#105: Thy Will Be Done

Thy Will Be Done

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

Man has long believed that his personal will could shape his destiny, that by the strength of his own striving he could compel the world to yield what he desires. He has cried out in his heart for change, for relief, for the fulfillment of some deep longing, and he has thought that the more fiercely he willed it, the sooner it would come. Yet the conditions he sought to escape have often held him more firmly, and the desires he pursued with such effort have remained just beyond his reach. This is not because the will is powerless. It is because the will that shapes the world is never the personal, future-oriented will of man as man. The will that is done is the will accepted in consciousness as already so. Your accepted will becomes your experienced world.

This is the meaning hidden in the simple words, "Thy will be done." They are not words of resignation to some external fate that must be endured. They are words of recognition that the state you consent to in the depths of your being is the state that consciousness must express. There is no other will operating in your world. The only will that ever solidifies into form is the will you have accepted as true of yourself now. When you accept a state as real in consciousness, that acceptance is the will being done, and the world you walk in becomes its faithful reflection. When you withdraw your acceptance from an unwanted state and give it instead to the fulfilled desire, that new acceptance becomes the will that is done, and the old world begins to give way.

You see, consciousness knows no future. It knows only what it is conscious of being in the present. When you say in your heart, "I will be well," or "I will have abundance," or "I will be free," you are declaring in consciousness that you are not yet these things. And consciousness, being the only reality, can only out-picture what it has accepted as so. It cannot out-picture a hope. It cannot out-picture a future tense. It can only express the state that has been accepted as present fact. This is why the personal will, the will that says "I will make it so," so often fails. It keeps the desired state at a distance by the very act of striving toward it.

God's will, the will that is always done, is the recognition of that which already is. It is not something that will be accomplished tomorrow or next year. It is the quiet, certain consent that "it is so now." When you can feel yourself to be the one who has what you desire, when the feeling of it being already fulfilled fills your consciousness without effort, then the will is done. The world may not yet have caught up with your acceptance, but the acceptance itself has set in motion the only power that can bring the outer into harmony with the inner. Your accepted will is even now becoming your experienced world.

Consider how a man finds himself in some unwanted condition. He looks upon it and says, "This must change." He brings all the force of his personal will against it. He plans, he struggles, he affirms, he resists. And yet the condition persists or even worsens. Why? Because in all his willing he has remained conscious of the condition as real. His very effort to escape it has kept his acceptance fixed upon it. He has not withdrawn his consent from the unwanted state. He has only added to it the effort of resistance. But resistance is still acceptance. To fight against a state is to keep it alive in consciousness. The will that is done is never the will that fights. It is the will that accepts the opposite state as now true and rests in that acceptance.

This is what was meant when it was said, "Not my will, but thine, be done." These words were not the surrender of a man to an external power that would force an unwanted experience upon him. They were the turning away from the evidence of the senses, which declared the present state to be one of limitation, and the acceptance in consciousness of the state in which all things were possible. The personal will, the will of the man who saw only the appearance, was set aside. In its place came the quiet acceptance that the work was already finished, that the state desired was already so. And in that acceptance the will was done. The outer event conformed to the inner consent.

You can do the same with any condition that now holds you. You do not need to fight it. You do not need to plan its removal or struggle against its evidence. You need only to withdraw your acceptance from it and give your acceptance to the fulfilled state instead. Shut the door of your senses to the appearance that denies your desire. In the secret place of your consciousness, assume the state you wish to experience. Feel yourself to be the one who is already living in the fulfillment. Let the feeling of it being so now become natural to you. This feeling, this quiet consent, is the will being done. And because it is accepted in consciousness, it must express itself in your world.

The world you experience is always the out-picturing of the states you have consented to as true. There is no other cause for the conditions that surround you. You are not at the mercy of events. Events are at the mercy of your acceptance. When you accept lack as your present reality, lack is what consciousness expresses. When you accept illness as your present reality, illness is what consciousness expresses. When you accept bondage or frustration or any limitation as your present reality, that acceptance is your will, and that will is done. But when you withdraw your acceptance from these states and give it instead to their opposites, when you can rest in the feeling that you are already the one who is free, or well, or abundant, then that new acceptance becomes the will that is done. The old world begins to dissolve, and the new world takes its place without any effort on your part.

This acceptance is not a passive waiting. It is the most active, the most creative act of which you are capable. It is the act by which you align yourself with the eternal principle that consciousness only solidifies what it has accepted as so. To accept the fulfilled state as now true is to do the will. And this doing is not done by you as the personal man who strives. It is done by the consciousness itself, the I AM that you have accepted as yourself. When you can say with feeling, "I AM that," or "It is done," or "Thank you, Father," and mean it in the depths of your being, the will is done. The how, the when, the means—these belong to consciousness. Your only responsibility is the acceptance.

In your formless awareness lies every state you could ever desire to express. Nothing is missing. Nothing needs to be created. All that is required is the recognition that it is already there and the acceptance of it as now your own. The sculptor does not force the marble into a new shape by the sheer power of his personal will. He sees the finished form already buried within the stone. By removing what hides it, he reveals what was always present. So it is with you. The state you desire is already within your consciousness. Your acceptance of it as now true removes the veil of the old acceptance and reveals the new state as your living reality. You do not make it so. You recognize that it is so. And in that recognition the will is done.

This is why the future tense is powerless. To say "I will be" is to remain in the consciousness of "I am not." It is to keep the desired state forever at a distance. The will that is done knows no future. It knows only the present. When you can feel the naturalness of being the one who has what you desire, when the feeling of it being already so fills you without strain, then you have accepted the will. And the world you walk in must conform to that acceptance. It cannot do otherwise, for there is no other power.

Many have discovered this truth after long years of struggle. They have tried every means of the personal will to change their conditions. They have planned and affirmed and resisted. And at last, when they were weary of the effort, they have simply accepted in consciousness the state they desired as now true. They have felt themselves to be the one who is already free, or well, or at peace, or abundant. And without any further struggle, the conditions began to change. The acceptance had set in motion the only power that could bring the outer into harmony with the inner. Their accepted will had become their experienced world.

You can know this same freedom from struggle. Whatever the condition that now seems fixed, whatever the desire that seems delayed, the way is not more effort. The way is the quiet withdrawal of acceptance from the unwanted state and the giving of acceptance to the fulfilled state. In the quiet of your own room, when the doors of the day are closed, take this truth into the secret place. Assume the state you desire. Feel the feeling of it being so now. Do not argue with the senses. Do not try to force the feeling into being. Simply rest in the assumption. Let it become natural. And as you do, know that in this acceptance the will is being done. Your accepted will is even now becoming your experienced world.

The doubts will arise. The senses will present their evidence of the old state. But these doubts and this evidence have no power over the acceptance. The will that is done does not depend upon the testimony of the senses. It depends only upon the consent in consciousness. As you remain faithful to the acceptance, the evidence will change. The world will catch up with what you have already accepted as so. This is not because you have forced it. It is because consciousness only out-pictures what it has accepted, and you have given your acceptance to the fulfilled state.

As this truth becomes living in you, you will find the old personal will, the will that says "I will make it so," growing weaker. In its place will come a quiet certainty, a calm assurance that what you have accepted is already so. You will no longer be the laborer who struggles to build his world. You will be the one who recognizes that the finished state is already present in consciousness and simply lives in the acceptance of it. The world will conform without your effort, for your accepted will has become your experienced world.

This is the freedom hidden in the words, "Thy will be done." It is not a prayer that something may happen in the future. It is the declaration that what you have accepted in the present is the reality that must express. And because consciousness is the only reality, and it only solidifies what it has accepted as so, your world cannot help but become the living expression of your accepted will. You are not a victim of circumstance. You are the one in whom the will is done according to your acceptance. Change the acceptance, and you change the will that is done. And in changing the will that is done, you change the world you experience.

Dwell upon this truth until it becomes the natural feeling of your days. Let it sink into the depths of your being. For in the measure that you accept it, in the measure that you live in the feeling of the fulfilled state as now true, in that measure your accepted will becomes your experienced world. And you will find yourself no longer the one who hopes and strives and waits, but the one who knows and rests in the knowledge that it is done. The will has been done the instant you accepted it as done. And your world is even now becoming its perfect reflection.