Paul's Autobiography by Neville Goddard (02-22-1963)

Neville Goddard, 1963 Lectures from the Awakening February 22, 1963 Paul's autobiography. Tonight we have Paul's autobiography. It is the story of Paul. And Paul is the greatest and most influential figure in the history of Christianity. After you hear his story, you may judge just who he is. Paul begins where everyone who aspires after public confidence must begin with his own credentials. Paul wrote 13 letters. That is, we have 13. If you will take the double letters as two, like first and second Corinthians, first and second Timothy, and first and second Thessalonians. If you take these as two letters, then he gave us 13. He first appears in Scripture in the Book of Acts. And bear in mind that the Book of Acts was once part of the Book of Luke. The same author who wrote the Book of Luke wrote the Book of Acts. They were once one volume or one book in two volumes. Our early fathers divided the two and placed the Gospel of John between them. But he first appears, you may say, in the book you would call the Gospel of Luke, but we now call it the Book of Acts. He was present when the first Christian martyr was stoned to death. Stephen and Paul consented unto Stephen's death into the flesh being of Jesus. Have you, having begun with the spirit, are you falling now actually blind and a victim of the flesh? You were shown the whole thing like a play. Go into a stage tonight and someone moves across the stage and they play the perfect play of God's only salvation, the only way that man could be saved. He walks across the stage and he plays it. Every scene that he enacts is a mystical scene to be experienced by the individual. That was all done well. Now you are. Now, are you going to confuse it? Can't you now have that little spiritual observance and separate the actor walking across the stage from what he's trying to portray? For he's portraying it. Listen to the words. The first three verses of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. He was portrayed as crucified. You go to a play tonight and somebody is shot. You know he. You know, he goes home tonight after being shot and has the most wonderful time. Their day begins at night, for they work at night. So they go home and the actor goes home, and that's night. His day begins. But you will weep sitting in the audience as you see him being shot and being abused and. But he wasn't shot and he wasn't abused, save as an actor. But not being, but not the being who put on the mask, who played the part. So let me repeat it. Whose eyes beheld Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified. And then the words, are you foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, it was revealed to you. The spirit of the play. Are you ending now with the flesh? Mm, mm, mm. So the world thinks he was flesh and blood. No, he wasn't flesh and blood. This is the fulfillment of all that was told in the Old Testament, but no one understood it except to one to whom it was revealed. You can call him Paul now. And when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood. Galatians 1:16. The gospel I preached to you is not man's gospel. I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it. But it was revealed by Jesus Christ. The whole thing was revealed. And I saw the mystery of it all, the mystery of salvation that Christianity is based upon. The affirmation that a series of events happen in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. Did they happen? Well, the play said they did. I went to the play and I saw it. I was part of the gathering, and they hoped that I would have the spirit of discernment to separate the action of the actor from. From what he was acting and see the spirit, not the flesh. Did I see the spirit? Well, then after a while come the teachers who did not participate, and they tell you he is flesh and blood and that he was born of a certain woman on a certain day in a manner that you were born only he didn't have a physical father. And that isn't true at all. This birth is something entirely different, as told us in the book of John. He is born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13. An entirely different birth takes place, which is all explained as the play unfolds. You saw the Spirit, but don't go back now to the flesh. And now the story begins. We were called the followers of the Way. That's what we were called, all of us. All of us who believed it as we saw the play unfold. Is that the way of salvation? I'll believe it. I will wait patiently until it unfolds in me, for that's the way of salvation. Then in the 14th of John, we are told, and now you know the way. And Thomas said, we do not know the way. We do not know where you are going, so how do we know the way? He said, I am the way. I am the way. And the truth and the life. It's not a man. Follow me closely. All that you have seen me do upon the stage, that is the way. For I am the way. He didn't say I am this, that, or the other. I am the way. You follow the whole thing as spirit that moved before you. And you have seen the way of salvation. They still didn't understand it. The way to what? Well, the way to everything, but primarily the way to the Father. For no one comes to the Father but by me. John 14:6. You can't come to the Father, save by me. And I am the way. So don't look upon me as flesh and blood. I am the way. Follow my story through this series of events. You'll come to the Father. So the state unfolds on the stage, and they all see the Spirit. But many could not discern and discriminate between the action of the actor and what the actor was portraying. So we come back to Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. There you see it. The whole thing is unfolding on a stage. But man cannot lose himself to the point where he gets beyond the action of an actor and cries and weeps with the actor. As to the actor, he can't see what is portraying what he is portraying. He's portraying something, and they can't get what he is portraying. So I tell you, read the story of Jesus. And don't think of Jesus as flesh and blood. He is God himself unfolding it before you in the form of a man that can see a man walking across the stage. So as Paul, the initial awakened being, you can judge it. I don't know. I am led to believe that he is that. Paul, the most influential, the most important figure in the history of Christianity, is the one to whom it was revealed. He was violent in his destruction of everything other than the outer observation of the law. And to him it was revealed. So take courage if you are violent today in supporting something that is external that you must observe. It doesn't matter. Paul did the same thing. And suddenly he was blinded by the revelation. And he saw the mystery of Christ. He saw that Christ was within him. And when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, then I conferred not with flesh and blood. Galatians 1:16. To whom would I turn? To whom would I turn and ask them to throw light upon an experience that is not understood by my mortal mind. But having known the Bible as he did, he was well grounded in it. He could return to his Bible and see where it was all foretold. But he could not on that level understand was to be unveiled as it was unveiled. He saw the interpretation of the ancient scripture. And then in the end of Acts, when he stands before King Agrippa and he says, here I stand before you chained, condemned for my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers. Here I have hope in that promise that I stand in chains before you because I know it's true. And then he spent the rest of his days expounding this story concerning what he, what he called then Jesus and the whole vast world of Christendom thinks it is a man of flesh and blood. And Jesus means Jehovah saves. Jehovah is salvation. There's nothing in the teaching of Paul but God and man. No intermediary, nothing in between. So God himself is being woven in man and unfolds himself in man in a series of events. As these events unfold and they unfolded in Paul, then he knew the mystery of the Scripture. Then he tried to tell it to those that followed him in the path because he condemned and allowed the death of others for believing in it. Then he himself fell victim to his belief. So who will believe it? I know that across this country as I go, the one question that has always asked me, no matter where I go, whether it's a little social gathering, is, well, don't you believe in a physical Jesus? No matter where I go, I get it. When I go to a small little dinner party of four or five or six, I'm asked, I know what you say, Neville, but don't you really believe he did live, that he walked 2,000 years ago on this earth and he was called Jesus and he walked and his mother was Mary and his father was Joseph, or maybe his father wasn't Joseph. And then they ask all these questions, and all these are asked the unprepared mind. How can you explain to a mind unprepared what Paul said in his first three verses of the third chapter of Galatians? O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? For they went astray to some physical state before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. You sat with me and you saw the play before our eyes, he was publicly portrayed as crucified. Now as now, I ask you one thing. Did you receive the Spirit from the works of the law or by hearing with faith? You saw it, you heard the words, and you accepted what you heard on faith that this thing is true? Now said he to them. Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? You began with the Spirit when you heard it and saw it. Are you now going to end with the flesh? For the whole vast world today is ending with the flesh, and they can't see the Spirit that is Christ Jesus. Mm Christ. Jesus is in man. It's a way. Christ is in you in the hope of glory. And the same author, Paul in his 13th chapter of his Second Corinthians. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you failed to meet the test, Verse five. I hope you realize that we have not failed. If Jesus Christ is in you, then I should start looking to find out where he is. I have found him by a search and an experiment when he said, God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not holding any trespass against them, and entrusting to us the spirit of reconciliation. So then God is in Christ and Christ is in me. Then who are we? God is in Christ, and Christ is in me. And I discover that God is my own wonderful human imagination. God in action is Christ, and imagination in action is imagining. So imagination, imagining is reconciling the world to himself. Now, to those who discover it, he entrusts this great secret of reconciliation. So you take every being in the world, all right, let them go astray. It doesn't matter if with God all things are possible and he works and creates only through Christ. And Christ is now imagining. I could imagine that you are what I want you to be, if I really believe in Christ. For Christ in you is the hope of glory, and he's my own wonderful imagining. So I could imagine that you are the lovely one that I would like you to be. And although at the moment you don't respond, and tomorrow you still don't respond, I will persist. For. For one of his attributes is patience. Read the fruits of the Spirit. It's not only love and joy and peace, but also patience. It's persistence. In the end of the book of Galatians, he gives us the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5. 22. And so I can persist. I can be patient. I will imagine things as they ought to be, although at the moment reason denies it and my senses deny it, and everything denies it. But this is the fruit of the Spirit. I'll be patient. I will imagine things are as I would like them to be, and that's God in action. And God in action is Christ. And so I will persist, and I will be Patient. I like what I'm doing. Therefore, the Spirit bears the fruit of love and joy and peace. These are the first petals that come out. Love, joy and peace. And then come the other attributes among which you will find. There is patience, there is persistence. So Paul to me is the first in whom the visions took place. It came to one of the smallest tribes, Benjamin. He was born in the tribe of Benjamin, a child of Abraham. So Abraham is faith. For it was all shown to Abraham. And he believed it and waited patiently for the fulfillment of what was shown him. He saw the play too. It was all portrayed to Abraham. And Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day. He saw it and he was glad. John 8:5:6, 56 Then he went into the foreign land, as he was led by the Spirit. But he still remained faithful to what he had seen in the play. The play unfolded before him. God played the part. And God was Christ Jesus. So you say, well, how could this Lord, this exalted Lord, become human again? Paul answers in his letters to the Philippians. He emptied himself and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross. 25 through 9. Again, he's speaking in a mystery. For Paul is very fond of using the word mystery. In fact, he uses it no less than 18 times. And so he said, he emptied himself and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross. Well, this body in parentheses is the cross, I can tell you. And to him, the cross was not the grievance of God, but the love of God. May I tell you? This is the cross. You want to know how you can tell? Just put your arms out. Don't you form a cross? They don't portray the true thing at all. It's the churches. Excuse me. They're going to go back ascendance. And the crucifixion is the most delightful state. It's not a painful state at all, as the churches portray. Let me start at the previous sentence. Well, this body is the cross, I can tell you. And to him, the cross was not the grievance of God, but the love of God. May I tell you. And this crucifixion is the most delightful state. It's not a painful state at all, as the churches portray. They don't portray the true thing at all. It's the most delightful state. For it happened to me right in the present embodiment. Right in this present embodiment where it has shown me so vividly how it was done and the thrill that was mine the night that my Hands became vortices, my head a vortex, my side a vortex, and the soles of my feet, vortices. Here I was on a pilgrimage toward some invisible Mecca. As I walked toward this invisible Mecca with unnumbered thousands, a voice out of the blue announced, and God walks with them. Then a lady to my right, dressed in Arabic costume, asked the voice, for she heard it, they all heard it. If God walks with us, where is he? The voice answered, at your side. She, like the whole world, takes it literally. So she turned to her side, to her left, where I walked with her. Then she became hysterical. She laughed beyond the wildest dream of laughter. She was hysterical. She said, what? Neville is God? The voice replied, yes, in the act of waking. And then a voice in the depth of my soul. And no one heard the voice now, but they all heard the conversation, as I've just given you. But no one heard this except I and I alone. And from the depth of my being, the same voice now spoke. The voice said, God laid himself down within you to sleep. And as he slept, he dreamed a dream. He dreamed, and I knew the end of it. He was dreaming that he's Neville. The dreamer and the dream are one, the dreamers greater than the dream. Remind yourself, when you wake up from a dream, exactly that statement. He's dreaming that he's you. He's dreaming that he's every being in this world. He laid himself down within us to sleep. This is a sleeping God. And as he slept, he dreamed a dream. He's actually dreaming that he's you. Whatever your name is. He's dreaming that he's you. So that voice said to her, who questioned the voice, yes, he is God in the act of waking from this sleep. When he awakes from the sleep, he is the one with the dreamer who dreamed him into being. And he is God. So that's the story. He said, I have been crucified with Christ. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20. Now listen to these words. If we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Romans 6, 5. The resurrection has taken place, but it is the taking place. It took place. And that first one, whether you believe it or not, is Paul. It took place. And from that moment on, it is taking place in every being in the world. As we march toward this invisible Mecca. Along the way, we are pulled out of the crowd, unnumbered, are moving, and one by one, we are pulled out. He awakens in the individual. That one, without losing his distinctive individuality, is God. So Jesus Christ is God himself. The play is on. God became man and played the parts and showed us all before we started the journey. But we can't quite discriminate between the action of the actor and what the actor is trying to portray. So go back and read the words carefully. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? You go to any dictionary and look up the word portray and see its definition. You can depict it in a drawing, depicted in a painting, in a verbal description of it, or as an actor. An actor depicts the thought. But man can't quite discriminate between the thought depicted and the actor depicting the thought. And he thinks, now the thing is flesh and blood, but it isn't. Well, you dwell upon it. And one day you too will find yourself in the. In that journey. The most colorful crowd in the world. I mean, really colorful. Nothing on the screen compares to it in the color and the joy as you move toward this invisible Mecca. That is very, very true. Nothing in this world of what we call color compares to that color. You'll hear a voice. And the voice will scream out, and God's walk with them. And God walks with them. Someone in the crowd. And chances are, if it always repeats itself in the same way, that someone will be standing at your side and you will ask, but they will ask, well, if God walks with us, where is he? And the voice will come back at your side. They will look into your face and become hysterical. It will strike them so funnily that you, a normal man, with all the weakness of a man, would be God. The voice will come back that all will hear. Yes, in the act of waking, then from the depths of your soul will come the same voice, and no one but you will hear it. I put in the words that the world would understand, but the words difference. And God laid himself down within you to sleep. It isn't that I laid myself down within you to sleep. And as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed that I dreamed a dream. I dreamed he's going to complete it. I dreamed I am you. That's what you're going to hear in the depth of your soul. And then at that moment, you're going to find yourself being crucified in the most thrilling manner in the world. You would be sucked back into the body that was on the bed and your hands are real vortexes, and your feet vortices and your head a vortex and the right side a vortex. It's a thrilling joy as you are nailed once more to this body. Then you will know Paul's words. I have been crucified with Christ. It's not I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And the Son of God, in whom there is life, is your own wonderful human imagining. Imagining is life itself. What you imagine becomes animated. It takes on life, takes on motion, vibration. So here, when you go home, you read it and take that wonderful third chapter. Take the whole book. There are only six chapters in the book of Galatians. And see Paul's confession. No one taught it to him. He didn't receive it from a man. It came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood. And God will reveal His Son in you. He explodes you, and you will see his Son standing before you. You will see that Son as your Son. Then you know the meaning of the words. No one comes unto the Father but by Me. For I am the Way. I am the truth. I am the life. Not a man called Jesus or Neville or Peter or any other name. No, the Way. I am the Way. The Way is a series of mystical experiences. That's the Way. I am the Way. And you come to the Father in no other way save by me. So watch this picture as it unfolds. For before you unfolded the story before your eyes, Jesus Christ was publicly revealed in this drama. So that is the play. So when you see me, you see the Way. If you heard my story, you heard the Way. There is no other Way. So I am the Way, the truth and the life, not a man called Neville. What he has experienced is the Way. And there is no other way to come to the Father. You will be brought by this series, by these series of experiences. For Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed Himself in action for the salvation of man. This series of events he unfolds in you, and you are the participant. You go through it and you're brought right up to fatherhood. But no one comes to the Father but by Me. And I am the Way. You go back and you see the first appearance of the Way in the story of Paul, the ninth chapter of the Book of ACTS he went out to destroy everyone who believed in the Way, and he's going to bring them captive, bound into Jerusalem. As he walked toward Damascus to bind male and female who were followers of the Way, he was blinded by the experience. And he went through the experience of the Way. Then he comes back and goes through hell. But not for one moment could he relinquish the experience. And so he closed his days explaining to everyone who would listen to him the story of the Way. And some believed him, while others disbelieved him. Now let us go into the silence. Let us go into the silence. If you're not driving, close your eyes, go into your own silence. Go into your. I am. You can repeat if you like, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the way, the life. Excuse me. I am the Way, I am the truth and I am the life. Say it out loud while you're repeating. We could do so much more with the Silence, and we will eventually, but for right now, we're going to keep him a little bit short. Very good, Good lecture. I mean, he came out of those mystical experiences in 1963, six mystical experiences from 59 to 63. And he is not messing around. He's right here in the first month or second month of the year and he is playing no games, not playing games whatsoever, pulling no punches. He is going for it. And I can see what the, what the kickback was on. Hey, man, let's talk about the law. Well, I am very happy he's talking about what he's talking about because this will flesh out quite a bit in our Neville hindsight together. QUESTION INAUDIBLE the question is, oh, look at this, he's going to repeat a question. The question is, will I say something about my yoke is easy and my burden is light? Well, that's a talk in itself. He declares himself to be the light of the world. Yoke is union. Union with Christ is really very easy. If you saw that unfolding picture just like a screen, could you believe it? Belief is union. That's yoke. It's very easy to believe it, but man has to be free from his prefabricated misconceptions of Jesus. Ms. Prefabricated misconceptions of Jesus. If you come with your prefabricated misconceptions and you see it, you will not find the yoke easy. Many in this audience tonight, that is a few who are unwilling to believe what I said this night still Believe in Jesus of flesh and blood. And flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. First Corinthians 15:50. For God is Spirit, and those who worship him worship in spirit and truth. Therefore, if you insist that he is flesh and blood, well, then you'd be unwilling to believe that he is simply portraying the state of God becoming man, that man may become God. It may not be difficult. It is very easy to accept if. It is very easy to accept it if you saw it and could extract from the actual actor what the actor is trying to portray. So he's portraying it. But I know I was raised as a Christian and, and I was raised to believe that he was a little boy of flesh and blood. And all these things were told me in my family. And I'm quite sure the 900 million Christians of the world have been told the same story, because I know from experience that no matter where I go, well, don't you believe they want to pin you right down, that he did live and walk this earth as a flesh and blood. And then you say no, do you believe? And then you ask some more questions. You know, the man called Barrymore, a very good actor who played the part of Hamlet, but he wasn't Hamlet, he explained. And he portrayed this melancholy, melancholy Dane, this prince, but he wasn't a Dane and he wasn't a prince. He's an actor. Can you believe it for one moment? No, they don't want to believe that. And may I tell you that this comes from every walk of life, not just those who are out of high school or grammar school, but out of colleges and great universities with their highest honors and highest degrees. And they don't want to believe it. If you don't want to believe it. And you don't believe it. If you don't want to believe it, you don't believe it. And so how can you share your vision with another who's unwilling to share it with you? I already know this fully. I'm at this running, running for 33 years myself personally. There is some people where they do not want to hear it and I don't say it. I used to say it. Not going to lie. And there's only a very few select people between us that I talk about my out of bodies and my lucid dreaming and all that fun stuff. So don't share that with anybody. Just between us, it's very limited. Select few people you share that with simply because what he just said. They don't want to believe it. If you don't want to believe it. You don't believe it. So what? I don't care if you don't believe it, go ahead. That's your choice. But you tell it anyway, as I consistently do. You tell it until the end of your earthly days, because you are making your departure. As he said. The time for my departure is come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Second Timothy 4, 6. That's Paul's last word. And so he kept the faith. The faith of what? The faith of Abraham. He said, my kingdom is not new. It is as old as the faith of Abraham. It's the fulfillment of that faith. But no one knew it. And suddenly all that Abraham was shown in the beginning is now fulfilled in him. And so I do not bring a new religion. It's not man made. It is one that is as old as the faith of Abraham. But who will believe it? People think of Paul being a convert, and you think of a convert as one who was once a Jew, who became a Christian or vice versa. That's not a convert, not in the true mystical sense of the word. It's the fulfillment of the vision. He never once, not for one moment, did Paul ever give up Judaism. His last plea before King Agrippa is, I stand here in chains for the hope of the promise made to our fathers by God through his prophets. He isn't denying that faith and that hope. That's why I am here. But I tell you that my experience is only the fulfillment of what God said to my father, Abraham. He promised him a son, even though he couldn't beget him. And that son has been revealed in me. And now that I see the son, I tell you about the way, and you don't believe me. And you enchain me and you beat me because I tell you of these stories. He was only fulfilling scripture, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. The servant of the Lord must suffer. And he comes to bring a message. He doesn't have to suffer physically, although he may. But he can suffer by abuse and be ostracized, put apart. He doesn't know, poor fellow, he's stuck. And there it goes. He knows that one day he takes off the garment and he'll be taken into an entirely different world because he's equipped to function consciously there. And those who beat him and then ostracize him are the beaten people. And over and over they go, playing and replaying the same part, until in that wonderful journey, the voice comes out. God walks with them. Now you see the light or you don't. What a glorious play. What a question and answer that was. My gosh, that was incredible. And Neville, just off the cuff, man, extemporaneous to the max. Inaudible Neville. Certainly, my dear. Made into the image of the man of dust, he shall also be made into the image of the heavenly man. For we are destined to be conformed to the image of his Son. First Corinthians 15:49. And then you say, how can the imagination be a son? It is. Believe it or not, when Blake made the statement, 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. He was right. Because imagination always personifies itself and it is man. Question Nehemiah 8, where you said about the reading of the book, would that be equated with the portrayal, the reading of the book? Answer, Neville. Certainly. Nehemiah 8. 8. And they read from the book the law of God. But see, they gave it the sense. Not only they gave it the sense, but those who heard it, all who heard it understood the reading. And so the purpose of the teacher is to instruct. He not only has to read the script, but also must read it with meaning. They must understand the meaning. Was Paul a person like we are? Good question, Neville. Yes, my dear. Paul is just as you are. Paul is just as I am. And in Paul, the vision began to unfold. And so he's the most important figure, the greatest figure, the most influential figure in the history of Christianity. More is said of him in the New Testament than of anyone else. The Book of Acts, which was part of the Book of Luke, devotes more than half of the book to Paul. Then Paul gave us what we have preserved today, 13 letters. He's been most controversial. And today in certain denominations, they speak of the Paulist, meaning the convert. Everyone who was not of faith in an orthodox sense when they adopted is the Paulist. So the Paulists simply are the converting ones, as it were. But it's a complete misunderstanding of what Paul meant. Paul was a comfort. Paul was a convert to the Way, but never did he ever give up the root of Israel. Good night. Me, oh my. Does it get any better? Each one of these lectures is just profoundly knocking off the previous one. Paul's autobiography, February 22, 1963. Amazing. Boy. Did you ever think you were going to learn about Paul to that degree? Goodness. What was your favorite part? Oh, my gosh, there's too many to describe in here. I really love the first question. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Wow. Good golly. I won't repeat that, but that is really profound. There is some goodies in here, man, some unbelievable ones. And we're going to see you in the next lecture.