Neville Goddard Lectures: “Who Paul Really Is”

08 Sep Neville Goddard Lectures: “Who Paul Really Is”

6/18/1971

If tonight I had a wish for you, I could not think of anything greater than to wish that you would now experience the story of Paul. I do not know if you have ever asked yourself, “Who is Paul?”

Paul is not mentioned in any non-Biblical work of the 1st Century, outside of the Bible, and yet he wrote so many letters seemingly from jail, and they have been recorded. Yet, there is no record of any Paul being in the jail. And certainly, he would be recorded. So, who is Paul?

Paul is that last state of consciousness that man must reach if he would experience the reality of God.

You and I have ambitions in the world. Some want to be dictators, doctors, lawyers, scientists. All these are in order. But there will come a time in the life of man when there will be a hunger sent upon him, as told us in the book of Amos, “It will not be a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the Word of God.” (Amos 8:11) And only an experience of God can satisfy this hunger. That is that state of consciousness called “Paul.”

Only an experience of God can satisfy him. Not a thing in the world could satisfy him. So, if I wish this night that you would have the experience of Paul, I am wishing for you that you would have the experience of God; that that final hunger would be satisfied within you, that you would actually know the experience of the reality of God.

At the very end of the book of Acts, when they tell the story of his end, they said that “he expounded the matter to them from morning to evening, testifying to the kingdom of God, and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the Law of Moses and from the prophets. And some believed from what they heard, while others disbelieved.” (Acts 28:23, 24)

That is the story. Some believe it; others disbelieve it. You will find this in every walk of life.

Now, Paul is the one who started the movement, as it were. He found God’s plan of salvation, and he called it a mystery. Paul uses the word mystery no less than twenty times. He tells us, “It is a mystery.” He speaks of it as a pattern . . a pattern of words. When he writes his letter to Timothy, he said, “Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me. Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.” (II Timothy 1:13, 14)

He tells it in his letter to the Galatians, having spoken to the Galatians and explained the mystery of Christ. Then he says to them, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the truth of the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3)

Paul saw that the Godhead was veiled in flesh and blood, and so he could say, “When it pleased God to reveal His son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (Galatians 1:16) The outer, rational mind could not understand revealed truth, for revealed truth cannot be logically proven. So, to whom would I turn and ask them to throw light on my experience if my experience is not within the framework of the rational mind? If I tell you what I experienced and there is not a thing that you can do about it on this level, then how would I turn to you or anyone in the world and ask for some light upon the experience? So, having had the experience that only an experience of God could satisfy, he couldn’t go to the rational mind, which he called “flesh and blood.”

Now, when he uses the word “Christ,” remember the word “Christ” means “Messiah.” In the Old Testament the word “Christ” is not used, but the word “Messiah” is, so “Messiah” was the Promise.