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Tonight's subject is: many mansions. You may be familiar with the subject from the 14th chapter of the book of John: "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. Were it not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And when I go, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3, Moffatt's translation). Now, who is this one speaking? Scripture tells us it is Jesus Christ.

The mystery of creation is to be understood in terms of faith, so what is faith? It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen with the mortal eye. Through faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.

I think you're all aware that this is the most dramatic week in Christendom and yet I dare say that not an nth part of one percent of those who call themselves Christians really understand what it is all about. It's the story of the fulfillment of God's purpose. That's the week, the triumphant march into Jerusalem, the crucifixion and then the resurrection. And it's told as though it took place on earth. That's how the story is told. Man cannot think abstractly, so it's told in the form of a story. And man has mistaken the story for the reality.

Examine yourselves to see if you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves! Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Now, faith is not complete until through experiment it becomes experience! When you test the Christ in you and prove from experience that it works, then you have the faith. But first you must find who Christ is, where he is, and what he is. You are not called upon to test a tradition of man as something on the outside, but Jesus Christ who is in you!

"All that you behold, though it appears without it is within, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow." If you will but enter a state in your imagination, and assume its truth, the outer world will respond to your assumption, for it is your shadow, forever bearing witness to your inner imaginal activity.

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.

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.

Scripture makes the most profound statements in the world. You can believe them or reject them, but you will never know their truth until scripture is experienced. When it is once experienced, you can no more deny it than you can the humblest evidence of your senses.

The world of imagination is infinite and eternal, whereas the world of generation is finite and temporary. In that eternal world, the permanent realities of everything exist. Their reflections are here, cast in a glass called nature.

"He is our peace, who will make us both one by breaking down the wall of hostility, that he may create in himself one new man in place of the two, so bringing peace." This being of peace is a person, not a doctrine or philosophy. He is a person who breaks down the wall of hostility between you who are seated here and your true identity, who is a son of God, one with his Father.

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.

Your true environment is in your imagination! All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination - of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. No matter what is taking place on the outside, it is but a symbol telling you what is taking place within; for the world is nothing more than yourself pushed out. Its image, alive in your imagination, overwhelms you.

In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he said: "I strive for you to have the riches of an assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery of Christ." Now, you may think there is no mystery to Christ and believe as any Christian believes - that Christ is Jesus, the son of God; but Paul doesn't state that. What Paul is trying to do is change your fixed ideas of the past, in order for you to have the same assured understanding and knowledge of God's mystery of Christ that he has.

God is known by experience or not at all. I have experienced God. I can no more deny it than I can the humblest evidence of my senses, so I feel qualified to tell you how you are going to experience God. There is only God in the world. When you say, "I am," that's God forever and forever.

In the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, we are told, "The rock, his work is perfect." Then this question is asked: "Is he not your father who created you? Separating the sons of men, he fixed bounds to the people according to the number of the Sons of God." Today there is much talk about curtailing the population explosion. This we will never do, for the bounds are already recorded.

You read about the flood, and you think, "Well, certainly that happened unnumbered - if it ever did happen, it happened unnumbered years ago." This morning, as is my custom, I turned on channel KFAC. That is a radio station that plays through the day and night, 24 hours a day, only lovely classical music; only a few interruptions.

"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.

Tonight, I want you to think of Christ as a cosmic being who contains everyone within him. Having died for all, this one being is in all, and will rise in all. Only one being can rise, for only one being fell. Having deliberately destroyed his temple in the fall, God (this one being) is rebuilding his temple out of the redeemed, in order for it to become something far greater than it was prior to its destruction. One being, containing all within him, fell into this world of death to become individualized as you, as me.

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.