Neville Goddard Lectures: “Christmas, the Birth of Christ in Man”
30 Nov Neville Goddard Lectures: “Christmas, the Birth of Christ in Man”
12/11/67
Well, I need not remind you that this is the season of the year where everyone plots and plans to distribute gifts. But the real day marks an event that sets man free; that when this birth takes place in man, man is set free from this world of sin and death. And “Though Christ a thousand times be born in Bethlehem, if he is not born in us, our soul is still forlorn. And the cross on Golgotha we will look to in vain unless within ourselves it be set up again.” If there be any other Christ than he who was crucified within us and who rose and continues to rise in us, he is a false Christ. Anyone who teaches of a Christ on the outside is a false teacher…I do not care how they label it. If you have all the robes in the world and you’re acclaimed as a very wise, wise person, if you teach some external Christ, external to yourself, it’s a false Christ.
When you know the story, you’ll see it in scripture. Here in the 16th of Matthew, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (verses 15-17). Now when you read it you think a man standing on the outside is asking another on the outside, that Jesus is asking Peter, and they are two different men. It is not so. The drama is taking place within, for were he on the outside he is flesh and blood. I can tell you from now ’til the ends of time that you are Christ and Christ is God the Father, but I can’t persuade you. I can’t reach that level of conviction until you have experienced it. So here he is saying, “Who do you say I am?” It’s from within me, the I AM in man. Well, maybe he hasn’t experienced it, and if he hasn’t, he will say John Brown, Paul Smith, Neville Goddard, whatever the name is. But that’s not it. The day will come I will have the experience. I will know from experience. And he tells me it came from my Father who is in heaven. For he said, “Go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father”—same Father—“to my God and to your God”…same God (John 20:17).
So when the experience takes place in man, it’s the same Father; and the kingdom of heaven is within, so it is from within that the revelation comes (Luke 17:21). It cannot come from flesh and blood. No matter how wise a man is in this world, he cannot persuade you and he can’t persuade himself until it happens within himself. Well, I’m telling you from my own experience it’s going to happen in every one of us. When it happens, you will know who Christ is. When you find Christ, you have found yourself. When you have found yourself, you will find God. When you find God, you’ll find God the Father. And it’s all within yourself. No flesh and blood can ever convince you. They can tell you what they have experienced, if they have experienced it, but there are no words to convince a man the thing is so profound. It’s so altogether marvelous. It’s such a mystery!