Neville Goddard’s lecture “The Greatest Prayer” teaches that imagination is the source of all creation and that by believing and feeling one’s desired reality, it becomes manifest. Drawing on biblical passages from Isaiah and quotations from St. Augustine, Goddard illustrates that true change in the world comes from altering one’s internal perception. He emphasizes that by assuming the feeling “I AM Jesus Christ,” the divine seed within is awakened and transforms one’s external circumstances. The lecture explains that the subconscious mind consistently externalizes our inner assumptions, shaping our experiences and encounters. Ultimately, this practice of inward affirmation is presented as the highest form of prayer, leading the individual from limitation to spiritual fulfillment and manifesting the qualities of Christ-consciousness in daily life.
Imagination is the beginning of creation.
You imagine what you desire, and then you believe it to be true.
Every dream could be realized by those self-disciplined enough to believe it. People are what you choose to make them; a man is according to the manner in which you look at him. You must look at him with different eyes before he will objectively change.
“Two men looked from prison bars, one saw the mud and the other saw the stars.”
Centuries ago, Isaiah asked the question;
“Who is blind, but my servant, or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?”
“Who is blind as he that is perfect, as blind as the Lord’s servant?”
The perfect man judges not after appearances, but judges righteously. He sees others as he desires them to be; he hears only what he wants to hear. He sees only good in others. In him is no condemnation, for he transforms the world with his seeing and hearing.
“The king that sitteth on the throne scattereth the evil with his eye.”
Sympathy for living things, agreement with human limitations, is not in the consciousness of the king because he has learned to separate their false concepts from their true being.
To him poverty is but the sleep of wealth. He does not see caterpillars, but painted butterflies to be; not winter, but summer sleeping; not man in want, but Jesus sleeping. Jesus of Nazareth, who scattered the evil with his eye, is asleep in the imagination of every man, and out of his own imagination must man awaken him by subjectively affirming
“I AM Jesus”
Then and only then will he see Jesus, for man can only see what is awake in himself. The holy womb is mans imagination.
The holy child is that conception of himself which fits Isaiah’s definition of perfection. Heed the words of St. Augustine,
“Too late have I loved thee, for behold thou wert within and it was without that I did seek thee.”
It is your own consciousness that you must turn as to the only reality. There, and there alone, you awaken that which is asleep.
“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if He is not born of in thee thy soul is still forlorn.”
Creation is finished.
You call your creation into being by feeling the reality of the state you would call. A mood attracts its affinities but it does not create what it attracts. As sleep is called by feeling “I am sleepy,” so, too, is Jesus Christ called by the feeling,
“I AM Jesus Christ.”
Man sees only himself. Nothing befalls man that is not the nature of himself.
People emerge out of the mass betraying their close affinity to your moods as they are engendered.
You meet them seemingly by accident but find they are intimates of your moods. Because your moods continually externalize themselves you could prophesy from your moods, that you, without search, would soon meet certain characters and encounter certain conditions.
Therefore call the perfect one into being by living in the feeling,
“I AM Christ,”
for Christ is the one concept of self through which can be seen the unveiled realities of eternity.
Our behavior is influenced by our subconscious assumption respecting our own social and intellectual rank and that of the one we are addressing. Let us seek for and evoke the greatest rank, and the noblest of all is that which disrobes man of his morality and clothes him with uncurbed immortal glory.
Let us assume the feeling
“I AM Christ,”
and our whole behavior will subtly and unconsciously change in accordance with the assumption. Our subconscious assumptions continually externalize themselves that others may consciously see us as we subconsciously see ourselves, and tell us by their actions what we have subconsciously assumed of ourselves to be. Therefore let us assume the feeling
“I AM Christ,”
until our conscious claim becomes our subconscious assumption that
“We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory.”
Let God Awake and his enemies be destroyed. There is no greater prayer for man
In this lecture, Goddard places imagination at the heart of the creative act, proposing that every external condition originates in the subjective realm. By affirming the reality of one’s desires through vivid feeling, the practitioner bypasses doubt and engages directly with the infinite creative power within. This method resonates with Goddard’s recurring theme that consciousness, not external circumstance, is the sole determinant of one’s life experience.
Goddard weaves in scriptural allusions to emphasize the timelessness of his teaching. The Isaiah quotations and St. Augustine’s confession bridge mystical theology with practical spirituality, illustrating that Christ and divine perfection are not distant doctrines but living potentials within each person. The imagery of seeing stars through prison bars underscores the transformative power of perspective.
Central to the lecture is the idea of the “sleeping” Christ in every heart, which the individual must awaken by subjective affirmation. Declaring “I AM Jesus Christ” functions as the “greatest prayer” because it directly engages the subconscious assumption that underlies all manifestation. This approach reframes prayer from petitioning an external deity to assuming an inner state of divine consciousness.
Goddard also analyzes the social ramifications of subconscious assumptions, explaining that people and conditions encountered in life are reflections of one’s inner state. By maintaining the feeling of Christ-consciousness, one’s behavior and interactions shift subtly yet profoundly, aligning external reality with the assumed identity. This dynamic underscores the practical efficacy of the practice in everyday relationships and challenges.
Finally, Goddard positions this form of prayer as the culmination of spiritual endeavor. Rather than relying on ritual or moral striving, the individual actualizes the divine identity through felt assumption. The result is a continuous process of transformation “from glory to glory,” where the self becomes a living expression of the creative power it invokes.
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