Unidentified lecture (passages of 2200)

Tonight we’ll be on the law. I think you’ll find it a very practical evening. But remember, you are the operant power. It doesn’t operate itself. All day long, whether you know it or not, you are operating it.9018 ¶1

Nothing appears to us in perception which cannot be duplicated in fantasy. Consequently, the world perceived always resembles our private senses and is therefore, as far as the evidence goes, imaginal in character. Here we are trying to find the cause of the phenomena of life. What makes things happen?9018 ¶2

Why is that one poor and that one rich? Why is that one known and the other unknown? And why is one this and the other that?9018 ¶3

And yet we are told in scripture there is only one cause. Only one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. There aren’t two gods, there’s only one God. But we have to find out who this one God is.9018 ¶4

If I should speak to you now and say, and speak of your God, the chances are, and you can give it any number you want, a million to one or trillions to one, that hearing the word “your God,” your mind will instantly think of someone or something external to yourself. I do not care how you form it, but you will think of God, your God, as external to yourself. But if I spoke of your imagination, I am certain you will think of no one but yourself. We are told in the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy that I, even I, am he. And there is no God beside me. I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand.9018 ¶5

From this we see that the creative power of the world, the creator of the world, is like pure imagining in ourselves. He works in the very depths of our soul, underlying all of our surface life, least disguised in the form of our senses. So you see anything here through your senses, shut your eyes, close your senses completely, and you can reproduce it in fancy.9018 ¶6

Does it teach me anything? Well, I’ll tell you, it’ll teach you everything if you’ll believe it — if I can get you to accept the true God, the only true God, which is your own wonderful human imagination. Does Scripture teach it, really?9018 ¶7

Yes, Scripture does. And the word “the Lord,” the word translated “Lord,” is the Hebrew Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. It’s not sounded, although if you dared to sound it, it would be translated as “the Lord.” And sometimes “Jehovah.” And sometimes they’ll translate it, which they shouldn’t, as “God.”9018 ¶8

But it is the Lord. Yes. The word Jehovah? Yes. Well, the word Jesus begins Yod-Heh-Vav. So here we find the same root in the word Jesus. Therefore they call him the Lord.9018 ¶9

And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and I will let you hear my word. So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in his hand, but he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to him to do.” Well, the word potter, you think in terms of a man. I know in little Barbados, where I was born, I would go up to the potter’s field. And there he was, working these things out of clay — things where we would put ordinary water into it and in some strange way it chilled it. It would always depend upon a nice cold glass of water if poured from what we called the monkey. It was a thing made of clay, had a little clay top and an open thing like a huge big teapot, but made of clay. In the hottest moment of the day, if you poured it from that clay, it was always nice and cold.9018 ¶10

And so I can see him now, form the entire thing with his hands. But in scripture, the word potter means imagination. You’ll find what I’ve just quoted in the 18th chapter of the book of Jeremiah. You’ll also find it in the 64th chapter of the book of Isaiah.9018 ¶11

Thou art our Father, our potter. Who is the Father? Well, the Lord. Well, the true — and they asked me, what is his name? What shall I say? Say to them, I AM. That is who I am.9018 ¶12

Say to them, I AM has sent me unto you. Not “the Lord has sent me unto you,” or “Jehovah has sent me unto you,” or “Jesus has sent me unto you,” for these always fix the mind outside of self. But say to them, I AM has sent me unto you.9018 ¶13

You want to know his name? Just say, I AM. That is who I am. That is my name forever. And by this name I shall be known throughout all generations.9018 ¶14

But man will not bring himself to believe that that is God. He will not bring himself to believe that his own wonderful human imagination is God. And that is God.9018 ¶15

That forms everything in this world. There is nothing that you now see in the world but what was once only imagined. Their image preceded the objective fact. So objective reality is purely produced through imagining. The suits you wear, the dresses you wear, the chairs on which you are seated, the building that now houses you — everything was only imagined. And then it became an objective reality. And we think the objective state is its reality, and it’s not so at all.9018 ¶16

That which is the imaginative image is its reality. The imaginative image is its reality. Destroy the objective fact — I can reproduce it from the imaginative image.9018 ¶17

It is all within us. Our own wonderful human imagination is the God of Scripture. Now we are told, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.9018 ¶18

So you walk the earth as the cause of the phenomena of your life. You could be, if you are vivid in your imagination, influencing the imaginations of unnumbered people, and you, unseen by them, are the cause of the phenomena of life. If they are passive, they fall under your influence. If you are powerful in your imagination, you are creating the phenomena of life. And those who are not in control of their imagination, who are moved by the whim of every little rumor, every opinion — they simply sway from side to side as you, in control, move them. You are the one treading in the winepress, and no one knows you. You could be in a dungeon, serving a long, long span of time, and while there, eaten up with a desire, and then in your silent moment you are completely in control of that vivid creative power of the universe, your imagination, and you influence all the people of the world.9018 ¶19

For all things, by a law divine, in one another’s being are mingled. I couldn’t see you if you did not penetrate my brain. I couldn’t hear you if you didn’t penetrate it. So all things by a law divine in one another’s being are mingled.9018 ¶20

The whole vast world is one. You, in control of the creative power, which is your own wonderful human imagination, you can sway the entire vast world. If you can’t do it — as some dictators have tried to do — they bring in their propaganda machines, and then they try to force man into a certain shell, into a certain state. And quite often they succeed up to a point. But you, without the aid of any machine in this world, you can change the structure of your world by the control of your own wonderful human imagination.9018 ¶21

That is God. That is the Lord spoken of in scripture. That is Jesus. Or can you imagine? For that is God in operation. God only acts and is in existing beings, or men. But how does he act?9018 ¶22

As I imagine. I imagine anything. See now that I, even I, am he. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. None can deliver out of my hand. I raise my hand to heaven and cry, I live forever. That’s the immortal you. It cannot die. When you say I AM, it cannot die.9018 ¶23

It’s not confined to the little garment that you’re wearing. That’s a mask that you put upon yourself that you may be seen in this world of shadows. But you are not the mask that you wear. You are an immortal being, and that immortal being is God the Father as spoken of in scripture. But I would like you to begin to feel it is simply I AM.9018 ¶24

And by that, imagination. You can sit down this very moment and begin to dream the most glorious dream in the world concerning yourself. At the moment of the dream, reason denies it, your senses deny it.9018 ¶25

But if you dare to assume that assumption, that you are already that in its fullest, and persist in that assumption, it will harden into fact. Like that I met Isaiah and Ezekiel, and I dined with them last night. And I said to Isaiah, do you really believe that an assumption will harden into flesh? You see, all prophets believe that it does, but today not very many are capable of an assumption of anything — they change from moment to moment. If I could dare to assume that I am what, at the moment, reason denies, and persist in my assumption in a way that I do not know and need not be concerned about, it will actually find the necessary means to externalize itself within my world. That I know from experience, and scripture teaches it from beginning to end.9018 ¶26

This is the law that came after the promise. The promise came first, and that is irrevocable. No one can fail in the fulfillment of the promise. You will awaken one day as God himself, and you will know it. That is the promise.9018 ¶27

But while we are moving through this veil of tears, we have a law. And the law is the law of assumption. If I dare to believe that what I have said will come to pass, and not question it — well, go your way, it will come to pass.9018 ¶28

Here’s a simple, simple thing. My father, in a little tiny island — it’s only 21 miles long by 14 wide, that’s where I was born — he is not a brilliant mind. He’s gone from this world at the age of 85. His time was up when he departed. He had no formal education, very little education. The war came — the First World War came to an end in 1918. The boys began to return in 1919. As these troop ships came in bringing back the boys from Europe and from North Africa, he heard the officers and the captains and the stewards discuss the next world war. I can hear my father now, for in 1919 — I was born in 1905, so here I am, 14 years of age, and all of us are now growing up young men — my father said, “We’ll have another war in 20 years. It’ll break in 1939.”9018 ¶29

Mother said, “Joseph, why do you say that? Look at all of our boys, they’ll all be ready for the war. Why do you say that?”9018 ¶30

And there were nine boys, one girl. He said it will happen in 1939, 20 years. He even named the two sides, and placed Italy on the side of Germany and Japan on the side of Germany, leaving England and France and Russia. He didn’t mention the others — they naturally took it for granted that America would come in to defend the liberty that we have inherited from England, what we now call the Bill of Rights. All this is part of the foundation of that English-speaking world.9018 ¶31

And he thought, well, now America will come at the appropriate time, but in 1939 it will break. Well, on September the 1st, 1939, it broke. I was driving through from Montreal — I had just spent two weeks on the Canadian border. Went into Montreal, and I had, well, champagne and stout — it’s a delightful drink, by the way. And so I had a few of those, and we got into the car and started back. And on the way back, here comes the radio, and here’s the news: England has just declared war on Germany. Germany moved on Poland, England had a treaty and declared war. That was September 1939.9018 ¶32

Now, my father was not a prophet, but he firmly believed in his assumption. He was treading the winepress in this tiny little island called Barbados, 21 miles long by 14 at its widest point. So you don’t have to be in a palace, you don’t have to be in the White House, you don’t have to be in any prominent place or the Vatican. Someone in a dungeon this night is treading the winepress, and who knows what’s going to happen when he has treaded the winepress.9018 ¶33

It is always happening, because he waits on us just as swiftly and as indifferently when the will in us is evil as when it is good. For I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. I do all these things. I make the wheel and I create the world. I form the light, I create the darkness. As I told you tonight, I do.9018 ¶34

There’s only one creative power. Don’t think for one moment there are two gods, like a god and a devil. The devil is only the negation, the doubter in this world. But the positive creative power of the world is your own wonderful human imagination — that is God.9018 ¶35

So, as you’re seated here, God is seated here. And where are you going to go to find him? You could find him no place other than where you are. You’ll never find him outside of yourself, approaching you, as some people are talking about it today.9018 ¶36

I turned on the radio, thinking I’m going to see the blast-off to the moon. I thought I had Channel 4. So I sat back in my easy chair. I didn’t know what time it was going to come on — it said maybe 10 minutes to 10. So I turned it on at a quarter to ten.9018 ¶37

Here comes this so-called prophet — he’s from Australia, and he’s being questioned by someone else, and he’s giving all the interpretations of the prophecy of Scripture. And I wonder, is this an insane asylum or something? And here he is giving me all these little dates — why Israel won in six days the last war, rather than others, because Israel always rests on the seventh day. Of all the nonsense in the world — and he is actually, before a pat, undoubtedly a large audience, maybe not last Sunday morning, because it was an important thing, the boys blasting off to the moon. I thought I had Channel 4, and I had Channel 5. So I sat there waiting — maybe some brother has delayed the thing, but I thought it was 4. And after 15 minutes of this nonsense, I got up and checked, and I missed the blast-off. See? Completely gone. Luckily, it was a replay, so they replayed it later, and I saw the blast-off.9018 ¶38

And this goes on every Sunday morning, and then they call him an authority. And he so smiled, he so loved that: “You are an authority on the Bible.” Well, you never heard such nonsense in your life.9018 ¶39

Well, that is it. I’m telling you of the true God. God became as we are, that we may be as He is. And that God is your own wonderful human imagination. So when you say, “I am,” that God — there is no other God. He literally became as we are. Our every breath is the breath of God.9018 ¶40

But he does not in any way interfere with this level of awareness and compel us to be good, compel us to be kind, compel us to be anything. We can exercise the talent. No matter what mistakes we make, what horrors we make in this world — and we have done it, and are still doing it in this world — and who suffers? Only God suffers. But you say, “But I am suffering.”9018 ¶41

That’s his name, forever and forever — he has no other name. It’s not Jehovah, it’s not the Lord, it’s not Jesus, it is simply I AM. That is the Father.9018 ¶42

And so I’m telling you tonight, if you really believe it, you can start now, this night, and change the world in which you live. Start with your own environment. What would it be like if it were true that I am now the man that I would like to be, or the woman that I’d like to be?9018 ¶43

And then simply define it clearly — for the word potter simply means “to mold into a form.” The first definition is imagination. It means to resolve, it means to determine. So you are determining a certain state in your world — a resolution now: “I resolve to be,” and you name it. Not based upon the evidence of your senses, or what reason dictates, but a wish on your part. As we are told in Shakespeare, it has been taught us from the primal state, that he which was, was wished until he was. And so, he is not a reality in my world — he began only as a wish. “I am the man I wanted to be” — it began as a wish. My father became the success that he was when he departed this world — it began as a wish.9018 ¶44

He didn’t have one penny in this world. He went to a school, and what do you think the charges were? A penny a week — the British penny being two cents, it was two halfpennies, one penny, a penny a week. And many a week, his father being a very, very heavy drinker, couldn’t find the penny to pay that fabulous scholastic thing.9018 ¶45

But he came out and started without a decent education, but he had a dream. And he always had the dream.9018 ¶46

And when he was toppled from a small little partnership, two of my brothers went to see the three men who actually maneuvered the entire thing, and they asked, “Why? What happened to Daddy? Why did this thing happen?” You know what one of them said to my two brothers?9018 ¶47

“You got it, so your hat too high.” Well, you can’t throw it high enough, may I tell you. Who in this world is more entitled to any exalted state than you, when housed within you is the only God? So they said, “You got it and threw your hat too high.”9018 ¶48

He wanted him to always remain based upon the level where my parents began in this world. That was not my father’s dream. So the partners all died working for other people at small little salaries, and my father died working only for himself and his sons, at the age of 85, and left ten children, each financially independent. So the truth is, the hat’s too high — it is. If he had lived longer, he would have thrown it even higher. That was my father’s dream.9018 ¶49

So do not let anyone tell you to be satisfied with this, that, or the other. It is the God in you that gives you desire. You wouldn’t eat tonight if you didn’t have a desire. And who is desiring? It is God desiring, desiring constantly to transcend himself. And so tonight you dream, dream noble dreams.9018 ¶50

I am telling you, those who are coming here, those who have been coming through the years — New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere — they’re now beginning to really come into a head, to awaken to the truth that I have been telling you through the years, that you’re going to discover that you are God the Father. Thou art our Father, yet our Potter, and we are the clay in thy hand. The day will come you’ll discover why we call this the clay.9018 ¶51

We are emotional filters, and we bear the marks of our prevalent emotions, and he allows these marks, good, bad, or indifferent. He does not in any way dictate what I should entertain as a thought. All right, entertain it. So I want to feel sorry for myself and go out and eat worms? Go and eat the worms, have some more.9018 ¶52

That’s exactly what he does to all of us. No compassion whatsoever — not to think for one moment that he’s going to stop you in the act. He allows you to completely run your own world as a world and make all the mistakes in the world.9018 ¶53

Thou hast delivered us into our iniquity. And the word “deliver,” in Greek, in Hebrew, and in Latin, means to melt. He has melted us, and melted us into our iniquity, so we are so much a part of it we can’t even separate ourselves from these infirmities. He allows us to be delivered right into our iniquity, as told us in the 64th chapter of the book of Isaiah. Read it carefully, and you’ll see this vision that possessed these men who were qualified to hear from the depths of their own selves, for they heard it as adumbrations. And then came the understanding of these shadows, these foreshadowings.9018 ¶54

And the day will come that everyone in this world will discover he is God the Father. And because he is the Father, then there must be a son. And that son is David. David is the Christ. Open all the scriptures — but man doesn’t know that yet. I am telling you from experience, I know it. And one day you’re going to actually see the Christ, who reveals you as the Lord, who is the Father.9018 ¶55

So David is called — not in scripture — the thing is going dead again. All right, here we start back. Is it back? Yes.9018 ¶56

So I’m telling you, there’s only Father and Son in this entire wonderful story. Well then, who then is this David that is the son?9018 ¶57

David is the sum total of all the parts that the Lord I AM has played. He is the resultant state, and you played all the parts — good, bad, and indifferent. And having played all the parts, then the sum total, the resultant state, comes out, and there he stands before you.9018 ¶58

And he is David. David is the resultant state, the Christ, the anointed one of the Father. And it takes him to reveal you as God the Father.9018 ¶59

And everyone is going to have this experience. There’s a lady here tonight who had this experience back in November. She said, “I came upon this beautiful youth of sheer innocence, about 13 years of age, ruddy of complexion, as described in the 16th chapter of 1 Samuel. And he came to me and he said, ‘You are in the fatherhood degree.’9018 ¶60

And I said to him, ‘How do you know?’ He said to me, ‘I know. I know.’”9018 ¶61

And then the vision faded. Then she said, “I had this experience.”9018 ¶62

I saw three men walking towards me. They were all with a heavenly smile on their face. As they approached, they so resembled each other they could be triplets — they could be brothers, but triplets, they were so completely alike as they approached.9018 ¶63

And one had an infant wrapped in a blanket. And he came towards me and placed it in my hand. And I took the infant, and I knew it was my child.9018 ¶64

“Now, two days prior to this experience, lying on my bed, I saw these heavenly colors — well, purple, sort of the amethyst color. And then as they faded, it formed into the most wonderful, brilliant star. I’m looking at the star when suddenly the whole thing faded, and two days later came these three messengers bringing the infant child.”9018 ¶65

Well, that’s told us in the book of Genesis. Abraham sat in the heat of the day, as he sat in the tent, and three men appeared to announce to him that he would be a father, in spite of his advanced years — and Sarah, it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women.9018 ¶66

This is all beautiful imagery. It’s all you. You are the Abraham. You are the Sarah.9018 ¶67

And Isaac is the child that is given as a sign of your birth from above. And so here she had the most marvelous experience. She knew the child was hers, and three messengers, so alike they looked like triplets. And then the star that preceded the entire thing by two days.9018 ¶68

And then the youth who said to her, “You are in the fatherhood degree.” And when she asked, “How do you know?” he replied, “I know.” And then affirmed it by the second statement: “I know.”9018 ¶69

So I tell you, the law came after the promise. The promise is something that you cannot lose — no one can lose it. You could be the most horrible dreamer in the world — and that’s all we are anyway, dreaming these fantastic dreams, and some are horrible — but you cannot lose the promise. You can work the law beautifully, up to the extreme; it does not mean in any way you’re going to earn the promise. The promise comes in spite of your use of law. But while we’re in the world of Caesar, why not understand the law and use it wisely?9018 ¶70

Every moment of time you must be watchful, aware of what you are imagining. To try to change circumstances before you change your imaginal activity is to struggle against the very nature of things, because your imaginal activity is actually producing objective reality. And so, until I change that which is the cause of the phenomenon of life, I’m going to reproduce the same thing in my world. So start tonight to change it by changing the imaginal activity.9018 ¶71

So here Fawcett said — and I think it’s a very marvelous statement that he made — “The secret of imagining is the greatest of all problems, to the solution of which all should aspire, for supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme delight lies in the far-off solution of this mystery.” There are so many facets to it. Here I stand, and I say I’m all imagination, but am I really here based upon the evidence of my senses? Can I not block out what my reason and my senses are dictating and be elsewhere? Can I not imagine myself to be elsewhere and view the world from there, instead of wanting to be there? I’m viewing it from here, which tells me I am not. You can be any place you want to be in this world. Man must be wherever he is in imagination, for man is all imagination. So I will simply imagine myself to be elsewhere, if that’s where I want to be, or to be other than what I am, if that’s what I want to be, and view the world from that assumption.9018 ¶72

“Go forward and prepare the place,” he says. “Wherever the sole of your foot shall tread upon, the same gave I unto you.” Wherever the sole of my foot treads, he gives me, for they don’t remain here all the time if I want to be elsewhere. And the elsewhere need not be spatial — it could be in a financial manner, it could be in a social manner, it could be in any manner. And so I would dare to tread on a different level. I would dare to assume that I am that which I want to be. I’m treading on it.9018 ¶73

And I must be wherever I am in imagination, for I am all imagination. 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. The divine body we call Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination, and you beat him morning, noon, and night by the misuse of your imagination. He bears all the stripes of man, but he’s only your own wonderful human imagination, and he is the immortal you. One day he will awaken in you, not as another, but as you. Let these fellows go forward believing that some strange thing is going to happen, and he’s going to come out of the clouds and shake their hands — they’ll wait forever. When he comes, he comes from within, because he is with him.9018 ¶74

Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you, unless of course you have failed to meet the test? Examine yourself to see whether you’re holding to the faith. Jesus Christ is in you. Do you not realize that you are the temple of the Lord, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?9018 ¶75

If he dwells in me, why look on the outside for him to come? When he comes, he comes only to awaken within me, because he’s already within me. He awakes within me as the very being in whom he awakes. And then I see confirmation of that when I see the resultant state, David.9018 ¶76

And it’s handsome, wonderful — you can have a one-time thing. Oh, they can attempt it, but you can’t paint or sculpt the beauty of David. He’s beyond description. Something alive that you cannot describe — that’s the resultant state of all the parts that the Lord has played. And who is the Lord? I am he. So you’re told you will die in your sins unless you believe, I am he. Now this is what it means, an external God. They find it so much easier to stick him on the wall and cross themselves and get lemon ginger flakes. “That’s done, therefore, today. Therefore my work today is done. Now we’ll do it again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I go about my business doing all kinds of nonsense with my imagination, and I think I serve the Lord.” It’s not something you do once in the morning before some little thing on the wall. It’s something you do 24 hours a day. You carry it right into the dream world, I think, and there your reactions are as they should be when you’re awake, here — if you’re completely in control of your wonderful human imagination, for that’s God, that’s the creative power of the world. So take anyone, wherever he is, and just try to lift him up to something other than what he seems to be, if he wants to be other than what he is. And ask him to persist to the best of his ability in that new assumption, and to feel it as you would a suit of clothes.9018 ¶77

It’s new when you first buy it, wear it for a week, it’s all stopped. The first day you put it on, everyone knows you’re wearing a new suit — and really no one does, but you do. And so it’s what you do. And so after a little while, it’s an old suit. So put on the feeling — it’s like something new when you first put it on. And wear it. And then after a while it becomes so natural, and then it objectifies itself in your world, and you become exactly what you’ve assumed that you are. For an assumption, though false, if persisted in, will harden into fact. You try it.9018 ¶78

Who would have thought an insane person like a Hitler or a Stalin could, by a mere assumption, rise to the heights that they did, and actually control intelligent men and women — a hundred million Germans, the other two hundred-odd million Russians? And they could destroy them with impunity. Killed millions with impunity. They weren’t put on trial.9018 ¶79

Yet both were thieves and robbers before they actually moved to that position. Stalin was a bank robber and served time for it, and yet they honored him over the years — he was there, knowing all along he was insane. While you can’t conceive of a man called Hitler as sane, he was just as insane as anyone could be, but he did assume, and boldly assume, and he lived in it.9018 ¶80

That’s what I mean by this strange, peculiar law that kills and makes alive, and wounds and heals. It makes the dark and creates the light. It forms the real and still creates the world. It does all things, and none can deliver out of my hand. So it’s entirely up to us what we are going to do with this creative power in the world, when we ourselves are that power. You don’t say we’re going to take it from outside and use it — we are the power, we are the creative power of the universe. And that power the world calls God.9018 ¶81

But in calling it God, and calling it Jehovah, and calling it Lord, they are missing the point, because they put it on the outside. If you really want to know, read the third chapter, the 14th verse, of Exodus. That’s where the name is beautifully described for us: “And when I come to the people of Israel, and I tell them, the God of your fathers sent me to you, and they say, ‘What is his name? What shall I say?’ say unto them, I AM. That is who I am.” And when you go to them, you just say, “I AM has sent me to you. And that is my name forever, and by that name I shall be known throughout all generations.” But Israel finds it difficult to keep the king. And so it’s always something other than I AM. It’s so much easier to blame someone other than self for the things that are happening to us. And I point here, there, and elsewhere. I forget what I did in my idle moment, and when the harvest comes up for me to reap it, I deny that I planted these seeds. When on earth did I plant them? Well, if I was honest with myself, I would know. You plant them morning, noon, and night. In the course of a day, a number of idle moments catch you thinking all kinds of things.9018 ¶82

You don’t know the people, and yet you’re reacting and doing all kinds of things.9018 ¶83