The Resurrection

Tonight is “The Resurrection.” Although the resurrection is not described in the scriptures, it stands at the very central point of the Christian faith, for if he is not risen, our faith is vain. We are told if the dead are not resurrected, then Christ is not risen. The Christ, we are told, is the power and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). Every child born of woman is crucified with Christ—with the power and with the wisdom. In God’s good time, he resurrects that individual when the individual has completely absorbed Christ—when that wisdom and that power is one with the individual who is actually crucified on that cross. No one can resurrect himself. It is an act of God. God’s mightiest act is the resurrection, to save mankind and establish his people.

So we are told in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, “What you sow, unless it dies, it is not alive. And what you sow is not the body which is to be. But God gives it a body as he has chosen” (1 Corinthians 15:36). For the resurrection body is determined entirely by the gift of God ashehas chosen. Don’t try to even visualize it; you couldn’t visualize it. Don’t speculate. It’s an immortal body, an eternal body given to the individual as that individual is resurrected.

Now let me share with you my experience of the resurrection. It’s a true experience. Everyone will have this experience. Resurrection is a privileged new birth in a new creation. You did not earn your physical birth; you were born by the action of powers beyond your own. You’ll be born spiritually by the action of powers beyond your own. So let no one tell you that you earn it. You don’t earn it; it’s a gift. It’s all grace and still grace. Because itisa gift, everyone will be born from above. So though it’s not described in scripture, I can describe it for you, for I’ve experienced it. We are not bornfromthe body; we are awakenedinit. We aren’t awakened from it; we are awakened in it. It’s something entirely different.

Now we are told that they came to the tomb, but bear in mind that only one person saw him placed in the tomb. Joseph placed him in a new tomb, but no one saw him in the new tomb. So they came early in the morning, and they said they looked in. These are the words, “They’ve taken away the Lord from the tomb and we do not know where they’ve laid him” (Mark 16; Matthew 28; John 20). They looked in, and they saw what appeared to them to be angels seated where the body of Jesus had laid, one at the head and one at the feet. Now no one saw how that body had been placed, for it was placed byJoseph, not by the women who came early in the morning and not by the disciples. And yet they claim that they saw what they thought to be angels in radiant light, seated where the body of Jesus had laid, and they said to them, “He is risen.” “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe it” (Luke 24:11). That’s how the story is told, it seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe it.

But now let me share with you what I have experienced. That record of the 20thof John and the 24thof Luke is not correct, but they do not describe the event. No attempt is made to describe the actual resurrection. I tell you, the resurrection is simply a new birth into an entirely different world. Don’t try to visualize the world. Here, I tell you, you rise into a world completely subject to your imaginative power. There will be no such thing as systems as we have systems.Everyonewill be God, but everyone. You will not have to contend with politicians or men in the churches who call themselves your superior, or anyone in this world who thinks himself greater. You areGod, and everything in the world is subject to your imaginative power.

You enterthatworld where God is the substance of that world by taking us one by one into that world. And we do not have a thing to do with this body. In other words, it is ashehas chosen. As we’re told, “And what you have sown is not the body which is to be, for God has given it a body as he has chosen.” You read it, the 15thof 1stCorinthians, read the 36ththrough the 38thverses. The entire thing is given to us, and he simply lifts us from this world into that. So I tell you from experience, resurrection is a new birth intothatage as againstthisage. It’s a privileged birth given to us by God.

Now when it happens, this is exactly how it’s going to happen. You will awaken notfromthe body, as people teach; you will awakeninit. And when you awaken in it, you will be the most startled being in the world because until then you had no idea that you were asleep. You had no idea that through the ages you’d been sound asleep, dreaming this fantastic world. All this is man’s dream, a nightmare. He dreams wars, revolutions, and convulsions, and sickness and poverty. Everything in the world he dreams here because he’s sound asleep.

Resurrection is God’s mighty act to awaken him in you, the body, from this dream. He awakens and the whole of him is in his skull, but the whole of him. The whole being finds himself completely sealed, entombed, in a skull. And then he comes out. He knows, seemingly, that he is unaided because he makes the effort to get out. He pullshimselfout of his skull, so he can’t say that anyone pushed him out or even aided him. He is self-begotten. He absorbed Christ in that state of dream, exercising unwisely that power. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God but thepowerof God. And he made this fantastic dream, these horrible things come true by the exercise of that power that is Christ. And then suddenly, in God’s own time, he saw him absorb Christ; he became one with that power, one with that wisdom. God of old, sound asleep.

And then the drama begins to unfold, and the tombisempty; he comes out of it. As he comes out of it, there are men to meet him. Call them by any other name but they’re men to meet him. The men cannot see him because the men present are men ___(??). They cannot see that heavenly being that is born. He belongs to an entirely different realm; he belongs to the kingdom of God, and mortal eye cannot see him. He doesn’t even see himself because the body given to him is yet to be given, as God has chosen. What he sowed in this world is not the body which is to be. For God has given him a body as he, God, has chosen. And so that glorified body that is his to be worn in heaven, he doesn’t see it at that moment, and no one sees him. He’s simply aware, more aware than he’s ever been before,completelyawake. And then the drama unfolds. And they don’t believe it either. Let me quote the words, “And the words they heard seemed to them like an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

So here is the story; one makes the fantastic, incredulous announcement that an event has taken place that is impossible to mortal mind. And so they didn’t believe it. They asked in the most incredulous way, “How is this thing possible? It can’t be!” He doesn’t argue the point; he presents the evidence that this thingdidtake place. This is a birth unknown to any mortal man. This isn’t the kind of a birth that takes place in this world, in this age. An entirely different birth, something that is self-begotten, out of his own fantastic skull he comes. And once you see beyond the symbol, it’s a symbol signifyingthatbirth. They did not believe it. I can hear the word now,Impossible! As far as they are concerned, they can’t believe it. But he doesn’t argue. The one who found the insignia, who found the little symbol called “a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,” puts it on the bed. And they look at it in amazement, but they still will not believe it. No little child is born; that’s only the signal, the symbol of an event that no mortal eye can witness. They accept it on faith, or they don’t accept it. And they didn’t accept it.

And so here, it’s presented, and no one believes it. Even the one who finds it and finds it difficult—not only announced it but also finds it difficult, being human, to accept the evidence about the symbol as coming or signifying a completely new birth, a privileged birth into an entirely different world. But there it is. That is the insignia. That is the resurrection, resurrection in a new birth into the kingdom of God. Listen to the words from the 20thchapter of the Book of Luke, speaking of this world, “And whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” You do not know the scriptures, said he, for “in this age they marry and they are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain tothatage and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are they given in marriage, for they cannot die again… they are now sons of God, and sons of the resurrection,” something entirely different (verse 34).

But no man can see that. They can only see things based upon their experience here. And I can’t blame anyone for it, for, may I tell you, I hadn’t the slightest idea, certainly not any conscious idea, of this experience until it happened. Not the slightest concept that such things were possible until it happened, for I can stand today before the whole vast world; there are three billion of us and not bat an eye when I tell them Iknowthe mystery of the resurrection. Although it’s not described in scripture, I know exactly what the individual must go through to be resurrected, and he does not do it of himself; it’s a gift from God. God, in his own wonderful time, resurrects us individually into an entirely different world, and he clothes us in this immortal body that cannot be seen with human eye and no one can describe it. It’s fantastic beyond the wildest dream; that’s the being that you are, clothed in this body that is forever. It’s immortal.

And so that’s the first act in the great scene of the resurrection, the birth. And then comes the series as it unfolds, and no one understands it. Conferred upon the risen Christ in the experience of man is the divine name, Adonay, which means “my Lord, my Father.” That’s conferred upon the Christ that is riseninman in that individual’s experience and conferred upon him is the divine name, Adonay, which is “my Lord,” which means “my Father.” Well, how will you know it? Well, then comes the experience, which is just as exciting, just as unexpected, just as perplexing and bewildering as the first. You have no idea of this relationship; and suddenly it happens, and then he calls you, “my Father, my Lord.” You look at him and here is this wonderful relationship and there it is.

Then comes the third. The third is the ascension, where man actually ascends. He is not man, yet he is man. He hasn’t any loss of consciousness and no change of identity, but here is a golden, liquid being that he is. And just as described, an earthquake takes place. You don’t get out; this whole thing takes placeinthe body, not out of the body. For when you rise up, after having been split right down the middle, from top to bottom, and then you rise into Zion, which is your skull—that’s the great holy sepulcher—you make an Herculean effort to get out. You can’t get out. You are around the throne of God. That’s where he dwells. And youtryto get out. You’ve never made such an effort in your life, but you don’t get out. There you areinthe holy city, the New Jerusalem, clothed as he had prepared it for you in that area.

So I tell you, the story is true from beginning to end. This coming Sunday, they will think a peculiar survival of death. It isn’t that at all. It’s entirely different. Resurrection is not that Christ survived death according to some general capacity for survival inherent in the human soul. No, it’s the mighty act of God to save mankind and establish his kingdom. Hasn’t a thing to do with survival—everything survives. I have said good-bye to my father and mother in this sphere, to a nephew in this sphere, and dozens and dozens of friends in this sphere. They’ve all survived. Nothing dies. But they are on the wheel of recurrence, and they’re playing their parts over and over and over on the wheel of recurrence. And then in a moment that they do not suspect and no one knows, God redeems them and lifts them one by one. Not collectively, for we are known individually and loved individually by God. You are unique and can’t be replaced; not one person in the world can take your place. You are completely unique and desired and loved and wanted by God to complete his purpose in this heavenly kingdom. So no one can replace you. Not one person in the world can take your place. So in God’s own time, he lifts you up by the mightiest of all acts, the act of resurrection, which is the redeeming power that saves man from this wheel of recurrence.

So here, on this occasion, let me show you some of the power that will be yours. I tasted it. I tasted the power of the new age. It didn’t happen in the last few years; it happened back in 1946. Therefore, the one who wrote the story, whether it be in Luke or in John, they rearranged the sequence of events. For before this happened to me in the ascent, I had this fantastic experience back in 1946. And it is said they said in the tomb, “He is risen.” They said in 1946, called me by name, called me Neville. “Neville is risen.” And then came this heavenly chorus singing, “Neville is risen!” and they kept on filling the whole heaven with this wonderful heavenly chorus.

Then I moved upon a sea of human imperfection—blind, lame, halt, withered, shrunken, everything that was imperfect. And here is the power that you exercise: as I came upon this enormous sea of humanity, without eyes, without arms, and without feet, sections of the face missing and sections of the body missing, I simply became a luminous being, made of light and air as it were, and I simply glided. I didn’t walk in some labored manner; I glided by. They seemed to be waiting for me. Without effort, I molded eyes—I didn’t do it consciously—but eyes that were molded into these empty sockets and ears that were missing came back. No scars, no surgeon in the world—put all the surgeons in this world together, they could not have molded one eye as I did with thousands in that sea. They could not have put one hand back as perfectly as I put it back. Arms that were missing came right back, legs that were missing came back, everything without a scar. There wasn’t a scar, but it was perfect. When the whole thing was done and completed; this chorus exulted, “It is finished!” And then, I, of whom they sang and to whom they addressed every remark, crystallized, actually crystallized once more into this garment. I could feel myself becoming smaller and smaller and smaller into this little, tiny garment, on a ship at sea as I plowed through the Caribbean Sea, moving from Port of Spain, Trinidad to Mobile, Alabama.

And so here, I can tell you the story is true. When they said, “He is risen,” in my own case, they called me by name. I’m quite sure the translators would have found the word there, but now they use the pronounhe. So in telling the story, not to offend those who might think me arrogant, I too used the pronounhe, when I wrote in my little bookThe Searchwhen I told my experience. But they didn’t sayhe; they said, “Neville is risen.” Here this experience, and then through the years, it dawned upon me, for the 9thchapter of the Book of John: “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” He said, “Neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God be made manifest.” Then I realized over the years that this sea of human imperfection these are the things that I have played. Always Neville but blind Neville once, lame Neville, drunken Neville—everything in this world that would be distasteful I dreamt. They were all my broken body, and I rebuilt my broken body. And so no more eyeless in Gaza; the eyes came back. No more the lameness and the armless, and all these, they all came back. So, “Nothing is lost in all my holy mountain.”

So I fell, and that was my broken dream. The whole thing that was there was my fall into the state of sleep, and I dreamt all the unlovely things in the world and played them too. So in the end, you are lifted up, and being lifted up everything returns to its divine perfection and nothing is imperfect. And every being in the world is going to have that experience. You and I will meet in thenewworld, calledthatworld in scripture. We will be in control, completely in control, of a power that would dwarf any power known to mortal mind. So we are creative, creative in the true sense of the word, without the aid of any being we create. But we will create in concert. You and I will agree to create in concert, and all of us will agree to create. No one will be greater than the other. All will be glorified in the eye of God.

So fulfilling scripture, in the Book of Hosea, the 6thchapter, the 2ndverse, And on the third day he raises us up, that we may stand before him, on the third day. I say that everything in the New Testament I could find it in the Old, but the Old is prophecy, the New is fulfillment. So it was there in the sixth chapter, second verse that he tells us on the third day he raises us up that we may stand before him to receive his glory and that we may know him and go on toknowthe Lord in his fullness.

So I tell you, the resurrection is an actual fact, although not described in the scripture. There isn’t one passage in the scripture that describes it. I know it, for I have experienced it, and I tell you exactly how it happened. The resurrection is not from some little tomb; this is the tomb. And you don’t resurrectfromthe body; you awakeninthe body, right in it. You awaken in the tomb; the tomb is your own skull. The word skull is Golgotha, it’s Calvary, the Holy Sepulcher, and you awaken in it and never had an idea that you fell asleep in this. It never occurred to man that he actually fell asleep, in a profound sleep, a sleep so deep it was likened unto death. And one day, God’s mightiest act, the power of resurrection held him and awoke.

And may I tell you, when that power is applied to you, that night that you are sound asleep and it’s applied, you think you are going to die. And then you are going to be awakened. But at that moment when it’s applied to you, it’s so intense you feel you can’t stand it; it means this is the end. You explode. But you don’t explode; you’re awakened. And suddenly you awake. You have no doubts where you are. You are all together but in your skull. The skull is a tomb, and you know it’s a tomb. You’re sealed, completely sealed in your own skull. After one moment of panic, you push and something gives at the base of your skull and out you come, just like a birth. And it is a birth from above. “For except you be born from above you cannot in any wise enter the kingdom of heaven” (John 3:3). So man has to be awakened by God and come out himself, out of his own skull, born from above.

Then we are told, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). That act takes place in the same manner. All these statements, they don’t describe the act because who by reading it could see that as a description? I read it; I know my Bible, but I read that time and again. I never once related that to an actual mystical experience in me. But I would read the Bible, and the Bible uses the word ___(??) and translates it not as “from above” they translate the Greek wordanothinas “again,” implying that millions believe in reincarnation. It isn’t any reincarnation. No, you are born from above. The word means “from above.” But the translators can’t believe it, so they put the word “again.” So you must be born again. It is again but not as the world would see it. You are actually born out of your own skull from above, and you come out self-begotten.

And here, the very symbol that you’re told you’ll find, you wouldn’t find it; they find it for you. For the angel doesn’t speak to you; the angel speaks to the men watching the flocks at night, and they come looking for the event. “For unto you this day is born in the city of Bethlehem, the city of David, a Savior” (Luke 2:11). Well, who is the Savior? Jesus is the word Savior, the word Jesus means “savior.” “For unto you is born this day in the city of DavidJesusthe Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” “Christinyou is the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). And Christ in you is that Savior; that’s Jesus Christ in you. He’s born. So the story is true from beginning to end, and you cannot alter one little dot; it’s all true.

This coming Sunday, when they sing out the Hallelujah chorus that he is risen, you who hear me tonight you know how true it is. They don’t know that city means “survival of the grave.” It hasn’t a thing to do with that. No survival? My father survived; I see him. My mother survived; I see her. My secretary, Jack, talked to him; he’s as solidly real as he was here, I see him. But they survived; that’s not resurrection. Resurrection is an act, a creative act, anewcreation into an entirely different world—God’s purpose fulfilled. The resurrection really in the true sense of the word is the fulfillment of the eternal purpose of God. All this is preparatory to the act of resurrection. So no matter how big you are in this world, how wise you are, may I tell you, the sum total of all the wisdom of man while he dreams this world will be as nothing compared to the power that is his when he awakes. All this is the dream of man.

But while we are in the world of the dream, learn how to dream wisely. And so I will take it up for you, and so next Tuesday, I’ll show you how to dream wisely while we’re still in the world of Caesar, waiting for that mighty act of redemption. How to really dream it into being in this world! Everyone can do it. I think I know how to do it, and so I will show you and teach you from now on until we close in the end of May how we dream it, even though we are sound asleep. Dreaming, we’ve got to be asleep, and this is the world of dream. We must dream lovely things for each other and realize them in this world, hoping for God’s mighty act to take place in us. But until it takes place, why not learn how to dream constructively and dream wisely and dream lovingly. It’s just as easy as to dream the other things, for we’re dreaming anyway. While we are asleep, we can’t stop the activity of the dreaming mind, the dreamer.

But here, our resurrection unlike what will be said this coming Sunday morning… and undoubtedly the service will be beautiful. Last Easter, I turned on the TV and had the most delightful service at home, watching and hearingNat King Cole at St. James.He sang beautifully with all the depth of feeling in him. He hasn’t much of a range, as you know, a very small range, but what he did with that range! I thought the whole thing was so all together wonderful. I learned only a few weeks later, or a few months later, that the minister, Dr. Terwilliger, was relieved from his post. But now I do not associate it; but in the world of dreams, there are such prejudices, such stupidities. So I do not say that because of that, he was relieved because Nat King Cole was a member of the congregation; he’s a member of the church. Why should he not be spotlighted, known as he is with the opportunity to reach unnumbered millions across the country, really, if it went beyond our sphere here? But if it only went to this sphere at least three or four million could reach him and the church could be publicized beautifully. For the service was wonderful. The doctor himself, Dr. Terwilliger, gave the mostwonderfulsermon, and then he was so dignified, so altogether wonderful. Then to my surprise, he was sent elsewhere.

So I tell you, the congregation who would ease him out because of certain little prejudices, they haven’t the slightest concept of this mystery of resurrection, not the slightest. First of all, they think they’re going to be resurrected with the body that they wear. And that’s not it. Let me quote it for you again, the 38thverse, the 15thchapter of 1stCorinthians, “And what you sow will not be the body which is to be… for Godgivesus a body ashehas chosen.” For the one wearing the garment today will not be like that. Yes, I will know you, but for all the identity of person there’s going to be a radical discontinuity of form. So you can’t envision that form, which is thenewbody, attuned to an entirely different world, where everything is subject to your imaginative power, where you are God. I mean that seriously, youareGod! But at the present state of the dream, you can dream fantastic things, all the things that we do, like we’ve all done it.

But the day will come… and may it happen to you tonight. But I have no prophetic view; I do not know. It happens unexpectedly. It happens so suddenly. It happens, and you are bewildered. So I cannot tell you by looking at you with my mortal eye how close you are to God’s mercy when he steps in and redeems you in the body of Jesus. I cannot; I do not know just how soon it ___(??). May it be, for your own wonderful sake, tonight. But you can’t hasten it; it’s an act of God. God’s most wonderful dramatic act, his mightiest act, is the resurrection.

The resurrection and the birth of Christ in man are identical; they’re one and the same thing. The beginning and the end are tied together under one act. When one awakes within himself, it’s Christ awake; it’s Jesus Christ awake. And that awakening within himself is one with his resurrection because you resurrect from the dead. You had no idea you were dead until that very moment when you find yourself entombed. Who goes into a tomb and has it sealed upon him if he isn’t dead? And so, when you awake to find yourselfentombed, you must have been dead or you wouldn’t be there. Then you realize the wordsuntil the end when Christ awakens in us. We go through a cycle, cycle after cycle, having been placed into such a profound sleep, and then comes God’s fulfillment of this promise, and he awakens from a sleep so deep that the world thought he was dead. Then he awakens, and when he awakens, he’s the very being that is God.

Then he tells his story to those who will hear it. Listen to the words carefully, “And these words seemed to them to be a idle tale and they did not believe it.” And then we are told in the same passage, which is the 20thof John and the 24thof Luke: “Behold, they did not know”—and the word translated “know” means “understand”: “they did not understand the scripture—that Christ must rise from the dead.” He told them, but they could not understand it. What does he mean by “rising from the dead”? And where did they lay the body? There is no body? Yet they see people sitting where the bodyhadlain. How did they know the body had lain there when they never even saw the body? See the mystery?

It happensin you.Youknow where the body was, foryousee it when you awaken within yourself. It’s exactly the thing out of which you came, ghastly pale, and you look at it. And then comes the mighty wind that is the Holy Spirit. You hear it and you are disturbed and you look away just for a moment because you are disturbed. Looking back a moment later, the body is gone. But in its place, men are seated where the head was and where the feet were, but the body is gone. They are actually seated just as told in scripture, “Where the body of Jesus had lain” (John 20:12). Out of that he came, he’s born; but first he awoke in it, and then it disappeared.

And they carry on thisincredibleconversation and unbelievable; they would not believe the tale. So one said, “It is” calling you by name. Whatever your name is, they’ll call it and call you as the one of whom the angels spoke this night that a Savior is born. And then the symbol of that birth is on the floor, and they will say, “How is this thing possible?” And calling you by name, they will think it’s the most stupid statement in the world. And whoever makes the announcement will present the evidence. They will see the evidence, but still they can’t believe it.

So who will believe that you—a frail mortal subject to all the vanities of the world, subject to all the weaknesses of the world—could be so singled out for such a blessing when they know your background and they know your parents, your weaknesses, moral weaknesses, all kinds of weaknesses? And thatyoucould be lifted up into an entirely different world and given such glory? No, they don’t believe it. And so it seemed to them like an idle tale, and they did not believe it. That’s what the world does.

So it happens to every one of us. But may I share with you my experience. And I am just as you are, with the same frailties today that I had before the event, same frailties—subject to all the weaknesses of the flesh. Over-eat, I did it; over-drink, I did it; and I still do both. So in spite of all of my weaknesses, it happened to me. So you don’t become a goody-goody person after the event, and so you’re the same person. It is said of him, why do you listen to him? He’s mad. First of all, he’s a glutton and a winebibber. He’s a drunkard, and he loves harlots and tax collectors and all the people that are not socially prominent. He seems to make them friends of his. “Why do you listen to him?” And so he went about his way until the very end. No one believes that this has happened. That’s the story.

He goes to his exit from this world, knowing exactly what has happened to him, leaving others to write it up after he has gone and tell it as best as they can. For he knows the New Age has been inaugurated; and then from that moment on, all are being called, one after the other, into the New Age, an entirely different age, from the state of sleep into the age of fully waking beings, all God. He knew that he simply opened up the door. And no one believed him, not to the very end. Because they were looking for some peculiar return in this garment and you can’t return in this garment because you’re not there. Yes, I’ll recognize you, you’ll recognize me, but we will not be clothed in these garments at all, for which I am most happy, because after fifty-eight years of wearing this, it’s burned out. I’m very happy that God in his infinite wisdom at least gave us such things as dentists and barbers and tailors, for which I am most happy, because they can cover up so many mistakes. But the garment that you and I will wear tomorrow will need no patching up. It will need no tailor to put a suit on it. It will need no barber to cut its hair. It will be an immortal body, glorified beyond the wildest dream of any man in this world. And so that will be our body.

So this night, I’ve tried to share with you that which Iknow,not from a book, that which I know from experience. And so I show you the resurrection is a fact, it istrue. And the resurrection means the resurrection of Christ Jesus; therefore, Christ Jesusinman is the hope of glory. Christ Jesus in every man is waiting to be resurrected, everyone. And a body is waiting for you that is God’s own choice for you. Don’t try to visualize it, but you go back and read it.Everyonehas it already prepared for him, waiting for God to waken him and then clothe him in his immortal body.

Now let us go into the Silence.

Q:   (inaudible)

A:My dear, when one is resurrected, clothed in his immortal garment, the entire world is exposed to him, not shut out, and ___(??) eagerly the kingdom. How could I ever forget my earthly father and mother who loved me, and she, the female, wove this linen sheet that I now wear? My flesh was woven by my mother, and I wear it. And so she who actually wove it for me in her womb, building this tabernacle out of a figure of nine months, how could I forget her? But I’m eagerly waiting for that moment when she too will be awakened.

Q:   (inaudible)

A:   Grant her complete freedom. She must be completely free to dream all the horrible dreams in the world, as we have been ___(??). Her freedom must not be inhibited. And God, in his infinite mercy, will step beyond and redeem her. But her garment is waiting for her, as it is for you, as it is for every being in the world.

Q:   (inaudible)

A:   Do what you want to. Infinite Love is in control. God has not abdicated in spite of the ___(??).

Q:   Would you explain “Touch me not as I have not yet ascended.”

A:   “Touch me not as I have not yet ascended.” That statement… I heard it by Wilberforce, who was once Dean of Canterbury. He said the true translation of the phrase is, Hold me not back by your tears and your sorrow because of my going. That you, by your emotional upheaval because of my exit, are holding me in your sphere. So do not by your sense of loss of me hold me back because mind communes with mind. So free me. Let me go. For if I do not go, the Holy Spirit cannot come, so let me go. But if by one’s sense of loss you’re always thinking of the departed with a sense of heavy loss, you’re binding, you’re holding him here because mind communes with mind, and you’re putting a heavy weight on them by your sense of loss because of their departure. That was Wilberforce; and to me, it’s the most satisfying interpretation of the phrase, “Hold me not back, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.”

But I know the glory that is mine today, which I have inherited by these acts. For this series of mystical experiences in me is confirmed by scripture and by my own experience that I now have inherited the glory of the kingdom. But it cannot becomeactualto me, or at least not fully realized in me, so long as I am in this garment, this body of flesh, only when I take it off at the very end. But there is unfinished business. I can’t lock it within myself or keep it to myself; I must talk about it and tell it and tell it to as many as it were who will listen.

And so far, since the experience, I’ve had the opportunity from a platform, on radio and TV, to reach maybe millions. I do not know how many. Because last year, in New York City, I had a six-hour marathon on radio, from midnight until six in the morning. And then I went on the night before the clocks were turned back, and that night it was seven hours. At midnight, and so what would be six when the clocks back, it really was midnight to seven. They cover twenty-six states in our country and most of Canada. They say back East that it’s the most listened-to program; it’s a popular station, WOR. I had a panel of four challenging my right to say what I did, which was exciting. And then there were ___(??) coming in asking all kinds of questions. And then the caravans are arriving. It was a very exciting two separate nights. And they claimed that people all through the night would listen to it. But I must have reached that night twenty million or close to it, and twenty-six states in the heavily concentrated areas in the East, not the far West___(??), and in the really heavily concentrated states, and they must have heard it. So how vast an audience I don’t know, but it ran into millions. ___(??), so at least I told it.

They may not believe it, or they may not want to hear it. One lady called in—the phone was ringing like mad—and she said, “Tell that man to read the 13thchapter of Mark!!” Of course, I knew exactly what she’s talking about. In that thirteenth chapter, “If any man should say to you, ‘Look, here, there is Christ!’ or ‘Look here!’ believe him not” (Mark 13:21), ___(?? a liar. And then I said, Quite right, my dear. If anyone should ever say, “Look, there he is,” don’t believe him because unless you find him in yourselfasyourself, you’ll never find him. Then I quoted her the 1stverse of the 3rdchapter of the 1stepistle of John: “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that whenheappears we shall be like him.”

But I said to her over the phone, “Do you look like him? Well, if you don’t look like him, then you haven’t found him, not as yet. Keep on looking until you are just like him. Because if you don’t look like the one you now think that he is, then you haven’t found him. And so you’re quoting me scripture by having me read the 13thchapter of Mark? I’m going to quote to you now from the 1stepistle of John: “And so, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that whenheappearsweshall be like him; and see him just as he is.” Well, my dear, if you don’t look like him in the mirror, keep on looking because you aren’t going to find him unless you find him as yourself. Christin youis the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

Good night.