Call Upon Self

In the tenth chapter of the book of Romans, Paul asked this question, and how can men call upon him in whom they do not believe? me? And how can they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by preaching Christ. Let us take it apart and show you what Paul is trying to get at. How can men call upon him in whom they do not believe?

Now today there are a billion Christians in the world, and possibly 15 million Jews. And we have the same God. But do we really call upon him? Do we know this God? How can men call upon him in whom they do not believe? Well, one billion Christians and 15 million Jews will say, I do believe in God. Then how can you say I cannot call upon him? Because it's not the true God. They do not believe in themselves. Man's faith in God is measured by his confidence in himself. For the self of man is God. God's eternal name is I am. That's God. So when I use the word God or I use the word Jehovah or Lord or Jesus Christ and it arouses in you the sense of an existence of something outside of self, you have the wrong God, and you have not yet dis- God. No one has preached it to you. That's what he's telling us, and therefore you cannot call upon that thing in which you do not believe.

Today I may want this, that, or the other, and as I will pray to God for it, well, can I dare call upon the only true God, which is my own wonderful human imagination? Can I believe in that God? So how can I call upon him in whom I do not believe? And how can I believe in him of whom I have never heard? For today you can say to the billion Christians and the 15 million Jews, they have not heard of that God. And how can I hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? You are not self- appointed. You are drafted. You are called, incorporated into the body of the risen Lord, and sent. Then you will preach with authority, for you will preach from your own inner experience what you've experienced about God, and then you can tell it. Therefore faith will then come from hearing, and hearing by the preaching of Christ.

There's not a thing else to preach today from all the pulpits of the world as they get us become involved, involved, trying to change society, change the world. That's not preaching Christ. He said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Yet today all the pulpits are filled with simply being involved. We must become involved and changing society. That's not preaching Christ. Right.

So let us now turn to the great confession of faith, of the Jewish faith. It is called the Great Command. You'll read it in the sixth chapter, the fourth verse of Deuteronomy. And then you go on, I'll quote the fourth and just a little bit of the remaining three. It is here, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

Now we are told, tell it, teach it fervently to your children. When you sit down and when you rise, talk about it. When you walk by the way, talk about it. when you retire at night and rise in the morning let it be with you write it upon your heart wear it on your hand between your eyes make it a part of you make what a part of that the Lord my God that Lord is one now all translations are really paraphrases here or Israel the Lord, that means I am our God, our I am is that one I am in the Hebrew text the first word which is Shema, which means to hear, Shema Israel Shema that last letter of the word to hear is majestular.

In other words, it is larger than the other letters in the word. And the last letter of the last word, which is achad, which is one, that is larger than the other letters in the word. So there are two letters that stand out in the sentence. Put them together, it's ed. And ed means in Hebrew, witness. So they're calling man's attention to the fact that something important here, and this is what is called the great commandment. You shall be a witness to this statement that the Lord, our Lord, our God, is one Lord. Then you are called, in due time you are called, individually. vision and you are sent to experience the truth of this first and great commandment.

So when you are called, you'll read now the biography in Scripture of one called Jesus Christ. Then you're sent and you will have that experience. It's your biography. Then Then another is called and he is sent and he has the identical experience. It is his biography. And the whole vast world eventually will be called and sent and each will have that identical experience. Therefore, everyone is that one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. now preach that don't talk about changing the world leave Jesus' world alone just as it is and you go only to fulfill scripture, so when he comes into the world meaning you the individual you will say for this I was born, for this I came into the world to bear witness to the truth, thy word is true, and this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hath sent.

God himself comes into this world, into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. he He not only came, he comes. He is forever coming, the same being coming, for he is buried in every one in this world. So God himself came and comes into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. And then you tell it, that exactly what happened to you is exactly what is claimed in Scripture happened to one called Jesus Christ. But that's your story. you don't change your earthly name, you remain John, you remain Jack, you remain Neville, you remain whatever you are, but you know who you really are, you can tell it to a limited number, but you don't go and bring it on the crowd, they would not accept it, they would not believe it because they have their own pre -fabricated misconception of this eternal story, so how can man And call upon him in whom they do not believe.

Well, I'm asking you to believe in yourself. For the true self of man is Jesus Christ. Before you have the actual experience of Jesus Christ, I am asking you to believe in yourself. For the self of man is Jesus Christ. ¶And before you actually awaken him within you, as your very being, you can still call upon him. Call upon him and prove to your own satisfaction it is the only one you can really call upon and get results. You can preach now and call upon anything on the outside you aren't going to get results. How would you feel if now you were now the man that you would like to be, but would it work?

Well try it. How would you feel now if you had what you like to have? Well then try it. A lady wrote me a letter. I got it this week. She's here tonight, and she found herself in a very large class, and I was giving the instruction. It was the time of testing. Many of you present tonight were present in her vision, but she was only concerned with her answer to the question. I came by and gave her a piece of paper, and drew a straight line, and the question was this: what is the most important thing in me? She said, well that's easy. Now I didn't say what is the most important thing in Neville.

The question is, what is the most important thing in me? You contemplate it as though it's coming from within you. The teacher appeared as coming from without, and he appeared as the teacher now on the platform. He was never asking the question, never taking the exam, and she was the one, but she has to contemplate this from within herself. ¶What is the most important thing in me? Now she answered, and she wrote in big capital letters, I AM. She's right. Go to the top of the class, trade A. Then she had a series of visions the same night, and every one had the same theme: I AM. Then she had another one, and she thought her mother was against her getting married, and she was in love with this individual who lifted her up and she rested her head upon his shoulder, and she began to weep because she felt that the mother didn't want her ever to get married, and he said to her, your faith is your love is right.

Your faith is your love. ¶Let me now give you the last words on the cross. You read them in the book of Luke. "Into your hands I commit my spirit." The completed verse in the 31st Psalm happens to be in this manner: After he makes the statement, "Into thy hands I commit my spirit," comes the word, "Thou hast redeemed me. O Lord, faithful God." These are the words: "Into thy hands I completely commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me. O Lord, faithful God." This is the cross on which he's crucified. He redeemed me by proving to me that his word is true. "Thy word is true." He told me I would actually prove to my own satisfaction that we are one.

That he and I are one. That he is the father of David, and therefore if he is the father of David and he and I are one, I must have the satisfaction of knowing I am the father of David, for he tells me, "A son honors his father." If then I'd be a father, where is my honor? Now you tell me we are one, but now prove to me that we are one, and then David come, and I know there's no uncertainty in what I'm seeing and knowing. He is my son. So he proved that first and greatest commandment, to hear, "All Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." The I AM we speak of as the Lord, Jehovah, and my I AM there are one.

I AM, and I shall be a witness to it. So he takes the two letters and simply enlarges the two letters, and put the two letters together, and they form the word "witness." And so I will now be a witness to the truth of his great commandment, that we really are one. So ¶for for this I was born, for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth." Thy word is truth. So I say God himself not only came, but come into human history in the person of Jesus Christ. You come down to the whole story, he only really sends into the world Jesus Christ. he is the one that is sent now he tells you in the very end in the 20th chapter of the book of John as the father has sent me, even so send I you after I return to the father, and we are one you will be brought and you stand before me, and I'll send you into the world, for we are one and so the one saint is always Jesus Christ; so in the office of the saint he seems to be left that he really is as the sender, but the sender and the saint are one.

he is not inferior as to his essential being, only as to the office as saint, but not as to himself the sender. So in the end, that gemma, that great confessional faith of the Hebrew, that will stand forever and forever. But man has completely misunderstood it. And they think an Israelite is a descendant of Abraham after the flesh. Not so at all. An Israelite is simply the elect, the chosen, the call of any race of any nation. And when you are called, you are incorporated into the body of the risen Lord, and then you are sent at the moment that you are sent, that's Jesus Christ, you don't know it yet, and you will go through all the suffering that you've gone through before, and then you will know what was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?

So what does he ask for after? After he has accomplished the work that he was sent to do, He said, I have finished. I have accomplished the work thou gavest me to do. Now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory that I had with thee before that the world was. We were one before. We only separated for a purpose. But we were one before. Now return unto me the glory that was mine before that the world was. And now he's going to send every one within his world. We all are given a certain number to call when we are sent, and then when the one disappears, he returns to the source which is the father, and then he calls them one by one, and then they are incorporated into the source which is himself; he is one with the risen Lord, and he sends them with no promise that they would not suffer, no promise that they will escape anything in the world of Caesar.

He didn't send them to change the world of Caesar and to become involved, as all the priesthoods of the world today are teaching. We must become involved, know your sense to preach Christ, and nothing else. For what would it matter if you owned the whole vast world and didn't know the plan of redemption? What would it matter if you owned everything in this world and knew nothing of the plan of redemption? You knew nothing of him that you could call upon. So how can men call upon him in whom they have not believed? Because they were never told of that one. And how can they believe in him of whom they have never heard? They never heard about it.

But how can they hear about it without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are said? because you can't make some little ism as they do all over the world. ¶We have so many isms today, little man -made isms, not based upon anything of the revelation of Christ. They'll call it Christianity. They'll call it by this name, that name, the other name, all referring to Christianity, not one knowing anything about Christ. ¶If you dare to remind them that Christ in you is the hope of glory, you say, yes, but. and that covers a multitude of nonsense. Christ in you is the hope of God. ¶Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?

Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. Examine yourself to see whether you're holding to the faith. ¶What faith? Well, did you hear about it? Do you believe it? Do you believe he is in you, and with him all things are possible? ¶well then call upon it you can't now deny that you heard about it and I will tell you from my own experience I am saint and so you are hearing it from one who has been saint to tell you I was not saint in this world to teach economics I know nothing about it I wasn't saint in this world to teach anything other than to preach Christ I danced for a living for 11 years but I couldn't teach you one dense step I'm not a dancer you'll do far far better by going to someone else who is an amateur I wasn't sent to do anything but to preach Christ and to tell you who he is ¶I tell you he is your own wonderful human imagination and I tell you the only Christ of scripture is buried right this very moment in everyone that is seated in this room tonight completely buried in you.

¶And he's going to rise in you. Not as another. But rise in you as you. And everything said of him in scripture. You are going to experience. And you will know that scripture is all about you. In the role of the book. It is all about me. And what was said of him. Is said of you. ¶After you've had the experience. Then you will be called. Having completed the work. And you'll be brought into the presence of the most high. And you return to the source. But before. After the disappearance. Of the one who is talking to you now. You'll be called. And sent. ¶So as the father sent me into the world. So send I you.

But wait. Until I go. Wait until I disappear. For there's no place for me to go. Save back to the source. and I am one with the risen Lord. And I'll call you one by one. And one by one will be incorporated into the store. The one. And may I tell you that the form of God is a living form. A truly molding form that fashions the individual that he calls into himself into the likeness of himself. self. ¶It's a living molding form, not just something on the outside. When you enter it, you are molded into the likeness of the being that you fuse with. It's a molding form. And everyone will be molded into the identical form.

And that form is God the Father. ¶So in the end there is only one body, one spirit, one Lord, one one God and Father of all. And everyone is going to have it. ¶So I tell you, I was not sent to tell anything in this world, but Christ. I am a novice when it comes to economics. I am a novice when it comes to politics. Just a babe in the woods concerning anything outside of Christ. And so if I ever get off on the limb and try to give you any advice concerning what people ought to do, forget it. It's all nonsense. When it comes to the story of Christ, I can't go wrong, for I can only speak from experience.

I'm not speculating. I'm not theorizing. Let them talk about Christ on the outside and I simply smile. That is not Christ at all. He came here tonight in the body of everyone who entered this room. And I'm trying to To convince you that he is with you always. To call upon him in distress. Call upon him under all circumstances. And you can't deny you've heard of him. And you've heard of him from the one that he sent. And so faith comes from what is heard. And what is heard comes from preaching Christ. ¶Now the thing else to talk about so the word became flesh and dwelt where? and dwelt in us and we'll behold his glory.

I tell you it is glory beyond the wildest dream of mortal man when you see it, what you really are and one day you will see it and clothed in that body of glory, everything is transformed into beauty, but everything. You couldn't go into hell and never remain for one second in disorder, in some unlovely state. Everything is completely transformed as you walk by when clothed in that garment of glory. So heaven is not a realm. Heaven is a body, the body of glory. And clothed in that, no matter where you go. You make your bed in hell, hell ceases to be hell, it becomes heaven. Things long dead burst into flower. The very desert begins to bloom if you walk by.

Because it can't remain dead for you are the living God. The immortal you. So you came down into the world of death and you left behind your glory. But by coming down and being victorious in the world of death and overcoming the entire world of death. You rise from it, enhanced beyond your wildest dream by reason of your conflict in the world of death. It was a venture. And oh, what a glorious venture. So let no one tell you you did wrong, but do begin to stir yourself and call upon him. Don't pray to any external god. Pray to him and you pray to him by communing with self. Be still upon your body and commune with your own heart, your soul, now what do you want?

Dare to appropriate, dare to actually appropriate the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Years ago when I wrote my book "Your Faith Is Your Fortune," in the fly leaf I made the statement statement that man's faith in God is measured by his confidence in himself. Well, it's gone into many, many printings, but no revision. So the last one that came out, I forget what number that is, and I mentioned it the week that it came out there, and a lady who was present, she hasn't been back since, she said, "Have you revised it?" I said, "No, I see no reason for revision. I wouldn't change one word of it." You could add to it. Why add to it?

The whole thing is based upon "I am he." That's the entire story of "Your Faith Is Your Fortune." So why would I change it? It is simply stating over and over on page after page that basic fact that I am the only reality. Here or Israel, the I am, our I am, that I am, is one. that's the story of the faith of Israel, so how could I change it and why should I change it? No, you could add all kinds of nonsense to it, but it was a book that was written I would say in less than 48 hours. There was a very brilliant surgeon in New York City, brilliant surgeon who became a victim of his own practices, and they found out he was writing the name of his patient and then actually going to the doctor himself and filling the order, and he became a victim of heroin, taking his own and then they caught it, and then they asked me if I would keep him for two weeks in a hotel suite.

I I said I would, but may I tell you, I hardly slept in those two weeks, for he was as mad as mad people could ever be, not violently mad, but mad. I closed my eyes for a second, he is in the nude, down on the street. We lived on the twenty -fourth floor. He would get on that elevator in the nude and down he would go to the street, after going to get him. So there I was, completely out of my mind, as it were, from sheer exhaustion, and the words are pouring through me as I wrote that book on long yellow pages. I wrote word after word as those deemed dictated, word after word is dictated.

When I turned it over for correction, there was little he could find save an occasional thought, "Why do not use another word here instead of a repetition of this word it?" And if I agree with them, I will change it. But it's practically not necessary to change that book, that manuscript. When I took it down to Harper's, they wanted to publish it. They said, "We have an enormous sale of Bibles. And I doubt that this is going to help the sale of Bibles. If we put our name to it, they will question our right to publish this book." And then the head of the department of philosophy. He said, "It is unethical, but I would like to publish it myself.

And I wonder if they would give me permission." So he got permission from the publisher. The publisher himself. And then used their sales force to sell it. But after considering it for another six weeks, he thought that was unethical, because he was the head of the department of religion and philosophy. And then finally, when they all turned it down, I published it myself. And so it's gone into, I think, 15 printings, but no change in the format. I saw no reason for any revision of the book. So I'm telling you what I know from experience. Then I did not know the promise. I only knew the law. That's all based upon law. But then came the fulfillment of the promise.

When he called me in 1929, embraced me, I fused with him, and then he sent me, and then in the fullness of time what he sent me to accomplish unfolded within me. He only sent me to fulfill his word, so as we are told in the 19th of Revelation: and he was actually in a robe, and the robe was dipped in blood, and the name by which he was called is the Word of God. He is the living Word interpreting the written Word. So now you are the living Word He sends you and you go into the world and in the fullness of time the written Word unfolds within you becomes a living Word and you know how true the Word of God is.

So He He said, thy word is truth. He is called then the word of God. Now his last words to those who followed him, up to the very end. He said, as the Father has sent me, even so send I you. And so they were all brought one by one. By then He is one with the Father, not He and the Father, He is the Father. And then He sends. And then in time you become one with the Father. And then you will sin. And it goes on and on until the whole vast world is redeemed. So why not preach this morning, noon, and night? But they cannot preach it because they have not yet been sent.

They're speculating. And they think that He brought a moral code. He didn't bring any moral code. In him there is no condemnation. In Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. So you are a thief. He doesn't try to make you anything other than what you are. You're a thief. He leaves you as you are. And this one is something else. Leaves him just as he is. That one is something else. Leaves him just as he is. He's only telling you of the plan of redemption. How in spite of what you've done, what you are doing, and what you may do, you. This is the plan by which you will return to the source. And in returning to the source, all is forgiven.

Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. So my friend was perfectly right in answering that question that I asked her. What is the most important thing about me? And she contemplated it, and she knew instantly. Then she wrote her answer on the of the paper in big bold capital letters. I am. That's the most important thing about me. I must first be before I can be anything in this world. So man not knowing that, he will think that the most important thing about me is that I have a million dollars, or that I have a certain wonderful social background, or a certain financial background, or intellectual intellectual background, or something else. And he takes the thing made in spite of the thing that makes.

He puts the thing made before the maker. And the maker is the only important thing in the world. So I am is the maker. I am that, that's the made. So He answered correctly in the class. And she mentioned in her letter to me a few who are here tonight who were present but she did not know what you wrote down she only knew what she wrote down on that paper but it was a test. What is the most important thing about me? She wrote, I am. So when you read tomorrow if you read it and I wish you would read it, And you turn to that 10th chapter of Romans, only a few verses, the 14th through the 17th, and then read how men cannot call upon him because they do not believe in him.

And then they haven't heard about him. And then they haven't found anyone who has been sent who would talk about him with real intelligence. them. They can speculate but they do not know it, for they have not been sent. ¶And then he tells you how it comes. It comes through hearing. So in his other letter to the Galatians, he said, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? You heard the story and you accepted it on faith from one who was sent. for he tells you he was sent therefore he is telling you he is the Lord Jesus Christ for only the Lord Jesus Christ is sent so he tells them in that same letter to the Galatians did you not accept me as Jesus Christ and if I needed eyes would you not have plucked your own eyes out and given them to me now what has happened to you who has bewitched you that now you are turning from the spirit that you heard and turning to the flesh and seeing him now as something after the flesh and not the spirit of which I told you.

For I tell you, he dwells in you as your own wonderful human imagination. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. he is buried in everyone in the world and in everyone in the world he will rise and when he rises in a man that man is transformed for that man is the one who is rising and he is the Lord Jesus Christ then he will return to himself the Father and those who heard him who believed him who followed him he will call in due time we'll call them when he is once established as the father incorporate them into himself and send them and they will fulfill scripture for man is only sent to fulfill the word of God so do not get away from that foundation stone which is the shema tell it to your children he said tell it to them diligently and when you wake let it be with you when you sit down, talk about it when you walk by the way, talk about it carry it on your path between your eyes write it on your heart and let it be forever with you go to bed, carry it with you that there is no other God I am the Lord your God I am so when they said who sent you I am I am sent me to you there is no other being now tonight you undoubtedly want something nothing wrong with that call upon him but the true one don't ask anything on the outside call upon him and he is your own wonderful human imagination ¶Well, how do I call upon my imagination to get a better job or an increase of fun?

By daring to assume that I have it. I assume that I am already the man that I would be and fall asleep in that assumption and rise tomorrow in the same assumption that I am already that which I formerly desired to be. I no longer desire it because I am it and then I walk in it and then in the fullness of time it projects itself on the screen of space and I become it and you will not have to violate any of your codes may I tell you not one of your wonderful ethical codes by which you live you have to violate it will all come into your world just as I'm telling you because he is in control of everything.

¶Another lady wrote me once. She said I was in this huge, huge place. At the back of the room, there was a man. And I knew that years, years, ages and ages ago, I loved him. And he loved me. I knew it. But in the interval, I had gone into other fields. and I'd gone into many other love and then came this return of memory and he haunted me and I knew that he was in control of all the actions of everyone in that room and everyone that I'd ever encountered and I came to the end and I knew here was the one I originally loved now I still love him and I couldn't get away from his love and yet I'd gone through all these things to return to the original love and here was this man controlling everything in my world and I returned to my original love what a wonderful, wonderful vision a true vision for that true of every one of us we go into the world sent into the world before the The true sending.

Where we depart from our love. And go through hell. Go through all the things of the world. Then comes that moment. When he calls us back. And then he embraces us. His really true love. Then he sends us. To fulfill now. What he had planned in the beginning. And you go and you fulfill it. And now you ask him. To return unto you. The glory that was yours, before that the world was. The glory that you had with him before that the world was. And he returns it. Because you and he are one. So when you read about the word, don't let anyone tell you of something on the outside of you. The word became flesh and dwells in us.

Not walking among us, he dwells in us. and that being in you you can call by any other name, but if you call it by any name that causes you to feel a sense of an existing something outside of you, change that name; that's not the name you've got to get to the point where it is only you that you can call upon you can call upon any being in the world, only upon the true Lord and that true Lord is your own wonderful human imagination. That's what I'm trying to get over night after night to anyone who will live. I know years ago, my wife said to me, before I had the promise revealed to me, before I had experienced that, when I was only working on the law, and she said, you know, the one unfortunate thing about you you is that you don't have faith in anyone but yourself.

Well, she was perfectly right. And then my dancing partner, when she knew that Bill and I would get married, she said, I hope she understands that you're always reading the Bible. I hope she can take that, because my dancing partner couldn't take that interest in the Bible. because to interest him she said you better dress yourself up like the Bible if you want him to really know what you are, dress yourself like the Bible, because then you will examine him, but long before she said, well, you have no faith in anyone but yourself, and she was perfectly right. I could not turn to the left or the right, because I knew I had found him, and he was my own consciousness, my I amness, and I could not turn to anything on the outside, and then came that wonderful blessing of blessings when his impregnation, which I didn't understand, came into birth, and then the whole thing unfolded within me, and then I realized that the book was all about me; it's my biography, and that Jesus Christ not only came, but he comes into human history in the person of Jesus Christ.

¶Though your name is John or Mary or Jan or Stan, all these names, but he comes into your personal history, but in the person of Jesus Christ. And it's God himself who came and who is coming and he continues to come into human history in the person of Jesus Christ, so they're waiting for him to come; they'll wait forever if they look for him on the outside. He can only come to the individual and Jesus Christ comes to us as one unknown.