Neville Goddard: "He Breaks the Shell" (1964) [RARE COMPLETE BOOK]

GOD REVEALS HIS IMAGE IN FOUR ACTS

“Teach me, O Holy Spirit, the testimony of Jesus! Let me understand the wondrous things of the Divine Law!»

Blake: Jerusalem Pl. 74.

“I am only a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus.»

Revelation 19:10

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”

Matthew 11:29

«"The yoke of the law" is a common rabbinical expression for studying Scripture. "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead" (Revelation 1:5) offers an exchange of Scripture, based on one's own personal experience, with others, based only on conjecture.

INTRODUCTION

It is very difficult for a person to change their understanding of the meaning of an event when old accepted interpretations are firmly entrenched in their minds. But the four acts of God that conceal His «Image,» «Let Us make man in Our image» (Gen. 1:26), appear in a very different light in perspective than they actually see in retrospect.

The resurrection is God's first act in revealing his "Image." It is accomplished in a way that man could never have guessed—by an awakening in his skull, not at the end of his history, but within the framework of his history. The resurrection is an event that occurs in the earthly life of man. Our human life has its meaning only and always in connection with our resurrection. The man who is thus awakened is "declared to be the Son of God by the power of the resurrection from the dead; this is Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 1:4). Participation in the life of the future depends on God's act of awakening the dead.

We are resurrected one by one to be united into one man who is God: «And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one.» (Zech. 14:9). Resurrection is an individual experience, an awakening of one’s own skull, followed immediately by a supernatural birth from the skull, a privileged birth into a new creation. This is accomplished only by the grace of God; and it is only for such an awakening that the New Testament uses the term «resurrection.» All other men, except the resurrected, return to life after death, to die again.

“Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him, »Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take his wife and raise up children for his brother… And Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can no longer die, for they are equal to the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:27-36)

“He woke from the sleep of life. It is we, lost in stormy visions, who maintain a fruitless struggle with phantoms.”

Shelley

God's purpose is not to develop the natural order, but to awaken the sons associated with it. "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed" (Rom. 8:19).

ACT ONE: RESURRECTION AND NEW BIRTH

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will in any way pass from the Law until all that is to come is accomplished.» (Matt. 5:17-18).

“My work is to bear witness to the truth. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that everyone who is not deaf to the truth may hear my voice.» (John 18:37-38)

«I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore» (Revelation 1:18)

«Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead» (Revelation 1:5)

The testimony of Jesus must be heard and responded to. Some will be convinced by his words, others will not. The testimony of Jesus cannot be forced upon one's own will. It is the revelation of the image of God. It is the sudden and utterly unexpected awakening in the skull, when you find yourself in the tomb in which you were buried, surprising and bewildering.

The resurrection is God’s first act in revealing his original desire: «Let us make man in our image» (Gen. 1:26). «He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ» (Phil. 1:6). Jesus Christ is «the image of the invisible God» (Col. 1:15). God’s work in you is completed when «you are conformed to the image of Christ» (Gal. 4:19). Then you will be awakened and raised from the dead.

The first act by which God reveals «the Son, who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his very being» (Heb. 1:3) is a twofold act. It awakens the sleeper and brings him out of his skull: Born again.

“"Wake up, sleeper,

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine upon you.”

Ephesians 5:14

He is «born again … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for Him» (I Peter 1:3-4).

«The "new birth" follows the "resurrection.".

“Flesh can only give birth to flesh; it is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit. Do not marvel, then, that I said to you, ”You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8)

A man wakes up in his skull and finds himself buried in it. He intuitively knows that if he pushes the base of the skull, a hole will appear, and it does. He pushes the base, finds the hole, and emerges head first, just as a child is born. As he contemplates the skull from which he has just emerged, suddenly a sound is heard, like a strong wind, filling the entire room; he hears the sound, but does not know "where it comes from and where it is going." His attention is momentarily distracted from the body from which he has just emerged by the sound of the wind. Looking back at the body, he is surprised to see that it has been pulled out and three men are sitting in its place; one sitting where the head was, and two where the feet were.

They too hear the sound of the victory of the mighty, but they do not know «whence it comes and whither it goes.» They do not see the man born from his skull, but they find the sign of his birth; a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying on the floor.

“Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you, who is Messiah, the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger» (Luke 2:11-12).

They find the sign of his birth, but not a twice-born man, for now he is «declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.» (Rom. 1-4).

ACT TWO: DISCOVERING PARENTHOOD

«My Father and I are one.»​—John 10:30.

The second mighty one reveals the mystery of human fatherhood and brotherhood. Man finds the David of the Bible and discovers that David's nature and mission are spiritual, not physical or historical. "I have found David... He will call to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation'" (Ps. 89:20, 26). "You are my Son, today I have begotten you" (Ps. 2:7). "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Luke 10:22).

“He said to them, «How can they say that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself… calls him »Lord»: how then can he be David’s son?« (Luke 20:41-44). David in spirit calls him »my Father.« When the »Messiah,« »the image of the invisible God,« is formed in man, that man will find David, and David will call him Father. Eventually all men will say to David, »You are my son, today I have begotten you’ (Ps. 2:7), and all will know fatherhood and human brotherhood.

“Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will ask no one else.’ Jesus answered, «Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, »Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:8-10).

ACT THREE: CURTAIN RUNNING AND RISE

The third powerful act reveals that the Image of God has a dual nature.

«You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you» (1 Cor. 3:16). «And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom» (Mark 15:38). «Therefore, friends, the blood of Jesus gives us freedom to enter the sanctuary by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, the way of his flesh (Heb. 10:19-20).

Lightning splits a man in two from the top of his skull to the base of his spine. He is split as a tree struck by lightning. At the base of his severed body he sees the «blood of Jesus,» a pool of molten gold; he knows it is himself; then, merging with the «blood of Jesus,» it rises up the severed spine in a serpentine motion into the skull. This is done to fulfill the Scripture; «As the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up» (John 3:14).

ACT FOUR: THE DOVE AND DIVINE APPROVAL

The fourth and final act is an expression of God’s satisfaction with his work. “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

The man's skull suddenly becomes transparent. Above him, as if floating, a dove hovers with love directed towards him. "And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'" (Matt. 3:16-17). The dove descends upon him and smothers him with love, kissing his face, his head, his neck. These four mighty acts, though separated by about three and a half years, are parts of a single complex.

The risen Christ—in these four mystical and supernatural experiences of man—gives the divine names of Jesus, Father, Son of Man, Son of God.

SUMMARY AND MYSTERY

The resurrection is a unique personal experience; by definition it is the resurrection of Christ. Although the resurrection itself is nowhere described in the scriptures, it is central to the Christian faith. It marks the division between this age and one in which even the law of death is broken—where man no longer dies, where all are equal to angels, sons no longer of this world but of the next, of God and resurrection: this is a new creation.

To become someone else is to extinguish oneself—to actually die. It is in this sense that God died for man. «He, being in the form of God… made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, and being born in the likeness of men» (Phil. 2:6-7). God became man so that man could become God.

“I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No one took it from me; I lay it down of my own accord. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it again.» (John 10:17-18).

After the Resurrection, man returns to the ancient Scriptures of hints and predictions of the truth as he has experienced it. “In the roll of a book it is written of me.” (Ps. 40:7). “Knowest thou not that Jesus Christ is in thee?” (2 Cor. 13:5). Christ could not «come out» of a man in whom He did not exist.

«They took the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they laid him… for they did not yet know (i.e., did not understand) the scripture that he must rise from the dead.» (John 20:2, 9).

One of the men at the tomb found a «Child,» a sign of supernatural birth, «but they saw Him not» (Luke 24:24), a man who was born supernaturally. He is risen! He is being born again. He said, «But these words seemed to the others as an idle tale, and they did not believe them» (Luke 24:11).

Resurrection means «to bear the image of the heavenly» (1 Cor. 15:49). There is no loss of identity, but there is a radical discontinuity of form. “Our lowly body will be transformed so that it may be conformed to (literally, of the same form as) his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21).

God’s original desire, «Let us make man in our image,» is being fulfilled at the appointed hour. And «it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority» (Acts 1:7).

«"Vision has its appointed time."

hour;

it ripens, it will bloom;

If it takes a long time, wait,

because that's definitely not it

"will be late."»

(Habakkuk 2:3)

The sacred history of Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament, is a wholly prophetic history that God brings to its climax and fulfillment in Jesus Christ in you.

“The Lords of the Armies swore:

As I thought,

so it will be

, and as I planned,

It will be so.

Isaiah 14:24.

The promises of God, long cherished like buds on the tree of his unfolding, will blossom—in four mighty acts—in Christ in you. The full force of this truth may be missed because you are unaware of the sudden break with the past. Something new has happened. You are being born again.

“Truly great, we admit, is the mystery of our religion.”

1 Timothy 3:16

Everything that is written in the Scriptures about Jesus Christ is written about a man. «And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him» (Luke 23:33). «A rock tomb, where no one had ever been laid» (Luke 23:53) is a human skull. And «if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be in a resurrection like His» (Rom. 6:5).

I have shared my own experience so that you may know the truth about the Christian mystery – the message of salvation, which I have experienced myself.

The divine image is revealed in this series of supernatural events that evoke a response of wonder and admiration. Personal experience should cement the truth of Scripture.

God is buried in the skull of man. His name is I AM. He will awaken in the skull of man. He will come out of the skull of Minnesota and be born again. God became man so that man could become God.

Jesus Christ is the true person of every person.

“Now go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be a witness forever.”

Isaiah 30:8

The Bible quotes in "He Breaks the Shell" are taken from the King James Version, Revised Standard Versions, NEW English Bible, and Moffatts.