(This lecture has been condensed by GlendaA, February 2025. The wording has been changed in a couple of places - but not the idea or intent behind the words. You can read the original lecture HERE)
Live In The End
Neville Goddard, July 19, 1968
I daresay that everyone here would say, “Yes,” to the statement of Scripture, “With God, all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)
I don’t think you’d be here if you did not believe in God, and the God to whom all things are possible. But maybe we stop right there, and we separate man from God. My purpose is to show you that we are not two, that we are One – that God actually became man, that man may become God.
Let me give you my reasons for my claims. In John we are told that, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Well, that’s a mistranslation. The word translated “among” should actually be translated “in,” or “within.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt within us” – “in us.” (John 1:14)
John used the plural “us” to signify "all" of us. The Word of God, did not take upon Itself some one person among men, for then that one would have advanced, and no one else; but Christ, to save all, did not make this man or that man his habitation, but “dwelt in us", ALL of us.
That same Word that created the universe, and sustains it, dwells in us! Therefore, “with God all things are possible,” (Mark 10:27) and therefore with Man all things are possible. So, he states it in one book, Matthew, “With God all things are possible” but in Mark he states it, “All things are possible to him” – meaning man – “who believes.” Can man believe?
So, this creative Word is in us. Well, what is this creative Word? It’s your own wonderful human imagination! That is Christ in man. 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 Christ Himself the divine body Jesus; and we are his members.
So, when you say, “I am,” that is He. Now, can you believe that you are now the man (or woman) that you would like to be, though at the moment of your assumption, reason denies it? And your senses deny it? Can you really create mentally a scene – which if true, would imply the fulfillment of your dream? Just imagine it. Certainly you can imagine it, but the problem is: will you believe it? Will you believe in the reality of the thing imagined?
If I could imagine myself into a state – any state at all – and dwell in it, well now, who is “dwelling in it”? Well, I am dwelling in it. Well, that is Christ! And that is the resurrecting power of the universe. So, if I remain in a state, I will resurrect it and objectify it or make it a reality in my world. But I have to choose it and enter the state. If the spectator could enter into any of these states in his imagination – what would it be like if it were true? How would I feel if I were now the man or woman that I would like to be? How would I know that I could become it?
Well, first, let me think of my friends – those who really would rejoice with me were it true. Let me imagine that I am seeing them in my mind’s eye. How do they see me? If what I am assuming is true, they should see me as I am seeing myself, and if they are friends, they should rejoice with me. I am seeing reflected on the face of my friend the person which would imply he sees in me what I see that I am. Will that work? Try it! I tell you, from my own personal experience, it works.
As we are told in Corinthians, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail to meet the test.” (II Corinthians 13:5, Moffatt’s translation) Now we are challenged. He says, “Come, test yourself and see.” (II Corinthians 13:5, Moffatt)
Well, this is how I test myself: If Christ is in me, and all things are possible to Christ, then I must find out who He is. Well, I have found him as my own wonderful human imagination, and because he dwells – not only in me, he dwells in us – everything is possible to everyone in the world. And, the best way to help man is by telling him who Christ is. You could just give him all the things in the world that he needs, but he’ll come back for more tomorrow unless he knows who Christ is.
You can give anyone the entire world and they will spend it and waste it – if they don’t know who they are. I could give anyone the thing that he needs physically or I could tell him how to get it for himself. He doesn’t need anything more than the knowledge of who he is and the application of that knowledge, for we are the operant power. It doesn’t work itself! I can tell you that your imagination is Christ, and maybe you’ll believe me, but unless you actually take it to the point of working upon it and operating it, it means nothing.
If I really believe it, I would feel myself right into the situation of the wish fulfilled. It doesn't need to be a wish for myself; it could be a wish for a friend, it could be for anyone in the world, and because Christ dwells in all, Christ is the true identity of every man. There can’t be another if God is one. So, I imagine myself, as another and ask: "what I would do if I were you." What would you feel like if now you were the man that you want to be? How would you see the world if things were as you desire them to be?
If I know exactly what I would like to be, and, dare to assume that I am it! And my assumption, though false, if persisted in, would harden into fact. [Anthony Eden] If imagining creates reality, what are you imagining? For, if Christ is the only creative power in the universe, and I identify Him with my own imagination, well, then, my imagination is creating reality. So what am I imagining?
If I listen to the news, and I am fed all the horrors of the world, all the negative states of the world; then I must either repeat it or in some strange way rub it out, because I can’t go through life feeding upon such nonsense and not live it. But if I really know what I want, what you want, what we want, and persuade myself that we have it – if my premise is sound that imagining creates reality, I should hear you tell me that it’s worked for you, and another one tells me, and I in turn tell you, and go through life sharing this marvelous news to others.
So, I say, live as though it were true. I see it in my immediate circle: those who you would not even think for one moment would become prominent, but they desire to be prominent; those who desire to be successful, as they conceive success – no two see success in the same manner. Some see it through the eyes of wealth, others through rising in some profession, others in some other manner – well, whatever they conceive it to be, they can realize it, if night after night they sleep in the assumption that they are now what they would like to be.
So if the Word is truly the Word that creates the system in which we live, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) “By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made,” (John 1:3) – no, not even the so-called unlovely things, for if all things were made, he has to be responsible for the unlovely things as well.
So, we are told in Scripture, “I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal,” (Deuteronomy 32:39) – I create the blessing; I create the curses, but, now, I must choose life. Choose the lovely things but don’t say there’s another creator, for if there is another creator then we are in conflict. So, my own imagination can conjure unlovely things if I dwell upon them, or the lovely things, but there can’t be two gods. There can’t be two creators. And if I can find that Creator and identify Him with my own wonderful human imagination, then I can’t pass the buck. I can’t turn to anything and blame it for the things happening in my life.
I know many of us do not see our own harvest, when we see it we don’t recognize it. We can’t conceive that we, in some strange manner, permitted these things to be created by us. But we did! It could not have come to pass in any other way. So, if I believe it and accept it – well, then I will live by it, and then when I know what I want for anyone – and this goes for everything in this world.
If you desire happiness in marriage. You say, “Well, there’s not one person in my world that is eligible. I know no one.” You don’t have to know anyone. All you have to do is to decide within yourself what you want. What would you do if it were true? Would you wear a ring on the one finger that would imply that some one placed it there? One that you admire? Then, wear it there. Don’t wear a physical ring. Put it on in your imagination just as though he had placed it there, and sleep feeling that which you are feeling is real. Don’t say, “It’s all imagination.” Certainly it is, because all imagination is Christ, therefore, it’s all reality. So, when you say, “That’s only my imagination,” well, you are just saying, “That’s only a thing called Christ when you treat imagination that way.
Is there anything in this world that wasn’t first imagined? You can't name one thing or point at one thing in this world that is now considered to be real that wasn’t first only imagined. What is now proved was once only imagined. Therefore, this is a true statement, “All things were made by Him.” (John 1:3) and He is your own wonderful human imagination. All objects in reality are solely produced through imagining. The clothes you wear, the chairs on which you are seated, this building – everything was once only imagined.
Find out exactly what you – not what they think you ought to want – what you want. Ask no one’s permission. You don’t need any one’s permission; you only need your own decision. What do I want? What would it be like if it were true? What would I feel like if it were true? How would you act if you really believed it?
Now catch the mood, and try to imagine a scene that represents the sensory vividness and intensity of reality – all the tones of reality, and then sleep in that scene just as though it were true. And then await the inevitable. The inevitable is that you are going to create it and make it real on the screen of space, and then the world will call it real, and they may not believe you. It doesn’t really matter. If you tell them it came to pass because you simply imagined it – no, they will point to the series of events that led up to it, and they will give credit to that bridge of incidents, across which you walked towards the fulfillment of that state, and they will point out some physical thing that was the cause. No, the cause is invisible, for the cause is God, and God is invisible to mortal eye.
Who knows what you are imagining? No one knows, but you can sit down and imagine, and no one can stop you from doing it, but can you give reality to the imagined state? If you do, yes, a bridge of incidents will appear in your world, and you’ll walk across some series of events leading up to the fulfillment of the imaginal state. But don’t give causation to any physical step that you took towards the fulfillment of it.
So, when you know what you want, remain faithful to that assumption, and the assumption, though at the moment it is denied by your senses, and denied by reason – if you persist in it, it will harden into fact. Are we not told that God calls a thing that is not seen as though it were seen, and then the unseen becomes seen? (See Romans 4:17) He calls everything from the unseen into the seen in this simple manner.
So, if I assume that I am, I don’t have to have evidence to support it – I assume that I am. Am what? Well, I name it, and having given it a name – given it form, given it definition – I remaining in it. And if it takes a thousand men to aid the birth of that state, a thousand men will play their parts, and I don’t have to go out and look for them.
I know what I am talking about. All I need from you is the acceptance of it. Will you believe it? Will you believe that with God all things are possible? (Mark 10:27) Will you believe that all things are possible to man?
You can prove it, but, remember, you are the operant power. It will not work itself. If you dare to assume this very night that you have a better job than you now hold or that you have a larger income – you may be fired tomorrow. Don’t be concerned! On reflection, you’ll see it was necessary to move you towards the fulfillment of your assumption. You could be fired! And I wouldn’t bat an eye if you told me tomorrow, “Well, I did what you told me. You know what happened? I was fired.”
I have seen that. Sometimes takes someone to fire you to get you into a better job. I have seen that time and again. I wouldn’t go out and quit the job. You may be promoted in the job, or you may be invited by some other concern that is competitive to join them – I do not know how it happens; I only know: if you remain faithful to the assumption, it’s going to happen, and you are going to be promoted towards the fulfillment of the state that you’ve dared to assume that is yours.
I could tell you unnumbered stories along this nature. So, dwell in the end. I don’t wait for the incident to take place in my world to move from one to the other to the other, leading up to that; I dwell in the end. So, if I go to the very end, what would it be like were it true?
You may say to me, “I can’t hear people.” Oh, yes, you can! You can hear anything you want to hear. You don’t have to hear it audibly. Listen this very moment. You may not be able to whistle a tune. Maybe you can’t carry a tune in any manner whatsoever. You can’t play an instrument, you can’t whistle, you can’t sing. Well, can you now imagine that you are hearing The Battle Hymn of the Republic? Listen! Can’t you hear it? Well, I can’t sing; I can’t whistle a tune, but I can just right now stand here and listen and hear the entire thing. You can hear anyone’s voice; you can hear the speaker’s voice. Tonight, alone, you can hear my voice, and you can put upon my voice what you want to hear, and I, unknown to you, will find myself telling you, “Something will happen to confirm what you’re hearing.”
Also, remember, you can do this for good or ill. I advise you: Do it for good. But the choice is yours. You can hurt and you can bless, but don’t hurt. Use your imagination always lovingly on behalf of others. But to tell you that you could not do it to hurt is stupid, because you can hurt. But it’s entirely up to you.
Imagine what you want. Believe that you have it, and see how it works in the world. Those who scoff at it – well, let them scoff. Five years from now, when you are on the top, they may be working for you, and may even have forgotten that they sat in the same audience with you when you heard and believed, and they also heard, but they didn’t believe, and so, you moved on, and they remained behind.
There’s only one creative power in the universe. Scripture names that power as God – Jesus Christ, the Lord. Because there aren’t two Gods, there aren’t two Lords – there’s only one. And that one Christ dwells IN us. He did not dwell in a single man, as the priesthoods of the world teach. They tell you of a single man, and they single out a man that differs from all men. He isn’t dwelling in this man or that man. His desire was to save humanity, and so He dwells IN all of us – not in one particular man. He didn’t become this one man – dwelling in one man. Let no one tell you that the Christ in you differs from the Christ – and let them name any man they want. He cannot differ.
If there is a Christ other than that Christ who is within us, and who rose and continues to rise in humanity, he’s a false Christ. And the teachers who teach of an external, objective, different Christ are false teachers. Christ is within, and He rises within. So, you go out and put it to the test. Put it to the extreme test. Christ in us – not “out there,” is the hope of glory.
So, this word I speak – and the "word", by the way – its true definition is, “meaning.” In the beginning, there was meaning to the whole thing, and that meaning was with God, and God Himself was the meaning. (John 1:1) There is a purpose, there’s a plan behind it all. He planned everything. And the purpose of it all is to awaken in us, so that we and He are one. So, He actually became us, that we may become God. It seems incredible, but it’s true. That’s the purpose of life: to take humanity and lift it to God so it becomes God. So, He became man, that man may become God.
Remember you need not confine it to yourself. Take a friend, without the friend’s consent – without the friend’s knowledge, and lift him up. Do you know a friend who is unemployed? See him as gainfully employed, and don’t tell him, that you may brag tomorrow. Don’t boast. Just see him gainfully employed.
Now, what greater claim can anyone make than to acclaim that he is God? And when He claimed it, they said, He is blaspheming, for here is a man, and the man dares to claims he is God.
Read John, “And he said, ‘Is it not written in your law,’ I say ye are gods, sons of the Most High?” (John 10:34)
Do you know of any greater claim in the world than for a man to identify himself with God and walk as though he were, and not be ashamed to admit it? He doesn’t go bragging about it, but he knows in his heart he is one with God, for if his imagination is God – and he imagines – that’s God! And if he imagines a state and it comes to pass, then he knows the creative power that is God. He doesn’t have to brag about it and boast about it and be ashamed of it. He sleeps in a noble state, because he is one with God.
Well, let everyone take that attitude, and the world will change, but if a man feels like a slave, and give him the world; he will want it again tomorrow. Unless a man has self-respect, you can give him all the money in the world, and it means nothing. That goes for the individual, a family, a race of people or for a nation. Just as President Hoover said, “The rise and fall of ideas will determine the rise and fall of men, the rise and fall of nations, the rise and fall of communities.”
Don’t go back; start just where you are. And don’t pay anyone to look up your family tree. Just start right now and assume the dignity that is God. That’s your real background – it’s God. Who thinks they have an important background? As far as I am concerned, I refuse to accept the aristocracy of any being in this world, other than the aristocracy of the Spirit. What other aristocracy is there? You don’t have any family tree. The true Israelite is not a descendant after the flesh, but the Elect of God, of whatever nation. That’s the man of God.
So, you simply dare to assume that you are that man or woman of God, and then apply what I’m telling you. In the not-distant future – in the immediate present – it will work. If you don’t falter and do not change the assumption – if you remain faithful to the assumption, it will harden into fact, because imagining creates reality. It does!
Now, let us go into the Silence.
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