The Witness of the Spirit

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 Christ who broke the 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 to it.277 ¶1

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 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, whether 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 the most beautiful living room, to my left was a large formal dining room, and through the window I could see this wonderful 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.277 ¶2

“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 home for sale in a certain neighborhood, and called to say that it was available. So she, in turn, called me to tell me that it was listed with a certain broker, who, she said in her letter to me, was not in my multiple or our 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 wonderful hallway and I became almost speechless. To my right was the largest 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.”277 ¶3

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.”277 ¶4

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.277 ¶5

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…a state 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.277 ¶6

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” . 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.277 ¶7

Now, how do we do it? How do we start? Listen to these words, “We love, because he first loved us” . I love you because you first loved me? That’s what it’s implying if I get it correctly. We love because he first loved us. Now “Be imitators of God as beloved children” . 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 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’m told that 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.277 ¶8

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 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.277 ¶9

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 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.277 ¶10

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” . 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 and 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 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.”277 ¶11

Pre-occupation 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 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. A friend of mine who made a fortune said to me, “Neville, I can’t wait to get up in the morning and I 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 sphere now, lived his three score and ten, 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.277 ¶12

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. 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 . That is the work to be done.277 ¶13

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 the word of God.277 ¶14

If tonight I made my exit from this world and tomorrow’s, well, investigators found I left behind me one billion dollars, 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 exit, I have not testified, I had no ability to testify to one word of scripture, 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.277 ¶15

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 were so brilliant and such giants politically and such powerful things in this world, and I meet them…you don’t want to have sympathy for anyone, you 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.277 ¶16

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.277 ¶17

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 actually clothe himself with a friend and grant to that friend what the friend could not grant to himself, she took that cue. Then she said, “Alright, [...] 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. And 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.277 ¶18

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 time and again, 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 clients 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 determined 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’s sister called her and said a friend 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.277 ¶19

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. 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.277 ¶20

You wouldn’t be here tonight were you not on the verge of, I would say, the Promise. 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.277 ¶21

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 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 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, I saw it, I handled it with my own hands, and I testify to 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, 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.277 ¶22

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 say with John, my hands have handled it, my eye saw it, and I heard it as he spoke to me face to face. Well, I can say that.277 ¶23

There’s a lovely poem—I can’t give you the whole— but 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 called A Death in the Desert. It’s all about John who was the last of the twelve to depart from this sphere, 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 is 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 the word of life, how would it be when none more sayeth, ‘I saw’?” Now that is Browning, that’s not scripture.277 ¶24

Inspired yes, but I would say never will come a time when there will not be a remnant in this world 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’ll 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.277 ¶25

So here in this world of ours, you can own the world, and when you own it, if you want it, but it will mean nothing to God’s plan. All it means to God’s plan is that his witnesses 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 [...] 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.277 ¶26

Now, I asked you last Friday night to identify yourself with Jesus Christ as you retired, and I gave you my reasons for it—that man is born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as told us in 1st Peter, the 3rd verse. That man’s 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.277 ¶27

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, 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 a 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 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 itto the depths of my soul, I am Jesus Christ.”277 ¶28

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.277 ¶29

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.”277 ¶30

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 don’t know her—a feeling of being in a home that would satisfy her client.277 ¶31

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 to 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.277 ¶32

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, because she could have told me more, but fifty 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.277 ¶33

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.277 ¶34

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 length size, the whole thing takes in 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 the 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 came 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!”277 ¶35

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 a being which was herself that she could not in eternity conceive it could ever be. That was the second night…by taking to bed the assumption of being Jesus Christ.277 ¶36

Well, he’s perfect. He’s as perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect, so if you take perfection with you and he’s one with God, what would you expect to see if you really succeeded prior to sleep in identifying yourself with the perfect? What could you see but the perfect? So there she saw reflected in this length-size mirror the being that she is. So I tell you, do it. These are things we share with all…as she shared it with me, I tell it to you. You take it to bed. I’m quite sure today she’s not the girl she was last Friday. May I also tell you, she never will be the same one that she was last Friday. You’re never again what you were after these experiences.277 ¶37

So today, after 2,000 years or more theologians are still arguing the point as to what part God and man play in this new birth of the Spirit. But for those who speak from experience, there is no doubt as to the fact that God initiated the whole thing.277 ¶38

And so, I told her a story and she acted upon it. What did she do? I said to you earlier “We love, because he first loved us.” Well, today she asked the question about…she’s a grandmother, she knows what it is to love, so God so loved her she could now love. You couldn’t love before God loved you, you couldn’t. So when you see a violent creature in the world incapable of it, it’s because he has not yet been touched by the love of God. So forget it, and have compassion for him.277 ¶39

But she, as a grandmother, can love her grandchildren, love her two daughters, and love her friends, and love the world. So she can love. Well then, go to bed and fall in love with being the embodiment of love, the personification of love. And then came a response; she saw herself in the nth degree of beauty, of perfection. If she hadn’t yet been touched by love, she couldn’t do it. The chances are she wouldn’t even try it.277 ¶40

So I say, today we see the whole vast world of hate this and the other. Well, I’m not saying they haven’t yet been loved, but not to the degree that you have loved, you have been loved. You wouldn’t be here were you not loved to that degree.277 ¶41

Now tonight, be imitators of God as beloved children. If no response from me until God first loved me, well, now I can love, well, then he must have loved me. I can’t possibly love unless he loved me. Well, if I am capable of love it’s because God first loved me. Are you capable of love? Well, then God first loved you or you couldn’t love. Dwell upon that…just dwell upon the fact that God singled you our as a unique being and loved you or you couldn’t love. Listen to it carefully, “We love, because he first loved us”…incapable of the response of love unless we were first loved by God. I’m quite sure everyone here is capable of love, therefore, you’ve been singled out. And yet there are in this world those who are incapable of love. Doesn’t make sense, does it?277 ¶42

Well, today’s Time magazine came…and I happened to live physically when I was born in that same area. If you subscribe to it or you have it, you’ll find it in August…there is a very short article on Santo Domingo in the Caribbean where I was born…not Santo Domingo…I was born in Barbados. Well, there’s a story told in there, supposed to be historically accurate. You can’t believe that these things happened in our century! As it ended with Trujillo and prior to that from the time that Columbus discovered the little island and named it after Spain, because it reminded him of Spain—when the Spaniards landed the first thing that they did they slaughtered the Indians. But not just killed them, tortured them. Then it goes from there to when the French came, and what they did and how they brought in the slaves and what they did to the slaves. Then it goes on…it’s only a short article, but in that crowded article, the horror! You can’t believe you are dealing with people that God loved. One fellow got in there, called Trujillo, and in a short little interval of time he left behind him, when they shot him—had the presence of mind to do that to him—he left 800 million dollars. A little island, not three million people live on it, and he left—and he was “the great benefactor”—$800 million is what he gathered from looting these people and the torture chambers that he erected for them.277 ¶43

Well, now forgive him, because God hasn’t yet smiled upon him. When God smiles upon him and calls him, he will go through all the furnaces of affliction, but he will come out just like his Father who is the embodiment of love.277 ¶44

So I know from experience, God is love. If a man as bright as Huxley could not find him searching through the world, all well and good. He was a humanist, a kind man. I have no doubt in my mind he is loved by God, but for the moment lost in this human sphere and trying to unravel all the structure of God’s outer world, so he has no time for higher things. When he has time for higher things, the day will come, he too will be taken in Spirit into the presence of the risen Christ. Then he stands in the presence of the risen Christ with only one emotion permeating him, which is infinite love. And then when he’s embraced by him because he will answer correctly, too, and becomes incorporated into the body of Christ, one with that body forever and forever. As we are told in scripture, he will transform our lowly body to be one form with his glorious body . And we will not see it happen, not through mortal eye; and the one who has been incorporated into that body does not know the glory that is his body while he’s still veiled in flesh.277 ¶45

So I say to you tonight, test God. Test the law of God. If you want a home, if you want a job, maybe you want a better job, more money, I don’t care what you want, wear it as she wore the house. She occupied it, she was on the inside, she had coffee with her client, and looked through the window and saw this wonderful garden patio, saw this beautiful living room. Then, she didn’t seek it, the phone rang and her very client is asking her to investigate an unknown district, a district she had never seen before. The one who had the listing, she didn’t know the man. So she went and became transfixed when she entered the hallway and saw to her right the living room that was the biggest and most beautiful one she had ever seen; and to her left this wonderful formal dining room with a view of a garden patio. Then it was the price they could pay. They paid it, they bought it, they are living in it, and they are blissfully happy. At least, that’s her letter to me. I do not know the lady. She said she came here five times and read four of my books, over and over, and then one night began to apply it, after being turned down by her clients after showing them home after home. So having applied it for six consecutive nights, then she found it without seeking it.277 ¶46

Tonight you try it. I promise you that if you do, you will be a witness to the truth of the law of God. And in time, you will be a witness to the truth of God’s Promise as played and experienced in scripture, recorded for us in the life of Jesus Christ. Now let us go _.277 ¶47

Are there any questions?277 ¶48