, and then the south moved, that’s exactly what happens in man. And then you know what and where and who is the Mount of Olives…when you are split from head to the base of your spine and it’s a wide valley that separates you. From top to bottom you’re split on that day of the Lord. On that day he stands upon the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives is split from east to west, and then it moves northward and then it moves southward by a wide valley. When you see these two parts of your body so separated then you ascend, as promised in scripture: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Then you realize that my Creator and my Redeemer and myself are one—you were never really three. My Creator and my Redeemer and myself are one. God is one.

Then we can sing the praises of the greatest confession in the world, which is the Jewish confession called Shema. There is nothing greater: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). Nothing greater! When he was asked to name the greatest Commandment, he named this, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” One God fragmented himself and limited himself to all these limited little garments of flesh and blood, with a predetermined plan how to redeem every one of himself. “Not one is lost in all my holy mountain.” So he brings everyone back and he, the one, is a greater, more luminous being than he was before. Great as he was in every aspect, he is still greater by this self-imposed restriction. So this is the story.

In today’s Time magazine, I read where the great Frederick…Frederick the Great, asked the minister who was a Lutheran, what proof have you that God exists? You know what the answer of this minister was? I think it’s marvelous! He said, “The Jews.” That’s the proof that God exists, the Jews. What attempts in this world to rub them out! Every nation in this world has attempted it and has failed and will fail forever. So what proof have we that God exists? And he asks this of a Christian minister. He didn’t say the Pope, he didn’t mention any Christian name, he said, “the Jews.” Here is God’s covenant and you can’t break it forever. But, “Christianity”—as said by another Jew who is Disraeli—“is but the fulfillment of Judaism.” Christianity is not a new religion; it’s the fulfillment of one as old as the faith of Abraham. So this is our wonderful world in which we live.

Everyone must fulfill the promise that God made as recorded in the Old Testament, and the New is but the fulfillment. If they can’t see it…and the Christians don’t see it…what I have told you this night…there are almost 900 million Christians…if they could in this day of 1965 invoke the laws of a few centuries ago they’d burn me before the hour’s out. This would be the height of blasphemy. And yet everything I’ve told you is based upon my own personal experience. I can say with Paul, I wasn’t taught it, I never heard if from a man, but it came to me through the revelation of Jesus Christ. He unveiled himself in me in these mighty acts; and having unveiled himself in me I found that I wear his body on high. But the full glory of that inheritance cannot be actualized by me, or at least cannot be fully realized, so long as I wear this body. As long as this body is needed to reach this level of consciousness and I have to wear it, I cannot come into the full inheritance that is already mine. I must wear this until that moment in time when I can say with Paul, the hour of my departure is come. I have finished the race, I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. Now there’s laid up for me that crown of righteousness. And so he moves into complete and forever union with that body which he only wears at these moments in time waiting for the fulfillment of scripture.

So it’s always his. But while he has to still wear this to continue the story and tell it to encourage everyone who will listen to him…so he tells it until that moment in time. And then it doesn’t really matter when it comes because he knows that all are destined for immortality. He can only say goodbye for a very short interval. Only a short interval can he say goodbye to anyone in this world, for everyone is destined to be gathered one by one to be incorporated into this one body. If one is lost, God has failed. That is an impossibility!

So here, you take these passages: “You are unmindful of the Rock that begot you and the God that gave you birth.” So he equates the Rock with God. That is the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy. Then he takes the 10th chapter of 1st Corinthians where we drink—all of us, not just one of us or just a few—all drink of this supernatural drink; and this supernatural drink was the Rock, and the Rock was Christ. Then are we not told in the Sermon on the Mount, let us build our house upon the Rock. It’s the story. Listen to it carefully…that’s the Rock. As you accept it you are feeding upon it, you’re drinking it, and this is what you drink. And then comes when you least expect it like a thief in the night this strange awakening. It’s a peculiar awakening. Entombed, and out you come, and you’re born from above, and all the symbolism of scripture is present, objectively present; then scene after scene, and then three-and-a-half years completes the unveiling…as far as I am concerned. Then you wait.

In my own case, it was the 1st of January of ’63 to last Friday night when she told me. She could have told me two weeks before. But scripture tells you that it told nothing to anyone because they were afraid. “How to interpret myself in a coffin? What does it mean? And then to see him and he should not be Christ. I know the man, I publish his works, he shouldn’t be. And here he’s speaking to me and he’s quoting scripture.” And so, reluctantly she tells me because her husband said, “You should tell this to Neville.” She woke saying not I must tell it, “I must remember what Neville said to me.” It was he who asked the question, “What did Neville say?” And when she confessed what she heard—my voice from this glorious body of the risen Christ said—then she said it. Well, that’s completed now. That’s the end of the Book of Matthew. There are still others that are to be completed, because he goes from the women to men. But he starts first with women. There were the two Mary’s and Salome and they went with their ointments they had bought, and they went into this empty tomb, and they were trembling with fear. But they were the first to whom he revealed his risen self. After that he has to reveal it to men.

Now let us go into the Silence.