What Is Man?

There’s a little poem by Robert Penn Warren, just take the last line of it. Speaking of the Lord, he said, “He stared into the dark pit of self, whence all had sprung. He said: What is man that I should be mindful of him!” What is man? It is in you, the individual that the great things happen, the kingdom of God comes to you in you. The Davidic tradition has its root and its fulfillment in you. The whole is actually contained within the individual. We think this whole vast world is so real. Let me tell you that to believe that the visible kingdom is unreal and that the invisible kingdom is real is the supreme act of faith. To this faith, the kingdom of this world has already become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The terms Christ, messiah, and anointed are interchangeable terms.

When you read them in the Bible, they’re all interchangeable. They’re all synonyms for the savior. Christ is called the Son of God, so is the anointed, the son of God. And so is the Messiah. It means the same thing. So let us see now who this Messiah is and what he is and where he is. I tell you he is in you. So, when Paul tells us, do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless of course, you fail to meet the test. He separates Jesus from the Christ. He speaks of Jesus as the Lord, but no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. He speaks of Jesus as the Lord and then Christ as another. So, in the book of Revelations, you speak of the Lord and of his Christ to tell you that he is the Father.

You can read that in Scripture, but how are you going to know that Jesus is the Father? He tells you, “I am the Father; who sees me, sees the Father.” If he’s a father, he has a son. At least he has a child. Let us turn to the book of Acts. You’ll find this in the fourth chapter. “Oh, sovereign God who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all within them, who by the mouth of our Father David, thy servant did say, why do the nation’s rage? And why do the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his anointed?” Against the Lord and his anointed. Now in the King James Version of the Bible, that word anointed is translated as it should be, Christ. For the Greek is Christos, “against the Lord and his Christ,” not the Lord, Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus and his Christ, his son, the word translated, servant, thy servant, David. The Greek poet means son.

As told us in the second Psalm, for he is quoting now the second Psalm, what I’ve just quoted is from the second Psalm. He attributes the author of the Psalm, at least the one who wrote it, to David. He says David is the author of the Psalm. Now, here we find in the 18th Psalm, one also says that David is the author. “Great triumph you give to your king and show steadfast love to your anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” The anointed is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the son of God. Now let us turn to this statement, concerning the root, who is going to open the Bible, who is going to give it meaning? And John began to cry, as we are told in the fifth chapter of Revelations, “He saw the book, but it was sealed with seven seals.

And the wise one asked, who can open the book? Who can break the seal?” When no one in heaven or on earth, or below the earth, could answer that he could, John began to weep and then this wise one said to him, “Weep not. Know there is one. One from the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. He has conquered. He can open the book and its seals.”

Now, who is the root of David? Go to the end of the book, “And Jesus said to the angel, say unto John, I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” He is the root. He’s the father of David. He’s also the offspring. So, the grandfather and the grandson are one and the same being. “I am the root and the offspring of David.” David remains the son of God.

Then what is this offspring that comes out of you? He’s buried in you. One day you’re going to experience it. Out of your own being will come, not another, will come you. And you will know you are the father of David because you’ll see him and he’ll call you father. And you will know he’s your son. And there’ll be no uncertainty as to this relationship. It’s all buried in man. So, “What is man that I should be mindful of him?” These are not the words of the Scripture. These are the words of the poet. For the words in Scripture, the Psalmist is asking the question, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” But the poet turned it around and said to put words in the mouth of the Lord, who said, “Why should I be mindful of man?” Because the whole is contained in man, this whole venture is already done. It’s all in man. The kingdom of the world has already become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ because it has been accomplished and it’s being accomplished in the individual, one after the other.

It has been fulfilled in me. All that is said in the Scripture, I have actually experienced it. The finding of David, everything said in that book, I have actually experienced in a spiritual sense, but when it came to me, it was just like this room, just as real. It was a cubic reality. There’s not a thing, I would say, gossamer about it, the whole thing was real. One step after the other unfolds itself within the individual, that’s who you are. Now, it came after this one could break the seal. So, he gives meaning to Scripture. Scripture began to take on a meaning, after the lion of the tribe of Judah who had conquered, who was the root of David, discovered David, for only the son can reveal the Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father. And no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. So, until David comes, you’ve been taught to believe that Jesus is the son of God. You have been taught to believe that Jesus Christ is like an extra title. That Christ is like a surname, Jesus Christ. It isn’t so at all. It is the Lord Jesus and his Christ, who is the son of God, for Christ is the son of God. And the son of God is David. That Davidic tradition is buried in you individually. And you’re going to fulfill it to the very end. So, all the kingdoms of the earth will vanish. They’ll leave not a trace behind them, but this everlasting divine history is all contained within you and you are going to fulfill that history of salvation. Every jot of it, not one little thing will you miss. And then you will know why God is mindful of man, because the whole secret of God is contained within man. God himself is buried in man.

In the Scripture, he is called, in the Old Testament, Jehovah; in the New he is called Jesus. But this is the same being buried in man. And his son is with him. The whole drama is a relationship between father and son. And one day you will find him. If the whole vast world rose in opposition, it would make no difference to me, for I am speaking from experience, I am not theorizing. I am not speculating. I’m telling you exactly what I have experienced. And the day will come that that which is now imprisoned within you after you are born from above, this body of yours will be split in two, from top to bottom. And the Spirit that has been held captive through the ages will be set free. And when he’s set free, he ascends like a fiery serpent. So, the ancient teachers in the second century of the Christian world, they spoke of this being, the Christ in man, as the suffering serpent and also the serpent in the wilderness. You will find it in the work of the second century. That serpent in the wilderness that was called a savior. One looked upon it, he was saved. You don’t look upon it, you experience it. And all that is now taking place here.

When he opened the eyes of the blind, he said, what do you see? He said, “I see men, but they look like trees walking.” I see men, but they look like trees walking. That’s a perfect vision. If you saw a man, as you see them on a chart minus the skin and saw all the great nerve centers and all the nerves of the body and all the blood vessels, all the veins and all the arteries, all anchored in the brain and all turned down, you’d see an inverted tree. It looks just like a tree but inverted. Now, the day will come when it’s going to be turned up. And the root will remain the same, it’s the brain, but then the tree grows up. It’s now turned down into generation; it will be turned around into regeneration.

I recall my vision of maybe twelve years ago, that man is now gone from this world. He was second in the Labour Party when Clement Attlee (1883–1967) was prime minister. And I saw him in this wonderful vision one night. I came with a group of men, all turned up. They were like human stags, antlers reaching up almost to the sky, growing out of the brain. And he took a branch and placed it on his head, thinking it would give him the same power that they enjoyed. And he ran and jumped and fell flat on his face. Went back again, he couldn’t quite understand how they could cross a chasm with no difficulty whatsoever. There was not a thing in the world beyond their power to bring it captive to them. They could cross the ocean without any difficulty. As this thing grew, with enormous power. And every time he tried it, he failed. He was trying to do what everyone in the world tries to do, to do it from without.All the outer ceremonies, all the outer rituals, all the outer degrees that men give each other—it doesn’t work that way at all. It all comes from within because the whole thing is within. And when man is turned around by a complete splitting of the temple, for the curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom, and at the base of your spine, you’re going to see a golden, pulsing liquid light. And as you see it, you’re going to know that you are it. You’re actually looking at yourself and yet it is formless and you fuse with it, and then you become that fiery serpent, and up you go into the rain and it vibrates like thunder. Then you are completely turned around. The energies that went down into generation are now turned up into regeneration.

I came through the Palace Hotel lobby soon after that experience. I had not mentioned it to my audience in San Francisco. An artist, a very great artist, was sitting in the lobby, she was waiting for me. I had an appointment. And so, I came through the lobby. As I came through, she was writing and scratching like mad on a piece of paper. And there she was and she held her hand and asked me not to talk to her, not yet. And she kept on making a quick sketch and then she gave me the sketch and she had drawn me. And coming out of my head were the antlers. She said, “Neville, they went beyond the ceiling.” It’s a three-story ceiling in the lobby of the Palace. “You came to the door and nothing stopped it. You came right through. There was no obstruction, and yet I could not stop but see. I saw these things coming out of your head like antlers going through the ceiling and not a thing could stop it.” Well, I had the experience. I hadn’t told it because if you tell these things, they think the man is insane. Why go and spend your money listening to it? Yet all these things are true. Here is the story of the 22nd chapter of Isaiah. He’s now going to speak of the one who can break the seal. And in this chapter, you’ll read it in the 22nd and 23rd verses of the 22nd chapter of Isaiah, and here he speaks of the root of David. He speaks of this one who will now receive a peg. He’s going to fasten him sure, a secure fastening. He’s going to hang the key of David on his shoulder. And that one will rule for a time. He will rule as God. Then the peg will break and all the burdens of Israel will fall from his shoulder, but he will have that burden to carry for a while.

And then this night I found a room, not quite as large as this, but square with one door leading into it. And I am seated on the floor talking to twelve men. I am discussing the word of God and explaining the word of God. Suddenly one of the twelve jumps up quickly and leaves the room. And I knew exactly what he is going to do. I knew he was going to reveal what he had heard. But I’m speaking of a different kingdom, not the kingdom of this world. I am talking of the kingdom of God, implying, naturally, in that you’re king. It’s a kingdom, it’s a realm, and you are king. He leaves quickly and he had no sooner gone through the door than a handsome man about 6’ 6” entered, beautifully arrayed in the finest clothes. All the purples and all the lovely things of the period of, say, the first century. He comes through the door and he walks like a soldier, straight as an arrow, and he goes to the extreme end. He turns just like a soldier at a right angle, walks to the extreme end again, the same military turn. And he walks to the center and then he comes down, like it’s here, and he stops in front of me. But as he entered, he was such an important character that the thirteen of us or rather, the twelve now because one was gone, we stood up and stood at attention as he entered. He was that important a figure. He came in front of me and as he did so his attendant handed him a mallet and then a peg and then he hammered the peg into my shoulder, blow after blow. It wasn’t painful, but every blow I could feel, but it wasn’t painful. Then he took a very sharp instrument that the attendant handed him and with one quick sweep he severed my sleeve. And then he took the end of it and he pulled it this way and discarded it. It was a beautiful baby blue color. I recall looking at it and seeing how altogether lovely it was, what fine material. And then he stretched his hands out and formed the cross, just like this. Then he embraced me. Then he kissed me on the right side of my neck and I in turn, kissed him on the left side, I mean on the right side of his neck, and then the whole scene dissolved and there’s the fulfillment of the Scripture. Everyone is going to have it. Everyone will have the opportunity to exercise that power, to exercise that authority. All will have it because the whole drama is contained within the individual.

I’m not speaking of you in the plural. I’m speaking of you in the singular. That’s why I say, he is mindful of you because his whole secret is contained in you. And when the whole thing is unfolded, you are God the father. And because he is a father, there is a son and his son is David and David calls you father. That is the story, and everyone is going to have it. So why should I be constantly concerned about the realm that really is unreal? I’ve seen it, that ancient history as the world teaches its ancient history, it isn’t secular history, it is divine history and it is forever. For David and his descendants forever. Now he is the anointed. He shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. So, I am the root and the offspring of David.

The root is the graft. You take a bud from the Tree of Life and you simply graft it onto the Tree of Knowledge. When the time for it to bear comes, it will bear the fruit, not of the Tree of Knowledge. It will bear the fruit of the Tree of Life. That’s what a graft does. So, you graft a tree, you find a good stump, a good tree, a solid tree. And from a tree of your choice, you take a good bud, a good graft, and you implant it into that tree. And then in time it grows, and it bears, and you watch it. It’s not going to bear the fruit of the tree on which it is grafted. It’s going to bear the fruit of the tree from which it was taken. And we are all taken from the Tree of Life. That’s Jesus. I am the resurrection and the life.

And here is the sacrifice, the whole tree. And we are now grafted with the Tree of Life. We do not differ in any respect from the parent tree when we grow. It’s the same strength, the same power, the same wisdom, the same everything that the parent tree has. If you’ve ever seen a graft, my mother had wonderful roses. She was passionately fond of roses, and I can see my mother now grafting. That was the one job she wanted to do for herself. The gardeners would clean the yard they would dig and they’d fertilize, they’d water. When it came to grafting, that was mother’s choice. And she wanted to do her own grafts. She selected the graft. She selected a strong tree that would bear it. And when that graft took and began to bear the rose, it was the rose of the tree from which she took the graft.

So, you’ve been grafted, as you’ve been told in the book of James. Received with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save yourselves. So no longer will you be eating of the Tree of Knowledge, which is turned down into generation. When it’s completely taken and the time is right for it to bear, you’re going to bear the same fruit as that which is recorded in the gospels concerning Jesus Christ. So, when the arm was unveiled, as you’re told in the 52nd chapter of Isaiah, “To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Who will believe our report?” You have to take it on faith. If a man goes into the desert, the wilderness, for forty days and forty nights, and he is alone and he’s tempted, and then the evangelists write the temptations down in detail, how would they know unless they were told? How on earth would they know unless they were told by the one who had the experience? How would anyone know the experience of the descending dove unless told? Where it’s actually told in the book of Mark, the earliest gospel, that it was seen by him alone. No one saw or experienced it but the one who had the experience. So, he had to tell it. I have told the experience. And these things happen over a period of time. And these things reveal to you who you are. I could tell you from now to the ends of time that you are God. I could tell you that you are the father of David. But I can’t really convince you. You have to have the experience and the experience you will have. Christ is a witness to the truth of God. I am a witness to the truth of Christ, for Christ is the anointed. And the anointed is David. I have found David with my holy oil. I have anointed him. Where is the Christ child? Where is the Christ youth? Forever and forever, he plays that part. And one day when you awake, you are the Lord because you are the father of David. You’ll never know you are the Lord unless David calls you father. And when he calls you father, there is no uncertainty as to the relationship. It’s like memory returning. And the whole thing comes back. So, the memory of the bud was so great it produced the parent stock. The whole thing came back. If God is a father, and then I take from that tree, which is a father, and implant it upon this that is barren, when that bud takes and it grows, I must be a father. I must bear the same flower, the same fruit, that the tree brought from which I took the graft. So, we are all engrafted with the word of God. And all will bear this fruit of God.

And then you enter an entirely different world, clothed differently, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. These bodies cannot function in that world. It’s an entirely different body. And I call that body heaven for wherever you are, clothed in that body, everything is perfect. You could pass through hell. It would cease to be hell while you walk through. It would be transformed in harmony with the perfection that springs within you. You couldn’t go anyplace and see anything but perfection because you are perfect. Your body is perfect. It’s immortal. It never vanishes. It never withers. It’s the immortal you. And one day you will see it. It will come out. When you are clothed in it, you feel as though you are clothed in fire and air, and you do not raise a finger to transform anyone. In your presence, they are transformed. If they’re blind, you do nothing. You show no compassion. You do nothing. The blind sees in your presence. The deaf hears. The one without the arm, the arm comes back, and fits the socket. The one without a foot, the foot comes back, and fits the socket. And wherever you go, everything is made perfect.

Not a thing can die in your presence because you are the God of the living. You are the resurrection and the life. And that’s your future. That’s your destiny. I will be long gone but you’ll be telling the story. And those after you will get it from you and they’ll tell the story and they cannot deny it because time will prove it to be true. Or you can deny it now in words, but you can’t deny it in Scripture. Bring me the Bible, if you think you know the Bible, let us open the Bible together, and I will confirm everything I’ve told you in Scripture. It’s all there, but man has been, well, taught a strange lesson. And he’s completely confused these characters. And now he sticks one on the outside and worships it. Don’t do it. As in the very end, they fell before him. He said rise, you’re a man. I’m a man just like you. You wanted no worship because in the end, when you awake, you are God.

There is only God in the world and his son. His son is his will. He does all the father’s will. And so, the day will come, you will know that he is the witness to the truth of God. And you’ll also know that you are the witness to the truth of the son because you saw the son and you know he does exist. He has been resurrected. And his name is David; not a David, the David, the only David. And no one has to tell you until he stands before you. And it’s absolutely as I’ve told you, just as I’ve described it.

Tonight, if you are here for the first time and you expected something entirely different, then let me give you a short portion of the Law.You are living in a world that really is a psychological world. All things take place in the imagination of man—all things. And so, because they do take place there, let them take place there first before you expect to see them on the outside. So, assume that you are the man that you would like to be, believe that you are, try to catch all the feelings that would be yours if they were true. Give it all the tones and the feeling of reality. And then sleep. Go sound asleep in that assumption that you are already the one that you want to be. Try that, and I assure you from my own experience, what you have assumed that you are, you’ll become. You have already become what you are because you want to assume that you are it. Everything in the world is just like that. It’s all imagination and all that you behold, although it appears without, really is within, in your own wonderful human imagination of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.

Bring the whole thing into this world. So, you lose it—you can repeat it for the reality never disappears. This is the shadow world. You bring it back by contemplating the state and assuming the state once again and feeling that you are now what you want to be. And bring it right back into your world. Man thinks it’s gone and gone for good. No, the eternal forms are forever. They never disappear. One day you’re going to have this experience. You will see man differently. You will see everything differently. And when you see it, and you are in control of your own being, you’re going to see the whole vast world is dead, actually dead. And you are the living reality of the world. Everything round about you is frozen as though it’s made of clay. And you will know it because once you see it and the whole thing is still, time stands still. Then you’ll release that activity within you that you froze and everything will be animated and continue to fulfill its purpose. And then you’ll realize where the animation was, it was all in you. The cause of it all, was all in you.

So, he was perfectly right when he changed the little words around, I mean, the poet that I quoted in the beginning. He stared into the “dark pit of self, whence all had sprung.” For that’s where it springs, it comes out of the self. But now, men came out, they’re all dead, and he buried himself and he and his son are one. So, he buried the reality in man. And man became a living being. And by his presence, he turned death into sleep. And then he dreams the dream of life. And this is the dream of life. The day will come and the dream will come to an end. When it comes to an end, you will awake as the dreamer and the dreamer is God.

It seems sacrilegious, doesn’t it? But I am telling the truth. You’re not a little worm, you never were a little worm. You came down from heaven and only he can ascend into heaven who came down from heaven. No one has ever ascended who did not descend. You descended. Read Scripture carefully and you’ll see the preexistence of the one spoken of in Scripture as Jesus and the son Christ. Read the 17th chapter of the book of John: “Return unto me the glory that was mine before that the world was.” He’s asking for the return of a glory he held with the father before that the world was. “Father, I’ve accomplished the work thou gavest me to do. Now glorify thou me with thine own self, with that glory which I held with thee before that the world was.” Is that preexistence? In this world, his splendor was set aside; he now asked for the return of that splendor for he’s done the work that he came to do and having finished it, he’s returning and only he could ascend who descended.

And so, if you have not descended, you can’t ascend. No one has ever ascended but he who descended. But I am telling you, you did descend. We all came down together. One man fell carrying all. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And if one fell, then we all in him fell. One was crucified, all were crucified. So, we are the ones who hang upon the tree. Are we not told in Acts, “And they’re hanging him upon a tree”? Now we are told in Deuteronomy, “Cursed be everyone who hangs upon a tree.” And then in Galatians, “He took upon himself a curse because he was hanging upon a tree.” Well, this is the perfect tree. It is a perfect tree. “And when the eye was open, he saw men like trees walking.” This is where Christ is hanging. And he’s buried in everyone until you awake. And when you awake, you are the Lord and the father of Christ. You are the Jesus spoken of, and you have a son and his name is David. He is the Christ. So here, these are the trees on which Christ is crucified. The Cosmic Christ because he became humanity. Not one little man but humanity. Every child born of a woman is God crucified. That’s where the drama begins. It begins at Golgotha. That’s when God became man. And then man becomes God at Bethlehem. Man reverses that. He thinks the crucifixion comes last. No, it begins the drama. Paul said, “I have been crucified in Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

So, I have been crucified with Christ. That’s what he said. Now, he who is united with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. And if I have been united with the Lord in a death like his, I shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. So, the resurrection is taking place morning, noon, and night in the world, but not everyone is called to tell it. Many a one goes this night to sleep, not to wake here anymore, who possibly had the experience, but never had the urge to tell it. But I was called. I was embraced by the risen Lord and sent. Therefore, I have to tell it. And tell it I must and I will. But I’m telling it as I’ve experienced it. Not as teachers tell it today; I cannot go along with that. I was raised with that but then I found it wasn’t true.

And then when I had the experience, found confirmation for the experience in Scripture, and there it is. Great triumphs he gives to his king and then he speaks of the steadfast love. He shows steadfast love to his anointed, then names it to David and his descendants forever, for you are coming out of humanity. That which is buried in you is coming out of humanity. And who is it? The father and son. I am the root and the offspring that is now the father of David, is the root of David, and the offspring of David, is the grandson of that father. But they are one. He said, I am the father of David, called it root, I am the root—and I am also the offspring. So, I am the fruit that is born by reason of being grafted unto humanity.

And it comes out and you are that being. You are the Lord or the root of David, for David calls you father. And no loss of identity, may I tell you. No. Although there’s only one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all; still in spite of that oneness there is no loss of identity. We are one body, yes—and yet you are individualized and you will be individualized forever and forever. But clothed in your glorious body. I’ll know you. But this will be like a dream. For we have gone through the experience of the dream of life. We won’t carry it with us. We will leave it behind. It was essential to the work that the father had planned for all. So, we fell—it’s told us in the 82nd Psalm, “I say you are gods”—meaning you—”all of you, sons of the most high, nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O ye, princes.” And so, we all fell. One man fell and became fragmented. And we are the fragmented being. Now, we’re being gathered together one by one. He calls us, calls us back into the one body, the one spirit. So, you’ll see why God is mindful of you. You are precious in his sight. Not one can be lost. Couldn’t lose one because then something would be missing in the body of God. And he could not allow one to be missing. Not one will be lost, not one in all my holy mountain said the prophet. So, take it home and dwell upon it. You’ll find that the things you need tonight badly in the world of Caesar, they’ll come. Your father knows what you need. You dwell upon the spiritual things and the earthly things will come. They’ll all come.

You don’t have to do anything on the outside. Not a thing on the outside, no special diet, no special ceremonies, rituals. My daughter works for Channel 28. And she told me to look at something last night, which I did. And here are all these, they call themselves followers of Krishna, all dressed up in their robes, all like nightgowns of ladies. The hair is completely shaved with a little pigtail coming out of the skull and then paint right down the nose and paint across the forehead and David Susskind (1920–1987) was the commentator. And he interviewed them and suddenly they all jumped up and started chanting Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Now they say they have a master. They show the picture of the master. They follow the master blindly. And it’s all for Krishna. He said, why all the dress, you are so conspicuous when you walk the streets dressed as women and all your robes, and then you walk down Fifth Avenue and you go bowing to people, they don’t know who you are, you frighten them, you scare them. So, that is something on the outside. And they think they’re really doing a great job. But he had them on for a little over an hour. It was amusing. They’re strict vegetarians. That’s all right, but that’s not going to get them into heaven.