Translation of Exodus 3:14a from the Ancient Aramaic "Ahiyeh Ashur Hiyeh" : "Imagination Is MY Becoming"

I have previously expressed the opinion that Jethro, which means "His Excellence," might be either the good things in life or the "kingdom"/naturally beneficent power of God which brings abundant provision for your life (if you are living conducively to it). It occurred to me today that 'Jethro' might simply mean life; that Moses was just musing about life. 'Life,' i.e., God's Excellence.

Life is quite exceptional. Moses was expert in the religions of Egypt, which were all about life and death. Moses had taken life, had spared life, had run for his life. Life is the mysterious force which makes dissolved minerals alive and conscious. Perhaps life perplexed Moses enough to make him, while in meditation, contemplate what life itself was all about.

Entering into Moses' imagination came the image of Ashur, the Son of God working in the Father sun disc disseminating waves of glory all about. Ashur, the Creator God of the Assyrians, the people from whom the Hebrews had come. If Moses wanted to learn about Jethro, where life, the excellence of God, comes from and how, Ashur was a good guy to talk to.

Moses approached the vision of Ashur. Without intermediaries, it was just him and God in his consciousness, mano y mano on holy ground. Here was the Big Cheese, the Chief Kahuna who made life, who created and caused it. Moses asked after a fashion, "What are You? And how does that life, there, become this life, here?"

God replied (according to Victor Alexander's translation of Exodus from the ancient Aramaic, which if you do not have, you aren't really reading the Bible, anyway), "Ahiyeh-Ashur-hiyeh." Even Alexander does not venture to translate this idea. He simply explains the thrust of the words. I have been working on them for years, for here was the beginning of the Bible -- the revelation of God to Moses. These three words are what the rest of the Bible is about. Alexander explains:

*3:14 Lit. Aramaic: (1) "Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames."

I have tried to express the above in English more than a dozen different ways over the years. The words and their meaning are very similar to the Hebrew "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh," "I am THAT 'I am.'" If one can understand that Ashur, "the beginning spark that kindles the fire" is imagination; that Ahiyeh is God himself becoming what becomes; and that hiyeh, "his (the subject being discussed) becoming," was Jethro, "his excellence," then this translation becomes quite possible:

"Life is my imagination." Or, "Imagination is My becoming." Or, "I become by imagination." Life . . . is imagined. It is nothing more than consciousness, the imagination of the Ineffable -- Its intelligence in action.

The Ineffable's intelligence is power to become what it believes it is: light, time-space, matter, manifestation. We sitting, standing, or lying here, are that. Our consciousness is that "I am." And what we believe we are becomes all around us as our world. This recurrence, the power which causes it, is the "kingdom” of God. The intelligence of the Ineffable -- our imagination, and his -- is the operant power. This is reason for faith, for believing we are.

Our "I am" -- am -- can change/become anything we believe ourselves to be . . . as long as we are following and practicing the loving nature of God.

Recurrence Could Be Karma

Perhaps recurrence, which is the nature of God, is what Hindus consider karma. Recurrence is more like Neville Goddard’s view of restoration in that no punishment is involved. The idea of punishment probably comes from extremist teaching which apocalypses the rule — runs it out to the extreme — a warning as to its seriousness.

NO REGRETS: Prayer, i.e., Assumption, Is Like Lying, But Isn't, For God Is Good

Have no regrets for missed opportunities, for regret is what you then create. Did you give away something priceless? Buy or sell a stock at the wrong time? Work without pay? Believe the opposite -- no regrets! It's feelings which recur. The feelings we have now proceed into the future to confront us there. Don't cause the recurrence of regret.

Assumption of another reality is what revision is. What happened wasn't good, so you imagine it good. It was evil; you imagine it good. Everything good. Forgive the present apparent reality and create afresh where there is nothing. Create the memory of good. Let that recur. Prayer is assumption of good, for God is good. It is only when we add evil that we die, for it too will recur if we harbor it. We are supposed to know one, and not the other. Don't harbor it.

God created "when there was not yet." He imagined his manifestation as completed from before the Beginning, when there was complete lack of anything he was imagining — except himself. God is all good. His manifestation is OF himself. He always was, is, and will be. But his invisible is becoming visible. The good will be achieved and the lack forgotten.

Assume the other has happened. That what was lost was found, that what was stolen was given, that what was destroyed was built, and thank God for it! Rejoice in the Lord always!! Isn't it wonderful!!!

“Jesus Christ is LORD (YHWH)” = Exodus 3:14a, “I am THAT ‘I am’”

I said recently that the heart and soul of the Gospel is Exodus 3:14a, “I am THAT ‘I am.’” I imagine some will counter that the Gospel is “Jesus Christ is LORD (YHWH),” but that is what Exodus 3:14 means.

The Beginning of Christianity: Recurrence, Revelation, and Repentance

The Sermon on the Mount was about manifestation in recurrence of what is. The kingdom of God, which is the power of his nature, causes the present to manifest naturally in the future. The manifestation of what was occurs on a higher plane. It is an "outpicturing.” I.e., it manifests all around us as our "world."

Jesus said he would meet his disciples in Galilee after he died. 'Galilee' means revelation -- a higher plane. Well, if recurrence was not true, no revelation would occur. Jesus met his disciples again in Galilee — revelation. Uh-oh. Then what Jesus taught about recurrence and about repentance to change the present that will be manifested was, and is, true. Living in the kingdom to influence the future is "Christianity."

We get to see now what is going to be manifested in its recurrence. We can change it any which way by putting on a new mind, by taking a different attitude, but wisdom says to change everything toward love. For love is beneficent, and that is what we would want to manifest.

This is cause to accentuate the positive in everything, and to eschew negativity, complaining, judging, and rejection. What we reject, we lose, for it goes away in recurrence. What we believe we have, we gain through the same mechanism. This is the “virtue” which proceeds from Jesus, the saving, providing nature of YHWH, God.
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I suppose we think of evolution in this way.

Easter Message On The Kingdom Of God: The Power Which Causes Recurrence

Neville Godard said it oh, so well when he said that the present does not recede into the past, but proceeds into the future to confront us there. Gregg Braden said as much when he explained the Seven Essene Mirrors (forgive the mullet) What we say, think, and do becomes the life which envelops us. What we have said, thought, and done has become the world we live in. It takes some perception to see it, but there it is.

The heart and soul of the Gospel is Exodus 3:14a, usually translated as "I AM THAT I AM." That was the very beginning of the Bible -- is the core of the Bible. The rest tries to explain it. God announced to Moses not his name but his nature, the kingdom of God. ‘Kingdom,’ by the way, means “the rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; dominion; monarchy; kingship” — which make a person a king (according to the archaic definition of 'kingdom' in Webster’s Dictionary). Christ is the power and the wisdom of God: i.e., he is God's kingdom, YHWH. The kingdom -- the natural power of God -- causes specific, appropriate manifestation in recurrence of what is done. Life is like a recurring echo: what goes around comes around just as it has come around. Nothing ever really goes away (we are ever the residual), BUT IT CAN BE CHANGED.

Do you want to know why Jesus wrote no books? He is counting on the recurrence of what he did. It must work -- the kingdom must be being manifested. “Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God” = this will recur. The kingdom of God, which he is, is that which makes recurrence of acts. Everything is an image of the past. The Anointing's act, his work of love, has to recur, for this is the very nature of the Ineffable.

Take this back to Exodus 3:14. The subject was not God but Jethro. Jethro means excess: good, abounding excess which remains. Success, superiority, more than enough — that state of being, and the power which causes it. "I am THAT ‘I am’" says that this beneficence, to use Rehnborg's term, proceeds from God, from the imagination. What imagination causes such beneficence? Love. We have heard that the secret to manifestation is feeling. Love is the secret to feeling. Neville stood on the deck of a ship in his imagination and in "bittersweet sorrow" felt such love for the family he was leaving and love for his home in New York. “Before I had broken the spell, they called to offer me the passage.”

Neville REJECTED New Thought teachings for their wrong emphasis. There is no new thought, he said, we are destined to fulfill the scriptures. The past (before the Beginning in Genesis 1:1) is going to manifest in recurrence. The past that must manifest is the Ineffable which started the whole deal, whose nature we share. His kingdom "must be being restored" (Fenton).

Exodus 3:14 in the ancient Aramaic says exactly the same thing. The absolute intent of the one who becomes to become himself is the cause of Jethro. For he is love.

Do you want the secret to the E-ticket in life? Love. Love your enemies; love those who mistreat you; love those who despitefully use you. Forgive. Pray for others. Hear good news for your friends. Bless the people you see. Convert bad input to good — i.e., refuse undesirable images and mentally represent them to yourself as good images — “better than the best.” Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. Let the outpicturing -- recurring manifestation -- of your life only be goodness, life, and love. For what we do will recur in manifestation -- it’s the very name of God. Repent, and believe the Gospel.

God is Good: Opportunities Come To Me, And I Take Them

The God Who IS and the Non-moving Run: Suspended Time (This is My Personal Theology: Pentecost is the Feast of the HARVEST, Completed Time NOW)

God cannot see the end of time; He IS the end of time. THAT's our problem: so are we.

Although we are speeding through the universe at 1.3 million miles (2.1 million km) per hour, in some aspects we are not moving at all. I speak of movement between the Beginning of Creation and the Consummation of All Things at the End. You might think that we, each of us individually, are at some mid-point or happily near the end of the cycle of birth and rebirth which develops us in this sphere of death (unawareness of godhood). It seems by appearances we are becoming prepared to move on. I think not. I believe the whole of our experience was simultaneous in suspended time. It was, as it were, a flash, one kaboom and done. The present and the future were completed long ago. In God's economy, there is no time.

As I see it, the course of all the universe from the Big Bang to the final darkness, and our history within it, all of it has already happened. There has been but a point of action, which was a decision, even an opinion actually, which ended it. All of what was decided has already been taken care of. All of it. We are in the process of waking up in what is already a situation, the end arrangement, looking forward to what was finished at the Beginning. We are plowing a field which harvest is already in the barn. All time is proceeding in suspension.

It was not merely intended, but was an established fact, that at the fall of God into the ignorance of manhood, we were ascended. Him, us, same same. Not that we would ascend, but had ascended. The Beginning Son STARTED with the Risen Lord. We ARE Christ, God who descended. As Christ we now rise to what we already are - the Father we were. For God assumed the goal achieved, therefore the future was created. That finished it. We are not really going anywhere; we are already there!!

In “Unless I Go Away,” freedom enjoying Neville, the sunflowers in the field, the rats in the dump, and the cage all existed at the same time. We are in a progression of eternal states which all exist together: Eternal Father and Son, risen and sent, fallen and repentant, redeemed and redeemer. We ARE that which we work unto. We just haven’t realized what IS to be realized. Yes, God became man that man might become God; but God had become the man who becomes. There was never really any doubt, for the God man becomes already IS. As Jesus Christ, God's consciousness crucified upon this flesh, we are that which we work unto.

Again, in God’s economy, we are already what we want to be. What we are "going" to be is already a done deal. Time does not matter; the decision has already been made. We ARE Jesus Christ, and we are the Father. We have only come here to do what has already been done, by believing that what we did worked. Says F. J. Huegel:

"The Christian does not walk in order to reach the Throne. On the contrary, His walk is determined by the fact that in God's Economy he has, antecedent of all ethical demands or achievements, been placed with Christ in a position of immeasurable ascendancy. He has been made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places in order that, having received an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, he might reign in life by one, even Jesus (Romans 5:17). He walks like a king because he is a king (Revelation 1:6). He is not called upon to walk in a kingly fashion in order that he may reach the throne. God's order is different. The Christian begins at the throne and his kingly manner is only the inevitable outcome of his exalted position. Our frustrations and agonies in an effort to attain the unattainable, our shame and our defeats such as we find in Paul's own experience tabulated so faithfully in Romans 7, came about naturally and inevitably when, failing to grasp all this, we put the emphasis on our conduct rather than on our position, which must come first." (Reigning With Christ, 1963 Zondervan Publishing House, 1969 Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, Inc. p. 58).

I did not intend to continue with Huegel (a great book, almost impossible to read, but a great book nonetheless), but he has a very interesting proposal: "A correct reading of the passage (from Ephesians 1:17 into Ephesians chapter 2) leaves out the artificial close of the chapter with the opening of Chapter 2, for such a division does not exist in the original Greek (his words, not mine). What Paul really says is: 'Which he (the Father) wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead  . . . and you (omit italics of Chapt  2:1) who were dead in sins and trespasses. The Father raised up Christ and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and You who were dead in sins and trespasses'" (p. 46-47).

Huegel says that Paul says that we were lifted and seated with Christ when Christ was raised to his God-state, which he now enjoys. I say that when Christ was lifted WAS AT THE BEGINNING, WHEN THE INEFFABLE DETERMINED THAT HE WAS RAISED AS THE MANIFESTATION. That was Its assumption. We are now just playing out the dream assumed.
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Victor N. Alexander's Ephesians, from the ancient Aramaic:
16. I never cease from confessing on your behalf and in remembering you in my prayers,
17. That the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of Glory, should give you the spirit of wisdom and the revelation of his knowledge,
18. And that he may brighten the eye of your hearts, that you may know what is the Hope of his calling and the wealth of the glory that is the inheritance of saints,
19. And so that great power is magnified through us by our faith in him, according to His all consuming power.
20. That He performed through Christ and raised him from the dead* and placed him from His right in heaven,
21. Higher than all the thrones, authorities, powers and lordships, and higher than all the names that are ever praised, not only in this universe alone, except also in the future.
22. And everything under his feet shall be worshipped and to him, as he is above everything, He has given the leadership of the Church.
23. Which is his body and the embodiment of the One who embodies all.
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*1:20 Lit. Ar. id.: "House of the dead."
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Ephesians 2

1. Also to you who were dead in your sins and foolishness,
2. As you walked in the ways of old, according to the worldliness of this universe, and according to the leaders of the earth's governments,* in the spirit that compels Children to be heedless,
3. According to the same practices that we also followed in the past through the lust of our flesh, and according to the flesh we did what we considered justifiable* and ended up being children of wrath like everybody else.
4. God, however, who is rich in mercy, loved us because of His great love,
5. Whereas we were dead in our sins, He gave us life with Christ and saved us by his grace,
6. And He raised us with him and placed us in heaven through Jesus Christ,
7. That He may show the universes that are coming the great riches of his grace and His fulfillment through Jesus Christ that descended upon us.
8. For it was by Grace that he saved us through faith, and this was not of your doing, except the gift of God.
9. Not through the performance [of deeds,] so that no human should be proud.
10. For we are his creation, whereas we are born through Jesus Christ as works of grace, those by which from olden times God favored us.
11. Because of that, remember that you people were in the beginning according to the flesh, and that you were called unto circumcision from uncircumcision, which is accomplished with hands of flesh.*
12. And you were in that age without Christ, and you were foreigners of Israel,* and you were strangers to the covenant of the kingdom, and you had no hope and no god in the world.
13. Now, however, through Jesus Christ, those of you who were outsiders* in the old times, have become kindred through the blood of Jesus Christ. 14. For he is our peace, he who made two into one, and who united the knot of the old pair in equality,
15. And [he resolved] the enmity in his flesh, and the Law of commandments he cancelled by his own commandment, so as he may rebuild both lines through his Triune essence into one new human being, and create peace,
16. And so he may gaze upon both of them in one body with God, and so he may kill the enmity by his Cross,
17. And so he may come and proffer peace upon you, to those who had wandered off and to those who had stayed near.
18. Because through him we have kinship, both [lines of the Covenant] in one spirit toward the Father.
19. Henceforth, you are neither outsiders, nor migrants, except you are inhabitants of the saints' towns, and the children of the house of God.
20. And so you may build upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, and he is the cornerstone* of the building, Jesus Christ himself.
21. And by him is administered the entire structure and through him is the holy temple raised by the Lord,
22. While you are also utilized to fortify God's building* in spirit.
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*2:2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech retained: Secular leaderships that do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and God.
*2:3 Lit. Ar. id.: "According to conscience."
*2:11 To understand the significance of the Cross (a concept lost to Western theologians,) there has to be opposition of the two paths, the one branch suspended horizontally in the air, the symbol of the Spirit, anchored by the vertical branch that is buried in the ground, symbol of the world. The horizontal branch cannot stand without the vertical branch, or else the cross loses its significance and purpose. Thus accordingly without opposition, Christianity cannot exit.
*2:12 Continuing reference to the symbol of the Cross.
*2:13 Lit. Ar. idiomatic figure of speech: "Distanced."
*2:20 Lit. Ar. id.: "Head of corner."
*2:22 Lit. Ar. id.: "Construct."

Dedication and Devotion to a God Who is Blessing You IS God Blessing You: Imagining He Hears You and Gives You What You Request - That It is Granted and Given - You Believe That You Receive . . . and You Do

How Many Consciouses Do You Think You Are?

This is an imagic world in an imagic universe. Earth is an image of the Divine. It's ecosystems and societal systems are imagic. Our bodies are imagic, too. They are our own “natural order.” We eat starchy, fattening foods because a bacteria in the gut wants it. Cells in our body want oxygen and nutrition. Our natural order gets them to them. Infection occurs and white blood cells, each an individual consciousness, attack.

This is all very simplistic - there are chemical causes and relationships involved, but in principle we are god over billions or trillions of cellular consciouses. This reminds me of Moses’ Jethro. We see it - this symbiotic relationship - going on, and we don’t really understand it. What is its nature? How is one talking to another? What directs its response? God says in Exodus 3:14 that it is all him. The relationship and action is him. Imagic of him because it is the manifestation of him.

And so we wake in the morning to respond. What is directing us? Other cells, or God? Our own self-lordship, or is there another purpose we can rely on?

Get Over Involvement with the Flesh: Jesus, Neville et al, and Rehnborg's Secret of Life in the Kingdom of God

The world as you know it - end it. That is, give it up. Give up the striving to win in the world and devote yourself instead to God. To your fellow man. Because the kingdom or rule of God is the natural order in states of devotion to God. End addiction to the pleasures of this carnal world and enjoy instead the spiritual world. Which are you focused on? You cannot love both simultaneously.

That is what I get from C. F. Rehnborg's summary of his analysis of Jesus' faith in Jesus and the New Age of Faith. Whatever Jesus there was was dedicated to preparing for the coming Messiah or for becoming the Messiah. In his devotion he became aware of the kingdom or rule of God in the natural order. This kingdom (power of the Consciousness which is the Imagination of the Ineffable) works beneficially for man, especially for the man or woman of consciousness. God cannot be anything but Love, which is "beneficent." He can't stop handing out.

Life is like layers of states accessible to man's mind. We are involved primarily either with the flesh or the spirit. Any ratio from 100 carnal to 0 spirit, or 0 carnal to 100 spirit. I call it the Law of Reciprocal Compensation. We "pay" with our interest and devotion. It is not works, for we do not have to do anything except submit and accept what is to be rewarded. But our minds have to actually be there. We get the whole kit-and-caboodle of God's attention in one wonderful swoop when we "pay" by entering a state of not-carnal, all-spirit attitude.

We can go from all-out rejection of anything to do with God, to mildly interested but still serving the flesh, to seriously devoted and trying to mortify involvement with the flesh. Jesus died 100% to the flesh, but was seen alive in revelation (that is what 'Galilee' means) afterward. We have myriad examples of dedication, devotion, and spiritual reward (and of the consequences of not taking control of our own minds and keeping them devoted). Moses slipped, but Joshua conquered Canaan. Abdullah, Neville, Joseph Murphy, and Ernest Holmes are good examples, but I especially like T. L. Osborn and Smith Wigglesworth. They had real singleness of mind. Real no-nonsense attitudes. Brave to do anything God called them to do.

Rehnborg says this is the natural order we are missing because our head-balls are unrepentant of our involvement with the flesh. Sex, food, and warmth are about the only things we really think about, and two-dimensional pixel displays. Dedication to love and prayer and sharing and helping people and serving and teaching the poor, etc., etc., is so much NOT a part of our thought. We cannot expect much reciprocal compensation if we make no contribution.

We cannot just say it or think about it; the state has to be a reality. Has to have become a reality. We “owe” God a perfect life, a complete perfect life, return payment for the one he gave us - his - at the fall. There is no way we will ever be able to come up with one, a sinless life, in a human lifetime. Ours is always ruined from the get-go. HIS perfect life in exchange for ours is what YHWH as Jesus provides to us as a free gift for the joy of saving us. Provided that we accept it. If accepting it ruins your doctrine of without works; well, hey, suck it up. It’s his offer in the state.

Going Up To Jesus

One of my big “keeper” miracles was Jesus talking to me in 1975. It keeps me because it really happened, and I cannot deny it. I saw Jesus scourged and crucified, and as he was laid with his torn up like hamburger back on that rough-sawn timber, my mind convulsed because it was my sin he was bearing. He turned his face to me as they were about to drive a spike and said, AUDIBLY TO MY BRAIN’S HEARING LOBE, “Come unto Me.” That transition of power from his spirit to my physical nervous system blew my mind. But I was perplexed. How was I supposed to obey this invitation/command? It seemed he meant for me to actually go to where he was, in "heaven," and not simply, figuratively, “go” to him in prayer.

Maybe I was wrong about that. As I learn more about prayer, it is the actual, physical going to God. Prayer is beyond consciousness alone. As JOHN Osteen said, “there is a miracle in your mouth.” It is God’s mouth, and he wants to use it. Our mouths are not just these slobbering orifices, they are the heart and mind behind them. We take the consciousness of this body “there,” to where the receiving of our request is an established reality - in heaven, the skull. Being there is our asking and statement of faith. We assume that reality is as real as the Voice which spoke to me.

Is There Something More In The Lord’s Prayer We Are Missing?

I have been reading and re-reading C. F. Rehnborg's Jesus and the New Age of Faith. My apologies to him; I have been reading him too lightly all these years. Of course, he says "New Age of Faith," not "New Age Faith." Some people do not get the distinction. He is suggesting that two thousand years ago a Jewish nascent Messiah went off on a tangent we just don't get. As I keep reading what Rehnborg is saying, I keep going, "Oh. Oh. Oh." I’m underlining my underlines.

Rehnborg isolates what Jesus himself taught, whether it be by a human Jesus or the Gospel writers, sans all Pauline Mystery Christology. The only bit of Mystery he keeps is the Visitation of Jesus to Peter and the other disciples at Galilee after Jesus had been buried, dead dead dead, in Jerusalem. This visitation was of a psychic nature, but so convinced the disciples that they died martyrs swearing to it. God appears to people as Jesus? Okay. Not a problem to me.

Rehnborg goes on, though, with Jesus' teaching that the natural order is love, just as God's nature is love. The "Kingdom of God" and the "Rule of God" is the natural law, and nothing else. The law of nature, the nature we steep our toes in all day, is the Manifestation of God, who is Love, Source, Cause, Creator, Provider, and Father. It is "beneficent."

"Well," you say, "Life just don't work that way."

That's the point! It does work that way if we believe and ASK in faith. It only SEEMS to not work if we stay in our ignorance and doubt AND DON'T ASK. It is working all the time; we just aren't seeing with perception. Murphy's Law is the beneficence of God TRYING to turn us to a better way WITHOUT OUR LISTENING.

We may not be able to order God around, but we can in faith trust that he intends better for us. For which we turn to the Lord's Prayer as a statement of faith and confidence. Neville Goddard shared that Ferrar Fenton discovered the Lord's Prayer was badly translated because the Latin it was translated from could not express the original Greek text. (Though the original was obviously Aramaic, the language Jesus and all the disciples spoke.) The first half of the Lord's Prayer forms what Fenton likened to a Standing Order. I.e., it stands as an active commandment ALL OF THE TIME.

I wonder, though, if the rest of the prayer is not of the same nature as the first half. In the second half it switches grammatical form from standard subject-verb sentences to imperatives: give! forgive! lead!

The Lord's Prayer as Ferrar Fenton saw it:
"For your Father knows your necessities before you ask Him.
Consequently, you must pray in this way:
Our Father in the Heavens;
Your name must be being hallowed;
Your kingdom must be being restored;
Your will must be being done, both in Heaven and upon the Earth.
Give us to-day our to-morrow's bread;
And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending us,
For you would not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from its evil."
(Fenton, The Complete Bible in Modern English)

What if we applied the grammatical rule of the first sentences to the imperatives in the second half? The whole thing then becomes a statement of faith in God's rule over the natural order ALL OF THE TIME, the Standing Order of the Kingdom of God, his Rule on earth:

Our Father in the heavens (i.e., the Consciousness in our minds),
Your nature (“name”) must be being hallowed:
Your kingdom (divine power) must be being restored (in nature? in us? as the manner of our living?).
Your will must be being done, on earth as it is in heaven:
--Must be giving us today our tomorrow’s bread.
--Must be forgiving us our faults, as we forgive those offending us.
For you would not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from its evil.

This recognizes God's will is in effect! If God's will must be being done in the natural order, then it must give, must forgive, must lead, and must deliver, ALL OF THE TIME. Jesus said it IS!! He said of prayer, “Believe ye receive.”

Let's agree, and honor God by ASKING, SEEKING, and KNOCKING in this new age of faith.

See: Abbreviated A Standing Order by Neville Goddard and The Lord's Prayer from Fenton's Translation.

Rehnborg’s Resolve: Ask, Do, and Trust

I love exegete Herb Jahn's translation of Matthew 6:6a: "But you, when you pray, enter your pantry and shut your portal."

We call God "Source" and "Cause," and so It is. But that is the point: IT IS SOURCE AND CAUSE!! God’s nature is beneficence, and this benevolent natural law is the power of God usward, the Law of Love. The Law of Love is the law of life (Rehnborg, 387). God Itself is this Law of Love and Provision, and Its relationship to us is that of Father. All It requires of us is that we ask. For if we ask, we honor It as Father, and we as Its sons. Ask, loving God who hears, and our neighbors as ourselves. BUT ASK!! Stipulate precisely what is desired. Raise it up: not just "a job," but wealth, joy, and security.

The will of God is the apparent fact, but the love of God is coming. Ask for what you would have. Expect it has been given, for this is Its standing order. Give to others as God is giving to you, and know that you have what you have asked for. Neville Goddard posed the question often: “Is Imagination Causal?” No. God is, and It is the natural law of the universe. The secret of imagination is that it asks God. Therein are our powers linked as one. Ask! “Men and women ought always to pray, and not faint” (Luke 18:1).

Imagination: A God of Delight

"Delight thyself also in YHWH (the Imagination of the Ineffable!!);
And He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalms 37:4 KJV).

I got to reading C. F. Rehnborg's Jesus and the New Age of Faith again a few nights ago. It is getting harder and harder to find any text in it that is NOT underlined. I have taken to making huge asterisks in the margin for the BIG points. The bigger the insight, the bigger the asterisk. Now I need bigger margins. I was delighted to find that the C. F. Rehnborg Literary Foundation has issued a year 2000 reprint.

Rehnborg was working in China in the 1920's, and was set upon by missionaries there who wanted to convert him to Christianity. He did not buy into their views of the Bible, and instead analyzed and dissected it to find out that the "big deal" in it really was. He excoriates Paul and all the mystical Jesus stuff of his invention, and by shifting out all the "BS" extracts as by miracle what Jesus actually taught. Which is that God is beneficent by nature: loving, giving, out-flowing. That is our calling.

Remember how Jesus' mind filled with the Holy Spirit - God - as a dove? From this he headed east into the wilderness to be with the outcasts. He found God's love and mercy and grace there, without their rote religiosity. That God doesn't care squat for formality and ritual, but for love, mercy, and grace. Rehnborg proffers that faith is to be placed in that love.

I turn that nicely here: I propose that the Ineffable has developed in self-awareness throughout Its existence. That is why we, Its manifestation, are going through this process. IN EACH THING IT HAS DISCOVERED OF ITSELF, IT HAS BEEN DELIGHTED. In each thing that It can do, it has been delighted. The nature of God is to be delighted with himself in all that he is and does. Who wouldn't be if he were him?

Well, we are!! Rehnborg interestingly says concerning Jairus' daughter and Jesus' saying to Jairus, "Fear not; only believe." "Believe what? That Jesus had and would use the power to resurrect the daughter? This is not a possible consideration, because Jesus taught again and again that one accepted the manifest will of God evidenced by the existence of a fact. Jesus had simply said to the father that he was to believe his daughter lived, despite what the others were saying, and that Jesus himself believed it. Again and again, he told individuals that their own faith was what brought a desired result. Never did Jesus say he himself had answered the prayer of the asker, but the 'power of God.' He taught, in nearly the same words over and over again, 'as you believe, so shall it be.' In homely words, Jesus would have had little use for those who go to church to pray for rain and leave their umbrellas at home" (p. 290).

Be delighted! Abraham laughed! Delight is the evidence of faith, the substance of what is not seen but is given. We have received, for God heard what we said . . . in our delight!

Let Me Answer My Own Question (for Aleksandar): Neville Goddard's Period of Extreme Asceticism

I do remember that when Neville met Abdullah, he (Neville) was already an extreme ascetic - "no sex, no drugs, no meat, no anything." This begs the question, why? He had been embraced by the Risen Savior. When? In a meditation that had become palpably real.

Was this the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Not necessarily, but it was real. THAT is the kicker. You are just a normal, normal person; you do normal, normal human things like sex, drugs, and rock and roll; and then in an innocent occult meditation God pops up. For real. Ack! Where'd he come from?

For me, I was in an occult meditation at the metaphysical bookstore in Honolulu, Hawaii, when God opened my mind's eye to see the reality of a deceiving spirit. It bothered me much less that there was a demon than Someone had just opened my mind's eye to see it. It meant that everything I thought I knew about the world was wrong: it really is as the Bible describes. And I was going the wrong way.

These divine events establish that there is a God. What that means, you don't really know, but you know you had better find out. The person to whom they happen does not know anything more than they did before, except now there IS a God. He, or she, has to scramble to make sense of it all from what they already know and from what they can learn, becoming Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, or extreme ascetics.

Jesus was a normal, normal person who was extremely well prepared from his knowledge of the Scriptures. He comes up from baptism by John the Baptizer and his mind's eye sees God as a dove which fuses with him. He walks east from the Jordan into the wilderness, which was inhabited by people outside the kahal, the accepted society of Judaism. In the wilderness he encountered outcasts, demoniacs, biker gangs, bandits and brigands - the wild beasts. This is the perfect context in which to contemplate God. And they give him the answer of what to do about God. Love. God loves them. Love is generous and forgiving. Love heals and brings life. Love does not hold to pomp and ceremony and rituals, but to love. Love is the one nobility of God. The world is its manifestation. So Jesus walks back into the kahal preaching the Gospel: You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. For God is Love, and loving is God.

On A Divine Event, for Aleksandar

Again, I received in a personal e-mail:

Hello Dan,

I would be very grateful if you could help me with understanding the sequence of the Divine events that Neville is telling us about in his recordings and his workbooks.

Neville mentions four Divine events that every child born of woman will experience, and I quote from A Divine Event:

"There are four definite acts in the single event, which begin with your resurrection. This is followed by your birth from above. Then David reveals your fatherhood, and the fourth and final act appears when you ascend into heaven in a serpentine form and enter it violently, clothed in power."

However, Neville also mentions that in 1929 (24 yrs old) he stood in the presence of the Risen Lord and was incorporated into his body of love. This was before he met Abdullah. In his case, this event preceded four described events 30 years before he was born from above, in 1959.

My question would be, is there any record in Bible about this incorporation with Lord's body - or this can be experienced only by God's grace? Are we all destined to experience this event first before all the others?

Being an absolute believer into teachings of Neville, and having manifested several extraordinary things in my life by the use of my Imagination, I wonder why I have not experienced no visions or events that Neville is speaking about.

All the best,
Aleksandar
_________________________________

Hello again, Aleksandar.

I noticed (with Google's help) that the quote you gave from Neville is from "A Divine Event." In A Divine Event, Neville discusses the baptism in the Holy Spirit; i.e., the becoming of a Christian. For "no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit," and that can only be after receiving the Holy Spirit in that baptism. AFTER that, one has visions.

"The discovery of the God within is the one far-off divine event to which creation moves." Creation is God's imagination OF A GOAL TO BE REACHED. All of the "born-again" process/experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit Neville calls resurrection. It is the first resurrection. He calls the coming-out-of-the-skull (the awakening of God's rule in one's life?) the "new birth":

"Christmas is the awakening of God in man. It’s not an event which took place 2,000 years ago, but is taking place all over the world in those who have reached the fullness of time. When the fullness of time has come for you, you begin to stir, to awaken from this dream of death and come out of your skull, which is your birth from above. These two events take place the same night. We separate them by three and a half months, and then add a few months to the discovery of the fatherhood of God, then more time to the ascension of the spirit; but there are four parts of the one grand event. The first is resurrection. The second is birth. The third is the discovery of the fatherhood through the son, and the fourth is the ascension: the rising of the son of man (who you are) into heaven in a serpentine form."

Now, you ask if there is record in the Bible of incorporation with the Lord's body. Well, let me clarify something. Neville said all to frequently that we will all have exactly the same experience. Yes and no. We all have the same experience, but not necessarily in the same way. God is not so in a box that he speaks the same to me as to you, and the baptism is his speech. Neville saw incorporation in one way, I saw it in another. In the Gospel example, Jesus was just a man as you or I and the heavens opened - IN HIS MIND INSIGHT FROM ABOVE - and he saw the Holy Spirit as a dove rest upon him. Same thing.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My manifestation and preaching are not through deliverance by words of wisdom, except through the revelation of the Spirit and power. So as your faith may not be in the service of humanity, except through the power of God" (Alexander). That is, when the Corinthians were converted to Christianity, it was not that they agreed and assented to Paul's preaching, it was that they experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit and God's power was REVEALED to them.

If you have not had Pentecost to receive the Spirit (from inside), how can you experience the Spirit? Does this make non-Pentecostals second-class Christians? No. It makes them not-Christian-in-reality. But nothing is stopping them.

Thank you again for the question.
Dan Steele

PS: I answer my own question.

Was Neville "Baptized in the Holy Spirit" in 1929?

I received in a personal e-mail:

Hello Dan,

I would be very grateful if you could help me with understanding the sequence of the Divine events that Neville is telling us about in his recordings and his workbooks.

Neville mentions four Divine events that every child born of woman will experience, and I quote from A Divine Event:

"There are four definite acts in the single event, which begin with your resurrection. This is followed by your birth from above. Then David reveals your fatherhood, and the fourth and final act appears when you ascend into heaven in a serpentine form and enter it violently, clothed in power."

However, Neville also mentions that in 1929 (24 yrs old) he stood in the presence of the Risen Lord and was incorporated into his body of love. This was before he met Abdullah. In his case, this event preceded four described events 30 years before he was born from above, in 1959.

My question would be, is there any record in Bible about this incorporation with Lord's body - or this can be experienced only by God's grace? Are we all destined to experience this event first before all the others?

Being an absolute believer into teachings of Neville, and having manifested several extraordinary things in my life by the use of my Imagination, I wonder why I have not experienced visions or events that Neville speaks about.

All the best,
Aleksandar
______________________________________________

Hello, Aleksandar. Thank you for the most excellent question. I will answer it twice, because I know only a little bit of the answer off the top of my head, and I need to reflect awhile on what the Bible says about it. Thus an initial e-mail reply, edited here (I hope you do not mind my editing your e-mail a little, also), and more in my next post:

You are right. I have to admit I have missed the 1929 date up until now (sorry, just glossed over it). That event was obviously a conversion experience. Some of the story is in the lecture "God Only Acts." Neville was a dancer in New York. A nominal Christian, but backslidden, worldly, with "sins as scarlet" ("I have done everything that a man is capable of doing.") But in 1929 he must have heard the Gospel afresh, repented, and have been forgiven, and his sins/deviations from God's will became "as white as snow." The realization of forgiveness causes emotional ecstasy, and Neville received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The process of baptism included his being embraced by the Risen Savior (Jesus) as God's Love, which he is, and by Eil, the Shaddai - God as Pure Power, which Jesus (i.e., YHWH, not the human) also is. The baptism in the Holy Spirit has immense impact upon those who enjoy it.

Yes, this baptism can only be experienced by God's grace WHICH WAS PROMISED AND IS ALREADY "GIVEN" TO US. Only the receiving part by us has yet to be done. After this genuine "born again" experience comes the visions and such, much of which is discussed in the Epistles. I will try to pinpoint some specific passage for you in my blog, later. The big thing for you, now, is the fact that the "several extraordinary things" which have happened in your life indicate the working of God's love for you. They do not work on their own. Listen to that. God is in you, aware of you.

From "God Only Acts":

"The world teaches that another is love and completely unattainable, but I tell you that though your sins are as scarlet, when you are embraced by love, they shall be as white as snow. I have done everything that a man is capable of doing, but when I was embraced by love everything that I had done up to that point became as white as snow. No one on earth can save you. You are saved by the grace of God and since it’s not your own doing, there is no way you can boast."

(Continued next post)

Dan Steele