#116: Be Ears That Hear

Be Ears That Hear

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have been listening. You have given ear to the reports of your senses, to the voices that speak of delay, of difficulty, of the thing not yet done. And because you have heard these reports and accepted them, they have become the very fabric of your days. But there is another hearing. There is a hearing that takes place within you, a quiet, certain hearing that listens only to the voice which declares your desire already fulfilled. To be ears that hear is to give yourself completely to this inner confirmation and to refuse all other reports.

The outer world is loud with its contradictions. It speaks constantly of what is not yet so. It points to the empty purse, the closed door, the unchanged condition. These are the voices you have been trained to hear. Yet the truth is that these outer voices have no power except the power you give them by listening. When you turn from them and listen instead to the inner voice that says, “It is done,” you withdraw the substance that sustained the contradiction. The outer voices then begin to fade, for they live only by your attention.

This inner hearing is not a matter of words repeated in the mind. It is the living recognition that the thing you desire is already yours in consciousness. When you hear inwardly the words “I am he,” or “It is finished,” you are not affirming something future. You are accepting something present. You are letting the awareness of being confirm its own expression. This confirmation is quiet. It does not argue. It simply knows. And in that knowing the entire creative power of consciousness is brought to bear upon your desire.

You cannot serve two hearings. You cannot listen to the outer denial and at the same time listen to the inner confirmation. One must be refused. The refusal is not a battle. It is simply the turning of attention. When the senses report lack, you do not fight the report. You simply cease to hear it. You return at once to the inner voice that says the opposite. In time this turning becomes natural. The outer report loses its interest. Your ears have been trained to another sound.

The sensation of this inner hearing is one of deep relaxation. There is no strain in it. There is no effort to make something happen. There is only the quiet acceptance of what the voice within has declared. You feel the naturalness of the fulfilled state. You feel the “yes” of consciousness. This “yes” is the creative fiat. It is the same “yes” that said “Let there be light.” When you hear it inwardly concerning your own desire, light appears in that area of your life.

Many attempt to reach fulfillment by effort. They try to force the outer world into line with their wish. But effort belongs to the outer man. The inner man knows only hearing and acceptance. When you hear the confirming voice and rest in that hearing, you have done all that is required of you. The outer world then has no choice but to rearrange itself around the state you have accepted. This is law. It is not reward for good behavior. It is the simple out-picturing of what consciousness has heard and believed.

Consider the nature of the voice you are to hear. It is your own awareness speaking to itself. It is the I AM confirming that it is now the thing desired. There is no other voice worth hearing. All other voices are the echoes of old assumptions. They are the reverberations of what you once heard and accepted. They have no life of their own. When you refuse to listen to them, they die for lack of attention. Only the confirming voice lives, because only it is fed by your listening.

This selective hearing changes your reactions. When an event appears that seems to deny your desire, the old man reacts with fear or disappointment. The new man, the man who is ears that hear, does not react at all in the old way. He hears the inner voice saying, “It is already so.” His face remains calm. His mind remains at peace. He knows that what has appeared is the out-picturing of some previous hearing. He also knows that his present hearing will in time replace that picture. He therefore remains unmoved. This unmoved state is itself the evidence that he has heard correctly.

The interval between the inner hearing and the outer manifestation is not your concern. Time is the servant of consciousness, not its master. When you have truly heard the confirming word, you have already crossed the interval in consciousness. The outer events that must still unfold are merely the steps the world takes to catch up with what you have already accepted. You do not watch these steps with anxiety. You continue to hear the confirming voice. The steps then arrange themselves harmoniously because there is no resistance in you.

Doubts will present themselves. They will speak in the language of the outer world. They will say, “But nothing has changed. But it is impossible. But you have tried before.” These are not new voices. They are the old voices wearing new clothing. You do not answer them. You do not reason with them. You simply do not hear them. You return at once to the inner confirmation. In the beginning this returning may require conscious choice. Later it becomes automatic. The ears that have learned to hear fulfillment close themselves to every other sound.

There is a profound rest in this practice. It is the rest of the Sabbath. When you hear only the confirming voice, you cease from all struggle. You are no longer trying to make something happen. You are simply living from what has already happened in consciousness. This rest is not inactivity. It is activity from a different level. It is the activity of one who knows the end is already secured. From this rest all necessary action flows effortlessly. You do what is required of you in the outer world, but you do it without anxiety, because your hearing has already established the result.

The Bible speaks often of hearing. It says, “Hear, O Israel.” It says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” These injunctions point to the selective nature of true hearing. Not every sound is to be received. Not every report is to be accepted. The one who has ears to hear is the one who has learned to distinguish the voice of fulfillment from all other voices. This distinction is not made by the intellect. It is made by the feeling of the inner man. When the confirming voice is heard, there is a corresponding feeling of peace, of rightness, of “yes.” This feeling is the seal that the hearing is true.

As you continue in this way, the confirming voice becomes more and more distinct. At first it may seem faint, almost imagined. But as you give it your attention, it grows stronger. It begins to speak before you consciously ask. It meets every desire with the immediate response, “It is done.” This is the voice of the father within you. It is the voice that knows no denial. It is the voice that calls things that are not as though they were. When you hear this voice clearly, you have become ears that hear in the fullest sense.

Your world will begin to reflect this new hearing. Opportunities will appear that were not visible before. People will act in ways that confirm your inner assumption. Conditions that seemed fixed will loosen and change. None of this is coincidence. It is the lawful consequence of what you have consented to hear. Consciousness always expresses what it has accepted. When acceptance comes through the inner ear, the expression is swift and harmonious.

Do not concern yourself with how the confirmation will appear. The how is not your responsibility. Your only responsibility is to hear the confirming voice and to remain faithful to that hearing. The ways of consciousness are past finding out. They are not the ways of the outer man. They are the ways of the creative power itself. When you trust these ways by continuing to hear only confirmation, the creative power is free to act without interference from your doubts.

Tonight, when you lie down to sleep, practice this hearing with special care. Let the last conscious act of your day be the listening to the inner voice that declares your desire fulfilled. Do not review the problems of the day. Do not rehearse the fears of tomorrow. Hear only the quiet, certain word within: “It is done. You are that which you desire to be.” Fall asleep in this hearing. Let this be the state from which you enter sleep. Then sleep itself becomes the womb in which the heard word matures into visible fact.

In the morning, before you open your eyes to the outer world, listen again. Hear the same confirming voice. Let it be the first sound of your day. Then rise and go about your affairs, carrying this hearing with you. When the outer world speaks, you will hear it, but you will not hear it as truth. You will hear it as sound only. Your real hearing will remain inward, fixed upon the confirmation. This dual hearing—one outer for information, one inner for truth—will gradually become your normal state. The outer will lose its power to disturb you.

You are always becoming what you hear. There is no escape from this law. Therefore choose with care the voice to which you give audience. Choose the voice that confirms fulfillment. Choose it again and again until it is the only voice you recognize as real. Then you will discover that you have become the fulfilled state itself. The hearing and the being have become one. This is the goal. This is the end of the journey. This is what it means to be ears that hear.

The world will continue to speak. It will always have its reports. But you will have learned the secret. You will have learned that reports are not realities. Realities are made by what you accept in the inner hearing. When you accept only fulfillment, only fulfillment can appear. This is not hope. This is not wishful thinking. This is the simple, changeless law of consciousness. Be ears that hear, and the law will work for you as surely as it works for all who discover it.

You stand at the threshold of a new way of living. It requires no outer change of circumstance. It requires only a change of hearing. Begin now. In this moment, turn from every voice that denies your desire. Listen inwardly. Hear the confirming word. Let it be the only sound that matters. As you do this, something within you shifts. You feel the quiet certainty that the thing is already so. This shift is the beginning of the new world. This shift is the evidence that you have become ears that hear.

Carry this hearing through every hour. Let it be your constant companion. When you are alone, hear it. When you are with others, hear it. When appearances seem most contrary, hear it. The voice does not change because circumstances change. It remains the same: the calm declaration of fulfillment. As you remain faithful to this hearing, the circumstances must change. They have no other choice. They are the servants of consciousness, and consciousness has heard only one report.

This is the teaching. This is the way opened to you tonight. Be ears that hear only what confirms fulfillment. In this simple, profound practice you will find the freedom you have sought. You will find the peace that passes understanding. You will find that your desire, heard and accepted within, must and will objectify itself in your world. There is no power on earth that can prevent it. For you have heard the creative word, and the creative word cannot return void.

You are the one who hears. You are the one who selects the voice. You are the one in whose hearing the world is made new. Accept this identity. Live from it. Be ears that hear, and know that the hearing is already the fulfillment.