You Must Experience God

God is known by experience or not at all. I have experienced God. I can no more deny it than I can the humblest evidence of my senses. And so, I feel qualified to tell you how you are going to experience God. There is only God in the world. When you say, “I am,” that’s God forever and forever.

Tonight, you will know why the term “Judeo-Christian” came to be hyphenated. The story as told in the Old Testament is a prophetic blueprint; that which is told in the New is its fulfillment. They are really two parts of one book: the prophecy and its fulfillment.

God became as we are, that we may be as He is.* Every little child born of woman is aware that it is. Before it is aware of what it is, who it is, where it is, it is aware that it is. That’s fundamental. That is God- in-that-child. It’s the same God in the adult. It is the dreamer in man. It has to be awakened; and when it awakes, it is the being in whom it awakes, and then he knows who he is.

We are told in Scripture that: “The hour is coming when all of those who are in the tomb will hear His voice and come forth.” They hear the voice of the Son: it’s called the voice of the child. And the voice of the child, like a tuning fork, sets the tone; and then the dreamer awakes and knows that he is God. It’s entirely up to the voice of the Son.

“When the time had fully come, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Father.” He is crying Father, but we do not hear it—not until “the fullness of time has come.” So, we are told in the 44th Psalm: “Rouse Thyself. Why sleepest Thou, O Lord?” It is God who sleeps in man. It is God-in-man who does everything that man does—good, bad or indifferent. He actually became as I am— that’s His name—that I may be as He is. And He is Father.

The day is coming; everyone will know the experience that I have had, for there is no other experience in eternity that can convince you that you are God the Father, other than this experience. His Son must call you, and you must respond; and when you actually hear it and then look and see what is calling, and it is your son, David, then everything returns. Memory returns, and you know exactly who you are: that you are God the Father, and your son is David.

This secret is told us in Scripture in the words Jesus Christ, and you take it as one being—one being only if you know that “I and my Father are one;” but if you do not know that, here you find two beings. Jesus is I Am. That’s the Lord. “No one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is called the “Remembrancer.”

“I will go and I will send the Holy Spirit who will bring to your understanding all that you have heard from me.” So, he brings back the memory that you lost. So, no one can say that “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. So, when the Spirit comes and memory returns—but you will never know that you really are until you hear the voice of your own son, for you’re suffering from complete and total amnesia. You do not know that you are God the Father. And you will never know it until you hear the son’s voice; he is calling and calling, but only when the moment is ripe will you hear it. And just as we have told you, like the tuning fork it sets the tone, and it wakes you, and you hear it. When you awake, standing before you is your son; and memory returns—the Remembrancer, the Holy Spirit. And then you know exactly who you are, and you are God the Father.

It is going to happen to every child born of woman. And therefore, every child born of woman is one with the speaker who has had that experience, because it is the identical Son who is calling him Father. And there is only one God, one Father of all, and only one Son. So, when he calls you Father, and you know it because memory returns, and he has called me Father, and I know it—then you and I are one.

So, there is only one body, one spirit, one hope, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all. That’s the mystery of Scripture. It hasn’t a thing to do with secular history. It is all salvation history. Not a thing to do with history as the world teaches it. You and I are experiencing history—secular history; and my history is known to anyone who wants to investigate it. I wouldn’t say that it is anything to write about. I was born in a simple little environment without any educational, social, financial background whatsoever. I am making a struggle like all people make a struggle in the world—to pay rent and to buy food, and then to put the garments on the body. That’s a struggle for everyone. They seem to have no time for the Spirit. But the day is coming, all will have this experience, regardless of the struggle; and no one will be greater than the other, because everyone is the same God the Father—the Father of the one and only Son, who is David.

So, you know why we hyphenate the name “Judeo-Christian.” Judaism is the foundation and Christianity is its fulfillment. That is the fruit on the tree; that’s the flower. Without that tree, it couldn’t bear the fruit; so, the whole thing is contained in that Old Testament, but it is adumbrated; it’s a foreshadowing in a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. When it happens, it’s not what the world thought should happen. They are expecting some being to come from without and save them, and He doesn’t come that way. He comes to us as “one unknown,” yet one who in the most ineffable mystery lets the individual to whom He comes experience who He is, and you will never experience who He is until He awakes by the voice of His Son who is calling: “Rouse Thyself. Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off forever”—as you read it in the 44th Psalm, the 23rd verse.

So, as we are told in the 5th chapter of John: “And the hour is coming when all those who are in the tomb will hear His voice”—the Son’s voice—“and come forth.” And the tomb is your own wonderful skull. You are not buried in any cemetery in this world. Let them build all the great mausoleums they want. That’s man. It is big business. Let them do it; let them build it. But you are buried in your skull. That’s where God is buried. And out of that Golgotha, He will rise. And He will rise while you walk the earth. You will sleep this night without knowing you will be awakened by the call of that voice. The voice is a vibration. It is a sound. And so, David will sound the call. It will be in tune with you if the hour is right; and then you will awake to find yourself completely entombed within your own skull. And without any assistance from without, you will push the base of your skull and come out, just like a child being born from the womb of woman, only this is now being “born from above,” not from below.

And when you come out, all the symbolism of Scripture will surround you. The witnesses will be there. There are three—and the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, which is only the sign of your exit from that heavenly “womb.” You are born from above. And from then, you go to another scene, another scene, over a period of three and a half years, and your journey is then completed. You’ll remain in this world long enough to tell of your experience—to tell of your own experience of God. And until God is experienced, you do not know Him.

Let all the preachers do what they want; it’s perfectly all right. They are sound asleep because God-in-them is sound asleep, and they are speculating. They are theorizing, based upon what they believe God ought to do. He should punish this one and punish that one; and they do not know everyone punished is God being punished for His dream. He is dreaming the dream of life. And many dreams are like nightmares; whether they be waking dreams or the dreams of sleep, they are nightmares. But nevertheless, it’s still God dreaming.

Who is dreaming when he wakes in the morning? We will say, “Well, I had a dream,” and you had a dream. “A horrible dream! I was”—and then he begins to describe it: but what is he saying? He is calling Him by the name of God. It was God who had the dream. When he wakes, “I am going to do so-and-so.” Who is that saying, “I am going to do so-and-so?” That is God. There is nothing but God in the world. There is no room for anyone in the world but God and His only begotten Son. And His Son is David. That’s His Son. Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah, and “David in the spirit called him ‘my lord.’” That’s the son calling him “my lord.” Here is Jesus of Scripture—the awakened God. He’s not asleep. Here is the one who first awoke in the world. But then he calls us “brothers.” He said, “Go unto my brothers and tell them I am ascending unto my Father,” but he said, “I and my Father are one”—“unto my God,” and he also said, “My Father is your Father. My God is your God;” and “I and my Father are one;” and my Father is He Whom you call “God.”

Here the mystery begins to unfold. Until you actually experience it, you do not know how wonderful Scripture is. Man must experience Scripture before he can begin to understand how altogether wonderful it is. It’s eternally true. From beginning to end, the whole thing is true, and it is not secular history. It’s divine history.

So, I share with you what I know from experience. I am not theorizing. I am not speculating. It happened to me—a simple man, as you are simple; and I did not for one moment suspect this was the mystery until it actually unfolded within me and I experienced it. When someone who supposedly lived three thousand years ago calls me “Father,” I know exactly that I am his father; there was no uncertainty as to this relationship. I am looking into the face of the most heavenly youth, and he was the one who called me from my profound sleep; and when I awoke, it was God awoke, for he is calling upon the Lord to awake: “Rouse Thyself. Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake!” And then you awake as though you had never been awake. It’s a peculiar, strange awaking that takes place in you. And now you see this heavenly, eternal being who is the Son of God; and because he is going to wake you, you will know that he is your son, and he will know that you are God.

So, in the end, everyone will awake, and everyone will be God. So, it takes all of us to make the Lord. It’s a compound unity—the word “Elohim.” It is a plural word. “In the beginning God”—that word is Elohim. And “God said, let us make man in our image.” That word is Elohim—a compound unity: one made up of others. It takes all of us to make the one God. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one”—not two.

So here, the only one who could ever rouse you and actually bring you from your profound sleep is your son, whose name is David. “I will tell of the decree of the Lord,” said David. “He said unto me, Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” And so, we have confused it with Jesus, and Jesus is the Lord. He is the Lord speaking. He is the Lord who inspired the prophets to write what they did. And finding no one to fulfill it, He Himself came into the world and became man. He became you. His name is I Am. That’s the Lord God Jehovah that we call “Jesus” in Scripture. That’s I Am.

“Do you not realize,” said Paul, “that Jesus Christ is in you?” Don’t you know that He is in you? Are you looking for Him to come from without when He is within you? Well, He is within. You cannot say, “I am” and point elsewhere. Whether you are in a frightful dream, you are aware. To be aware is saying, “I am.” And you can’t point on the outside of self when you say, “I am;” and “that is my name forever and forever.” And that is the Lord Jesus in every being in the world.

But his Son plays such an important part—that Son called David. You say he is the son of Jesse and Jesse means “I Am.” The word Jesse means “Jehovah exists.” It is any form of the verb to be. In other words, I am. That is the Father of David.

And what I tell you I am telling you from experience. I am not the scholar who simply went through Scripture and combed it to bring forward this theory. It’s not theory with me. I am not qualified to go through the Scriptures—knowing Greek and knowing Latin and knowing Aramaic—to do that. It has happened to me. It was all revelation. So let the scholars go on and try to find it. Let them go on. Until it’s revealed to them, they do not know it. Revealed truth cannot be actually, legally or—I would say—logically proven. It’s all revealed. If it isn’t revealed, well then speculate. And I am not speculating. I am telling you exactly who God is. And until you experience God, you do not know Him. And I am telling you from my own experience, you will experience God; and then you will know Him. And you’ll know why we hyphenate the words Judeo-Christian. It’s one tree. The tree is Judaism; the fruit is Christianity. Christianity is simply the fulfillment of Judaism.

So here, he tells you: “I will not leave you desolate. I will come again.” And then He becomes invisible. The story is told us in the pre-existence before that the world was. And here, He becomes invisible, because He takes up His residence in us; and the darkest hour in the world, symbolized in Scripture as the three hours of darkness that descended—no; the darkest hour is when God became invisible. As He became invisible, he took up His residence in us; and man is looking for Him to come from without, and He cannot come from without. He will rise from within, but only at the call of His Son’s voice.

So, in the fullness of time, He sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying what? “Father.” And if you hear it, then you respond. Responding is waking. And you begin to awake within yourself to find yourself entombed within your own skull—completely sealed; but you have an innate wisdom. You know exactly what to do, for He prepared the way before He set forth. You know exactly what to do: you push the base of your skull, and it gives; and then you come out. And the symbolism surrounds you. You know exactly who you are—but not quite until the Son appears. At first, only the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes; and you are told in Scripture that’s only a sign, like the sign on the top of the White House. I ask the guard, “Is the President in residence?” And he looks. If his insignia is flying, he will say, “Yes, he is in residence.” If it’s not flying, the President is not in residence. If the little child is found wrapped in swaddling clothes, then I ask, “Is God born?” “Yes, here is His sign.” This shall be a sign unto you. You shall find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying on the floor. When that sign is found, the question is asked, “Is God born?” Yes, here is the sign of His birth. But when the child comes—not the little infant—when the Son comes, then you hear his voice. And the voice is the voice of God’s Son, who is Christ.

Christ is the Son of God. And the “Anointed” means Christ and Christ means the Anointed. And did he not say in the 89th Psalm: “I have anointed you with my holy oil.” Well, who is He speaking to? He is speaking to David. Did He not say in the 89th Psalm: “I have found David, and David has cried unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation.” Did He not say in the Second Psalm, “Thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee.” All these words were inspired by the One Being whom we call Jesus, the Lord. He inspired it through his prophets, and then Himself came down and took upon himself humanity. I am speaking of the Cosmic God—of the Cosmic Son. So, He is buried in every child born of woman, but this is so unique: He comes to us individually. He calls us, one by one, in season.

So tonight, could be your call. It may be tomorrow night. I hope it is not in the distant future. But He will call all; and when you take off this garment, having been called and having seen the Son, you have taken it off for the last time. Until it actually happens to you, death is not death. Death is nothing more than simply leaving a room and entering another room, simply like the room you left—the same terrestrial world. With all the struggles you left behind you. You’ll find them there. You are restored to life, not as a baby; no reincarnation. You are restored—a young man, a young woman, with not a thing missing. No need of anything to be added because nothing is missing; only you are young—about twenty years of age—to continue your journey in this world, to be confronted with all the problems that are here. Yes, and you marry there, too. You marry, and you grow old, and you die there, too. And if it hasn’t yet happened, you are restored again to continue the journey until it happens. But it’s going to happen to every being in the world. Not one can fail, because then God would fail, and that’s impossible.

So, everyone will awaken from the dream of life. And it doesn’t end at that moment in time that your senses cease to register that being and we speak of him as dead. He is not dead. He’s in a world just like this—restored to life in a world that is terrestrial, in a young, wholesome, healthy body, with all the problems that faced Him; because in the Resurrection of which I speak, there is no marriage, no male, no female—a completely transformed being, who is God. But until then there is still sex—very much so in that world. But I am telling you what I know. I see them—my father, my mother, my brother—so many friends who are gone. I see them. They are not gone at all. They are in a world just like this, with all their struggles.

Therefore, I ask you to live so that your mind can store a past worthy of recall, for you are taking that with you. Spend all of your time entertaining noble thoughts, for you are taking that with you into the world where you are headed, unless this thing happens before you make your departure from this world. If it does not happen before that, you are taking with you what you have actually entertained in this world. So, live so that your mind can store a past worthy of recall, because you are going to actually take it right into your world to resolve it. And that is a part of your struggle.

But the day is coming; everyone is going to have the experience that I have just told you. No one can avoid it. If others have other ideas, let them have it. I wouldn’t raise a finger to change it. They have all these “isms” in the world; let them have it—all kinds of concepts of what God ought to have done. What God ought to have done, He has already done. The drama is over. The Resurrection is taking place. It didn’t take place once and forever two thousand years ago. It is taking place at every moment of time. But not everyone is articulate. Not everyone is sent to tell it after it takes place. So, they will go through their little exit from this world, not having told it to anyone. On the other hand, I was not restrained. I had to tell it, like Jeremiah: “If I say I will not mention it, or speak anymore in His name, then there is in me, as it were, a burning fire, all shut up in my bones, and I am tired of holding it in, and I cannot.” So, I cannot restrain the impulse to talk about it. Others can. They are embarrassed even to bring it up; but I am not. It is part of my way of being, of thinking.

So, I tell you, the voice spoken of is a real voice, but like all voices, you are now interpreting the vibration that is coming from my mouth. It is all vibration; and then you actually translate it within yourself because it is simply impinging upon you. Well, this is the same voice. It’s just like the tuning fork. And then it sets a tone, and the tone rouses you if you are in tune with that tone; and then you are actually hearing Him call you. He is calling you “Father.” And you awake to find standing before you this heavenly youth. And then, at that very moment, you know exactly who he is, and he is David, the sweet Psalmist David; and he is your “son,” and you know he is your son. Memory has returned. So, “God became as we are, that we may be as He is.” Don’t for one moment forget that. That is the great sacrifice. It was God who “died.”

“Unless I die, thou canst not live/ But if I die, I shall arise again & thou with me.”* So, it is God who is crucified on these garments. And the God in you—His name is I Am. And when you hear the voice and you awake, who awakes? I awake. Who is waking? I am waking. And who is His Son’s name? I am telling you, His Son’s name is David; but because he has been anointed with the holy oil, he is the Christ. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” In the Old Testament, the word Christ is not used, but the word Messiah is. He is the Messiah, for the Messiah simply means the “anointed one.” And the Messiah is used only in the Book of John in the New Testament. He does speak of the Christ as the Messiah, and it is not Jesus. Jesus is the Lord. Yet the Son could say, “I and my Father are one.” So, “When you see me, you see the Father.” He is the image of the Father.

You are told, “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like Him.” I am telling you that is exactly what is going to happen. Forget the mask that you are now wearing. Behind that mask is the Ancient of Days, the Eternal One who is the Lord God Jehovah. And David is the image of the Lord God Jehovah. He is the Eternal Youth, and the Lord is the Ancient of Days, without beginning, without end.

So, when you dwell tonight on it, treat it seriously. What I have told you this night is true. I haven’t speculated. I haven’t turned to anyone for support. I was never taught it. It’s in the Bible, but I never saw it in the Bible until I experienced it. That is why I can tell you, until God is experienced, you do not know God. One must experience God to know Him. He is not deaf; you don’t have to scream to have Him hear you. You need not utter anything. Your simple thought is heard because who is hearing it? I am. That’s God. The way they have all these prayers—“let us pray.” They put on all these microphones and just blast the whole thing out calling upon God to hear them. That’s not God. God is within you. And the God—the only Living God—is your own wonderful human imagination. When you say, I am, that is God!

“By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” In His dream, naturally, He makes mistakes. God makes mistakes? There is only one that can make a mistake, and that is God. There is only one that can make anything, and that’s God. For in a nightmare, well, can you blame the man if he has the most horrible nightmare? You would console him in the morning if he told you of some horrible dream. You wouldn’t condemn him. Well now, this is a waking dream; but it is still a dream.

So, in the end, everything is forgiven. Every being in the world is forgiven, for there is only God who did it all! So, the story is the Father and His Son, and there is no other being in the world. And you are the Father and His Son is your son. And if he can say, “I and my Father are one,” then he can say of you, “I and my Father are one.” When you look into the face and you see that beauty—you cannot describe the beauty of David. No artist could paint it. He is the image of you. But no one knows it, only the mask that you wear, for He is the image of the invisible you, and He bears the express image of your person. But your person is not the thing that you wear as a mask. You are the Immortal Being. You are the Eternal Being. When you hear it and you really believe it, you will see why this book of sixty-six books is really a library. When you have a Bible of both the Old and the New under one cover, you have a library. Very few homes have sixty- six books in them. If they have a Bible, they have sixty-six books, and they have the greatest library in the world in having the Bible. And one is the Old; the other is the New. One foreshadows, and the other tells you how it is fulfilled. But even though it is fulfilled, it still remains a mystery to those who have not experienced it. So, I tell you He comes to us as One Unknown, yet one who in the most wonderful manner lets you experience who he is. And when you experience who he is, it’s your Self. That is God.

What a sacrifice. He literally became as I am that I may be as He is. And that is true of every child born of woman. Now, if you enjoy other things, enjoy them; but you will not in Eternity undo what I have told you. Not in Eternity will you disprove it, may I tell you? All the wisdom of the world cannot disprove what I have told you tonight. You may rise in opposition, and I wouldn’t bat an eye to argue with you, for I know what I have experienced. So let them argue. I will not argue. They said he was silent. “You will not speak to me.” Why argue the point? “So, you were a king. The world says so.” “It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give me the Kingdom.” Well, if He is going to give me the Kingdom, He is going to give me Himself, for He is the Kingdom. Read it in the 12th Chapter of Luke, the 32nd verse: “It is your father’s good pleasure to give”—you don’t earn it, it’s unmerited, it’s grace—“to give you the Kingdom.” And when He succeeds in giving me the Kingdom, He succeeded in giving me Himself, for He is the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not a realm, as the world teaches. It is God. The character that is God, that is perfect; so, wherever you are, clothed in that perfect character, everything is perfect. Everything is alive. Nothing is dead and nothing is imperfect. Wherever you are after you have received the gift. You could walk through the Petrified Forest, and it would all suddenly burst into blossom. Walk through the desert, and the desert will bloom. Come into any place where they are imperfectly formed—eyes that are missing out of their sockets will come out of the nowhere and fill the empty sockets, and they will be perfect. Arms missing? No, not in your presence when you receive the Kingdom. In the presence of You, the Perfect Man, nothing can remain imperfect; but you don’t do it out of compassion. You don’t even do anything. Your very presence does it! So, no matter where you are—go down into hell, hell is transformed into heaven. Wherever you are is perfect, because you are now the King. You have received the Kingdom. I am telling you from my own experience. You walk into a world, and the world is instantly transformed to be in harmony with the perfection that is springing within you.

So, I tell you, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” That is a wonderful way of telling you it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you Himself! That’s how the evangelist told it in the Book of Luke: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you Him-self.” And your Father is God. And God is Jesus. Jesus is the Lord. There is no other God! But He’s a father, and because He’s a father, He has a son. And I am telling you, in spite of the whole vast world, that Son is David, our sweet Psalmist of Biblical fame. And he will stand before you, and he too will call you “my Lord, my Father, the Rock of my Salvation.”

Now let us go into the silence.

Good, now are there any questions please? Any questions?

Questioner: Can I have two for the price of one?

Neville: Yes.

Questioner: In any of Blake’s writings can you tell whether or not he had received the Promise?

Neville: As far as I am concerned meeting Blake, as I have met him in this wonderful risen world, Blake had everything described in Scripture. When you meet him, he is one of the most majestic creatures that you could meet. Let me quote speaking of tonight’s lecture, it’s taken from his[1794] book Urizen, I think it’s the seventh chapter and, “The dead heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep. All things heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life.”

So, when God became man, he transformed death into sleep. God is infinite mercy and man is dead. God, in becoming man, made man a living soul. He transformed death into sleep and then in the dream he transformed the dream of himself into Himself and raises him as Himself.

Oh know, Blake had it. But you’ve got to read like all things, when Blake, read between the lines because as he said to the Reverend that criticized him. The Reverend said to him, “You know, you need someone to elucidate your ideas.” Blake said is that so?—“But you ought to know that what is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the ancients considered what is not too explicit as the fittest for instruction because it rouses the faculties to act.” Something that anyone can see, even the idiot, well then it isn’t worth my care. So, he told in the way he did, causing you to dig for it. You have to dig for it. But Blake to me is one of the giants, spiritual giants of the world.

I’ve had people say to me, “Why didn’t he have money?” Who wants money when you had what Blake had? All the money in the world today couldn’t buy one single copy that is at Yale. He left behind him five copies of Jerusalem, only one he colored. It is now in Yale University under lock and key. When Blake sold it, I think he sold it for one hundred guineas. That would be equivalent to $500 when Blake sold it. You couldn’t buy that copy today no matter what sort of money you brought for it. You couldn’t buy it, it’s the only copy in the world. He left five copies, four were not colored. This is the only colored copy that Blake left behind him. It’s priceless.