When Spirit Truth Comes

In the Book of John we are told, “I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all things” . Here, the incomplete form of the incarnate revelation will be continued by the Spirit of truth until there can be seen all the truth. When he comes you will know it. I will show you tonight how he comes into this world.753 ¶1

We think we are completely free to receive everything in the world that is true, but are we? I read recently a work called Vanished Pomps of Yesterday by Lord Frederick Hamilton, and in it he tells this story that Catherine the Great, finding the first violet of spring, ordered a sentry to be placed over it to protect it from being plucked. She forgot to rescind the order and so eventually it became a tradition, and day and night, summer and winter, a sentry stood where a violet a hundred and fifty years ago once grew. Now, these are researched stories that Lord Hamilton gave us in his works…150 years later a sentry was standing where a violet once grew. The generation that came didn’t know why he was there and he didn’t know. Well, make sure that some sentry is not standing now on the lawn keeping you from the Word of God. As we are told, just as this was the tradition in the Book of Mark and in the Book of Matthew that here you make the traditions of your fathers to void the Word of God and then you hand it on. You void the Word of God through your traditions and hand it on.753 ¶2

Now tonight, let me share with you (and the lady is here). When I got home on Friday night and read it, I was thrilled beyond measure, for the Spirit of truth has come to her. She said, “I found myself on a movie lot, I seemed to be in the company of two others. In the center of the lot sat a man and I walked up to him and he seemed to take on the appearance of John Wayne. He greeted me, he said, ‘Hello, Peggy’” Well now, that’s her name. “I in turn said, ‘Hello, John’ and I was thrilled and amazed that he knew me. Then he said something to me which I didn’t hear and I asked him to repeat it. He did, but he did in a softer tone and I didn’t hear it. I was embarrassed to ask him again. So when I woke I knew it was the most important thing that was said to me…and then I remembered what he said. This is what he said, ‘It is not “Before Abraham was, I am”; it is “Before Abraham, was I am” .753 ¶3

You dwell upon it. It will make all the difference in the world to your concept of this statement. In all translations the comma is after “was.” Now bear in mind that the original manuscripts from which all of our translations are made had no punctuation marks. These are all man made. There were no verses, there were no paragraphs, there were no chapters. We did not have punctuation and verses and paragraphs and chapters until almost the 16th Century. So man thought, well certainly, it is “Before Abraham was, I am” and a man is speaking. No. Here is the incarnate revelation trying to reveal the source of all the phenomena of life, and that source is I AM. When you read it with the punctuation after “was,” you think a man is telling you that he as a man preceded Abraham. But if you read it as it was revealed to my friend—I should say our friend for she now shares with us her revelation—read it “Before Abraham (comma), was I am.” He is not making any claim that would now separate him from us; for he said, “Go unto my Father and my brothers and say unto my brothers, I am ascending unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God” . Now there’s no separation from this revelation of the incarnate Word…not putting himself apart as something different that you and I should worship…just revealing to us what the I AM is unfolding within us. So I can’t thank her enough for this revelation. So when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead us into all things as we are prepared to receive it.753 ¶4

Now tonight, can we really receive that revelation? Can we turn only to this one presence, I AM, and know it to be the source of everything in this world whether it is good, bad or indifferent? Now, we may think that God certainly could not produce wars and all the conflicts. There is no other God, there is no other source and there is no other Creator but God. What to us may seem the most horrible thing in the world…I would rather liken it unto a tapestry: one side it’s ugly, it’s horrible, but come on the right side and see the beauty of the tapestry. We cannot, here playing the parts that we play, know why we do what we do. I know certain very able imaginists who would like to see that all the things of the world are collected and they’re all preserved. But they cannot become eternally so. In other words, they can’t forever follow the eternal events. How it could be changed they confess they do not know. I would say to them revision would do it…but I would rather not. They say, “Let us look upon it and regard the entire history of man as so much material for the artistry of God.” Well, that’s beautifully said and it’s marvelous and you could be right, but I rather think that this event is coming up out of all the horrors that you and I experience, that everything that we do is simply in some strange, wonderful, magical way being transformed under that wonderful event that was the concept in the beginning. As we are told in Genesis, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” So you played what you thought to be the evil part in selling me into slavery and yet by selling me into slavery I by my visions and my ability to interpret the visions of Pharaoh, I can now save enough of the harvest over a period of seven years to save civilization from death. For no one would have put away twenty percent of the yield of the field. But I know what the vision meant, and therefore interpreted it just as I knew that it ought to be and I saved twenty percent over seven years and saved civilization from starvation . So I rather believe that whatever we are doing is being instantly transformed into the beauty of this great event.753 ¶5

But if you dwell upon this lady’s revelation, it could only come to her through the Spirit of truth. First she saw John…well, John means “Jehovah favored”…that’s what the word means. But bear in mind that the dreamer in her is also manufacturing the being who is sitting on the chair and that here she comes to a director. Now, John Wayne in her mind and in my mind always plays the leading role. He is never cast in a secondary role. Well, God is the chief actor who plays all the parts in the world. He has always played the chief parts. You don’t see him playing the supporting role, he’s always the star in the picture. Here he is in the director’s chair, for that’s the typical director’s position. Here he’s not only directing, but he’s the chief actor. “God only acts and is in all existing beings or men.” So his name forever is I AM and so when you say “I am” that’s God. He actually became us that we may become God. So here she talks to him and she calls him John (Jehovah’s favored one) and he knows her by name. Well, we are told in scripture that he numbered all the stars and called all by name. And then, do you think he would have made you and not know you by name? And you’re far more precious than the stars…you are far more precious than all the stars and all the sands of the sea. Though we seem to be unnumbered, we are numbered in the mind of the Father and known by name, so when she comes forward he calls her “Hello, Peggy” and she in turn calls him, “Hello, John.” Then he tells her something she couldn’t hear. She asked him to repeat it, he does but softly and she couldn’t hear it and she was embarrassed. Thrilled that she was known by this one who undoubtedly was most important and what he said was most important. But when she was waking she remembered what he said. So let me repeat it if you haven’t a recorder. It is not “Before Abraham was, I am”; it is “Before Abraham, was I am.” Nothing came before him.753 ¶6

So he’s not making a claim—this quotation, by the way, comes from the 8th chapter of the gospel of John, at the very end—for here is the complete argument through the entire chapter concerning who is Father. “Did you know my father Abraham?” Well, they called Abraham father. And he said, “My Father is he whom you call God, but I know my Father and ye know not your God” . He is trying to get them back beyond a physical state to something that is far [...]. It is the source of all that is God, which he calls Father.753 ¶7

Now, I tell you tonight that you can test it. There is no other source. You can now assume that “I am” and you name it. You name exactly what you want to be and wear it as you would a suit of clothes until it seems natural. When you first put it on it seems unnatural. As a man, I know from experience, I buy a new hat and walk down the streets of New York City, no one knew me but I thought everyone knew I had a new hat. I was embarrassed with my new hat until I wore it long enough so that I could throw it in the corner and pick it up, put it on, and then it’s an old hat. When it became an old hat then I could walk normally. Put on a new pair of shoes and you think everyone knows you have new shoes. You may deny this but if you are honest with yourself, when you put on a new dress, a new suit, a new…you think everyone knows it, and nobody knows you. They don’t know you and they don’t care as you walk by. But you are in something new. Well, the same thing is true of an assumption. So you have an assumption and you assume that I am what reason denies, what your senses deny; therefore, it is new and you haven’t broken it in yet. All of a sudden you wear it until it seems natural. At the moment it becomes natural, you walk in it and it externalizes itself in the world, and the whole vast world then reflects the truth of what you are assuming. So the source of it all is I AM.753 ¶8

There’s only one God and Father of all and his name forever and forever is I AM. But if I think in terms of “the Lord,” well, “the Lord” is something on the outside. He said, “The Lord will make himself known in a vision and will speak with man in a dream” . Well, the minute I say “the Lord” I think another, but the word translated “the Lord” is Yod He Vau He, which is actually translated “I am.” So if I say “the I AM,” then man is not quite ready for it. So when man is ready to receive the Spirit of truth, then it comes. So she was ready and it came to her. She sat down and hastily wrote me last Friday night in script, for she had no time to type it our or write it in some other form, just hastily and gave it to me. I can say to her, The Spirit of truth comes to you and he will lead you into all things, for you’re prepared to receive it. But to be prepared to receive that you had to overcome an awful lot, for trained as we all were in the belief of an external God—some source outside of self who brought us to wherever we are and will lead us to where he’s going to lead us—is something on the outside. There is nothing on the outside! The being within you is the immortal, infinite being called God the Father. And you say “I am,” that’s God, that’s God the Father. When one day you discover it, you will know that you and he are one. So when the world rejects this revelation, it’s because they do not know the Father. They think they know the Father and they call him by some other name and worship him as something external to themselves.753 ¶9

Well, I tell you from my own revelation, from my own experience, the day will come—now this is revelation—that you will find scripture unfolding within you. One thing that is the most exciting thing ever is when that 2nd chapter of Psalms unfolds within you…when he stands before you and he calls you Father. You were taught to believe up until that moment that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and you did not realize until that moment that Jesus Christ is simply God revealing himself, he is God himself; and the Son that reveals him as Father is David. So, “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: he said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’” . These are the words of David. In the 89th Psalm, these are now the words of the Lord, of the I AM, “I have found David and he has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation” . So when you tell people who have been conditioned to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and God is something other, something where?—no one knows—that conditioned mind must in some strange way be dissolved. And when truth comes, it will gradually seep through and then that individual will realize that he is God himself, for the Son of God calls him Father. Well now, if he calls me Father, which he has, and he calls you Father, which he will if he hasn’t, are we not one? There is only one Son and one Father, only one God and Father of all. If everyone has the identical son call him Father, then are we not one? Have we not proven that wonderful 4th chapter of Ephesians, “There is but one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all?”753 ¶10

Well now, he became me, but if he became me, what was his purpose?—to give himself to me that I may actually become God. Then how will I ever know? He’s a father. Well, you can call me Lord, but I would not believe it. You can call me by any name and I wouldn’t believe it. But if the Son calls me Father and he is supposed to have lived 3,000 years ago, well, here I am in the 20h Century, and here is one who by scripture preceded this age by 3,000 years. He stands before me and calls me Father, and I know I am his Father and he knows he is my Son. He isn’t trying to prove it. It is as though I always knew it but I’d forgotten, like amnesia. I suffered from total amnesia and then he comes into my world and the memory returns. Now it’s not memory any more, it now becomes actual fact. Because to God, God doesn’t have a memory as we use the word memory…everything is actuality. So here comes the actual Son…I don’t remember having him. He stands before me, it’s actualized. So it’s not memory, it’s simply a returned memory which now ceases to be memory and it is now actual fact. He stands before me and here he is a youth as described in scripture, this beautiful…and you can’t describe the beauty of David. I have no sense that he ever had a mother. He is begotten and the verb “to beget” is always attached to the male; “to bear” would be attached to the female.753 ¶11

So we speak in scripture of two forms of birth: there is one that is attached to the female, and this body was born of a woman, formed within her. But there is another birth, a birth from above, where the verb is “to beget,” and that is always associated with the father. Here is “begotten,” that “Today I have begotten you,” said he to David. So in the 3rd chapter of John when the conversation between Nicodemus and himself takes place, he said, “You must be born from above.” The word “anothin” is translated “from above.” It is sometimes translated “anew” or “again” but, “Unless you are born from above (or again), you cannot enter the kingdom of God” . Well, that is a must. No matter what man has achieved in the world, having been born first from below, from the womb of woman, he still then must be born from above. That birth from above is of the Father. Who is born?—it is the Father himself. As you are born from above then all that the Father is you will experience. He’s a father, therefore if he is a father, “Where is my son?” Well, as you’re asked in the last book of the Old Testament, “If I am a father, where is my son?” Now, here comes the son and the son stands before you. That’s one of the most difficult things for me as a teacher to get over to the mind that has been conditioned to believe…and it has that sentry standing over that little violet that grew 150 years ago. But in this case unnumbered centuries ago it was planted in the minds of man that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God is other than man, Jesus Christ is other than man, and man is a little worm [...] here and he’s sinful.753 ¶12

I tell you, God actually became man—that’s a fact of life—that man may become God. He is buried in man, he is crucified on man and this body is the only cross that he ever wore. The birth will take place from the skull of man, for that’s where he’s buried. When he awakes within man and comes out emerging from man, soon thereafter here comes confirmation of his fatherhood. Then you know it and you tell it to the world in hope that they will receive it. But now, whether they receive it or not, the Spirit of truth is coming and I can’t tell you my joy because he has come to you. Whenever I depart this world he is still with you because he has come, he’s appeared. You’ll take whatever I told you plus what he is going to tell you from within all from within yourself, and then you will actually live in this vision that has been misunderstood through the centuries. So I have come to reinterpret the story as it really ought to be: Jesus Christ is God the Father. He said, “He who sees me sees the Father: How can you say, ‘Show me the Father’ Philip?’ Have I been so long with you and you do not know the Father?’ He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). And so, in the end everyone will be the Father. And because there is only one Father and only one Son, this unity will be once more gathered together. It’s now fragmented, it’s now scattered, but eventually you and I will be so intimate, without loss of identity. I will know you more intimately than anyone in this world, no matter who knows you, could ever know you. The mother that you sucked, the father that loved you, the wife who bore you children, all these will be as nothing compared to the intimacy that we will have when all are raised and once more reunited into one body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all.753 ¶13

So you dwell upon this revelation that came from Peggy. It is not “Before Abraham was, I am”; it is, “Before Abraham, was I am.” That is the foundation and that is that fountainhead of everything in this world. When you read of the horrors of the world as told to us morning, noon and night and all the things that would deny a divine event, bear in mind the story of the tapestry: one side isn’t lovely at all and this side is called in scripture “below,” the other side is called “above.” So he is made to say, “You are from below,” those who are having the experience here, and “I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. But you shall be of my world” . That’s what he said. In this world you’re playing your part and you’ll play it perfectly and in the end you’ll be lifted up. For he said, “I am lifted up” and that proves that all will be lifted up because we are one. But I can’t tell you the thrill in store for you when it happens. I can paint word pictures and could I draw I could paint that, but when it happens the thrill is beyond measure. You cannot describe the thrill that comes to the individual who has scripture unfold within him. For the purpose of life is to experience scripture. There is nothing but scripture to really fulfill in this world.753 ¶14

Oh, I could become rich, I could become known, I could become anything if I so desire it and do not lose confidence in I AM; for if I put anything upon it, it will grow. You want to be rich? You can be rich. You want to be known? You can be known. Anything at all! You simply assume it and wear it as though it were true, and that assumption, though at the moment you assumed it was denied by your senses, if you persist in that assumption, it will harden into fact. It will objectify itself and become a reality. But that is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to fulfill scripture. “Scripture must be fulfilled in me” . So when it is fulfilled in the individual he tells it, and that’s not what the world believes it ought to be anyway. He doesn’t look like the man that I thought would come. They’re looking for something other than themselves and it’s not another who comes. For when you say “I am,” you never turn elsewhere. You can’t divide it, it’s one. It didn’t say “we are”…that’s not the revelation…the revelation is “I am.” So when you go to Israel and they say, “What is his name?” just say “I am has sent me. I AM sent me.” I can’t think of another, for I’m not saying I AM meaning another whose name is I AM. But in translating it we call the I AM, the Lord. If I say, “The Lord sent me,” you’d think of another right away…if I said I AM.753 ¶15

When they said to Blake…one day they said, “What do you think of Jesus?” He said, “Jesus? Why, he is the only God,” and then he hastily added, “But so am I and so are you.” Then they went in to dinner and unfortunately the conversation stopped, and he only elaborated this for us. That’s all we have from the conversation that he had with his friend that he had invited to dinner, or he invited him. “What do you think of Jesus?” “Jesus?” said he, “He is he only God, but so am I and so are you.” Of course, Crabbe Robinson thought at that moment, “Well, this man is really touched…he’s going off.” Nothing could be truer than what he said, because there is only God. You are God, actually God. But you deliberately came here to play these parts. You’re weaving the most glorious event! When you and I all awaken and re-unite into the one body, oh! what we have done by this seeming horrible adventure. For I can’t deny it’s not the most pleasant thing in the world. The morning’s paper delights in giving some headlines that are going to frighten you. You rarely find a headline that is pleasant. In fact, they go out of their way…if they can’t find something that happened in our city that is horrible, they jump across the ocean to find something in some part of the world. We don’t care what is happening in India, but they bring it back: this is what happened in India and three people died. They only have 500 million. Three people died in an accident and they print it, some little accident, because they couldn’t find something similar in our city. Well, the whole vast world is built that way; yet it is moving toward the most glorious divine event. So when he said, “I have things to tell you that you cannot bear,” he’s not speaking to those to whom the Spirit of truth has come; he’s speaking to those who are still so hidebound in their concepts of a personal God external to themselves to whom they pray, and that mind cannot accept a God within themselves who makes himself known in vision.753 ¶16

So I would say to someone…the lady who ran the bookstore in New York City from whom I bought so many books and knowing my passion for a book—if I wanted it I never thought of price—she always marked it up. If she knew my interest, I could see the figure that was there before and she’d rub it out. If it was $8.50, now it’s $12.50…leave the .50, put in the twelve, and rub out the eight. She did it time and time again. I paid her as high as $100 for three books…she’d rub it out and put them all in. She always said to me, “You know, Neville, you have the most vivid dreams, don’t you?” “Not dreams at all. These are visions where I commune with myself, but the self is God, and yet it is myself.” “Oh, Neville!” she would say. Two years ago when I went back to New York City I inquired about her…“Oh, she was killed just a month ago. She went out at night, no identification marks on her, she stepped off on a dark street and a huge truck nearby couldn’t stop and she was instantly killed. Her husband couldn’t locate her for four days, but finally found her in the morgue where they kept the body waiting for someone to come and identify her. There was Mary.753 ¶17

So she still hasn’t awakened. She went over believing all she believed and she’s carrying all these beliefs with her. There’s no transforming power in what the world calls death. You are placed in an environment best suited for the work yet to be done in you. So you are prejudiced here, you’re prejudiced there, and you’re this here, you’re that there, whatever it is. You have to go through all these things until finally you’re willing to have it all awaken within you. When he awakens, he’s not coming from without, he comes from within. When we read in scripture, “And God said to Moses…” it seems as though he spoke from without; no, he whispers from within. It is from within that the whole thing came and Moses then spoke with him face to face…no longer in dream as we are told in the 12th chapter of Numbers…he became one with him.753 ¶18

So I say to you tonight, you can test it. Test what I’m telling you. Your own wonderful human Imagination…so when you say “I am” that’s God. Would you like to be, and you name it. Don’t let me tell you what you ought to be, you name it. Well then, what would it be like if it were true? How would it feel if it were true? And you dare to assume that it is true. How would I know that my assumption is in any way real? Well now, think of the people who know me. Now let them see you after you’ve assumed it. Do they see you as they formerly saw you? Then you haven’t assumed it, so try again. Now, see the same people, do they see you as they formerly saw you? “Well, not quite…I’m trying to make them see me.” You don’t make them see you; you let them see you. And God, “Let there be light.” You don’t make it, you assume it; and then the world is simply a sounding box, sounding and reflecting what you’ve assumed. Well, you assume it. Now you think of those that would know if it were true. Let them see you as they would have to see you if it were true. Now, do they see you, do they congratulate you, do they discuss you in the new you? All right, it’s done. Now, you don’t take it off. You wear it as you wear now your present body…you wear it. When tomorrow morning you get up, you still wear the state. You wear this state and in no time it’s going to harden into fact, the whole thing is going to objectify itself in your world and you’ll confront it as a fact. Then you’ll know who the source, the cause of phenomena is, and there’s only one source and the world calls that source God.753 ¶19

It’s a lovely name, never tire of it, but don’t forget who God is. God is the translation of the word I AM—Yod He Vau He. In fact, no one can really sound it. It’s a peculiar word…if you try to sound it as it ought to be sounded, it sounds like a belch. You cannot sound Yod He Vau He. The best they could do is simply put another name to it, so they called it “The Lord.” Sometimes it’s translated “God.” But it is simply like a belch…it comes from the depths. You can’t sound it. How’re you going to sound Yod He Vau He? The best we can do is call it Jehovah (Anglicized) and Jah Adonay if you’re going to speak it in Hebrew. But Jah Adonay does not express Yod He Vau He. But the letters do, these four letters are the sacred letters. In Hebrew, if you’ve attended some Hebrew service, when they come to the sacred word they cover it so that they may not see even the printed word of God.753 ¶20

Well, this is covered by your body. Who sees I AM? They’ll see what I tell them that I am. So I walk the earth and I’m a man…they’ll see that all right…they know I’m a man. So I’m wearing a grey suit, they’ll see that. They inquire where I live, so they know where I live. They’ll ask a thousand questions and get answers to all these things, but all of these only cover the being that I am. So they never actually see I AM, but they see my metamorphosis. Just as Peggy saw a metamorphosis that she herself created, for here seated is John and to her he seems to be John Wayne. The being in man is a protean being and can assume not only one but all metamorphoses at one and the same time. So here, she comes upon her own creation, and he speaks seemingly from without, and he whispers so softly she can’t hear him because he’s really whispering from within.753 ¶21

In scripture we are told—not in these words but this will give meaning to it—whenever vision breaks forth into speech, the presence of deity is affirmed. So whether it comes from a burning bush and speech comes from it, or the 6th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, speech comes from it: “Who will I send? Send me, O Lord.” So the minute speech breaks forth in vision deity is affirmed. In this case, she was actually looking upon the form that I AM within her had instantly created. And she by association, John Wayne is a star, he is an important one, he’s the actor of actors now, never supporting, always the star and he sits in the chair of the director. He directs and he acts. He whispers a great secret and on waking she remembers. The story is, “It is not ‘Before Abraham was, I am’—every translation gives it that way—what it really is, is ‘Before Abraham, was I am.’” You get it? It makes all the difference in the world. So I can’t thank Peggy enough for this revelation.753 ¶22

How many will take it to heart and change the punctuation in future translations, I do not know. Because these punctuations are man made—we have none prior to that moment in Geneva when it was done either in the 15th or 16th century. But in the original manuscript there’s no punctuation, no verses, no paragraphs, no chapters. So the little comma there, as it is in that cry on the cross, if you change the comma what a difference that makes. “Behold, I say unto you, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Change the comma, “Behold, I say unto you today,”—I don’t time it now—“thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42). All the difference in the world and what confusion that has made among those who read it. Because, he said forty days later, “Touch me not. I have not yet ascended” and yet he promised that today you’ll be with me in paradise. Change the comma (man put it there) and you will see that everyone is saved and no one can be lost. How could God lose himself? He became man. Is there a man in whom God dwells who could be lost? How could it be? He has to redeem himself.753 ¶23

So, I’m not encouraging people to be violent and to go against their ethical code, no, far from it. When you discover this you hurt no one. You go out to help every being in the world. You can’t hurt anyone because you know everyone is yourself pushed out, but everyone, I don’t care who he is. So in this world of Caesar you mean what seems to be another; and they are in a sense because we’re individualized and we do not lose our individuality for we are called by name. You’ll be called by name…in heaven you’ll be called by name, so there’s no loss of individuality and yet there’s a unity. There’s an intermingling of beings and yet it’s one. The one body is your body; the one Lord you are he; the one God and Father of all you are he, yet without loss of identity.753 ¶24

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *753 ¶25