Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Man Within” (1968)

30 May Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Man Within” (1968)

By Neville Goddard – 07-24-1968

Tonight’s subject is: The Man Within.

This “Man Within” is Jesus Christ, the image of God, called in Scripture, “The Son of God.” Now, unless this Christ in us is raised to ever higher and higher levels, then God cannot fulfill His purpose.

Now, listen to these words carefully, from “A Little Boy Lost” by William Blake. He said:

Nought loves another as itself,

Nor venerates another so,

Nor is it possible to Thought

A greater than itself to know

And Father, how can I love you

Or any of my brothers more?

I love you like the little bird

That picks up crumbs around the door.

If God wants me to know Him as He is, He will have to raise me to the level of His own being. I must become God to know God. If He would have me to venerate Him, He has to raise me to the level of Himself. If He would have me love Him, then He would have to bring me up to the level of God . . and we are told: God is love. So, I could not possibly know God, love God, and venerate God unless I AM God. If He leaves me as I AM, like the little bird around the door, “Well, that’s the only love I can show for God. That’s the only respect I can have for Him.

So, there’s a man in man that is God, and that one has to be raised to the level of God, for God becomes man, that man may become God.

Now, here we are told we are destined in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. So the office of Christ, in the Gospel, is that men may become the sons of God through grace, by union with Him who is the Son of God by nature. This is spoken of in Scripture as rebirth . . not reincarnation, rebirth . . a higher level and a still higher level.

We have the discussion, taking place in the third chapter of the book of John. It’s introduced out of the nowhere. Nothing leads up to it. He suddenly turns to a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest body in the Hebrew world, and he said to him, “You must be born again.” The word translated “again” or “anew” means literally “from above.” Unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3); and he heard it wondered, How can I, a man . . an old man, once more reenter my mother’s womb and be born again? And he said, “You a master of Israel, and yet you do not know that unless you are born from above, you cannot see the Kingdom of God?”

It is not explained, and when you hear it . . and I have heard ministers and priests and rabbis discuss it, and they say, “Well, you mean, it’s a change of attitude” . . a change of this . . a change of that. May I tell you? It is literally true! You are born from above.

I speak from experience. I am not speculating; I am not theorizing. I had no idea this thing was so literally true, that man contains within himself this seed that is Christ. He is called the Word of God, and the Word is called the seed. There are three stages in the history of a seed: there is the sowing, there is the dying, and then there is the quickening.

The seed is sown upon man. Man hears it with faith, and then it’s planted . . it’s sown. Man goes through the fires of hell in this world here, and that is the dying. A seed must fall into the ground and die before it is made alive. If it does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much. This is the great mystery of life through death.

So, the seed falls: it’s sown. Then it dies, and then it’s raised; it’s quickened. And this is the seed called the Word of God that is Jesus Christ. It’s actually in man.