#180: The Power of Inward Recognition

The Power of Inward Recognition

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have waited for the world to recognize you. You have looked to circumstances, to the opinions of others, to the slow movement of events, hoping that somehow recognition would come from without and make you what you long to be. But the world possesses no independent power to recognize anything. It can only reflect what you have already recognized within your own awareness. This is the changeless law. Before any man, any condition, or any evidence can acknowledge you, you must first acknowledge yourself in the secret place of consciousness.

Recognition is not a passive waiting. It is the creative act itself. To recognize is to know again, to see with the eye of awareness that this which you desire is already true of you. It is to turn your attention inward and say, not with the lips but with the living conviction of your soul, “This is I. I am this now.” In that moment the desire and your awareness become one. The union is complete. And from that union the outer world must, in due time, bring forth the recognition you have established within.

You cannot be recognized by the world as wealthy while you recognize yourself as poor. You cannot be recognized as beloved while you recognize yourself as unloved. You cannot be recognized as free while you continue to recognize yourself as bound. The outer recognition is never the cause. It is always the effect. It is the echo of the recognition you have first sounded in the depths of your own being. Change the inner sound and the echo must change.

Consciousness is the only reality. Whatever you recognize there is the only thing that can ever appear in your world. The senses report what you have already recognized. They do not create recognition; they merely bear witness to it. When you look upon your present circumstances and feel discouraged, you are simply seeing the faithful reproduction of yesterday’s recognition. The senses have no power to initiate. They can only continue to show you what you persist in recognizing.

The great error lies in believing that recognition must first come from the world. Men wait for the promotion before they recognize themselves as successful. They wait for the healing before they recognize themselves as whole. They wait for love to appear before they recognize themselves as beloved. But this is to reverse the order of creation. The world cannot give you what you have refused to give to yourself in the act of inward recognition. It has nothing to give until you have first recognized.

When you recognize yourself as the fulfilled desire, you are not pretending. You are not hoping against hope. You are simply acknowledging the truth that already exists in consciousness. Your desire is not something alien to you. It is your own awareness seeking to clothe itself in form. By recognizing it, you are permitting it to be. You are removing the barrier of the old recognition that said, “This cannot be I.” In the new recognition the barrier falls, and the desire is free to express itself as your world.

Feel the quiet certainty that comes with true recognition. It is not a loud or feverish feeling. It is the deep, restful feeling of having come home to yourself. It is the feeling that no longer do you need to strive or to plead or to wait upon the world’s slow mercy. You have recognized. The matter is settled in the only court that has jurisdiction — the court of your own awareness. From this settled place all things must proceed.

The world you encounter each day is your own recognition made visible. Every face you meet, every word you hear, every condition that touches you is recognizing in you what you have recognized in yourself. Men cannot see more in you than you have seen in yourself. They cannot treat you better than you have first treated yourself in the act of recognition. This is why the command is always inward. Change the recognition within and the recognition without has no choice but to follow.

You may ask how long it will take for the outer to reflect the inner. But time is not the measure. The measure is the naturalness of your recognition. When you recognize yourself as the desired state so naturally that you no longer question it, the time interval shortens. When the recognition is labored or intermittent, the interval lengthens. The world is not slow. It is only as slow as your recognition is uncertain. Establish the recognition firmly and the world will hasten to agree.

There is no need to announce your recognition to anyone. In fact, to speak of it before it is firmly established is often to invite the old recognition to reassert itself through the doubts of others. Keep the recognition secret. Let it grow in the silence of your own soul. The secret place is the fertile soil in which recognition takes root and becomes conviction. When conviction is born, the world will know without your telling it. For conviction has a voice of its own, and all men hear it.

You have been taught that you must earn recognition. But recognition is not earned; it is assumed. It is not the reward of labor; it is the starting point of creation. When you recognize yourself as already the one you desire to be, you have done the only labor required. All else is the automatic out-picturing of that recognition. The work is finished the moment the recognition is complete.

Dwell upon the meaning of the words “I AM.” These two words are the open door through which all recognition passes. Whatever you place after “I AM” in the feeling of recognition becomes your world. “I AM wealthy.” “I AM beloved.” “I AM free.” These are not affirmations shouted into the void. They are acts of recognition. They are the acknowledgment that this which follows “I AM” is already the truth of your being. And consciousness, being faithful, must objectify what it has recognized.

The old recognition will not die without protest. It will rise and say, “But the facts are otherwise. Look at your bank account. Look at your body. Look at your relationships.” But you are not asked to argue with the facts. You are asked only to recognize a greater fact — the fact of consciousness. The facts of the senses are the children of yesterday’s recognition. They have no life except what you continue to give them by your attention. Withdraw your recognition from them and they wither. Give your recognition to the new state and it grows.

This is the meaning of being born again. You are born anew every time you recognize yourself differently. The old man, the old recognition, dies. The new man, the new recognition, is born. And the world, which is always the faithful son of your recognition, must be reborn with you. It cannot remain the same when you have changed the cause.

You need not wait for a special time or a special mood. Recognition is available now. In this very moment you can turn your attention from all that seems to deny your desire and recognize the desire as true of you. You do not need to feel it first. You recognize first, and the feeling follows. You do not need the world’s permission. You recognize, and the world must eventually seek your permission to remain as it is.

The power of this recognition is absolute because it is the power of consciousness itself. There is nothing in the universe more powerful than the recognition you establish in the depths of your own being. Kings and governments, circumstances and conditions, all bow before the recognition of the I AM. For they are but the recognition objectified. They have no life of their own. They live only as long as you continue to recognize them.

When you have truly recognized yourself as the fulfilled desire, you will discover a strange and beautiful thing. You will no longer be anxious about the outcome. You will no longer scan the horizon for signs. You will rest. For you will know that what you have recognized in consciousness must come to pass. The recognition itself is the guarantee. The evidence is not the guarantee; the recognition is.

This rest is not indifference. It is the rest of perfect faith. It is the rest of one who has seen the end from the beginning and knows that the end is secure. From this restful place you move through your days naturally, without strain, without the fever of one who is still hoping. You have recognized. The matter is finished in the only place that can finish anything — in consciousness.

The world may continue for a time to reflect the old recognition. This should not disturb you. The old recognition is like a shadow that lingers after the object has moved. It will fade. As you persist in the new recognition, the old shadow grows fainter. One day you will look and find that the world has caught up with your recognition. And you will smile, for you will know that it could not have been otherwise.

You are not here to change the world. You are here to recognize yourself. And in that recognition the world changes. This is the only legitimate way to change anything. All other ways are but the moving of shadows while the object that casts them remains unchanged. Recognize the object — yourself — and the shadows must move.

Tonight, when the outer world grows quiet, practice this inward recognition. Whatever you desire to be, turn to it in consciousness and recognize it as already so. Do not argue with it. Do not condition it. Simply recognize. Feel the quiet “yes” of your awareness. Feel the naturalness of being that one. Let this recognition be the last conscious act before sleep. And in the night, while your body rests, your recognition will deepen and the world will begin to prepare the stage for its appearing.

In the days that follow, you may notice small shifts. A word here, an opportunity there, a feeling of lightness that was not there before. Do not pounce upon these as proof. Let them come. They are the first fruits of your recognition. More will follow. But even if nothing seemed to change, continue to recognize. For the recognition is not for the world’s sake. It is for your own. It is the restoration of your true identity.

You will discover that the more naturally you recognize yourself as the desired state, the less you are concerned with how it will appear. The how is not your responsibility. The recognition is. When the recognition is complete, the how takes care of itself. It always has. It always will. This is the way of consciousness.

The power of inward recognition frees you from the tyranny of waiting. You no longer wait for the world to decide your worth. You no longer wait for evidence before you assume the identity. You recognize now. And in that recognition you are free — free to be, free to live, free to walk as one already acknowledged by the only power that can acknowledge anything: your own awareness of being.

From this night on, carry this recognition with you. Let it be the ground upon which you stand. When the old recognition rises and points to appearances, quietly return to the new. Recognize again. And again. And again. Until the new recognition becomes the only one you know. Then you will look upon your world and see, not the reflection of what you once were, but the faithful image of what you have recognized yourself to be.

You are recognized. Even now. The recognition has already begun its work. The world may not yet have caught up, but it must. For it has no power to do otherwise. This is the law. This is the promise. This is the power of inward recognition. And it is yours.