検索キーワード： 著者 "Neville Goddard" すべてのカテゴリー

Faith is not complete until, through experiment, it becomes experience. God's promise cannot be tested. It cannot be earned, for it is given by grace. But your faith will be increased when you experiment, when you test God's law. It is easier to accept the Christian faith than to live by it, but you must live by it for your faith to grow!

The evangelists of scripture, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are anonymous names of men who wrote salvation history. They introduced characters who never walked this Earth, but whose names are significant. In the book of John, we find the story of Nicodemus. Now, Nicodemus is not mentioned in any other part of the Bible, or in any historical records of the time; so we see Nicodemus was not introduced for some historical purpose. The word means "conqueror of the people; all victorious".

Tonight's title is the Family Portrait. Thirty-odd years ago, a play appeared on Broadway called The Family Portrait. It was a study of Jesus and starred Margaret Webster and Judith Anderson. They played the parts of Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother. The central figure - Jesus - never appeared on the stage, just as it should be. The brothers appeared, bringing the news of what he had said and the reactions of the crowd and the concern of the two Marys.

I am going to ask a question which you can silently answer yourself. Have you lived this life of yours in such a way that you desire to live it again? Well, if you haven't, you'd better listen very carefully to what I will say this morning, if you have not already started, for may I tell you the next life is this life. When the eye is opened, you will see it, that man, unless he awakes and changes the tracks of this life, he walks them forever. So if you have not lived this life in such a way that you really desire to live it again, you start now to interfere with these tracks and laying new tracks.

We must go on to higher and higher levels, for that is the purpose of the teacher. I would like to look tonight into what it is to my mind, the greatest book in the world, the Bible, and show you a section with which you may not be familiar. It concerns the Seven Eyes of God, from the visions of Zechariah. He saw a stone with seven facets, and the Voice said that this is actually the seven eyes of God that reach over the entire world. For these seven eyes are really in man, for man is the earth of God.

"We have only to raise Imagination to the state of Vision and the thing is done." (William Blake) Just imagine it! That is all you and I are required to do. No matter what it is we desire, we have only to raise imagination to the state of vision, and the thing is done! Now, when the prophets of old used the word vision in scripture, they meant all of the senses, either individually or in combination.

One of the most controversial statements in the New Testament concerns the virgin conception and subsequent birth of Jesus, a conception in which man had no part. It's recorded that a virgin conceived a son without the aid of man, then secretly and without effort gave birth to her conception. This is the foundation upon which all Christendom rests. The Christian world is asked to believe this story, for man must believe the unbelievable to fully express the greatness that he is.

In the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, faith is described as: "The assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so things seen are made out of that which does not appear.

When reading the Bible, always bear in mind that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, Peter, Paul, or any name appearing there are states of consciousness. The names only identify the states represented. If you see the characters as people, you misunderstand scripture, for the names are simply personifications of eternal states, which will be revealed to you, mortal man, in a series of divine revelations.

God speaks to Man through the medium of dream and reveals himself in vision, and we are past masters of misinterpreting his words. A dream is a parable containing a single jet of truth. Don't try to give meaning to every word or event of the dream. Perhaps there will be several dreams, several stories in a single dream - then each story contains its own jet of truth. Let me share one such dream of a friend. Her dream is in three parts. It is a wonderful dream on the higher level.

Every fact is a dream made visible, so I invite you to live as though your dream were already a fact! I am convinced that every dream (desire) I have dared to live in the now has gradually and unnoticed blossomed into fact in my life. I also know, not only from personal experience but from eternal vision, that the spiritual states of the soul are eternal. That like a traveler, individual man passes through states but the states remain forever.

The Game of Life Triple Play: How Are You Thinking? is a sampler of three spiritual, metaphysical self-development books that can help you understand life, raise your consciousness, and achieve your heart's desires. Included in this sampling are the first chapters of The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn and How to Live Life and Love It by Genevieve Behrend as well as all of The Game of Life by Neville Goddard.

The objective reality of this world is solely produced by the human imagination, in which all things exist. I hope to show you how to subjectively appropriate that which already exists in you, and turn it into an objective fact. Your life is nothing more than the out picturing of your imaginal activity, for your imagination fulfills itself in what your life becomes.

This subject is a mystery to be known only by revelation. It is a secret that has been kept hidden from the beginning of time. Where there is no mystery, where there is no end from the beginning, there is no challenge, no place for imagination, or any room for faith or hope. But when it pleased God, in the fullness of time, to make it known to his apostles, those whom he called and incorporated into his own risen body, they are sent to tell the story of the gospel of God.

There are three very firm statements made in scripture defining God. God is light. God is love, and God is spirit. John tells us here that God is light, a light in which there is no darkness. Now try to follow me closely. The final gift to man is God himself and God is a revealer. Man's knowledge of himself is based on his knowledge of the revealer. Scripture records what is said of the revealer. As he awakens in you, read scripture carefully and you will discover to what extent God has revealed himself to you.

Tonight's subject is in the form of a question: "Is Christ your imagination?" When we ask the question, we expect the answer in terms of our current background of thought, and quite often that is not adequate to frame the answer. Now, I am asking the question, and in order to answer myself, I should really clarify the terms, "imagination" and "Christ". I think there will be no problem tonight if I define - say - "imagination". I think you will agree with me when I define "Christ".

In the 64th chapter of the Book of Isaiah we read: "O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay. Thou art our potter; we are the work of thy hand." When you hear the words Lord, father, and potter, do you think of another? I certainly hope not.

I doubt if there is any subject on which clear thinking is more rare than the imagination. The word itself is made to serve all kinds of ideas, many of them directly opposed to one another. But here this morning I hope to convince you that this is the redeeming power in man. This is the power spoken of in the Bible as the Second Man, "the Lord from Heaven". This is the same power personified for us as a man called Christ Jesus.

Although only a few are teaching this wonderful principle at the present time, many others will follow; and because the Christian world believes in a man, this question will be asked over and over: "Do you not believe that a man called Jesus Christ walked the earth?" It is my hope that I will be able to clarify this point for you. Listen to these words from scripture: "You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Thy Word is truth." And speaking of Jesus Christ: "His name shall be called the Word of God."

Only that which has no right to live must die, and only that which has no right to exist must be brought to an end. And that hasn't a thing to do with any child born of woman, or any flower that ever bloomed. It's something entirely different from what the world would suspect, for you and I have been given the greatest gift in the world.