The Great Possession
The Great Possession
Neville Goddard 10-3-69
The book of Genesis is made up of three records, called the J, P, and E manuscripts. Tonight I will refer to the E manuscript, which begins with the 15th chapter of Genesis: “As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there and they will be oppressed for four hundred years. After that they will come out with great possessions.’
Abraham believed and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.”
Here we discover that it is not what man is, but what he trusts God to do, that saves him. Believing that God the Father has prepared the way for his banished sons to return, in the state of faith you accepted the verdict that you would be enslaved for four hundred years.
Now when you read this statement you may think in terms of time as we know it, but that is not part of the mystery. In the Hebrew alphabet each letter has a numerical – as well as a symbolic – value. The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “taf. Its numerical value is four hundred, and its symbolic value is that of a cross. That cross is the body you wear. It doesn’t mean that it will take four hundred years for you to reach the end of the journey, but that a way has been prepared to bring you out of this journey into death.
Everything begins, waxes, wanes, and dies here; but God has prepared a way for us – his banished sons – to return to him, and when we do we will have great possessions. These possessions will not be of an earthly nature, for everything dissolves here.
In this world your possessions enslave you. Buy a home, and the minute you have the feeling of possession you must insure your property against all the elements. Buy a large diamond of which you are so proud, and you must insure it and pay for that insurance the rest of your days.
People who own a fortune in diamonds often place them in a vault and never see them, yet pay insurance on them year after year – but they have the feeling of possession. So you see: regardless of how great you determine your earthly possessions to be, you cannot take them with you. So what is the great possession that you will return with? Life in yourself!
The Old Testament is a prophetic blueprint of experiences which take place in the New. And even that which is recorded in the New is not conclusive and vivid. So we search the scriptures to see what we must experience in order to acquire our promised great possession.
You and I preexisted, for there is only God. Diversifying himself into the many by falling into a deep sleep,
God the Father is now bearing his cross by wearing our garments of flesh and blood and dreaming our life into being. In this world we do not recognize ourselves in the other, for – wearing a mask – we are hidden from view. Now an animated body, we are destined to be gathered one by one and brought back into that original state with great possessions. That great possession is to have life in ourselves!
The word “Zechariah” means “Jehovah remembers,” and Zechariah’s book is all about remembering. In the 8th chapter the Lord speaks, saying: “I will return to Zion and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”
When you begin to awaken, you will remember what you were told before that the world was, and memory will return in the form of an experience. When your dream of life comes to an end, a sound – a certain note – will call you from the tomb, and you will awaken in your skull and begin to remember God’s plan for your salvation. Zechariah’s prophecy will be fulfilled in you as you remember, for Zechariah describes Jerusalem in vivid imagery as it will be when city and temple are restored, and we – the exiled – have returned.