Law Your Choice And Risk

Concerning the law, I can only acquaint you with the law and leave you to your choice. And it is this — but we have Scripture, it tells it, we call it the Word. They do it with the Lord. In the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew you read these words: “If any two of you agree on earth about any request that you must make, that request will be granted by my heavenly Father.” For two who will agree, and that request will be granted — or can you conceive of something greater? If you agree on earth concerning anything — it doesn’t have to be good, doesn’t have to be this or the other — for any request that you make, that request will be granted by my heavenly Father. Bear that in mind.1094 ¶1

The greatest secret in the world concerns the human imagination. With God all things are possible, then we are told all things are possible to him who believeth. So he equates thought with the human imagination — that God is the human imagination, and all things are possible to the human imagination. Well, a friend of mine called me today, and I tell you the story that you may see it.1094 ¶2

She’s Italian, I’m quite sure, and she was perfectly innocent in the wonderful work that she did, to exercise this talent of hers, which you learn, as you have, from this — and she’s done a remarkable job in the world of Caesar, in dollars and cents. But one has to learn something outside of this and govern everything by love — everything must be governed by love. And she was quite concerned, and really quite upset: “What have I done? Have I done something that is wrong?” A friend of mine, a man, asked me if I would play back his record.1094 ¶3

Now let me tell you what I mean by this: she has a very keen ear. If you speak to her, make a sentence and then you stop, she can hear you as distinctly as anyone could ever hear you if you put it on a record. What she is hearing is just as accurate as that recorded voice. So she wants you to make a statement in a positive manner, right? The great professor who said “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and mutual benefits” — this he stated long before he had a nickel, and he perfected himself of the reality of what he was hearing. So he wants you to put it into a positive statement, just like that. So, tell me what you want.1094 ¶4

For the neighbor — she wanted to be free of a disturbing element in the neighborhood, which is also unable — a couple with three children — and so she heard him distinctly say that he was free of this disturbance, that they were gone. Her ability to hear distinctly is so keen, so wonderful, that she heard him affirmed what he had affirmed. In a matter of days the parents were killed on the highway, leaving three children — two little ones and a demented boy in his early teens. So she wondered, “What did I do?”1094 ¶5

But I try to persuade her — you did nothing that was wrong, you simply exercised a principle. The Lord who asked of you — would you ask him anything concerning his motive behind it all? Well, she didn’t ask that. But I say, whatever you do, do it in love. He is completely done already, as far as I’m concerned. She feels she applied this principle. So I told you, I acquaint you with a principle and leave you to your choice, and it is written.1094 ¶6

She is fantastic at hearing what she wants to hear in the world of Caesar. Now take it into the world of promise. If someone can say to you, “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and useful benefits,” and your ear is so sensitive that you can hear exactly what the other one says, there are two witnesses. Now, if you agree on earth about any request that they might make, that request will be granted by my heavenly Father. Don’t limit it there — could I say to you, “I have had the experience” — I have had the experience in which he speaks the experience of the resurrection and the birth from above, the experience of the discovery of the fatherhood of God, the experience of the ascent into the heavenly sphere — and can you hear that? Because what I said before was as much a fact as the others. And so I am telling you now, when you find agreement on this level — where I will tell you, if I told you on this level that my neighbors are gone and now I am free of that disturbance, and you heard it with me, you heard my voice, you listened to my voice, and then, having heard my voice speak, you know now, in my absence, you hear my voice. Once you heard it say it physically, and here we, agreeing, you heard the voice and now you heard this — now can you go into another level?1094 ¶7

I have someone who believes and desires to have this spiritual experience of the promise, as that man wanted to be free of that disturbing element — and so, for the parents, they are dead, they’re being killed on some freeway accident.1094 ¶8

Now you may say that she did it — no, she didn’t do it, she has only heard. May I tell you, we are one? There’s only one Spirit, only one Lord, only one God, indivisible, divine in one another’s being, but only one. So these two parents, now gone from the world — even behind these little children — two little ones, interesting, took it unaware that their parents were gone, and the other one, the eldest teen, is a little bit — well — demented, and he is not quite aware of what has happened.1094 ¶9

So I say to you, I’m telling you of a crucible — the Lord cannot hurt you. You don’t have to do anything on the outside, and you need not even have another one. You can say to yourself, and then listen. If it could be within yourself, it need not be someone as sensitive as she is to a human voice. She has been trained that way.1094 ¶10

She was in the telephone business for quite a while, in the — she headed her department on long-distance calls — until you hear voice after voice after voice, and she could actually register that voice, because she knew these voices; before you could even announce who you are, she knew who you were, because she knew the voice. So she’s been so trained to hear. And so you come to her and she asks you to complete a statement, in a bold, positive manner, what you have — which is really what you hope to have.1094 ¶11

I have to have — you state it as a fact, treat it as a fact, because we’re living in an imaginal world. This world is one’s own imagination pushed out. The whole vast world is all imagination, that all these so-called objective realities are simply first imagined, and then they become — well — what you and I call reality.1094 ¶12

So here — all things are possible to him who believeth. With God all things are possible. Therefore the human imagination is equated with God — God and the human imagination are one. And now tonight she’s faced with it, and I try to persuade her, today she didn’t do a thing that was wrong.1094 ¶13

You are exercising a principle, you’re exercising alone — but not until man is incorporated into the body of love where he is able to exercise his power, where he can stop time and then start time — because what power he would do in the world. [Music]1094 ¶14

But here, the little man who wanted freedom from the disturbance of what we call a disturbing neighbor — see, the children playing all the time, and disturbing — so he didn’t want them, and she just didn’t ask reasons beyond. She said he got his request, it is perfectly all right, perfectly normal, because she’s a delightful, lovely lady — a lady who would not for one moment hurt anyone.1094 ¶15

But our whole interest has been on — well — the world of Caesar, yet we should shorten — dollars and things. The promise does not interest her, because I’m concerned, it has not interested her; I can’t see any interest in the promise, but I talked to him, but I can feel great interest in the law, as he has discovered the law, and she wants it, beautifully. I have another friend of mine in the East, and the promise means nothing to us, but the law does. And so there’s many, millions — but millions — when you own buildings on 57th Street between 5th and 6th, you are in the money; when you have businesses all over the world, you are in big business, and that’s perfectly — and he started with not one penny in this world. Countryfirst heard him, but you believed what I told her. She believed that imagining creates reality, as I’m telling you now, it does — it does create reality.1094 ¶16

So here, treat it — may I change it, and I plead with you — he did nothing. If someone asks of you this night to hear good news for them, certainly hear it, but try to find out something behind the reason why they’re asking, in order that you may do it in a loving way. That whole family could have been removed without the destruction of the parent — they could have been removed a thousand different ways, but it was removed in that manner.1094 ¶17

So I tell you, your own wonderful human imagination is the only cause of the phenomena of life — there is no other power. That is the God spoken of in Scripture, that is the only God, your own wonderful human imagination.1094 ¶18

Do you know what you want tonight? All right, so — minimize it, it doesn’t matter how big it is — treat it, and then listen, in your own wonderful manner, to your own voice for that matter, or — tell it — afraid, without his knowledge, you can hear a friend of yours tell you that he heard the good news about you. You know what you want. You actually write it out in your mind’s eye, and then have a friend whose voice you know well, and listen to his voice, and hear him confirming that you have it. These are the two who agree.1094 ¶19

You don’t need another vote, in the sense that you come into your world as she did, and having first taken what he wanted. The professor didn’t do that — he did it all within himself. He said, “I have a lavish, steady, dependable income, consistent with integrity and useful benefits.” He didn’t ask her ever to state that — he did it unto himself and he became the two. I don’t need any of them to do it. If I have a desire to help you, or to help anyone, all I need to do is simply imagine that I have heard them, and then I actually hear them tell me what I wish they would tell me. They — this one that I am hearing, and I am the one who is listening and hearing — these two agree, and if two agree in testimony, then it is conclusive. And because imagining creates reality, it must externalize itself in my world. The whole vast world is only the imaginal acts pushed out.1094 ¶20

With God all things are possible, and all things are possible to him who believeth. But am I not equating God with the believing one, and the believing one is that one’s own wonderful human imagination, if all that it is? But you put it to the test, and you can go to any extreme in this world — there is no limit set upon this principle, but none whatsoever. I can find no limit in Scripture, whether it be a final thing or a lovely presentation, there is no limit. “I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal, I do all, and none can deliver out of my hand,” as I am told in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy: “There is none that deliver out of my hand, and I do everything I feel — if I make a wound, I wound; if I heal, I heal.” So you be the judge — I tell you, if my answer be strange. It’s only when you are incorporated into the body of love will you exercise the power that can stop and release time. If you could stop time, without love, what a harm you could create in this world; but you are not, for one moment, to exercise that power until you are first incorporated into the body of love.1094 ¶21

For I say to this lady — she’s not here tonight, I’m praying for the person here tonight who is here — she did not do one thing that was wrong. You simply — she accepted a person’s request, and she heard it — this — and in a matter of days they’re gone, without a doubt, leaving behind three little children. I tell you, if it were not one — it would be entirely different — but it was only done to herself, because all things are one, divine in one another’s being.1094 ¶22

We all want — and the day will come when everyone will do it. That’s what I’ve been trying night after night to convince everyone who was there, that you, one day, will discover the central theme of the Christian faith is the fatherhood of God. That’s the central thing, and one day you will discover, from your own experience, that you are God the Father, and there is no power in the world that could persuade you that you aren’t, once you have discovered it. And because he is Father, there must be a son, and it is his son who stands before you and calls you Father. Herein Scripture: “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed,” and people wonder what on earth that’s all about. Yes, the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.1094 ¶23

A distinctive thing says — he looks at the head of the enemy of Israel, and he wonders who is the father of the man who brought that head here. The king’s name is Saul, and he’s in doubt, and he asks his lieutenant, Abner — “Abner, whose son is this?” Abner says, “As your soul liveth, O King, I cannot tell.” “Then inquire whose son” — descriptively no one knew. Though the strife has settled, the young lad comes holding the head of the giant in his hand, and the king said to him, “Whose son are thou, young man?” And he said, “I am the son of Jesse,” the best in life.1094 ¶24

Because the king had sworn to set the father — not the son, to set the father — of the man who destroyed the enemy of Israel free, and he destroyed the enemy of Israel. He would not put on the armor of the king — he took it off, he only carried five stones. There were five stones — this is all beautiful chemistry, five is simply great. The number five is grace, and grace is God’s gift of himself to man. So he took only the grace of God, the gifts of God, and grace is equated with the power of God — for “my grace is sufficient” understood, “for my power is made perfect.” So you, the little weak one, go forward, and you have my grace, you have my power. The five little stones are — this story here is God’s gift of himself to man.1094 ¶25

So he stands before him, and the king does not understand who is standing before him — he is suffering from amnesia. The king is everyone in this world — he doesn’t recognize his own son. Paul’s first name was Saul, and so was converted into Paul. When he was told, he went out to destroy — the entire story, as he did — and then he heard a voice saying, “Stop, stop, why persecutest thou me?” And then he answered, “Who art thou, Lord?” “I am he whom thou persecutest, I am the Lord.” And then he changed his name from Saul to Paul. The whole vast world is God — he looked into the face of his own son and he cannot recognize him because he’s suffering from amnesia. Then comes the complete return of memory, and he remembers his promise to set the father — praying — of the man who destroys the enemy of Israel, and so memory returns, and he is the father, and he said, “Please — for no one can set me free but the son that I have forgotten.” So my son returns, and all of a sudden I am restored.1094 ¶26

This is the story of Scripture — the day will come you will actually see he will be one who attends me for you, your recognized him, you are known to be your son, and knowing your Scripture, that he is the Son, the only Son of God, and then he is your son, then you know who you are — you are God himself, limited for a little while in a garment of flesh and blood. That tells the story to encourage others who are still in the demented state of soul.1094 ¶27

Now, to go back to the story — if she could hear that which was not true, and then it becomes true, why limit it to the world of Caesar, of getting rid of a neighbor, why limit it to dollars and cents, of making a fortune? Why not take it into the promise, and have someone within your own self say, “I have experienced the promise, I have had the experience — the resurrection and the birth from above, and the discovery of David, and the ascension of myself into heaven, and the descent of the — but they listen — as though you hear it.” If you can do it that way, when I take a friend and hear a phrase that you’ve heard, and you are reveling in what the friend is saying concerning what you have experienced, and have the two agree, and if they still agree in testimony, then it is conclusive. So do not limit it to the world of Egypt.1094 ¶28

So when he called today at ten this morning, my heart went out to her, because it was quite — I was — the tightness here, the resistance, because he thought, “What have I done?” Well, he would not really — he would not kill — he would not hurt anyone, though — he would not — he wanted money, he has money. She really wanted it beyond all things, but she heard about it, he got it, and for the rest of her earthly days, that’s done, it’s all in trust and he has it. Now, I would ask her to go outside of that town — she should only become hungry for it, as he was hungry for that — but do not dwell upon what has happened concerning the death of those two. Forget it, they have gone from this little world, but they’re still in a world just like this. As far as the children are concerned, they’ll be taken care of, they’re going to this wonderful world of ours, and everything will be presented. [Music]1094 ¶29

Imagination is creating all the realities of note — all the objective things in the world — about the outpouring of your imaginal acts. That’s what Yeats meant when he said, “I will never be sick” — he was not some woman spreading in the wind, blessed, who started a subtle change in name five — perfect. It was not some little shepherd boy lighting up his eyes for one moment before this little power landed upon its way — he was dreaming of being a hero, and he shall be, in his own strange way, he bent the violence, because today it seems his name — because only if he is a hero in the military sense that he really is, you know — he must be this, that will be our income, fantastic manner, for he does it. We are all as we want.1094 ¶30

If I stand here now and lose myself in an imaginal act, I am influencing the entire world — influencing everyone who can be used to aid me in the objectification of what I’m imagining. So do nothing but whatever you do, do it in love — I don’t care what it is, and if you are ever in doubt, do the loving thing. This is called by the simple, simple term the Golden Rule: give unto others that you have them do unto you. So if you are ever in doubt, use that as your guide, and you can’t go wrong.1094 ¶31

Now, the day will come, you and I will meet on high, and then you’ll be able to understand Scripture. But here is the one who said, “I am from above, and you are from below; I am not of this world,” you are — well, you think one man is talking to men — no, it is one thing speaking to himself. Here is this — all the way — Paul, Neville — he came into the world first. This is the Esau of Scripture, and then after that comes another one, my own wonderful human imagination, and that’s the Jacob. This is the twin that comes into the world — they aren’t two separate boys, this is the stone, this is an admiration, or that which comes later into the New Testament, that the one who could say “I am from above, and you are from below, you are of this world, I am not of this world.” So the being speaking is your own wonderful human imagination, who incarnate is called Jesus Christ, and the thing below is the body that you’re wearing, and that is of this world.1094 ¶32

Now, you are anchored here — I’ll show you how — need not the anger here, because these two are your own, in Scripture: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger” — that’s the 25th chapter of the book of Genesis. Now we are told, in the first — or the fifteenth chapter of the first book of Corinthians, that the second man is the Lord from heaven. So the second one, which is mentioned in Genesis as Jacob, who became Israel, as he wrestled successfully with the Lord, and his name was changed from Jacob into Israel — he is that second man, he came second, Esau came first. Well, this is the natural man, and he’s limited to his status — he can only accept as true what the senses dictate, what reason allows. But there’s something outside, far beyond it, which is the second man, and he is the Lord from heaven, and he is called in Scripture the Lord Jesus Christ.1094 ¶33

So here I stand here — I only accept as real what my senses now dictate the room, but I don’t want to be here. Is there something in me that could dominate this little man that insists that this is the only reality? Of course, my own wonderful human imagination. Can I, while standing here, assume that I am elsewhere, and see the world from that elsewhereness, and see it as I am now, saying this from this platform? I can do it. What if I do it, what would happen? I’ll go there. Man, not knowing that he is tied to his little body, morning, noon and night, never gets away from it, but these rivals were in there — but the second one, in intention, will become superior — the rivals from their birth, yet that younger one is destined to be the master — and the younger, which is the second, is the Lord from heaven, and he will actually dominate when he becomes awake within this wonderful story that is Scripture. And that second one is your own wonderful human imagination.1094 ¶34

So I will stand here, and reason says it — my intensity — my pocketbook will not allow it, my time will not allow it, I want to go elsewhere, and everything in this world denies it — I can’t go. Or where — what would I go? Well, that’s exactly where I would go, without let — me, in my imagination, go. I don’t travel, I bring there here, and here vanishes. I take there and make it here, and I take then and make it now. I close my eyes to this world, I simply envelop myself in my wish fulfilled, and see the world as I would if it were physically true. Nobody seems to take on all the tones of reality, and all the sensory business of reality, and I open my eyes and this will return.1094 ¶35

That’s what you’re told in the Book of Genesis: Esau came back from the hunt, and Jacob — as he came back, Jacob’s — but his father Isaac said, even though he deceived me — he was you — I cannot take away my blessing, I gave him my blessing, I gave him thy birthright, and I cannot take it back. I gave him the right of birth to come into this world and be as real as you seemingly are, so now you must — and he must — take it, even though he deceived me. It was a self-deception — I deceived myself into believing that I am, one moment before reason denies it and my senses deny it. And if it proves itself in performance, it doesn’t really matter what the world thinks of it.1094 ¶36

Here we are dealing with the most fantastic mystery in the world, the mystery of imagining. That’s what he said — the secret, imagining, is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which the man should aspire, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lie in the solution of this — because you are actually solving the problem of God if you can solve the problem of imagining, the thought in the problem of God.1094 ¶37

And so, even if you make a mistake, and people are — evil, and tonight you are dead — no regrets, they are awake in a world just like this to continue their journey, and the three will be definitely around. So I do not stand in judgment, and no one should stand in judgment for what you did — he exercised a law, he heard, he heard it from me. I only ask you, when you hear it, make it with love. Never give unto another what you would not want them to do — never do it. And so, as to why you want the neighbors to go — all right, they will go, in their own wonderful way, they will want to go, without violence, they’ll want to go, and you hear it in that way. So make them rearrange their world to a pattern of love — can you hear that too? And it will all come to pass.1094 ¶38

Yeah, let’s go into the questions. [Music] With all different questions. [Music]1094 ¶39

Now, you said that you need to come — well, these are an appointed time, like — so you’ve had to realize that you specifically set to find the source, and that’s why you called. My dear, I will go along with that to a degree, but when I spoke, what I did tonight, from the 18th chapter, the 19th verse of Matthew, I cannot limit it — there is no limit placed upon that statement whatsoever, none. I cannot see where there’s any limit on it, that is true: “If two of you agree on earth about any request that they may want, that request will be granted by my heavenly Father.” He didn’t say the request had to be in the world of Caesar — but he does state, in Scripture, man asks humbly for that request.1094 ¶40

I’ve had so many people in my world — then you’re almost gone now, or the devil is coming after that time. Enough for that — it started back in 1925 in London, for a friend of mine, and he was only a few months old, and I, at the time — his name was — his name was garbled — the parents were Scottish, and I said, “Aren’t you interested?” — Master, “into things that your father is into,” because he was — the father was interested in fighting, but at least it was a beginning, an interest of that nature would take me to something. And he said, “Oh no, God is an old man” — but if Paula was saying, I would say fifty, he was saying my age, which was twenty, 1925, and his father was an old, old focused party, he was concerned, and so was his mother, beautiful, lovely lady, I would say in her mid-forties, and he said, “No, I have plenty of time enough for that.”1094 ¶41

Well, I came back to New York City. I talked to India, as a key [taste] film, in practice, some malaria, and died — he didn’t reach twenty-one, where he had all the time in the world, and it’s called in love, who they thought were all focused, they remain in this world for years and years beyond that. In fact, in the — during the second world war, knowing that they couldn’t get sugar and couldn’t get fat and things of that sort, I had my family in Barbados send us sugar and fats and things of that nature, so that we should have something. They’ve got every third parcel, because the people in the post office and others, seeing these things coming through, took them themselves — children. But suddenly, all of a sudden, that — died, and he wasn’t twenty-one, and he thought he had eternity before he could become interested in things of this nature. [Music] Matthew [Music]1094 ¶42

So let no one tell you, for one moment, you have eternity — don’t do it now, but the hunger must be upon you. He was young, actually, twenty years old, with all the fire moving through him, but I was twenty-two — I was twenty years old, and a few months younger than he was — he was about six months my senior — and I too had all the stuff of life flowing through me, but there wasn’t something aroused within him, or hunger, for the spirit world. Well, until it is upon you, as you are told in Scripture: “I will send a famine upon the world” — he will not be hungry for bread, or thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God.1094 ¶43

So when I told you tonight the average person wouldn’t show any interest whatsoever, listen to this — they want something entirely different. That’s why I can tell you, don’t limit that statement of the 18th chapter, the 19th verse of Matthew, to the world of Caesar.1094 ¶44

Did it work fairly? He doesn’t put a limit upon it — it certainly still works concerning the promise. [Music]1094 ¶45

Well, the world of Caesar is this world, the material world, and the world of the promise — he promises a new age, which can only take place with us if we are born again — not the incarnation, the word is born of sin — you must be born from above. Unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.1094 ¶46