#110: The Interval of Time

The Interval of Time

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have assumed the feeling of the wish fulfilled. You have entered into the state and found it natural. The joy of it has filled your being. Yet when you open your eyes to the world, nothing has changed. The days pass, one after another, and still there is no sign that your assumption has taken form. In the quiet of your own mind you begin to wonder. You ask yourself if perhaps the assumption was not strong enough, if perhaps there is some reason why it has been denied. But I tell you, there is no denial. There is only an interval of time, and this interval is not a sign of failure but the very evidence that the law is at work.

The interval of time is the period between the moment you fix the impression in consciousness and the moment that impression is expressed in the world around you. It is not a void. It is not a punishment. It is the time in which consciousness arranges the necessary means for the fulfillment of its own assumption. This arrangement is invisible to the outer eye. It takes the form of a bridge of incidents, a series of events that lead inevitably to the realization of your desire. You do not see the bridge being built. You do not know the incidents that will arise. But you can rest in the knowledge that they are being fashioned even now, for consciousness never leaves its work unfinished.

Man, in his ignorance of this principle, becomes impatient in the interval. He looks at the unchanged world and concludes that nothing has happened. He drops the assumption and returns to his former state of consciousness, thereby canceling the very thing he had claimed. But you who understand the nature of the interval will not make this mistake. You will recognize that the delay is not a denial but a necessary part of the process. Just as the seed requires time to germinate and break the ground, so the desire assumed in consciousness requires time to break the surface of the visible world and appear as fact. To accept this is to be free from the anxiety that destroys so many good assumptions.

To live successfully through the interval, you must enter the Sabbath. After you have assumed the state and felt it as accomplished, you rest. You do not continue to work upon it with anxious thought. You do not question the means by which it will come. You do not look for signs in the world to reassure yourself. You simply know that it is finished. This knowing is the Sabbath, the rest in which the creative act is complete. In this rest you walk unmoved through the interval. Whatever appears, whether it seems to confirm or to contradict your assumption, you remain faithful to the inner conviction. For you know that the world must conform to what you have assumed, and this conformation takes the form of the interval.

The length of the interval is determined by your own level of confidence. Time is relative to your conception of yourself. The man who is accustomed to the feeling that all things are possible to him gives himself a shorter interval than the man who is still learning to trust the law. But in either case, the interval is not for you to shorten by anxiety or to lengthen by doubt. Choose a natural interval, one that feels reasonable and right to you, and then remain faithful to your assumption throughout that period. As your confidence in the I AM grows, you will find that the natural interval becomes shorter of its own accord. Confidence always shortens the time between the claim and its realization.

During the interval, secrecy is of the utmost importance. Do not speak of your assumption to others. The moment you do, you risk introducing doubt into the impression. The opinions of others, their questions, their skepticism, can disturb the tender seed you have planted in consciousness. Keep your secret locked within you. Rejoice in it privately. Feel the thrill of knowing that although the world sees nothing, you have already received the desire in the depths of your own being. This secret joy is the nourishment that sustains the impression and hastens its expression in form.

As you walk through the interval, you may be tempted to look back at the old state. You may wonder if you should have assumed differently, if perhaps you missed some essential step. But these temptations are the last efforts of the old consciousness to maintain its hold upon you. They have no power if you refuse to entertain them. Keep your attention fixed upon the fulfilled desire. Feel its naturalness. Know that it is already so. Every time you do this, you strengthen the new state and weaken the power of the interval to disturb your peace.

The interval is the time in which you learn to live by faith rather than by sight. Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for, the evidence of the thing not seen. During the interval you have no outer evidence to support your assumption. You have only the inner evidence of your own feeling. To persist in the feeling despite the absence of outer proof is to live by faith. And it is this living by faith that brings the substance into visibility. The interval, therefore, is not something to be endured with gritted teeth; it is something to be used with gratitude. It is the opportunity to prove to yourself that you are the operant power, the one whose assumptions shape reality.

You can make the journey through the interval more vivid by feeling yourself into the appointed time. If you have decided that your desire will be realized by a certain day, you can, in imagination, dwell in that day. Feel the atmosphere of it. Hear the sounds that belong to it. Feel the joy of having received your desire on that day. Having done this, you have visited the future and prepared the place. You have returned to the present carrying the conviction that on the appointed day it will be so. As you walk through the intervening days, you walk with this conviction. Nothing that appears can shake it, for you have already seen the end from the beginning.

This practice transforms the interval from a period of anxious watching into a period of quiet, joyful expectancy. You are not waiting for something to happen; you are watching something that has already happened in consciousness unfold in the world. The bridge of incidents is being built. People are being moved, circumstances are being arranged, events are being ordered to bring about the fulfillment. You may not recognize them as they appear, but they are all part of the perfect working of the law. When the appointed time comes, you will look back and see how every step was necessary and how the apparent delay was not denial but the perfect timing of consciousness.

The key to enduring the interval without faltering is to remember that consciousness is the only reality. The things that appear in the interval are but the shadows of your former state passing away. They have no power to affect the new state you have assumed unless you give them that power by your attention. Keep your attention upon the fulfilled desire. Feel it as present. Know that it is done. In this knowing you are free from the tyranny of time and from the fear that delay means denial.

As you persist in this understanding, you will find that the interval loses its power to disturb you. You will move through it with the dignity of one who knows that all things are already his. The world may continue to show the old picture for a time, but you will know that it is only a picture, and that the reality is the new consciousness you have claimed. This knowledge is the Sabbath in which you rest, and from this rest the new picture must emerge.

There is always an interval between the impression and its expression. There is always a time between the conscious claim and its visible manifestation. But this time is not a denial. It is the time in which the law operates to bring the invisible into visible form. Your part is to remain faithful during that time. Do not dig up the seed to see if it is growing. Do not question the how. Do not look for signs before the appointed time. Simply know that it is finished, and walk in that knowing.

When the expression finally appears, you will look back upon the interval and see that it was necessary and good. You will see that the delay was not a refusal but a preparation. You will see that every apparent contradiction was part of the bridge that led you to the fulfillment. And you will know, with a certainty that can never be shaken, that consciousness never fails to clothe its assumptions in form, and that the interval of time is but the time it takes for the form to appear.

This is the truth that frees you from anxiety about results. You no longer live in the fear that your desires may be denied. You know that denial is impossible when the assumption is persisted in. The only thing that can prevent the realization is your own loss of faith during the interval. But now that you understand the nature of the interval, you will not lose faith. You will walk through it in the calm certainty that what you have assumed must come to pass, for there is no power that can stop it.

Tonight, as you assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled, know that you have already prepared the place. The interval that follows is not your concern. Your concern is only to remain faithful, to rest in the Sabbath, to walk in secrecy and in joy. Do this, and the expression will come in its appointed time. And when it comes, it will be even more natural and more wonderful than you had imagined, for the ways of consciousness are past finding out, and its timing is always perfect.

You are the one who decrees. The interval of time is but the echo of your decree returning to you in form. There is no denial, only the perfect working of the law that brings all things to pass in their season. Rest in this knowledge, and the interval will no longer be a burden. It will be the quiet time in which you watch the invisible become visible, the time in which you prove to yourself that you are indeed the operant power in your world.

The interval of time is the time of rest after the creative act is finished. It is the time in which you do nothing but remain in the conviction that your assumption is true. It is the time in which you prove your faith by refusing to be moved by appearances. It is the time in which the bridge of incidents is being built, invisibly but surely, to lead you to the fulfillment. It is the time in which you learn that delay is not denial, but the perfect timing of the law that never fails.

As you walk through this interval, you are not alone. You are accompanied by the consciousness that has already prepared the place for you. You are walking with the one who has gone before and made it so. This knowledge fills the interval with peace. It transforms the waiting into a quiet joy. It changes the anxiety into certainty. And it ensures that the expression will come, for consciousness never fails to bring forth what it has assumed.

The interval of time, then, is not your enemy. It is your ally. It is the proof that the law is faithful. It is the space in which your assumption matures into experience. Walk through it in the dignity of one who knows that all things are already his, and that the world has no choice but to confirm what consciousness has decreed. Remain in this understanding, and the interval will no longer trouble you. You will move through it with the calm certainty that what you have assumed must come to pass, and that the delay, when it comes, is only the time it takes for the world to catch up with your new consciousness.

This is the great secret of the interval. It is not a sign that your desire has been denied. It is the sign that your assumption is working, that the law is operating, that the invisible is becoming visible in its appointed time. Accept this, and you are free. You are free from anxiety, from impatience, from the fear that perhaps it will not come. You are free to rest in the Sabbath, to walk in secrecy, to remain faithful, and to know that the expression must come, for there is no power in heaven or on earth that can prevent it.

Tonight, assume the state. Feel it natural. Know that it is done. And then rest. Rest in the knowledge that the interval, whatever its length, is not a denial but the perfect working of the law. Walk through it unmoved. And when the expression appears, as it surely will, you will know that you have proved the law to yourself and that delay is never denial when the assumption is persisted in.

You are already that which you desire to be. The interval is but the time it takes for the world to recognize what you have already accepted in consciousness. There is no denial. There is only the perfect timing of the creative power that is your own awareness of being. Rest in this truth, and the interval will be a time of quiet joy rather than anxious waiting. For you know that what you have assumed must come to pass, and that the delay is only the time it takes for the world to recognize what you have already become in consciousness.

This is the truth that sets you free from the tyranny of time and the fear of denial. The interval of time is not your enemy. It is your friend. It is the proof that your assumption is alive and working. It is the time in which you prove your faith. It is the time in which you learn to rest in the finished work. Walk through it in the dignity of one who knows that all things are already his, and the expression will come in its appointed time. For consciousness never fails to bring forth what it has assumed, and the interval is but the time it takes for the form to appear.

The feeling of the wish fulfilled is the creative act. The interval is the time in which that act is objectified. During the interval you do not act upon the world; you rest in the consciousness that the act is complete. This rest is not inactivity; it is the most powerful activity there is, for it is the activity of faith. Faith does not beg. Faith does not hope. Faith knows. And in the knowing, it rests. This rest during the interval is what allows the bridge of incidents to form without interference from your anxious thought. When you rest, you allow the law to work. When you worry, you interfere with the law. The interval, therefore, is the test of your ability to rest in the finished work.

Many fail at this point. They assume the state, they feel the joy, and then they begin to work upon it with their minds. They wonder how it will come. They look for signs. They discuss it with others. All of these things are interferences. They are the opposite of rest. They are the opposite of faith. They prolong the interval and often destroy the assumption altogether. But you who understand will not do this. You will assume, you will feel, you will rest. And in the resting, the interval will do its work and bring the desire into form.

The interval is also the time in which you are weaned from the old state. The old state does not give up easily. It will present every possible appearance to make you doubt your assumption. It will seem as though conditions are worse than before. It will seem as though the desire is further away than ever. But these appearances are illusions. They are the death throes of the old consciousness. They have no reality except the reality you give them by your attention. Keep your attention upon the new state. Feel it as real. Know that it is done. And the old state will pass away of its own accord, leaving the new state to take its place.

This weaning is necessary. It is part of the process. The interval is the time in which you prove that you are no longer identified with the old state. You are identified with the new. And when the identification is complete, the expression appears. The interval, therefore, is not a delay; it is a purification. It is the time in which you are purified of doubt, of anxiety, of the old way of seeing. And when the purification is complete, the desire is born into the world.

You can see, then, why delay does not mean denial. The delay is the purification. The delay is the weaning. The delay is the time in which the bridge is built. The delay is the time in which you learn to rest in faith. All of these are necessary for the perfect expression of your desire. Without the interval, the expression would be premature, and the desire would not have the strength to stand. With the interval, the desire is matured in consciousness and comes forth in its full power and beauty.

Therefore, when you find yourself in the interval, do not complain. Do not despair. Rejoice. Rejoice that you are being purified. Rejoice that the bridge is being built. Rejoice that you are learning to rest in faith. Rejoice that the law is working silently and invisibly to bring your assumption into form. This rejoicing is the secret thrill that sustains you through the interval. It is the inner knowing that all is well, that all is working together for good, that the expression is certain.

As you persist in this rejoicing, the interval will pass more quickly than you thought possible. For time is relative to your state of consciousness. When you are anxious, time drags. When you are at peace in the conviction, time flies. The interval, therefore, is not measured by the clock but by your own inner state. Remain in the conviction, and the interval will be short. Lose the conviction, and the interval will seem long. The choice is yours.

This is the great revelation of the interval of time. It is not a barrier between you and your desire. It is the path to your desire. It is the way in which your assumption becomes your experience. Walk it in faith, rest in it in peace, and the end will come. For the end is certain when the beginning is accepted in consciousness.

You are the beginning and the end. The interval is but the unfolding of what you have already accepted. There is no denial. There is only the perfect working of the law that brings all things to pass in their season. Rest in this knowledge, and the interval will be a time of quiet joy and certain expectation. For you know that what you have assumed must come to pass, and that the delay is only the time it takes for the world to recognize what you have already become in consciousness.

This is the truth that sets you free. The interval of time is not your enemy. It is your friend. It is the proof that your assumption is alive and working. It is the time in which you prove your faith. It is the time in which you learn to rest in the finished work. Walk through it in the dignity of one who knows that all things are already his, and the expression will come in its appointed time. For consciousness never fails to bring forth what it has assumed, and the interval is but the time it takes for the form to appear.