God’s Law and His Promise (1971)

By Neville Goddard
Lecture Transcription

In your own wonderful human Imagination, all things exist. Everything we can perceive
of, it’s all within your own wonderful human imagination. And all that you behold, though
it appears without, it is within, in your own wonderful human Imagination, of which this
world of mortality is but a shadow.
The whole vast world, you are within me, I am within you. The whole vast world is within
your own wonderful human Imagination.
Now what do you do with it? How do you construct it? How do you simply rearrange the
structure within you? For that will determine what you will encounter in this world. But it
is an art. And like all art we simply have to make every effort to discover how to practice
it wisely. For this great secret of Imagining is the greatest of all secrets that man could
ever put his finger upon.
Now here, let us take a few simple approaches to it. Suppose I wanted a better job and I
didn’t have as the world would tell me, (it only reflects my own doubt), that I’m not
qualified. For they can’t tell me anything other than what I’m telling myself. So, if I’m in
doubt, they will tell me that I’m not qualified, can’t get it, or times are not right for it, or
things are difficult.
Let me ignore for the moment, what my reflection conveys, and then let me ask myself,
“What do I want?”
Because this is only telling me what I have done in the past. What do I want now? When
I know exactly what I want, let me dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to
be, and walk in the assumption that I am that man. If I dare to persist in that assumption
then the outer world will rearrange itself and reflect ‘that within me’ that I affect, and it
will become in the eyes of the world ‘a fact’.
What we call the facts, the reality really is in my Imagination and not in its actuality. The
whole vast world seems so real and we think that’s where the reality is, in its actuality.
It’s not there. It’s in the Imaginal act. And then we project it upon the screen of space.
Now, there are a number of facets to this wonderful principle. Here I am looking now at
this room and you’re all real within this room. And yet, my home is far more real to me
than this room. I come here twice a week for 1 hour, and I live in my home almost 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. But it’s far more real to me than this room. This is used by
many people, and my home is used only by my little family, my wife and myself. Yet, at
this moment it is simply a flat picture, and this is a cubic reality.
Why is this, the cubic reality that I know so little about, and that that I know so much
about is only a flat surface?
Because, I am in this room now!
If I am in the room, I give reality to the room; that when I leave it 1 hour from now, it is
also is a flat surface. I go home and enter my room, enter my home, and it is a cubic
reality.
Now here is the secret.
Man is all Imagination and God is Man. And exists in us, and we in Him. The eternal
Body of Man is the Imagination, ad that is God Himself.
Being all Imagination, I must be wherever I am in Imagination. I am not anchored to this
little body that I am wearing. I am wearing this body as I would wear the suit of clothes.
The day will come, the suit of clothes, I will wear it out and discard it. I will wear out this
little body and discard ‘it’. But my immortal self is my own wonderful human Imagination
and I am not confined to the garment that I am wearing that it may be seen in the world.
I can sit down in a chair and assume that I am elsewhere. And if I dare to assume that I
am elsewhere, and make it real, and give it all the tones of reality; I am where I am
assuming I am.
How will I know that I am there?
Well, think of the world; that’s all I do. If I dare to assume that now, this very moment, I
am in New York City… How do I know that I am there?
You say I’m all Imagination, and I must be wherever I am in Imagination. Well, how do I
know that I’m really there?
Well, let me think of the world.
Do I see Los Angeles around me? Am I standing on it? Well then, I am not in New York
City. If I don’t see Los Angeles 3000 miles to the west of me, I am not in New York City.
For were I in New York City, I would have to see Los Angeles 3000 miles to the west of
me.
For motion can be detected only by a change of position relative to objects. Well now, if
I feel that I’ve actually moved, well then, let me actually see it in my Imagination, relative
to the former state. I do the same thing concerning going up in the social world, or the
financial world, or the intellectual world.
Today, my friends know me as a certain person. Suppose I desire to transcend that
person. Would they know me the day I transcended, or in the not distant future after I
transcended? They would if they’re my friends; we’re in contact. I would be the same
friend, but they would see me differently. Now let them see me differently!
I dare to assume that I am now the man that I want to be, whether be a financial gain, or
a social gain, or any other kind of gain. My friends would know it. Well then, let them
see me. All in my Imagination, I rearrange the structure of the mind, and I fix it. As I fix it
by sleeping in that assumption as though it were true. Well then, in time if this principle
is true, that all things must bring forth after their kind, I’m planting a new seed. That is
the seed spoken of in scripture. I must not deceive myself because God in me, which is
my own Imagination is not mocked.
If I dare to assume that I am the man that at the moment of assumption reason is
denying, and my senses deny, but I dare to assume and persist in that assumption; well
then, if this principle is true, that all things come forth after their kind, then I shall
produce the fruit of that seed. I have done it un-numbered times.
So, I tell you, I am speaking to you from experience. I do it not only for myself, I do it for
my friends. I call you friends. There is no charge to it. Not one penny. Simply, a friend
would say to me, “hear the news for me.”
Well, it takes such a little time, practically no time to hear good news for a friend. I take
his request and then to the best of my availability, I lift it to the state of vision so that I
can actually feel him or hear him tell me that things are as he desired them to be when
he spoke to me. Well, I call you friends.
You come here and you listen to the things that I have experienced concerning God’s
Law and God’s Promise. To whom should you turn if you can’t make it work for
yourself? But the one who is telling you. I never tire of hearing good news for people.
So, I can actually hear that you are what you want to be, or that things are as you desire
them to be. It costs nothing!
Costs you not a nickel. But as far as time goes, that’s what my time is for. As the
revelation came…you must stop spending your thoughts, your time, and your money.
Everything in life must be an investment. So, I must invest my time.
So, I sit down and hear that you are telling me good things about yourself; that is a wise
investment of my time. Now, how am I doing it? I’m doing it with my thought. That’s a
wise investment of my thought. It is now symbolized in the earthly game called money.
There’s no money transacted between us, interchanged between us – but the money is
the symbol of gain or security in this world.
So, I’ll take the thought. You voiced it, he said “let me hear or you hear for me, that I am
this, that, or the other.”
Then I simply sit quietly, it doesn’t take me long. It shouldn’t take anyone more than a
matter of seconds, to actually bring before your mind’s eye the individual who has asked
something of you, and you simply work yourself to a certain state of intensity. And it
doesn’t take time, well it doesn’t take a long time. I would say the maximum time would
be say 10, not more than 10 seconds, to bring someone before your mind’s eye and
hear his voice clearly, and feel the thrill that what he wanted he has, and then you drop
it.
You don’t do it again. That is an actual creative act. At that moment, you planted a
seed. Where? In your own wonderful Imagination. You rearranged the structure of your
mind and you planted that seed.
Now, do you believe in God?
Well then, if you believe in God, you believe in your own wonderful human Imagination.
Do you believe all things are possible to God?
Well then, believe that all things are possible to your own wonderful human Imagination.
That that Imaginal act will now externalize itself in the world, and she, or he, or they will
bear witness to the truth of what you have done. That is God’s Law.
Now, the vision has its own appointed hour, it ripens and it will flower. If it seems long to
the one who asked it of you, don’t be concerned; don’t let him disturb you. You simply
wait. For it is sure, and it will not be late.

My old friend taught me that lesson vividly back in 1933. There was a deep depression
in this land, many of you too young to remember it, but I am almost now 67 and I went
through the deep depression back in New York City. I was a dancer, and who could pay
a dancer when they couldn’t eat? All the theatres were closed, I don’t think more than 3
theatres out of 50 were open in Times Square. So, who wanted a dancer?
I would have danced for anything, for a meal; and no one wants to pay a dancer. So,
what would I do?
I wanted to go to my little island called Barbados, and I had no money; but as when I
said no money – I mean no money. Not just a little bit but none. I said to my friend
Abdullah, “Ab, I would love to go to Barbados.”
He said to me, “You are in Barbados.”
I said, “I am in Barbados?”
He said “Yes, you are now in Barbados.”
I didn’t quite understand what he was telling me, I learned it afterwards. He was telling
me that if I want something, I must now at that moment that I want it assume that I have
it.
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I want to go to Barbados…I am in Barbados, so this night when I sleep, I sleep in
Barbados.
How?
In my Imagination.
And how do I know I’m there?
Think of New York City where physically I am sleeping, and see it to my north 2000
miles. Northwest of where I am in Barbados.
Well, the months went by and I didn’t see any evidence. So, I said to him, “You know,
Ab, If I don’t make the next boat out,” because no planes were flying, no commercial
planes were flying in those days, “I can’t go to Barbados.”
He said to me, “Who said you are going to Barbados?
“You are in Barbados!
“You can’t discuss how you’re going to Barbados, when you are already in Barbados.”
Then he walked straight to his room, and slammed the door in my face; which was not
an invitation to follow him. If you knew him, that’s how he taught me. I must sleep as
though I am in Barbados. When I went to bed, though in New York City, I had assumed
that I am actually in Barbados and see New York City not under me, but to the north of
me 2000 miles. And I woke within 48 hours after that moment, and under my door was a
letter, from my brother Victor. And in that letter, he enclosed a small little draft, $50.
“I have told the steamship company, the Furness Withy Company, to issue you a ticket
and charge it to me.
“The $50 is simply if you want some little thing like a suit of clothes.”
In those days you could buy a suit for $12, a fairly decent suit. You could buy a pair of
shoes for 3.50 of 4. But he said, “The $50, just anything you may need to get aboard the
ship. But sign the cheques, I’ll meet the ship, and pay all the expenses, and I will pay all
the tips, so it’s not for tips aboard the ship.”
I went down to the place and told them what my letter said, I read my letter to them.
They said, “Mr. Goddard, we only have steerage from now on, but when we get to St.
Thomas, the Virgin Islands, you may have first class because someone disembarked in
St. Thomas.”
I accepted it.
I went back to my friend Abdullah, and I told him, “Ab, it worked.
“I’m going on the 6th of December, but I have to go steerage until we hit St. Thomas and
then we go first class to Barbados.”
You know what he said to me?
He said, “Who is talking of going to Barbados? You have gone to Barbados, and you
went first class!”
Well, what are you going to do with a man like that?
I went straight to the boat on the morning of the 6th, expecting that I would go steerage
to the Virgin Islands. When the man said to me, “Mr. Goddard, we have a nice surprise
for you, we have a cancellation, and so now you’re going first class.”
He wasn’t surprised. I wouldn’t even call him to tell him because he was not given that
way, he was trying to teach me a lesson. You believe in God? Believe in me also.
For the one speaking is God. It’s the God in you- your own wonderful human
Imagination. If you say I believe in God, everyone here believes in God, but do you
believe in your own wonderful human Imagination as God?
If the word God conveys the sense of an existing something outside of you, you have
the wrong God. Because, you are the temple of the living God, and the spirit of God
dwells in you. Well, if he’s in me – find out who he is, and where he is; Well, I have
found him to be my own wonderful human Imagination. That’s the God in me. It’s the
God in you. And may I tell you, he cannot fail. He will not fail.
But here on this level, we are the operant power when it comes to the Law. When it
comes to the Promise, that is coming regardless of the life we live in this world. Whether
I be rich or poor, be the judge or the one being judged, the murderer or the victim,
regardless of what part I played in this world, the promise is not conditioned. It is
unconditioned. God’s Promise to redeem himself when he became man.
So, my fitness for the Kingdom of God is not the condition that I’m making myself good.
It is the consequence. Not the condition of his choice when he called me into the
Kingdom. So, let no one frighten you, that you’re doing things that’s going to stop you
from entering the Kingdom. It is not conditioned by anything you do in this world. The
only condition is on the Law.
I can say that if I go in a certain direction, I will not encounter certain things. If I dare to
assume that I am what I want to be, and faithful to that assumption, it will come to pass.
If I am not faithful to it, it will not come to pass. If I don’t assume that I am it, it will not
come to pass. So, I am the operant power when it comes to the Law.
But when it comes to the Promise, that is coming regardless of what you do, or where
you are, or anything in this world. Everyone will be redeemed. But everyone.
But here when it comes to the Law, spend all your time while you are here, because the
other is working, it’s coming. So, while you are here, take the Law and try to understand
it, and try to apply it wisely. Why not live well? Why not live graciously? Why not be a
kind and generous person the world? Why not be a gentleman? Why not be a lady?
These are tremendous accomplishments for man and for woman in this world. So, I say
to everyone while you are here, find out what the Law is all about, because you can’t
deceive yourself, because the Law will not allow you to.
As you reap the things in this world you may deny that you planted them, but it couldn’t
happen by accident. So, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For as a man sows, so
shall he reap. And he’s reaping everything morning, noon and night. I may not
remember my sowing and deny the harvest that is mine. But it’s there and I’ve got to
accept it.
Let me now remember.
When did I plant this? Maybe I can’t bring it back. We have very short and faulty
memories. And I can’t quite remember when I planted that seed.
Well, the mornings paper as you read these horrible stories, will tell you when you
planted it. You do not know the characters spoken of in the paper, yet you react. And
that reaction was in itself the planting of a seed, you passed judgement on those that
you read about.
You read a gossip of the paper and you’re passing judgement, and all of your imaginal
reactions are planting seeds. Instead of spending your wonderful time and investing it
while say, reading the bible, or reading a poem, read something that is altogether lovely,
we spend our time on the paper, or the radio bulletin, or the TV and all day long, we’re
simply putting into our mind ideas that must come to harvest. And when they come, we
deny that we planted them.
Well here, on this principle of the Law, you can be what you want to be in this world. I
don’t care what the world will tell you. You can start from scratch. And if you dare to
assume that you are wanted in this world, you will be wanted. I’m not a member of any
club in the land, and yet here I’m an American citizen today by adoption, and yet
wonderful men and women in this land have never been allowed to enter certain clubs.
I’m speaking of clubs I know well back in New York City. And yet I, a stranger, have
gone as an honored guest to almost every one of them. Because, I never barred myself.
It never occurred to me that I didn’t have all the qualifications to enter as a guest. I have
no desire to become a member. None.
Yet, I have gone to all of these clubs as a guest of those who were members. They
came to my meeting and asked me for dinner, and they took me to the club, or asked
me for some other purpose to go to the club. So, not a thing in me allowed myself to be
barred because I didn’t bar myself.
You can go to any place in this world if you don’t put these barriers on yourself. It’s
entirely up to you. God in you is your own wonderful Being called your human
Imagination.
In the 4 weeks that I’m gone, practice it morning, noon and night. And long before the 4
weeks, you should show the fruit. I’m serious about it.
You should bear the fruit of planting now. Not everything takes a month. Not everything
takes a year to grow. Some things come up overnight. And you can plant it now, this
very moment; by daring to believe that you are what at the moment reason denies, and
your senses deny. And actually, feeling, give it the tones of reality. And then, drop it!
You don’t pick it up tomorrow morning to see if it’s growing, you accept it, and in its own
good time it comes to fruition in your world. That is the Law.

But in the world of Caesar, I find it easier to be able to meet the obligations imposed
upon me by Caesar. There is a tax to be paid for Caesar. I must have the money that
Caesar demands. I must meet my obligations to life here in the world of Caesar. Rent
must be paid, clothes must be bought, food must be bought, transportation – all these
things I must find Caesar’s coin to pay for it. So, I use the Law for that purpose.
I have no desire to be a millionaire, but I do desire the comforts that a nice steady flow
of income allows without the anxiety that must come to everyone when he can’t meet
his obligations to life. So, I use the Law for that purpose and the Law for my friends who
are in conditions that calls for, I would say, the wise use of the Law. And I call it praying,
when I state you before my mind’s eye and see you as I would like to see you, the man
that you would like to see yourself.
If I assume that you are, and I get the thrill that you are; I call that praying. I do not turn
to any being on the outside and ask anything of any being on the outside. I do not get
down on my knees and pray to any outside God. I do not repeat any of the words
concerning a prayer that the old fashioned… some little prayer in words, none of that!
I sit in a comfortable chair or recline on the bed and think of you. When I think of you, I
simply think of you as I would like to see you, and work myself in a matter of seconds, to
a pitch where something goes out of me. It’s an actual feeling like some energy goes
out. It’s an actual creative act. And then I drop it at that moment.
You don’t repeat the creative act after you have reached the point of explosion. You
have actually brought the point to explosion and you drop it, and then let that seed now
grow in its own wonderful manner and externalize itself in the world.
I call that the subjective appropriation of the objective hope.
You tell him what you would like to be – that’s your hope. Well now, my appropriation
subjectively of your objective hope, is all that I do.
I have in the audience tonight a lady whose story I told you about a month ago, or 2
months ago. She was here when I opened the first night, and I see her here tonight.
When she wrote me and thanked me for the exercise of my Imagination on her behalf.
And I told you her request at the time before I left for San Francisco, that’s way back in
June. Well, here she is tonight, I’m not going to point her out to anyone, so that no one
will surround her, and try to ask questions of her but she is here. And she was the one
who would ask of me in the letter saying, “Would you please exercise your Imagination
lovingly on my behalf?”, and then she told me her problem.
As I read the letter, I was sitting I my Big Easy chair, I put the letter down, brought
before my mind’s eye, and did not for one moment hesitate until, it only took me about
10 seconds. 10 seconds to actually hear her tell me that it has all happened. It was
fresh in my mind’s eye, the request.
And then I dropped it. I never thought one second after that concerning it. It was done. I
got confirmation here, after my opening day which was back in October. October the 4 th
I opened, and a week or 2 weeks later she wrote me a letter, and she thanked me for
exercising my Imagination lovingly on her behalf. She did not itemize anything in the
letter. She implied in that letter that things were as she desired them to be.
I tell you, believe in God. And as you are told in the 14th Chapter of John, “You believe
in God, believe also in me.”
For I and my father are one; and he who sees me sees the Father. He sent me into the
world, and the sender and the sent are one. But in the world, I seem to be inferior to
myself, the sender, so I can also say, I and my father are one, but my father is greater
than I. I am not inferior to my essential being who is Father, but in the office of the sent,
I am handicapped. And so, I’m in the world of Caesar, but I know who I am, and I’m
trying to tell you, and everyone who will listen to me who you are.
So, believe in your own wonderful human Imagination. And you can start tonight from
where you are, and you will go as far as you want to go – just as far. And you have no
handicaps other than the handicaps you put on yourself. If you believe that because you
have no background socially, financially, intellectually; well then, that’s what you
believe, and you place these things upon yourself. If you do not accept them as final,
well, then they’re only barriers as long as you accept them. You don’t accept them, and
you go about your business applying this eternal principle that all things must bring forth
after their kind.
And you will have the choice of the seed that you will plant. You can plant a good seed
or a bad seed. It’s entirely up to you. But I would suggest you stop spending your
thoughts, your time, and your money, and start investing your thoughts, your time, and
your money. When you spend, you lay out without hope of return. When you invest, you
expect a return on equity. And so, you have the choice of seed. It’s entirely up to you.
I will select to be this man, or that man, or the other man. And you envy no one. How
could you envy anyone when you know who you are? How could you possibly envy any
person in this world?
He has a billion, let him have a billion. He wants 2, let him have 2. Only this past month,
a man whose income is supposed to be in excess of 5 billion dollars, not million, billion.
He was a young man, only 47 years age. And yet he blew his brains out. 47 and for
reasons not disclosed in the paper…
He’s from Sweden, and here is this huge banker, many, many, generations back and
they built up this enormous fortune and he was the head of the family, with a private
fortune in excess of 5 billion dollars. And then one day, he simply blew his brains out.
So, money did not in any way influence his decision to call it a day.
So, it’s not money, but if you want money, make it money. Don’t fall in love with money,
but you need it in the world of Caesar. Then assume that it’s coming in a normal natural
way, without knowing from whom, or where. You go to the end, and dwell in the end just
as though it were true. And may I tell you, it will be true.
But set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you, at the revelation of Jesus
Christ within you. But Jesus Christ is the Lord, and his Christ. That’s Jesus Christ, not
one name as it were, but the Lord’s Christ would be David. And so let me close it with a
little poem that Browning wrote concerning David, based upon, or he was inspired by
the 17th Chapter, the 16th and 17th Chapter of 1 Samuel.
And here he has the insane king called Saul, and standing before Saul is the youth,
David. And David said to the king, “O Saul, a Face like my face shall receive thee; and a
Man like to me, Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever; a Hand like this Hand Shall
throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!”
That’s David.
And then, but who is he addressing? Humanity; who has forgotten who he is. That’s a
form of insanity – it’s amnesia. We have forgotten that we are God. So, we are Saul.
And in that state, we are called insane. Demented. And the Christ stands before us, and
he is David.
And “a face like my face” said he, “…shall receive you.
“And a man like unto me, shalt love and be loved by, forever.
“And a hand like this hand Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee.
“See the Christ Stand”
But may I tell you, when you see, and you will see the Ancient of Days, you will be
incorporated into his body. He will embrace you, and you’ll become one body, one spirit,
with the Ancient of Days. And I am not an artist to paint the picture. When you see
David, David is the image of the Ancient of Days, but he is eternal youth. And the
Ancient of Days, you cannot put age upon it. You cannot say he’s this age, or that age,
or any age. He is without age and yet, he is the Ancient of Days. That’s who David
sees. That’s his father.
He is the image of his father, only he is the eternal youth. And you incorporated into the
Ancient of Days, you are God the Father. And that’s why David recognizes you as his
father. So, he finds David, and David said unto him, “Thou art my father, my God; and
the rock of my salvation.”
And he said to David, “Thou art my son.”
So here it is perfect, you are, regardless of the pigment of your skin now, regardless of
who you are now, you are destined to be awake one day as the Ancient of Days. And
you will know it, and you will only know it if David appears. You will not know it in any
other way. If you had all the power of the world to shatter the heavens, you still wouldn’t
know you are God. But how wise you became you wouldn’t know you are God.
Not a thing in this world could convince you that you are God, but His son calling you
Father. Nothing in the world could ever convince you that you are God save His son.
So, no one knows who the Son is except the Father. No one knows who the Father is
except the Son. And anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal it.
So, know one knows the Father, save the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He
has made him known.