The Identical Harvest

Neville Goddard

I am quite sure you are going to find this an interesting series. Tonight it is “The Law of the Identical Harvest.” In the very beginning, God established the Law of the Identical Harvest.

And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: Plants bearing seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and it was so.” (Genesis 1:24)

Now we are warned, “Do not be deceived, for God is not mocked. As a man sows, so shall he reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

So, do not try for one moment to deceive yourself. All that is taking place in your world; you planted. There is only one Planter in the world, and the Planter is God, but man looks for God outside of himself, and we are warned that He is within us.

We are told to examine ourselves. “Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test.” (II Corinthians 13:5 RSV1)

So, within us is the Lord Jesus Christ! And we are told, “By him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3)

Now, where is He? Who is He? If He is in me and He is the cause of the phenomena of my life and everyone’s life, then where is He? I should find Him. It’s the most important search in the world – and I have found Him! Christ-in-you is your own wonderful human imagination. That is the Lord! Your every imaginal act is the planting of a seed, and the harvest is nothing more than the multiplication of the identical seed. You cannot change it.

How do I plant the seed? Well, I could plant it unwittingly, and most of us do. I read the morning’s paper, and I react emotionally. At that moment, I planted a seed! You tell me a story, and I react emotionally. At that very moment I’ve planted a seed, and I am going to reap it – the identical harvest.

Most of us do not remember. We do not remember the moment when we planted the seed, but every natural effect has a spiritual cause, and not a natural. A natural cause only seems; it is a delusion of the withering vegetable memory. We cannot quite relate the harvest to anything that we’ve done.

Let me now tell you just a simple little story. On March the 7th of this year – the Log Angeles Times printed a little story about a lost church organ. The minister called in the detectives and announced that the church organ was stolen. He gave a description of the organ, to the best of his ability. They found what they thought to be the organ that was lost, but all identification marks were removed. The serial number and everything about identifying it for ownership had been taken from the organ. The minister said to the detectives, “Look into the back of the organ and see if you find a paperclip with a little piece of paper clipped to it and this number written on the paper.” The detective said “Why?” and the minister said, “I placed it there.” He said, “Why?” He said, “Just in case.”

Now, he is preaching the story of Christ. “Just in case …” That is when he planted loss, “Just in case.” To tell him that he was the source of the loss of that organ, he would strike you if he was bigger. Really, he was the cause of that loss, but you couldn’t tell him that. Yet he will repeat from the pulpit. “Be not deceived, for God is not mocked.” He will even quote Job, “My fears have come upon me.” (Job 4:14) For my imaginal acts, whether they be in love or in fear, they are seeds, and I must reap them.

I will give you one that is very personal. When I planted it, I do not know, but I had to have planted it. And I will show you that, even though you plant unlovely things unwittingly, you need not be the victim. You can revise it, and change it, even though you are confronted with a seemingly insoluble problem.