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

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

by Neville Goddard – 17th July 1968

The Bible is a mystery, to be known only by revelation. You can sit down and think about it and rationalize from now to the ends of time, if it is not revealed in you, you will not know it. And the majority of the teachers of the world take the traditions of men and teach it as fact, and so we come, then to one Bible with these preconceived misconceptions of the great revelation of God to man.

So tonight we are taking the Pattern Man. Everyone who has heard of Jesus Christ thinks of him as a man. Jesus is not a man; he is the man − the only man − who is buried in every child born of woman, and who will rise in every child born of woman. And when he rises in us, then we and the Lord Jesus Christ are one. He comes only to fulfill Scripture. Man goes, building on this world of ours − it’s perfectly all right − let him do it − he’s encouraged to do it, but the story of Jesus is to fulfill Scripture. He said, “I have come only to fulfill Scripture. Scripture must be fulfilled in me.” (Mark 14:49)

And beginning with Moses and the law and the prophets and the Psalms, he interpreted to all, all the things concerning himself, for the Scripture was not the New Testament − it was only the Old. So, when you spoke of the Scriptures in that day, you only had one Scripture, and that was the Old Testament. So the Old Testament was a prophecy, and the New fulfills it, and He is the New. So He is the Pattern Man in every child born of woman. So, he’s not a man; he is the man, the perfect man, and this Perfect Pattern awakens and unfolds in us.

Now, we are told in the last chapter of Zechariah: “The LORD will become king over all the earth, and in that day the LORD will be one, and his name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

If you were born into the family of the Brown’s, you automatically − regardless of the name given you − you are a Brown. So, you may be given the name of John, but nevertheless, you are John Brown, if you are born into the family whose name is Brown. Well, all are being born into the one body whose name is Jesus. So, in the end, everyone will be Jesus, for “in that day the LORD will be one, and His name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

You will not lose your identity. I will know you in this world of Caesar, and I will know you by your name, a friend of yours. But in the end, when you are born in the body of Jesus, you’re still the John that I know here, but you are Jesus, and I will see you, and see you as Jesus, for there’s only, in the end, only one man − the Perfect Man, the Pattern Man, and that is Jesus. And Jesus and the LORD God Jehovah are One! They aren’t two gods; they aren’t two lords. It’s only one God − only one body, only one spirit, only one hope … only one God and Father of all. (Ephesians 4: 4-6)

I know it seems strange to many who have not had the experience, because they have been trained differently, and you can’t blame anyone. I came out of a family of Christians − at least, we think we are Christians, and I am quite sure that my family today would be shocked beyond measure to hear me say what I am now saying. I know this past year in Barbados, discussing it with my sister, and she is trained as I am trained, or was trained − but this is before the vision. And before the vision, certainly I believed Jesus was a man − trained as any Christian in the world, believed that he was a man, born of a woman who knew not a man in some strange miraculous manner, and then came the vision, the actual experience of the mystery of Christ.

As Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion.” (I Timothy 3:16, Revised Standard Version1 )