10/27/67
I think you’ll find this a very practical evening and yet profoundly spiritual. All things exist in the human Imagination, and I mean that literally. None can know of Imagination who has not tasted the cup of experience. Shall I not drink of the cup which the Father has given me? And here we read in the Psalms that there is in the hand of the Lord a cup, a cup that is bubbling over with wine and very well mixed. I will take the cup of the Lord of salvation and call upon his name (Ps.75:8). We read these words and we wonder, now what is it all about?
Well, let me share with you a vision of mine of about thirty years ago. This night I found myself in an infinite field of beautiful flowers. They were sunflowers, as far as the eye could see, and every flower was a human face and each perfect. If one smiled, all smiled. If one bent over, all bent over. No matter what one did all did it. As I stood there observing this fantastic display of beauty I knew, although I did not feel myself that beautiful, not by the widest stretch of my Imagination, I also knew that I was freer. That I expressed a greater measure of liberty and freedom than all of them put together, I knew it. When I returned to my body on the bed, I knew that in some strange way I was separated from that which once I formed a part. And then these words from the 8th chapter of Romans: “We were made subject unto futility, not by our own will but by the will of him who subjected us in hope…that we would be set free from this bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God” (Rom.8:20). So you and I here in this world are detached from that field of beauty. It’s a chorus where they all move in unison. But you and I are now separated and here we are in this world completely separated, completely incarnated. And complete incarnation is essential to individuality. This incarnation involves separation of Neville from the Father, it involves death, it involves, well, descent into hell. This is hell. You may not know it but this is hell where we are now, right here in this room and in this world.
In this world we are separated from the Father. You may not know it but there is a fear in the heart of man that he never more will see his Father who from all eternity was built into himself. It’s a fear, but may I assure you, having seen the Father, having realized the Father, that your fear need not be continued if you believe me. You’ll find the Father and when you find him, you’ll find him as yourself. We are separated from the Father for a divine purpose, for without this complete incarnation, insulated in this garment of flesh and blood, I would never find him. I would be part of that infinite chorus of beauty. I can’t describe the beauty of the faces, like sunflowers, each a perfectly marvelous beautiful human face. If one smiled, all smiled; if one bent over, all bent over. No matter what one did, all did it…it was a chorus. But now, you and I are not a chorus anymore—we’re individualized forever and forever. And may I tell you, we not only are individualized but we tend forever toward greater and greater individualization—that is who we are—by actually being subjected to this world where we are completely incarnated. And here we stand today.
Now, what is the purpose of it here? I am incarnated, you and I are incarnated, why? To create in ourselves the spirit of Jesus which is continual forgiveness of sin. Believe me when I tell you I know from experience that God is love. I stood in the presence of the risen Christ, infinite love, and he embraced me. But do you know that love divided from Imagination is eternal death? I’ll show you why. I love a friend and my friend is unemployed, without funds, burdened beyond measure. I can’t deny I love him. My memory tells me whenever I think of him he is unemployed, he is without funds, and he’s burdened. I will keep him forever through love in that state unless I know what Imagination is all about. So, none will know Imagination who has not tasted this cup of experience. We come into the world and there we are, and we spend centuries. Oh, yes, we love. You love your wife, you love your mother, father, children, friends. But you don’t know how to change them from what they are into what they ought to be unless you drink this cup of experience and you know the great secret of imagining. So love divided from Imagination is eternal death.
Now I’ll tell you what Imagination is: God’s great gift—his creative power—of himself to man. That God is love, yes. God is infinite power, infinite wisdom. But his creative power is Imagination. Now he gives me his creative power, called in scripture Jesus Christ. In the 1st chapter of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, “And Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Cor.1:24). So I see one that I love, love him dearly, and he’s, as I said, unemployed, without funds, in great need, embarrassed, unclothed? I still love him, but now let me take my gift that God gave me, and exercise it, and represent him to myself as I would like him to be—gainfully employed, happy, no debts. Let me persist in that imaginative state concerning my friend. And if he now conforms to it, if the world now remolds itself and shapes him in the likeness of one who is gainfully employed, who is making all that it takes, has no debts, then I have found the most wonderful secret.
This is the story of the prodigal son. So there were two sons and one, the second one, said, “Give me what is mine. Let me go into the world.” So he went into the world and he simply lost or wasted all. The first one did not leave home. When the second one came back, having had experience, he said, “When he came to himself, he remembered his father.” And then he went back and the father gave him the robe, the ring and prepared the fatted calf for a tremendous merry reception in the honor of the returned son. The first one complained, and he said to the first one who complained, he said, “Son, you are always with me.” You’ve never departed. You never detached from this world. “You’re always here, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:11-32).
But, he knew nothing of the power of Imagination. All was his, but he didn’t know how to appropriate it. You, tonight, could have a billion dollars in the bank and die of starvation, if you didn’t know you had a billion dollars in the bank. If it is all yours but you didn’t know, you would never appropriate one penny in the world, and die of starvation, die dishonored. So, “All mine is yours,” that’s what he said to the son, “but you’re always with me.” You’ve never gone out. You never departed from the Father. You and I departed from the Father, we came out. We did not do it willingly, not by our own will, but by the will of him who subjected us to this world of futility in hope that we would become free and set free from this world of decay—for everything dies here, it dies, decays—and obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God—to exercise this power of Imagination (Rom.8:20). So here we are in this world and now we must exercise this right.
Now, after he tells this story, he follows it through with the story of the unjust steward. These are the 15th and 16th chapters of the Book of Luke. So he tells the story. These are parables…and parables are wonderful stories where man must discover the fictitious nature of parable and extract its meaning and apply it. Now he comes into, right on the heels of it, he tells the story of this wonderful unjust steward, and he commends him for what he did. Now, the original meaning of the word steward was “the keeper of the pig.” That’s what it means, a “steward.” Today, we think of a chief steward on a ship, a steward takes care of things belonging to another, but originally the word meant “the keeper of the pig.” And the pig universally is the symbol of the savior of the world. That is a universal symbol, the pig.
To keep the pig: I tell you my story. Will you eat it? No, there are hundreds of millions who will not eat a pig today. They will not accept the story. They will not accept this story of salvation, so they refuse the pig as food. “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). So, it’s not a little pig, like eating a piece of roast pork, which is a delightful thing if it’s well done. And so, who doesn’t like it, the taste of it? But there are those who will not eat it, in a most literal sense, meaning they will not accept the story of salvation. They will not take it.
So here, he is the keeper of the pig, the steward, the unjust steward. He was called to give an account, because it was rumored that he was not keeping a proper record. Then the one who employed him said to him, “I have heard these things concerning you, and now bring an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer work for me.” Well, knowing this, he went to those who were debtors of his employer, and he said, “How much do you owe, my master?” He said, “A hundred measures of oil.” He said, “Sit down quickly and write fifty.” “And how much do you owe?” “A hundred measures of wheat.” He said, “Sit and write eighty.” He went through the entire list. And the master when he heard of this highly commended him for his action.
Well, you couldn’t conceive of someone commending a dishonest employee for such action, so what does it mean? It’s a parable. Now, who is keeping the record in me, in you? My memory, that’s the recorder. I know what I saw today, what I heard, what the mail brought. So someone called me and told me that they were, well, distressed. So, when I hang up I know what they said…that is the recording being in me. I am called upon to falsify the record. I heard what I heard, but I mustn’t live with that. At the end of the day, when night falls, I’m called upon to give an account of my day. Have I falsified the record? I must learn to falsify the record of the day.
So, someone is now distressed in some marital state. Am I going to let the curtain fall this night without revising the record? I am told to sit down quickly and write instead of a hundred, this is a fact, write fifty. I modify it. I’m not saying that they will now be completely enamored as they were the day they got married. I’m not saying that they will…he falsified it fifty per cent, he falsified it twenty per cent, but he falsifies the record. In other words, he makes an adjustment. He can’t bring himself to completely bring them back thirty years to the day when they got married, and then they go through life in that romance, can’t do that. He’s not qualified to do it. He’s not strong enough to do it. But he can falsify it. He brings them down fi fty percent, brings them down twenty percent. So here, in this fabulous world of ours we’re living in we falsify the record.
So, all things exist in the human Imagination. And, you and I are detached. I see it so clearly, after thirty-odd years I can see that scene right now…see it more vividly than I can the lovely flowers that my earthly mother grew. Mother was passionately fond of her garden, a beautiful garden. Every day mother would go out, always had her parasol because she was very, very fair and the sun would blister her. So under her parasol and to her gardeners, she gave the little directions as to what they should do. I can see her grafting her lovely roses and doing all these lovely things, beautiful garden. She was unusually fond of flowers. I can see her. But this vision that I had transcends anything in my childhood in mother’s lovely garden. Every face is so distinct and they were all like a chorus. They moved in the most perfect manner. One moved, all moved, in the same direction. No one violated the order, the unseen or unheard order, and if one smiled, all smiled. As I stood observing them, I realized I was freer. Single as I was, observing it all by just one being, I was completely free. If not completely free, certainly more free than all of them put together.
Then I realized that this division that must take place when we are made subject unto futility not only separates us from the Father and involves death, for we die, and brings us into the world of hell, a descent into hell, yet oddly it creates in us the Spirit of Jesus which is continual forgiveness of sin. And in hell, which is here, there is nothing but self-justification. He shot me first, she shot me first, she did so and so. So I justify everything that happens in my world. This is the voice of hell: self-justification. But in heaven, it’s all forgiveness of sin because all things exist in the human Imagination. So something is happening in my world…it can’t be happening outside of something that is taking place in me. So I must forgive it by changing it in me. I can’t just justify it in any way, and I can’t condemn it, for I will live in a state of hell. For, everything is taking place in you.
You are now separated from the Father, but, may I tell you, don’t despair that you never more would see him, for he is built in from all eternity in you…and you will meet him. You’ll meet him when David stands before you and you know him as your son. He will actually stand before you and you will call him, “Son.” He’ll call you, “Father, Adonai, my Lord.” It’s not a David, it is the David; the eternal David that was set up in the beginning of time, that was actually put into the mind of man before that the world was.
And then, you and I were simply detached. It was simply an act of love, though it doesn’t seem that way, when you and I were detached from that infinite field of beauty; and then made subject unto futility, not by our own will but by the will of him who subjected us, who intended to give himself to us. To do it, we had to be individualized. So complete incarnation, where I’m insulated, I’m completely incarnated and think myself Neville and think myself a member of a family. But I am not the family, I’m a member of the family of many brothers, a sister, and I have friends, and I have a wife, and I have children. But I am insulated, completely separated; and this complete incarnation was essential to my own individuality. That I would then begin to awake, and waking I am he who subjected me. I become the very being the world calls, God the Father. So this is the great story as I understand it from my own personal experience and my visions, and then I paralleled it with the words of scripture.
So tonight I’m asking you to take your own wonderful human Imagination and exercise it. Bring not only your friends, bring yourself— because they’re all yourself anyway—take everyone and put them into the light that is a more glorious light than where you found them. Don’t say, “Well, it serves them right”; you’re justifying it. Because, all things exist in you; it’s not out there, it’s all in you. So, if you fail a thousand times… and “How long, how often, Lord?” “Seventy times seven.” Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me? Well, how often must I forgive my brother who sins against me?
Well, may I tell you, in the 51st Psalm, the 4th verse, you can’t say it’s sinning in any other way than this, “Against thee, O Lord, thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, therefore, thy judgment, thy justification, is in order.” You’ve judged me? Well, who is this being against whom I’ve sinned? His name is I AM. Alright, his name is I AM. “Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight.” Alright, I see someone in my world and it’s not right. Well, I can’t sin against another; it’s against myself. I’m seeing it. I am seeing it, so I’ve got to take that and represent it to myself as it ought to be seen, and persist in that scene until it conforms to what I’m seeing. That is what I’m called upon to do, for “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight.”
So, if I encounter anything—and I will encounter everything in this world that is a (??)—I’ve got to change it. I was made subject unto this futility, unto this vanity. And I, and I alone, in the world in which I live, I’ve got to change it, and live in the sense as though things were as I desire them to be. I know this from experience. Because the night that I was lifted up, in l946, and came upon this infinite sea of human imperfection, when I was lifted up, all were made perfect in harmony with that state to which I was lifted as I walked by. So, within ourselves we must lift ourselves to the state where we can lift our world up. Because everything in this world is yourself pushed out; it’s all yourself made visible. There is nothing but you. But not a thing in this world, no matter what it is, it’s all you made visible. The whole vast world is God projected…and God’s name is I AM.
So here, believe me when I tell you of my visions. They have never betrayed me, never. I might have betrayed my vision by ignoring it and encountering someone in need, not accepting what the vision is telling me to do. But it’s telling me that when I encounter anyone in my world to know I am only encountering myself… it can’t be another. Then I start it, and I represent that seeming other to myself as I would like him to be. To the degree that I persist in that assumption, then the other conforms to that state. So, here I must dream. And I think I can say tonight, I drank that cup to the very dregs. Shall I not take the cup which the Father has given me? For in the Lord’s hand there is a cup with foaming wine all mixed. Yes, I did not avoid any character in the world, I played them all, played all the characters—the white, the black, the yellow, the pink, the red. Whatever color there was, I played it. When he was honored or dishonored, I played it. I played all the characters of the world, and that I do know. So I can say, everyone in the world is playing all the characters. If you haven’t played them, you’re going to. But let me assure you because you are here—and no man comes unto me except my Father calls him— you are here, and I have reached the end of the road, and I have called you because my Father in me has called you. You play the parts too, you play them all.
Start now to take every being in your world and change them into the form of love. But love divided from Imagination is eternal death. Yes, you can love someone dearly, love them forever, but you can keep them in that state forever, not knowing they’re in a state and only a state. So take them out by the use of Imagination. But none will know Imagination who has not tasted the cup of experience. So here, we are in this world of experience for a divine purpose. It is the world of hell; this is hell. It’s the world of death; this is death. But now you take it, right here, and overcome the last enemy in the world, which is death. So someone seems to be forever ignored, forget it. You, in your mind’s eye, represent him as one who is known and wanted and loved, and see him conform to that. Bring him out of that state. Bring them all out of the state.
You will say, “Well, what is going to happen to me?” That’s yourself… you’re saving yourself. So don’t be concerned what’s going to happen to me. May I tell you, things happen. It’s all yours. He said to the first son, “All mine is yours.” But the son didn’t know it. He wasn’t detached; he wasn’t separated from the Father. So he couldn’t appropriate… not even a little kid. He said, “He never once gave me a kid that I could have a feast with my friends.” But he said, “Son, all that is mine is yours.” The son didn’t know it. But here, “Your brother, he was dead”—for separation from God is death— “and he’s alive. He was lost and he’s found.” So the seed had to be detached from the Father, fall into the ground, to be made alive. “For a seed unless it falls into the ground, then it remains alone; but if it falls into the ground and dies, then it brings forth much” (John 12:24). So the seed, which is the creative power of God, your own wonderful human Imagination, falls into the ground in you. This [body] is the red earth, called Adam. And then, it is made alive. Suddenly he begins to awake and he realizes who he really is. He encounters infinite love. But without the power of Imagination and divided from Imagination, love itself is eternal death.
So here, we go through this fabulous world of ours, changing our world to conform, yes, to a loving thing. But you can’t change it without Imagination. And you can imagine… everyone can imagine. So let the world go, let them go by…don’t try in any way. Your world, speaking of your world, and change your world, and prove this power within you. Then you will know what it is to drink the cup which the Father has given you. Shall I not drink it to the very end? I would. May I tell you, I have. I have played all the parts in my blindness when detached. But it was God’s infinite love when he detached me from himself and allowed me to drop as it were; for this separation from God is a form, and yet it’s a beginning of a new creation. So, I fall, as the seed falls from man, and yet it is the beginning of a new creation. And so here, we fell and then began a new creation. And God in us has given himself in this wonderful human Imagination.
So, tonight you take it. You take yourself, begin with self. You’re told to begin with Jerusalem. Now, who am I? Where am I? What am I? Well, I don’t like it. Alright, let me begin right there. Then represent myself to myself as the man, as the woman, I would like to be, and persist in this assumption. The assumption, though at the moment is denied by my senses, denied by reason, if I persist in it, it will harden into fact. So this is what we’re called upon to do, and this is simply taking the gift of God. He dropped me. What good would I be if I were dropped without the gift of his creative power, called in scripture, Jesus Christ? He’s the power of God and the wisdom of God. So I can be dropped…he dropped me in love, for he’s all love, but he dropped me. And in me he buried his creative power. Then I come out and I see things and I don’t like them. But I don’t know how to change them. Finally, I go through all of the things of the world, and then I discover I can change it. I try it. I try it once, try it twice, try it a dozen times and it works. Then I know I can change it. But, when I know I can change the world, that I don’t have to argue with the world—I can change it to conform to the ideal that is in my being—well, then I do it.
And so, believe me, I’ve experienced it. I can see that enormous field of perfection. You’ve never seen such beautiful faces, like sunflowers, each flower a face…and yet, a chorus. It was only a chorus. But, you are not chorus, you are soloists. You are individualized. And only complete incarnation can individualize us. So I had to be completely incarnated and isolated…feel myself separated from everything, including my earthly mother, loving her as I do, and my father, and my brothers, and my sister, my wife, my children. I went into something entirely different, completely isolated. This complete incarnation is essential to my individuality. Yet it involves separation from the Father, involves death, and descent into hell; though I’m seeking for the source of all phenomena, what is causing it, which is the Father. And I despair and I’m afraid I will never find my Father, my source of phenomena, who from all eternity was built into me.
Then one day I am born from above and five months later I encounter the only one in eternity that could reveal to me who I am. He stands before me and here is David, and David calls me Father. Then I know…no doubts…no uncertainty. I am looking right into the eyes of the one who was in the beginning put into my mind. “He put eternity into the mind of man yet so that man could not find out what God had done from the beginning until the end” (Ecc.3:11). So the end comes and then he stands before you and he calls you Father. Then you know.
So I say to everyone, you are detached and subjected unto futility. But, may I tell you, it is for a divine purpose. The purpose is that you will obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom.8:20). And the sons of God are the resurrected…as you are told that they are sons of the resurrection, being sons of God, or they’re sons of God, being sons of the resurrection (Luke 20:36). It’s automatic. You can’t be a son of God until you are resurrected, born from above; then you encounter the great David, who stands before you and calls you Father.
But here, you are here…and no one could come unless the Father within me called him, but no one, may I tell you. And we are waking quickly, rapidly, in this small gathering. When I think in this audience tonight I can see those who have awakened, who found David. One has found the child. On the 6th of March, or approximately about that time, he has to find David. David must come to him. If that chronological order that Bob and I followed is the order, and I’m convinced that it is, then Benny must, on the 6th or approximately the 6th of March bring forth David. Others have the forecasting of it; many of you have, from your letters. So I say in the not distant future then the actual thing will take place, and then comes the fulfillment.
I can’t tell you my thrill, without any feeling of emptiness or despair, because as far as I am concerned I could just drop right now. It would make no difference to me, none whatsoever. I feel the work is done. But, for unknown reasons I must continue to tell it over and over and over. That will be told me afterwards why I still must continue after the work is done. For my work is finished, I’ve completed it. All of the scripture I have experienced, yet I am called upon to remain and tell it. But whenever that moment in time comes that I depart, it makes no difference whatsoever. Only it’s a thrill to me in this world, which is called hell, to see that we are overcoming the last enemy which is death. For death is the last enemy to be overcome. And to find in this audience people are overcoming it, over and over. It’s marvelous!
Now let us go into the Silence.
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We’ll be here on Monday, as you know, every Monday and Friday until the middle of December. But, what I will speak on Monday, I haven’t the slightest idea. I only know that I’ll be here…and you’ll be well fed. Goodnight.
