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.
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.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
2:02 PM
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