#150: The Law of Identity

The Law of Identity

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You are experiencing what you have identified yourself with. This is the changeless law. There is no other law. Your world in every detail is the faithful out-picturing of your identity in consciousness. You may deny it. You may argue that circumstances have made you what you are. But you cannot disprove it, for every experience you have ever known has come forth from what you felt yourself to be. The law is simple, yet it is absolute. What you identify yourself with in the secret depths of consciousness must appear in the outer world. There is no escape from this law, and there is no need to escape it. There is only the need to understand it and to use it consciously.

Most men go through their days identifying themselves with the very conditions they wish to escape. They say within themselves, “I am poor,” “I am limited,” “I am unwell,” and because the feeling of these statements becomes their identity, the conditions persist. They do not see that the statement is not a description of fact but the decree itself. They have identified the awareness of being with the unwanted, and the law has brought forth the image of that identification. They look upon the outer and believe the outer is the cause. They have reversed the order of creation and so remain bound by their own decree.

You need not remain bound. You can change your experience the moment you change your identification. For you are not the name the world has given you. You are not the body you wear. You are not the past you remember or the present condition you observe. You are the awareness of being, and this awareness is forever greater than any particular thing with which you identify it. You can withdraw your identification from the unwanted and place it upon the wanted. You can feel yourself to be the free one, the abundant one, the well one, and when that feeling becomes your natural identity, the outer world must conform. This is not hope. This is law.

The awareness of being is the father. What you identify that awareness with is the son. The father and the son are one, yet the father is greater than the son. You can change the son without changing the father. You can change what you feel yourself to be without changing the fact that you are. This is the freedom that is yours. This is the power that cannot be taken from you. When you know this, you know that you are not at the mercy of conditions. You are the one who gives conditions their life by your identification. Withdraw the identification and the condition loses its life. Place the identification upon the new and the new must appear.

You may ask how this appearance will come. But the how is not your concern. No man knows the ways of consciousness. Its ways are past finding out. Your only concern is the identification. When you have truly identified yourself with the thing desired, the embodiment is automatic. The signs follow the conviction. They never precede it. So do not look for signs. Do not wait for evidence. Get the identity first. Feel yourself to be the one who is already what you desire to be. Rest in that feeling. And the evidence will appear in its own time and in its own way.

The senses will deny the new identity. This is to be expected. The senses are the servants of the old identity. They report what you have already identified yourself with. They cannot report the new until the new is firmly established in consciousness. So do not argue with the senses. Do not try to change them by force. Change your identity and the senses will follow. They must follow, for they have no power of their own. They are the effect of consciousness, not the cause. When you persist in the new identity in spite of the evidence of the senses, you are walking by faith. And faith is the substance of the thing hoped for. Faith is the identification itself made living.

You may feel that the new identity is not yet natural. You may feel that you are pretending. But this feeling of effort is only the sign that the old identification is still active. When the new identity becomes natural, when you think from it rather than of it, the effort disappears. You no longer try to feel yourself to be the new. You simply are the new. This is the moment of true identification. This is the moment when the law begins to bring forth the image without hindrance. So persist in the feeling until it becomes natural. Do not accept anything less than naturalness. For naturalness is the sign that the identification is complete.

The world calls this foolishness. The wisdom of the world cannot understand how a man can change his experience by changing what he feels himself to be. But the wisdom of the world is foolishness with the awareness of being. For the awareness of being is God, and God is not mocked. What you sow in consciousness you reap in experience. If you sow the identity of lack, you reap lack. If you sow the identity of abundance, you reap abundance. The law is no respecter of persons. It is no respecter of conditions. It only respects the identity you assume and persist in.

So examine yourself. What are you identifying yourself with in this moment? Whatever it is, that is your experience now and that will be your experience tomorrow unless you change it. But you can change it. You have the power to choose. You have the power to say “I AM” and to feel what follows. You have the power to withdraw your attention from the old and to dwell in the feeling of the new. This power is not something you must acquire. It is something you already possess. It is the very nature of your being. You are the awareness that can identify itself with anything. And whatever it identifies itself with, it experiences.

When you change your identification, you change your sense of self. The old self dies. The new self is born. This is the meaning of being born again. You leave behind the conception of yourself that has brought you to this place and you assume the nature of the new birth. You do not argue with the old. You simply withdraw your life from it. You take your attention from it and place it upon the new. And because attention is the sap that keeps alive the things of your world, the old withers when you withdraw the sap. The new grows when you give it the sap of your attention and feeling.

You may fear that the conditions are too fixed, too real, too powerful. But no condition is fixed. No condition has power of its own. The power is in your identification. When you identify yourself with the condition, it seems powerful. When you withdraw the identification, it loses its power. It becomes as nothing. For it had no life except the life you gave it by your feeling. So turn from the condition. Become indifferent to it. Begin to feel yourself to be the solution. Feel it to the point where it is natural. And the condition will dissolve of its own accord. It has no choice. The law is greater than any condition.

This law operates in every area of your life. It operates in your health. It operates in your finances. It operates in your relationships. It operates in every detail of your daily experience. There is no area where it does not operate. For there is no area where you are not identifying yourself with something. Your reactions reveal your identity. When you react with fear, you see that you have identified yourself with the thing feared. When you react with peace, you see that you have identified yourself with peace. So use your reactions as cues. Use them as reminders to return to the new identity. In this way the new identity becomes established more and more firmly until it is your natural state.

The interval of time between the identification and the embodiment is not empty time. It is the time in which the new identity becomes natural. Do not shorten this interval by doubt. Do not lengthen it by anxiety. Simply persist in the feeling of the new identity. Live from it. Think from it. And the interval will take care of itself. The bridge of incidents will appear. The means will be provided. But these are not your concern. Your concern is only to keep the identification alive and natural.

You are told that all things are possible to him that believes. To believe is to identify. To believe that you are the fulfilled one is to feel yourself to be the fulfilled one. When the feeling is established, the belief is complete. And when the belief is complete, the law has no choice but to bring forth the image of that belief. So do not concern yourself with the question of whether you believe. Concern yourself only with the feeling. Cultivate the feeling of being what you desire to be. Dwell in it. Rest in it. And the belief will take care of itself.

You are told to forgive if you have aught against any. This is not a moral commandment. It is a practical necessity. When you hold anything against another, you are binding yourself to the old identity. You are keeping alive the feeling of separation, of lack, of injustice. To release the other from blame is to release yourself. It is to free yourself to rise to any level of identification you choose. For there is no condemnation to those who know the law. Every man receives what he first gives himself in consciousness. So you need not concern yourself with what another receives. You need only concern yourself with what you identify yourself with.

You are told to seek first the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom is the consciousness of being the thing desired. It is the identity of the fulfilled one. When you seek first to establish this identity, all things are added unto you. The things are the effects. They come after the cause. They have no power to create themselves. So do not seek the things. Seek the identity. Get the consciousness of being the one who already has the things. And the things will appear without your taking thought for them.

You are told that except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it. The Lord is your awareness of being. Except the new identity is first established in consciousness, your labor upon the outer is in vain. You cannot build a new world upon an old identity. The old identity will always bring forth the old world. So begin with the identity. Establish the new feeling. And the building will take care of itself. The outer will conform to the inner without your forcing it.

You are told that no man taketh away your life. You lay it down yourself. You have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again. No condition can take your life from you. No person can take your life from you. You give your life to the condition or to the person by your identification. When you identify yourself with the condition, you lay down your life to it. When you identify yourself with the new, you take up your life again. You resurrect yourself from the dead. For the old identity was dead in trespasses and sins. The new identity is alive in the righteousness of right feeling.

You are told that I AM comes not to destroy but to fulfill. The awareness of being does not destroy anything. It fulfills whatever you identify it with. If you identify it with lack, it fulfills lack. If you identify it with abundance, it fulfills abundance. So do not ask the awareness of being to destroy your problems. Ask it only to fulfill your desires. Identify it with the fulfilled desire. And the problems will disappear of their own accord. For they have no life except the life you gave them by your identification with them.

You are told that before Abraham was, I AM. The awareness of being is before any condition. It is before any limitation. It is before any name or form. It is the faceless, formless reality in which all names and forms appear. When you return to this awareness and identify it with the new, you are returning to the beginning. You are starting fresh. You are creating from the only reality there is. And what you create from this reality must appear.

You are told that I AM is nearer than your hands and feet, nearer than your very breathing. The awareness of being is not far off. It is not something you must attain. It is what you are. You cannot be without it. You cannot live without it. It is the reality of your existence. And when you identify this reality with the new, the new becomes as near as your breathing. It becomes as natural as your breathing. It becomes your life.

So tonight, as you prepare for sleep, do not take the old identity with you into the deep. Take the new. Feel yourself to be the one you desire to be. Let that feeling be the last thing in your consciousness. Let it lull you to sleep. And in that sleep the new identity will take root. It will grow without effort. It will become natural. And when you awaken, you will find that the world has already begun to conform to the new you. For the law does not sleep. The law is always at work. It is always bringing to pass what you have identified yourself with.

You may not see the full change at once. But do not be discouraged. The change is taking place. The seeds are planted. They will bear fruit. Your only task is to keep the identification alive and natural. To feel it. To live from it. To think from the end. In time you will look back upon this night as the night you changed your life. The night you discovered who you really are. The night you took your power back from the world and placed it in your own consciousness where it belongs.

You are the awareness of being. You can identify yourself with anything you can conceive of being. And whatever you identify yourself with, you experience. This is the law of identity. This is your law. Use it consciously. Use it for the highest. Identify yourself with all that is good, all that is beautiful, all that is true. And your experience will bear witness to your new identity. For you and your world are one. What you are in consciousness, you experience in form. This is the eternal truth. And it is the truth that sets you free.

You have heard it. You have understood it. Now you know it. You cannot unknow it. You can only ignore it or live by it. If you ignore it, you will continue as before. If you live by it, everything will change. The choice is yours. The power is yours. The law is yours. Use it wisely. Use it tonight. And all will be well with you. For the law is on the side of the one who knows who he is. And you know who you are. You are the awareness that has identified itself with all that you desire to be. And your world must conform. This is the end. And this is the beginning of the new.