In this lecture Neville Goddard presents “The Miraculous Child” as a symbol of Christ’s birth within each individual, rather than a historical event. He explains that all biblical characters represent states of consciousness, and the promise of a child in Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, and the Gospels points to an inner transformation. God’s timeless purpose unfolds in time through personal realization, culminating in the birth of the ‘I AM’ consciousness. Goddard shares letters from students whose dreams and visions confirm this inner process, illustrating the ‘great exam’ of recognizing the divine presence. He emphasizes that upon passing this exam, one’s lowly body is transformed to the glory of Christ’s form, uniting human and divine. The lecture closes with an affirmation that God participates in individual history, and every seeker will experience this profound inner birth.
Tonight’s subject is “The Miraculous Child.” This child will not appear to the world, for they are so fixed in their misconceptions of Scripture, and there is no dead weight so heavy. But tonight I wish you would pay special attention, as I want to introduce you to this miraculous child. For “Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if he is not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.”
God participates in human history and is known in those through whom his timeless purpose is working in time. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, and he appears, symbolized as a child. This miraculous child is not Christ, but a sign that Christ is born, in you. Now listen to one in whom God’s timeless purpose has been fulfilled in time.
Always remember that all the characters of Scripture are states of consciousness personified. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, none of these forefathers of Jesus appear in any Near Eastern work whatsoever. They do not appear either as individuals or as tribes. Appearing only in Scripture, they are eternal states through which God passes as he unfolds his purpose in you. And his purpose is to give himself to you as though there were no other, just God and you, and finally only you, for you are He.
The promise of a child begins in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. This promise was made to Abraham. Although Sarah was beyond the age of child bearing, when the child was born they called him Isaac which means, “he laughs”. Now, you would think he was born of human stock, but this child is a prototype of that which must be born in you. All the ancient prophecies were eschatology, for their visions were only about the last days.
Another prototype child appears in the name of Moses, which is the ancient perfected of the Egyptian verb “to be born”. Something is to be born. We think it is a man called Moses because he came out of the deep. But we find this story unfolding, and unfolding until we come to the point called David. Then we are told, “Go to my servant David and say, ‘When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you. He will come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.’” Again the child is promised.
Now we move into Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’” Here we find this promise unfolding and unfolding, yet in the very last book of the Old Testament the father is still waiting for the son saying, “A son honors his father, if I am a father, where is my honor?”
The first chapter of the New Testament begins with the fulfillment of this promise. In it we read that this child is born, not of blood, or of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh, but of God. It’s an entirely different birth. Then he tells us, “This shall be a sign unto you. Blessed is she who believes that which she has heard, that there shall be a fulfillment of those things which were spoken unto her from the Lord.” The shepherds of the field appear and are told, “Unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” The shepherds enter Bethlehem and, believing, they find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.
As a Christian you were taught that these events took place on earth. That a little child was born of a woman who didn’t have a husband, or know a man. It hasn’t a thing to do with that. The child is only a sign, a sign that your savior is born and the only savior is God. “I AM the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior.” There is only God. God, your I AM is the root, the creator of humanity and its offspring because I became what I created. Bursting the shell, I will come out, transcending what I was prior to my fall into my own creation.
I am telling you what I know from experience. The day will come when you will experience it too. My days of being consciously in this word are at an end. Like Paul I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. There is nothing else for me to do, for I have experienced within myself all that I promised I would.
How will you know when it happens? You will not see signs on the outside, yet there are signs that come to all who are moving toward the end. Everyone, who is hungry, not for bread or for milk but for an experience of God, is here to fulfill the prophecy of Scripture. And Scriptural prophecy has not a thing to do with America, Russia, Europe, China or any part of the world as the prophets of the modern age will tell you. The Bible is not secular history, but the history of salvation. It has nothing to do with any land, but it is all about you who walk the lands of the earth.
Every day the morning mail brings me confirmation of those who are nearing the end. Two letters came this week that I would like to share with you. One lady writes, “I am 59 years old. I did not complete college because I had small sons and the demands of my family life were too great. But during the time I attended college I had a recurrent dream that I must prepare for an exam. As the years have progressed the dream persisted. Now I feel the sense of urgency knowing I must prepare for the great exam. Recently, when I closed my eyes I saw human faces, like the great paintings of Michelangelo, yet they had no eyes. And in the midst of these bodies I saw an infant who smiled at me. As he laughed I felt as though he were in heaven and I his observer. Then I had a vivid dream where I saw my son who was the most beautiful child imaginable. Do these experiences have any Biblical significance?”
The significance of her dream is the great exam. If you have ever been on TV, you know there is such a thing as an idiot sheet, a moving sheet in bold writing. All of these profoundly wise men who speak to you while standing in front of a TV camera, are simply reading an idiot sheet. I am using his analogy for a purpose; for I want to tell this lady that in the immediate future she is going to be given the great exam. Everyone in the world will be called for this exam. You will be called and taken in Spirit, into the presence of the Risen Christ and the exam will begin. He will ask you only one question, “What is the greatest thing in this world?”
Well it’s just like looking at the idiot sheet, for you are looking at the embodiment of love and as you look at the exalted Christ only one emotion permeates you and that is love. So put your heart at rest, for you cannot fail. You don’t have to study; the answer will be automatic. Then love will embrace you and change your lowly body to be of one form with his glorious body. Our translators cannot bring themselves to believe in the literal word of Scripture, so they translate this sentence to read, “He will change our lowly bodies to be like the body of Christ” but the literal translation is “to be one form with.” You aren’t like Christ; you become him. Your lowly body is completely refashioned to be of one form with, not like, his glorious body. When you look at that body you see the human form divine and it’s all love. So in the end there is only one body, one God, one Man and you are He.
Now let me tell you of a letter that came from a gentleman. He said, “I came home on Monday night, sat down in my chair and closed my eyes. As I began to relax a blaze of light appeared before me, and as I looked at the light I could see a pool of golden liquid pulsating light in its center. Then the light formed itself into a beautiful rose which expanded and expanded reaching toward the perimeter of this vast area when I was called to dinner.” Then he asked if this held any meaning.
In the second chapter of the Songs of Solomon we are told, “I AM a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.” Who is I AM? God. Here is Scripture unfolding within him. He saw the rose, not separate or superimposed upon the light, but the light itself formed the rose. Listen to the words, “I AM the light of the world and I AM the rose of Sharon.” Sharon means “prosperity; a straight path; the right way; abundance.” When the rose appears in the consciousness of man, it means great abundance. Abundance need not be measure in dollars and cents, but in a sense of well-being, a sense of peace; a sense of rest. The rose is God. I AM the rose of Sharon.
Now, to repeat: God participates in the history of man and is known in those through whom his birth is taking place. God is working in you and as he works, Scripture unfolds in you. Scripture has been fulfilled in me. Like Paul, beginning with Moses and the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, I have interpreted to you in all the Scriptures the things concerning myself. I am not speaking of anything else, only God.
Yesterday, about 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, as is my custom, I was reading the Bible. My wife was resting in preparation for our dinner engagement, when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Wearing only my shorts and, thinking it may be a delivery boy, I went to the door and here was a nun who said she had a message for me from God. Then, she began to tell me all about the many devils and terrible things that were going to happen to me if I didn’t get on his side. Finally I stopped her and said, “I am reminded of what Frank Lloyd Wright once said, ‘We are both doing God’s work, you in your way and I in his.’” Then I excused myself and as I closed the door a thought came to me. “He has awakened from the dream of life. Tis we who, lost in stormy vision, keep with fancy an unprofitable strife.” You find a devil and you make more devils because you recognize them and what you recognize you project and make real in your world.
All I can tell you is what I have experienced concerning Scripture. This miraculous child is a fact. The day will come when you will experience everything said of this child. There will be those who will make a hasty journey to see that which has happened in Bethlehem. They will find the child and, knowing whose child it is, they will call you by name. If your name is John they will declare it is John’s baby. Then you will pick up the child, look into its heavenly face and as he laughs the vision comes to its end. And then you will know the reality of the child that was given to you as a sign that the savior was born. There is only one savior who is God. So if the savior is born, God is born. He came down into man and raises man by being reborn, from man, for I AM the root and the offspring of David.
Now, the lady and gentleman whose dreams I shared with you tonight do not know one another. Her name is Vera. Born in Russia, she came there to be a dancer in New York City and has now opened a lovely dress shop in the Disneyland Hotel. Jimmie was born in Italy. I have known them both for years, but they have never met. Last night I had a dream. Here is Vera, a lady, quite small and about 50 years old. And Jimmie, also about 50, handsome, wonderful and well put together as he always is, is looking at her. In my dream Vera is his mother and she is hugging me. Jimmie is disturbed and scolds her for displaying her feelings toward me. Then she turned to him and said in a very Russian accent, “And why shouldn’t I? He is your father.” Well, the bewildered look on his face when he heard that bit of news was so priceless I started to laugh. I woke myself up laughing and even woke my wife. Here it is 3:30 in the morning and I am laughing so hard my wife says, “What on earth is wrong with you?” I told her I had a dream and would share it with her in the morning. Then I got out of bed and went into the living room to laugh some more. But his was a true revelation.
If I AM the Father of David and I know I AM and David is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, and Jimmie is a man, am I not his Father? Am I not the Father of humanity if I AM the Father of the essence of humanity, which is David? David has called me Father in fulfillment of the 89th Psalm. If I AM David’s father, and he is the personification of all the generations of men and their experiences, am I not Jimmie’s father? It’s all the unfolding of Scripture, for there is nothing but God in this world. And when he unfolds himself in you, you will know it too. Those who have not experienced Scripture will think you are as mad as a hatter, but the day will come when you will know that you too are the Father of humanity, because you are going to be the Father of the sum total of all the generations of men personified as the eternal youth whose name is David. And if he is the essence of humanity, are you not, then, the Father of humanity?
In the very last chapter, the twenty-second chapter of Revelations we read “I AM the root and the offspring of David.” The creator entered his own creation, then emerged from it; therefore he is now the offspring. But by creating it, is he not its Father? And by entering it, not pretending, but actually becoming it he accepted all the limitations of the human flesh. Now playing all the parts, he cannot come out until the very end of the drama. And when the play is over he, as you, emerge. Then the essence of the whole vast creative world stands before you as a son, and David calls you “Father”.
All this wonderful symbolism unfolds within man. And when the child comes it’s a miraculous child. The government, the full responsibility, all the authority will be on his shoulders. He will close and none shall open. He will open and none shall close. That’s the responsibility that is placed upon his shoulders. His name is Wonderful Counselor, for [he] has infinite wisdom now. Mighty God, possessing divine wisdom and divine might. His third name is Everlasting Father, as he is the eternal Father of humanity and the essence of humanity summarized in the eternal youth called David. Then comes the final title, Prince of Peace. Not just the peace after the conflict of war, but a full and complete enjoyment of everything in this world, for he has found peace. Then you are told, “Of his greatness there shall be no end.” And where does all this take place? In the individual you!
God actually participates in the history of man and is known in those through whom his timeless purpose is working in time. While you are walking, in time, his timeless purpose is working in you. Everyone will experience it, and no one will fail because God became each one of us that we, each of us, may become God.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Goddard’s central metaphor—the miraculous child—reframes traditional Christian narrative as an allegory of inner awakening. By tracing the promise of a child from Abraham and Sarah through Moses, David, and Isaiah to the nativity story, he demonstrates how Scripture personifies successive stages of consciousness. Each ancient prototype foreshadows the ultimate emergence of the divine self within the believer.
He deepens this interpretation by asserting that biblical figures are not historical persons but eternal states of awareness. Abraham, Jacob, David and other forefathers become living symbols through which God’s purpose unfolds in time. This metaphysical reading invites listeners to view their spiritual path as a scriptural drama in which they are both actor and audience.
The inclusion of real-life dream accounts serves as both proof and pedagogy. The letters from Vera and Jimmie illustrate how subconscious imagery—faces without eyes, an infant’s laugh, a rose of light—mirrors scriptural prophecy unfolding within. Goddard equates these visions with the ‘great exam,’ where recognition of the divine presence elicits love as the sole response, leading to experiential transformation.
Theological implications flow from his insistence on the literal truth of “to be one form with” Christ’s body, rather than merely “like.” This radical identification collapses the distance between Creator and creation. When the savior-child is born within, God is reborn in the believer, establishing a seamless unity of human and divine, fulfilling Revelations’ declaration “I AM the root and the offspring of David.”
Practically, the lecture is an invitation to meditation and self-observation. Goddard encourages seekers to look inward, expecting no external signs yet trusting in the inner heralds of spiritual birth. His closing exhortation to “go into the Silence” underscores the need for contemplative stillness, positioning black‐screen meditation as an ideal space to witness the unfolding of the miraculous child within.
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