Imagining and the Transformation of Man: 1964 Lectures

by Neville

Overview

If one is looking for answers to the meaning of life and how to make a happier, richer existence (e.g., relationships, finances, health), then Neville's teaching from personal experience, testimonies from students, and his amazing visions paralleling and explaining the mysteries of the Old and New Testament will answer those questions. Learn his techniques, unleash your power to create, believe in your imaginary acts, and no power in this world can stop the desired results from appearing in your world. It's the only creative power, one that everyone is operating moment to moment. Learning how to direct it deliberately is essential to producing loving, positive changes in one's life. These 1963 lectures also begin a nine-year odyssey of discovering the deepest meanings of six visions of the end that had unfolded in Neville (1959-1963). The visions are the signs that this long journey as limited man; the terrible opacity and contraction is over, that the purpose of human life has been completed; man has endured and overcome six thousand years of amnesia plus the fires of experience and has emerged victorious. He's been transformed by his inner being (I Am or God) back into the divinity he truly is and always was.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781490731117
Publisher:	Trafford Publishing
Publication date:	11/14/2014
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.38(d)

Read an Excerpt

Imagining and the Transformation of Man

1964 Lectures

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By Neville

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2014 Neville
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-3111-7

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CHAPTER 1

THE SHAPING OF THE UNBEGOTTEN

1/7/64

Tonight's subject is "The Shaping of the Unbegotten." Naturally, we turn to the greatest book in the world to guide us in telling you what I feel about the shaping of the unbegotten, and that book is the Bible. The entire Bible is the word of God. No matter how far it may exceed the limits of our logic—there is much in it that doesn't make sense—but don't tamper with it. Leave it just as it is and time will prove that it is true.

Here, the first decision, the first creative act, we find in the very first chapter of Genesis: "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' ... so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him" (Gen. 1:26,27). Now, when you read it carefully what are the words "let us"? Let us, well, they could stand simply for the plural of majesty or God first consults with divine beings other than himself. You can take it as you want. But if I search the scriptures I must come to certain conclusions. He asked, "What's the greatest commandment in the world?" and the answer to that question was this, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut.6:4). The word translated "the Lord" by definition means "I AM." It is Yod He Vau He. The word translated "our God" is the word Elohim; it's a plural word, "gods." Then it ends on the note "I AM", again. But there's a little word in there "one Achad," one Lord. This is a compound unity, one made up of others. So we can put it into this statement, "Hear, O Israel, the I AM, our I AMs, is one I AM." So here is by this decision that man is to be made into the image of God. Well, who made it and who started the entire process? We say God.

Now let me share with you a vision of mine of just a week ago, a week ago today. I came out of it about 5 A.M. Here, I was taken in Spirit to read one passage, or one of God's eternal pages, in his divine history. For history is simply the unfolding of God's purpose, a movement of events from his Promise towards its fulfillment. So I was taken in Spirit and here I came upon a scene, a man about 6'5", a tall, majestic creature. He personified courage, and this courage was based upon his faith in God, his absolute trust in God's ability to execute his Promise. Here was this giant of a man, I would say, 6'5" looking off into space at an enormous distance. It was not only space, as I looked at his eyes, he as looking into time. Looking far, far away in time to that moment in time when the Promise would be fulfilled, as could be said when it was fulfilled, "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad" (Jn.8:56). He was standing under an oak tree. The oak tree wasn't very tall, maybe the height of this room, and it almost was bare of leaves, just a few leaves, so you could actually see the entire structure of the tree, all of the branches. They were twisted and curled, like the human brain. If I could have drawn a line around this tree, it would have been the perfect expression of the human brain with all of its convolutions. And in the tree a serpent with a human face; and I knew that that serpent was articulate, but it didn't speak. But there it was, alive, the personification of wisdom and power. It seemed infinitely wise, and it seemed omnipotent in its power, as I stood there looking at the man who simply looked off into time, and this tree, knotted and twisted like the human brain, and then coiled in the tree, a serpent with a human face ... then the vision began to fade. As it faded, a book came before my eyes. It's the Bible, opened at the 17th chapter of the Book of Genesis, and I began to read it, all in my vision. I read the first verse and then it faded.

So I got out of my bed, went into my living room, and got the Bible and completed the chapter. The chapter begins this way, "When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared unto Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless'" (Gen.17:1). In this chapter he makes a covenant with Abram. He first changes his name, and the change of name must be consummated and sealed by the act of circumcision. Every male on that day, including his son Ishmael, at the age of thirteen must be circumcised. And Abraham, at ninety-nine, he had to be circumcised. Then he makes you a promise that this son Ishmael will not inherit your kingdom; but I will give you a son and you will call his name Isaac, and he shall be your heir. We are told he fell on the ground and laughed because it seemed to him ridiculous ... or maybe he rejoiced at the good news. You can interpret as you will. I would say, he rejoiced at the good news. But it is said in the book, he prostrated himself and laughed, and said, "I, a hundred years old?" For the Promise was made, It would not be given you today; but next year I'll return in the spring, and your son will be born. It seemed summer to me when I saw the scene ... it seemed summer. And so, it would be spring if you took it in the way that you and I measure time and pregnancy.

So I began to dwell upon this. I wondered, Why the serpent? So you search the scriptures again, and here, man begins his journey after being beguiled by a serpent. "The serpent beguiled me," said she, "and I ate of it." Then comes the banishment into a world that is a strange world. Well, who is the serpent? If I told you the serpent in the ancient world was called Jesus Christ, would you be shocked? The serpent is Jesus Christ. And yet, you are told, "He's our savior." Well, he who banished me also redeems me?--yes. Now listen to these words in the Book of Romans, the 11th chapter, the 32nd verse, "For God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy on all." It was God and only God who consigned men to disobedience. So the first fundamental sin recorded in scripture is the disobedience of man. And so, the disobedience was ordered by God that God could have mercy on all. If I were pure, never could I taste of the sweets of the forgiveness of sin. How could I? There would be no need for the forgiveness of sin. I would never know the sweetness of it, to forgive sin. If I were holy, could I ever behold the tears of him who loved me and still loves me, in the midst of his anger, as he puts me through the fire? For that is my destiny: to go through the fires of affliction that I may come out as his image, come out as God. So God actually becomes man that man may become God. That's not poetry, that's fact. And when Spirit possesses a man, he clothes himself with that man, puts him on as you would put on an outer garment. So God is wearing every garment in this room; every child born of woman is a garment, an outward garment that God is wearing. The day will come when he completes his work in man, and he unveils, takes it off and that man is God. That's the purpose. So God becomes as I am with all my limitations that I may become as he is without limitations.

Now, in the scriptures I read it there is not a slightest reference in the works of Paul speaking of the prenatal existence of Christ as a man. These are his words: "Jesus Christ, who, though in the form of God ... emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross" (Philip.2:6). His form was that of God, and he exchanged it for that of a slave; and so he is the slave, playing all these parts. When he completes it and we awake, we are he: "Christ in man is the hope of glory" (Col.1:27). Were he not in man he could not emerge from man. So Christ in man is putting us through all the paces, and he's doing all the suffering. For when he comes out, I am he. Therefore, "If any man should ever say to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it" (Mark 13:21). Do not believe it for the very simple reason, although it may not now appear to you what you shall be, know this much when he appears you will be like him (l John3:2). Therefore, if he does not look like you now, don't look at any man and think of that man "There is Christ." For when you see Christ, he's going to be just like you. He became you, and transformed you into his likeness by taking upon himself your likeness.

He puts himself through the paces, and when he has completed the work, and he unveils it, you are he. "For he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philip.1:6). That day is called "the day of the Lord." It was shown me so clearly, when man comes into what is known as the eighth, the day of the Lord, he has entered into the kingdom of God. It's called by a strange name, which I've never used before, but I came across it recently "the ogdoad." I wondered, what is the ogdoad? Looking it up, it's simply the eighth number. That's all that it is called, the 8th number. He comes into the 8th, which is a new first day. At the end of the 7th day, then he rose on the first day after the Sabbath, which is a new first day or the 8th day. That's not explained but it's implied. When one comes into the 8th number, in Hebrew it is a Cheth, and its symbolical value is "an enclosure, a protection, a completely protected area," called "the kingdom of God." An entirely new generation, an entirely new creation, and therefore a new body to function in a new world; and that's the body that he's working on and weaving in us, an immortal body.

Now, why the serpent? Why of all of the things of the world that should be the symbol of God, I do not know. I only tell you my vision; I saw it. Christ is defined in the scripture as "the wisdom and the power of God"; in the very first chapter of Paul's letters to the Corinthians, "Christ, the wisdom and the power of God" (1Cor.1:24). And looking at that face, all that you could think of was infinite wisdom and infinite power. At the moment you wonder, "Why a serpent, a human face?" And yet, not a thought crossed your mind but wisdom and power woven into that face. The eyes of the man, no. I did not catch his eye. I simply stood and looked ... but his eye was away into the distance, both in time and in space. I knew then he was looking at the fulfillment of the Promise, and the words came back from the 8th chapter of the Book of John, "Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad" (verse 56). "You, not yet fifty and you know Abraham? Abraham saw you?" Yes, said he. "Before Abraham was, I AM." But how could he tell anyone in this world? That creature that symbolized him, who was the very cause of the so-called fall of man, it wasn't man's fall, God deliberately fell. You go back and you search it all over again, and the word translated God, Yod He Vau He, the verb is He Vau He, its original meaning was "to fall or to cause to fall; to blow or to cause the wind to blow." And the word "wind" and "spirit" are one in both Hebrew and in Greek. He caused it all; therefore in the very last he can forgive all.

So he actually clothes himself with every being born of woman. So don't look for him elsewhere, you aren't going to find him. He is closer than your breathing, closer than your hands and feet; he is your own wonderful human Imagination. That's God. Just as he clothed himself with you, you are called upon now to exercise that same power and clothe yourself with your noble concepts in this world. Everything that is lovely, everything that is of good report, clothe yourself with it and actually put it on like an outward garment. You can stand here now or sit here now and imagine that you are elsewhere; and clothe yourself with the reality of that elsewhere-ness. You can clothe yourself with the reality of success, of health, of anything in this world. You do the same thing that God did for you: He clothed himself with you. Put the human being upon himself like an outward garment and walks saying "I am." For that's his name. He has no other name: This is my name forever ... the name by which all generations must know me. So as you are seated here you're saying "I am." But you don't stop there, you say "I am John, I am Mary" and so you come down and condition it when you know what John means to you in the world, and you let it remain there. You limit yourself by the evidence of your senses and what reason dictates, and there you remain.

But, the limitless is in you, and he asks you to exercise it. Exercise it by assuming that you are now the man that you want to be, remain faithful to that assumption, and live in it. It will come to pass; for the whole movement of events brings this promise, which is now God's promise to you, to fulfillment. You have a desire? That's God speaking to man. Clothe yourself with it, just as though it were true. And this is the shaping of the unbegotten. When the curtain goes up and you're exposed as he, you who began in time have no beginning, for God so completely became you. He has no parents, he has no origin; he's the origin of all. He has no ending of days; he's the beginning and end of all. And so, you will know how can this thing happen—I who began in time at the completion of God's work upon me, when he gives himself to me, that I did not begin in time. I am before and I am after. I am not something that began when he completes his work. And it's God's purpose to give himself to me as though there were no others in the world, just God and I, and the same to each person in the world.

So when he completes that purpose, we have no beginning ... and that's called Melchizedek in scripture: without father, without mother, without beginning, without end of days. All enter into that same order of being: no beginning, no end. What a strange mystery! That here we are created in our image, and yet when the image is completed, image of the invisible God, that seal that was created and therefore began in time, doesn't. It is God—one with the gods who made the decision to transform man into their image ... and so becomes more and more, like the sands of the sea, said he, like the stars of the heaven. You cannot number that which is being created, and yet, though created, it is one with the creator, therefore, not created. It's God begetting himself, his actual self, individualizing himself as you, individualizing himself as every being in the world. When you see him one day, you see yourself. But you will see yourself with such beauty of features and such majesty of features and such strength of character that you would never dream in eternity that you could ever be that. And yet, that is exactly what you are moving toward. When one day he awakes, this whole thing will be as a dream to him, the God awake. But it took this entire dream to produce his purpose which was to give himself to you.

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

Contents

Note from Author, ix,
Foreword, xi,
Acknowledgments, xiii,
The Shaping of the Unbegotten, 1,
The One Greater Than John, 13,
Binding and Loosing, 26,
The Larger Venture, 40,
This is My Name Forever, 51,
The Supreme Ideal, 64,
No Other Foundation, 79,
Purified by the Death of Your Delusions, 91,
Now My Eye Sees Thee, 105,
He Has Put Eternity into the Mind of Man, 115,
In a Vision of the Night, 129,
Grace versus Law, 145,
The Power of Faith, 161,
The Last Days By A Son, 176,
Eternal States, 192,
His Eternal Play, 207,
All Are Human, 223,
Our Real Beliefs, 237,
Who Are The Condemned?, 251,
The Law of Liberty, 266,
I Am Called by Thy Name, O Lord, 282,
God Only Acts, 299,
Jesus or Barabbas?, 313,
Life Through Death, 331,
The New and Living Way, 345,
His Own Credentials, 361,
Be Master of the Mood, 375,
The Mystery Hidden for Ages, 388,
The Friend of Sinners, 400,
They Did Not Die, 414,
A Confession of Faith, 427,
The Clever Rascal: The Unjust Steward, 440,
Speaking from Experience, 454,
What is His Name?, 468,
Signs and Wonders, 482,
Jesus: God's Plan of Salvation, 495,
God Has A Purpose, 510,
Call the Next Witness, 523,
Thy Dead Shall Live, 538,
Gathered One by One, 549,
What Does the Lord Require?, 561,
Go Down to the Potter's House, 576,
Advent, 589,
You Are My Witnesses, 604,
The Primal State, 616,
For Hatching, 629,
Eternity in Man's Mind, 643,
The True Story of Christmas, 656,
Glossary, 669,
Production Notes, 673,