In the 9th chapter of the Book of Mark, it is said: "All things are possible to him who believes," and in the 19th chapter of the Book of Matthew we are told: "With God all things are possible." Here we see God equated with the believer.
Seated here tonight you believe you are a man or a woman. You believe you are here, but are you willing to believe you can go beyond what your reason and senses dictate? You do not have to limit your power of belief to what your reasonable mind dictates. The choice and its limitations are entirely up to you, for all things exist in the human imagination and it is from your imagination that your belief stems. If you go beyond the dictates of reason, it must be via your imagination, and since all things now exist there, you can at any moment go beyond what your reason and senses dictate.
We have just had an eruption in the Christian world concerning the little icons people have made and worshiped for over a thousand years. The 115th Psalm described them as: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have eyes but do not see; mouths that do not speak; ears that do not hear; hands that do not feel; feet that do not walk and no sound is heard in their throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them."
In today's paper the story is told of a famous actress who had an accident while in her Rolls Royce. She was injured, but not seriously and attributed her luck to the little icon she called St. Christopher. She is just like the one who made it and sold it to her, but she doesn't know it. Don't judge another by their worldly possessions. They received them through belief, but they do not know their very being is the one who created it for them. She believed her little gold icon saved her from a fatal accident. Nothing saved her but her belief in it. She bought and believed in her little icon because she does not know the one in whom she should trust.
All things are possible to him who believes and "with God all things are possible." Here we see that God and the believer are one. When you leave here tonight, you expect to find your home where you left it. You will go to sleep there and believe you will wake up in your bed tomorrow morning. You believe you are clothed right now. I tell you: your capacity to believe is the human imagination, which is the only God. All imagination, you have restricted yourself by the body of sense and reason you wear. Reason says you are in this room, that you have a certain amount of money and can have no more unless you make a physical effort to get it. But you would wish you had more wouldn't you?
Assume your wish through the sense of feeling. That assumption, subjectively appropriated and believed to be true, is faith. Can you believe in its reality? Knowing all things are possible to him who believes, can you persuade yourself that, although your reason and senses deny it, your assumption will make it so? Blake, in his wonderful "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," said: "I dined with Isaiah and Ezekiel and asked: Does a strong persuasion that a thing is so, make it so? and Isaiah replied: All prophets believe it does, and in ages of imagination a firm persuasion moved mountains, but many today are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything." Everything here was once only a desire, believed. This building, the clothes you wear or the car you drive were first a desire, then believed into being.
Yes, I believe there is a man named Neville. He may work for you to aid the fulfillment of your desire, if you believe you have it. Many men can and will come to aid you, even without knowing they are doing it, if you believe. You do not have to persuade others to help you; all you need do is believe you are what you want to be and then let the world (which is nothing more than yourself pushed out) go to work to make your assumption possible. I promise you: your desire will be fulfilled, for all things are possible to him who believes.
The late Robert Frost said: "Our founding fathers did not believe in the future, they believed the future in." The most creative power in you is your power to believe a thing in. Our founding fathers did not believe that the passage of time would produce this country as they desired it. They wanted democracy, not a monarchy, and knew that sitting down and hoping it would come to pass wouldn't do it - they had to appropriate it, so they simply believed it in. How? By faith. They subjectively appropriated their desire.
Let us say you would like to be in San Francisco now, but you don't have the time or the money to make the trip. What do you do? You ignore the present moment and subjectively appropriate your objective hope by sleeping in San Francisco tonight. As you lie on your bed, look at your world through the eyes of one who is sleeping in San Francisco. You may wake in the morning to find you are still physically in Los Angeles, but while you slept changes were taking place which will compel you to make the journey. I tell you: you will always go physically to the subjective state you have appropriated.
Remember: all things are possible to him who believes, and with God all things are possible. Man believes that God created the world and all within it, but he does not equate God with himself, the believer. But the Bible equates God, the creator of everything, with one who believes. And belief need not be restricted, but can go beyond the evidence of sense and reason.
In the world you must go on the outside to light your way. You may light a candle, a lamp, or use electricity; but one day you will turn within to discover that you are the light of the world. Then you will know you are God, the light of infinite love, infinite power, and infinite wisdom. You will expand into these states as you break the barriers of reason and senses. I challenge you to examine yourself. Are you holding to the state you desire to experience? Test yourself, and as you do you are testing Christ, for he is God's power and wisdom. It doesn't cost anything to test him, so try it.
We are told that imagination speaks to us through the medium of dreams and reveals himself in vision. One night I was shown how to test myself. That night I found myself in an enormous mansion on 5th Avenue in New York City at the turn of the century. Everything that money could buy was in that mansion. Although I was invisible to the two generations who were present, I could hear everything they said. The older gentleman spoke, saying: "Father used to say, while standing on an empty lot, 'I remember when this was just as empty lot,' then he would describe the building he wanted to be there as though it were already solid and real." Then the scene shifted and I saw the building, now complete, standing where only a moment before had been an empty lot. The grandfather was now standing next to his son and grandson and said: "I remember when this was an empty lot."
This dream taught me a marvelous lesson. I was the grandfather, the son, and the grandson. It was up to me now to pass this knowledge on to other generations. While standing in a barren state you can say: "I remember when this was barren." If it was barren, you are implying it is no longer so. Then you can - by exercising your inner sense of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch - occupy the state and allow it to externalize itself for you. I tell you, it does not matter what you have or who you are in this world, all things are possible to you when you believe.
You may believe in one or more of the ninety odd so-called saints which have now been demoted, but if you believe, they have served their purpose. Now those who formerly believed in icons on the outside must turn around and learn to believe in themselves. It has taken a long time, for more than a thousand years men have believed this nonsense. You don't have to cover your head any more to enter the church - so was it ever necessary? You don't have to believe in St. Christopher any more. It never was necessary; but man, in his child-like state, could not believe in himself, so he created something with his human hands to believe in and his belief produced itself. The icon did not do it for the individual. His belief did it for him.
All things are possible to him who believes and with God all things are possible, so is God not one with the believer? His name forever and forever is I am. Do you not know that you are? Knowing that, are you not saying: "I am"? If your name is John, you must be aware of it before you can say: "I am John." I say: "I am Neville." I may not always say "I am" before I say "Neville," but I am aware of being Neville before I say the word. I have given my awareness of being a name. It is Neville. I do not have to repeat the words "I am" to define what I am aware of; but my awareness is God, the believer, and there is no other God.
Now, all things exist in the human imagination - not just the good things, but all things. Listen to these words from the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy: "See, I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal and no one can deliver out of my hand." Who can kill but God? You may say: "I killed him," but that is God's name. Your own wonderful human imagination has the power to kill and make alive, to wound and heal and there is none that can deliver out of your hand, for there is no god besides your own wonderful human imagination.
As you are seated here you have the capacity to believe. You may believe in something stupid, but you believe and your belief will make it work. The one I speak of as God is your mightier self, yet your slave, for purposes of his own. He waits on you as indifferently and as swiftly when your will is evil as when it is good. He does it by conjuring images of good and evil just as though they were real. Allowing you to imagine whatever you desire, he projects it upon this screen of space in order for you to experience it. You can move into it so naturally and so easily you can forget the thoughtless moment when the seed was planted, and therefore do not recognize your own harvest.
The being you really are is the God in scripture who is your own wonderful human imagination. Can you leave this auditorium tonight in the deep conviction that you are what you want to be? Are you willing to assume its joys and woes? Your assumption is your subjective appropriation of an objective fact. That is faith and without faith it is impossible to please him.
Tonight, when I leave this building I will ride home with my friend. As we travel we will pass certain streets and see familiar objects because we will be traveling by sight. But when I walk by faith my steps are invisible, for I will be walking in the assumption of my fulfilled desire. Paul tells us to "walk by faith and no longer by sight." We all know what it is like to walk by sight, but now we are called upon to break that spell and walk by faith.
I tell you it is possible to be anything you want to be, for the believer and the God of the universe are one. Don't divorce yourself from God, for he is your I Amness. Believe in your I Amness, for if you do not you will never fulfill your desire. Only by assuming you already are the one you would like to be will you achieve it. It's just as simple as that.
I am not saying it's easy, but it becomes easier with practice. If I gave a Stradivarius to one who had mastered the violin he could lift me to the nth degree of joy, but if I put the same violin in the hands of one who could not play it, he would shortly drive me insane. It's the same violin, yet one brings harmony while the other brings discord. You kill and make alive out of the same instrument, which is your own wonderful human imagination. You may make many discords until you 1earn how to play. We are here in this world of educated darkness learning to play the instrument which is God. You may not know anyone who would give you $10,000 right now, but if you believe a11 things are possible to God and you know that God is your human imagination, you can imagine you have the money, persist in your belief and you will have it. How, I do not know; I only know that according to your belief will it be done unto you.
Do you believe that all things are possible to God? And do you believe that he is your own wonderful human imagination? Knowing that God is all love, and you are capable of imagining unlovely things, you may not believe your imagination is God, but if that is true then God is not all-powerful. If you can imagine something that God cannot, then you transcend him. If God strikes only harmonious notes and you can strike chords that produce discord as well as harmony, then you are greater than he because you can do something he can't. But I tell you: your own wonderful human imagination kills and makes alive, it wounds and heals, for all things come out of the human imagination. While learning to use and believe in your human imagination you may make alive that which you do not want. You may wound yourself in the process, but what you create in your imagination you can uncreate.
Everything can be resolved, even though while learning, horrible mistakes are made. Don't condemn yourself for anything you have ever done, are doing, or may do, as you learn to play the instrument who is God himself and your own wonderful human imagination, for there is no other creative power.
What is now proved was once only imagined. My tailor uses his imagination to execute my suits for me. They must first be imagined before the cloth is cut. My tailor doesn't take his scissors and start cutting the cloth in the hope that something will come out; he imagines it first. And when I sit in my barber's chair he sees what ought to be on my head instead of what is there. Everything must first be imagined before it can become a fact, and that capacity to imagine is God.
Now, you do not observe imagining as you do objects in space, because you are the reality that is called imagination. You can observe this room, which was once only imagined, but you cannot observe the creative power that conceived it. The things created are seen, but you - the creator - are not seen, and you will never know you are He, until God's only son, David, stands before you and calls you Father. Not everyone will accept this knowledge, for they would rather have their little icons. I'm quite sure this Italian actress who had the accident would not be interested in or believe my words, and she is not alone. There are hundreds of millions tonight who would not give up their little medals. I saw where Cardinal McIntyre had put his seal of approval on the reverse side of the little St. Christopher medal, thereby giving it his blessing. On one side is a face that never existed and on the other, a priest of the church gives his approval. What nonsense, yet the medals work because people believe they do.
It's time for man to stop believing in something on the outside and start believing in his human imagination. It's time to stop all the outside icons. "You shall make no graven image unto me, or have no other gods besides me." You may have no education, no money or social background, and find it difficult to believe in yourself; but because all things are possible to him who believes, and with God all things are possible, you can go outside of your senses and believe anything into being. Test your imagination, and if it proves itself in performance, what does it matter what the world thinks?
Through testing I have proved imagination. I have found him and now I share my findings with another. He is called Philip, the lover of horses, the symbol of the mind. Knowing Philip loves learning about how the mind functions, I tell him that "I have found him whom Moses and the law and the prophets spoke - Jesus, the Messiah. I will take you to him." You are here because, as Philip, you desire to know more about the mind and its functions. I can take you to Jesus by telling you who he is, but I cannot show him to you, for he is invisible.
Your I AMness is he. Say: "I am secure, I am wealthy, I am free." This may not be true based upon your senses, but I am simply asking you to say the words, for the moment you do you are subjectively appropriating security, wealth, and freedom. Reason will try to take these from you, so I ask you to play a little game with me. Go through the door and walk as though you are secure, wealthy, and free. Sleep this night as though it were true. If you do, you will not fall asleep seeing the world as you did last night, you will see it differently. If this morning someone gave you a check for $20,000 and you deposited it to your account, you would be $20,000richer, therefore you could not sleep tonight as you did before. Now, without waiting for someone to physically give you the money, go to bed as though it were true. Put Christ to the extreme test. If all things are possible to God and if all things are possible to the believer, can you believe? I am not saying you will succeed the first night, or even the second. Having been trained to accept only what your reason and senses dictate, you may find it difficult, almost impossible, to believe what you could believe - but you can!
This morning as I was returning to this world I came upon a scene of shadows of beings. The first one was blind, unable to see the world round about him. The second one saw, but his vision was limited. The third saw more than the second, and the fourth could see, hear, and do more than the third. I awoke, saying to my friend Bob Crutcher: "With your talent to write, you could write a movie about this series of events. If you did, you would receive $3,000 for it."
I knew that just like an actor I had identified myself with every shadowy being I had seen. Although shadows, I, the perceiving one, had assumed one after the other to find myself limited by the state perceived. As I assumed the first one I was totally blind. As the second I could see a little, and as the third a little more. Then I woke urging Bob to write it, to show how man is restricted by what he is wearing.
In order to play a part you must fee1 the part. As the blind man I had to feel my way about. When I put on another garment I could see and did not need to feel any more. With each garment I wore, I sensed more and more, and awoke urging my friend to show this in picture form in the hope that those who would see it would understand that man is only playing a part. The part need not be that which was given him at birth. He could pick a part and enter it at any point in time.
Right now you are playing a part. If you don't like it you can change it. You could play the part of a man wealthier than you were twenty-four hours ago. It's only a part for you to play, if you desire it.
Everything I am telling you is from the Bible. "I kill and I make alive. I wound and I hea1 and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I, even I am he and there is no God besides me. I am the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, your Savior and besides me there is no savior." These are the words of God, revealed through his prophets of old. Their prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament as: "Whatsoever you desire, believe you have received it and you will." That's how easily you apply it, for an assumption, though false and denied by your senses, if persisted in will harden into fact.
I am telling you: you are God and there never was another. The being in you is God, and you and I are one, because there is only one God. In the end you will know that you and I are one, for you will discover you are the father of my son, who you will know to be your son. In fact, it will not be the son revealing you as the Father, but you, the Father, revealing your son.
Now let us go into the silence.
Feed Shark
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