Neville Goddard Lectures: “Revelation of the Word Within Us”

04 Aug Neville Goddard Lectures: “Revelation of the Word Within Us”

5/23/69

In all the revelations that await us there is none so fundamental as the revelation of the Word within us. I can’t tell anyone the ecstasy, the joy that awaits them when they discover that “In the volume of the book it is all about me” (Ps.40:7). From Genesis to Revelation the whole vast book is about the individual in whom the Word is revealed. He is the interpreter of the book. And when he discovers that he was the one who was sent—he is the Word of God who cannot return empty but must accomplish that which God purposed, and prosper in the thing for which it was sent (Is.55:11)—the thrill that I am that Word! The thrill that I am the Word that became flesh, and now I am clad in a robe dipped in blood, this flesh and blood; and the name by which I shall be called is the Word of God, and that this “Word of God was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn.1:1). Then it dawns upon one that he is that Word sent for a divine purpose and the purpose was to fulfill the Word we call scripture! There is no other purpose for his being here; not to become rich, famous, known, strong, weak, only to fulfill the Word…the most fantastic play in the world.

Now he will fulfill it in a living way, for the Word in the written form is dead and the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive. He is the living Word that comes to interpret the seeming dead letter. Then he makes that discovery that he is the Word, that the whole story of Jesus from his conception by the Holy Spirit to his ascension into heaven is a sign granted by God to those who will receive it. Formerly he thought of Jesus as someone external to himself; he thought of the Word of God as something completely external to himself. That the whole book was something that was dated, thousands of years ago, through men he referred to as the prophets, as the servants of a God that he did not know. And then comes the revelation. The revelation unfolds within him and he discovers that he is the Word, that the Jesus of scripture is himself, and he can say within himself, “I am Mary and birth to Christ must give, if I in blessedness now and evermore would live” (Scheffler). He brings forth himself. For he is the Word and “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God” and he is that Word. He sees the entire book unfold within himself. But everything said of the “pattern man” [Jesus Christ] he experiences in the first-person, present-tense. Now it is taking place within me and he knows it. All said of him I am experiencing, so it is said of me, “In the volume of the book it is written of me.”

I can’t tell anyone the thrill, the ecstasy that is theirs when they make that discovery…the whole vast world changes. You don’t care what anyone achieves in this world. You wish they could get all of their dreams in the world of Caesar. It doesn’t matter what they want, grant it. It doesn’t matter at all, it all fades into nothing. If they own the earth and enslave all, it still would be nothing. But the Word cannot return void. The Word did not come to own the earth but to fulfill scripture: “Scripture must be fulfilled in me.” And then, “Beginning with Moses and the law and all the prophets and the psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke24:27)…that this was written of me and this is what it means. For I tell you from experience this is how it happens. So, we are the Word spoken by God, but remember, God himself is the Word. The author of the play plays the parts, for there is no one else to play it. He had to become the actors in the drama and they cannot return empty. They play it completely and perfectly. But what they’re really going to play…the final revelation…is when it unfolds within him and he is the Word.