#68: Bless and Be Blessed

Bless and Be Blessed

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have perhaps felt at times that the world is a place of scarcity, that to wish well for another might somehow lessen your own portion. Yet I tell you this night with all the authority of truth: to imagine good for another is to bless, and to bless is to be blessed—multiplied beyond all measure. Consciousness is the only reality. When you turn your imagination toward the well-being of another, you are not scattering your power; you are entering the very heart of creation itself. You are assuming the state of the giver, and life, being one indivisible consciousness, returns that state to you pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

Consider what it means to bless. It is not a spoken word or an outward gesture. It is the silent, inner act of imagining another as they long to be—happy, whole, free, radiant with fulfillment. In that moment of imagining, you have become the awareness that holds that perfection. You have clothed yourself in the feeling of their good fortune. And because there is only one awareness, only one I AM, what you have done for the seeming other you have done for yourself. The blessing you bestow returns to you as your own living reality.

Man is forever out-picturing that which he is conscious of being. When you become conscious of another as blessed, you are no longer conscious of lack or limitation in your own world. You have risen to a higher level of yourself. You have claimed, in the only place it can ever be claimed—in consciousness—that good is real, that fulfillment is natural, that joy is the true estate of man. That claim cannot remain idle. It must objectify itself. And because the consciousness that imagined the blessing is your own, the objectification appears in your world as increased good, increased opportunity, increased harmony—multiplied.

You may wonder how this can be so. Let me speak plainly. There is no other. The entire universe is your consciousness made visible. Every face you see, every life that touches yours, is yourself pushed out. When you imagine good for what appears as another, you are simply rearranging the structure of your own awareness. You are lifting the entire fabric of your world. The law is absolute: what you assume to be true becomes fact. Assume the other is blessed, feel the truth of it, dwell in the feeling until it is natural, and that assumption solidifies first as their good fortune and then, inevitably, as your own. The return is multiplied because consciousness knows no boundaries. The good you have released flows back through every channel, through every seeming person and circumstance, bearing interest upon interest.

This is the great secret hidden in the words “give and it shall be given unto you.” You give not from your pocket but from your imagination. You give the treasure of a fulfilled state. You give the feeling of completion, of joy, of peace. And because imagination is the creative power of God, and God is your own awareness of being, that gift cannot return to you empty. It returns as the very substance of your daily life—health where there was illness, abundance where there was lack, love where there was loneliness. The measure you have meted out in consciousness is the measure that is meted back to you, and the measure is always greater, for life delights in expansion.

Dwell upon this truth. You are not a separate being struggling to survive among other separate beings. You are the infinite I AM wearing countless garments. When you bless one garment, you bless the wearer of all garments. When you imagine another radiant with success, you have entered the state of success. When you see another at peace, you have claimed peace as your own natural condition. The outer scene must conform. It has no choice. Your world is forever reflecting the consciousness you entertain. Entertain the consciousness of blessing and your world becomes a world of blessings.

Feel this deeply. Close your eyes for a moment and let the truth sink into your being. Right now, in this very instant, you can select any face that comes before your mind’s eye and imagine it alight with the satisfaction of desire fulfilled. See them as they would look if every longing were granted. Hear them speak the words they would speak in that moment of triumph. Feel the warmth, the gratitude, the relief that would accompany such fulfillment. Do not strain. Do not force. Simply let the feeling of their blessedness become natural to you. In that gentle, natural feeling you have performed the one creative act. You have blessed. And because the blessing was born in consciousness, it must return to you multiplied.

Many will tell you that the way to receive is to focus only upon yourself. Yet I declare to you that the surest, swiftest way to flood your own life with good is to give it freely in imagination to others. For in giving you are not losing; you are expanding. You are moving from the narrow sense of a limited self into the boundless awareness that is God. God is the giver. God is the gift. When you operate as the giver, you operate as God. And God cannot be impoverished. The more you give in this inner realm, the more you possess. The more you bless, the more you are blessed.

This principle is eternal. It does not depend upon the agreement of others. It does not wait for external conditions to improve. It rests entirely upon your own awareness. You need no one’s permission to bless. You need only the quiet moment in which you withdraw attention from the seeming limitation and place it lovingly upon the fulfillment of another. In that withdrawal and that placement, you have died to the old consciousness and been born into the new. The new consciousness is one of abundance, and abundance cannot help but express itself in your world.

Let no doubt creep in. You may look about you and see suffering, lack, confusion. Yet I tell you that these appearances are the out-picturing of unblessed consciousness. They are the shadows cast by states that have not yet been redeemed by the imagination of good. Your task is not to fight the shadows. Your task is to bless. In blessing you redeem. In redeeming another in imagination you redeem yourself. The light you kindle for one lights the entire firmament of your own being.

Tonight, before you sleep, practice this. Take one person—any person—and imagine them as they desire to be. Do not merely wish them well. Become the awareness that they are well. Feel it so vividly that the feeling possesses you. Sleep in that possession. Carry it into your dreams. Awaken with it. And watch, in the days that follow, how the good you have imagined for them begins to appear in your own experience—sometimes directly, sometimes through unexpected channels, always multiplied. A door opens for you. A burden lifts. A new opportunity arrives. The blessing returns.

This is not theory. This is law. The law of assumption is merciless in its precision and generous in its fulfillment. What you assume, you receive. When you assume the blessedness of another, you assume your own blessedness. There is no escape from this law. You are forever receiving the fruit of your own imagining. Therefore imagine good. Imagine it lavishly. Imagine it for every face that crosses your path. In this way you are continually elevating the level of your own consciousness. You are continually moving into richer and richer states of being.

The beauty of this truth is its simplicity. You need no outer ritual. You need no special hour or place. You need only the recognition that your imagination is the divine instrument and that to use it in the service of blessing is to use it in the service of your own God-given destiny. Every time you bless, you are saying silently, “I AM the giver of good.” And because I AM is your true identity, the good you give must become your own experience.

Let this sink into your heart. You are not at the mercy of the world. The world is at the mercy of your imagining. When you imagine another free, you loosen the bonds that once appeared to bind you. When you imagine another prosperous, you open the storehouse of your own supply. When you imagine another loved and loving, you awaken love within your own being. The circle is complete. The blessing moves outward and returns inward, always greater, always more wonderful than the form in which it was first released.

This is the majestic economy of consciousness. Nothing is lost. Nothing is wasted. Every loving imaginal act is recorded in the only place it can be recorded—in the eternal now of awareness. And from that now it projects itself as the conditions, the events, the relationships of your daily life. You are the author. You are the actor. You are the audience. When you author blessing, you experience blessing. When you act the part of the blesser, you receive the blessings you have bestowed.

Do not be concerned with how it will happen. The how is not your concern. Your concern is the what—the what of blessedness. Assume it for another. Feel it deeply. Rest in the feeling. The law will take care of the rest. It always does. It has never failed. It cannot fail. For the law is God, and God is your own awareness of being.

You stand tonight at the threshold of a new realization. From this moment forward, let your imagination be employed in the holy work of blessing. Let every thought of another be a thought of their highest good. Let every silent moment be filled with the vision of their fulfillment. In this way you will transform not only their seeming world but your own. You will move from the consciousness of lack into the consciousness of infinite supply. You will move from the sense of separation into the glorious awareness of oneness. And in that oneness you will discover that to bless is to be blessed—now, always, and forever.

The power is in your hands. The power has always been in your hands. It is the power of imagining good. Use it tonight. Use it tomorrow. Use it every waking moment. Bless lavishly, bless freely, bless without reservation. And you will find, as surely as the sun rises, that the blessings you have given have returned to you multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold, beyond all that you could ask or think.

For consciousness is God, and God is the giver, and the giver and the gift are one. In blessing another you have blessed yourself. In lifting another in imagination you have been lifted. This is the eternal truth. This is the living reality. Accept it. Live it. And watch your world become a world overflowing with the very good you have imagined for others.

You are blessed. You have always been blessed. Tonight you remember. Tonight you begin to live as the blessed one who blesses. And in that living, all things are added unto you—pressed down, shaken together, running over. This is the promise. This is the law. This is the glorious truth that sets you free.

Sleep in this truth tonight. Awaken in it tomorrow. Carry it as the very breath of your being. For in the act of blessing you have discovered the secret of life itself: that to give in imagination is to receive in manifestation, and the measure of the receiving is always greater than the measure of the giving. You are the blessed of the Lord. You are the Lord who blesses. In this recognition you are complete. In this recognition you are free. In this recognition heaven itself is made manifest upon the earth.

Go now in peace, knowing that every imaginal blessing you release tonight is already returning to you, multiplied, as the very substance of your tomorrow. You have only to feel it. You have only to know it. And it is done.