Be Ye Wise As Serpents Ch 7 Seedtime And Harvest by Neville Goddard

Neville Goddard Seed, Time and Harvest Chapter seven Be ye wise as serpents? Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16 the serpent's ability to form its skin by ossifying a portion of itself and its skill in shedding each skin as it outgrew it, caused man to regard this reptile and as a symbol of the power of endless growth and self reproduction. Man is told therefore to be wise as the serpent and learn how to shed his skin, his environment, which is his solidified self. Man must learn how to loose him and let him go. How to put off the old man. Lose his skin is lose that old self concept. Put off the old man is when you make that impression and then you get the expression, you become the expression. So you put off the old man and you become the new man. Let me repeat the sentence. Man is told therefore to be wise as the serpent and learn how to shed his skin, his environment, which is his solidified self. Man must learn how to loose him and let him go. How to put off the old man, how to die to the old, and yet know, like the serpent, that he shall not surely die. Man has not learned as yet that all that is outside his physical body is also a part of himself, that his world and all the conditions of his life are but the out picturing of his state of consciousness. When he knows this truth, he will stop the futile struggle of self contention and like the serpent, let the old go and grow a new environment. Realized physically is not the concern of you. Probably one of the most important sentences in all of this. How this imagined state is realized physically is not the concern of you, the natural or outer man, not the concern of you, the natural or outer man. The spiritual body, on its return from the imagined state to its former physical state, created an invisible bridge of incident to link the two states. Although the curious feeling that you were actually there and that the state was real is gone as soon as you open your eyes upon the old familiar environment, nevertheless you are haunted with the sense of a double identity with the knowledge that there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. When you, the natural man, have had this experience, you will go automatically across the bridge of events which leads to the physical realization of your invisibly prepared place. This concept that man is dual and that the inner man of imagination can dwell in future states and return to the present moment with a bridge of events to link the two clashes violently with the widely accepted view about the human personality the Lord God had made. Genesis 3:1 even stands a revolution in current than any creature of the heavens which the Lord God had created. Imagination is the creature that was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. For we are saved by hope but hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:20 24:25 Although the outer or natural man of the senses is interlocked with his environment, the inner or spiritual man of imagination is not thus interlocked. If the interlocking were complete, the charge to be wise as serpents would be in vain were we completely interlocked with our environment. We could not withdraw our attention from the evidence of the senses, and feel ourselves into the situation of our fulfilled desire, in hope that that unseen state would solidify as our new environment. But there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. First Corinthians 15:44 the spiritual body of imagination is not interlocked with man's environment. The spiritual body can withdraw from the outer man of sense and environment, and imagine itself to be what it wants to be. And if it remains faithful to the vision, imagination will build for man a new environment in which to live. This is what is meant by the statement, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2 and 3 the place that is prepared for you need not be a place in space. It can be health, wealth, companionship, anything that you desire in this world. Now, how is the place prepared? You must first construct a lifelike of representation as possible of what you would see and hear and do if you were physically present and physically moving about in that place. Then, with your physical body immobilized, you must imagine that you are actually in that place, and are seeing and hearing and doing all that you would see, hear, and do if you were there physically. This you must do over and over again until it takes on the tones of reality when it feels natural. The place has been prepared as the new environment for your outer or physical self. The place has been prepared right there as the new environment for your outer or physical self. Now you may open your physical eyes and return to your former state. The place is prepared and and where you have been in imagination, there you shall be in body Also, how this imagined state is realized physically is not the concern of you. Probably one of the most important sentences in all of this. How this imagined state is realized physically is not the concern of you, the natural or outer man, not the concern of you, the natural or outer man. The spiritual body, on its return from the imagined state to its former physical state, created an invisible bridge of incident to link the two states. Although the curious feeling that you were actually there and that the state was real is gone as soon as you open your eyes upon the old familiar environment, nevertheless you are haunted with the sense of a double identity with the knowledge that there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. When you, the natural man, have had this experience, you will go automatically across the bridge of events which leads to the physical realization of your invisibly prepared place. This concept that man is dual and that the inner man of imagination can dwell in future states and return to the present moment with a bridge of events to link the two clashes violently with the widely accepted view about the human personality and the cause and nature of phenomena. Such a concept demands a revolution in current ideas about the human personality and about space, time, and matter. The concept that man consciously or unconsciously determines the conditions of life by imagining himself into these mental states leads to the conclusion that this supposedly solid world is a construction of mind, a concept which at first common sense rejects. However, we should remember that most of the concepts which common sense at first rejected man was afterward forced to accept. These never ending reversals of judgment which experience has forced upon man led Professor Whitehead to write, Heaven knows what seeming nonsense may not tomorrow be demonstrated truth. Heaven knows what seeming nonsense may not tomorrow be demonstrated truth. The creative power in man sleeps and needs to be awakened, which is the whole subject and object and goal of why we are talking to each other. The creative power in man sleeps and needs to be awakened. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Ephysians 5:14 Wake from the sleep that tells you the outer world is the cause of the conditions of your life. Rise from the dead past and create a new environment. Know ye not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. First Corinthians 3:16 the Spirit of God in you is your imagination, but it sleeps and needs to be awakened in order to lift you off the bar of the senses where you have so long lain stranded. The boundless possibilities open to you as you become wise as serpents is beyond measure. Beyond measure. You will select the ideal conditions you want to experience and the ideal environment you want to live in. I mean, wow, imagine. There is no limit to what you can imagine right now with that statement. Experiencing these states in imagination until they have sensory vividness, you will externalize them as surely as the serpent now externalizes its skin. After you have outgrown them, then you will cast them off as easily as the snake throws her enameled skin. The more abundant life, the whole purpose of creation, cannot save through death and resurrection. My, oh my, let's repeat this paragraph because it is profound. The boundless opportunities. Excuse me. Possibilities both open to you as you become wise as serpents, is beyond measure. You will select the ideal conditions you want to experience and the ideal environment you want to live in. Experiencing these states in imagination until they have sensory vividness, you will externalize them as surely as the serpent now externalizes its skin. After you have outgrown them, then you will cast them off as easily as the snakes throw her enameled skin. The more abundant life, the whole purpose of creation, cannot be saved through death and resurrection. God desired form, so he became man. And it is not enough for us to recognize his spirit at work in creation. We must see his work in form and say that it is good. Even though we outgrow the form forever and ever. We throw off the skin when we make an impression, and then we become the expression that's throwing off the skin. And we do it again, and we do it again, and we do it again, and so on and so on and so on. God desired form. He became man, us. And it is not enough for us to recognize his spirit at work in creation. We must see his work in form and say that it is good. Even though we outgrow the form forever and ever. We must see his work right here. When we make the impression and we become the expression, that is his work. We must see that he leads. You can see what the goal is. It isn't to have the bigger car. It isn't to have the better spouse, so on, so forth, the bigger bank or the bank account or the best health. It's to understand this process, this path of righteousness. That's where we see his spirit at work. This whole process is what you're after. And if it yields a more abundant life, so be it. That's exactly right. That's what we're given the gift of, is the most abundant life. The most abundant life. And then it never has to stay the same. You make another impression, you become another expression. It continuously moves because you're Witnessing the spirit at work in creation forever and ever. You're doing it consciously. You're becoming a conscious co creator with all that is with God, with I am. He leads through widening chambers of delight to where throbs rapture near an end that I recedes because his touch is infinite. And lee and lens a yonder to all ends. And if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32 and if I. And I, if I be lifted up, excuse me. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. If I. If I be lifted up from the earth, which means come up in here, come up into the realization that you are him. I will draw all men unto me means making an impression, becoming the expression. All men that come unto you are the ones that come over here and fulfill your bridge of incidents. If you're single, you're not happy, you're not married, you want to be happily married in a relationship, you know the objective exists in you because you have the desire, you make the impression. The bridge of incidents is where you draw all men. The events happen for you. You'll just see things become in your favor to make this a reality. You'll see it and you won't believe it. You just won't believe it. You won't believe it. How it unfolds. Most of the time that person is right in front of you, within arm's reach. Typically, you already know the person. When you make this decision, you already typically know the person. They're already in your world. They've been there waiting for you to make up your mind. If I be lifted up from the evidence of the senses to the state of consciousness, I desire to realize and remain in that state until it feels natural. I will form that state around me and all men will see it. But how to persuade man this is true that that imaginative life is the only living, that assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled is the way to a more abundant life and not the comp. And not the compensation of the escapist. That is the problem. To see as though widening chambers of delight what living in the realms of imagination means. To appreciate and enjoy the world, one must live imaginatively. One must dream and occupy his dream, then grow and outgrow the dream. One must live and occupy his dream, then grow and outgrow, then grow and outgrow the dream into another. You've been doing this wonderfully already this far. Now you want to do it consciously. One must dream and occupy his dream. His specifically you then grow and outgrow the dream forever and ever. The imaginative man who will not lose his life on one level that he may find it on a higher level is nothing but a lot's wife, a pillar of self satisfied salt. I might have said that incorrectly. The unimaginative man, the unimaginative man who will not lose his life on one level that he may find it on a higher level is nothing but a lot's wife, a pillar of self satisfied salt. It even happens to me. My Simon Peter is only letting certain information in and I have to be specifically. Whoa, okay. I don't like to see that, but he's saying that that is also a thing. But I don't even like to admit that reality in the words. The unimaginative man who will not lose his life on one level, he won't lose this life on one level to find his better life that he may find it on a high level as nothing but a lot's wife, a pillar of self satisfied salt. On the other hand, those who refuse form as being unspiritual and who reject incarnation as separate from God, are ignorant of the great mystery. Great is the mystery. God was manifest in the flesh. In quotes, your life expresses one thing, one thing only. Your state of consciousness. Everything is dependent upon that. As you, through the medium of imagination, assume a state of consciousness, that state begins to clothe itself in form. It solidifies around you as the serpent skin ossifies around it. But you must be faithful to the state. You must be faithful to the state. No one is going to do this for you. You must not go from state to state, but rather wait patiently in the one invisible state until it takes on form and become an and becomes an objective fact. You must not go from state to state, but rather wait patiently in the one invisible state until it takes on form and becomes an objective fact. Patience is necessary, but patience will be easy after your first success in shedding the old and growing the new. For we are able to wait according as we have been rewarded by understanding in the past. Understanding is the secret of patience. What natural joy and spontaneous delight lie in seeing the world? Not with, but as Blake says, through the eye. Imagine what you imagine, that you are seeing what you want to see, and remain faithful to your vision. Your imagining will, your imagination will make for itself a corresponding form in which to live. All things are made by imagination's power. Nothing begins except in the imagination of man. From within out is the law of the universe as within. So without man turns outward in his search for truth. But the essential thing is to look within. Man turns outward. Man turns outward in his search for truth. But that's outward in the world. But the essential thing is to look within. Which is what we've been talking about. I am fishing. Hunting. What is it I desire? Within. What's the answer to this question? The first thing on my mind in the morning is the answer. Within. Within. Within. Truth is within ourselves. It takes no rise from outward things. Whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all. Where truth abides in fullness. And to know real rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape. Then in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without browning. Paracelsus. Paracelsus is an amazing. Is an amazing study. I think you will be interested in an instance of how a young woman shed the skin of resentment. And put on a far different kind of skin. The parents of this woman had separated when she was six years old. And she had lived with her mother. She rarely saw her father. But once a year she sent. But once a year he sent her a five dollar check for Christmas. Following her marriage, he did increase the Christmas gift to $10. After one of my lectures she was dwelling on my statement that man's suspicion of another is only a measure of. Of his own deceitfulness. And she recognized that she had been harboring a resentment toward her father for years. That night she resolved to let go her resentment. And put a fond reaction in its place. In her imagination she felt she was embracing her father in the warmest way. She did it over and over again until she caught the spirit of her imaginary act. And then she fell asleep in a very contented mood. The following day she happened to pass through the fur department of one of our large stores in California. For some time she had been toying with the idea of having a new fur scarf. But she felt she could not afford it. This time her eye was caught by a Stone Martin scarf. And she picked it up and tried it on. After feeling it and seeing herself in it. Reluctantly she took off the scarf and returned it to the salesman, telling herself she really could not afford it. As she was leaving the department, she stopped and thought. Neville tells us we can have whatever we desire. If we will only capture the feeling of already having it. In her imagination, she put the scarf back on, felt the reality of it and went about her shopping. All the while enjoying the imagined wearing of it. This young woman never associated these two imaginary acts in fact, she had almost forgotten what she had done until a few weeks later, on Mother's Day, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. There was her father. As she embraced him, she remembered her first imaginary action as she opened the package he had brought her, the first gift in these many years. She remembered her second imaginary action, for the box contained a beautiful stone marten scarf. Hmm, fascinating. Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most high. Psalms 82:6 Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16 I love his testimonial examples in these chapters. They are wonderful. Be wise as serpents I think I read today I was reading something about the lunar New Year. We are in the year of the snake right now, 2025, as we are recording this February and they I think I was watching a video on YouTube in fact, and I didn't watch the whole thing but a few minutes of the beginning and there was a part that said that they referred to the serpent as the little dragon and that to make it a friendly object versus the dragon was the object in these in the celebration of the lunar New year. Then the serpent was also there, the dragon in this image. And then it's also the serpent of the same size as the dragon, but was called the little dragon. Just a little note there. Be ye wise as serpents. All right, Chapter seven, Seedtime and Harvest wow, what a good one. We'll see you in the next chapter.