Easter, the Great Feast of Christianity: a Short Look at "Story of Jesus" by Victor Alexander

I think the following excerpt from Vic Alexander's Story of Jesus From His Own Words is apropos for Easter morning. It is from John 12, appearing on pages 145 to 147 in one printing Story of Jesus, and on pages 110-113 in the other (I just happen to have both):
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"If someone becomes my servant they shall follow me, and where I go there also my servants shall go. And whoever serves me shall find favor with my Father.

"My being is troubled now, and what shall I say, 'Father, deliver me from this hour'? But it is to fulfill this hour that I have come. (Edit: emphasis mine; this is the meaning of the Aramaic in Mark 15:34!)

"Creator, glorify your name."

And a voice sounded from heaven: "Be glorified! And again glorify!"

This is the moment when the Creator gave His name to His Son. That is what Umma-noo-Eil means - which was spoken of in Matthew 1:23. In English the name has been changed to 'Emanuel.' The name is not 'Emanuel' in the ancient Aramaic language; His name is Ummanoeil. That 's how it should be written and explained. So 'Emanuel' was not a name; it described Eashoa: He was 'Eil in the flesh.' (Edit: Immanuel was not Jesus' name, it is a description of what He, the Milta--the Manifestation of Allaha, IS, God-in-the-flesh!)

And the people that stood by heard it and said, "An angel spoke with him."

"It was not for my sake that this utterance was heard," replied Eashoa. "But for your sake.

"Now the judgment of this universe is at hand. Now the ruler of the world here shall be cast out. And as I surely will rise out of the earth, I shall empower every human being to come to Me." (Edit: here is Matthew 11:28--He GIVES the power to actually go to Him.)

Eashoa Msheekha was speaking of His Crucifixion.

This he said to show by what death He would die.

The crowds said to Him, "We have understood from the Law that the Msheekha shall rule to eternity, how can you say that the raising of the Son of Man was predestined? Who is this Son of Man?"

Eashoa said to them, "For a short while longer, walk in the light, those who have the light, so that the darkness does not overtake you. Whoever walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light walk in the light, so you will be known as the children of light."

These things Eashoa spoke to them, and then He went where He would not be seen by them.

And even as he performed all these miracles before them, they did not believe in Him. So the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, who said, Maryah, who believes upon hearing us, and to whom is the Arm to be revealed? (The reference is to Eashoa Msheekha being the Right Arm of Maryah Allaha - this is what 'He sits from the Right of the Father' means.) (Edit: Eashoa, Jesus, does not advocate for us at the right of the Father; Eashoa, the Life-giver, IS the Right of the Father. All goodness and blessing comes from the power of God HE IS.)
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"But it is to fulfill this hour that I have come." This is the meaning of the Aramaic words in the Aramaic New Testament in Mark 15:34 - "Eil, Eil, l'mana shwiq-tani." That is, "Allaha, Allaha, wherefore did you destined me" (page 177/137). In other words, "For this you destined me" (found on age page 9/5). Jesus was not saying, "Why have you forsaken me?" He was saying, "HERE I AM!" For God is revealed in His self-giving. God destined Eashoa, the Life-giving Right Arm Manifestation of Himself, to be the cleansing agent of Daniel chapter 9:24. ASK for His forgiveness, receive His power to approach Him, and GO.

The Story of Jesus From His Own Words is a keeper. And no, I do not get paid by Vic, I just want you and yours to know the real Jesus, Marran Eashoa Msheekha, the Milta, IN THE PRESENT.

Another Note From Vic Alexander

I replied to Vic saying I had shared his Easter greeting with everyone. He said:

"Glad you like it, Dan.  Of course, I'm glad you shared it.  I am planning to bring back online my Bible translation project website www.v-a.com.  It's going to cost me $1,000 per year for the webhosting and domain, and I must have a credit card, which I don't anymore.  All my credit cards have been denied to me by the issuers.  I'm off the Internet essentially -- Vic Alexander"

Can anyone help Vic get v-a.com back online? I know he was born May 7, 1943, which puts him broaching 81 years old, and that he was ill for quite awhile. He doesn't have a lot of money, or income--a thousand dollars is difficult to come by. . . . in this world, that is. Let's see him in that world, the Bible world, having everything he needs, bills PAID, and v-a.com online enjoyed by and enriching everyone. And if you can help in the physical . . . 

A Happy Eidah Goorah--"Great Feast" of the Church of the East--Easter! From Victor Alexander

I sent Victor Alexander a Great Feast greeting e-mail (vicalexander37@gmail.com). He responded with the note below. He addressed it to me, of course, but I share it with you:

Happy Easter, everyone.

In Baghdad, Iraq, where I grew up, the Church of the East celebrated Easter for seven days. I grew up Presbyterian because my father Nimrud and his father Dr. Alexander was a convert to the Presbyterian faith. Originally Dr. Alexander was a member of the Church of the East. Before WW I, the Presbyterian missionaries came from Princeton University to North Iran, where there were a lot of Assyrians (remnants of the Assyrian Empire, who had lived at peace with the Persians before Islam came) with the Prophet Muhammad in 700 Christian Era.

My grandfather attended the Presbyterian Medical College in Qallah, in Urmia, North Iran. (You can look in YouTube under Assyrian Church of the East in Urmi, Iran, and you will see the St. Mary's Church of the East there, which is a 2nd century Church; it is where my grandfather Dr. Alexander was buried in the graveyard next to the Church.)

Back to Easter. The Assyrians in Baghdad went to Church for seven days. On Thursday, they had palms in their hands. (Liv and I brought palm fronds in our hands and Liv placed them behind the picture of Jesus, which she bought in San Francisco when we first married.) Liv always says grace and blesses the food whenever we eat, saying the words, "In the name of Jesus Christ Eashoa Msheekha bless this food."

On Thursday Jesus sorrowed, when he was arrested and tried by Caiaphas. The Pontius Pilate tried him and found him guilty for calling himself the King of the Jews. On Friday, Jesus was crucified. On Saturday he lay in the tomb. And on Sunday, He Rose!

The Assyrians in Baghdad, me and women and young teenagers also, they stayed up all night on Saturday in the Church until the morning when Easter was celebrated on Sunday morning. They did not sleep for 24 hours! The Assyrians used to celebrate Easter seven days. On Monday morning, we brought colored eggs (dyed with color patterns -- Easter eggs) and the children 'fought' with eggs and they won many of them.

Again, wishing you a Happy Easter,
Vic Alexander
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And a very happy Easter to you and Liv, Vic.

Please see Another Note From Vic Alexander

Our Contribution (This is Four)

Our lives are the Divine's Life in Its becoming manifest. This is not magic we are learning, not voodoo conjuring for self-gratification. We are in service to the ineffable Most High (...?) Itself, for this is Its Life. It has become us, that we might become It manifest. If you would, this is the process of producing the picture of the Ineffable. The very name Adam in the ancient Aramaic language (Genesis 2:7 per Alexander) is Adam-tha: "portrait." The picture is the priority. Being God's portrait--presenting His picture--is what we live for.

What is our contribution to the process, our role and our function? We imagine--believe is, assume--that which It becomes. We set the course and sail the ship as It manifests as our projection. It is not without reason that we are to think on and advocate "those things that are true, modest, righteous, pure, merciful, praiseworthy, and those acts of glorification and virtue" (Philippians 4:8 Alexander). We think on those good things to literally replace these bad things, things that are unlike God. Jesus' thoughts on the cross, forgiving the religious leaders who crucified Him, like Jehoshaphat's praise army, destroyed the enemy--their unlike-Godness.

We are on the cross. That is what life in the flesh is, initially. The Son of God CREATES the heavens and the earth, but the created things are ignorant of what they are when they first come into existence. In this they are unlike God. Ignorance rules until God-likeness comes forth, until He is seen in and as the Manifestation. Being of like mind as God in what we think and do is our war. Getting God-likeness assumed is our contribution; getting our assumption manifest is His. We are to cooperate with the rest of the One. We pitch, He hits.

So, what are we to do? Pray without ceasing, rejoice continuously, praise God with hearts full of gratitude and thanksgiving for what we believe IS, think and assume God-likeness in place of every instance of God-unlikeness. Advocate for right, be gentle and merciful, help and teach the poor, provide and share--you know the drill of being good and loving, teaching and preaching the Word, and giving your other tunic. Let your hands be Milta--God's hands--and lay them on the sick that God might heal them. Be in the Bible world while dwelling in this world. Hold onto your evidences of God in faith for strength, forgiving those who do not yet see them, while you change those who persecute you. They will see. Eventually, they certainly will.

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PS Edit: It occurred to me, what is the life-review most near-death experiencers of death say they go through after they die ("and then my whole life flashed before my eyes")? Could it be a look for instances of our having presented God's portrait in our lives? We don't want to be an "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). Give 'em something to look at.

From Rabbi Manis Friedman on our purpose in the universe.

The Manifestation is Becoming (This is Three)

The Ineffable wants to be manifest. It knows exactly what It is going to be like when It is fully manifest, and It has assumed that It is fully manifest. To the Ineffable, Its Manifestation fully and completely exists. That assumed Manifestation, the Milta (Greek: Logos), IS verily God, the very Consciousness of the Ineffable, with all His attributes. The Ineffable's actual manifestation, though, takes time to bring into full fruition. Its final manifestation has to gestate, to be pieced together, be cultivated, cultured, brewed to attain just the right quality of flavor. It is a composition that must be very carefully built and tweaked to perfection in all dimensions.

We are the stew becoming God's Manifestation, God's People, capital 'G' and 'P'. For we are the manifesting of the Manifestation of the Ineffable; i.e., we are BECOMING His revelation. We are to live His life . . . as our own . . . for Him. To do this, right mind must be inculcated and cultivated in us. We will each be God's own Person manifest--THAT's why we are people in the first place. The assumed Milta becomes full and real as we become, so He has His eyes and mind on us. He is monitoring us and is guiding us.

God is watching not from a distance, but from inside us, from right behind our minds. His intelligence has become everything, including our bodies, our consciousness, and our imagination. All is that intelligence manifest, assuming to be what it believes it is; i.e., all is imagination!

We are approaching what is practical. "All is that intelligence manifest." These states we presently exist in have become. They are not like our imagination--they were our imagination, but we limit what we call imagination to that which has not become real yet and is still imaginary. After imagination has become our present state, we call it "reality." Are you listening? All is imagination--past, present, and future. We pass through IMAGINED states on the way to becoming the Manifestation of the Ineffable.

How are you doing? The key is what we think. God's goals are the quality of our minds--our thoughts, our values, our integrity and love and forbearance. Our present reality is a simulation of those qualities as God cultivates His nature and His character in us. Why do bad things happen to good people? Priorities. God has His goals, which include the quality of our thoughts in dire, trying times. The crucifixion (our present experience of the flesh) is not necessarily a happy time. Can we imagine RIGHT, CORRECTLY, as He would? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34 Alexander).

What is good is that we can choose our thoughts, especially and specifically the nature of our thoughts, as Eashoa did at that moment. In our thoughts, our beliefs, we hold the key to the future. We are not here as a party for our pleasure, but for our and the world's cultivation as the manifestation of the Eternal Most High. If we are right in thought, any experience of death, pain, or suffering is only a temporary state to pass through. What good we have held to in our imagination will come to pass. The Hebrew for that is hayah (Strong's 1961), to be/ to become, which in the forms AHWH and YHWH are the names of God. Choose well.

Continued in You

The Universal Medium is a Person (This is Two)

Enter eternity. No, not you, I mean as a condition the consciousness of the Ineffable is in. A kazillion years in the past, times a kajillion. We cannot comprehend eternity, which doesn't even have time or years. There is an (...?), and . . . ? Its consciousness. With which It has plenty of time to think. Time to think of what It is, what It can do, what It wants to be, and how to get there.

Two things here: one is imagination. Without a body of any sort, imagining is all that a conscience can do. Except for two, the Ineffable's intelligence is powerful to become--literally--whatever It assumes that It IS. And It has plenty of time to become. I believe we see this alluded to in double-slit experiments, wherein power is wave-form until someone observes it, at which time it becomes particulate. I am a caption scientist - I only know what I read in the captions of the pictures - but I am sure many real scientists marvel at how it is that man is the off-and-on switch of this process. But I have an idea:

My idea is that the Ineffable No-thing, in all Its imaginings, imagined form, and wanted it. Having no form for action but Its consciousness, It imagined what it would be like for Its consciousness to be manifest, and then assumed that It was. Assumption means to believe that it actually is, and in the Ineffable's consciousness, Its imagination, Its manifestation is as real, full, and complete as real gets. To the Ineffable, the essential connotation of Its being EXISTENT IN FORM is Its Manifestation, the Milta (Alexander). The Milta is that Person, not just personified or represented, but is the Ineffable Person ACTUALLY manifested in form.

Too many Gods for you? There is just the one in nonmanifest AND manifest states. One Guy, two states, one greater than the other, for the manifest is locked into following whatever the nonmanifest thinks and wills: "Thy Kingdom must be being restored; Thy will must be being done, as in heaven so also on earth" (Matthew 6:10). Two, two, two Gods in one: the lesser Person, the Milta, we can know; the greater, the Ineffable, we cannot.

The greater Person is manifested in the Milta. Where do we see Him? In His manifestation . . . us. "But He is Creator; we are idiots." The Milta is ASSUMED, assumed to be real, full, and complete by the Ineffable, which is power to become whatever It assumes that It is. But It isn't . . . yet. The nature and character of the Ineffable takes time to develop, to cultivate, to generate into Its likeness. WE ARE IDIOTS UNTIL HIS NATURE AND CHARACTER BE GENERATED IN US.

Continued next post.

The Field is a Person (This is One)

In 1975 Jesus spoke directly into my mind as an audible voice. I was rather shocked and surprised that He could do that, that His power could transcend from where He was in heaven to right inside the aural nerves of my brain, causing me to hear Him clearly without physical sound waves entering either ear. The most shocking thing was that He was monitoring my thoughts and was aware of what I was thinking at just that moment, and was over me as a farmer tying to get a weak plant to grow.

Me? I was 25, enjoying living in Hawaii in the back of a pickup truck (don't try it; it's illegal), getting by on savings and unemployment. I rode my bicycle around, sailed with friends, ate ice cream at the Ilikai Hotel, read books in the lounge of the Hilton at night, showered at the yacht harbor I parked in--I was a happy-go-lucky Navy Veteran . . . bum. I was a nothing, a bum living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Why the heck was Jesus watching over and listening to me, would even expend the energy to speak to me?

I recognized immediately that if He would speak to a worthless nobody like me, then certainly He has spoken to many other people over the years, people who were intelligent, capable, involved with society. Many of them must have written down what he said to them, organized and published it. I determined right then to go out to find what Jesus has said to other people.

I was in Hawaii; I called my mother in California. She said there was a Bible School I might be able to attend there and get veterans' benefits. I started at Melodyland School of Theology that September as a junior. I was two-points below zero in qualifications for junior college, let alone college or university.

I say all that to say this: I studied theology, not religion. I wanted to learn what God is, what Jesus is, how and why He spoke into the aural nerves of my brain, and, basically, what the heck is going on. What is He doing this for? Why does the Life the Holy Ghost is seem to come and go?

Forty-nine years later, I can say that "God" is caused by Something Infinitely Greater, an ineffable, unknowable "No-thing" I sometimes designate as either the Ineffable or as the (...?). That incomprehensible No-thing is nevertheless CONSCIOUS, and Its consciousness is what we call God, the Allahoota (Aramaic for Godhood). The Ineffable's consciousness is like an electromagnetic field, a medium of intelligence and power that is everywhere all at once. Here is the rub: although the medium of the Ineffable's consciousness is universal, It is a PERSON. Pick any speck anywhere at any time in all the universe/ universes, and you touch that Person. The whole of everything is Him. Sorry ladies, but yes, you too.

Continued next post.

Luke 11:8 Backwards and Forward

The King James suggests that God will provide for us if we importune:

"And he from within shall answer and say, 'Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.' I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."

We have sometimes got to push God, right? Go boldly before the throne and demand, right? He gives because of OUR importunity, right? Niet.

Victor Alexander's translation from the Ancient Aramaic says God is more than willing, will do what is right because that is His nature:

"And he replies from inside and says to him, 'Do not bother me. Behold, the door is locked and my children are in bed with me. I cannot rise and give you [the bread].' I tell you, that if not out of a sense of kinship he does it, then surely because of his integrity he will rise and give him as much as he wants* (I tell you, that if because of kinship he will not not give it to him, he will rise and give him as much as he wants because of his persistent sense of duty."

Jesus was saying that God has integrity, of Himself a persistent sense of duty, beyond that of kinship with us for which He answers prayers. His is an integrity we can trust. Jesus' message is:

"I also tell you, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find it. Knock and it will be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives, and [whoever] seeks, finds, and [whoever] knocks, it will be opened to him" (Luke 11:9-10 Alexander).

It isn't because of us; it is because of HIM! If God has this persistent sense of duty, His Manifestation the Milta has it, too. And if the Milta is to us Eashoa, Jesus, . . .

The End of America: Frank C. Laubach, William Marrion Branham, Daisy Osborn, and the Patience of God

I am chagrined, embarrassed, and ashamed that I did not exert myself more in foreign missions, in prayer, Bible study, or hands-on ministry. Like my uncle, I was virtually boarding the boat to China, and like him, I decided to stay here. I had even gotten a certificate in TESL so that I could support myself overseas. Now I am seeing how utterly miserable the world is for the unsaved. Mankind--I watch especially the Chinese--suffers great desperation, deprivation, oppression, pain, and death for rejecting god, while my life is oh so sweet here in sunny Southern California. I, like most other Christians on this shore, have been counting on God's forgiving grace for my lack of action. We sit on our chaise lounges watching the lawn grow, unmindful and sadly uncaring for those who are crying, dying, and have nowhere to turn, because they have never heard of the true God. I have heard many times that God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if He does not judge America.

Said Marley to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (see 18:45), "Mankind was my business!!" As it is ours, because it is the Milta's. Dr. Frank C. Laubach, the greatest and most compassionate missionary I have ever heard of, foresaw America's destruction if it did not wage a war of amazing love for sake of the poor and downtrodden of the world, against Marxist Communism. He warned that America would either wake up to its responsibilities to the world, or it (America) would be blown up. William Marrion Branham saw America "all blow-ed up, everything shattered everywhere" in a day when people would enjoy egg-shaped, self-driving cars, and this he saw in 1933!" "Vision Seven: The voice bade him look once more. As he turned and beheld, a great explosion rent the entire land, and left the land of America a smoldering, chaotic ruin. As far as the eye could see there was naught but craters, smoking piles of debris, and no humanity in sight. The vision then faded away."

End-Time Vision by Daisy Osborn (the late wife of Brother TL. Osborn):

I lay sleepless and horrified, greatly vexed in the Spirit. The Lord visited and showed me things that will shortly come to pass. The JUDGMENT and WRATH of God will soon bring disaster and havoc to the world we live in. The DIE is CAST. God’s clock is set. TIME is running out.

In a VISION I saw the face of the earth and the changing of the shape of America. It was drastically altered and reduced in size through terrible disasters. Hunger and suffering were everywhere. The devastation caused by volcanic eruptions and fires were widespread and horrifying during this terrible holocaust.

I saw Christians clustering together’ from all walks of life and many church affiliations. They did not care about their sectarian doctrines. The tie that bound them in their desperate hour was their common faith in Christ. They clung together as though their survival depended upon each other. After these terrifying cataclysmic events which the Lord showed me all the evils of sectarianism and apostasy vanished among the Christians desperate struggle to draw strength from one another. Those who had been lukewarm cast aside besetting sins, and sought identity with the true believers.

Sins were repented of and amends were made. A new sense of values gripped the conscience of Believers. The new morality standard and modern license for laxity, was like a remorseful hangover.

Most of the Christians in the “visitation” were amazed that WE were experiencing the TERRIBLE DAY OF THE LORD!!! and WE were witnessing His WRATH and JUDGMENT!!! Many “social Christians” were ill prepared. Their frivolous, unwatchful, imprudent lives had GAMBLED on Mercy & Grace, which they had thought required no reckoning EVER!!!

I saw hordes of believers lost among the religious and Christ Jesus rejecters. As I looked, I saw where mountains were flattened. Believers were FLEEING to the desert to take shelter in caves and rocks. The DESOLATION was so terrible that it seemed NO ONE would be spared, (Luke 21:34-36 KJV) Matthew 24:20-22) All but a few were full of remorse. Lamentations could be heard everywhere.

It was heartening to observe that during the FEARSOME DISASTERS, UNSHAKABLE FAITH held like an ANCHOR among the Christians. They knew they would SOON see the SON coming in the clouds of heaven with Power and Glory!

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My point is that today's peace, if you want to call it that, is T. A. D.--temporary assigned duty. We are not in a part of the world that escapes God's judgment. If you are a deconverter, a deconstructionist, take another look around at the EVIDENCE that the Bible is true, and repent in heart. God is only so patient with us before He moves on with what He is doing. We get cultivated, generated into His likeness as His Manifestation nicely, by our own submission, or not-so-nicely by His rejection of our self-lordship. It is definitely better to go His way today.

This World, That World

I am trying to get this clear. We think that this physical world and that spiritual world are different. This is because they seem to operate differently. Actually, though, both worlds operate the same. It is just that we operate differently in this world. God is doing the same thing in both worlds, creating the heavens and the earth, but we are acting stupidly in this one. We think that because this world is physical, we've got to do it. But this world is just the manifestation of that one, and it operates THE SAME. So we are continually flapping our wings trying to get things done, while we could just believe, rest, and trust. That actually is a tall order, because we do have to do right, which are not necessarily physical things, but attitudinal. Boy, there's a word for you.

This world is that world manifest, which confuses the heck out of us. Why can we not just operate as being in that world? We got disconnected by amnesia and its resultant ignorance. Through God's redemption of us by the Milta, Jesus, we can be reconnected, but we do not do it; the connection has to be given--made from that side. Those who have been imbued with Life know it is true; it wells up inside flowing in and up as from somewhere else, as if there was a gate between the worlds that had been opened. That TELLS us that the worlds are one, but we just don't get it. We get back to business, back to doing things that have to get done.

Well, we can practice manifesting that world, living in and by its attitudes and thoughts and values. We can practice being as a child, trusting and asking our Father for whatever we think He would like for us to have and experience. Just as we practice asking, we can practice surrendering, submitting, trusting, waiting, imagining, having. No force, just humility and love, gratitude and appreciation--humble thanksgiving. We ask, "What do you want me to do?" and then do whatever good thing comes to mind.

The Bible world is the real one, and this world is the manifestation of it. This is like an illusion, a simulation, or a display. We think we are doing, but we believed, and it is happening. We first believe a thing, and then it appears. We want a thing, and the want appears. We fear a thing, and it happens. We want a thing NOT to happen, but all that is seen in the imagination is the thing happening, and it does (e.g., "Don't see me" = "See me"). What is happening in this world is the Bible world. We have got to learn to operate in this world like in that world, because it is. Seek the connection in faith. Ask.

I hear the rebuff: "I would never imagine or believe in childhood cancer." Well, do you believe we are in a world in which there is, in which there can be childhood cancer? "Well, yes." There you go.

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By 'thinking', 'believing', 'wanting', 'imagining,' 'how the world operates', I mean the Law of Assumption as detailed by Neville Goddard in the last century. The Ineffable assumes, and that is "God." What It assumes It has the power to cause to become form and experience in what we call reality. THAT is what we can and are to become connected to by the forms of our minds. THAT’S what the Bible is about.

We pass through states or conditions—“mansions”—of existence. The Ineffable has already assumed all good and evil, every possibility and potentiality. And from every one He knows how to get back to Him

Ask

We do not forgive ourselves, nor do we accept ourselves. Vern (see Heading For Healing 41: Our Hands As His Hands) ASKED that his hands be Jesus' hands, and I was healed. Finis Jennings Dake's note (p) on Matthew 10: 1 says, "The secret of power. One cannot receive it until it is given and one will not have to "take it by faith" after it is given (Jn. 3:27; Rom. 8:25)" (bold emphasis mine). Jesus GAVE them the power to heal. So much for doctrinal baptism with the Holy Ghost. We do not HAVE it; we RECEIVE it. ASK FOR IT. Ask for manifestation, for what you desire. Asking first indicates that you believe in Him, and second that He is your Lord, the Milta. The Milta IS the Big Guy manifest. Ask, knock, and seek AS A CHILD. Be as innocent as Adam and Eve BEFORE the fall. THAT is where we are redeemed to.

Strike more arrows (2 Kings 13:18-19), have more askers (if two agree, Matthew 18:19-20), be more dedicated and devoted (fast, Matthew 17:21), be perfect, pure in faith (Matthew 5:8) . . . become like a little child (Matthew 18:3).

This World and the Land of Babes

This goes back to the first thought I had after being baptized with the Holy Ghost: the Bible's world is the real one. This world we learn of through experience and our educational system is not the real world. This world depends on the laws of physics. That world depends on the Spirit. This world must deal with what is here--heat, moisture, pressure, available resources, what little intelligence we have. That world just does what it pleases: "As the Beginning, the Son of God, the Milta (the Manifestation of the Consciousness of the Ineffable Being) CREATES the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 as I read Alexander). Creates. It is a presently happening thing--nothing is locked in.

We, Adam and Eve that we are (Divine Consciousness and imagination in amnesia), wanted to become our own god. We ate of the Tree Life which gives the knowledge of good and evil . . . in ignorant rebellion. We plan and do. The Spirit world operates for babes. Things are given. (Jesus) said, "I acknowledge your will, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and educated, and revealed them to children. Indeed, my Father, for this was your original intention" (Matthew 11:25-26 Alexander, emphases mine). God's original intention was that we be children, babes, to whom He could reveal His Kingdom. We blew it as gods--should have stayed slack-jawed kids. We must become babes again, believing we receive, for then we will have.

The Most Important Verse in the Bible: Matthew 11:28, "Come Unto Me," Says the Milta

To me, the most important words in the Bible to me are Jesus' beckoning, found in Matthew 11:28: "Come unto Me." For these three words (KJV!) were spoken directly into my brain as an audible voice by Jesus, as I watched Him being crucified for me in my imagination (when it breaks into sound, it is a vision"--Neville). I did not then know how to go to Him, but it was certainly implied that it was possible, for He would not order anyone to do what they could not possibly do.

I have lived my Christian life assuming that invitation, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," was an appeal broadly given to anyone who was having a hard time in life or felt taxed trying to be righteous under the Pharisaical version of the Law of Moses.

Recently, considering the invite's context, I happened to read Victor Alexander's version of Matthew 11:12 from the ancient Aramaic. It is more focused than I thought. "From the days of John the Baptist until now* (i.e., henceforth), the Kingdom of Heaven will be gained by austerity, and the disciplined shall win it." Oh. It is the disciplined disciple who labors under austerity to whom Jesus, the Milta, is speaking. Jesus is saying, "Hey, dude, lighten up. It's not that hard. You are to be as an obedient but learning CHILD. Don't be overly severe or serious." Go to Him in your imagination. That is where I was WITH Jesus at that moment. He gives the seeker rest in being there. Give it all the tones of reality.

"Overcome The World" --The World Being The Idea That We Are Separate From God And Not Of The Milta

What was the lie Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden? "You will become like God." Satan's lie (i.e., our ignorance's lie, from our limited experience of the world) was that Eve was separate from God, that she was not already Him, but could become like Him, herself a god. This is the lie of lies, the heresy of heresies--that we are separate from God, yet it is the modern-day Western church's basic Christian doctrine! I personally believe in creatio ex nihilo--creation out of nothing--except the "nothing" everything is created out of is the Ineffable No-thing, the Most High (...?) Itself. That No-thing has consciousness, which we call God, and God imagines, assumes, creating the heavens and the earth.

There isn't a separate, second nothing divided from God from which God created the world. Everything comes from the conscience the Divine Existence, the eternal No-thing, has of Itself. The Divine Intelligence imagines, and Its intelligence has the power for what It imagines Itself to be--i.e., to literally become physically existent. It is the agency: what It assumes It is, It becomes. I.e., the intelligence of the ineffable No-thing Itself literally TRANSITIONS from imagination into physical existence by assuming that It actually is what It imagines. This imagining, assumption, is God's "speech." Thus by Its speaking the Ineffable's intelligence--i.e., Its power and Its wisdom--has become all creation. It imagines, "I am light," and It becomes light. We think light is particulate, and it becomes particulate. By Its assumption all this world--including ourselves--is Him, the Milta.

It isn't that I do not believe in the Wholly Other, it's just that I believe that the Wholly Other has become all of this, the Milta. The No-thing has a conscience which by assumption becomes material. The Divine Conscience is the first manifestation of Wholly Other, and we are manifestations of that Manifestation. There is constant connection maintained throughout the transitions: the manifestations are still Him, the Ineffable, but they--we--do not know it and have to discover it. The Bible is addressed to the imagination in us to help us do just that. We become as babes.

We are born into this world not knowing our connection to God, not having the foggiest clue that we are in any way, shape, or form the manifestation of the Divine Being Itself, and most Christians do not believe it. They actively and urgently reject the notion, calling God a liar: "We have only ourselves and what is right in front of us, and that's it; we have no connection with God whatsoever."

The most excited reaction I ever get, unfortunately negative, is when I suggest to a Christian that we are in fact the manifestation of God, and thus are God Himself, even in this ignorant state. Their heads snap back and their minds race to the scene in Genesis where Satan lies to Eve, "You shall be as God." "Why," they charge, "that's the lie Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden!" To them, creatio ex nihilo means that God created the universe, including us, out of a separate nothing that was not a part of Himself, a nothing somehow "over there," in which He operates by some sort of remote control, maintaining always a division between Himself and that which He creates, never actually touching it. He speaks and wills things into existence "over here" without any direct involvement. This, they say, is the Biblical doctrine.

Yeah, well, no. I have never taken enough drugs to believe anything like that. Satan's lie was that we shall become as God. What if our ignorance could have said, "You already ARE God. The Divine is present in you continuously. You are just freshly in this state and are ignorant of what you are in it, because you do not see or perceive what God is doing in it. There isn't anything separate from God, because He Who is "there" has become everything that is "here." Our being Him is nothing to be puffed up or arrogant about, but to be humble and honored and thankful for. God has made us to exist, to Live!! It is right for us to Live for Him."

Ignorance, of course, cannot speak that way. It is the idea of Creation being separate from God, the idea that our experience in the world gives us, that is to be overcome. The Holy Spirit is constantly testifying to our being one with God--"HEAR, O ISRAEL, . . . " (Deuteronomy 6:4). We are to BELIEVE it. "Repent, and believe the Gospel." "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free." "You in Me, and I in them."

Correction to Seed Bag Theory

July 4th, 2023, I posted a theory of what the ancient gods carried in their ubiquitous seed bags. My post was The Message of the Seed Bag: God's Purpose in the Cosmos. Today I watched a video which sheds, perhaps, more light on the subject. Interestingly suggested is that the gods took with them and possibly disseminated evil or wickedness (technology and government) from their bags. Take all of this with the proverbial grain of salt.

See Bible's Astonishing Explanation of the Ancient "Alien" Handbag Controversy - What Are They?

and Writings of the Watchers Discovered in PRE FLOOD City Describes End of the World - Gobekli Tepe

Grab a block of salt. Never interpret from the KJV. The ancient Aramaic says something entirely different:

Zechariah 5 (per Alexander):

1. Then* (And) I turned and saw a scythe that flies.
2. And he said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I saw a scythe that is flying; its length is twenty arm-lengths and its width ten arm-lengths."
3. And he said to me, "This is the curse that comes out upon the face of all the earth, because whoever steals, it is by* (from) her that he is rewarded and whoever swears, it is by* (from) her that he is rewarded."
4. "I released her,"* ("Bring her out") said the Almighty Lord, "so as to enter the house of the thief and the house of whoever swears falsely by my name, and she shall settle in his house and she shall reduce his timber and his stones."

5. And there emerged the angel who spoke through me, and he said, "Raise your eyes and look, what is this that came out?"
6. And I said, "What is it?" And he said to me, "This is the resulting* (emerging) measure, and in her there will be [all the derelictions* (failures) of duty] of all the earth."
7. And then I took up a talent of lead [for weighing] and there sat a woman* (wife, or married woman) in the scale.
8. And he said to me, "This is that sin." And he threw her into the balance and he threw the talent of lead against her* (against her mouth).
9. And I raised my eyes and I saw, behold, two women coming out and the spirit* (wind) in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of the vulture, and she lifted the scales from the earth and into the sky* (and she took the scale between the earth to heaven).
10. And I said to the angel that spoke through me, "Where are they taking the scales?" And he said to me, "To build for her a house in the land of Babylon, and they will find use for her and set her up there, where she will do her weighing."
________________________________________

Here, if there is reference to the bag, it is not a roll or a basket nor an ephah. In Zechariah 5:1-4 it is a scythe that exercises judgment against thieves and liars--their houses come to ruin. In Zechariah 5:5-10, all derelictions and failures of duty to God are weighed as a married woman, and I have to assume as an unfaithful one--"This is that sin." If the scythe and scales are indeed the basket or seed bag held by the gods in the ancient monuments, then it is justice that the gods carry.

Their houses come to ruin. Not their physical home, but their organization. Perhaps a word to politicians.

The last part (verse 10) is especially interesting. The scales, I take it, are judgment against spiritual adultery, i.e., rebellion against righteousness. They are taken to Babylon, where a house is to be built and a use is to be found and set up for this sin. What "house" became in the land of Babylon that reflects this sin, its use, and its judgment? I suppose this would be the intertestamental period, setting the stage for Eashoa, Jesus, whom Zechariah also wrote of.

PS: Everything in Aramaic has either male of female gender. I believe justice, wisdom, and righteousness are all feminine.

Repentance, a Gift From God: How Really to Pray - Text of Neville Goddard's Lecture

From 100kwatt's YouTube audio: "Neville Goddard Repentance, a Gift of God"

On April 14, 2016, I posted my transcription of How to Really Pray. It actually is Neville's "Repentance, A Gift From God," I think one of his best lectures, given in 1972, the year he passed. I can't encourage you enough to read it and to reread it. I have been talking about Neville's fainting, which is a state of continuous repentance. Horowitz' book, Neville Goddard's Final Lectures, has only about a dozen "tests" in this chapter, the worst being "from the venue" (page 80) for Neville's "from within you." If you use the book, listen to the original audio while you read along! Here is my transcription:

Neville Goddard, February 28, 1972

Repentance, a Gift from God: How to Really Pray

I think you will find tonight's message a very practical one, something that all should really have and apply. The whole of life is just the appeasement of hunger. And the numberless states of consciousness from which the individual can think and view the world are only a means of satisfying that hunger.

I say this because your state of consciousness is always being externalized. If you know how to move from your present state, if you dislike it, to the state that you would like to externalize, then you have the secret. That is what I'll attempt tonight to tell you. For there are only states of consciousness pushed out - everything in this world - and all are contained within the individual.

Now, in the Bible we speak of prayer, and prayer to the world means begging, but not in the Bible. It's thanksgiving; it's praise. It's not petition! We speak in the Bible of repentance, and the world thinks that it means to regret, to be remorseful. That's not what the Bible teaches. Prayer and repentance are almost synonymous terms.

We are told to bear fruit that befits repentance. Then they say of the central character of the scripture: "You and your disciples eat and drink with sinners." And he replied, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Leave the righteous alone. They are so self-satisfied. They like themselves, so leave them alone. The word 'sin' hasn't a thing to do with breaking any moral code. The word 'sin' means to miss the mark. That's what it means. You have a goal in life and you haven't achieved it, well then, you are sinning. You may have a billion dollars, and still are hungry for another. Well then, if you don't have the other, you are sinning.

You may keep all the so-called codes of the world imposed upon you by the priesthoods of the world - that would mean nothing as far as the scriptures go. To repent is simply a radical change of attitude. That is what repentance means. For if I radically change my attitude towards life, I will then view the world and see the world from that change of attitude. And that change is a change of consciousness, and that change will be externalized in my world.

Now, repentance is at once man's responsibility and a gift of God. Now, let us show you what I mean by it. He said, "I and my Father are one, yet I go to my Father for my Father is greater than I." "We are one . . . yet my Father is greater than I . . . so I go to my Father." How do we arrive at this strange, peculiar statement, and how . . . what does it mean?

In the office of the Sent I am not inferior to my essential being, the Sender; but only in the office of the Sent I am restricted and must live by faith. Faith in what? Faith in the Sender. It is myself, the Father, for I and my Father are one. But when I am sent into this world to experience death, and to experience the restriction of man, I am seemingly inferior to myself, the Sender. So, when I repent, I go to the Sender - I first do what I have to do. So I say that repentance is at once a responsibility of man and a gift from God.

Well now, what is my responsibility? I want to change my world. Well then, I ask myself, "What would I see ;if ;it were changed? How would I see the world, if my world was exactly as I want it to be, how would I . . . how would I see it?" Well then, see it! In "my mind's eye," conjure a scene which would imply that it is true - live as though it were true - in "my mind's eye." I know I can't make it so, but in the depth of my own being the Father - he has the power to make it so.

So now I go to my Father. How do I go to my Father? I first of all do what I am called upon to do - I enact a scene implying the fulfillment of my dream, and then I turn it over completely in thanksgiving to him. It is myself, my essential being, but it transcends my reasoning mind. I do not know on this level how it can be done, but I do know that if I have faith in him - it is my own self - it will be done in my world. So we are told in scripture, without faith it is impossible to please him. And those who would draw near to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him. I must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.

Well, without faith it is impossible to please him. What is faith? The same chapter in Hebrews defines faith for us. "Faith is the assurance of things not seen, the evidence of things hoped for...By faith we understand that the very worlds were created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear" (Hebrews 11:1,3). Well, in my world it hasn't yet appeared. I say it all is contained within my imagination. So I will enact a scene which would imply that it's real. And then, within myself, I give thanks.

Now, we are told the most wonderful prayer ever uttered we find in the book of John, the eleventh chapter. He stands at the gate of death. And he raises his eyes and says, "Thank you, Father, that thou hast heard me. I knew that you always hear me." Well, I can't deny that the depth of my own being is hearing what I am doing, what I am inwardly saying, so I can truly say, "Father, thank you." He certainly heard what I said. Well, is it now supported by some statement of scripture?

Yes, again in John, but now in his letter, the first letter, and in this he said, "If we believe that he hears us in whatever we ask of him, we know that we have already obtained the request made of him." If I can simply assume that I am the man that I would like to be, well, certainly the depth of my being has seen that assumption, he has heard that assumption. Well, can I actually believe that that's all I need do? Well, I have to confess that I can't do it on this level. I am not wise enough on this level to devise the means necessary to externalize what I have assumed that I am.

Well, have you proved it, Neville? Unnumbered times. Unnumbered times. When I was completely shut out, on certain areas, imprisoned as it were, not in the federal prisons, but a state of imprisonment - to find yourself on an island, where you enjoyed four months of it, almost five months, but you have a commitment in America--you have got to get back; and then to be told that there is no possibility of return until the very earliest September. That would be the very earliest, and your commitment is in Milwaukee in the first week of May. What are you going to do then? No possibility - no ships are taking the passengers, and the list runs into thousands waiting all through the Indies, from Trinidad all the way up, all waiting, and you in the island of Barbados without making any provision for your return to America when you sailed for Barbados five months before.

So what did I do? I simply sat in a chair in my hotel room, and I assumed that I was on a little tender moving against the boat. Well, that was before the days of a deep water harbor. Now we have a deep water harbor. But then you took a small boat out to the ship waiting maybe a half mile to sea, and then you walked up a gangplank. So I simply stepped up on the gangplank and walked up that gangplank in my mind's eye. If my mind wandered, which it did, I brought it right back to that first step and walked up again. It wandered before I got to the top; I brought it back again, and I trained it as you would a horse. The mind is an unruly animal, so I trained it, and I walked up step after step. When I got to the top, I turned around and put my imaginary hands on the rail, and I could smell the salt of the sea in the air. I looked back with nostalgia at the little island of Barbados - a mixed emotion - I am happy that I am sailing for America, and sad I am leaving behind a very large, wonderful family of mine. And then, in that mood I simply dropped off for a moment in sleep. Just a little nap.

The next day I was called by the very company who had said, "We have no possibility of getting you out of here before at the very earliest September." And said there was a cancellation this day in America. And they offered to me in spite of the list of over a thousand people waiting.

It is not my concern why she or he or it cancelled the passage. My prayer was answered. I did what I was called upon to do, for repentance is a radical change of attitude. She said, "You can't get out." Well, I said, "I'm out. I'm on a boat, and the boat is headed towards New York City." That is all I wanted to do.

So I did my responsibility, and the second part of repentance is a gift from God. So God has the way of externalizing it. What caused the woman or the man or something to cancel the thing? I was told afterward she was afraid. She was afraid for some reason not explained to make the trip. And so one passage was opened up and I got that one room. Because there were only two beds in it, and my little girl was only three years old - she could sleep with her mother, and I could climb up one flight and sleep on the upper bunk, and then take my eleven days back to New York City. So I did what I was called upon to do - that's my responsibility - to enact a scene which would imply the fulfillment of my desire, and then surrender completely to my Father, for he has the power to externalize it. I do not know how to do it on this level. I haven't the wisdom, I haven't anything on this level to do it, so my faith is faith in my Father. Faith in his power to externalize what I have done - all in imagination.

So for me that is prayer, that is repentance. I didn't sit down and felt for one moment that I had done something wrong, and that's why I couldn't get out. No sense of repentance like remorse as the world teaches. That's not repentance. Repentance is simply a radical change of attitude - that's what the word means. Metanoia - but radical, right down to the root, and you change your attitude. If I change my attitude, I have changed my state of consciousness, and because all states of consciousness are being externalized in the world, then that state will externalize itself in my world in a way I do not know. For we are told, "My ways are not your ways. My ways are past finding out. Just trust me."

So without faith you cannot please God, we are told. If I would come to him I must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Well, I seek him in projecting for me that which I desire in this world. So, that is what I mean by prayer. Prayer is the attempted communion with God. That's what prayer is. As we are told in the fourth Psalm, the fourth verse: "Commune with your own hearts on your beds, and then be silent." Commune with whom? I do not need the mediation of any priest, any rabbi, or any heavenly being - I'm communing with my self. The depth of my own being is God the Father. That's my essential being, and he is one with the surface mind called Neville. And in the capacity of the office of the Sent called Neville, I am inferior to my self the Sender, but the Sender and the Sent are one. You and God the Father are one. But on the . . . in the office of the Sent you are like an ambassador - you do not speak with the same authority of the one who sent you to represent him. So I represent myself in the world of death, but the Sender is greater than I, and yet I and He are one.

This is what I get from scripture, and this is what I put into practice, and this is what I try to teach and tell everyone who will listen to me. You ARE God the Father. That's who you really are, but you do not know it yet. The day is coming you are going to know it, and you will only know it when his son appears before you. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Well, Jesus Christ, don't look upon him as one in the sense, like a surname, "Jesus" and "Christ" being the surname, no. Look upon it like Father and Son. The Christ is the Messiah - that's the son. 'Jesus' is the same as 'Jehovah' - that's the Father. But we put them together and we say Jesus Christ. So we could say, "I and my Father are one."

So here, look upon it simply as one, yes, but split for a purpose in this world. So he sends himself. He sends his son. Who is his son? The one who is going to reveal him to you as God the Father. For no one has ever seen the Father, but his only begotten son, who is nearest and dearest to his heart, he has made him known. And so who is that one? David. So David comes into sight, and here you know exactly who you are. The minute he appears, memory returns and you are God the Father. And his son who was with you before the world was made stands before you.

So Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, as you read it in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews. "Same . . . forever." This is contained in the mind of man. That's what we mean in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes - that God has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. What did he do? He put himself and his son into the very mind of man. And when man has completed a journey, well, then the secret is out - the son appears, and the minute the son appears, the identity of the individual appears - that he is God the Father - that this relationship was before that the world was.

So everyone in this world is destined to awaken one day as God the Father, and the relationship is forever. You cannot change it. So when you are called upon to repent, for the story begins "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Gospel." Believe the good news. Repent, and all the priesthoods of the world tell you that you must now moan and carry on because you must repent of things that you did. The Bible doesn't teach that at all. It doesn't. Repent - change your attitude if you would change the world. To try to change circumstances before you change your state of consciousness is to struggle against the very nature of things. You can't do it. How can you change a thing and still maintain it from within you? So tonight without asking any one's permission - you're not asking anyone to mediate for you to God - you go within and commune with your own heart:

"What would the world be like if it were true that I am already the man, the woman that I'd like to be? What would it be like?"

Well then, look at it and see it. If you don't see a change, well then, there is no change. Man's sense can detect motion in this world only by changes relative to something that is fixed. Well now, my present state is fixed, seemingly. Well then, I change my attitude towards the world. I let the world see me a changed man, and I see my world a change. Well, if I see a world that is changed relative to what it was, well then, I have changed. If tonight I am financially embarrassed, what would it be like if I were not? If I were affluent? Would my friends know it? Would my wife know it? Yes, they would know it. Well then, let them know it. Where? By telling them audibly? No, you do it all in your imagination. For man is all imagination, and God is man, and exists in us and we in Him. The eternal body of man is the imagination, and that is God himself. That is the divine body that we speak of in scripture as 'Jesus.' And where does he live? He lives in you.

So Blake says so beautifully, "Why stand we here, trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?" He dwells in us, so where would I go to find him? in a church? in a synagogue? in a so-called holy place? No, if I'm at the bar drinking a beer or a good scotch, that is where he is. He's in me wherever I am - that's where he is. And he is aware of what I am entertaining, and he is going to externalize what I am entertaining. So I change radically my state of mind, and that radical change will externalize itself if I yield completely to him in faith that he has the ability to do it. It relieves me of all responsibility of devising the means that would be necessary to do it. I do not know - I'm not wise enough to know how it's going to work - I only know it will work. So everyone if he knows this secret is free. He is set free by the knowledge of prayer.

"Teach me how to pray." Now, the Lord's Prayer is not the technique. If you know the Lord's Prayer, and it is recited week after week in all the churches of the world, but it is not as it is written in scripture. A friend of mine who is now gone from this world gave me the literal translation of the Greek, when what we have in our Bible is a translation from the Latin, and the Latin has no aorist of the imperative passive mood, so they could not convey the sense of the evangelist. The imperative passive mood is a thing to be done absolutely and continuously. That, well, in other words: "Our Father in the heavens, Thy name must be being hallowed; Thy kingdom must be being restored; Thy will must be being done." That's how it is written. It is a play that is forever - without any reference to its duration, to its position in time, to its repetition - it's to be taking place. And that play is the play of the Father-Son in man. And in the very end when the individual here is drawn into that play, he realizes it. He actually reenacts within himself the eternal play, and when that whole thing is done within him, he is fulfilled - what he came to do. For the only purpose in life really is simply to fulfill scripture. But while we are here in this world of tears, world of death, then we have given ourselves a Law by which we can cushion the blows, the inevitable blows. For you get into a state quite often unwittingly, and you do not know you are in the state until you see it externalized, and you do not like what is being externalized. Don't remain in it and wallow. Get out of it. Don't condemn anyone for it. Don't judge anyone, just get out of that state.

You get out of the state by asking a very simple, simple question: "What would it be like if," and then you imagine as if it were true, and that is the secret of prayer. "What would the world be like if it were true that I am now the man, the woman that I'd like to be?" And then I dare to assume that I am it. Well then, I can say, "Father, thank you, for you certainly heard and you certainly saw what I did. You cannot encompass me as the deeper self of my being, something that is my essential being, and tell me that you aren't aware of what my surface mind is doing." It can't be unaware of what my surface mind is doing.

I saw in yesterday's paper that the second man to step upon the moon, his name was Aldrin, and when he came back from this fantastic thing, Armstrong stepped on first, and then Aldrin stepped on second, that he came near a nervous breakdown and sought psychiatric help. And all the stories he read about their journey he said they were so false, and they all said, "I wish it were true." Not a thing Life Magazine wrote about that journey was true. Not what any magazine wrote was true through the eyes of those who had the experience, and then in the article, it quoted a thought of Jung, Carl Jung, and Jung said long before any man ever stepped on the moon, "It is far easier for man to visit Mars or the moon than to penetrate his own being."

So you step on the moon, and it's a fantastic feat, but that's nothing compared to penetrating your own being and finding the cause of the phenomena of life, to find the Father in you, for that is where he is. He's not outside, and because he is not outside, he is never so far off as even to be near. For nearness implies separation. So I can say, "I and my Father are one." And so if he is even "near," it is not near enough. No matter how "near" it is, he has to be my essential being. For nearness implies separation, and he is not separated, because "I and My Father are one," giving me freedom to choose a state that I will enter, wisely or unwisely, but he will externalize it and show me exactly what I did. But grant me the freedom to change it now--don't leave me in the state if I desire to get out of it.

But many a person wallows in it, and wallows in it morning, noon, and night, and they are totally unaware they are doing it. They will say, "Oh, yes," and then five seconds later they are back in that state. I have had interviews with people who will say to me, "This is what I would like, but I must first tell you . . . ." Don't tell me anything! Tell me what you want - they are only states. They insist on wallowing in all the things of the past. Like the little old lady who insisted on confessing time and time again to the priest, and it was some little affair she had when she was a child, a young girl. And the priest said to her, "You know my dear, you have told me that over and over again," And she said, "Yes, but I love to talk about it." Well, that's the story, we just love to talk about all the miseries in the world. I tell you, "Forget it. Know exactly what you want in this world, dare to assume that you are it, and then yield completely. Surrender to the depth of your own being, and he has a way that you do not know, and he will externalize it in your world."

So really, in a real sense, prayer is the subjective appropriation of the objective hope. What do you hope for? Well now, subjectively appropriate it. That subjective appropriation of the objective hope is the art of prayer. For the Father knows exactly what you are appropriating. He saw it. And he isn't judging you; he is going to give it to you. He's not going to ask anything, he's going to give you exactly what you appropriated. So I appropriated a trip when they told me you couldn't move out of this island for months and months to come. But I kept my date in Milwaukee. I arrived in New York City in the first week of May and flew to Milwaukee, and there I kept my date.

So the same thing is true for everyone in this world. I am not unique in the sense that I differ from any child born of women. You are unique and I am unique in the sense that we can't be duplicated. And that's why everyone has to be redeemed, because if not all, then something is missing from the Whole. So I can say faithfully to everyone, "You are going to be redeemed." You may go through hell before you'll wake up, but you still are going to be salvaged. You're going to be saved, everyone, because the whole makes the one. That is God. But why wait? And why have more blocks and more knocks in this world, when you can actually learn what scripture really means by "repentance"?

And don't go telling any one that you commit a little sin, and now they must give you something to do that you may repent. Forget that nonsense. All that's nonsense. I don't care what you did, your Father doesn't hold it against you; it is the state in which you were when you committed that act. And man judges the individual and not the state. If I must express myself, judge the state, but not the individual in that state - he was simply something that fell into it unwittingly.

So Blake could say, "You see now from what I tell you, that I do not see either the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of the sleep in which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil." So it falls into a state. So why condemn the man or the woman for the state into which it fell? Take it out of that state. All things are redeemable - take him out of the state. How do you take him out? Well, ask him what he would like. Maybe he doesn't want to get out of the state. If he wants to get out of that state, you ask him, "What would you like?" Well then, in your own mind's eye represent him to yourself as the man or the woman that they would like to be. And then yield completely to your Father, because he has the know how - he knows how to produce it in them.

A friend of mine went to San Francisco at my bidding. I taught him the Law, and as much as I could tell him of the other, part of the Promise, but the Law, just what I am talking about tonight. Before he gave one lecture in San Francisco, it was a new city - he'd never seen it before - and he was walking around in the street, and he had a little fox terrier, so he was carrying his little fox terrier up the street, and a man crossed, wobbling a bit, and asked him for money. He said he was unemployed and he would like a little hand-out. He'd evidently had quite a little bit to drink as he asked. My friend wasn't judging that aspect at all. He didn't care if he'd had all the liquor in the world. He said, "I must apply this principle." And he said to the man, " I do not have any money to give you, but what I have I'll give you."

Well, the man couldn't understand what he was talking about but thanked him and walked his way. My friend did not make one step beyond that point before he did what was his responsibility. He represented that man to himself as gainfully employed and no need of help from anyone - just gainfully employed, and then he went his way with his little dog. A week later, he's walking down the street, the man crosses the street and comes up to him. He said, "I don't imagine that you remember me." My friend said, "Oh yes I do." Well, he said, "I want to thank you for not giving me help when I asked you a week ago, because had you given me help, I would be asking you for help tonight, too. But I got so mad with myself because you turned me down and I was in that position to ask for help, I went out the very next day and got myself a marvelous job, and I'm on the job now."

All my friend did was he represented him to himself as gainfully employed. So we are told that in the book of Acts, "Silver and gold have I none for thee, but such as I have give I unto you." So he had . . . You can give any gift in your imagination, so give it! And then yield completely to the depth of your own being knowing that he has the power, the creative power to externalize it. And that is what my friend Freedom did.

So anyone can do it. You don't have to graduate from some little ism in this world. If you want some little title, alright, get a title. We all are bought, anyway. You can put fifty dollars in the mail, sent it off to India and get a PhD. You want something higher than that, get something higher, but get whatever it is - all for fifty dollars. If you bargain with them you'll get it for ten. No exams, no studies, nothing. Just a little piece of paper, and these people will frame it and put it up on their wall. Well, if that is not the height of nonsense! And then a big convention will take place, and you will hear so many doctors being called doctor so-and-so and doctor so-and-so - each paid ten dollars for that doctorship.

Get down to the basic facts: the greatest book in the world that never changes is the Bible. But it is the most misunderstood book in the world. For it is taught as secular history, and it is not secular history. It's divine history - it's the history of salvation. And these characters are not persons as you are, these are eternal states of consciousness, but they are all personified when you tell the story. And we have taken the personifications for persons, and the vehicle that conveys the instruction for the instruction, and the gross percepts for the ultimate sense intended. And as long as we can teach it as secular history, we will never know the Bible.

So I tell you, whatever you did this day, and you dislike it, turn from it into another state. Don't try to rub it out remaining in that state because you're going to do it again. You'll do the same thing over and over again while you remain in that state. You can pledge yourself from now to the end of time that "I will never do it again," to find that maybe twenty-four hours later the impulse is there and you'll do it again.

Get out of the state, and it is as though you never really did that - not in eternity. It isn't part of you, because it's not part of the new state. But you are not a state, you are all imagination. Imagination is not a state. All these other things are states, but not imagination. That is the individual himself - that is God, your own wonderful, human imagination - that is God. When you say, "I am . . . ," that is God forever and forever and forever.

So my name is in Him. Because my name is in him, where should he turn if he wants to find God? But now, without faith in God, in your own wonderful human imagination, you cannot please him." So who would come to him must first believe that he exists. Well, I don't have to ask you if you aren't aware of being. You certainly are aware of being. Well, that's saying, "I am." So you do know that you exist to that extent. You may believe that that dies with the physical body; I tell you, it doesn't die with the physical body. You have believed that a change of state is a change is the sense of death. No, it's not. The individual moves on from state to state to state, but states remain permanent for all others to enter into that state.

I leave this city of Los Angeles and go on elsewhere, but Los Angeles remains. But I the pilgrim, I move on. And the pilgrim is your own wonderful, human imagination. That is your immortal self who cannot die. You cannot go to eternal death in that which cannot die - that's your immortal being. But you are going to remain in this world until you discover who you are. And no one in the world can convince you to the extent that you must be convinced but the son. When the son appears, all arguments are over. The minute you see him you know exactly who you are, and you know that you are God the Father.

It is through the son that man gains assurance that he is God. Not a thing in the world can convince him but that. I could tell you from now to the ends of time, but I can't convince you to the point that you will be convinced when you see David. And when you see David, it's the David, the psalmist, that sweet psalmist of the Old Testament - that's David - that is the Messiah. He is the Christ, and Jesus is the Lord God Jehovah. That's the mystery. You're dealing with a mystery. So David in the spirit called him, "my Lord," as a son always spoke of his father as "my Lord." Always. You do not do it today, but when this was put into the written form, sons always referred to their father as "my Lord." And so David in the spirit, not in the flesh, called him "my Lord." Therefore, he called him "my Father."

So I hope you will take it serious tonight and really live by it. It will not fail you, I tell you, it will not fail you. You can change your world and make it conform to your ideal state, to your dream. Tell it to those who will listen. Many will not listen, but it doesn't really matter. If they do not listen, leave them alone. Don't try to hit them over the head to make it so. But I'll tell you, spiritual growth is the gradual, I would say, transition from a God of tradition to a God of experience. And so you will gradually grow and grow and grow - and as you grow, you outgrow - you will outgrow these traditions. And then you will find the God of experience. Having found him, you aren't going to let him go - you will know that all things are taking place within your own wonderful, human imagination.

Now let us go into the silence,

__________________________________________________

A Note From the Transcriber:

Listen to Neville's lectures intently and repeatedly, for there are many hidden treasures in them. When I got to 23:56 in the lecture above, I wrote, "he has fulfilled what he came to do." While checking and rechecking what I had transcribed, I kept hearing Neville saying, "is" instead of "has" at that point, but that didn't make sense: "He is fulfilled what he came to do."

No, I listened again: "It is a play that is forever - without any reference to its duration, to its position in time, to its repetition - it's to be taking place. And that play is the play of the Father-Son in man. And at the very end when the individual here is drawn into that play, he realizes it. He actually reenacts within himself the eternal play, and when that whole thing is done within him, he is fulfilled - what he came to do" (this is page 81 in the book).

Ooooh. This life isn't for the appeasement of our hungers as man, but for the appeasement of our hunger as God. The Father is hungry for the experience of his own full and complete manifestation. It is taking awhile to come about. We are his, the Father's imagination, or if you would, we are him imagining. We are YHWH/Jehovah/the child in Proverbs 8 (olam/Eternity/the stripling) - in which we are yielded to being his manifestation in the process of becoming manifest. He is in the process of becoming manifest, so we are in the process of becoming manifest. That seems fair, doesn't it? And that is why it is given unto us once to die, and then many, many lives in this death. And then the judgment of being his manifestation fulfilled at the end. Well, at least for our part.

Maybe that is not the way you read the Bible, but it is what it says. We are the spirit of God - his consciousness/intelligence that is power - put into men and women to be cultivated into accurate manifestation of the Father, to fulfill what he is hungry to become. In Exodus 3: 14, it doesn't say "I AM THAT I AM," It says "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh" - "I come by Imagining his becoming" (my take on Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic). HIS becoming. HIS who? You as the perfect manifestation- Jehovah the Sent one risen from the dead. That is you and what you are doing.

The point is that we are the imagining the Father is doing to effect his becoming, "his" being the universal man, the perfect man that we are destined to become who is Jesus Christ, Eashoa Msheekha, the Life-giving, Living Branch of the Father.

We are the imagining. The Father is our essential nature, and we are the Sent. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whom we are. We were Jehovah in the Old Testament, Jesus in the New, and it was us who said, "Let us make man in our image," in Genesis. We inspired the prophets because we knew we'd need help getting out of this mess once we thoroughly forgot what we are in order to be cultivated here in death. So we created Moses to write up an instruction booklet, a success manual for our exit. While the priests made sure they didn't suffer while they had control of the books, what we said still comes through even after their heavy-handed editing. It says that you, God the Father, are manifesting in the son's becoming, and that you are doing it all by imagining.

A good post to review: "I Misread Neville Goddard's THE PATTERN MAN"

More of More on

Just a couple of thoughts on Neville Goddard's Faint: 

This life we are living is a faint from our last lives, assuming we have lived before. I know we "die one season, and then the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), but is that necessarily final? It implies God's failure: "Couldn't pull it off, eh?" Something Neville Goddard said caught my attention: "You may go through hell before you'll wake up, but you still are going to be salvaged. You're going to be saved, everyone, because the whole makes the one" (Horowitz, 2022, Neville Goddard's Final Lectures, "Repentance: A Gift From God." page 84). The insinuation is that after an eternity in hell, we get another try at waking up. This is universalism, not an orthodox view, but many have it. It also suggests not to bet on restoration (to a subsequent life right after this one), or that there is no hell.

Second thought is that the faint must be sustained. We walk throughout this life fainted from the past. Israel walked from one side of the sea to the other. Surrender is continuous, as is the trust involved; we walk suspended in the dissolution of the lie that denies that what we desire is. Goodness, I should be famous for that one, but actually Neville says much the same in Faith is Loyalty to Unseen Reality.

Who is the Lord of Your Life, Minute by Minute?

Notes from my thought journal:

More on "Who is the Lord of your life, minute by minute? Who do you love?"

Are submission, obedience, and self-abandonment states you VISIT occasionally? Do you just VISIT adultery, pride, robbery, gluttony, cruelty, selfishness? Just in and out, right? No, then God's not being your Lord is pretty constant. The question is: Who is the Lord of your life RIGHT NOW? EVERY now. Who is calling the shots on your thoughts?

Life is a lie, Arlene. What of this world do we get to keep? Only the inculcated character.

More on Heading For Healing 41: Our Hands as His Hands

"Let my hands be Your hands." The laying on of my hands is Jesus' laying on of His hands; so that my hands are Jesus' hands when I lay them on you. I lay my hands on you in Jesus' name that Jesus heals you.

More on AI vs Devotion and Dedication to the Upper Reaches of Eil: the No-thing (...?):

In the edit at the end of the post, Jordan Peterson says in the linked video, "In Genesis, the temptation was to be your own god." That is the point of what I saw in My Own Practical Story in Neville Goddard's Faint. Up until that moment in my life, I had been my own god! Although I had known about God, I never acknowledged God, thought about God, thanked god, or asked what He wanted me to do. No wonder God wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole! Are you godding your own life, or have you learned how to let God god your life (see God is a Verb by Rabbi David A. Cooper)?

"Satan" is our desire to be our own lord, to god on our own.

More on Neville Goddard's Faint:

What was in my mind was the fainting paradox: there is COOPERATION in the unity of the One. Our submission is a kind of bow, an acknowledgment of our position in relation to the Lord. He is at the right of God: goodness/ rightness is His function. As noted in Jordan Peterson's comment above, "The temptation was to be your own god"; i.e., to god on your own, to do it all by yourself--to provide by and for yourself. Is imagination causative? Neville said imagine, and do nothing. But he didn't. He was saying, believe in God, assume you have, and faint in submission to God's fulfilling your desire if, when, and how He so chooses. Just think the well in prayer, do what you must believing in Him, and leave Him to do it. Think Jehoshaphat's praise army (2 Chronicles 20). Stay in the One, in cooperation with the One.

Missing the Milta

I see a sad and desperate, hurting world. There is so much poverty and pain, loneliness, sickness, and starvation. Many millions suffer from others' oppression, violence, cruelty, and greed, beasts being inconsiderate, unsympathetic, unfeeling, and selfish. Where are people to go to find relief, peace, wholeness, and joy; i.e., salvation?

Well, they go to what they believe will, or at least can make their world right: their god. This may be their ancestors, their money or kitchen spirits, idols, ancient supermen, politicians, science, superstitions, religion--anything that might intervene. Some think that by being perfect in discipline or being appreciated for their concern and helpfulness will make their world right. NOT MUCH HELPS. I wrote about this in my recent post, "A World Without God; Worlds with Wrong Gods."

Let me say up front that God is a great king. He is the invisible Breath of the Ineffable Being. He is manifest in the Milta, Himself in form. That is ONE Being simultaneously in two forms: the unmanifest and the manifest. The Milta can take terraspherical form, yet is still that great king, the Creator of the Universe. The idea is for people to abandon all the idols and false gods and turn in humble surrender and submission to our great king, the Milta, that He, God--the Consciousness of the Ineffable, might heal us. But how do we tell them? How do we tell them that they are missing the Milta, the manifest Love and Power and Knowledge and Wisdom and Glory of God? All they have to do is bow in attitude and yield their hearts to Him, if they would. If they could hear.

PS: T. L. Osborn's solution was to hold mass healing conventions. They came, they heard, they saw, Christ conquered.

PPS: Is not the Breath of the Ineffable Being Its imagination?

The Mind's Greatest Need: Reflections on "The Christian's Greatest Need" by E. W. Bullinger

Agnostics suppose that God, even if He exists, cannot be known. The Bible assumes otherwise. Throughout time, many BILLIONS of people have agreed with the Bible and have testified of their own coming to know God. I think it depends on what you consider "God." If we consider the Ineffable Source of consciousness, the No-thing to be God, then no, we cannot know God. But if we consider the Ineffable Source's Consciousness Itself, the ACTION of the Ineffable Source to be God, then yes, we can know God--the Consciousness of the Ineffable Source, for that is what we are. If you, like me, consider God to be the Consciousness of the Ineffable No-thing we are of, then yes, we CAN know God.

It is my opinion that the whole of the Bible is about God, Who is the action or Consciousness of the Ineffable Source, and our coming to know the Ineffable Source through this Consciousness. This is what the Bible is for, which means that the Bible presupposes that we can come to know God. Agnostics, you are missing a wonderful opportunity to do what we cannot do.

There was a reason Neville Goddard studied the Bible everyday. I have tried to edit this essay, "The Christian's Greatest Need," by E. W. Bullinger, editor of The Companion Bible:

The Imagination’s Greatest Need

There is one thing that the Christian needs more than any other thing. It is certain from the Word of God, and also from our own experience, that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought." The Holy Spirit knows what we should pray for, for God knows what we need. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, teaching us how to pray. In Ephesians 1:17, we have Paul's prayer for us set forth in these words: "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in "THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM."

It is the knowledge of God, then, which must be our greatest need: a true knowledge of God. If the Holy Spirit thus puts this before all other things, it must be that the knowledge of God is more than all other things combined! The knowledge of God, then, lies at the foundation of the Christian Faith, at the very threshold of a Christian's living in faith. Knowledge of God is the essence of all trust.

We cannot trust a person if we do not know him; at least, it is safer for us not to do so (and as a rule, we do not). But on the other hand, when we know a person thoroughly well, we cannot help trusting him. No effort to trust is required when we perfectly know a person. The difficulty then is, not to trust. Why, then, do we not thus trust God? The answer is perfectly clear: It is because we do not know Him! Thus we see how the knowledge of God is our greatest need; the very first step of our Christian course. Our trust in God will ever be in proportion to our knowledge of God. No know; no trust. Know; trust.

If we knew, for example, a billionth part of God's infinite wisdom, we should see our own wisdom to be such utter folly, that we would not merely be "willing" for His will, but we should greatly desire it. It would be our greatest happiness for Him to do and arrange all for us. We should say, "Lord, I am so foolish and ignorant. I know nothing, and I can do nothing. I can see only this present moment--I know nothing of tomorrow! But You see the end from the beginning--Your wisdom is infinite, and Your love is infinite. For as Your beloved Son, our Savior and Lord could say of us to You, 'Thou have loved them, as thou have loved me' (John 17:23). Do, then, Your own will. This is my desire, the desire of my heart! This is what I long for above all things."

This is far beyond being "willing". We may be willing for a thing, because we cannot help it. This may be a low form of Christian fatalism, as a Mohammedan may thus be resigned to the will of his god. But what we are speaking of is far, far beyond the modern gospel of denial holiness; far in advance of merely being "willing". And those in the still lower condition, not really willing, but "willing to made willing," do not see that their condition arises from their ignorance of God, from their not knowing how infinite His love is, how vast His wisdom is, how blessed and how sweet His will is. If they did know something of this, they would yearn for His will. It would be the one great earnest desire and longing of their hearts for Him to do exactly what is pleasing in His own sight in us, for us, and through us.

Not knowing God, Christians everywhere are striving to be "willing" by looking at themselves: by thinking of themselves and of their "surrender." And by some definite "act of faith," to do something of themselves. Instead of thinking of His wisdom and His love, they are But this is labor in vain. Even if it should seem to accomplish something, it is only like tying paper flowers on a plant. They may look natural and fair; but they have no scent, and no life; no fruit, and no seed. It is an artificial, fictitious attempt to produce that which, if they did but know God, would come of itself, without an effort: yea, the effort would be to stop or hinder the mighty power of a true knowledge of God.

The trouble with us is, if we prove our hearts to their depth, that, at the bottom, we think we know better than God. We would not say it for all the world; we would hardly admit it to ourselves, but there it is; and the difficulty of being "made willing" is the proof of it. If we really knew Him, and believed that He knows better than we do what is good for us, there would be no effort whatever, but only a blessed irrepressible desire for His will. Before we proceed further to consider some other of the practical effects of this knowledge, let us notice the fact that there are two words in the original for this knowledge of God. Two verbs which mean to know. As these are used sometimes in the very same verse, it is very important that we should carefully distinguish that which the Holy Spirit has so especially emphasized.

There are, indeed, six Greek words which are translated 'to know,' but these two are the most common:

1. Oida, means to know without learning or effort; and refers to what we know intuitively, or as a matter of fact or history.
2. Ginosko, means to get to know; by effort, or experience, or learning.

This difference will be clearly seen, if we examine one or two passages:

John 13:7, "What I do you know not now." This is the former (No. 1) of these two words, and tells us that Peter had no intuitive knowledge of what the Lord was doing; and had no means of knowing. It was impossible. The Lord, however, goes on to say, "but you shall know (i.e. get to know--No. 2) hereafter." Peter would learn, and find out, by experience and revelation, what the Lord was then doing.

John 8:55. "You have not known him (i.e., gotten to know him. No. 2 of these two words); but I know him (No. 1), and if I should say, I know (No. 1) him not, I shall be a liar like unto you; but I know him (No. 1)." Here the Lord declares His imminent, intimate knowledge of the Father; and declares that those whom He was addressing, not only had no such innate knowledge of God, but had not even attained to that knowledge.

1 John 5:20. "We know (No. 1, i.e., we know as a historical fact, without learning it) that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know (i.e., get to know, No. 2) him that is true."

The truth is taught here that, before any one can get to know God, he must first have a spiritual understanding imparted to him. With this agrees 1 Corinthians 2:14. "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he get to know them." Why not? Because "they are spiritually discerned." The natural man has no means of getting to know spiritual things. A spiritual understanding must be "given" to him beforehand. Then he is able not only to discern, but to love and delight in the revelation of spiritual things, and to get to know "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." "This is life eternal" (John 17:3).

The importance of getting to know God is thus again wondrously emphasized as our one great need. This knowledge is not only the basis of trust in God; not only the foundation of Christian faith; but of Christian life. A practical Christian life and walk will be in direct proportion to our knowledge of God. Look at Colossians 1:9,10, where we have the practical outcome of the prayer in Ephesians 1:17. Carefully weigh the words. "For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire..." (desire what?) "...that ye might be filled with the knowledge (the noun from No. 2, i.e., acquired knowledge) of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Why? For what purpose? To what end? "THAT YE MAY WALK WORTHY OF THE LORD UNTO ALL PLEASING, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD." !

Then, to walk worthy of the Lord, we must know Him? Exactly so! If we would please Him in all things, we must know how to please Him. Is this all that is required, all that we have to do? Yes, this is all. We have to sit down before God's Word, and get to know Him through God's Word. There is no other way of getting to know Him. He has given us His Word, and revealed Himself therein, on the purpose that we may study it and find out what it is that pleases Him; what it is He loves; what it is He hates; what it is He does. To get to know His wisdom, His will, His infinite love, His almighty power, His faithfulness, His holiness, His righteousness, His truth, His goodness and mercy, His long-suffering, His gentleness, His care, and all the innumerable attributes of our great and glorious God. Do you see how this knowledge is absolutely necessary, if we would please God?

We cannot please any of our friends unless we know what they are pleased by. If we would make a present to one of them, we naturally think, or try to find out, what it is he or she needs or would be pleased to have. If we are receiving a guest, we naturally try to remember or find out what pleases him in food or drink, in occupation or recreation. If we cannot find this out, then we have to guess at it, and we may or may not succeed in our effort to please. We may take the greatest trouble and pains, and yet, after all, we may arrange for or provide the very thing which is most disliked by them. It is even so with our God. How are we to find out the things that please Him? How are we to discover the things He approves? "ONLY FROM HIS WORD!"

There, and there alone can we get to know Him. There alone shall we learn the fullness of the Spirit's prayer for us in Ephesians 1:7, and the blessed practical outcome of it in Colossians 1:9,10. No man intuitively has this knowledge of God. No minister can even help in imparting it, except in and by the ministry of that Word. His own thoughts are valueless. Only so far as the minister enables us to understand that Word can he be of any assistance to us. By himself, he may be mistaken, and very easily be a hindrance instead of a help. God has revealed Himself in His written Word, the Scriptures of Truth (the Bible); and in the Living Word, His Son, Jesus Christ. And it is by these, the Communicated Word revealed in our hearts by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, that we thus begin to get to know Him, Whom to know is Life Eternal.

This is the one great reason why the written Word is given to us. It is not given merely as a book of general information, or of reference. It is given to make known the invisible God. Why do we read it? Why do we open it at all? What is, or ought to be, our object in reading it? Do we read a portion that someone else has selected for us? Do we read that portion because we have promised someone we would do so? Or do we open it, and sit down before it with the one dominant objective to find out God; to discover His mind; to get to know His will.

Those who are not thus engaged make their own god out of their own thoughts and imaginations. They have to fall back on what they think their god likes! Thousands make their gods with their hands, out of wood, or stone, or bread. Thousands more make him out of their own heads. But, being ignorant of God's Communicated Word, they are alike ignorant of the God who has there revealed Himself. See the power of this truth as it is applied to what is called "Public Worship" or "Divine Service". How many will still worship "the unknown God"; and serve themselves; and do what is pleasing in their own eyes, studying only their own tastes! Ignorant of that great rubric, John 4:24, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth" (i.e., truly in spirit), they talk of the kind of service they prefer, and say, "I don't like that at all"; or, "I do like that so much"; as though "places of worship," so-called, were opened merely for persons to go in and do what pleases themselves, forgetful of that word "MUST" in "MUST worship Him truly in spirit," which is supposed to dominate the whole sphere of what we call worship.

Worship "must" be only with the spirit. We cannot worship God--who is a Spirit--with our eyes, by looking on at what is being done. We cannot worship God with our noses, by smelling incense, whether ceremonially or otherwise used. We cannot worship God with our ears, by listening to music, however well it may be "rendered". No! Worship cannot be with any of our senses; or by all of them in concert. Worship must be spiritual, not psychically sensual (see Garnier, 1909, chapter 17, "The Moral Aspect of Paganism," esp. p. 358). The worshippers must be spiritual worshippers, for "the Father seeks such to worship Him" (John 4:23). How many of such worshippers frequent our churches and chapels? How many are still worshipping "the unknown God" (Acts 17:23)?

Is it possible that, if the true God were known--the great, the High and Holy God, who dwells not in temples made with hands; the God who inhabits eternity; the God in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who charges His angels with folly--is it possible, we ask, that not one who know Him could imagine, for one moment, that, He "seeks" or could be pleased with, or accept, or regard a congregation turning the Bible into "a book of the words," and listening, for example, to a girl singing a solo, getting as high a note as she can, and holding it as long as she can--is THAT what The Great and Infinite God is seeking? Is THAT the occupation of the heart with Himself which He says He "MUST" have? No indeed! And the greater the ignorance of God, the deeper and more degraded will become the accompaniments of what is called "Public Worship."

Consider further, the effect of this great truth on our daily life. What rest and peace it brings. Look at its influence on our prayers. What is prayer for? Why are we told so often to pray? Why? Because prayer is intended to humble us by putting us into the place of helplessness and dependence. Prayer is meant to put us with our faces in the dust before the Mighty God.

Instead of that, what do we find? We turn that place, which is meant to humble us and keep us in the low place, into a Throne, from which we dictate to God what He shall do in our affairs, how He shall help to carry out our plans, what He shall do for us among the governments and political affairs of the world. That is the pride of the "old man" within us, so that we, who cannot manage our own affairs, do not hesitate to take upon ourselves the management of the universe, and "move the hand that moves the world."

A true knowledge of God would lead to a very different condition of things. Our prayers would be frequent indeed, but we should be so filled with a sense of God's wisdom, and power, and goodness, that we should cease to pray as though we had more compassion than He has; as though we were more concerned about sins and sinners than He is; as though we were more interested in His work than He is.

We should be "definite" indeed, as well we may be in many things where from His Word, we know "what to ask." But we should be equally "definite" in leaving all our cares with Him. We should cease to take the responsibilities of life upon ourselves. We should say, "Lord, what YOU will! Do not heed my requests if You see they are not good. Do not do or give this or that because I ask it or think it good. Withhold it, if You, who see the end from the beginning, see it will not be for my good. I am so foolish and ignorant before You: and You are so wonderful, so wise, and so good: Goodness and Mercy itself; and Your love is so infinite that You can do only what is right, and wisest, and best. Your will is love itself. Oh, that I may be filled with such a knowledge of Your will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that I may enjoy the perfect rest which that knowledge will give."

In proportion as we have this knowledge of God and of His will, shall we thus pray without ceasing; and in this manner make known our requests unto Him. When we pray definitely for our will to be done in any matter, it means (if we are honest enough to confess it) that we are willing to take all the responsibility if that request be granted. Oh, what a solemn responsibility! And how unnecessary, when God had provided us with One who is our Surety, and who is responsible for us in life and in death (John 6:39). How much better to leave our affairs in His hands!

When we employ a person to do any labor for us, and we ask him how much we are to pay him, he replies, "I will leave it to you, Sir." Why? Because he knows perfectly well that we shall be very likely to give more than he would dare to ask. It is even so with our God. if we know Him well enough we can surely say, in making our request, "I will leave it up to You, Lord." We have His assurance that He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). If we do the thinking, we shall surely limit Him. How much better to leave the limit to Him, and we shall do this in proportion as we know Him.

Take another illustration. Here is a friend in great difficulties; and we have a plan that will lift him right out of them, and set him on his feet again. He, meantime, comes to us to borrow some small sum that will only give temporary relief, and leave him to struggle on still with his difficulties. He limits our power. His poor thoughts cannot rise to the extent of what we are able to do exceeding abundantly. If we answer his prayer, and grant him his request, and lend him what he asks, how small will be his blessing! Why does he not "ask or think" more "worthy" of our ability and love? Because he does not know us well enough! He thinks he knows better than we do, and measures our willingness to give by his poor power to ask. This is the secret, and that is why he is not delivered.

Oh, to know the love, and power, and wisdom of our God! What a revolution it would make in our prayers, as well as in our lives. But look again at another effect of this knowledge of God as applied to missionary work. What is the work of the missionary? He offers himself and is accepted. He is trained for his service, and he learns the particular language. At long last, the moment arrives when he is able to speak that language, and the opportunity comes to speak. Now, what is he going to say? What is the first thing that must come from his opened lips? Is it not to explain God to the men and women of that language who know Him not? Is it not to show how far the living God is above all their ideas? Is it not to tell them how God has revealed Himself in His Word? And to explain that revelation, and to minister that Word?

We thus see how a true knowledge of God lies at the threshold of all missionary work. How can a man explain God unless he knows God? And how can God be known apart from His Word? Hence the supreme necessity of so studying that Work--that we may not only enjoy, but be able to speak of Him of Whom that Word is sent to testify. So far we have spoken only of a knowledge of God--the Father. But it is also of the greatest importance that we should have a true knowledge of Christ.

This is the Christian's one object, as well as his greatest need. This is set forth with remarkable clearness and force in Philippians chapter 3. In the ninth verse we have our standing in Christ expressed in the words, "FOUND IN HIM."

This is explained as our not having our own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ: "the righteousness which is of God by faith." Clothed in this righteousness, nothing of our self is seen by God. Like the stones in the Temple, which were covered over first with cedar-wood; and then the cedar-wood was covered over with gold. "There was no stone seen." These words are not necessary either for the grammar, or for the sense; for how could the stone be seen if thus doubly covered up? No! The words are graciously added to emphasize the antitype, and to impress upon us the blessed fact that, when we are so covered with Christ's righteousness, there is nothing of self seen in our standing before God. We are already "in the heavenlies, in Christ"; and are comely in all His comeliness, perfect in all His perfection, accepted in all His merit, righteous as He is righteousness; yea, holy as He is holy, and loved as He is beloved. All this is included in those words, "found in Him." And being thus "found in Him" for our standing, we have in verses 20, 21 our hope; which, is to be LIKE HIM in resurrection and ascension glory at His coming.

Hence "we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself" (Philippians 3:20, 21). This is our "blessed hope." We have referred to it here not in the order in which it stands in this chapter, in order to show what it is that lies between the two--between the beginning and the end of our Christian course. What is that which is to fill the place between these two? What is to occupy our hearts from the moment when we were in Christ, who is our life, to the moment when we shall be like Christ, who shall be our glory? What is the one object that is to ever fill our hearts and occupy our minds? "THAT I MAY KNOW HIM."

This is henceforth the Christian's great object. Nothing but this aim to get to know Christ (for this is the word used here, in Philippians 3:10). As verse 9 contained the explanation of the words "found in him," so verse 10 contains the explanation of how and why we are to get to know Christ. We are henceforth no longer to know Him after the flesh, but to get to know Him as risen; the head of the New Creation in resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:16,17).

For this is how this knowledge is explained: "that I may get to know him and the power of his resurrection." Not to know merely the historical fact of his resurrection, but the "power" of it. I.e., what its wondrous power has done for us. But how can we get to know this "power"? Ah! only by experiencing "the fellowship of His sufferings," by learning that when He, the Head of the Body, suffered, all the members of that Body suffered in mysterious and blessed "fellowship with Him." Thus shall we get to know how we were "made conformable to Him in His death." Only when we have thus learned that we suffered when He suffered, and died when He died, can we begin to learn how we have risen also with Christ; and "get to know the power of His resurrection." How few of us know what this "power" is, as it takes us out of the old creation and sets us in the new creation, where "all things are of God" (2 Cor. 5:17). (THIS IS ATTITUDINAL: ASSUME THE SYMPATHETIC STATE OF "KNOWING" HIS END, THE ASCENSION!!)

This then is our object, to get to know all that Christ is made unto us in resurrection power. How startling must these words have been as they fell upon the ears of Greeks (for this is the first city Paul set his foot in in Europe). They had been brought up on the great motto of Solon, the wisest of the seven wise men of Greece. His motto was supposed by them to embody in itself the essence of all wisdom; and it consisted of only two words, which were carved over the entrance to the schools and colleges of Greece: gnosthe seauton--"KNOW YOURSELF."

But yet, how foolish are those words. For how can one know anything of himself by considering himself? If he looks at others, then he can see how different he is from them; and how much better or worse he may be than they. But it is only when we compare ourselves with Christ, who is the wisdom and glory of God, that we learn what we really are; and how far short we come of that glory (Rom. 3:23)! It is only as we see ourselves in "the Balance of the Sanctuary," or by the side of the plumb-line of that Perfection, that we see, and get to know, our absolutely lost and ruined condition. Hence this new motto was thundered from heaven into the ears of those who sought to know themselves--"THAT I MAY GET TO KNOW HIM."

Yes; this is our one object. This it is that will have the mighty transforming power over our lives. Every moment spent in seeking to know ourselves is a moment lost: and not only lost, but used to keep us from the one thing that alone can accomplish our object and teach us ourselves. Trying to know ourselves, we not only fail in the attempt, but we cease to learn Christ, which alone teaches us to know ourselves. And yet, how many are spending their lives in this vain search? Running hither and thither to hear this man and that man. And, being constantly directed to this self-examination, they are only led into trouble; or, into a joy which lasts only while the excitement is kept up.

Oh! to be occupied with Christ; to have Him for our object; and His resurrection power for our lives. This we shall have; and have increasingly as we get to know Christ. Again. What was it that led the heathen world into all its darkness, corruption, and sin? Just this: "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man" (Rom. 1:22,28).

Like people today who, ignorant of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, make up their god, some with their own hands, or out of their own heads, vainly imagining He is what they think He is, and worshiping, like the heathen, "the unknown God"--such an one as themselves. What was it that led Israel astray and brought upon them all their sorrows and sufferings? Isaiah opens with the Divine indictment, which gathers up in the briefest form the one great cause which lay at the root of all: "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel does NOT KNOW; My People do not consider."

See how the Lord Jesus confirms this in Luke 19:42-44, as He weeps over Jerusalem. All is summed up in the opening and closing words: "IF THOU HADST KNOWN!"

Even you, at least in this your day, the things that belong unto your peace." And then, turning to the reason for that judgment, He adds: "Because you KNEW NOT the day of your visitation." And what is to be the acme of Israel's glory in the day of her restoration? Ah! Then it shall come to pass that "they shall no more teach every man his neighbor saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all KNOW ME, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD" (Jer. 31:34). And what shall be Creation's glory: and the peace and joy of the whole earth? This sums up all: "The earth shall be full of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9).

And what is the secret of our being able to glory only in the Lord, and to enjoy His blessing in this the day of our visitation? It is given in Jer. 9:23,24: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, Let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories, glory in this: THAT HE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS ME."

We are thus brought round, and brought back to the one great duty, which should henceforth absorb our hearts and minds, and fill our days and years; viz., to be instant in our study of the Word of God, which is given to us with the one great, express, commanding purpose--the revelation of Himself, in order that we may GET TO KNOW HIM.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God... 2 Timothy 2:15