All lectures Feelingfield

Faith Is Loyalty to Unseen Reality

A 46-minute talk by Neville Goddard, restored from an archived recording

Neville Goddard discusses faith as loyalty to unseen reality rather than belief in unreal things. He explains that all things already exist in eternity, and faith means assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled, then yielding completely to the deeper self. He shares examples, including a dream about David, and emphasizes that the entire biblical drama unfolds within man.

Filed under Faith, The state akin to sleep and Feeling.

Key passages

“faith does not give reality to unseen things. It is loyalty to the unseen reality that gives meaning to the word faith.”

at 0:48

“The whole thing is contained within man, within the skull of man.”

at 11:37

“formulate in your mind's eye what it would be like if it were true.”

at 16:54

More Neville quotes on imagination →

0:00 / 45:45 restored original recording

Transcript

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Faith Defined as Loyalty

We should find tonight a very helpful message. We are told that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God so that things which are seen were made out of things which do not appear. If you see it clearly you will see that faith does not give reality to unseen things. It is loyalty to the unseen reality that gives meaning to the word faith. All things exist. Eternity exists, and all things in eternity independent of creation on this level. The shadow level. We do not see the reality. We do not see the source, the cause of it all. That's where we are called upon to exercise faith, loyalty to unseen reality. It really is the abandonment of self. It's an act of self -commission. And man cannot commit himself to what he does not love. And scriptural faith is faith in God. So any idea that we have of God which does not spontaneously call forth out of our heart the feeling of love is not a true idea of God, for the whole basic matter is that God is love.

Experience of Infinite Love

I speak from experience. I stood in the presence of infinite love, and his man. So I do not have the problem that others would have concerning this presence that is love. I can yield to him instantly, for I know he exists. I know he exists in me. I also know he exists in you. But you may not be aware of it. I can only ask you to believe it and yield completely to this presence within you. For by him all things are made. And without him was not anything made; there is made. So tonight we will show you what I have done in the past with great success.

The Act of Faith

And and how it operates. Now. If I wanted something in this world, and who doesn't, I would formulate an act which would imply that I have it. And then in my imagination, I would simply, having performed that act, I would yield completely to this being within me, to execute it. I would fall off into sleep, convinced that he heard me, that he saw my act in faith. For we are told in the same 11th chapter that I quoted when I first started, the 11th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. That we must come to God believing that God exists. For unless we believe that he exists we cannot please him. So who would draw near to God must believe that he exists.

Without faith it is impossible to please him. And so if I took the 13th chapter of Corinthians, Paul's wonderful hymn in praise of love, and paraphrased it: Though I speak in tongues of men and angels, and though I had the power of prophecy, that I understood all mystery and all knowledge, and though I gave all that I have, gave it away, so I gave my body to be burned, and had not faith, I cannot please him. I cannot please him without faith. If I am not on the surface level of my being, I am not going to do it. I simply yield completely to him having acted. It's an act of self -commission. I perform the act.

What act? I act as though I had what I sought. I act as though I heard that you have what you asked of me. I perform an act and then I yield completely to that death of my own being who is God, and allow him from that death to externalize it for me as he tells us in the 55th chapter of Isaiah. Your ways are not my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. So do not ask how it's going to be done. All I have to do is to completely yield to this being within me, for he has ways and means I on this level of my being know not of.

I rise then under compulsion and under this compulsion I go through a series of events which will lead up to the fulfillment of that to which I yield. I assume that it's done and then I commune with myself and give thanks within me that it is done and it works in every way even in the most marvelous things like this for instance my friend he is here tonight he didn't think he could make it tonight but I got his letter this week he said lastly having heard you over the years and having received a hunger from your interpretation of Kripto for we are told in scripture in the book of Amos I will send a famine upon the world there will not be a hunger for bread or a thirst for water but for the hearing of the word of God when that hunger comes upon you not a thing in this world can satisfy you but an experience of God now he said I am a stockbroker.

Example of a Seeker's Dream

And things have been very, very slow since the bottom of 1970. The market has risen, but people with money will not come into it because undoubtedly they were burned prior to this. Yet the market is really healthy today. It's growing and growing and growing. Yet, I must confess, things have been slow. I have a wife, I have a daughter who is a minor, I have obligations to life and yet in spite of the fact I should really think of these things first, the hunger for an experience of God supersedes all other hunger, and so I went home from your meeting and I said to myself, I commune with myself. For you taught me to believe that the self, the depth of my own being is God.

That sense of awareness, that is God. As a God, you sent this hunger upon me. A hunger for an experience of you. Give me, as said in the 86th Psalm, show me a sign of your favor. Just a sign of your favor. Well, I had a dream. which I did not recall until Friday morning on the way to my office. As is my custom, I turned on your tape. I carry a tape with me. And on my way to the office, I turn it on and I listen to that tape. Something there clicked within me, and the memory returned. And I remembered the dream of the previous night. And the dream was this. I found myself in an ancient world; I knew from the feeling, from the atmosphere, from everything about it it was an ancient world; and suddenly a youth popped up over a wooden fence and leaned against a post and instantly I knew that he was David here is David with.

I knew he was my son, yet he didn't speak. I didn't speak. But it didn't come until I was driving on the freeway, driving to my office. I have no memory of the previous experiences that you say one must have prior to the coming of David. So I'm a little bit confused. Was that an adumbration? Was that a foreshadowing of the event that must take place? I will say to him now, as he is in this office, yes. It's the most wonderful foreshadowing. For when it happens, you will be so stirred, you'll awake from the state. It won't happen that way, it will happen out of your own skull. Your skull will explode. That's how it happens.

The Coming of David

The whole thing is contained within man, within the skull of man. And when David comes in the true form, he actually comes after an explosion in your own skull, as though the whole thing came to your name. And then when the whole thing's settled, he stands before you and he calls you father. And you know he is your son and he knows you are his father. And then by this relationship, you know you are God. So this is the most marvelous adumbration that for For sure of him. In a not altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. But who knows the time. It could happen now in the fullness of itself. Tonight. Tomorrow. I am not going to predict.

When it actually is going to happen. But I do know it will happen. He has been given a sign. Show me a sign of thy favor. And the sign came. So I tell you. tonight's subject is on faith and faith is something that we must all grasp the significance of it for without faith it is impossible to please him and if he makes all things good, bad and indifferent and makes it through faith find out the mystery of faith now faith does not give reality to the unseen things it is loyalty to the unseen reality. For all things exist. If you only saw it, everything in eternity exists. Man exists. Man is part of the eternal structure of the universe.

He doesn't grow out of a worm as our evolutionists say. Evolution is confined to the affairs of man. not to the creation of God. Yes, I take a hoe, and then I turn from a hoe, digging the little land with the hoe, into a tractor. Then I'll find something far better than the tractor. So I will swim across the ocean, or rather swim across a little river. And then I'll find a raft that will take me. Then I'll find a little boat that will take me. Then I'll put a sail on it, and that'll do better. Then I will take something more than the cell and I'll find something with steam. Then I'll go beyond the steam and I'll find nuclear energy.

And then I simply, this is simply evolution in the affairs of man. So instead of walking across the continent, I now fly across the continent. That's evolution in the affairs of man. But there is no evolution in the creation of God. It still remains a theory. a marvelous theory, and we're all under compulsion to study it and, all right, to pass our lessons in evolution, as though the thing was proven. There isn't one single bit of evidence in the world to support the theory, the hypothesis of evolution. Not one. Yet, it's compulsory in all the universities of the world, as though it had been proven. In the affairs of man, yes, but not in the creation of God.

Eternal Structure of Man

Man as he is. And all things as they are. They are eternal parts of the structure of the universe. Eternity exists and all things in eternity independent of creation, which was an act of mercy. So when God said, let us make man in our image, man existed. It. He didn't say let us make something and call it man.

Let us make man, man existed in our image. And God became man. There's no way to make him in his image until God actually becomes man. So God became as we are. That we may be as he is. And he's not pretending that he's a man, he has to completely forget that he is God and lose all memories of his power that is God and take upon himself the weaknesses and the limitations of man. And in this he now is forming himself into his own likeness which is God. He is raising within himself that that which he became, redeeming everything in this world. That is the power that is God.

Now, while we are here as men, you want to be, and you name it, you want to be successful in the world of Caesar, in dollars and cents, nothing wrong with it. You want to be a successful doctor, successful lawyer, I don't care what it is, you want to be?

Well, then formulate in your mind's eye what it would be like if it were true. How would you see the world if you were now the man that you would like to be? See it in your mind's eye and then yield yourself completely to the depth of your own being. How do I do that? Simply fall asleep in the assumption I dare to assume that I am the man that at the moment wees and denies, and then fall asleep in their assumption, leaving it completely to the depth of my own being to externalize it in my world. I will wake tomorrow morning under compulsion to do certain things which I had not formulated, I hadn't determined. I'll find I'll meet the right people. I'll do this, I'll do that, I'll do the other. And it all adds up towards the externalization of my assumption.

Self-Abandonment to God

Just as in his case, he now has a sign of God's favor. The depth of his own being responded to his abandonment. It's a complete self- abandonment. It is a Christian.

And I can't commit myself to what I do not love. I can't do it. So if my idea of God does not bring forth within me the sense of love, for then I have the wrong God. If I know that he's infinite love, believe me, he is. But the day will come you'll have the actual experience and you will know that God is all love.

I stood in his presence. And God is man. The word of God is not a man. He's an impersonal force, they say. He is this, he is that. God is man.

The Ancient of Days without beginning, without end as he said concerning David, he said although he was a youth he is seen to have no beginning, no end, he is seen like the Ancient of Days, and yet he was young as described in the book of Samuel. Here is this youth just as described in the book of Samuel, the 16th chapter, the first Samuel, you. That's the one I saw. That's the one you're going to see.

Well, where is he now? He is within you. He put eternity into the minds of men. Yet so, that man cannot find out what he has done from the beginning to the end. That's what he put into the mind of man. What did he put there? The Father and the Son. God himself entered death's door, the human star. And he laid down in a grave the human star. And he is dreaming the dream of life that man is dreaming. And in the end he will awake. And when he awakes he is the being in whom he entered. The being in whom he awakes. So you are John. He awakes as you. And because he was a father before he entered you when he awakes as you, you are a father and because his son before he entered you was David, when you awake your son is David David of biblical fame is the son of God that's the Messiah that's the Christ that's the power and the wisdom of God so within you is that power, within you is that wisdom to do anything that you desire in this world for this is the faith of which I speak how do I do it?

Communing with the Deep Self

you can sit right here and you go to bed at night as you're told in the fourth psalm commune with your own self upon your bed and be silent you don't commune with another you commune with your own self that's God for the soulful man is God when you say I am Yes, God. There is no other God. But you don't see him. Now, he has become invisible. The darkest night in the world was when God became invisible. He told the story to all of us before we set forth. Then he became invisible and took up his residence in us. He became invisible. And in us he is I am, my own wonderful human imagination.

That's God. So I don't see my imagination as I see objects in place. For imagination is the reality that is causing these objects in place. So I see the fruit of its activity but I I do not see it. Because it is invisible. The day will come. I will see it. I have seen it. He is the ancient of days. Just as described. In the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. And also in the book of Revelation. Just as he described. He has no beginning. No end. He is the ancient of days. But he is infinite love. He is nothing but love. Yet he will wait on us just as swiftly and as indifferently when the will in us is evil as when it is good.

For it is he who does all things. That I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. I do all these things. And none can deliver out of my hand. So if the will in man is evil, he will execute it. If it is good, he will execute it. Because there is no other creator. So it is entirely up to man what he imagines. What am I going to imagine? But remember when I imagine I must imagine and then completely yield. That is faith. For by faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God. What word? A spoken word? You're told in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

It's God himself and his son. And his son is David. I have found in David a man after my own heart who will do all my will. Any will, good, bad or indifferent. It's that power in you for For he is defined in scripture as the power of God and the wisdom of God. So the power and the wisdom to create anything in this world is housed within man. That is David. ¶When man comes to the end of the journey, there's an explosion within his head. And then that power and that wisdom of God comes out personified as that eternal youth who is his son. His son is David. and you are the one who awakes and you are the Lord.

The Lord called Jesus. So who is Jesus? That's the eternal question. ¶I read in the morning paper, rather yes, the morning paper, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke the first Archbishop ever to speak with St. Patrick in New York City. And the Cardinal introduced him. he had a standing ovation they turned the crowds away the cathedral was filled to capacity and this Archbishop of Canterbury and he spoke to the crowd and he went up to Riverside Church and he spoke there he had seen in the interval he saw Jesus Superstar well I haven't seen the play and he He commented on it. He didn't quite describe it. He said it comes at intervals. It comes close to a certain Christian faith.

There are certain passages in it he thought offensive. But they did not say who is Jesus. Now they did he, the archbishop. He didn't say who is Jesus. Who is Jesus? I'll tell you. ¶Jesus is the man in whom the will of God is fulfilled. And that will be true of every child born a woman. Jesus is the man who accomplishes the work that his father gave him to do. When he accomplishes that work, he is his father. Man matures when he becomes his own father. And the day will come, everyone will awake. And he will be the father. And that is when he fulfills the will of God. ¶As we are told in Jeremiah, the 23rd chapter.

The word is wrongly translated, anger. The anger of the Lord will not turn back. That word anger means breathing forcefully. a forceful breath doesn't have to be an angry breath because you're breathing forcefully the word breath and the word spirit are the same in both Hebrew and Greek so the spirit of the Lord will not turn back until it has executed and accomplished the intents of my mind in the latter days you will understand it clearly in the very end you will understand saying. It will not turn back. Because he has a purpose. The purpose is to transform man into God. As God. Not something just to reflect him, but as God. ¶For you came down.

You're the gods that came down. You are the Elohim. You've been taught to believe you're a worm. You came out of a swamp. and then suddenly you became a tadpole and you became something else and finally you find yourself a man forget it you are the God who came down from heaven and assume the restriction the limitation of man this is the limit of contraction and you assumed it and you're going to fulfill a definite purpose in man. While you walk the earth as man, that predetermined plan will erupt within you. And the whole thing will unfold within you. Beginning with the resurrection. The resurrection did not take place in the Near East, in some little place where they're looking for it now.

Drama Unfolds Within Man

It takes place in man. Man is where God is buried. the holy sepulcher is the skull of man it's not in the near east the Bethlehem that they're talking about is in the skull of man Zion is holy place where he dwells that's the skull of man and the whole drama unfolds within man and man awakens within himself to find himself completely sealed within his skull and he comes out like a child being born out of his own skull. And then, a few months later, comes an explosion in his skull and that compartment that contained the Son of God, who is his will, who is his wisdom, releases the Son. You would not let my soul remain in hell, said he.

In the 16th Psalm. So he brings him up, he resurrects his son. And the son is David. And David looking at the father and the father for the first time knows who he is. Then he returns. And the father the son was the one who revealed him to himself. So the whole drama unfolds within man and the whole thing is contained within the scholar man. Has nothing to do with anything on the outside. They're looking in vain all the archaeology. And they bring back all this nonsense. I was on TV one night with one archaeologist. And then a Baptist minister and a Seventh Adventist minister. And here I was, all these groups around me. And this man brought a piece of cloth.

And he said, this is taken from the tomb of Christ. Are you kidding? No, he was sincere. He was very serious. He's an archaeologist. This is taken. Where, in some strange way, light has impressed upon it, this cloth, the image of Jesus. I said, you are an archaeologist. And you thought there was a seventh -day adventist. And here's the other fellow. He is a Baptist. And I have no degrees leaves. None of these things that these fellows have. I said to the archaeologist, tell me, do you look like that picture? He said, no, that's the picture of Christ. I said, don't you know Scripture? It does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him and shall see him as he is.

Do you look like him? You'll never see Christ until you see him in yourself. self. You are the Lord Jesus Christ. The Baptist then said, you've just taken from me 2 ,000 years of Christianity. I said, if I can take it from you, I should. Because if it's true, I can take it from you. And if I have taken it from you, well, then it's good I've taken it from you. He didn't like that. All this nonsense, this piece of cloth, mind you. Well that's what our great writer said, Mark Twain. He went across Europe. Now as he traveled, they brought pieces of cloth. This was taken from his robe. And this piece of wood, that was taken from his cloth.

He said if He took all the wood together. They could build a huge house. And that was the cross he bore on his shoulder on the way to Golgotha. With all the little pieces of cloth together, they could actually clothe an army. And people fall for it. Can you imagine that? They're looking at the holy cloth, the holy piece of wood. There is nothing outside of man. The whole drama takes place within man. It has nothing to do with anything outside. You're living in a world of shadows and the drama is within. So let us now get back to this simple approach of faith. Do you know what you want, either for yourself or for another?

Construct a scene which would imply the fulfillment of your dream. just constructed enter into it just as though it were true feel what it would feel like if it were true and give thanks to the one who is going to execute it it's your own being I grant you but he is the depth of your own being he is the father you haven't yet found him but he is the father and you are now on the surface of your being. So fall asleep in the conviction. Things are as you desire them to be in confidence that he will execute it. I use the word he. It's yourself. But for clarity's sake, I say he. Because you're not aware of him as yet.

You will be one day. everyone will be aware of that being and because that being has one son and that one son is the son of all we are one and only one there are millions of gods only one god but the one god is made up of a brotherhood and we are the brothers raising ourselves to the level of the one God and that one God has one son and the son is daily I've been sent to tell you this and tell you I will and must if only a few hear it what does it matter you hear it with conviction because I tell you the truth they will laugh I am not here to set up some little ism I am not here to speculate and try to set up some little philosophical setup that may work no, I want no church no ism just to tell you who you are and you will tell it to others and others will tell it because in the end you're going to prove it to be true you can't rub it out because it is true all that I have told you is true, I'm not speculating I'm not theorizing.

I stood in the presence of the infinite being in his infinite love, and he embraced me. And he sent me after he embraced me. Therefore love embraced me. Therefore guided by love, we became one body. As we are told in Scripture, he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. So in the end, there's only one body, one spirit, one Lord, one God, unfathomable, who is above all, through all, and in all. So don't go looking for him in any so -called holy place in the world. People are misled morning, noon, and night by so -called holy men. Forget it. Man comes to you telling you he's a holy person, turn around and start running.

Simple Approach to Faith

All these holy fellows. They just simply meet you and meet another crowd and next thing they do they run to the bank. What was in your pocket? Just picked up one fellow here. He's flying off to Switzerland. He was in Spain after having collected a fortune. They found $300 ,000 of him, on him. And he was the Tamarawishi that came up through this country. It wasn't the Maharishi. It was his secretary running off to Switzerland, where he would put it into Yosef's bank. And all the people called for it morning, noon, and night. And so if you take Noah, you hate to hear it, because people hate to know that others know they were beguiled.

And so those who gave their fortunes to him. Five hundred dollars to teach them how to meditate about the nonsense in the world. Teach you how to meditate? It's just a simple, simple thing. You don't meditate on your navel. You don't meditate on any of these things whatsoever. You know what you want? What would the feeling be like if it were true? What would it be like? Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Well, anyone can do that. A child can do that. What would it be like if it were true? That's meditating. Now yield completely. And the being within you will take that and externalize it for you. Meditating on your kundalini fire and all this nonsense.

Has nothing to do with it. I'm going into so -called diet. Diet will not commit you or commend you to God. Give your palate, if need. me. I'm going to exercise the palate too. And so I'm going to go on a certain diet. A friend of mine went on the diet of things that you should only feed parrots. Well, she isn't a parrot. Eating pumpkin seeds, eating all these things. If you really enjoy them, but don't tell me that you really enjoy them. Of course, you could acquire a taste for anything. I don't say you can't. But exercise that God -given gift. It's a palate. And simply enjoy it. So, to come down to the nice message on faith.

¶By faith, the worlds were created by the word of God. Faith does not give reality to the unseen things. Faith is loyalty to unseen reality. For this thing exists. All things exist. I tell you from my own experience, the entire world that is unseen to the world exists now. It actually exists. Not out there beyond the stars right there. All existing right here. And the day will come that you will actually awake and you'll be able to step into these unnumbered sections of time. A thousand years ago has not passed away. And two thousand years from now is not something that is going to suddenly form itself. It is now. And you are simply in a section of time.

And the day will come you'll be able to move into any section of time. All these things exist now. And the purpose of it all is simply to awaken. And when you awaken, who are you? You are the author of it all. You are God. God the creator. And God the creator is a father. And the father, son, is simply the sum total of all the experiences of humanity. Fused into a single being. ¶And that single being personified is David. There is no other Christ. David is the Christ. The anointed. Listen to these words in the 89th Psalm. I have sung David. These are the words of the Lord speaking. I have sung David. with my holy oil I have anointed him.

The anointed one is the Messiah. That's what the word Messiah means. A Messiah means the same as Christ. It's the identical meaning. Now go down a few verses and come to these. He shall cry unto me. That's beautiful. What I just quoted is an accomplished fact. I have founded me. With my holy oil, I have anointed him. That's done. Now he shall cry unto me, thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. That's future. It will happen to everyone. But the whole thing has already been accomplished. ¶Now it's completely contained within the scholar man. That's where the whole drama is unfolding. And when it unfolds, you are God the Father. And your son is David.

If the whole vast world rose in opposition because they were taught differently, it would make no difference to me whatsoever. They have accepted some misconcept of the great story as told in scripture. The New Testament only interprets the old. The old is the foundation. And you interpret the old. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. But Judaism is the foundation. That is the tree. And Christianity is the fruit of that tree. and so to bring something else into it is stupid. Where in the O, which is the Cree, is it stated who is the Son of God? And scripture cannot be broken. And who is the one who is anointed with the holy oil of God?

Is it not David? Rise and anoint him. This is he. And then the Spirit of God came upon him mightily from that day forward never lost a battle. For I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. And Jesse means Jehovah exists. Every one one day will know he is the father of David and therefore he is the Jehovah who exists. That is what Scripture is teaching. It is not secular history until man stops looking at it as secular history, he is not going to understand the scripture. But to come back to our wonderful approach tonight. You want a better job? You want more money? You want this? You want that?

Don't be ashamed of it. Who gave you the urge? Your father did. You have the desire. It came from the depths of your own being. So he can execute it. He only asks you to have faith. Faith in what? Faith in him. Have faith in God. All right. Where is he? He is my own wonderful human imagination. I cannot see the fulfillment now, but he will do it. For now, assume that I am already the man that I want to be, and yield completely to that assumption, and fall asleep. Just completely fall asleep and completely forget it. A lady who is here tonight, she called me up on the phone here just a few days ago and asked something of me.

I will not tell you. It's too personal. But she asked me to please hear for a certain thing. She's so simple. I sat in my chair after I spoke to her on the phone and heard her tell me "Well, she came back"| tonight and told me, "But it has happened." You see, her you see, her here tonight drove all the way in from San Bernardino to tell me this, darling, and it simply worked. What did I do? It didn't cost me anything. Are we not told in the 55th chapter of Isaiah, desire, "Come, buy wine, buy milk without money, costs you nothing." What does it cost anyone to have faith in God? I put a price on it.

I charge anyone. It costs nothing.