Neville 02-09-1968
Neville Goddard
GOD’S CREATIVE POWER
We are told in the Book of Exodus: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM the I AM. I appeared to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I AM I did not make myself known to them.’” And if
you read the 1st chapter, the 24th verse of 1 Corinthians, you will discover that the I AM (the creative power
of God) is personified as Jesus Christ! Now you and I are called upon to find this creative power. The
Christian world claims to believe in Christ, but they do not know him for he must be found. This challenge is
given in scripture. “Examine yourselves to make sure you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves!” If you
want to find Jesus Christ you must test yourself!
Are you really convinced that Jesus Christ is in you? Have you tested him? If you have and are still not sure,
then you have failed the test. Ask the highest leader of the Christian faith down to the lowest if he believes
that Jesus Christ is in him, and if he is not convinced that the creative power of the universe is within and
personalized as himself, then he has failed to meet the test regardless of what his man-made rank may be.
You can attend all the churches in the world, give to the sick and poor on the outside, but if you do not know
from experience that Jesus Christ is in you, you have failed the test. I tell you that Jesus Christ is your own
wonderful human imagination, who is the eternal creative power of God. If you do not know that, you do not
know Jesus Christ! You may say: “He is a person.”Well, you are a person, aren’t you?
Jesus Christ is God the Father and God the Father is Spirit, And those who worship him do so in Spirit
through the art of feeling! I have imagined a state and seen it externalize itself and become a physical fact that
I may share with another. This I have done unnumbered times and taught others to do it. So I have found him
and know him to be the only creative power of the universe. Everything in your world which is now a fact to
be shared with others was once only imagined. And if you know that Jesus Christ is the creative power that
brings things into this world, that all things must be first imagined, then you have found him. Having found him,
you must learn to trust him and live by this principle. Do this and you will find yourself moving into the stream
of eternal life by fulfilling scripture and knowing that “All power in heaven and earth is given unto me.”
The true meaning of power is “effectiveness in achieving a purpose.” Today as a nation we have the power of
the atom bomb, but are not willing to use it because it is not our objective to wipe out cities; so where is the
power that could bring about our purpose? Man does not know Jesus Christ, therefore he thinks there is
power in nuclear energy, in money, in his intellectual or social position; but the only power is Jesus Christ who
is the human Imagination!
I was born and raised in a Christian environment, yet I did not learn this truth in Sunday school, in church, or
at home. I was taught to believe in a being outside of myself. Some person who was born two thousand years
ago who was crucified on a wooden cross by people who did not believe he was the Son of God. This is the
story my mother taught me as her mother had taught her. The story comes down this way, yet it is not the true
story of scripture.
I tell you a mystery:Christ in you is the hope of glory, for God, your human imagination became man that man
may become God. This is a mystery that we are called upon to test, for the power that created the world
became as you are, that you may know yourself to be all creative power, as He is! I did not receive this
knowledge from a man. I did not read it in a book, nor did I ever hear of it from another. It was revealed to
me that God, in man, is his own wonderful human imagination!
Having no place to turn, or no one to turn to, I began to experiment; and as it proved itself in the testing, I
found myself fulfilling scripture. Instead of another, I was playing the central role fulfilling the only belief! Then
I began to tell it and those who heard and believed began to test themselves, and as they did, they moved into
the main stream and scripture fulfilled itself in them.
We are told: “Remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Scripture personifies this
fantastic power as Jesus Christ, but man is taught that Jesus Christ is some distinct individual outside of
himself and turns to him to grant his wishes and respond to his prayers. Then one day man hears who Jesus
Christ really is, and turning to no one on the outside, God reveals himself to that man as I AM. God said to
Moses: “I made myself known unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name I
AM I did not make myself known to them.”
If God’s name forever and forever is I AM, how can you look outside of self? You cannot point to another
and say: “I AM.” You can observe this or do that, but you cannot point to another when you say:” I am.”
Having revealed himself as Almighty Power, then I AM, God’s third revelation, is that of Father. And if God
is a Father, he must have a Son. The world has been taught to believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, but I
know from revelation that Jesus Christ is God Himself. There is a son, however, as told us so clearly in the
2nd Psalm. That son is David, who says: “I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, ’Thou art my
son, today I have begotten thee.’” I tell you scripture does not record secular history, but supernatural
history. Its message is sacred and hasn’t a thing to do with anything that took place in a secular manner.
Yesterday I read where someone in Ohio, who claimed he had traced his background back to David, died at
the age of 84 or 85. Of all the nonsense of the world, if he meant it secularly. David is not a character of
human history, but the eternal state one enters when he believes in God’s power as his own imagination,
exercises it, and enters the mainstream and awakens. Personifying God’s creative power, David will stand
before you and call you Father, revealing you to be one with your creative power.
Listen to these words carefully: “The high priest said to Jesus, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of Blessed?’ And
Jesus answered, ‘I am, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power.’” This he said in
fulfillment of the 100th Psalm: “The Lord said unto my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand til I make your enemies your
footstool.’” Here we see Power equated with a man! So God’s first revelation is that of sheer power. Then
comes his name, I AM, which is followed by his true character, which is that of a Father who loves.
It is God’s purpose to give himself to everyone, and – being a Father – when he gives himself to you he gives
you Fatherhood. First he gives you Power, then the awareness of being that power as you test yourself.
Now I ask you to examine yourself. When confronted with a problem, do you turn to someone on the
outside for its solution, or do you believe that all power resides in your human imagination? Do you believe in
the hydrogen bomb, meeting the right people, or living on the “right” side of the street? Or do you believe in
your own wonderful human imagination? I have found he of whom Moses and the law wrote, Jesus of
Nazareth, to be my human imagination and I turn only to him for the solution of my problems. I do it by
asking myself what I would see if my problem dissolved and its solution rose in its place. What would I hear?
How would I act? Having discovered Jesus to be my imagination, I act as though the problem was solved,
and have found from experience that I have brought things not seen by mortal eye into the world to be seen
by all. I have proved it and encourage everyone to try it. Examine yourself to make sure, really sure, that you
have completely accepted Jesus Christ as your human imagination, so that when confronted by any challenge
you turn to the only Jesus Christ and not to a false one. If you turn to anyone outside of yourself you have
turned to a false Jesus Christ and failed the test. Turn only to God and not to anyone or anything on the
outside. No one can tell your future, for your future is to fulfill Scripture, and you have no other!
I received a letter last week from a lady, who said: “In the dream I knew I was twenty years old, just
married, and living in the Basque country among the shepherds. My husband was driving an old truck. I sat
next to him with my sister-in-law next to me. In the rear sat my brother-in-law with my father-in-law directly
behind me. Having spent the night on a mountain top, we travel over dusty, rugged mountainous roads as I
become very tired and weak. My father-in-law had authority over everything, and knowing the way, he said:
‘Just one more curve and we will be home.’ As the final curve is completed I see a heavenly valley covered
with green grass and a sparkling, crystal-clear river flowing through it. In the distance I see a beautiful home
with barns and flocks of white sheep. Two shepherds are there with their crooks, their dogs, and a flock of
geese. Then I turn around, and as I face my father-in-law I see he has suddenly grown tall and young. As I
look at him I remember having seen that face somewhere in the dim, dim eternity. Then the face became
brilliant and as I dissolved into the brilliance, I awoke.”
In this letter my friend played the part of Tamar, as told us in the 38th chapter of the Book of Genesis. Judah,
the fourth son of Jacob, is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ: “Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob,
Jacob begat Judah and his brothers.” In the story, Judah left his brothers, married outside, and had three
sons. Choosing Tamar for his first son, Er, who displeased Jehovah and was killed, Judah told his second son
to marry her and raise offspring for his brother. Knowing that every offspring would not be his, but his
brother’s, Onan spilled his seed so that Tamar would not have a child. Displeasing Jehovah because of this
act, Jehovah killed him, for the command was to be fruitful and multiply and increase the world. The third son
was not given as he was too young.
Then came the day when Judah went down to observe the shearing of the sheep, as he was rich and had
enormous flocks. Tamar, upon hearing of his visit, took off her widow’s clothes and sat in a public place,
veiled as a harlot of the temple. When Judah proposed, she asked: “What will you give me?” and he replied:
“A kid from my flock.” Asking for a pledge that the kid would be sent, he gave her his ring, his bracelet, and
his staff, and knew her intimately. Three months later it was brought to Judah’s attention that his
daughter-in-law, Tamar, was pregnant. When Judah heard the news, he said: “Let the law be fulfilled. She
shall be burned to death.” When they came to execute the law she took the ring, the bracelet, and the staff
and sent them to Judah with the message: “The man who gave me these is the father of the child.” Upon
seeing them, Judah said: “The sin is mine, not hers,”
Now don’t think of Tamar as having union in a physical sense, but union with a state, for every time we enter
a state there is union. In my friend’s vision, everyone present was an in-law, telling her that she has entered
the mainstream. She has had union with memory, and no power on earth can stop her from bringing scripture
to its fulfillment, for her father-in-law is the one spoken of in the 49th chapter of Genesis as “the lion’s whelp,
and from his hand the scepter will never pass.” She has entered the state which leads her up to the climax as
Jesus Christ, who is God the Father!
The day will come when you will reach the Fatherhood degree and David will stand before you and call you
Father. Then you will know a power that is greater than the human mind can fathom. You will know real
power. It hasn’t a thing to do with the ability to destroy a nation. Tonight we could release X number of
bombs and destroy every city in Russia and they could do the same thing to us – so what? May I tell you: the
millions who would die on both sides would not be dead, but still trying to find the Father! Everyone is really
searching for the Father of all life, and that Father is Jesus Christ. Although men have created pictures of him,
Jesus is not on the outside. We are told: “It does not yet appear what he shall be, but we know that when he
appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” God’s son cannot appear and not be just like the
person to whom he appears. You will never see him as someone coming from without, but coming from
within you. He will call you father in the Spirit and then you will know who you really are!
In the meanwhile you can exercise your power on this level if you will accept this challenge. Examine
yourselves and make sure you are faithful to your imaginal act! Let no one else examine you, but test yourself!
Have you completely accepted the fact that Jesus Christ is in you? If you can answer, “not quite” then you
have failed the test. If, like one billion Christians, you believe in some other Jesus Christ, you have a false
Christ. And you will never find him by going to church or giving to the poor, for he is not on the outside, but
in your own wonderful human imagination!
Let no one prophesy for you! The only prophecy you are destined to fulfill is scripture. When someone tries
to tell me what some astrologer or medium said I get so annoyed I want to shout: “Have you ever heard me?”
Believe in all that nonsense, and you worship false Christs! If you want to be famous in this world of men, use
this principle and you will shine for your little moment, but I ask you: are you in the mainstream of fulfilling
scripture? Do you really believe in the only Jesus Christ, who is your human imagination? I say: there never
was another Christ and there never will be another Christ.
Now, some will say that is blasphemy, just as they did long ago. In the 14th chapter of the Book of Mark,
the question is asked: “Are you the Christ?” And Jesus said: “I am; and you will see the Son of man sitting at
the right hand of Power.” Then the high priest said: “Do we still need witnesses? You have heard his
blasphemy.” And in the Book of John, when accused of blasphemy “because you, being man, make yourself
God” Jesus said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I say, you are gods’? If scripture says you are gods, and
scripture cannot be broken, is it blasphemy for me to say I am the Son of God, and the Son and the Father
are one?” If you are creative power, you must be one with the creator, who is a person as you are, as I am.
So I say to everyone: accept Christ as your own wonderful human imagination and don’t falter, for scripture
must be fulfilled in you. It is not done physically! I have experienced a physical birth, for I was born in
Barbados and just as you, I know the limitations of the flesh. I came into this world with nothing and do not
have much today. But because I didn’t have much, I had to stand upon my own two feet and believe in
myself. Asking no one to help me and not stealing from another, if I had nothing I went without it. I have seen
those who had more than they needed, but I didn’t take it from them, I simply pulled in my belt. I have
walked fifty blocks to find a friend who had a dime to buy some soup beans. When he could not be found I
would return and perhaps the next day earn a quarter to buy the beans, but it never occurred to me that
because others had food and I didn’t that they should give it to me. I was determined to believe in myself and
because of that I got into the mainstream of life and scripture began to unfold in me. No one owes me a living;
all I have to do is trust Jesus Christ, trust my human imagination!
I have no desire to pile up a lot of money. Why pile up a million shadows? My desire is to tell you who Jesus
Christ really is. He is your own wonderful human imagination. There never was another Christ and there
never will be another. If you will trust him – and I use “him” advisedly because God’s creative power and
God is a person (and you are that person) – you will never fail, for he will never fail you! Tonight if you know
what you want, just believe that you have it. Sleep as though it were true, and because Christ is in everyone,
he will use as many as necessary to aid the birth of your assumption.
In the end of the Bible, the 22nd chapter of Revelation, Jesus Christ is speaking, saying: “”I am the root and
the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” And in the 2nd chapter of the same book it is said: “To he
who conquers” (who witnesses the truth of scripture) I will give the morning star.” In other words, he gives
you himself as God the Father. He is the root of David. The root of a tree is its father. God the Father is the
root of David, for David is all Spirit, not a being of flesh and blood. He is the eternal state of the Son, who
calls everyone to come to the mainstream and climax as the Father. So the story ends when you have finished
the race and kept the faith, for you are given the morning star and know yourself to be the root and the
offspring of David, the bright morning star!
Tonight test yourself|! I will not test you. I am not here to test anyone. I only urge you to examine yourself to
see if you are really keeping the faith, or are you going to call a friend and tell him how horrible things are and
appeal to him on the outside? I ask you: are you really keeping the faith? Do you always turn to your
imagination and, no matter what happens, do you remain faithful to the state imagined? If you do, you have
passed the test. But if every little rumor, doubt, or fear can move you around like a pawn on a chessboard,
then you are not keeping the faith! It’s entirely up to you. Are you testing yourself or not? Can you say within
yourself: “I always turn to my imagination when confronted with a problem and solve it there. Then I remain
faithful to that imaginal act.” If you can, you have passed the test. It’s just as simple as that.
May I tell you:we remain in this world of death until we enter the mainstream and come to the climax. You
can’t believe how much this world is really a world of death, whose life is in you as your human imagination.
Life itself is an activity of imagining where everything is a symbol. Your closest, dearest friend, your wife, your
mother, father, brothers and sisters are all symbols, all dead symbols revealing to you who you really are.
Now let us go into the silence.
Neville Goddard, Summa Theologica, Manly P Hall, A Course In Miracles
