Seek the Kingdom

I’ve said time and again. That which is most profoundly spiritual is in reality most directly practical. Just about a week ago, a couple who came said, “I haven’t heard you in the longest while”—implying for a few years—“and I read that statement in your book and tonight you mentioned it, and thank you very much.” He didn’t say that he really fully understood it, but he did find some help in whatever was said that night.427 ¶1

So tonight, let us take it in the way that I mean. We are told, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For our heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well”. Now here we have a priority.427 ¶2

It does not deny that I have to eat and I have to drink and I have to be sheltered and to be clothed. No, that’s no denial. All these things my heavenly Father knows, yet I am told they will all be mine if I would put first things first; and the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God.427 ¶3

If I could bring about any modification in it, I would be surprised at the changes in my outer world. If I’m reading a book, I’m not unmindful of the fact that a phone would ring, that someone could enter the room, turn the light on, a doorbell ring. These are marginal, but the focus of my attention is on the book. I am absorbed in the book, but not to the complete exclusion of these things that are marginal.427 ¶4

So if my interest is held by the kingdom…so when I hear the story of the kingdom and how man enters it, the plan of it, it forces me in a little while to modify the concept I held concerning God’s plan of salvation. Did it mean simply, as a little child when I was totally unaware, to be baptized? For that’s what multiple millions believe. The mere fact that my parents took me before the baptismal when I was totally unaware and baptized me in the name of Christ…now I’m a Christian knowing nothing of Christianity. So, hundreds of millions have lived and died in that belief; that was their concept and no modification of that in their life.427 ¶5

I am told, if I read scripture correctly, to take that central point, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” Well, we’re told that Abraham was a believing one, and his belief was accounted unto him for righteousness. So you see now what righteousness is: the faith. Not a faith. This is not a faith among faiths. This is the faith. Find out what “the faith” really means. Well now, if I find out what “the faith” is—that I must be born, and therefore will be born from above, that I who imagine receives God’s gift? What’s his gift?—himself. He is going to give me himself by giving me his son, not as a companion but as my son? For all that the Father has, everything, is mine? Well, he has a son and that’s his son and all that he has, that’s mine, and he’s going to give it to me.427 ¶6

Now I hear this from the lips of one who claims that he experienced it. Am I convinced to the point where as I leave his presence that I modify my concept concerning the kingdom, concerning God? To the degree that I have modified that belief, to that degree will I find corresponding changes in my outer world; for, I am living in a state, and a state is a body of beliefs. I can believe that I am healthy, I’m wealthy, or the opposite. I can take the whole body of concepts that we all pass through, and to what degree do I accept this, that or the other? But the basic, the fundamental is that is my concept of God. God and his kingdom are one.427 ¶7

Now from this platform, I tell you, that I and my Father are one; therefore, my Father can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation. He can’t even be near. Well now, what is that that can’t even be near? Well, this is near, the skull is near, but I can’t in some strange light separate myself from what I call imagining. I can’t put it on the outside. I can’t take the sense of I-am-ness and in any way put it outside and point to it. I can’t get away from that sense of I-am-ness, so in that sense of I-am-ness I am imagining and I cannot in eternity get away from this sense of oneness. So if this is my Father, [...] really live?427 ¶8

Now he puts me to the test…this is from Matthew. The first one I quoted was from the 6th. Now we quote from the 10th to see to what extent my confession in words conforms to my deep, deep conviction. This is how he puts it: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. Anyone who denies me before men, I deny before my Father who is in heaven. Think not that I came to bring peace; I came not to bring peace but a sword. To set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes are those of his own household.”427 ¶9

The battle is within me. This is not a conflict between my earthly physical daughter and myself, or my daughter and her mother, my son and me, no, it’s all within me. The foe is of my own household. Not the household in the sense of the individuals who share the house with me, but it’s all taking place within me, for I am the house of the living God.427 ¶10

Now here, a new concept presents itself like a sunburst. Will I accept it? For now the young is placed against the old—a man against his father, it’s the daughter against the mother, daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. And so you hear something and it’s in conflict with what you formerly heard. If you accept it, it cannot be put into the old skins; this is new wine. The new wine is not yet fermented. Put it into an old skin and it will burst it. It has to have a new bottle, a new skin, something entirely different. Will you accept it…will you accept the fact that your own wonderful human Imagination is the one of whom the world speaks when they speak of God but they don’t know it? Will you accept it to the point that you’ll confess it and acknowledge it before men? I may acknowledge it to myself and live in a certain way and feel that you know it’s easier to live with my wife or with my husband (depending upon my sex) if I don’t really confess it or acknowledge it in the household. We go to the same church that we went to years and years ago, we do all the things, and in the outer world here I am. I must acknowledge it before men and not be ashamed of him. If I’m ashamed of him, well then, he doesn’t mention me before the Father, and the Father sees only the heart. Doesn’t see the outer show at all, he sees only the heart.427 ¶11

And so, any modification in this basic belief, well, that takes precedence over every belief in the world. To say tonight “Well, I’m rich” and my concept of God remains what it was before, well, it’s like putting something on the surface. But change the core, and then the whole vast outer world changes to conform to it. Get down to the core and change the core and the core is God. That’s what I change. Do I have it so inwoven within me that I am willing to confess it openly and to acknowledge it before men? That’s what I am trying to get over.427 ¶12

I’m not ashamed of it, and if I had not had the experiences to support it, well then, do I believe the one who introduced me to it? Not every one found Christ who sought him; others found him first and brought others to him, as the story tells us in the Book of John. In the very beginning, this one finds him…Andrew finds him and brought his brother Peter; Philip found him and then took him to his friend Nathaniel. They did not find him, they didn’t seek him, but they were introduced to hm. Well, who did you find? “I found the one of whom Moses in the law and the prophets spoke, Jesus of Nazareth.” He is the one of whom they spoke. Well, where is he? Come and see…and you go in mind…the whole drama is supernatural.427 ¶13

You listen to the man who has experienced it and you either turn your back upon him or you accept it. If you accept it then you toy with the idea and to the degree that you become enamored, well then, you modify what you formerly believed true concerning Christ Jesus.427 ¶14

Tonight, one billion believe in some little personal being that walked the earth 2,000 years ago, and that’s him. That goes for all the priesthoods of the world too, not just people who were not trained in theology, I mean those who trained them. They have that concept of Jesus Christ. They do not know the vision, haven’t the slightest concept of the vision that is Jesus Christ.427 ¶15

Now listen to these words of Blake: “No individual should appropriate to himself or to his emanation any universal characteristic of David, or of Eve, of the woman, or of the Lord.” And he’s right. When you have it, you wonder, “What two, three, four billion people in the world and they single me out to show such blessings, such a gift?” In my own case I was hungry to find another who had had a similar experience. I ran across a young lad, twenty-two years old, in San Francisco who had just had them. But he was an adopted son. And a difference of opinion between the boy and his parents and he vanished from home, and they never heard from him since. So I never contacted the lad to find out the second phase after the birth. He lived in Sausalito. I was looking and looking and when my friend Bob Crutcher had it, I can’t tell you my ache…I can’t tell you my thrill in discovering another. Then Christine, she had it. Then Benny and he had it. Others have had it. So I can’t tell you.427 ¶16

So what does Blake mean by this? No individual should appropriate to himself or to his emanation—this body is the emanation, and the self is the core, one’s Imagination. That is God in man. He should not appropriate to that self these universal characteristics of David or Eve. Why?—because any appropriation of universality by an individual is a denial of the universal brotherhood. It’s a denial of the unity of all in the divine family. To think that I and I alone had this experience, that it’s mine and not other’s, I’m denying this universal brotherhood. I am denying the unity of all in the divine family. So David is not just my son, he is our son. For any individual to appropriate this universal characteristic of David for himself, he tells us it is wrong, because he will simply be broken on the very rocks of experience if he dares to think he differs by that unique…to him unique yes…but it’s unique to everyone. Then he goes on to say, “That the vegetated Christ and the virgin Eve is the hermaphroditic abomination—blasphemy that they seek to make a vegetated Christ into some corporeal form.” Well, you can’t do it. He speaks of the divine vision…“they will take this divine vision and turn it into a vegetated Christ”…meaning something that is here, that is on the outside of us. This body is my emanation. I cannot claim that this is a direct descendant, as some in this world claim, that they are directly descended from, say, David. David doesn’t belong in this world. He belongs to an entirely different age; the eternal play of God…that’s David…the son of everyone to whom God gives himself. His plan is to give himself to every being in this world, and the one way you will know that he gave himself to you is when David confronts you and you are his Father. So when he looks upon you and you are his Father, then you know and there’s no uncertainty, none whatsoever. But everyone is going to have it, so no individual should ever appropriate these universal characteristics of David to himself alone, because he must share it. For this is a universal brotherhood. That’s what Blake means by it.427 ¶17

When Blake uses the word hermaphroditic he means “contradiction.” If you wrote a book as you saw your premise, and that is your principle, that’s the principle on which you stand, and as he reads it he finds a contradiction, a conflict in principle, that book to him is hermaphroditic, it’s a conflict. It is something that is completely contradicted by what you stated in the beginning.427 ¶18

So if I say in the beginning that God is merciful, as all the churches say God is a God of mercy, and then I go out and I kill in the name of God, well then, where is…it’s a contradiction. Therefore, to him all orthodox religions are simply hermaphroditic, because they contradict the principle which is that our God is a God of mercy. If my God is a God of mercy and I go in the name of God and kill and I enslave and do all these things, well then, that is a contradiction. That’s what he means by the word. He doesn’t mean two sexes in one…because that in itself would be a contradiction…if I’m going to actually bring it out in my own being. So to him the word meant simply “conflict, a contradiction of principle of the foundation that you stated in the beginning as the principle on which you base your philosophy of life.”427 ¶19

So here, I never claimed it. I can’t tell you my hunger, and when I found him…and more and more I’m finding it, those who are having the similar experience, but are unique in the sense that it is not quite a duplicate. But they are all parallel, all the experiences are parallel.427 ¶20

So if you cannot confess it because of your social world, if you can’t confess it because of business reasons, if you cannot acknowledge it before men, acknowledge whom?— acknowledge your conviction of the plan of Christ. Christ is not any longer a little thing after the flesh. As Paul said, “I no longer see him after the flesh. Even though I once believed in him after the flesh, I see him so no longer”. He, too, believed as millions believe that here was a little being outside of us that walked the earth in some strange way. Suddenly the vision came, and it pleased God to reveal his son in me, said Paul; and “When it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood”. And so at that moment then he proclaimed it and was not ashamed of it. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, of this good news,” and he simply publicly confessed it to all.427 ¶21

Now here, this one within me is the only creative power. There is no other creative power.427 ¶22

Here is one who found him as a boy. A few of you have heard this story, because I told it years ago, but it’s worthwhile telling it again, because of this basic something in him. He hasn’t omitted all the blows of life, no one does; but he got down to the core of who God is, and he discovered that he didn’t have to go on the outside to worship God, that the God was within him. He knew from what happened to him in Russia how this thing operated. He was a poor boy, had no money, living on charity, the oldest of a family of five. His mother died when he was about eight and he was forced to go out and do errands to bring in a little money to feed the family…his father and the remaining children, the other four and himself.427 ¶23

He told me himself, he said, “Neville, I never knew what it was to eat until I was satisfied. I never knew what it was to have my own shirt, a new shirt, or a pair of slacks or a pair of shoes; we got all of our things from charity. I was in Russia in Odessa in the days of the Czars and we were the minority group of Jews. You’ve heard of pogroms? I saw them. I know what it is to go through such horror. I got a good job. My job was to take large denominations to a bank and have them exchanged into small denominations and silver and copper. I noticed one day this teller—he had a huge, big beard on him, here he is very formally dressed with his big beard—and as he gave me the money I noticed from the outside wrapping that the copper resembled the silver. I just noticed that. Knowing nothing outside of that, I wondered to myself, just playing a little game, and I wondered ‘Wouldn’t it be marvelous if he made a mistake, wouldn’t it be wonderful!’ So I assumed that he made the mistake. I took the money that he gave me and I put it in my pocket, put my hands into my slacks all patched up and my shoes burlap. I had my shoes all wrapped up, and hungry. I walked back in the belief that he had made the mistake. Well, he didn’t, but I had one wonderful time walking back the many blocks that I had to walk from the bank to my little place where I worked. I put the money into their hands.427 ¶24

“The next day, through habit, I went back again with my large denominations and put it in, and I watched what he did…and he made the mistake. So I put the money in my pocket and I knew what he had done. He gave me silver instead of the copper. I figured the whole thing out, how much he’d given me. Well, I could buy a pair of slacks and I could eat until it came through my ears. So I went to another bank and I changed the money into the right denominations and went back to the place where I worked, and gave them exactly what they should have but I had the rest for me. That night, I could almost hear my dead mother. She taught me an ethical code of right and wrong, and I knew it was wrong to keep the money. I knew it was wrong. But I wrestled all through the night with this. Next morning, my hunger got the better of me. And so I went out the next day and I bought a pair of slacks, and I bought the biggest meal a boy could ever eat, and I never returned the money. But it taught me a lesson.”427 ¶25

Now the whole world hearing this, based on their [...] would say, “Wasn’t that wrong!” Well, we ate of the tree of good and evil…that’s why we came out. There isn’t one person in this world who has not violated their code. If they didn’t have the courage to do it outwardly, they’ve done it inwardly. For here, “You’ve heard it said of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that anyone who looks on a woman lustfully has already committed the act.’” Now, let one person rise in the whole vast world and confess he has never committed the act. He may not have had the courage to commit the act for fear of consequences, but don’t tell me he hasn’t committed the act. So the drama becomes a psychological drama.427 ¶26

The kid was hungry and embarrassed by all the torn things. In the interval, he has given back to society a thousand times more…a thousand times?—ten thousand times more than that little amount. And that would still not be equal to what he has given. Not to compensate; it taught him a lesson.427 ¶27

So he came out into the world of experience and learned a lesson: The creative power was his own wonderful human Imagination. So after the First World War when Russia collapsed, and he came into Paris penniless and broke and got a job as a street cleaner, he didn’t forget the act. From there he rose today to a multi-millionaire in a legitimate business by simply applying this principle: That an assumption though false if persisted in will harden in to fact. He assumed the man made a mistake; he didn’t the first day but he did the second day. So he persisted in the assumption and the man made the mistake.427 ¶28

When I told that story in this city years ago, oh, maybe fifteen years ago, a lady said to me, “Well, did he ever send it back?” I said, “To whom, Stalin? He got it from the Czar’s regime.” Stalin stole all the things that the Czars had. To whom then would he repay what was the Czar’s? Give it to Stalin the thief?” Well, it didn’t satisfy her. He was wrong and he should have given it to someone in Russia. Well, he has given unlimited fortunes.427 ¶29

Now here is one that came this week. There were many and the first two or three were self-explanatory. He said, “This one, I’m not quite sure of this. My enemy goes to get an instrument to injure me, and so I hurriedly look around in his absence to find what I could use to defend myself.” He spoke of a rope, but he realized that’s not good enough for defense. He tried to find a place to put it back…but that’s not relevant to the story, because there’s only one central jet of truth in the story. So he made the first attempt, the second with the rope, and then from the present moment of time which is now, the theme shifts and it’s an ancient world. He has committed himself to the people to actually use this very, very vicious instrument against his enemy. All the spectators have gathered to watch him do it, and he’s got to go through with it because they are waiting. So he takes his enemy and ties him down, and then with an ax, a long blade of about twelve inches, he begins to put it into his back. He said, “By nature I’m a pacifist and I didn’t want to hurt him, but they were waiting for me to do what I said I would do. So I struck him and I could have in one blow severed him in two vertically, for that was the way I was hitting him. Then I realized that they were getting anxious, so I made several efforts like a practice shot and then I came down and withdrew the punch so the blade only went in three inches. Then a man came forward and looked at me and then snickered because he knew from what he saw I had pulled the punch and didn’t go right through with it to split him in two. Then the crowd began to grumble and they walked away in disgust.”427 ¶30

Let me tell him tonight this is an adumbration, a foreshadowing. The day that you 100% confess your belief in Christ as your own wonderful human Imagination, and pull no punches, none whatsoever, then will come the day that you will cut yourself in two with one fell blow, and release the imprisoned splendor. For within us is Christ, head down, now in generation. And the day will come we’ll actually release Christ by one blow that will sever us in two from top to bottom. Then we ascend. We perform the act…well, that’s God the Father and you are God the Father…you’ll fuse with it and up you will go right up into the kingdom of heaven; for he’s imprisoned within us.427 ¶31

Now, all of us in certain groups…I don’t say you go out and start screaming it, no, you don’t. But you go out and in any group where the question is raised you can confess it. There’s no need to hide it. If, for social reasons, you have to not mention it, alright, but don’t hide it. If anyone ever asks you, “What is Jesus Christ?” you can state that “Christ is my own wonderful human Imagination and there never was another. There is no other Christ. Christ is my own wonderful human Imagination and Christ became as I am with all my weaknesses, all my limitations that I may be as he is. And who is he?—he is God the Father. There’s nothing but Christ…he is God the Father.”427 ¶32

When man believes it to the point where he really believes it, his outer world will change to conform to these inner changes that took place in him. So my world is only mirroring and reflecting all of my beliefs. So any modification of a belief is simply a change in my outer world. So instead of working on the little things like wealth, health and these things, work upon major things, my concepts of Christ…who is he.427 ¶33

And so you can say to a hundred million people or a billion Christians— there are supposed to be a billion Christians. If you said to me “Are you a Christian?” I would say, yes, I’m a Christian. And then I say to you who asked me, are you one and you would say yes. If we get together we’re poles apart, therefore, what do we mean by being a Christian? I know in my own home in Barbados my sister Daphne, who is a pillar of the church, she is a Christian in her own mind’s eye and I in my mind’s eye I’m a Christian, but we do not agree on what Christ is. We have entirely different concepts of Christ as a plan of redemption.427 ¶34

When I was drafted into the army, this one said to me, “What is your religion?” I said, “I’m a Christian.” She said, “You can’t just say you’re a Christian. What are you? Are you Roman Catholic? Are you a this or that?” I said, “I’m a Protestant.” Well, she didn’t like that. I said, “That’s exactly what I am. I am a Protestant.” She said, “You’ve got to say you’re a Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist” all these things. I said, “Why must I? I am a Protestant.” She said, “That doesn’t go, because we have to have chaplains, and so we don’t have any Protestant chaplains. We have Episcopalians and we have Baptists and we have [...] and we have rabbis, but you can’t just have a protestant.” “But that’s what I am. Anyway, I’m a Christian, I am fundamentally a Christian.” But I couldn’t explain to her and maybe she was one in her own mind’s eye, a Christian. If I asked the pope tonight or the Archbishop of Canterbury, they would say they’re Christians. But I’m quite sure if the three of us got together and defined what we mean by Christ, we would be poles apart.427 ¶35

I tell you, Christ is the vision of redemption. That vision of redemption, that’s Christ. See the vision and don’t try to vegetate it and put it in to some corporeal body, and make it some little thing that died. Christ is not of this world, and yet he’s in you which means you belong to an entirely different world. The whole drama is supernatural…he is not of this world. And while you walk this world in these garments that decay, it unfolds within you lifting you from this world of death into the world of eternity. So believe in it and dwell upon it. As you dwell upon it the whole thing unfolds within in you. Then in your outer world, you won’t have to say what shall I eat, what shall I drink and what shall I wear? Things happen, strange, marvelous things happen in your world and you don’t have to be concerned about marginal things of life. What is the real focus, the center of your focus and not the fringe? And if you put the center of your focus on that, you wouldn’t have to consider about money and these things at all.427 ¶36

Let the world tell you differently, alright, let them tell you differently, it’s perfectly alright. I know from experience that if you dwell upon these things, things happen out of the nowhere.427 ¶37

I know in my own case, I never thought of money. I never contributed to any money that my parents ever made, never. They are a thousand miles away, yet when he made his will he did not leave me out. He didn’t modify his gift to me because I didn’t contribute. And when his will was read, to the amazement not to my brothers for we’re all like fingers on a hand, but to the amazement of the in-laws. Oh, they thought that’s not right, yet they didn’t contribute one penny themselves. They simply married into the family. But when the will was read, Neville got just as much as the other nine…there are ten of us. He gave us all equal amounts of his shares and didn’t give one because he had five children and one had none, give him more because he has five mouths to feed, no, he gave them all equal. He said, “I’m not giving my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, I’m giving my children. You have your children and you give them what you have.” So one had no children after years of marriage, she got the same amount. One had two; he got the same as the one who had five. And they all had an equal distribution of his estate. And I didn’t know about it. I hadn’t the slightest idea I had one nickel until years later I went home to find out that I had just as much as any member of the family.427 ¶38

So I was about my Father’s business, simply teaching the kingdom of heaven, not concerned about dollars and cents, and unknown to me there it is growing in a foreign field and growing beautifully. I had no knowledge whatsoever but none, and I wasn’t concerned. I’ve never asked them for one little balance sheet, I trust them implicitly. I have never once entertained the thought that anyone would ever take advantage, because I can’t entertain that thought believing what I do. So I tell you, you go about your Father’s business dwelling upon the kingdom and all things will take care of themselves.427 ¶39

But don’t be ashamed to confess and to acknowledge him before men. So they are wounded, they’re hurt…forget it! They were wounded too when Paul spoke up. He said, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel.” And so when the vision becomes your experience, what does it matter what the world thinks?427 ¶40

So you stand before the whole vast world and you will say to anyone, “I am the father of God’s only begotten son.” A good Christian will say, “What? You’re the Father of Christ?” I say, “No, I’m the father of his son.” “He didn’t have a son.” “Oh yes he did. Read the scripture more thoroughly. He had a son. Well, what is his son?—David.” “And the Lord said unto me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.” To whom are these words spoken?—they are spoken to David, by whom?—the Lord. Well, who is the Lord?—Christ Jesus. But he came after David. No. Nothing comes before Christ Jesus, nothing, for he is the Lord. Everything comes after God. So God the Father is Christ Jesus and it is his desire, his purpose to give himself to us. If he gives himself to me and succeeds in that purpose, well then, I, too, must become God the Father, or he didn’t give himself. There is no way he can prove to me that he gave himself to me other than through his son David, who stands before me and calls me Father. When he calls me Father, then I know who I am. Prior to that I didn’t know; I had no knowledge of who I am. I thought I was Neville Goddard, born of Joe Goddard, a member of a very large family. Well, physically in this world that’s what I am, but in the world of Spirit I am not; for he gave himself to me, and to prove it his son calls me Father. And when he called me Father, there was no uncertainty in this relationship between father and son.427 ¶41

He’s just as described in the Book of Samuel, just as he’s described. And he will be the son of every child born of woman; everyone will have this experience and then we have a brotherhood, in spite of all the conflicts in this world. So we have had the most horrible conflicts and we still have them, but in the end all will be resolved. We will discover that this play—it’s a play, horrible as it is—was essential for God to give his gift to man.427 ¶42

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *427 ¶43

[...] and I can take a letter like tonight and show this adumbration, for he isn’t far from it or he would not have had the experience. He was cutting a seeming other, but a man’s foes are those of his own household. There is no enemy outside of self, working against self, overcoming a certain whatever it is. He said, “By nature I’m a pacifist…always have been since I was a child” and he doesn’t want to hurt. Sometimes, though we do not wish to hurt, we hurt all the more. Stating your deep conviction may be a hurt because it’s a shock to the one who asked you, and not wanting anyone hurt you restrain your conviction. And it is a pacifist in a way.427 ¶44

Now are there any questions? If not, then good night.427 ¶45