Repentance A Gift of God

I think you will find tonight’s message a very practical one. Something that all should really have and apply. The whole of life is just the appeasement of hunger and the numberless states of consciousness from which the individual can think and view the world are purely a means of satisfying their hunger. I say this because your state of consciousness is always being externalized.1214 ¶1

If you know how to move from your present state, if you dislike it, to the state that you would like to externalize, then you have the secret. That is what I intend tonight to tell you. So the only states of consciousness pushed out. Everything in this world and all are contained within the individual. Now in the Bible we speak of prayer and prayer to the world means begging, but not in the Bible. it’s thanksgiving, it’s pray, it’s not petition. We speak in the Bible of repentance and the world thinks that it means to regret, to be remorseful. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Prayer and repentance are almost synonymous terms. We are told to bear fruit that befits repentance. Then they say that the central character of the scripture, you and your disciples eat and drink with sinners. And he replied, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Leave the righteous alone. They are so self-satisfied. They are like themselves. Don’t leave them alone. The word sin has nothing to do with breaking any moral code.1214 ¶2

The word sin means to misdemand. That’s what it means. You have a goal in life and you haven’t achieved it, well then you are sinning. You may have a billion dollars and still are hungry for another. Well then if you don’t have the other, you are sinning. You may keep all the so-called codes of the world imposed upon you by the priesthoods of the world. That would mean nothing as far as scriptures go. To repent is simply a radical change of attitude. is what repentance means. For if I radically change my attitude towards life, I will then view the world and see the world from that change of attitude. And that change is a change of consciousness. And that change will be externalized in my world. Now repentance is at once man’s responsibility and a gift of God. I’d better show you what I mean by it. He said, I and my father are one.1214 ¶3

Yet I go to my father, for my father is greater than I. We are one, yet my father is greater than I. So I go to my father.1214 ¶4

How do we arrive at this strange, peculiar statement? How, what does it mean? In the office of the saint, I am not inferior to my essential being, the sender,1214 ¶5

but only in the office of the saint I am restricted and must live by faith. Faith in what? Faith in the sender. It’s myself, the father, for I and my father are one. But when I am sent into this world to experience death and to experience the restriction of man, I am seemingly inferior to myself, the sender. So when I repent I go to the sender. I first do what I have to do. So I say repentance is at once a responsibility of man and a gift from God. So then what is my responsibility? I want to change my world. Well then I ask myself what would I see if it would change? How would I see the world if my world was exactly as I want it to be? How would I see it? Well then see it. In my mind’s eye conjure a scene which would imply that it is true. live as though it were true in my mind’s eye. I know I can’t make it so. But in the depth of my own being, the Father, he has the power to make it so.1214 ¶6

So now I go to my Father. How do I go to my Father? I first of all do what I am called upon to do. I enact the scene in trying the fulfillment of my dream. and then I turn it over completely in thanksgiving to him.1214 ¶7

It is myself, my essential being, for it can change my reasoning mind. I do not know on this level how it can be done, but I do know that if I have faith in him,1214 ¶8

which is my own self, it will be done in my world. So we are told in scripture, without faith it is impossible to please him and those who are drawn near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him I must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him well without faith it is impossible to please him what is faith? The same chapter in Hebrews defines faith for us. Faith is the assurance of things not seen. The evidence of things hoped for.1214 ¶9

By faith we understand that the very words were created by the word of God. So that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. well in my world it hasn’t yet appeared I say it all is contained within my imagination so I will enact the scene which would imply that it’s real and then within myself I give thanks now we are told the most wonderful prayer ever uttered you find in the book of John 11 chapter he stands at the gate of death and he raises his eyes and says thank you father that thou hast heard me I knew that you always hear me well I can’t deny that the depth of my own being is hearing what I am doing what I am inwardly saying so I can truly say father thank you He certainly heard what I said. But is it now supported by some statement of scripture? Yes. Again in John but now in his letter. The first letter. And in this he said. If we believe that he hears us. In whatever we ask of him.1214 ¶10

We know that we have already obtained the request. Made of him. if I can simply assume that I am the man that I would like to be but certainly the depth of my own being has seen that assumption he has heard that assumption but now can I actually believe that that’s all I need you well I have to confess that I can’t do it on this level I am not wise enough on this level to devise the means necessary to externalize what I have assumed that I am Well, have you proved it, Neville? A number of times. A number of times. When I was completely shut out on certain areas, imprisoned as it were, not in the federal prisons, but a state of imprisonment to find yourself on an island where you enjoyed four months of it, almost five months. But you have a commitment in America and you’ve got to get back. And then to be told that there is no possibility of return until the very earliest September. And that will be the very earliest. And your commitment is in Milwaukee in the first week of May.1214 ¶11

What are you going to do then? No possibility. No ships have taken the passengers and the list runs into thousands waiting all through the Indies from Trinidad all the way up, all waiting.1214 ¶12

And you are in the island of Barbados without making any provision for your return to America when you sailed for Barbados five months before. So what did I do?1214 ¶13

I simply sat in a chair in my hotel room and I assumed I was on a little tender moving against the boat for that was before the days of a deep water harbor. Now we have a deep water harbor. But then you took a small boat off to the ship waiting maybe a half mile to sea.1214 ¶14

And then you walked up a gangplank. So I simply stepped up on the gangplank and walked up that gangplank in my mind’s eye. If my mind wandered, which it did, I brought it right back to that first step and walked up again. it wandered before I got to the top I brought it back again and I trained it as you would a horse the mind is an unruly animal so I trained it and I walked up step after step when I got to the top I turned around and put my imaginary hands on the rail and I could smell the salt of the sea in the air I looked back with nostalgia at the little island of Barbados a mixed emotion I am happy that I’m sailing for America and said that I’m leaving behind a very large, wonderful family of mine.1214 ¶15

And then, in that mood, I simply dropped off for a moment in sleep, just a little nap. The next day, I was called by the very company who said that we have no possibility of getting you out of here before at the very earliest, September, and said there was a cancellation this day in America. and they offered it to me in spite of the list of over a thousand people waiting.1214 ¶16

It’s not my concern why she or he or it canceled the passage. My prayer was answered. I did what I was called upon to do. For repentance is a radical change of attitude.1214 ¶17

She said, you can’t get out. Well, I said, I am out. I’m on a boat. And the boat is headed towards New York City. that’s all I want to do so I did my responsibility and the second part of repentance is a gift from God so God has the way of externalizing it what caused the woman or the man or something to cancel the thing I was told afterwards she was afraid she was afraid for some reason not explained to make the trip and so one passage was open and I got that one room because there were only two beds in it and my little girl was only three years old. She could sleep with her mother and I could climb up one flight and sleep on the upper bunk and then take my 11 days back to New York City.1214 ¶18

So I did what I was called upon to do. That’s my responsibility. To enact a scene which would imply the fulfillment of my desire and then surrender completely to my father for he has the power to externalize it. I do not know how to do it on this level. I haven’t the wisdom. I haven’t anything on this level to do it. So my faith is faith in my father. Faith in his power to externalize what I have done. All in imagination. So to me that is prayer.1214 ¶19

That is repentance. I didn’t sit down and felt for one moment that I had done something that was wrong. And that’s why I couldn’t get out. no sense of repentance or remorse as the world teaches that’s not repentance repentance is simply a radical change of attitude that’s what the word means metanoia but radical right down to the root and you change your attitude if I change my attitude I’ve changed my state of consciousness and because all states of consciousness are being externalized in the world then that state will externalize itself in my world in a way I do not know.1214 ¶20

For we are told my ways are not your ways. My ways are past finding out. Just trust me. So without faith you cannot please God, we are told. If I would come to him, I must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Well, I seek him in projecting for me that which I desire in this world.1214 ¶21

So that’s what I mean by prayer. Prayer is the attempted communion with God. That’s what prayer is. As we are told in the fourth psalm, the fourth verse. Commune with your own heart on your beds and then be silent.1214 ¶22

Commune with whom? I do not need the mediation of any priest, any rabbi, or any heavenly being. I’m communing with myself the depth of my own being is God the Father that’s my essential being and he is one with the surface mind called Neville and in the capacity of the office of the saint called Neville I am inferior to myself the sender but the sender and the saint are one you and God the Father are one but in the office of the saint you are like an ambassador you do not speak with the same authority of the one who sent you to represent him so I represent myself in the world of death but the sender is greater than I and yet I am here one this is what I get from scripture and this is what I put into practice this is what I try to teach and tell everyone who will listen to me you are God the Father that’s who you really are but you do not know it yet the day is coming you’re going to know it and you’ll only know it when his son appears before you Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever while Jesus Christ don’t look upon it as one in the sense like a surname Jesus and Christ being the surname no, look upon it as father and son the Christ is the Messiah. That’s the son. Jesus is the same as Jehovah. That’s the father. But we put them together, we said Jesus Christ. So he could say, I and my father are one.1214 ¶23

So here, look upon it simply as one, yes, but split for a purpose in this world. So he sends himself. He sends his son. Who is his son? The one who is going to reveal him to you as God the Father. For no one has ever seen the Father. But his only begotten son who is nearest and dearest to his heart he has made him known. And so who is that one? David.1214 ¶24

So David comes into sight and here you know exactly who you are. The minute he appears memory returns and you are God the Father. and his son who was with you before the world was made stands before you. So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever as you read it in the 13th chapter of Hebrews.1214 ¶25

Same forever. This is contained in the mind of man. That’s what we mean in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes that God has put eternity into the mind of man Yet so, that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. What did he do? He put himself and his son into the very mind of man. And when man has completed the journey, well then, the secret is out. The son appears. And the minute the son appears, the identity of the individual appears. He is God the Father.1214 ¶26

but this relationship was before that the world was so everyone in this world is destined to awaken one day as God the Father and the relationship is forever you cannot change it so when you’re called upon to repent for the story begins the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel believe the good news repent and all the priesthood of the world tell you that you must now moan and carry on because you must repent of things that you did Bible doesn’t teach that at all it doesn’t repent change your attitude if you would change the world to try to change circumstances before you change your state of consciousness is to struggle against the very nature of things you can’t do it how can you change a thing and still maintain it from within you so tonight without asking anyone’s permission without asking anyone to mediate for you to God you go within and commune with your1214 ¶27

own heart what would the world be like if it were true that I am already the man the woman that I’d like to be what would it be like well then look at it and see it if you don’t see a chain well then there is no change man can detect motion in this world only by changes relative to something that is fixed well now my present state is fixed seemingly I change my attitude towards the world and let the world see me a changed man I see my world a change well if I see a world that is changed relative to what it was well then I have changed if tonight I am financially embarrassed what would it be like if I were not if I were affluent would my friends know it would my wife know it yes they would know it well then let them know it where by telling them audibly no you do it all in your imagination for man is all imagination and God is man and exists in us and we in him the eternal body of man is the imagination and that is God himself that is the divine body that we speak of in scripture as Jesus a word he lives in you so Blake says so beautifully why stay we here trembling around calling on God for help and not ourselves in whom God dwells he dwells in us so where would I go to find him?1214 ¶28

In a church? In a synagogue? In a so-called holy place? No. If I’m at a bar drinking a beer or a good scotch that’s where he is. He’s in me wherever I am that’s where he is. And he’s aware of what I’m entertaining. And he’s going to externalize what I’m entertaining.1214 ¶29

So I change radically my state of mind. And that radical change will externalize itself if I yield completely to him in faith that he has the ability to do it. It relieves me of all responsibility of devising the means that would be necessary to do it. I do not know. I’m not wise enough to know how it’s going to work. I only know it will work.1214 ¶30

So everyone, if he knows the secret, is free. He is set free by the knowledge of prayer. Teach me how to pray. Now the Lord’s Prayer is not the technique.1214 ¶31

if you know the Lord’s prayer and it’s recited week after week in all the churches of the world but it’s not as it’s written in scripture a friend of mine who has now gone from this world gave me the literal translation of the Greek what we have in our Bible is a translation from the Latin and the Latin has no heiress of the imperative passive mood so they could not convey the sense of the evangelist the imperative passive mood is a thing to be done absolutely and continuously that in other words our Father in the heavens thy name must be being hallowed thy kingdom must be being restored thy will must be being done that’s how it’s written it’s a play that is forever without any reference to its duration to its position in time to its repetition it’s simply taking place and that play is the play of the father son in man and in the very end when the individual here is drawn into that play he realizes it he actually reenacts within himself the eternal play and when that whole thing is done within him he is fulfilled what he came to do for the only purpose in life really is simply to fulfill scripture but while we are here in this world of tears world of death then we have given ourselves a law by which we can cushion the blows the inevitable blows for you get into a state quite often unwittingly.1214 ¶32

And you do not know that you’re in the state until you see it externalized. And you do not like what is being externalized. Don’t remain in it and wallow. Get out of it.1214 ¶33

Don’t condemn anyone for it. Don’t judge anyone. Just get out of that state. You get out of the state by asking yourself a very simple, simple question. What would it be like if?1214 ¶34

And then you imagine as if it were true. that is the secret of prayer what would it be like if it were true that I am now the man the woman that I would like to be and then I dare to assume that I am it well then I can say father thank you well you certainly heard and you certainly saw what I did you cannot encompass me as the deeper self of my being something that is my essential being and tell me that you are unaware of what the surface mind is doing it can’t be unaware of what my surface mind is doing I saw yesterday’s paper the second man to step on the moon his name was Alden when he came back from this fantastic thing Armstrong stepped on first and then Alden second then he came near a nervous breakdown and sought psychiatric help and all the stories that he read about their journey he said they were so false and they all said I wish it were true not a thing that Life magazine wrote about that journey was true not what any magazine wrote was true through the eyes of those who had the experience and then the in the article it quoted a thought of Jung Carl Jung Jung. And Jung said long before any man ever stepped on the moon it is far easier for man to visit Mars or the moon than to penetrate his own being.1214 ¶35

So you step on the moon and it’s a fantastic feat but that’s nothing compared to penetrating your own beings and finding the cause of the phenomenon of life to find the father in you for that’s where he is he’s not outside and because he’s not outside he is never so far off as even to be near for nearness implies separation so i can say i and my father are one and so if he’s even near is not near enough. No matter how near it is, he has to be my essential being. For nearness implies separation. And he’s not separated because I and my father are one.1214 ¶36

Give me freedom to choose the state that I will enter, wisely or unwisely. Then he’ll externalize it and show me exactly what I did.1214 ¶37

But grant me the freedom to change it now. Don’t leave me in the state if I desire to get out of it. But many a person wallows in it and wallows in it morning, noon, and night and they are totally unaware that they’re doing it. They will say, oh yes, and then five seconds later they’re back into that state. I have had interviews with people who will say to me, this is what I would like, but I must first tell you. Don’t tell me anything. Tell me what you want. They’re only states. They insist on wallowing in all the things of the past. Like the little old lady who insisted on confessing time and time again to the priest. And it was some little affair she had when she was a child, a young girl.1214 ¶38

And the priest said to her, you know, my dear, you’ve told me that over and over again. She said, yes, but I love to talk about it.1214 ¶39

Well, that’s the story. we just love to talk about all the miseries in the world but I tell you, forget it know exactly what you want in this world dare to assume that you are it and then yield completely surrender to the depth of your own being and he has the way that you do not know and he will externalize it in your world so really in a real sense prayer is the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. What do you hope for? Well, now subjectively appropriate it. That subjective appropriation of the objective hope is the art of prayer. For your father saw exactly what you appropriated. He saw it. And he isn’t judging you. He’s going to give it to you.1214 ¶40

He’s not going to ask anything. He’s going to give you exactly what you appropriated. So I appropriated a trip when they told me you couldn’t move out of this island for months and months to come. But I kept my date in Milwaukee. I arrived in New York City the first week of May and flew to Milwaukee, and there I kept my date.1214 ¶41

So the same thing is true for everyone in this world. I am not unique in the sense that I differ from any child born a woman.1214 ¶42

you are unique and I am unique in the sense that we can’t be duplicated and that’s why everyone has to be redeemed because if not all then something is missing from the whole so I can say faithfully to everyone you’re going to be redeemed you may go through hell before you wake up but you still are going to be salvaged you’re going to be saved, everyone because the whole makes the one that is God but why wait and why have more blocks and more knocks in this world when you can actually learn what scripture really means by repentance and don’t go telling anyone that you’ve committed a little sin and now they must give you something to do that you may repent forget that nonsense all that’s nonsense I don’t care what you did your father doesn’t hold it against you it is the state in which you were when you committed that act and man judges the individual and not the state if I must express myself judge the state but not the individual in that state he was simply something that fell into it unwittingly so Blake could say you see now from what I tell you that I do not see the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state but to be every one of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil. So it falls into a state. So why condemn the man or the woman for the state into which it fell? Take it out of that state.1214 ¶43

All things are redeemable. Take him out of the state. How do you take him out? Well, ask him what he would like. Maybe he doesn’t want to get out of the state.1214 ¶44

If he wants to get out of that state, you ask him, what would you like? Well, then in your own minds, I represent him to yourself as the man or the woman that they would like to be. And then yield completely to your father because he has the know-how. He knows how to produce it in them. A friend of mine went to San Francisco at my bidding.1214 ¶45

I taught him the law and as much as I could tell him of the other part of the promise. But the law, just what I’m talking about tonight.1214 ¶46

Before he gave one lecture in San Francisco, It was a new city, he had never seen it before, and he was walking around the street, and he had a little fox stereo. So he was carrying his little dog up the street, and a man crossed, wobbling a bit, and asked him for money. He said that he was unemployed, and he would like a little handout. He evidently had quite a little bit to drink as he asked.1214 ¶47

my friend wasn’t judging that aspect at all he didn’t give he had all the liquor in the world he said I must apply this principle and he said to the man I do not have any money to give you but what I have I’ll give you but the man couldn’t understand what he was talking about but thanked him and walked his way my friend did not make one step beyond that point before he did what was his responsibility he represented that man to himself as gainfully employed and no need of help from anyone just gainfully employed and then he went his way with his little dog a week later he’s walking down the street the man crosses the street and comes up to him he said I don’t imagine that you remember me my friend said oh yes I do well he said I want to thank you for not giving me help when I asked you a week ago1214 ¶48

because had you given me help I would be asking you for help tonight too but I got so mad with myself because you turned me down and I was in that position to ask for help I went out the very next day and got myself a marvelous job and I’m on the job now all my friend did he represented him to himself as gainfully employed so we are told that in the book of Acts silver and gold have I none for thee but such as I have give I unto you so you can give any gift in your imagination so give it and then yield completely to the depth of your own being knowing that he has the power the creative power to externalize it and that’s what my friend freedom did so anyone can do it you don’t have to graduate from some little ism in this world if you want some little title or I get a title. These all are bought anyway. You can put $50 in the mail, send it off to India and get a PhD.1214 ¶49

You want something higher than that? Get something higher. If whatever it is, all for $50. If you bargain with him, you’ll get it for $10. No exams, no studies, nothing, just a piece of paper and these people will frame it and put it up on the wall.1214 ¶50

If that is not the height of nonsense and then big convention will take place and you’ll hear so many doctors being called doctor so and so and doctor so and so each paid ten dollars for that doctorship get down to the basic facts the greatest book in the world that never changes is the bible but it’s the most misunderstood book in the world for it is taught as secular history and it is not secular history it’s divine history it’s the history of salvation and these characters are not persons as you are these are eternal states of consciousness but they’re all personified when you tell the story and we have taken the personification for persons and the vehicle that conveys the instruction for the instruction and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended and as long as we can teach it as secular history we will never know the Bible so I tell you whatever you did this day1214 ¶51

and you dislike it turn from it into another state don’t try to rub it out remaining in that state because you’re going to do it again you’ll do the same thing over and over again while you remain in that state you can pledge yourself from now to the ends of time that I will never do it again to find that maybe 24 hours later the impulse is there and you’ll do it again get out of the state and it is as though you never really did that not in eternity it isn’t part of you because it’s not part of the new state but you are not a state you are all imagination imagination is not a state all these other things are states but not imagination that is the individual himself that is God your own wonderful human imagination that’s God when you say I am that’s God forever and forever and forever so my name is in him because1214 ¶52

my name is in him where should he turn if he wants to find God but now without faith in God in your own wonderful human imagination you cannot please him so who would come to him must first believe that he exists well I don’t have to ask you if you aren’t aware of being you certainly are aware of being well that’s saying I am so you do know that you do exist to that extent you may believe that that dies with the physical body I tell you it doesn’t die with the physical body you may believe that a change of state is a change in the sense of death no it’s not the individual moves on from state to state to state but states remain permanent for all others to enter that state I leave the city of Los Angeles and go on elsewhere but Los Angeles remains but I the pilgrim I move on and the pilgrim is your1214 ¶53

own wonderful human imagination that’s your immortal self who cannot die you cannot go to eternal death in that which cannot die that’s your immortal being but you’re going to remain in this world until you discover who you are and no one in the world can convince you to the extent that you must be convinced but the son when the son appears all arguments are over the minute you see him you know exactly who you are and you know that you are God the father it’s through the son that man gains assurance that he is God not a thing in the world can convince him but that I could tell you from now to the ends of time but I can’t convince you to the point that you will be convinced when you see David. When you see David, it’s the David. The psalmist. That sweet psalmist of the Old Testament. That’s David. That is the Messiah. He is the Christ. And Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. That’s the mystery. You’re dealing with a mystery. So David in the spirit called him, My Lord. As a son always spoke of his father as my Lord. Always. We do not do it today but when this was put into the written form sons always referred to their father as my Lord. And so David in the spirit not in the flesh called him my Lord. Therefore he called him my father. So I hope you’ll take it seriously tonight and really live by it.1214 ¶54

It will not fail you, I tell you. It will not fail you. You can change your world and make it conform to your ideal state, to your dream. Tell it to those who will listen. Many will not listen, but it doesn’t really matter. If they do not listen, leave them alone. Don’t try to hit them over the head to make it so. But I’ll tell you, spiritual growth is the gradual, I would say, transition. from a God of tradition to a God of experience.1214 ¶55

And so you will gradually grow and grow and grow and as you grow you outgrow. You will outgrow these traditions and then you will find the God of experience. Having found him you aren’t going to let him go. You will know that all things are taking place within your own wonderful human imagination. Now let us go into the silence.1214 ¶56