検索キーワード： 著者 "Neville Goddard" すべてのカテゴリー

Tonight's subject is: many mansions. You may be familiar with the subject from the 14th chapter of the book of John: "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. Were it not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And when I go, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3, Moffatt's translation). Now, who is this one speaking? Scripture tells us it is Jesus Christ.

God does not dwell in us as something other than ourselves, for god actually became as we are, that one day we may be as he is. I tell you: you are the being who became man, the being Blake refers to as god. You, human imagination, did not begin in your mother's womb and will not end in the grave. As a pre-existing being, you emptied yourself of memory for a divine purpose. Tonight I will try to touch on that purpose.

There is nothing that appears in perception which cannot be duplicated in fancy, and what the world perceives is all imaginative in character. Here is a graphic example: I am sure everyone knows what it is to detect the fragrance of a rose. Now smell is a chemical sense and depends upon contact for perception. But does one really need a rose to detect its fragrance? Cannot its fragrance be reproduced imaginatively?

The discovery of the God within is the one far-off divine event to which creation moves. The only resurrection spoken of in scripture is when he rises in you, and the only birth spoken of there is when he comes out - and that is Christmas. The event seems to be single and separate from the other events, but they are all part of a complex whole. We are now approaching one part we call Christmas: the birth of God, the birth of I Am!

The Christian world claims to believe in Christ, but they do not know him for he must be found. This challenge is given in scripture. "Examine yourselves to make sure you are holding to the faith. Test yourselves!" If you want to find Jesus Christ you must test yourself!

Well, my first proposition is this one. The individual state of consciousness determines the conditions and the circumstances of his life. The second proposition is that man can select the state of consciousness with which he desires to be identified; and the third follows naturally - therefore, man can be what he wants to be.

Judas is called the betrayer, but what was it that he betrayed? Judas betrayed the great secret of the messiah and where Jesus might be found. His is the most important role in the great mystery of god.

Now, you have heard the expression time and time again: "Oh, he is reaching for the moon." It could be an ambition based upon your social desire. You want to transcend the limitation of your world where you were born. Or it could be some financial ambition, and friends who know your limitations will say of you: "He is reaching for the moon." Or it could be some tyrant trying to conquer the earth.

You will find tonight very practical, and yet I assure you, very, very spiritual. Christianity has to be continually redeemed from secular history, for Jesus Christ is the human imagination. As Paul tells us in his first Letter to the Corinthians: "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed upon us by God."

We are told that when Jesus found Philip, he said, "Follow me."

Then Philip told Nathanael, "We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote."

Philip is one who is interested in the workings of the mind. Looking for one who is searching for the source of the phenomena of life, Jesus finds one in whom he can reveal himself.

We are told that because of an act of disobedience, man fell, thereby separating himself from God. But scripture tells us that God consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon them. So we see: the fall was a deliberate act, a plan for expansion, for greater existence, and an ultimate birth. Scholars consider the 82nd psalm as one of the most difficult of all the psalms to interpret, stating that although the idea may be perennial, its meaning has vanished.

For most of us, our thoughts are like rambling sheep that have no shepherd. We are called upon now to rule the thoughts, to rule the mind. As you know, the kingdom of Heaven is as a man starting into a far country, and he calls unto himself his servants and gives them his property, his goods.

The Reverend Dr. Trusler saw the Bible as secular history, and criticized Blake, saying he needed someone to elucidate his ideas. Blake responded by saying, "You ought to know that what is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the ancients considered what was not too Explicit as fittest for Instruction because it rouses the faculties to act. Why is the Bible more Entertaining and Instructive than any other book?"

All things exist in the human imagination, and I mean that literally. No one can know of imagination who has not tasted the cup of experience! In the Psalms we are told that in the hand of the Lord there is a cup that is bubbling over with wine which has been well mixed. And John asks: "Shall I not drink of the cup of salvation which the Father has given me, and call upon his name?" When we hear these words we wonder what it is all about.

So, really, in the end, there is only God. And God is Jesus Christ. There is no other God. So, let no one scare you. Your salvation has already been predestined. You are already redeemed because you have already been predestined. Predestined glory, and glory is nothing more than the magnifying - "making self many." So, each becomes the face of God, everyone knowing that he is God, and everyone knowing that the other - his brother - is God. And there is nothing but God!

When I receive a great revelation concerning the creative power of God I cannot keep it to myself, but must share it with all who will listen.

As Paul said to Timothy: "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion." Scripture is not secular history, but a mystery which is most important that we understand! Speaking to his disciples, Jesus said: "In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you." (John 14) The phrase "in that day" is an eschatological term meaning, "at the end of the journey". In other words, when this age of Caesar comes to its end, you will experience the truth of scripture and understanding.

While considering scripture, always bear in mind that it is a story of salvation and not secular history, that the characters - from Adam to Jesus - are states of consciousness. The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah, or the Law, with Abraham as the symbol of the beginning of civilization.

When you are discussing Blake you are discussing one of the greatest spiritual giants of all time. You might just as well discuss St. Paul, for they had the identical visions, the vision of reality. Tonight we can cover only a portion of his gift to the world. In his "Auguries of Innocence" he says: "To see a World in a Grain of Sand/ And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, /Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand /And Eternity in an hour." What is the sequence?

The attitude of the world towards the great mystery of Christ is due to their ignorance of who he really is. And only to the degree that the individual experiences the mystery, will he know that he is the heavenly being who came down and assumed the body of death to rise as Jesus Christ.