#65: Good Tidings for Another

Good Tidings for Another

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have longed to bring relief to another. You have seen the burden they carry and wished with all your heart that they might be freed from it. Yet the more you speak words of encouragement, the more you urge or advise, the more the walls seem to remain. Man has always attempted to change his brother by outward persuasion, and man has always been disappointed. But there is a way, a silent and certain way, that never fails. It is the way of good tidings.

The effective way to bring good tidings to another is to call before your mind’s eye the subjective image of the one you wish to help and mentally hear him tell you that he has received exactly what you desire for him. You do not argue with him. You do not plead. You simply let him speak the good news to you. In that inner hearing, the vibratory correlate of the state you desire for him is awakened within him, and that vibration persists until its mission is accomplished.

This is no idle fancy. This is the law itself in operation. Consciousness is the only reality, and in this controlled inner conversation you are operating directly upon consciousness. You are not imposing upon another; you are releasing within him the very state he would gladly accept if he knew how. The moment you hear him affirm the good you desire for him, that affirmation becomes his subconscious assumption, and assumptions, once accepted, harden into fact.

See him clearly in your imagination. Let his face, his voice, his manner be as natural to you as they are in daily life. Then let him speak. Let him tell you, with joy and conviction, the very news you long to hear. “I am free.” “I am healed.” “I have the position.” “I have the supply.” Whatever the good tidings may be for him, let him declare it to you as already accomplished. Hear the tone of his voice. Feel the reality of his words. Let the thrill of his good fortune move through you as though you yourself were rejoicing in his deliverance.

Many will say this is too simple. Yet the simple is always the profound. The Bible sings, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation.” Those feet are not physical feet walking over the hills of earth. Those feet are the inner movements of your own consciousness when you choose to carry good tidings in this living, breathing way. You become the messenger. You become the one who publishes salvation to another, not by preaching, but by hearing him publish it to you.

When you mentally hear him tell you he has done it, or that he is it, or that he has received it, you have set in motion forces beyond your present comprehension. The state affirmed awakens its vibratory counterpart within him. That vibration does not die. It does not fade. It continues until the outer world conforms to the inner assumption. It matters not what the condition is. It matters not who the person is. As soon as you subjectively accept the good tidings as true, results follow. The only failure possible is if you fail to accept the truth of your own inner assertion.

You may wonder how this can be when the senses deny it so loudly. The senses always deny the new state at first. That is their nature. But you are not operating upon the world of the senses. You are operating upon consciousness itself, and consciousness is lord of the senses. When you hear the good tidings spoken by the one you would help, you have already moved beyond the evidence of the senses into the only realm where true creation occurs. You have entered the secret place. You have closed the door. And the Father who seeth in secret will reward you openly, not only in the life of the other, but in your own as well.

This inner act is the most fruitful form of prayer. The seemingly harmless habit of talking to yourself is revealed in its true power when that conversation becomes a happy dialogue in which another tells you the good news. Mental arguments with the image of another produce conflicts. Happy mental conversations produce corresponding visible states of good tidings. Choose the latter. Choose to hear only the good. Choose to let the other publish to you the salvation you desire for him.

Do not concern yourself with how it will come to pass. That is not your concern. Your concern is to hear the good tidings clearly, to feel their reality, to accept them as true now. The how is the business of the depth within. The depth within knows the way. It has ways that you know not of. Your work is to remain faithful to the inner hearing. Let no doubt enter that sacred conversation. Let the voice of the other ring with conviction. Let the words be spoken with the same naturalness with which he would speak them were the deliverance already an accomplished fact.

Tonight, as you sit in the quiet of your room, select one person whose good you earnestly desire. Bring his image before you. Make it vivid. Then let him speak. Let him tell you the good news. Hear him say it. Feel the joy that would naturally accompany such tidings. Remain in that inner scene until it takes on the tones of reality. Until the voice is no longer imagined but felt as an actual hearing. Until the thrill of his deliverance is as real to you as any outer event has ever been.

You will discover, as you persist in this practice, that the good you subjectively accept as true of another will not only be expressed by him, but a full share will be realized by you. The gift is pressed down, shaken together, and running over. You cannot give without receiving. You cannot publish salvation to another without salvation appearing in your own world in some corresponding measure. The quality of mercy is twice blessed. It blesses him who receives and him who gives.

This is not theory. This is not hope. This is the law. Man creates himself out of his own imagination, and in this controlled use of imagination you are creating good tidings for another. You are not changing the other by force. You are releasing within him the state that was always his to claim. You are awakening in him the vibratory correlate of the freedom, the health, the abundance, the harmony you desire for him. And because consciousness is one, that awakening must objectify itself.

You may have tried many ways to help those you love. You may have spoken words that fell upon deaf ears. You may have offered assistance that was refused. But when you turn to this inner way, when you let the other tell you the good news, something different happens. The change begins at the root. It begins in the only place where change can be permanent, in the consciousness of the one concerned. And it begins without argument, without resistance, without the slightest outer pressure.

The beauty of this principle is its utter simplicity and its complete effectiveness. You do not have to coerce belief in the other. You do not have to wait for him to change his mind. You simply hear him declare the change as already accomplished. In that declaration, the assumption is implanted. And what is assumed, if persisted in, must become fact.

Let this truth sink deeply into you. The good tidings you desire for another are brought not by outward action but by inward hearing. The feet that publish peace are the feet of your own controlled imagination moving silently in the direction of the good you wish to bestow. Every time you hear the other tell you the news, you have walked those beautiful feet upon the mountains. You have brought good tidings of good. You have published salvation.

Do not be discouraged if at first the outer picture remains unchanged. The vibration has been set in motion. The assumption has been made. Now it must work. It cannot fail to work. Your only task is to return again and again to the inner conversation, to hear the good tidings repeated, to feel their reality more and more deeply, until the whole act becomes natural and effortless.

This is the way the great ones have always helped. This is the way you can help now. Not tomorrow when conditions improve, but now, in this very moment, by hearing the other proclaim the good you desire for him. The kingdom is within. The power is within. The ability to bring good tidings is within. And it is exercised most perfectly when you let the other tell you the news.

You may choose any good you wish for him. The principle is the same. Whether it is health, supply, harmony in relationships, success in endeavor, or freedom from limitation, the method is identical. Call him before you. Let him speak. Let him affirm the good as an accomplished fact. Accept his words as true. Feel the naturalness of the scene. Then go about your outer affairs knowing that the good tidings have been published and that their fulfillment is certain.

In this practice you are not playing at imagination. You are using the creative power of God itself. For God is your own consciousness, and in this controlled use of consciousness you are doing the works of the Father. You are bringing good tidings exactly as the prophets declared they should be brought, not with the thunder of words but with the silent power of inner acceptance.

The world is full of those who need good tidings. The world is full of those who carry burdens they believe they cannot lay down. But you, in the quiet of your own mind, can become the messenger of liberation to any one of them. You can hear them tell you they are free. You can hear them tell you they have received. You can hear them tell you the very words that would fill your heart with joy if spoken in the outer world. And because you have heard them there, they must one day be heard here.

This is the secret the ages have hidden. This is the pearl of great price. Not in loud affirmation, not in visible effort, but in the gentle, persistent, joyful inner hearing of good tidings for another. Practice this tonight. Select one. See him. Hear him. Let him speak the good news. Remain with that scene until it lives. Until the voice is real. Until the joy is real. Until the acceptance is complete.

You will find, as you do this, that something within you changes as well. A burden you may have carried for that person begins to lift from your own consciousness. Peace begins to move through you. Certainty takes the place of anxiety. You have done the one thing needful. You have brought good tidings in the only way they can truly be brought, by hearing them declared.

The feet that bring good tidings are beautiful indeed. And those feet are yours whenever you choose to walk this inner path. Whenever you choose to let another tell you the good news you desire for him, you are walking those beautiful feet. You are publishing peace. You are bringing good tidings of good. You are publishing salvation.

Let no one tell you this is difficult. It is the easiest thing in the world once you accept its truth. The difficulty lies only in the old habit of trying to change things by outward means. Turn from that habit. Turn to the inner hearing. Turn to the controlled conversation in which the other always tells you the good. Persist in this and you will see the outer world reshaped according to the good tidings you have published.

You are not helpless. You are not without power to help those you love. The power is within you, and it is exercised most perfectly when you hear them tell you the good news. This is your gift. This is your privilege. This is the way of the Father. And the Father never fails.

Tonight, as you retire to your bed, take one person with you into that restful state. Let him speak to you there. Let him tell you the good tidings. Fall asleep hearing his voice declare the good you desire for him. Let that be the last sound you hear before sleep claims you. In the morning, return to the same scene. Refresh the hearing. Strengthen the acceptance. Carry it with you through the day.

Do this day after day, and the good tidings must appear. Not because you have forced anything, but because you have allowed the law to operate through the only channel it recognizes, the channel of assumption. What you assume, what you hear as true in the inner conversation, must express itself. The vibration persists until its mission is accomplished.

You have within you the power to bring good tidings to any man. You have within you the power to publish salvation to any condition. Use that power tonight. Use it tomorrow. Use it every day. Let the good you desire for others be declared by them to you in the sacred inner chamber of your own consciousness. Then watch, in quiet confidence, as the outer world conforms to the good tidings you have heard.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. Not that you must struggle or plead or persuade, but that by hearing another tell you the good, you have already given him the gift. You have already set him free. You have already brought him the tidings of deliverance. And in that same act you yourself are blessed.

The mountains are within. The feet are within. The tidings are within. Walk there now. Hear there now. Accept there now. And the good you desire for another will appear in his world as surely as the sun rises each morning. For the law cannot be broken. The assumption cannot fail. The good tidings you hear in the silence must become the visible facts of the day.

You are the bringer of good tidings. You have always been. Now you know how to fulfill that role with power and with love. Now you know the secret. Now you can act. Hear them tell you. Hear them declare it. Hear them rejoice in the good. And in that hearing, all is accomplished.

Go now in peace. Go now in certainty. Go now knowing that the good tidings have been published, and that they will not return unto you void. They will accomplish that whereunto they are sent. The one you would help is already blessed. The condition you would change is already transformed. For you have heard the good news, and in hearing it you have made it so.

This is the truth. This is the way. This is the power. Use it tonight. Use it without reservation. Use it with the quiet confidence of one who knows the law. And you will discover, as all who truly practice this discover, that good tidings for another are the surest way to good tidings for yourself. The circle is complete. The blessing is shared. The salvation is published. And all is well.