Chapter 7 of Your Faith Is Your Fortune – Neville Goddard
“Not My will, but Thine, be done.”
This resignation is not one of blind realization that
“I can of Myself do nothing, the Father within Me, He doeth the work”
When man wills, he attempts to make something which does not now exist appear in time and space. Too often we are not aware of that which we are really doing. We unconsciously state that we do not possess the capacities to express. We predicate our desire upon the hope of acquiring the necessary capacities in future time.
“I AM not, but I will be”.
Man does not realize that consciousness is the Father which does the work, so he attempts to express that which he is not conscious of being.
Such struggles are doomed to failure; only the present expresses itself. Unless I am conscious of being that which I seek, I will not find it.
God (your awareness) is the substance and fullness of all.
God’s will is the recognition of that which is, not of that which will be.
Instead of seeing this saying as
“Thine will be done”,
see it as
“Thy will is done”.
The works are finished.
The principle by which all things are made visible is eternal.
“Eyes have not seen nor ears heard, neither hath it entered into the hearts of men, the things which God hath prepared for those who love the law”
When a sculptor looks at a formless piece of marble, he sees, buried within its formless mass, his finished piece of art. The sculptor, instead of making his masterpiece, merely reveals it by removing that part of the marble which hides his conception.
The same applies to you. In your formless awareness lies buried all that you will ever conceive yourself to be. The recognition of this truth will transform you from an unskilled laborer who tries to make it so to a great artist who recognizes it to be so.
Your claim that you are now that which you want to be will remove the veil of human darkness and reveal your claim perfectly; I AM that. God’s will was expressed in the words of the Widow,
“It is well”.
Man’s will would have been,
“It will be well”.
To state,
“I shall be well”, is to say, “I am ill”.
God, the Eternal Now, is not mocked by words or vain repetition. God continually personifies that which is.
Thus, the resignation of Jesus (who made Himself equal with God) was turning from the recognition of lack (which the future indicates with “I shall be”) to the recognition of supply by claiming,
“I AM that; it is done; thank You, Father”.
Now you will see the wisdom in the words of the prophet when he states,
“Let the weak say, I AM strong”.
Man in his blindness will not heed the prophet’s advice; he continues to claim himself to be weak, poor, wretched and all the other undesirable expressions from which he is trying to free himself by ignorantly claiming that he will be free from these characteristics in the expectancy of the future.
Such thoughts thwart the one law that can ever free him.
There is only one door through which that which you seek can enter your world.
“I AM the door.”
When you say,
“I AM”,
you are declaring yourself to be, first person, present tense; there is no future. To know that I AM is to be conscious of being. Consciousness is the only door. Unless you are conscious of being that which you seek, you seek in vain.
If you judge after appearances, you will continue to be enslaved by the evidence of your senses.
To break this hypnotic spell of the senses, you are told,
“Go within and shut the door”
The door of the senses must be tightly shut before your new claim can be honored. Closing the door of the senses is not as difficult as it appears to be at first. It is done without effort.
It is impossible to serve two masters at the same time.
The master man serves is that which he is conscious of being.
I AM Lord and Master of that which I AM conscious of being. It is no effort for me to conjure poverty if I am conscious of being poor.
My servant (poverty), is compelled to follow me (consciousness of poverty), as long as I AM (the Lord), conscious of being poor.
Instead of fighting against the evidence of the senses, you claim yourself to be that which you desire to be. As your attention is placed on this claim, the doors of the senses automatically close against your former master (that which you were conscious of being).
As you become lost in the feeling of being, that which you are now claiming to be true of yourself, the doors of the senses once more open, revealing your world to be the perfect expression of that which you are conscious of being.
Let us follow the example of Jesus who realized, as man, He could do nothing to change His present picture of lack. He closed the door of His senses against His problem and went to His Father, the one to Whom all things are possible.
Having denied the evidence of His senses, He claimed Himself, to be all that, a moment before, His senses told him, He was not. Knowing that consciousness expresses its likeness on earth, He remained in the claimed consciousness until the doors (His senses) opened and confirmed the rulership of the Lord.
Remember,
“I AM is Lord of all.”
Never again use the will of man which claims,
“I will be”.
Be as resigned as Jesus and claim,
“I AM that”.