Neville Goddard Lectures: “Eternal States”

If you will see it through my eyes, right now this very room, this is Jordan. No water around, but this is Jordan. If I took you into my confidence and I told you exactly what I have in the bank, and what my obligations to life are as against what I have in the bank; what my income is over the years as against what my outgo is; if I showed you my social background, my intellectual background, my entire background, and completely confessed all these facts of life, I have led you right into my Jordan. That’s my Jordan. Have I any ambition to transcend it? Can I get beyond the Jordan? Have I any desire to get beyond the Jordan? Well then, this is the story of the motion from state to state. It is all starting with the Jordan—looking at my world and seeing exactly what I have as against what I want in this world. When I know exactly what I have by looking at it honestly, I am right at the Jordan. So he doesn’t evade the issue, he comes right into the Jordan, God himself, and assumes all the limitations of the flesh; blinds himself completely to all that he really is, and takes upon himself all the weaknesses, all the limitations of the flesh. So my reason dictates the facts of life and my senses affirm it, or confirm it. Here is my Jordan. And then I want to go beyond what I am, the man that I am, can I get beyond the Jordan? So that’s the entire story.

Now, we are told Moses could not get beyond the Jordan. If you want to read it, in the 3rd chapter of Deuteronomy, he could not get beyond the Jordan. The Lord said to him, “Joshua, my servant, will do it” and so it was given to Joshua to go beyond the Jordan into the land that the Lord had promised. Now, these words are addressed to you, not to some being who lived thousands of years ago, these are your words, addressed all to you: “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you.” “Wherever the sole of your foot will tread upon I have”—listen to the tense—“I have given to you.” Not something held in abeyance; when you tread upon it I have given it to you. Now comes a picture, “Prepare provisions; for within three days you are going to pass over this Jordan, to possess the land that I the Lord your God gives you.” That’s the 1st chapter of the Book of Joshua (verse 10). The last chapter, the 24th chapter, it ends, “Choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Jordan, or whether they will be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now dwell.” And they made their decision: We will serve the gods our fathers served beyond the Jordan (verse 15). That was their decision. Then he said to them, “You are witnesses against yourselves. You have chosen that you will serve the gods your fathers served.” And then they answered, “We are witnesses” (verse 22).

Now, this is how I make my decision to go beyond the Jordan. It was taught me graphically back in l933…always beyond the Jordan. I looked at my Jordan, and I didn’t have a nickel. I had no bank account and I didn’t have a nickel, and there was no one to whom I could turn to borrow any money. Why, five dollars in 1933 would be like asking for $2,000 today. Very few had five dollars. And what I needed at that moment nothing under $1,000 could do it. I wanted to go on a trip. I didn’t have a job, living in the basement on 75th St. in New York City, overrun with cockroaches, I mean really a mess. Anything in New York City on that ground floor is just like that even in the best areas, but this was not the best area. I desired to go to Barbados, and I simply confided, I confessed to my friend Abdullah. As I confessed my limitations, my lack, everything, I was right down at the water’s edge and showing him this wide stream that was Jordan, and telling him of a land beyond the Jordan. It was 2,000 miles away across water. And he said to me, “You are now in Barbados.”