#151: The Holy Act of Choosing

The Holy Act of Choosing

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have believed that choice belongs to the world of things, that you must select between this circumstance and that circumstance, this condition and that condition, not knowing that the only choice which creates is the choice of who you are. All other choices are but shadows cast by this one. They have no power in themselves. They are the effects of a prior decision made in the secret depths of consciousness, a decision of which most men remain unaware. You choose every moment of the day, yet if you are stuck in any area of your life, it is because you have chosen to be the one who is stuck. You have consented to that identity. You have felt yourself to be that one, and the world has obediently out-pictured the self you selected.

The holy act is not the choosing of things. It is the choosing of self. When you choose who you are now, you exercise the creative power that is God, for your awareness of being is God, and to choose a new awareness of being is to decree what shall appear. Most decidedly you can do this. You have always done it, though you did it in darkness. Now you may do it in the light. You may rise in consciousness to the naturalness of being the one you desire to be, and in that rising the old self dies and the new self is born.

Consciousness is the only reality. What you are conscious of being, you are. What you are, you express. Therefore the world you see is always the faithful portrait of the self you have chosen. If the portrait displeases you, do not attempt to alter the canvas by force. Change the sitter. Choose a new self, and the portrait must change with it. There is no other way, for the world is not the cause. It is the effect. It has no power to bind you except the power you give it by remaining the self that consents to be bound.

You choose who you are when you feel yourself to be that one. The feeling is not something you add to the choice. The feeling is the choice. When you feel the naturalness of being the fulfilled one, the free one, the loved one, you have chosen. You have agreed with yourself in the secret place, and that agreement is the creative act. Two have agreed touching the thing, and it is established. The two are your awareness of being and the state you have assumed. When these two become one in feeling, the thing is done.

You do not choose the thing. You choose the self to whom the thing belongs. If you choose riches while still feeling yourself to be the poor self, you have chosen nothing creative. The poor self cannot receive riches. It can only receive confirmation of its own poverty. But when you choose to be the rich self, riches have no choice but to appear. They are drawn to their own. They are the inevitable expression of the identity you have assumed.

This is why so many remain stuck. They choose what they want while continuing to choose the self that does not have it. They choose freedom while remaining the self that feels imprisoned. They choose love while remaining the self that feels unworthy. The choice of self is the only choice that matters. All other choices are made in vain until this one is made.

The act is holy because it is the act of God in you. God is not a being afar off. God is your own awareness of being. When you choose a new state of awareness, you are God choosing a new expression of himself in you. And since there is no other creator, his choice must come to pass. The how is not your concern. The how is the way of consciousness, and its ways are past finding out. Your concern is only the choice itself. Make it, and the way appears.

You make the choice in the present moment. Not in the past. Not in the future. Now. Now is the only time in which creation takes place. When you choose who you are now, you step out of the illusion of time into the eternal now where all things are already done. The old self belongs to yesterday. The new self belongs to now. Choose now, and yesterday loses its power over you.

The feeling of being stuck is itself the voice of the old choice. It is the old self reminding you of what you once chose. Do not argue with it. Do not try to overcome it by force. Simply choose again. Choose the self that is not stuck. Feel yourself to be the free one. Dwell in that feeling until it becomes natural. The moment it feels natural, the old self has lost its hold. The feeling of stuckness may linger for a little while as a dying echo, but it has no cause in the new self and must fade.

You choose who you are in the quiet. You choose when you turn your attention from the evidence of the senses and feel the reality of the desired state. You choose when you say within yourself, not with the lips but with the heart, “I am he.” I am the one who is already what I long to be. This is not pretense. It is recognition. It is the recognition that consciousness is reality and that what you assume yourself to be, you are.

The world will seem to resist at first. The old evidence will rise and say, “See, it is not so.” This is the test of your choice. If you react to the old evidence, you have chosen the old self again. If you remain unmoved in your new feeling, you have remained faithful to your choice. The evidence has no power except the power you give it by your reaction. Withdraw your reaction, and the evidence loses its life. It withers for lack of attention, as a branch withers when the sap of the vine is withdrawn.

Persistence in the choice is not the persistence of effort. It is the persistence of love. You persist because you love the new self. You persist because it feels like returning home. The old self was a garment you wore in exile. The new self is the self you were always meant to be. When you choose it, you are remembering yourself. You are awakening to your true identity. This awakening is gentle. It is not a battle. It is a simple returning to what feels natural and true.

As you persist, the choice deepens. The feeling becomes more and more natural. What once required conscious effort becomes the automatic way you feel. This naturalness is the sign that the choice is established in consciousness. When it is established, the world begins to move. Circumstances rearrange themselves. People appear or disappear. Events unfold, not because you force them, but because they must. They are the shadow of the new self. They have no choice but to follow the light that casts them.

You do not have to plan the way. You do not have to know how the thing will come. You have chosen the self to whom it belongs, and the self draws to itself all that is its own. The vine does not worry about how the branch will bear fruit. The branch simply abides in the vine, and the fruit appears. Abide in the new self. Remain in the feeling of being that one. The fruit will appear in its season.

The holy act of choosing who you are now is the act that liberates. You are bound only by the self you have chosen to be. Choose a free self, and you are free. Choose a whole self, and you are whole. Choose a loving self, and you are loved. The chains were never on your body. They were on your identity. Cut the chains at their root by choosing a new identity, and the body and the circumstances are freed.

You cannot serve two masters. You cannot choose the new self and still react as the old self. The reaction reveals the choice. If fear arises, you have momentarily chosen the fearful self again. Do not condemn yourself for this. Simply choose again. Choose the fearless self. Feel yourself to be the one who knows that all is well. The fear will subside because it has no root in the new choice. Each time you choose the new self in the face of the old reaction, the new self grows stronger and the old self grows weaker.

This is the transformation. The old man is put off, not by violence, but by neglect. The new man is put on by attention and feeling. You do not fight the old. You simply withdraw your consent from it. You give your consent to the new. And in that giving, the old dies from lack of nourishment.

The world you live in is the world of your own choosing. There is no world apart from the self you have assumed. When you change the self, you change the world. This is not a promise for the future. It is a fact of consciousness now. The moment you choose a new self, the old world begins to lose its substance. It becomes less and less real to you. The new world begins to take on reality. Eventually the old world fades altogether, and only the new remains.

You who feel stuck have been given the key. The key is not in changing your circumstances. The key is in changing who you are in the midst of your circumstances. The circumstances have no power to prevent your choice. They are the result of a previous choice. They cannot resist a new one. Choose now who you are, and the circumstances will begin to dissolve or rearrange themselves to match the new identity.

The choice is always available. It does not depend on your mood. It does not depend on your circumstances. It depends only on your willingness to feel yourself to be the one you desire to be. You can feel it now. You can feel it in this moment. You can feel the peace of being the fulfilled one. You can feel the certainty of being the free one. You can feel the joy of being the loved one. The feeling is the choice. Make it, and you have done the holy act.

When you have made the choice, rest in it. Do not look anxiously for results. Anxiety is the old self trying to re-enter. Remain in the new self. Go about your daily affairs as the one you have chosen to be. Think from that state. Feel from that state. Respond from that state. The outer will catch up with the inner. It always does. It has no choice.

The signs follow. They do not precede. You do not wait for the signs before you choose. You choose, and the signs appear to confirm the choice. This is the order of creation. Consciousness first, then the thing. The thing is the confirmation, not the cause.

You are free to choose who you will be. This freedom is your birthright. It is the gift of consciousness itself. No man can take it from you. No circumstance can withhold it. It is yours now. Use it now. Choose who you are now. Feel it now. And know that in this holy act the world is already made new.

For in choosing who you are, you have chosen God to be expressed as you in a new and glorious way. And God does not fail in his expression. What he chooses in you must come to pass. This is the certainty. This is the peace. This is the end of all seeking and the beginning of all finding.

You have heard the truth. Now you know what the holy act is. It is the choosing of self. It is the assuming of the desired state now. It is the feeling of being that one until it is natural. Do it tonight. Do it now. And in the doing, you will know that you are free.

The choice is made. The thing is done. Walk in the knowledge of it. Live from it. And see your world conform to the self you have chosen.

This is the holy act of choosing who you are now. This is the creative act. This is the act that sets all things right. Make it, and be at peace.