God's Law and His Promise

Tonight, just for a very short while, we'll reopen on the 10th of January, same place, same time.

Tonight, because we are closing, I thought I would give you a summary of what I try to tell you week after week of God's law and his promise. So we start with the law. It's the eternal principle: all things must bring forth after their kind. This is stated in the very first chapter of the book of Genesis: the law of the identity of heart. As long as the earth endures, there will be sea time and harvest. And using the analogy of trees, the analogy of all things in the world that you and I can see, that the New Testament teaches us that we plant not only the seed of the peace; we plant ideas. And be not the seed: God is not mocked. As the man chooses, and we start to live it. For you and I are in this world of educated darkness, learning to create.

For we are God, but we do not know it as well. But God became as we are, that we may be as he is. For here we are learning to exercise our talents, wisely, but we make mistakes. But the mistake was still appearing in our world to show us what he has done. No condemnation; it is simply a prayer to show the individual what he has done with his talent, whether he used it wisely or unrightly. Here you take the Lord in your own wonderful human imagination: all things exist. Everything you can perceive of all within your own wonderful human imagination; and all that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your own wonderful human imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Your whole vast world: you are within me; I am within you; your whole vast world is within your own wonderful human imagination.

Now what do you do with it? How do you construct it? How do you simply rearrange the structure within you? For that will determine what you will encounter in this world; but it is an art, and like all art, you simply have to make every effort to discover how to practice it wisely. For this great secret of magic is the greatest of all secrets that man could ever put his finger upon.

Now here: Here, let us take a few simple approaches to it. Suppose I wanted a better job, and I didn't have, as the world would tell me, this only reflects my own doubt, that I am not qualified. For they can't tell me anything other than what I am telling myself. So if I am in doubt, they will tell me that I am not qualified, can't get it, or times are not right for it, or things are difficult. Let me ignore for the moment what my reflection conveys, and then let me ask myself: what do I want? Because this will only tell me what I have done in the past. What do I want now? When I know exactly what I want, let me dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to be, and walk in the assumption that I am that man.

If I dare to persist in that assumption, then the outer world will rearrange itself and reflect that within me that I have fixed; and it will become in the eyes of the world a fact. What we call the fact: the reality really is in my imagination and not in its actuality. the whole vast world seems so real and we think that's where the reality is in its actuality. It's not there. It's in the imaginal act. And then we project it upon the screen of space. Now there are numerous facets to this wonderful principle. Here I am looking now this room and you're all real within this room and yet my home is far more real to me.

Said this room. I come here twice a week for one hour and I live in my home almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So it's far more real to me than this room. This is used by many people and my home is used only by my little family, my wife and myself. Yet at this moment it simply is a flat picture and this is a cubic reality. Why is this the cubic reality that I know so little about and that that I know so much about is only a flat surface? Because I am in this room now. If I am in the room I give reality to the room that when I leave it one hour from now it also is a flat surface.

I go home and enter my room, enter my home and it is a cubic reality. Now here is the secret. Man is all imagination and God is man and exists in us and we in him. The eternal body of man is the imagination and And that is God himself. Being all imagination, I must be wherever I am in imagination. I am not anchored to this little body that I am wearing. I am wearing this body as I wear the suit of clothes. The day will come, the suit of clothes, I will wear it out and discard. I will wear out this little body and discard it. But my immortal self is my own wonderful human imagination.

And I am not confined to the garment that I am wearing that it may be seen in the world. I can sit down on a chair and assume that I am elsewhere. And if I dare to assume that I am elsewhere and make it real and give it all the tones of reality I am where I am assuming that I am. How would I know that I am there? Well, think of the world. That's all I do. If I dare to assume that now, this very moment, I am in New York City, how do I know that I am there? You say that I am all imagination, and I must be wherever I am in imagination.

Well, how do I know that I am really there? Well, let me think of the world. Do I see Los Angeles around me? Am I standing on it? Well, then I am not in New York City. If I don't see Los Angeles 3 ,000 miles to the west of me, I am not in New York City. For were I in New York City, I would have to see Los Angeles one, or not one, 3 ,000 miles to the west of me. For motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to object. Well, now, if I feel that I've actually moved, well, then let me actually see it in my imagination relative to the former state.

I do the same thing concerning going up in the social world, or the financial world, or the intellectual world. Today, my friends know me for a certain person, as a certain person. Suppose I desire to transcend that person. Would they know me the day I transcended or in the not distant future after I transcended they would if they're my friends we're in contact I would be the same friend but they would see me differently. Now let them see me differently. I dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to be, whether it be a financial gain or social gain or any other kind of gain. My friends would know it. Well then, let them see me.

All in my imagination. I rearrange the structure of the mind, and I fix it, as I fix it by sleeping in that assumption as though it were true. Well then, in time, if this principle is true that all things must bring forth after their kind, I'm planting a new seed. That is the seed spoken of in scripture. I must not deceive myself, because God in me, which is my own imagination, is not mocked. If I dare to assume that I am the man that at the moment of the assumption reason is denying and my sense is denied, but I dare to assume and persist in that assumption, well then, if this principle is true that all things come forth after their kind, then I shall produce the fruit of that seed.

I have done it a number of times, so I tell you I am speaking to you from experience. I do it not only for myself, I do it for my friends. I call you friends. There is no charge to it, not one penny. Simply a friend would say to me, hear good news for me. Well, it takes a little time, practically no time to hear good news for a friend. I take his request, and then to the best of my ability, I lift it to the state of vision. So that I can actually feel him or hear him tell me. That things are as he desired them to be when he spoke to me. ¶This is the story of Job.

That when he turned from his own little cell. And turned to his friends. His own captivity was lifted. When he prayed for his friends. Well, I call you friends. You come here and you listen to the things that I have experienced. Concerning God's law and God's promise. To whom should you turn if you can't make it work for yourself? But the one who is telling you. I never tire of hearing good news for people. So I can actually hear that you are what you want to be. Or that things are as you desire them to be. It costs nothing. Costs you not a nickel. And as far as time goes, that's what my time is for.

As the revelation came, you must stop pending your thoughts, your time and your money, everything in life must be an investment, so I must invest my time to sit down and hear that you are telling me good things about yourself, that is a wise investment of my time. Now how am I doing it? I'm doing it with my thought; that's a wise investment of my thought. It is now symbolized in the earthly gain called money. There's no money transacted between us, interchanged between us, but that money is the symbol of gain or security in this world. So I'll take the thought. You voiced it. You said, let me hear, or you hear for me that I am this, that, or the other.

Then I simply sit quietly. It doesn't take me long. It shouldn't take anyone more than a matter of seconds. To actually bring before your mind's eye the individual who has asked something of you. And you can rework yourself to a certain state of intensity. And it doesn't take time. I mean, well, if it's time, I mean long time. I would say the maximum time would be, say, ten, not more than ten seconds. To bring someone before your mind's eye and hear his voice clearly and feel the thrill that what he wanted, he had. And then you drop it. You don't do it again. That is an actual creative act. At that moment, you planted a seed.

Where? In your own wonderful imagination. You rearrange the structure of your mind and you planted that seed. Now, do you believe in God? Well, then if you believe in God, you believe in your own wonderful human imagination. You believe all things are possible to God? will then believe that all things are possible to your own wonderful human imagination. That that imaginal act will now externalize itself in the world and she or he or they will bear witness to the truth of what you have done. That is God's law. Now the vision has its own appointed hour. It rises and it will flower. Now, if it seems wrong to the one who asked it of you, don't be concerned.

Don't let him disturb you. You simply wait, for it is sure and it will not be late. My old friend taught me that lesson vividly back in 1933. There was a deep depression in this land. Many of you are too young to remember it, but I am almost now 67. I went through the deep depression back in New York City. I was a dancer. And who would pay a dancer when they couldn't eat? All the theaters were closed. I don't think more than three theaters out of 50 were open in Times Square. So who wanted the dancer? I would have danced for anything for a meal. And no one wanted to pay a dancer. So what would I do?

I wanted to go to my little island called Barbados. And I had no money. But I mean, I said no money. I mean no money. Not just a little bit, but none. I said to my friend Abdullah, Ab, I would love to go to Barbados. He said to me, you are in Barbados. I said, I am in Barbados? He said, yes, you are now in Barbados. I didn't quite understand what he was telling me. I learned it afterwards. He was telling me that if I want something, thing, I must have at that moment that I want it assumed that I have it. I want to go to Barbados, I am in Barbados. So this night when I sleep, I sleep in Barbados.

How? In my imagination. And how do I know I'm there? Think of New York City where physically I'm sleeping. I see it to my north, two thousand miles northwest of where I am in Barbados. well the month went by and I didn't see any evidence I said to him you know Ab if I don't make the next boat out or no planes will fly no commercial planes are flying in those days I can't go to Barbados he said to me who said you are going to Barbados you are in Barbados can't discuss how you're going to Barbados when you are already in Barbados then he walked straight to his room and slammed the door in my face which was not an invitation to follow him if you knew him that's how he taught me I am asleep as though I am in Barbados when I went to bed though in New York City I had assumed that I am actually in Barbados and see New York City, not under me, but to the north of me, 2, 000 miles.

And I woke within 48 hours after that moment with my ab, and under my door was a letter from my brother Victor. And in that letter, he enclosed a small little draft, $50. He said, I have told the steamship company, the Furnace Ridley Company, to issue you a ticket and charge it to me. The $50 is simply if you want some little thing, like a suit of clothes. In those days, you could buy a suit for $12, a fairly decent suit. You could buy a pair of shoes for $3 .50 or $4. But he says the $50 is just for anything you may need to get aboard the ship. But sign the tits, and I'll meet the ship and pay all expenses, and I will pay all the tips.

So it's not for tips aboard the ship. I went down to the place and I told them what my letter said. I read my letter to them. They said, Mr. Gulley, we only have ferries from now on. But when we get to St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, you may have first class because someone just embarked in St. Thomas. I accepted it. I went back to my friend Abdullah and I told him, have a word I'm going on the 6th of December but I have to go starish until we hit St. Thomas and then we go first class to Barbados you know what he said to me he said, who is talking of going to Barbados you have gone to Barbados and you went first class well Well, what are you going to do with a man like that?

I went straight to the boat on the morning of the 6th, expecting I would go, steer it to the Virgin Islands, when the man said to me, Mr. Goddard, we have a nice surprise for you. We had a cancellation, and so now you're going first class. He wasn't surprised. I wouldn't even call him to tell him, because he was not given that way. He was trying to teach me a lesson. You believe in God, believe in me also. Well, the one speaking is God. It's the God in you, your own wonderful human imagination. If you say, I believe in God, everyone here believes in God. But do you believe in your own wonderful human imagination as God?

If the word God conveys the sense of an existence, something outside of you, you have the wrong God. because you are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. Test yourselves and see. Do you not believe that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test. Well, if he is in me, find out who he is and where he is. Well, I have found him to be my own wonderful human imagination. That's the God in me. It's the God in you. and may I tell you he cannot fail he will not fail but here on this level we are the operant power when it comes to the law when it comes to the promise that is coming regardless of the life we live in this world whether I be rich or poor be the judge or the one being judged the murderer or the victim regardless of what part I play in this world the promise is not conditioned.

It is unconditioned. God promised to redeem himself when he became man. So my fitness for the kingdom of God is not the condition when I make myself good it is the consequence not the condition of his choice when he called me into the kingdom. ¶So, let no one frighten you that you're doing things that could stop you from entering the kingdom. It is not conditioned by anything you do in this world. The only condition is on the law. I can say that if I go in a certain direction, I will not encounter certain things. If I dare to assume that I am what I want to be, and I am faithful to that assumption, it will come to pass.

If I am not faithful to it, it will not come to pass. If I don't assume that I am it, it will not come to pass. So I am the operant power when it comes to the law. But when it comes to the promise, that is coming regardless of what you do, or where you are, or anything in this world. Everyone will be redeemed. But everyone. one. But here when it comes to the law, spend all your time while you are here, because the other is working, is coming. So while you are here, take the law and try to understand it and try to apply it wisely. ¶Why not live well? Why not live graciously?

Why not be a kind person? A generous person in the world? Why not be a gentleman? Why not be a lady? These are tremendous accomplishments for man and for woman in this world. So I say to everyone while you are here, find out what the law is all about. Because you can't deceive yourself because the law will not allow you to. ¶As you reap the things in this world, you may deny that you planted them, but it couldn't happen by accident. So be not deceived. God is not mocked. For as a man sows, so shall he reap, and is reaping everything morning, noon, and night. I may not remember my sowing and deny the harvest that is mine, but it's there, and I've got to accept it.

Let me now try to remember when did I plant it. Maybe I can't bring it back. ¶We have very short and faulty memories, and I can't quite remember when I planted that seed. Why, the morning paper, as you read these horrible stories, would tell you when you planted it. You do not know the character spoken of in the paper, yet you react, and that reaction was in itself the planting of the seed. You pass judgment on those that you read about. You read the gossip of the paper, and you're passing judgment, and all of your imaginal reactions are planting seeds. ¶Instead of spending your wonderful time and investigate it while they're reading the Bible or reading a poem, read something that is altogether lovely, we spend our time on the paper or the radio bulletin or the TV and all day long we're simply putting into our mind ideas that must come to harvest and when they come we deny that we planted.

But here, on this principle of the law, you can be what you want to be in this world. ¶I don't care what the world will tell you. You can start from the ground. And if you dare to assume that you are wanted in this world you will be wanted. I am not a member of any club in the land. And yet here I am an American citizen today by adoption. And yet wonderful men and women in this land have never been allowed to enter certain clubs. I'm speaking of clubs I know well back in New York City. And yet I, a stranger, have gone as an honored guest to almost every one of them because I never barred myself.

It never occurred to me that I didn't have all the qualifications to enter as a guest. I have no desire to become a member. None. Yet I have gone to all of these clubs as a guest of those who were members. They came to my meeting and asked me for dinner and they took me to the club or asked me for some other purpose to go to the club. So not a thing in me allowed me to be barred because I didn't bar myself. You can go any place in this world if you don't put these barriers on yourself. It's entirely up to you. God in you is your own wonderful being called your human imagination in the four weeks that I'm gone practice it morning, noon and night and long before the four weeks you should show the fruit.

I'm serious about you should bear the fruit of planting now. Not everything takes a month. Not everything takes a year to grow. Something has come up overnight, and you can plant it now, this very moment, by daring to believe that you are what at the moment reason denies and your senses deny. And act the feeling. Give it the tones of reality, and then drop it. You don't pick it up tomorrow morning to see if it's growing. You accept it and in its own good time it comes to fruition in your world. That is the law. Now come the promise. In many and varied ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken by his son.

That's the final and the perfect revelation of God to man. The man in whom he reveals his son is called in scripture Jesus. So every one in whom God reveals his son is Jesus. And in the end there is Jesus only. For when the son is revealed in man that man is God. Of course the Son of God calling that man Father. There is no other way that you ever know that you are God the Father, save through his Son calling you Father. And when it happens it will be so normal and so natural that it is as though memory has returned. He doesn't give you his son as a companion. As a friend. He gives you his son as your son.

So if his son calls me father, then I am the father. That that son knows to be God. That is the story of the promise. It's coming to every one in the world. No one will fail. That son is David. David of biblical fame. And when he comes into your world he calls you father, and you know it instantly. As he calls you father, and that relationship is forever and forever. Now we are facing in two weeks time, we are facing what is called Christmas, but people do not read the Bible carefully. Here is a little statement in the book of Luke, which undoubtedly follows the usual pattern year after year. The Los Angeles Times will tell the story on their editorial page.

They always print it. The entire story is told in Luke. Now, here are these words. There was one called Simeon, and he had received a vision, a revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. The Lord's Christ. The Lord's is apostrophe. L -O -R -D 'apostrophe' S. The Lord Christ. Then what did he see? He found a child. And he came in spirit. And he found in spirit an infant. Perhaps in swaddling clothes. And he took the little child up in his arms. And he said, now Lord, let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen the salvation of Israel.

Now he makes a prophecy. It is for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. Some will reject it. And others will accept it. and here is the sign that on this day God was born it's the birth of God in man and the sign that God is born in man is simply a little bay wrapped in swaddling clothes and it is the Lord Christ while Jesus is called the Lord in the Bible no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if Jesus is the Lord, and we speak of the Lord Christ, it can't be one and the same person. So the Christ is the offering, the resultant state of this birth of God in man.

For God is a father. And what is the sign that I am born as God? A babe wrapped in fondling clothes. And then six months later, he stands before me, not as an infant, he stands before me as the eternal youth called David. The sum total of all the experiences of humanity, actually drawn into a single whole and personified, and there it is, David. This is the perpetual story that everyone one day will experience. I am telling you what I have experienced I did not rationalize it I'm not speculating I'm not trying to set up some cool thought I'm telling you what everyone is going to experience in this world the day is coming and I hope it before I return I'm coming back on the 10th of January I hope before I return but many of you will be able to tell me I've experienced it because I know you're going to experience you'll actually experience what it is to be the Lord and the Lord is Jesus so we are told in scripture there is Jesus only said I've come not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them and then when their eyes were open the one who personified the law Moses disappeared.

The one who personified the prophet Elijah, he disappeared. And there was Jesus only. When the eye is open and the transfigured being stands before you he is Jesus only and Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. And he has a son. The son is humanity. But humanity gathered together other into one single being is David. And David is his eternal son. And that's what you are going to experience. That's going to come regardless of whether you're rich or poor. But in the world of Caesar, I find it easier to be able to meet the obligations imposed upon me by Caesar. There is a tax to be paid for Caesar. I must have the money that Caesar demands.

I must meet my obligations to life here in the world of Caesar. Rent must be paid. Clothes must be bought. Food must be bought. Transportation. All these things I must find Caesar's coin to pay for it. So I use the law for that purpose. I have no desire to be a millionaire but I do desire the comfort that a nice steady flow of income allows without the anxiety that must come to everyone when he can't meet his obligations to life so I use the law for that purpose and the law for my friends who are in conditions that call for I would say the wise use of the law and I call it praying when I take you before my mind's eye and see you as I would like to see you the man that you would like to see yourself if I assume that you are and I get the thrill that you are I call that praying I do not turn to any being on the outside and ask anything of any being on the outside I do not get down on my knees and pray to any outside God I do not repeat any of the word concerning a prayer, that people passion some little prayer in words.

¶None of that. I sit in a comfortable chair or recline on the bed and think of you. When I think of you, I simply think of you as I would like to see you. I work myself in a matter of seconds to a pitch where something goes out of me. It's an actual feeling like some energy goes out. It's an actual creative act. And then I drop it at that moment. ¶You don't repeat the creative act after you reach the point of explosion. You've actually brought the point to explosion and you drop it. And let that seed now grow in its own wonderful manner and externalize itself in the world. ¶I call that the subjective appropriation of the objective hope.

You tell him what you would like to be, that's your hope. for now you're my appropriation subjective of your objective hope is all that I do I have in the audience tonight ¶a lady whose story I told you about a month ago or two months ago she was here when I opened the first night and I see her here tonight when she wrote me and thanked me for the exercise of my imagination on her behalf. And I told you her request at the time before I left for San Francisco. That's a way back in June. Well, here she is tonight. ¶I'm not going to point her out to anyone so that no one will corrumble her and try to ask questions of her.

But she's clear. And she was the one who would ask to me in the letter, say, would you please exercise your imagination lovingly on my behalf, and then told me her problem. ¶As I read the letter, I was sitting in my big easy chair. I put the letter down, brought it before my mind's eye, and did not for one moment hesitate until, oh, it took me about ten seconds, ten seconds to actually hear her tell me that it had all happened. It was fresh in my mind's eye, the request. And then I dropped it. ¶I never thought one second after that concerning it. it was done I got confirmation here after my opening day which was back in October October the 4th I opened and a week or two weeks later she wrote me a letter and she thanked me for exercising my imagination lovingly on her behalf she did not itemize anything in the letter he implied in that letter that things were as she desired them to be ¶I tell you believe in God, as you are told in the 14th chapter of John, you believe in God, believe also in me.

¶I and my Father are one. And he who sees me sees the Father. He sent me into the world, and the sender and the saint are one. But in the world, I seem to be inferior to myself the sender. So I could also say I and my father are one, but my father is greater than I. ¶I am not inferior to my essential being who is father, but in the office of the saint I am handicapped. And so I'm in the world of Caesar, but I know who I am. ¶I'm trying to tell you and every one who will listen to me, who you are. So believe in your own wonderful human imagination. ¶And you can start tonight from where you are, and you will go as far as you want to go.

Just as far. And you have no handicap other than the handicap you put upon yourself. If you believe that because you have no background, socially, financially, intellectually, well then that's what you believe. And you place these things upon yourself. If you do not accept them as final, well then, they're only barriers as long as you accept. You don't accept them and you go about your business applying this internal principle that all things must bring forth after their kind. And you have the choice of the seed that you will plant. You can plant a good seed or a bad seed. It's entirely up to you. but I would suggest you stop spending your thoughts, your time and your money and start investing your thoughts, your time and your money when you spend you lay out without hope of return when you invest you expect a return on equity and so you have the choice of deeds it's entirely up to you I will select to be this man or that man or the other man And you envy no one.

How could you envy anyone when you know who you are? How could you possibly envy any person in this world? He has a billion, let him have a billion. You want two, let him have two. Only this past month, a man whose income is supposed to be in excess of five billion dollars, not million, billion. He was a young man, only 47 years old, age, and yet he blew his brains out. 47. And for reasons not disclosed in the paper, he was from Sweden. And here was this huge banker, many, many generations back. And they built up this enormous fortune. He was the head of the family with a private fortune in excess of five billion dollars.

And then one day he simply blew his brains out. So money did not in any way influence his decision to call it a day. So it's not money, but if you want money, make it money. Don't fall in love with money, but you need it in the world of Caesar, then assume that it's coming in a normal, natural way. Without knowing from whom or where. You go to the end and dwell in the end just as though it were true. And may I tell you it will be true. But set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you as the revelation of Jesus thrives within you. But Jesus Christ is the Lord and his Christ.

Yes, Jesus Christ. Not one name, as it were. But the Lord Christ would be daily. And so let me close it with a little poem that Brumling wrote concerning daily. Based upon, or he was inspired by, the 17th chapter, the 16th and 17th chapter of 1st Samuel. And here he has the insane king called Saul. And standing before Saul is the youth David. And David said to the king, O Saul, a face like my face shall receive thee. And a man like to me thou shalt love and be loved by forever. A hand like this hand shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. See the Christ stand. That's David. And then, but who is he addressing?

Humanity, who has forgotten who he is. That's a form of insanity. It's amnesia. we have forgotten that we are God so we are thought and in that state we are called insane demented and the Christ stands before us and is David and a face like my face said he shall receive you and a man like unto me thou shalt love and be loved by forever And a hand like this hand shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. Feed the Christ's hand. But may I tell you, when you see, and you will see, the Ancient of Days, you will be incorporated into his body. He will embrace you and you will become one body, one spirit with the Ancient of Days.

And I am not an artist to paint the picture, but when you see David, David is the image of the Ancient of Days. But he is eternal you, and the Ancient of Days, you cannot put age upon him; you cannot say he is this age or that age, or any age; he is without age, and yet he is the Ancient of Days. That's who David sees; that's his father. He is the image of his father, only he is the eternal you, and you incorporated into the Ancient of Days, you are God the Father, and that's why David recognizes you as his father. So he finds David. David said unto him, "Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

And he said to David, "Thou art my Son." So here it is perfect. You are, regardless of the pigment of your skin now, regardless of who you are now, you are destined to be awake one day as the Ancient of Days. And you will know it, and you will only know it if David appears. You will not know it in any other way. If you had all the power of the world to shatter the heavens, you still wouldn't know your God. But how wise you became, you wouldn't know your God. Not a thing in this world could convince you that you are God, but his son calling you father. Nothing in the world could ever convince you that you're God, save his son.

So no one knows who the son is, except the father. And no one knows who the father is, except the son. And anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him." So no one knows the father, save the son, who is in the bosom of the father. He has made him known."