The Witness Of The Spirit - Neville Goddard (05-04-1965) | Full Reading + Commentary

Neville Goddard 1965 lectures the Witness of the Spirit May 4, 1965 Tonight's subject is the witness of the Spirit. When we open the Bible, we think of it as something that belongs to an ancient world. Something that goes back, as far as we are concerned, at least 2,000 years or more. I tell you that you and I are called upon in this world of ours to witness to the truth of the word of Scripture called God's Word, and to the testimony of Jesus and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, who broke this seal and revealed it by his own personal experience that no matter what we accomplish in this world, it is as nothing to that which we are destined to perform, which is to witness to the truth of God's word. Now, we will witness to it. I assure you we will. Everyone must witness to it. Therefore, he will. Tonight we'll take a simple, simple story to show you how this one has witnessed it. She gave me a letter last Friday night. In it, she said, I was brought to your meeting last December and I attended five of your lectures. I've read four of your books over and over. She said, I sell homes. And so I took a client of mine. The client being a couple and three children, they wanted a larger home than they occupied. Well, I showed them home after home after home and nothing pleased them. They wouldn't tell me why, whether it was money, weather, neighborhood or what, but nothing pleased them. And so, having heard you, having read your books, I retired this night. And in my imagination, this is what I did. I stepped into a hallway of a very large Spanish home. To my right was a most beautiful living room, was the most beautiful living room. To my left was a large formal dining room. And through the window I could see this beautiful garden patio. I sat at the table and had coffee with my clients and heard her say how much she loved the place and that it was just right as far as her pocketbook was concerned. It was what she could afford to pay. I did this in my imagination for approximately six nights. Six consecutive nights. Then the phone rang soon after, and it was my client. It seemed that her sister had a friend who had seen a large horn for sale in a certain neighborhood and called to say that it was available. So she in turn called me to tell me it was listed with a certain broker who, she said in her letter to me, was not in my multiple R. Multiple. Whatever that means. I'm not familiar with the terminology of agents, but not in our multiple. However, I investigated it for her because she wanted it. Well, the story is This. I went to see it. I stepped into this very beautiful hallway, and I became almost speechless. To my right was the largest and possible and possibly the most beautiful living room I had ever seen. To my left, this very large formal dining room. And through the window was this wonderful garden patio. To make it short, said she, yes, they bought it at their price. They're now living in it, and they are blissfully happy. She said, I tell you this to share with you as your friend. You called him Bob as he shared with you his mystical experience. So now I'm sharing this with you. Bob's story, he occupied the body of a friend to give to a friend. In Bob's story, he occupied the body of a friend to give to the friend what the friend either could not or would not give to self. So he actually became the friend and assumed for the friend what the friend was either unwilling, unable, or for the lack of faith, could not give to self. You don't have to limit this to a physical body you give to a friend. By occupying the house, she actually occupied a house in her imagination and felt the house to be one that the people that she had shown unnumbered houses to were not satisfied with them. But she actually occupied the house she felt they wanted at their price. So she gave to her clients the house that they could not find or give to themselves. So you occupy a state estate. Could be the body of a friend. The state could be, in her case, a house that some client desired that they could not find. So here, this is bearing witness to the word of God. Are we not told? Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it, and you will. Mark 11:24. Well, she actually moved into the state and believed that the friends wanted it, the clients wanted it. And so she took a lesson from the story that my friend shared with us when he assumed the body of a friend and gave to that friend what that friend could not give to herself. So this is bearing witness to the truth of scripture, Though when we read it, it seems to belong to an ancient, ancient age. I tell you, every word of scripture you and I will testify to. Now, how do. How do we do it? How do we start? Listen to these words. We love because he first loved us. First. John 4:19. I love you because you first love me. That's what it's. That's what it's implying, if I get it correctly. We love because he first loved us. Now, excuse me. Be imitators of God as beloved children. Ephesians 5:1. Is that how he made me Love. I had no capacity to love or to respond in any way until he first loved me. For the word because implies causation. We love because he first loved us. Well, if that is the secret of causation, then I must initiate everything I want to see in the world. In my world. I must initiate everything I want to see in my world. I can't wait for it. I am the operant power as the operant power. If I must imitate God as a dear child. And I love. The King James Version has it we love him. But I am told that it is a poor translation or an inferior manuscript. The Revised Standard Version has it we love no pronoun not we love him. We simply love. We could love a shoe, we could love a bird, we could love a hat. We could love a dog, we could love a man. We could love the building. We simply love. And he leaves it entirely up to us what we love the object of our love. So instead of saying we love him, meaning God, we love because he first loved us. Therefore it is God and God alone who only initiates this capacity in man to love. If he hasn't yet loved me, well, then you can't condemn me for not loving. I must first of all be loved before I can respond in love. Now, if I must imitate him in this capacity, well then I must start right now. And whatever I want you to be, I must see you are it first before I can see you respond and reflect it in my world. I see through this that the whole vast world is simply only infinite response. The whole vast world is simply response. Well, it can't respond until it has something to respond to. If I must initiate, what would respond? Well, then it's entirely up to me to become discriminating, selective, and single out the one I want to help. Assume that the being is exactly as I want that being to be and wait for the response. Just like an echo. If the story is true. Now, if this is true, I could put it to a test. Religion always needs a test. Let no one tell you that it doesn't need a test. Everything needs a test when it comes to religion. If not, it becomes simply a distorted what formalism? Just a peculiar barren creed or simply some strange piety? So many people call themselves hominy, so many people call themselves holy people because they attend a certain church or they do a certain thing in this world. And it becomes that if you don't test it. So here we have to test our religion. We can only test God's law. We cannot Test his promise. His promise is an unconditional gift that comes and you will actually say, in the words of John, I, John, am a witness to God's word and the testimony of Jesus Christ and all that I have heard and seen. First, John 1, 1 and 2. He tells us that everything that he heard and that he saw, he has reported. He is speaking from experience. He's not theorizing. This is in the Epistle of John. So when he makes the statement that God is love, he is not theorizing. I read here recently that Thomas Huxley, the great intellectual giant of his day, the grandfather of Aldous Julian, who were also intellectual giants, and he was in the scientific world and he made this statement. He said, I cannot see a shadow of tittle of evidence. I cannot see a shadow or tittle of evidence that God is love. This is Thomas Huxley. I cannot see a shadow or a tittle of evidence that God is love. How'd that turn out for you? Preoccupation with this human scene to the exclusion of higher things invariably leads us to that conclusion. If my whole vast world is in the scientific world, as his was trying to unravel how the world is constructed, not asking why you did it or who did it, just take it as a machine and. And trying to unravel the mechanism of it, or if I am lost in personal gain where I can't find enough to cushion me against tomorrow's blows or expensive blows, then I have no time for higher things. They mean nothing. Such a limited mind as my teacher would point that out. She would say there's so materialistic they can't even see beyond it. And now I know what she meant. Limited in a state. It isn't the person, it isn't this Thomas Huxley. It's the state he was in, apparently before he returned to the wheel of recurrence. If he did. I don't know a teacher would say that. But we were talking about the state, even though it seemed we were judgmental about the person, and partially, most likely were at the time. Today, no more, it's the state. A friend of mine who made a fortune said to me, neville, I can't wait to get up in the morning and hate to go to bed. It's a waste of time. A dream meant nothing to him. A vision meant nothing. He's gone from this fear now lived his three score and 10, leaving behind him a chain of hamburger stands which were very, very productive. Eight of them in New York City. And so he left it behind to his Wife and three children. But all he could think of was more of the same thing. A dream. It would frighten him. A mystical experience that meant nothing to him. So now he's gone into another sphere. But I know from experience that he is clothed in a garment that is as real to him as the garment that was here, not playing the same part. For he who initiated the whole thing knows exactly where to place him for his future good. Fascinating. For he who began the good work in him as he began it in us, he will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6. That is the work to be done when Jesus Christ, which is in man, every child born of woman, the reality of that child is Jesus Christ. It is that being that has the experiences of scripture. It is that being that resurrects, that is born from above, that discovers the fatherhood of God, that finds himself as the Son of man, ascending like a serpent into heaven. It is that being that finds himself smothered with affection from on high by the spirit of God in bodily form as a dove. It is that being. It's not another. And so everyone in this world, his real accomplishment is measured by his ability to witness to the truth of. Of the word of God. If tonight I made my exit from this world and tomorrow's well, investigators found I left behind me $1 billion. Those who could read it in the morning paper that he left a billion might be envious of my so called gain and possessions. But if, as I make my estate, I have not testified, I had no ability to testify to one word of scripture. I. I am as poor as a church mouse. The billion would be nothing. For I don't take it with me. Not one penny do I take with me. Not one honor that is conferred on man by man in this world do we take with us. If I told you some of my stories, meeting those who are truly great or were great in the eyes of the world and meeting them beyond the veil in the world that is just like this, you would think, well, Neville has gone insane. Those who are so brilliant and sense giants politically and such powerful things in this world, and I meet them. You don't want to have sympathy for anyone. You don't want to rejoice with people. But you wouldn't rejoice with the parts they are now playing. I am telling you from experience, I am not theorizing. Now, if you're new here and you haven't been through the videos Neville's talking about, he does meet them in his lucid dreams where he's completely awake and he sees that they're wearing a new garment. He's talking to them as if he's associated with them as before. And they're as if before too, but they're in their new garment. They don't even realize they're in their new garment. So what are we here for? To test scripture and at least be a witness to the law of God. The promise comes automatically in God's own good time. Well, just to be able to say I tested it. Like this lady, I don't know her personally. She said she only came last December when she heard a week ago last Friday or two weeks ago tonight, the story of my friend who shared with us his ability to. To actually clothe himself with a friend and grant to their friend to that friend what the friend could not grant to himself. She took that cue. Then she said, all right, blank space. Because of that, now I will share with you as your friend shared with you. Well, I do not know the lady. She only said a friend of mine, calling him by name, brought her here for the first time last December. This is how she found the place for her client after having shown the client house after house after house and they could not respond to it. So at least tonight, whether she ever comes here again or not, she knows that she has witnessed to the truth of God's word. She heard it here if she didn't read it in the Bible. Because it's in the Bible. I don't quote from any other book, not really. So whatever you desire, believe you have received and you shall. Well, she wanted to find just what they wanted, so she occupied it. As I have stated it time and again, this is a vast different. This is a vast difference between thinking of what you want and thinking from it. The great fallacy of the world of man is perpetual construction and delayed occupancy. We know what we want, we see it in the mind's eye, we construct it, but we don't occupy it. Well, she occupied this building and then she was called by the very client saying her sister had a friend. That's how it worked itself. If she doesn't know what she did prior to finding the house, she might now see the means and believe the means determine that rather than that what she did determined. But she might now, I don't know, she could sit down right now and say it would have happened anyway. The house was already built. The house was on the market for sale. This lady sister called her instead of friends saw it as she passed by and having seen the sign, then asked her to get in touch with the agent to investigate it. Then, on reflection, she could now say, well, it would have happened anyway. Then completely forget that for one little moment in time, she became a witness to the truth of the Word of God. But I tell you, we're here for one purpose only. To testify to the truth of God's word and the testimony of Jesus Christ as he broke the seal, and then the whole thing unfolds within him, even getting a parking space. What are you testifying to? And because the same Jesus Christ is buried in every child born of woman, that same Jesus Christ must testify to the truth of the word of God and to that testimony as recorded in Scripture, which is called the testimony of Jesus Christ. So everyone here will do it. You wouldn't be here tonight were you not on the verge of. I would say the promise. I say the same thing to you through the camera. I don't think you'd be here either. And yet I cannot say with any authority. I only know that so many of you, as I look out at your faces, have proven the law of God. So now when you prove the law of God, I can't believe for one moment you are not on the verge of being called into the fulfillment of the promise. Now, the statement that Huxley could not accept that God is love. I stand before you. I don't have to speculate. I don't have to ask, is God really love? For I have taken. I was taken in spirit. Now, you're told there were only three who bear testimony. The Spirit, the water, and the blood. I was taken in spirit into the presence of. Of the risen Christ. And all that I could see as I stood in the presence of the being that is man, was infinite love. I had no other emotion. I couldn't tell you anything about this presence. Infinite love. That's all that was there. And yet it was man. So when John makes the statement, I, John, saw it. I handled it with my own hands. And I testified of the truth of all that I have heard and seen. I heard it. He asked me a question. I answered him. So I saw him face to face, as John tells us and Paul tells us. I stood in his presence and saw him face to face. Well, he embraced me, so I certainly touched him. He asked me a question, so I heard him. I answered his question based upon love. And so I know from experience that no one could disturb that conviction that God is love and infinite love. Well, when you look at the world from this level and you see the violence and the horrors of the world. I wouldn't blame Huxley. He was an honest observer as a scientist, and he's had no evidence to support the claim that God is love. He sees one being killing the other and one animal eating the other and we eating the animal. He sees nothing but violence in the world. As an observer, a scientific observer, he came to the conclusion that he had not one shadow or tittle of evidence to support the biblical claim that God is love. You can't find it philosophically, you can't find it by rationalizing, it is revealed by God himself. So when you are called, you are called, and you have no choice in the matter. He who began the good work, he brings it to fruition. I didn't initiate it. God initiated it. And why, at one moment in eternity, I was selected to be unveiled and had this unveiling take place in my presence and looked right into the face of the risen Christ, I cannot tell you. I only know that I have experienced it, so I can stay with John. My hands have handled it, my eyes saw it and I heard it as he spoke to me face to face. Well, I can say that there's a lovely poem. I can't give you the whole, but the essence. The essence of it. It's based upon John. It is John who wrote the epistles, who our scholars tell us also wrote the Gospel of John. It's the poem by Browning, A Death in the Desert. It's all about John who was the last of the 12 to depart from this fear. As Browning sees it, as Browning sees it. Here is this John contemplating the fact that when he goes, there's no one left to say, I saw him. So here is John. He's surrounded by a few adoring friends, and he contemplates his own demise and wonders what it will be like in this world when there's no one to say, I saw him. There's one little poem. He said, when my ashes scatter, there's none alive on earth. No one alive and left who knew. Consider this. No one who saw with his eyes and handled with his hands that which was from the first of the world of life. How would it be when none more saith, I saw? Now that is Browning. That's not scripture inspired, yes, but I would say never will come a time when there will not be a remnant in this world. But who will be able to say, I saw? For we aren't seeing any physical being. You see the resurrected Christ, the risen Christ. There will always be in this world of ours, that remnant who will be called, who will stand in the presence of the risen Christ and who will be sent by that very being into the world to tell his story and to still play his part in this very limited world when he departs. Alright, so what? There will always be that remnant in the world who will be called, and he calls us, one by one, to complete the great temple that was predetermined by him. So here in this world of ours, you can own the world. And when you own it, if you want it, but it will be meaning, excuse me, but it will mean nothing to God's plan. All it means to God's plan is that his witness testify to the truth of his word. So you can start tonight by testing his law as he tested it, and my other friend tested it. And many of you. Blank space your faces. Practically everyone here has written me a letter and testified to the truth of God's word. Almost everyone here. So everyone will be able to tell it. Come round to the promise. That is all in the hand of God. That promise is completely unconditional. Now, I asked you last Friday night to identify yourself with Jesus Christ as you retired. And I give you my reasons for it. That man is born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as told us in first Peter the third, verse 13. That man's spirit spiritual birth is as natural as his physical birth. No man is born physically by the action of powers that are really his own. That all is beyond. So here we see in this story that he is born by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's spiritually born. So I asked you to go home and instead of taking to bed John Brown or Mary Smith or whatever your name is, to actually be bold enough to feel I am Jesus Christ. Just feel it. Don't ask why, just feel it. I am Jesus Christ. Others may tell you that that is blasphemy. Forget what they tell you. I'm speaking from experience. They are only theorizing and they are simply limited by certain concepts. You take it to bed and feel I am Jesus Christ. Feel it. Well, a lady called on me yesterday who took me at my word and took it to bed. She said, I am Jesus Christ. She said, Neville, during the night I suddenly heard a lecture. I didn't see anyone giving it, but I heard the lecture and it was all on Peter and James and John. Then as I heard it, I heard it coming through. I understood it clearly. I can't write it out for you. I have to tell you in words, because I can't get it down on paper. But I heard the whole lecture on Peter, James and John, and I knew that these three were equated with faith, hope and love. That these three were not persons, as we know persons. They were simply these quotes, qualities, eternal qualities of God. And they were simply equated with faith, hope and love. I knew that James in Scripture meant Jacob. For you'll find that in your dictionary that James is simply the Anglicized form of the ancient word Jacob. And Jacob was a supplanter. I knew that James, which was Jacob, meant hope, Peter meant faith, and John was love. The whole drama unfolded before me in an audible form as I heard it. I didn't see who was giving it, but the whole thing was so clear as I woke from this wonderful dream, because I took it in, because I took it to the depths of my soul. I am Jesus Christ. Well, they were the ones that he called. He calls these qualities into being faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. So here, as the whole thing unfolded within her, it came as a result of taking the great claim. I am Jesus Christ, she said. The next night, the same thing begins to unfold again. And I didn't see that man, but I felt the presence of Blake. And then I heard words that are only from the words of Blake. Blake said to me, you become what you behold. Well, Blake uses that expression two dozen times in Jerusalem. You become what you behold. Well, if I behold that I am Jesus Christ, I will have to draw into my being the significance of that which he drew, personified as Peter, James and John, if they really are equated in the true sense of the Word, with faith, hope and love. It would have to be unfolded within me if I wore that feeling of being Jesus Christ, as my friend wore the feeling of being a lady he wanted to help. And my other friend, I call her a friend, I. I don't know her. A feeling of being in a home that would satisfy her client. So I say, don't take to bed tonight. The feeling of being this little being that walked the earth this day with all the problems. Take the bed with you, the being that you really are, and persuade yourself that I am Christ. Go sound asleep in that assumption and see how it unfolds as it did in my friend in this world. She said, I can't wait to write it out for you. I must come and tell you. So I see no one really at home. Rarely do I see anyone at home. But it was so pressing. She Said I must see you today. So she came up yesterday and told me the story. I wish she was not as excited. I wish she was not as excited because she could have told me more. But 50 words came where maybe two should come. All words, words, words. So completely carried away with this expression she couldn't find words to tell me. So please go back and do make an effort. If you only get one page and write it out for me what you just spent the longest while trying to tell me because she was simply bubbling over with the experience. Well, I know exactly how she feels about it. I'll say to you tonight, you take it. If you didn't take it last Friday, take it. Tonight you will become what you behold. Then she said, the second night, like an unfolding drama, I found myself brushing my hair as getting something out of my hair. I went to a little mirror and suddenly it's not a little mirror, it's lane size. The whole thing takes my entire being and I'm transfixed before it for what I am seeing. Not in eternity could I ever resemble. And yet as I move my hand forward, my hand comes forward. As I brush my hair, the hand brushes the hair. As I smile this heavenly smile with teeth as described in the Song of Solomon. They all come up in pairs like sheep that came from the bath washed and in pairs, and not one barren among them as told us in the book of Solomon. Everything was perfect. She couldn't believe she could ever be that lovely. These wonderful, lovely eyes, that radiant skin, the hair of gold. Everything was perfect. And no matter what she did, it reflected her, it responded. And she stood transfixed before. Transfixed before a being which was herself that she could not in eternity conceive it could ever be. Now I'm telling you, get ready. You're not going to believe what you see when you look upon your own reflection in your waking dream. You're just not going to believe in your pictures, in your own pictures. Especially like me. If you had a picture of when you were a little kid and you didn't like that picture ever, you had some blown apart self esteem like I had. I didn't like that picture. I'm referring to of me and my brother and my mother. But now I see myself in that picture and I am in complete awe, in total awe of the little creature known as me as a little kid in that photo.