#104: I AM He

I AM He

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have sought the thing you desire in every place but the one place where it lives. You have looked to circumstances, to other men, to time, and to chance, and still the fulfillment has not appeared. You have prayed as though the power lived outside yourself, and the prayer has returned to you unanswered. But I tell you, the fault is not in the prayer. The fault is not in the world. The fault is that you have not yet identified yourself with the desired state. You have not yet said in the depths of your soul, and felt it as true: I AM He.

This is the great revelation. This is the secret hidden in plain sight. The savior you seek is not a man, not a condition, not a future event. The savior is a state of consciousness, and when you identify yourself with that state, you become the savior of your own world. If you are sick, health is your savior. If you are poor, wealth is your savior. If you are lonely, love is your savior. And the voice that answers your seeking is always the same: I AM He. I am the health you long for. I am the wealth you desire. I am the love that fulfills you. I am the freedom that sets you free.

To identify yourself with the desired state is to feel yourself to be it now. It is not to hope for it, not to long for it, not to wait for it. It is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled so completely that the former state loses its power over you. You cannot be conscious of lack and express abundance. You cannot be conscious of illness and express health. You cannot be conscious of bondage and express freedom. Consciousness is the only reality, and it forever out-pictures itself in the circumstances of your life. Change the consciousness, and the circumstances must change. There is no other way.

In the ancient story they came seeking with lanterns and torches and weapons. They asked for the savior, and the voice answered, “I am he.” The name they gave was not important. The identification was everything. The savior was not a person they could seize and carry away. The savior was the consciousness that could not be bound, could not be limited, could not be denied. And so it is with you. When you truly seek the fulfillment of your desire, the answer rises from within your own being: I AM He. Not I, the limited self you have believed yourself to be, but I, the awareness of being, when identified with the fulfilled desire, am He.

This identification is the new birth. You must be born again, and this birth is not of the flesh. It is the birth of a new consciousness. You die to the old state by taking your attention from it. You live to the new state by feeling yourself to be it. In this simple act of feeling, the old man passes away and the new man appears. The old man is the consciousness of lack, of illness, of limitation. The new man is the consciousness of fulfillment, of health, of freedom, of love. You put off the one by withdrawing your attention. You put on the other by assuming the feeling of being it. This is the resurrection. This is the rising in consciousness. This is the lifting up of the son of man.

Feel it. Do not merely think about it. Thinking leaves you where you are. Feeling takes you into the state. When you feel yourself to be healthy, though the body seems to deny it, you have identified. When you feel yourself to be wealthy, though the bank account seems empty, you have identified. When you feel yourself to be loved and loving, though the world seems cold, you have identified. The feeling is the agreement between the I AM and the state. Two have touched, and the thing is established. The child is born. The manifestation appears.

Do not ask how it will come to pass. No man knows the way. The ways of consciousness are past finding out. Your concern is not the how. Your concern is the feeling. Get the consciousness right, and the how takes care of itself. Signs follow; they do not precede. The evidence of the senses is the out-picturing of the old consciousness. It will change only as you change in consciousness. Persist in the feeling of being He, and the evidence will change. It must change, for it has no life of its own. It lives only as you give it life by your attention.

You have placed too little value upon yourself. You have thought of yourself as the man or woman limited by birth, by circumstance, by age, by condition. But before you were conscious of being man, you were conscious of being. This awareness of being is God. It is the father. That of which you are conscious of being is the son. The father is greater than the son, yet they are one. When you identify with the desired state, you lift the son to the father. You rise to the point where you are conscious of being the fulfilled desire, and in that rising all things are possible to you.

The Bible is not a record of historical events. It is a great psychological drama taking place in the consciousness of man. Every character is a state of consciousness. Jesus is the savior state. When you say “I AM He,” you are not speaking of a man who lived two thousand years ago. You are speaking of the state of consciousness that saves you from the state you no longer wish to express. You are declaring that you are the health, the wealth, the love, the freedom. And this declaration, when felt as true, is creative. It is the word made flesh. It is the desire embodied.

Tonight, as you go to your rest, do not pray for the thing you desire. Instead, assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Feel yourself to be the one who has it. Feel the relief, the joy, the naturalness of it. Let the old state die as you give your whole attention to the new. In this feeling you shut the door. You shut out the evidence of the senses. You shut out the doubts and fears. In the secret place of your own consciousness you feel yourself to be He, and the father who sees in secret rewards you openly. The open reward is the manifestation in your world.

You may say you have tried and it did not work. But I tell you, you have not truly identified if the feeling has not become natural. Perhaps you only thought of the state. Perhaps you only hoped for it. But identification is feeling. It is losing yourself in the sensation of being the fulfilled desire. When you can rest in that feeling as easily as you rest in your bed, the identification is complete. The old state has lost its grip. The new state is established. And the world must reflect it.

This identification transforms your reactions. When a problem appears, you no longer react from the consciousness of lack. You react from the consciousness of fulfillment. The problem is seen as the old state trying to assert itself, but you have died to that state. You live now in the new. And the problem dissolves because it has no root where you are not conscious of it. The men who seemed to oppose you change their attitude because you have changed your consciousness. The conditions that seemed fixed begin to move because you have moved in consciousness. The world is yourself pushed out. Change yourself, and the world changes.

There is a peace in this identification that the world cannot give. It is the peace of knowing that you are He. It is the peace of resting in the feeling of fulfillment while the senses still deny it. This peace is not the absence of problems. It is the presence of the fulfilled desire in consciousness. In this peace you walk through the world untouched by its doubts. You are in the world but not of it. You live from the end. You think from the wish fulfilled. And the world, in time, bears witness to your inner conviction.

Do not be anxious about results. Anxiety is the evidence that you have not identified. When you have truly felt yourself to be He, there is no anxiety. There is only the quiet certainty that it is done. This certainty is your faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When you feel yourself to be wealthy, you have the substance of wealth. When you feel yourself to be healthy, you have the substance of health. This substance will clothe itself in form. It must, for consciousness is the only reality, and it eternally solidifies itself in the things round about you.

You are told that except you believe that I AM He, you shall die in your sins. To die in your sins is to remain in the consciousness of the undesired state. It is to continue to express lack, illness, limitation, because you have not felt yourself to be the fulfillment. But when you believe, when you feel that you are He, the sins pass away. They have no place in the new consciousness. They wither as the branch that is cut off from the vine. I AM is the vine. The states of consciousness are the branches. When you identify with a state, you feed that branch with your attention. It lives and grows and bears fruit in your world. When you withdraw your attention, the branch withers. This is the law. You are always feeding some branch. The question is which branch you will feed.

Feed the branch of fulfillment. Feel yourself to be the fulfilled desire. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. Do it until it becomes the most natural feeling in the world. The old feeling of lack will try to return. It will send up memories and suggestions. But you do not argue with it. You simply return to the feeling of being He. You ignore the old. You dwell in the new. And as you persist, the old grows weaker and the new grows stronger, until one day you realize that the old has gone and you are living in the consciousness of fulfillment.

This is the effortless way. There is no strain in true identification. There is no effort in feeling yourself to be the thing desired when you know that consciousness is the only reality. The effort comes only when you try to make the thing appear while remaining in the old consciousness. But when you change the consciousness, the thing appears without effort. It appears because it must. It has no other source than your own awareness of being, identified with the state.

You have been told to seek first the kingdom of heaven and all things shall be added. The kingdom of heaven is the consciousness of being the fulfilled desire. Seek this first. Feel yourself to be it. Dwell in this consciousness. Let it become your home. And all things will be added. They must be added, for they are the inevitable out-picturing of the inner state. You do not add them by effort. You add them by identification.

As you take this truth into the silence of your night, let it be your companion. Let the feeling of being He go with you into sleep. Let it be the first awareness when you wake. Dwell in it. Live from it. React from it. And the world will bear witness. It must bear witness, for it is your consciousness made visible. You have made visible the consciousness of fulfillment. You have said in the depths of your soul: I AM He. And it is so.

You are He. Not the limited self you once believed yourself to be, but you, the awareness of being, when identified with the desired state, are He. This is the discovery that ends all seeking. This is the pearl of great price. When you have found it, you have found the cause of all manifestation. And the cause, once felt and lived, must produce its effect in every area of your life. Go now and live from this consciousness. Walk as the one who is. Speak as the one who has. And the world will reflect your identification, for there is no other power, no other presence, no other I AM.