CHAPTER 13
YOUR PERSONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Bible, the most wonderful book in the world and the most misunderstood, is your personal autobiography. It is not the recording of historical events as your teachers teach, and its writings were never intended to be interpreted as such. The persons recorded there never existed, and the events never happened on earth. The Bible is speaking of the heaven within and the earth without.
Its story begins: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Then the Spirit of God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” The light spoken of here comes from heaven which is within you. The light which shines upon your earth is the light of your consciousness and shines from within you. The outer man (called the earth) is dark while the inner man (called heaven) is the being who was in the beginning with God and was God but is sound asleep. As your autobiography, the Bible tells how you are lifted up from your present level of being into a higher one.
In the Old Testament, we find the Pentateuch (the first five Books, as the law of Moses). These books were written in 500 B.C., while the earliest date known for the New Testament is 170 A.D. The first known New Testament did not include the Epistles to the Hebrews or the Books of Peter and James. (It is James who speaks of the double-minded man, declaring that he can receive nothing from the Lord.) Then we had the Apocrypha which consisted of early Christian writings that were excluded from the Jewish and Protestant Old Testament. These writings give four biographical sketches of a principle, rather than a man. It took nine hundred years for the Bible to come into its present form. So when you read it, always bear in mind that it is speaking of the kingdom of heaven within you. It is telling of a revelation of an eternal principle called Christ, who is your hope of glory. All of the characters recorded in scripture are aspects of your mind which you will discover as you fulfill your destiny, which is to fulfill scripture within yourself.
No man named Moses ever wrote any commandments on stones, rather the word “stone” means “literal truth.” The literal minded man comes first and is given certain laws to live by, thus blocking psychological truth. As long as you see things on the outside as facts, your mind is blocked and you are unable to grasp their psychological meanings. But when you become thirsty for the truth and begin to apply the law, the spirit of God will move upon this psychological sea of understanding and your life will take that truth (water) and turn it into wine. In the state of Moses, God’s true name is revealed to you. Take his name (your I AM) as your rod of understanding and hit the stone of literal truth with it, and psychological water will come forth. Drink it by putting my words into practice and you will convert the psychological water of truth I have given you into the wine of the spirit.
Now, the clothing spoken of in scripture is that of the mind and not of the body. John the Baptist is described in the 3rd Chapter of Matthew as one called Elijah in 2nd Kings. It is said he wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his waist. Hair and skin are the most external things a man possesses; therefore, John the Baptist represents the outer man who has not yet clothed himself internally. Jesus is the inner man. He wears the seamless g8rment woven from above, and those who wear his garment are always found in the king’s house.
The New Testament teaches a complete and radical transformation of self and calls it rebirth, but John the Baptist calls it repentance and urges us to change our thinking of the kingdom of heaven. It is said that he lived in the wilderness with the wild animals. Well, you are John, living in the wilderness when you have no direction of your own and allow your animal emotions to run wild. But when you begin to tame your animal instincts and call them into discipleship, strength will come to you from within and you will be baptized in the water of truth.
Speaking in a parable, Matthew likens the kingdom of heaven to a sower who sows his seeds on different types of soil. The sower spoken of here is not a being external to yourself, for you are the sower and the seed. Your own wonderful human imagination is God, the sower who said, “Let us make man in our image,” then fell asleep and annexed the brain of the outer man as the seed for his redemption. As Adam (or the red earth), man is the psychological earth upon which the kingdom of heaven is planted. In the parable, we are told that when one hears the word but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away that which is sown in his heart. But he who hears with understanding, bears fruit and yields a hundredfold.
Another parable is told comparing the kingdom of heaven to a man who, having sowed good seeds in his field, fell asleep and his enemy came and sowed weeds there. These weeds are false teachings, planted in the mind, false beliefs and concepts that can be bound and burned when you turn within to discover the truth and the kingdom of heaven to be yourself.
In the 11th Chapter of Genesis, the story is told of how the tower of Babel is built with stone (literal truth) and bricks (manmade concepts). Before the building was erected, there was only one language and few words, but during the building, confusion reigned, and soon no one understood the language of the other. This tower exits today as the little mystical, occult groups of the world. You have no enemies save those of your own household. Making truth of false teachings, you believe that your security depends upon the money you have in the bank; or your health depends upon the pills you take; or your happiness depends upon another. In so doing, you build your own tower of Babel. But I say to you, your consciousness of being is the only reality of the state you are in, and all of the enemies of that state are within you. In his Beatitudes, Matthew tells you that your attitude of being is blessed when it is clothed in soft raiment, for when you wear the seamless garment of imagination, you are free to rise higher and higher into the garden of Eden within you. You are the gardener of your mind where you plant the seeds of your own selection. As the Man of Imagination, become conscious of being that which you have planted, and your harvest will be an hundredfold, for you always become what you behold.
In his 16th Chapter, Matthew tells the story of the Pharisees and Sadducees who, unbelieving, ask for a sign from the heaven. Then we are told to take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now, these are not men, but attitudes of mind. If you believe that you must live in the “right” neighborhood; that you must know the “right” people that your skin must be the “right” color; or that you must be in the “right” place at the “right” time, your attitude is one scripture calls a Pharisee. Beware of that kind of thinking, for the road to a higher level of self is always internal and never external.
Mark tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant of fine pearls who finds a pearl of great price, sells all that he has, and buys it. As long as you hold onto one thought of something external to your own mind, you do not have enough money to buy the pearl of great price. You must be willing to sell all belief in anything outside of self. The road to the kingdom leads upwards and is always in an internal direction. You cannot travel this road wearing clothes made of skin and hair. You must be clothed in your wedding garment which is always woven from within.
Again, we are told that the kingdom of heaven is like a net which is cast into the sea and gathers fish of every kind, be they good or bad. When it is brought ashore, the good are placed into vessels and the bad thrown away. Become discriminating. Select your thoughts carefully and throw away any unlovely and negative ones. Allow only that which is of good report to fill your mind and you will be the good fisherman. In this same 13l Chapter of Matthew, the question is asked, “Have you understood this?” It is my prayer that everyone of you will answer, as they did to him, and say, “Yes.”
Now it is said, “Do not put new wine into old wineskins, for the skins will burst and the wine be spilled, and the skins destroyed; but put new wine into fresh wineskins so both are preserved.” Old thoughts, the traditions of men, the belief in power outside of self are the old wineskins which must be burst and allow the beliefs to be spilled and destroyed. New wine, gained by the fulfillment of God’s promise within, must be put into your consciousness (fresh wineskins) so that both are preserved.
Man does not evolve on the outside. There is only one presence; only one essence in man, called Christ and defined as God’s power and your hope of glory. This power can be awakened if you, God’s word, are not tarnished by the belief in a power outside of self. Awake! Give up all false beliefs and clothe yourself in the soft raiment of an internal attitude which implies the fulfillment of your dream. The Bible, from beginning to end, is the psychological story of your soul and tells you that the first thing you must do is change your thinking. I bring to you a new idea relative to the cause of the phenomena of life, telling you that you are not what you believe yourself to be, but possess possibilities of infinite inner growth.
Your destination is always reached by an internal direction, which is the Be-attitudes. Be your attitude good, bad or indifferent, when you clothe yourself in an attitude, its fulfillment is not dependent upon anything external to you. But when you depend upon external laws to determine your attitude, you are on the level of Elijah and John the Baptist. Their teaching was wonderful, but it was stone, and the state was a violent one. John the Baptist cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You must overcome his state by consciously turning within and disciplining your internal attitudes. This is your destiny. You are destined to awaken within yourself as you climb Jacob’s ladder of states to higher and higher levels of your own being. The state of awareness you desire to express must be bought by selling all of your beliefs in any external power to help you. Once free from their encumbrance, you will move in faith into your desired state.
In the Book of John, Jesus, as a teacher, makes this statement: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in me.” Then he adds this thought: “It is expedient that I go, lest the comforter will not come.” Here we see a teaching that is seemingly taught from without, but it is necessary for your belief in any external teacher to disappear for only then can the comforter within you be found. As your belief in yourself grows, your heart will find peace.
There is only one cause, only one I AM. I, the trinity, in unthinkable origin, AM God the Father, and in creative expression AM the son, for imagination is born of consciousness. I, in universal interpretation; in infinite imminence; in eternal procession AM God, the Holy Spirit. The real definition of imminence is “sooner than now and nearer than here.” I AM, therefore, the comforter. What could comfort you more than the knowledge that you don’t have to wait for your dreams to come true? They are nearer than here and sooner than now. Let this knowledge be your comforter. If there was a limit to that which is contained in an infinite state, it would not be infinite. In the 23rd Chapter of Exodus, this statement is made: “You shall not steep a kid in its mother’s milk.” I tell you, you are doing this very thing when you keep your mind on a negative state. Turn your attention from want and lack (all negative states) and place it on fulfillment and abundance (positive states) and you will no longer simmer your desire in its mother’s milk.
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Source
https://coolwisdombooks.com/neville/neville-goddard-the-creative-use-of-imagination-edited-by-margaret-ruth-broome-1952/
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