Neville Goddard’s lecture 'Wonder Working Power' delivered on 03-02-1969 explores the innate creative capacity of human imagination as the divine force operating within. He interprets biblical figures such as Joshua and Isaac as allegories for the dynamic interplay between subjective desire and objective reality. By assuming the feeling of a desired state and maintaining vivid sensory imagery, one can effectively birth that state into objective manifestation. God and man are presented as one under the principle 'I AM,' emphasizing self-awareness as the source of miraculous transformation. God’s promise to Joshua thus becomes an internal assurance that every place and condition can be inhabited through conscious imagination. Examples from his own life, such as traveling mentally to Barbados and securing military discharge, illustrate the practical application of these spiritual laws.
You have within you a wonder working power! To understand this power, let us turn to the Book of Joshua, where we are told: “Wherever the sole of your foot shall tread, I have given you.” The Hebrew form of the word “Joshua” is Yad He Vav [corr. Yod Hey Vav Shin Hey, pron. Ye-ho-SHOO-ah] and means, “Jehovah saves”. So you see, Joshua is not promising another, but himself!
Jehovah leads the dance of life. We are his dancers, yet his very self; for God and his eternal name is one I AM. There is no place you can go and not know that you are! You may suffer from amnesia and not know who you are or where you are, but you know that you are; so without voicing it you are saying I AM! That’s God. There is no place where God is not and there is nothing that God is not; for if there is something, it has to be God!
Now, all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. If you will take the idea of inner penetration seriously, you will find its possibilities are staggering. Everything in this world penetrates your brain. You penetrate my brain just as I penetrate yours. My apartment is several miles from here. New York City is three thousand miles, and the place where I was born is five thousand miles away. I know they are there, but if I accept the thought of inner penetration then I believe they are also in my brain.
If I desire to visit my island home in Barbados, but do not have the means or the time to go there, I can enter its image in my imagination by approaching it on the fiery chariot of my contemplative thought. I have done it. I do not use this wonder working power lightly anymore, because I know that after imagining, my desire fulfilled (although I may forget it) I will be compelled to experience it in this world of shadows.
This wonder working power is to be used for anything you desire. It now penetrates your brain, and it is wherever you are. I know that Barbados is in the outer world, but I also know that I am all imagination. I know that God is Man and exists in us and we in Him; that the eternal body of Man is the Imagination, and that is God Himself. So if I – imagination – enter into an image I desire to occupy, no earthly power can stop that image from becoming an objective fact.
What is the secret that makes this wonder working power operate? Feeling! Reality is controlled by feeling, as told us in the 27th chapter of Genesis. The central character in this chapter is the state called Isaac, who has two sons – Esau and Jacob. Esau is clothed in objective reality, while Jacob wears subjective reality as longings, wishes, and desires. When Jacob disguised himself as an objective fact, Isaac said: “Come near that I may feel you to determine whether you are Esau or not.” And when he asked: “Are you really Esau?” Jacob answered, “I am.”
Put yourself into a subjective state. Then feel the objectivity of the state by giving it sensory vividness and tones of reality. Then deceive yourself into believing that the image into which you have entered is now objectively real. Do that, and you have entered the state called Isaac. And we are told that when Isaac once more saw his objective world, Esau returned and Jacob disappeared. Then he realised that he had been self-deceived, but could not take back the blessing given to the subjective state.
Although your objective world denies the reality of what you have done in your imagination, that which you have subjectively assumed is on its way to supplant your objective world and become your Esau. You see, in life you are playing the part of Isaac with your two sons: Esau – your objective world, and Jacob – your subjective one. Your subjective world may seem to be clothed in unreality; but when you enter into its image in your imagination and clothe that image with feeling, your subjective desire takes on the tones of reality.
This is how I do it: When I close my eyes this world is shut out and I, like Isaac, am blind to the outer world. Then I feel myself into the state of my desire. With my inner eye I see it all around me. I sense its solidity, and when my five senses are awakened I have the feeling of relief, knowing it is accomplished. When I open my physical eyes, Esau – my physical world – returns and tries to persuade me that what I did was unreal. But having done it time and time again, I know that my desire is moving towards its objective fulfillment.
This is what I mean by wonder working power. It is all within your own wonderful human imagination, for that is God. The promise to Joshua is God’s promise to himself, for there was no one to play the part that is so uniquely you, but God. Having conceived a play which existed only for him, God, the director and author, became the actor. His name is I am! Before I am known as John, Peter, man, or woman – I simply am! Clothing myself in what I would like to be, I am rich, poor, known, or unknown. Although my objective world denies the reality of what I have done, when I have felt the reality of my desired state, I have given it my blessing and cannot take it back.
The moment that which was subjective becomes objectively real to you, you have given it your blessing and cannot take it back. Clothed in the feeling of insecurity, your outer world (Esau) reflects that feeling. But when you clothe yourself in the feeling of being rich, even though it is subjective, watch – for as insecurity will no longer have your blessing to remain alive, riches will supplant it.
Every state of consciousness is within you, for everything is God made visible! And all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle. The moon is remote in space, yet it penetrates your brain; therefore it is in your brain. I can’t take you with me to view the earth from the moon, but you can go there yourself. You can go to any point in space that you can conceive of, by just imagining you are already there.
When I was in the army, my commanding officer denied my request for discharge. His word was final in the world of Caesar – but not in the world of God, for that very day I assumed I was honorably discharged and living in my apartment in New York City, 2000 miles away.
Sleeping on a little cot in the barracks, I assumed I was in my own comfortable bed. I made it quite clear to myself that I was not on furlough, but was honourably discharged and once more a civilian. In my imagination, my wife was in her bed and my little girl in hers.
Then I got off the bed, walked over to the window, and looked out upon a familiar scene that could only be seen from there. I saw the Holly Apartments across the way, as well as Washington Square. I walked through every room in the apartment, touching familiar objects, and then returned to my bed to sleep in New York City as though it were a fact.
Early the next morning, I saw a sheet of paper which resembled the application I had made. Then a hand holding a pen scratched out the word “Disapproved,” and boldly wrote the word “Approved”! And I heard a voice say: “That which I have done, I have done! Do nothing!” Knowing exactly what I had done, I knew I was moving towards its objective confirmation and no power on earth could stop it. Nine days later, the man who disapproved my application gave me an honorable discharge!
I tell you: everything is possible to the individual when he knows who he is. You are the Joshua of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New. And Jesus, your own wonderful human imagination, is Jehovah. He is your awareness, but as long as you see Jehovah as someone other than yourself you will not apply this principle. You must be willing to give up all foreign gods, all idols, and return to the one and only God, whose name is in you as your very being!
If you were trained in the Christian faith, you were taught to believe that Jesus was on the outside. But how can you put him to the test if he is another? There never was another Joshua or Jehovah. There is only God, the director of the great dance of life whose dancers are himself. God plays the part of the bum and dances the dance of poverty. He also plays the part of a millionaire and dances to the tune of millions, as every part is being played by God.
Now, everyone must act from where he is! Ask yourself: where am I? If I am God, where can I go and God is not? If I make my bed in hell, God is there. If I make it in heaven, God is there, for everything penetrates me! I do not have to physically move. Simply by adjusting my thinking I can move from one state to another.
I remember one cold winter night in New York City. I was lecturing in a church off Times Square where the usual crowd was in excess of a thousand, but because of the cold and snow there were only about 200 in attendance. My first book had just been released, and that night maybe 50 copies were sold, and since I had run the presses on 5000 I was eager to get the book in distribution.
Because of the storm outside, that night I spoke of the warmth of Barbados: the palm trees and the odors of the tropics. And when I retired, I felt myself in my mother’s home in Barbados. I listened to the movement of the leaves and smelled the tropical atmosphere. Then a cable came saying that mother was dying and I should return home. Within 24 hours my wife and I set sail for Barbados. I had put myself there and had to fulfill my imaginal act, even though it was an inconvenient time for me to go; so I do not treat my wonder working power lightly!
When I ask you to adjust yourself to a certain state, I mean for you to feel it is real, for reality is controlled by feeling. The day will come when feeling will modify, or even void, that which you think are the laws of nature and science, and you will discover they are not so at all.
This wonder working power is all within you, and can be operated consciously when you know who you are. If you get down on your knees and pray to an external God, you do not know this power. Whether you are in a church or a bar, God is there; and wherever God is, that place is holy. A bar is just as holy as a church, when you are there knowing who you are!
It does not matter where you are or what time it is; you can adjust your mind and make anything real through feeling. Although your objective world will deny its reality, the state you entered subjectively is moving towards fulfillment. We are always imagining, although totally unaware of what we are doing.
Yeats once said: “I will never be certain it was not some woman treading in the winepress who started a subtle change in men’s mind, or that a passion, because of which so many countries have given to the sword, did not begin in the mind of some poor shepherd boy, lighting up his day for a moment before it ran upon its way.”
Someone in prison feeling abused by society can cause the combustion of the world by imagining getting even with those who placed him there, while those who did it think they are safe, not realising that – although the man is in prison – he is God, using his wonder working power.
If you know there is only God, who would you want to hurt? You would realise that no man could ever shoot another, for there is no other. There is nothing but God, the one and only reality. This is the Sh’ma, the great confession of faith: “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Keep this in mind and you will never go wrong.
If God is one, there cannot be another. I am the one body fragmented in order for the poem to become alive. As I gather myself together to rebuild the temple which was destroyed when I deliberately shattered myself, the dead stones are made alive once more. One by one each fragmentation returns to the same body, making it more luminous, more transparent, and more creative, for God is an ever-expanding creative being.
This wonder working power is in your own wonderful human imagination. That is God. Man is all imagination, and God is Man and exists in us and we in Him. The Eternal body of Man is the imagination, and that is God Himself. A Christian calls the imagination Jesus. A Jew calls it Jehovah. Tradition claims Jesus and Jehovah are idols – but God’s true name is I am!
Believe in the human imagination, the only true God, by consciously using your wonder working power. Where can you go that you are not imagining? No matter where you are, you are imagining (aware of) being there. A newborn child does not know who he is, where he is, or what he is; but he knows he is. That is God. He is your wonder working awareness, the wonder working power of Imagination!
I hope you take me seriously and learn to consciously believe in your inner penetration. Everything penetrates your brain, or you could not be aware of it – be it good, bad or indifferent. You don’t have to take a train, a boat, or a car to go anywhere. All you need do is adjust your thinking. Affirm: “I am possessing it now” and persist until you feel the relief of possession. Then go about your business, knowing that in a way you know not of, you will be led to the fulfillment of what you did within yourself!
You do not have to consciously determine the series of events you will encounter; they will simply unfold in your world. You may meet a seeming stranger. Others may appear, and – upon reflection – you may even give them credit for your success; but they were only playing a part, as all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle.
Others penetrate you and you penetrate them, for we are all one. If someone can play the part necessary for you to climb on that rung of the ladder, then he will do it without his knowledge of consent. Do not think of individuals, but of what you want as an end!
Shape your life wisely by becoming aware of the desire you are shaping in your mind, for without desire there is no power in life. Your power line is I am, while your desire is the light bulb. Just as it is impossible for a light bulb to give off light when it is not attached to the power line, so it is with you. You must attach your desire to your I am for it to illuminate and become objective to you.
Give lovely gifts to all you meet, for everyone is yourself pushed out. Take a noble concept you would like to experience, and adjust your thinking to it, by feeling you have moved into its fulfillment. Give it reality through feeling. Look at your world from this point, then open your eyes knowing that although your objective world denies it, you have given your desire its right of birth, and nothing can stop its fulfillment.
Read the 27th chapter of Genesis carefully, remembering that all of the characters spoken of there are personifications of states within you. As Isaac, you always have two sons: your present objective world and your present subjective world. The story tells you how to clothe yourself with the subjective desire, through feeling, until it supplants its objective brother.
That is how you move from one state to another until you reach the state called Jesus. Then the story recorded in the gospels will fulfill itself in you, casting you in the central role. Only this experience can save you from this world of Caesar, for you are redeemed, from within yourself, by recreating the story of Jesus Christ.
Now let us go into the silence.
First, Neville Goddard radicalizes traditional theology by identifying God not as an external deity but as the universal power of human imagination. He locates the divine within the self through his mantra 'I AM,' asserting that every awareness and experience is fundamentally God made visible. This redefinition collapses the distinction between worshipper and worshipped, making spiritual practice an act of inner recognition rather than external supplication. By removing foreign gods and idols, God’s creative force becomes accessible and immediate in the daily life of the individual.
Central to this lecture is the technique of inner penetration: the conscious entry into a desired subjective state through vivid sensory feeling. Goddard emphasizes that feeling is the operative agent of reality creation, and that layering imagination with emotions transforms mere fantasies into impending physical facts. This process relies on sensory vividness—seeing, touching, hearing, and feeling the desired state within the mind. Persistence in this state, despite outer contradictions, builds momentum until the subjective supplants the objective.
In reinterpreting biblical narratives, Goddard uses Joshua, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau as symbolic archetypes of consciousness. Joshua represents the internal savior—the self’s ability to inhabit any chosen state—while Isaac embodies the duality of objective and subjective worlds. The Jacob–Esau story illustrates the transition from desire (subjective) to realization (objective) through self-deception empowered by feeling. By internalizing these stories, listeners learn to view scriptural events as instruction manuals for psychological transformation.
Neville’s own experiences serve as practical validations: his mental journey to Barbados, his honorable discharge during army service, and his lecture hall visualization during a storm. Each anecdote demonstrates the unconditional reliability of the wonder working power when feeling and imagination align. These case studies reinforce the principle that no earthly authority or physical distance can obstruct a mind resolutely informed by 'I AM' awareness. The lecture thus provides a reproducible framework for intentional manifestation.
Finally, the lecture extends its implications to universal unity and compassionate living. Recognizing that 'all things by a law divine in one another’s being mingle,' Goddard invites practitioners to see every individual as themselves projected outward. This perspective fosters empathy and dissolves adversarial relationships, as harming another would equate to harming oneself. Ultimately, the wonder working power is portrayed as both a tool for personal transformation and a pathway to collective harmony under the divine imagination.
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