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God's Greatest Gift

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

Neville Goddard describes a vision of two creatures: a monstrous being and an angelic one, representing the misuse and proper use of God's gift. He explains that the monster has no right to exist and is redeemed through compassion. He discusses the loss of an external Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the necessity of being born from above, and the realization that imagination is God.

Filed under The Promise, Mental diet and Self-concept.

Key passages

“Only that which has no right to live must die. And only that which has no right to exist must be brought to an end.”

at 0:02

“I created that that had no right to exist, and it must be brought to an end.”

at 3:02

“"No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."”

at 7:02

More Neville quotes on self-concept →

0:00 / 45:45 restored original recording

Transcript

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The Monster and the Angel

Only that which has no right to live must die. And only that which has no right to exist must be brought to an end. And that has nothing to do with any child born or woman, or any flower that ever bloomed is something entirely different from what the world would suspect. For you and I have been given the greatest gift in the world. God became as we are that we may be as he is. In that, we were given complete freedom to misuse the gift of God. That is his power. I assure you this night, an experience of mine that happened years ago, to show you the only thing that had no right to live, the only thing that had no right to exist, and must be brought to an end.

¶Suddenly I found myself confronted with these two creatures one the most monstrous thing you could ever conceive and the other the most angelic being that you could think of the one that was a monster, a hairy, monstrous being I would almost be unfair to the monkey world to call him a gorilla or a baboon, but that's the picture, only he would fall more than that, and he spoke gutturally, he looked at this angelic being and called her mother; it annoyed him, and I began began to pummel him, and he gloated. He loved violence. He thrived on violence. Every blow made him stronger. He was the embodiment of every evil thought and act that I had ever entertained or expressed.

I was totally unaware of this creation of my own until that moment in God when I was strong enough to confront it, and I can tell anyone that emotion that permeated me when I saw what I had done. I created that that had no right to exist, and it must be brought to an end. I created that which had no right to me leave, and it must die. Blows could not kill it. It lived on blows. It lived on violence. As I looked at it, an emotion permeated my veins that I had never felt prior to that that I remember. One of compassion. Infinite compassion, that if it took me eternity to to redeem this, I would do it.

Redeeming the Misuse

I placed myself. There was no one. That I could swear to. There was no witness. Something within me placed itself to redeem this monster. If it took me eternity, it didn't take me more than a split second. From the moment of the decision, when I decided, decided that I will redeem it, it has no right to exude.|exude At that moment the whole thing withered before me. It got smaller and smaller. It only took a matter of seconds really. And that thing, it was a monster thing. One moment before, now completely withered before me, but it was all energy, this same energy. It returned to me. I have never felt stronger than I did at that moment.

All the energy that went in to build and create this thing that had no right to exist returned to me. And here I am, as powerful as I say the universe, and this wonderful teacher that was the personification of every noble, lovely thought that I ever entertained, pain, either expressed or unexpressed, she glowed like a star. She had a right to exist. She was the personification of my youth, my wise and loving youth of God's gift to me. And this monstrous thing was the personification of my misuse of the same gift. Death is what?

But one day you will confront. That is your dweller on the threshold. Everyone at the moment in time will actually meet him and meet her. And she will live and grow. And she in a second will simply wither before your eyes. There is no loss. She has no right to exist. gifts.

But in our progress from the receipt of the gift of God to the full use of that gift lovingly, we make mistakes. There is no condemnation of the one who made the mistake. In fact, there is no condemnation. That's the only thing that will cease to live. It's the only thing that has no right to live.

So man, the most horrible creature in the he has a right to live. All the felons in the world, they have rights to live. All the Hitler's, they have rights to live, and they will live. But one day they will confront the monster of their own creation, and they too will be filled with a compassion to redeem it, not knowing it is only the personification of misused energy. And it will all return to them, and they will swell with power as a result of the return of that energy.

Confessing Jesus by the Spirit

Now we are told in Scripture: "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." That goes for everyone that walks the face of the earth. No one, you can say it in words and confess with your lips, but you don't know it until the Holy Spirit reveals it within you.

Well now, who is the Holy Spirit? Return to the Gospel of John. You said, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, cannot come to you. But if I go away, I will send him to you. So remember his words, the sender and the sent are one. So he who sent me sees him who sent me. I came out from my father, and I came into the world. I am never alone. The father who sent me is always with me. But you do not know my father, and you do not know me. For the sender and the saint are one. So if I send the Holy Spirit, my being, you also will see me.

But now I will now disappear stupidly. That's what you're telling. Not a man, but your concept of Jesus Christ is of a man, a killer to yourself.

The day will come that that concept that you now hold of Jesus. So when you hear the word Jesus, it conjures in your mind's eye some presence external to yourself. That must come to an end. It's an awful moment in the life of one who calls himself a Christian.

When you see the story is not text to the history. That we have taken the proliferation for persons. We have taken the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction itself, and the gross first thing for the ultimate strength in kingdom. And when the non- historicity of Scripture is revealed to man, and man accepts that so that the physical, visible concept of Jesus vanishes, he vanishes.

What an awful vacuum to your life at that moment. We will continue for a while, but now, because he now vanishes from you as an external being to whom you could turn and pray. And now you can. Now the spirit of Jesus will rise within you. It is then that the spirit of truth comes. Then will he rise, wait, comes like a thief in the night. Suddenly he will rise within you outward. And then you will know who the Lord Jesus is. Then the spirit of truth unfolds itself within you as you will know the myth of the Lord Jesus. ¶And then you will know that the Lord Jesus is God. You will know from your own inner experience that Jesus is the Lord.

The Lord's Christ Is David

And when you read these words: ¶"And then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." You always thought that Jesus and Christ were one and the same. They are in a sense. But here in the 11th chapter of Revelation, and we are warned over and over, "add not one word to this book, or take one word from it," with a threat as to what will happen if you do. "Let not one book"— in the New Testament, has been more violated than Revelation. I have books at home concerning the Revelation of the Bible that is, the book called Revelation— what stupid interpretation! "Do not change it. It is all decent; leave it just as it is."

And it's going to unfold within you. ¶So in the 11th chapter of Revelation, when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Now Christ is the Messiah. I'll tell you who he is. The Messiah is David. That is the Lord's Christ. ¶For he said, "I am going to the Father. I am leaving the world, and I'm going to the Father. I came out from the Father, and I came into the world. Again, I am leaving the world, and I'm going to the Father." When he returns to the Father, his Father, there must be a son to bear witness to his fatherhood. And that son is David. David one day will stand before you and call you "Father."

Then you will know the Lord Christ. Christ. Then you will know humanity. For humanity completely gelled together into one single being and personified comes out of David. ¶So having played all the parts, I forgive all the parts. And having played them all, I reach the end, and will say with Paul, "I I fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Thou hast laid up for me the crown of righteousness." "Let no one now bother me, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." ¶Not the little stigmata. No, the marks. The great, wonderful, supernatural event through which the individual must fight: he must be born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

He is born from above; for unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, no matter how good you are in the eyes of yourself and what man doesn't think he's of good and worthy to enter? "Read the 16th chapter of the book of Proverbs: every man's words are perfect in his own eyes." God sees the heart. And so, because of his social, intellectual, financial background, he thinks he is worthy. Or certainly he would not have these things in the world, God must have loved him more than the other, because of what he has in the world. And thus, in some strange way, some demonstration of God's affection has left him to do with it.

Imaginal Acts Create Reality

¶So here in the end, you will know the Lord, and you will not know him as something external to yourself; you will know him as yourself. God became as we are that we may be as he is, and he serves us whether our will is good or evil. He waits on us just as quickly and as indifferently when the will in us is evil as when it is good. ¶Now that will, your imaginal act, your every imaginal act, is a creative act. And one day you're going to see it. Long before you actually see it personified, both in this lovely creature and this horrible monster, you will see the evidence of this truth by things that happen to you in the world.

¶You will see things happen, and then you will remember, I once imagined that. I once entertained that imaginal act and lost myself in the belief that it was true. And to the degree that I actually accepted it as true, it projected itself onto the screen of space and became a fact in my world. ¶At first, I didn't quite relate it. I couldn't quite believe that I had the power to do that. Then I tried it. Then I tried it again. Then again. And these things became realities in my world. ¶Then I realized who this being is of whom they speak in Scripture. And we are told by him all things are made. And without him was not anything made that was made.

For then I found who this one is. It must be my own wonderful human imagination. If the one spoken of is God, well then my imagination must be God. And that's the being that I have been misusing morning, noon, and night. And then comes the end, when I reach the very end of the journey and here I must now find that I am the Father. For the end is to find the Father, the cause of it all and finding the father there must be a son and here David stands before me. And there is no uncertainty as to the relationship between the boy who stands before you and you who see him. He knows you are his father and you know he is your son.

¶Everyone should have this acquaintance I prophesied for you. Regardless of your present sex, in the resurrection we are above the organization of faith. We are a brotherhood. All of us are brothers. And together, collectively, we form one being and that one being is God the Father. And you, one day, will discover you are the Lord, Jesus. And you'll know who he Christ is. And spoken of in the 11th chapter of Revelation. Our Lord, who is now king over all the earth and his Christ. And his Christ is spoken of in Scripture as the Prince of them all. I the Lord will be their God and King and David will be their Prince. Well, if he's a king, his son is a prince and his son is David.

Read it in the 34th and 37th chapters of Ezekiel. He states it forever and forever. But man, seeing this thing as secular history, has completely missed the entire point. ¶For no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth that comes to man after he loses the concept of an objective, visible, secular being called Jesus. The truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at noly door it seems that man on the present level could not fight grasp with their truth for it was told to him in the form of a story so mother told me the story when I was a child and told me of a Jesus I can see a picture now on the wall in the living room it was the slaughter of the Innocents, how mother got it I do not know, but many a day I stood before that picture and cried, let someone be that cruel to take little innocent children and slaughter them to reach one child that they want to destroy destroyed.

Scripture Is Not Secular History

So that all the males under two years of age and destroyed them. So one they wanted to destroy because he was prophesied as the king of kings. He was going to come to displace all powers of the world. And I can see that picture now, some gruesome thing that mother got. Where she got it I don't know. But not knowing it, having heard the story, I took it as my sense of it. He took it as secular history. And the Bible is not secular history. There is no secular history in the Bible. They're still looking for the bones in the Mary. They're still trying to find pieces of the wood that he's supposed to have been crucified on.

They're trying to find the pieces of cloth that he wore. And what amazes one, that they are those in the world, supposedly intelligent people, who would give a listening ear to it. And bring it out to justify their own same peculiar misunderstanding of Scripture. I tell you there is no burial ground of Jesus Christ save in the skull of man. That's the only place where he is buried in every little child's scar. That's where he is buried. The little body that he wears jacked is his cross and he will wear it as long as he wears a body of flesh and blood. Physical death does not terminate the little body. It is renewed, as told in the 103rd Psalm.

He renews our youth as the Ezo, the young Ezo. So you drop it off here and suddenly you find yourself closed. So you dropped off a 90 year old body, your clothes in a garment of 20 years of age. In a world just like this, with problems just like the problems that you thought you left behind. And 99 % of us who depart this world, who have not been awakened from the beam of life, do not even know they have departed. They are in a world just like this And they do not know They're even gone They can look into the mirror and see A youth instead of the 90 year old And still not recognize The fact that something must have happened To look And see a lad A princess And they knew they were without hair Without eyes, without teeth, without everything Only a moment before they still do not recognize I need them so I know what I'm talking about you call them dead they're perfectly right in telling you that you're stupid because they know they're not saints they're very much alive how can you call them dead if you say to them you died you know I went to your funeral as I said to those I went to your funeral I conducted your funeral because you're stupid what funeral And here he is standing before me, and he's a strong, healthy, wonderful young lad.

And I'm telling him I went to his funeral, gave him a nice Catholic funeral, put him on a nice holy ground. I had the priest do all those little things for him, as his sister demanded. And I paid for the expenses. She didn't cough up one nickel, but she wanted all these things. But I loved my secretary, and I did all these things for the sister, not for Jackie. for Jack, you would not have wanted these things. So when I told him, I took you up to Haverstow, New York and put you in a lovely little grave in a nice holy ground, a Catholic ground. And the priest came and he did all these things for you.

He looked at me and laughed because Jack to me, although he was my secretary, he was like brothers. Jack died suddenly one day in a hot bay in the month of August in New York City. And I went back east and took care of the funeral. And when I met him six months later, here is Jack, I turned to my sister -in -law and said, how can you say there is no survival when you see Jack? And she said, what has that to do with it? I said, don't you know he died? He died six months ago. He died last August. This is now either late January or February of the following year. And she remembered he did die.

and while her face is once just a peculiar look of astonishment Jack said to me, who's Dave? I said, you aren't Dave Jack but you died and I came back from California and I got a lovely, wonderful Catholic funeral for you well he thought that was the most stupid thing in the world I said, come over here Jack so he came over quite obediently and I said, watch this Al Her name is Alice. I've always called her Al. I said, watch this. So I put my hand on his side. I said, you see, he's solid. He's real. This is flesh and blood. My hand doesn't go through it. This is a gossamer. It's real. And Jack did exactly what he would have done here.

He did this. Take your hand off her. just exactly there is no transforming power in death so if you are a thief here you are one there so if you are an idiot here you are one there the only thing that differs is if you are now blind you are blind there you are renewed like the ether your youth is renewed so you do not go without the arm without the teeth without the hair without these things all these things are renewed by contemplating the being that is eternal. You actually contemplate and in no time you're reclosed in a dharma. A solid, wonderful dharma. Just like the one that you had when you were 20 years.

Birth from Above

Now the thing is missing. But that still will not get you into the kingdom of heaven. You must be born from above. out. For unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And that birth is little right out of the skull of man. One day, you will feel it. You are told this comes with the seventh trumpet. And all of a sudden you hear it. It's the most unearthly wind you have ever heard. As the poet said, all these things were foretellings. Not could I foresee. But I learned how the wind would sound after these things should be. And you certainly learned after the wind comes. You feel it and you hear it.

And suddenly you are awaking and waking and waking. And you are awakened well in your own soul. and you know your skull is a tomb. You know it. You know that is a sacrifice. And the only reason you are in it, someone must have thought you dead. Because here you are, you are in tomb. And it feels there is no way out. You're all alone. There is no watchman. You're all alone. Then you rise within your own skull and you're fully grown. And then you have an intuitive wisdom how to get out. And no one rolls away the stone from the outside as taught by our priesthoods of the world. You do it. From within you push.

Just as a child pushes from within. And then something gives. And something rolls away. Immediately you come out. But it's all because of your effort from within. And you come out pushing yourself out of a little hole. And the first thing that comes out is your head. that comes first. Then you squeeze yourself out and then you pull the remaining portion out. Look back at the thing out of which you came and that is your sacrifice. That's where you are buried all alone. That's where you are dreaming of the dream of life and thought it real. And then you come out and everything is straight. Of the story of Jesus in the gospel concerning his birth you experience in a first -person singular present -day experience.

The info, which is only a sign of their own birth, that God was born. It is God who is buried in you. It is God whose name forever and forever is I Am. And that is Jesus. That is the only Jesus in the world. My name forever and forever is I Am. Who is teaching? The Lord God Jehovah. Now in the book of John, these wonderful bold claims of the I am. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. I am the door. I am the true life. All these bold claims of the I am. Because I am the only way, the only true and living way. One day you will experience it.

It is no other way to the Father. Praise to the Holy Spirit who comes only after you have lost the belief in an external Savior. And may I tell you from experience, it's a horrible moment in time. Raised as I was in a very wonderful Christian home where mother called it the we all had a solid foundation as to the story, because Mother firmly believed the story to be true as she was told. My father believed it to be true, and we all heard it from our mothers, we, and we believed it to be true. And when I heard it was not history. And when I heard of the non -historicity of the greatest story ever told, my world collapsed I didn't know where to turn I had no God then I am without anything to whom I can turn hold on to and oh what an emptiness comes upon a man at that moment in time so you are told now your hearts are distressed weep in the book of John now that I have told you that I must go away you are sad of heart but if I do not go away then the Spirit of Truth cannot come to you.

Losing the External Savior

But if I go away, I will send him to you. Because I am going to the Father. And the sender is the Father and the saint is one with the Father. So he sends his Spirit into you. When suddenly you have lost all external concepts of God then the spirit comes and the spirit unfolds himself within you as you and then you'll know how true the Christian story is and the Christian story is only the fulfillment of Judaism it was all foretold in the Old Testament but they could not understand it then any more than they understand it today because when it happened in one and that one told it that's not what they were looking for they were looking for an external soldier who would come and destroy their physical enemy and set up Israel as a mighty power and that's not the story at all when you lose all concept of a secondary cause then Israel has no enemy when a man has no other being to whom he can turn can't turn to another then he is freed from the tyranny of second causes the first shock that comes to man, the man actually discovers that it is not secular history and yet more true than anything ever recorded in this world of theater because all the history of the world is only an opinion written ten years after the events.

All of our historical works are written after the events. Even when they're written as contemporary works, they differ. We've had the Second World War, and you and I, old enough to remember the Second World War, read the books concerning the Second World War. If a British wrote it, then Montgomery was the outstanding general. If an American wrote it, Eisenhower was. If a German wrote it, Rommel was. If a Russian wrote it, Stalin was. And so they put all the same tools, yet it's the same facts. We are looking at the facts and yet we're trying to put the facts down on paper and call it history. They are as far apart as the polls. If that happened in In our generation, just imagine what happens after three, four, five hundred years.

I tell you, the Bible is not secular history. It's salvation history. The drama is taking place in eternity. But then must we reproduce chaos in us while we are generated on earth. For no one can attain to bliss except we be generated on earth. So here, this is the most marvelous experience that you could ever have, to find yourself clothed in flesh and blood. Because while you walk the earth in flesh and blood which decays, this immortal thing is going to happen within you. And then the immortal you will rise. And you will know who you are. And you will know that you are the Lord Jeeva. Then in your will, you will tell it, and before you depart this will for the last time, for after the birth from about, your physical death is the end of your journey.

No more restoration, just once more you're now one with the Father. And while it happens to you, you'll tell it, and there are those in the will who will see you and know you to be. The same thing they know, but they know that you are God. They will know that you are family and yet know that family is God. They will know that you are Jan and know that Jan is God. There is only one God, and that God is everything to awaken. It is God expanding himself, and it takes altogether to form the one God. So no one, but that means no one, can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

And that comes after the disillusionment. And then you realize there is no secular history in Scripture. And what? And emptiness comes to the individual who makes the discovery. But it's only for a short while. Listen to the words. In a little while, you'll see me no more. And in a little while, you'll see me. Because I go to the Father. And they wondered, what is he talking about? In a little while, you'll see me no more. Again, in a little while, you'll see me because I go to the Father. He goes back to the source of it all. He is one with the Father. But now, you who lost the physical vision of a Savior, external to yourself, will receive in his place the Spirit of Truth.

For he defines himself as the Truth. So if he sends the Spirit of Truth, he is sending himself. Now when the Spirit of Truth comes within you, well then Jesus unfolds within you. And all that is said of him, you experience as yourself. Then you'll know who you are. So in the end there is Jesus only nothing but Jesus and Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah and his Christ which is the sum total of all the frequencies of humanity personified as a single you and every comes out as David so when you read it our Lord who is now king over all and his tribe. So the book ends, the last book of the Bible ends on these words.

Come, Lord Jesus. Let it come. Come, Lord Jesus. For a warning comes just before that. Do not add to or take from the words of the prophecy of this book. In spite of the warning, they do it morning, noon and night. But I tell you the most impossible thing recorded there you're going to experience. I have experienced Scripture. I'm only sharing with you my experiences. I am not theorizing. I am not speculating. If I were told in the beginning of time, I must confess I had forgotten it. For it's simply the return of memory. So the spirit of truth is called the comforter. He's called the counselor. And when you're told, when he comes to you, he'll bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

For he is a remembrance. And so man remembers. So when you actually confront David, it's not something that is taking place for the first time. you will always be father. So you must have suffered from total amnesia. Because it's like the return of memory. Can you imagine someone in this world who looks right into his wife's face, who bore him children, and actually he cannot recognize them? Now this is not a theory. This is a fact. There are people who have a little partial amnesia. but there are cases of total enmity where he just does not know his father, mother, children, wife, friends. He knows no one. And you can hit him over the head and give him all the shocks in the world and you can bring back the memory.

Well, the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. And what I say to you is you are the Lord's Jesus. You are the father of humanity. Humanity collectively personified as a single being comes out as this. That's who you are. Now, when your concept of a God external to yourself vanishes, and you have just a little interval of time not knowing where to go, like a ship without a rudder, but the Spirit will come in that interval. In that interval you will send the Spirit of Truth. Then the Spirit will stir within you. And then you will realize what I have told you. Because you are going to experience it in the first person singular.

The Dweller on the Threshold

In a present tense experience. Experience what? The story of the Gospel. And you will know who Jesus is. what every one is so let me repeat what I said in the beginning only that which has no right to live must die only that which has no right to exist must be brought to an end and it has nothing to do with any child no matter how vile he is in this world that was done in love Everything in the world that you see around about you, these are done in love. Never would you have made anything if you had not loved it. But you are creating something that has no right to exist. One day you are confronted and it's only the personification of your mis paint energy.

Energy that you were wanting about. I'm cured away as though, well, you had it forever and you do. He gave it to you. Yes, even to misspin. And so you misspin the energy. But you're confronted. Let me comfort you. It won't take more than a second to redeem it. Not eternity, but you cannot monkey around with it. But may I tell you, you won't. you will make a place not because of someone listening, no one is listening. It's all within yourself, and then you'll know these words when the Lord swore to Abraham. There was no one his prayer, so he could not swear by another, so he swore by himself. You will swear by yourself.

No one is your prayer, and you will take an oath that I will redeem him if it takes me eternity, and eternity will collapse into a second, and the whole monstrous being will wither before your eyes, and energy that made him alive returns to you.

There is no loss of energy, and then he, your glorious creation, will glow like the sun and then the whole thing will vanish. So here tonight, night, I hope that I have taken in the years that I've been talking to you, your historical Jesus from you. If I haven't, for then he hasn't gone away. I hope I have. If, for chance, I have succeeded in taking the history of Scripture from you, and caused you a moment of blackness, a moment of despair, I rejoice. Because in that absent train he goes, it's only for a little while. Then he comes again, but now he comes as the Holy Spirit. And no one will know and can know and can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

So if he goes away, he will send the Holy Spirit. If he does not go away, the Holy Spirit cannot not come to you. So as long as man holds on to his little external Jesus as a thing to whom he can turn, make a little cross, put him on the cross, stick him on the wall, and then cross himself for luck. That's what they do. As long as you do that, you still hold something on the outside.

So if I can say God, Lord, Jesus, or any of these lovely names, and in any way aroused within you the sense of some thing that exists external to yourself, then I have not succeeded in going away. But if I can mention these words and you do not jump on the outside, you cannot turn to another, then you've gone away. but only for a little while. Really carefully.

You'll find the words that I've quoted tonight in the 16th chapter of John. You'll find them also in the 14th chapter and the 15th chapter. Unless I go away. The comforter who is called in one translation and the counselor in another that he equates it with the spirit of truth. I will send you the counselor who is the spirit of truth. And when he identifies himself with truth, he is sending his spirit. And the letter kills, the spirit makes alive. So he will send that which will make Jesus alive within you. Alive in the sense that you become Jesus. But you do not change your identity. You are still the same being that you are. and those who have the privilege of seeing you while you are still walking this earth as God and yet as the being they know and they can't deny the experience because they have seen it, it's something that is completely different from anything in this world; they see you and they know you are God, it's something out of this world. As he said, I am not of this world; I am from above, you are from below; you are of this world, I am not of this world.

So when you see him, he is not of this world. So you will see him as God and still know him as your friend and your brother. For in the end we are all brothers and all friends and all the same God and Father.