#82: The State of Wealth

The State of Wealth

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You look upon your world and you see limitation. You see the need for more money, more security, more freedom from the pressure of lack, and you believe the cause lies outside yourself in conditions, in opportunities, in the behavior of others. Yet the cause is never there. The cause is always in consciousness. Wealth is not a thing that comes to you from without. Wealth is a state of consciousness which you assume, and from which you live. When you are conscious of being wealthy, your world must reflect that consciousness, for your world is forever the out-picturing of the state in which you dwell.

Consciousness is the only reality. All that you behold, all that you experience, is the objectification of the state of consciousness in which you abide. There is no other cause. You cannot change the outer by struggling with the outer. You change the outer only by changing the inner state from which the outer springs. If you are conscious of being poor, though you may labor and scheme and pray, you will continue to express poverty until you change that consciousness. If you would be wealthy, you must become conscious of being wealthy. That is the simple, changeless law.

You are now conscious of being. That awareness of being is the I AM, the presence men call God. When you say within yourself, “I am wealthy,” you are not speaking of your bank account or your possessions. You are declaring the nature of your awareness. You are assuming a state. And that state, when assumed and persisted in, becomes the only reality you know. The outer things must then conform to it, for things have no life except the life you give them by being conscious of them.

Most men seek wealth by trying to add to what they have. They look at their present circumstances and they say, “If only this were different, if only that would happen, then I would be wealthy.” But this is to deny the very principle. You do not become wealthy by adding wealth to poverty. You become wealthy by assuming the consciousness of wealth and letting the former state of poverty wither away from lack of attention. What you give your attention to grows. What you withdraw your attention from fades. Therefore, withdraw your attention from every evidence of lack and give it wholly to the feeling of wealth.

This feeling is not a vague hope. It is a living sensation. It is the inner knowing that you are now the man or woman who possesses wealth. You feel the security of it. You feel the freedom of it. You feel the naturalness of having more than enough, of being able to give without thought of loss, of moving through your days without anxiety concerning supply. When this feeling becomes natural to you, when you can rest in it without effort, you have assumed the state. And the state will take care of the means.

You do not need to know how wealth will appear. The how is never your concern. Consciousness is the way. When you are conscious of being wealthy, ways you know not of open before you. Opportunities you never imagined present themselves. People you have never met become instruments of your good. All this happens because you have changed the state from which your world is projected. The world does not change for you because you have forced it. The world changes because you have changed.

Many believe they must first see the money or the possession before they can feel wealthy. This is to reverse the law. The feeling must come first. The thing follows. You are told to seek first the kingdom, and all these things shall be added. The kingdom is the state of consciousness. When you enter the state of wealth by feeling it as your present reality, the things are compelled to appear. They cannot stay away, for they are the inevitable fruit of the tree you have planted in consciousness.

You may say, “But my senses deny it. My bank account is low. My obligations press upon me.” Your senses will always deny the new state until the new state has become fixed in you. That is their nature. They report only what was. They cannot report what will be, for what will be is determined by what you are conscious of being now. Therefore, do not argue with the evidence of your senses. Do not try to make it conform. Simply turn from it. Become indifferent to it. Give your attention to the feeling that you are already wealthy, and let the senses do what they will. In time they will conform, for they have no choice.

The assumption of the state of wealth is the true tithing. When you claim for yourself the quality of wealth, you are giving that quality to your awareness of being. And your awareness, which is no respecter of persons, returns it to you pressed down and running over. You do not give a tenth of your income to some external institution and call that tithing. You give the quality itself to consciousness by assuming it as your own. This is the only giving that matters, and it is the giving that always brings increase.

You may ask how long you must persist in this feeling. You persist until the feeling becomes natural, until you no longer have to make an effort to assume it, until it is simply the way you are aware of being. Some find this easy and quick. Others find old habits of thought returning again and again. When they return, you do not fight them. You simply return to the feeling of wealth. You do not argue. You do not condemn yourself. You quietly assume once more that you are the wealthy one, and you dwell there. Each time you return, the assumption becomes stronger. Each time the old state loses some of its power over you.

There is no need to tell anyone what you are doing. In fact, it is better not to speak of it. Speech often dissipates the feeling. Keep the secret within yourself. Let the world see the results, not the process. When the results appear, men will wonder at the change, yet you will know it was nothing more than a change of consciousness.

Wealth, when understood as consciousness, frees you from the feverish striving that characterizes those who seek it in the outer world. You no longer chase money. You no longer fear its loss. You move through your affairs with a quiet sense of already possessing all that you need. This does not mean you become idle. It means your actions spring from fulfillment rather than from lack. You do what is before you to do, but you do it from the state of wealth, not from the state of need. And because you do it from that state, your actions are wise and effective.

The man who is conscious of being wealthy does not boast. He does not need to. He does not compare himself with others. He knows that all men are equally capable of assuming the same state. He does not look upon wealth as something he has taken from another. He knows it is something he has claimed from the infinite by assuming it in consciousness. Therefore, he can afford to be generous. He can afford to see others rise. He knows there is no limit to the states that may be assumed.

You may wonder whether it is right to desire wealth. But desire itself is not the question. The question is the state from which you desire. If you desire wealth because you are conscious of lack and wish to escape it, you remain in the state of lack. If you desire wealth because you have assumed the consciousness of wealth and now wish to express it more fully, you are already in the state. The desire is then the natural pressure of the state seeking expression. It is not a cry of need. It is the joy of expansion.

All through the day, return to this feeling. When you rise in the morning, assume it before you open your eyes. Feel the security, the freedom, the quiet power of one who is wealthy. Carry that feeling into your breakfast, into your work, into your dealings with others. When you lie down at night, assume it again. Let it be the last thing you are aware of as you enter sleep. Sleep is a great doorway. What you feel as you fall asleep tends to harden into fact. Therefore, fall asleep in the consciousness of wealth, and you will wake to a world that begins to conform.

You do not need to wait for some future date when conditions improve. Conditions improve when consciousness improves. You do not need more time. You need only to assume the state now. The state does not belong to the future. It is present. It is available to you in this very moment by a simple act of assumption. You assume you are wealthy. You feel it. You live from it. That is all.

The outer world may continue for a time to show the old patterns. This is not failure. It is the interval between the assumption and its fulfillment. During this interval, remain faithful to the new state. Do not be swayed by appearances. Appearances are the past. The new state is the future pressing into the present. In time the appearances must yield, for consciousness is the only power.

When you truly grasp that wealth is a state of consciousness, you cease to be a victim of circumstances. You become the master of your own experience. You realize that no one can give you wealth and no one can take it from you, for it is not a thing. It is a way of being aware. And a way of being aware can only be changed by you. Others may help or hinder in the outer, but the state itself is your own creation.

You are not asked to believe something that is not true. You are asked to assume something that is true in consciousness and to let it become true in expression. The assumption is the truth. The expression is the inevitable consequence. When you assume the state of wealth, you are not lying to yourself. You are simply choosing the reality you wish to live. And life, which is your own consciousness objectified, has no choice but to honor that choice.

Tonight, as you prepare for sleep, turn from every thought of limitation. Do not rehearse your problems. Do not count your lacks. Instead, feel yourself wealthy. Feel the naturalness of having all you need and more. Feel the quiet joy of financial freedom. Feel the power of being able to give without fear. Let that feeling fill you. Let it become your identity for these few moments before sleep. And as you drift into sleep, know that you are drifting into the fulfillment of that state.

In the days that follow, whenever you are tempted to return to the old consciousness of lack, remember this simple truth: you are not poor because things are scarce. You are poor because you are conscious of being poor. Change the consciousness and the things must change. There is no other way, and there is no easier way. The way is simple because it is direct. It is the way of assumption. It is the way of feeling.

You need no special power. You need no unusual gift. You need only the willingness to assume what at first may seem unreal. But as you persist, the unreal becomes the only reality you know. The old world of lack fades, and a new world of wealth rises to take its place. This is not imagination in the sense of idle fancy. This is imagination in the sense of the divine creative power that is your own awareness of being.

You are that awareness. You are the I AM that declares its own nature. When you declare yourself wealthy in consciousness, you are not asking something of another. You are simply being what you have chosen to be. And being always expresses itself.

Let this be your practice. Let this be your life. Assume the state of wealth. Dwell in it. Live from it. And watch your world conform to the majesty of your assumption. For consciousness is the only reality, and you are forever its master when you know yourself to be the one who assumes.

The state of wealth is not something you acquire. It is something you become conscious of being. And when you are conscious of being wealthy, you have found the only wealth that endures, the wealth that cannot be taken from you, the wealth that multiplies itself without effort. This is the wealth you seek. This is the wealth that is already yours the moment you assume it. Assume it now. Feel it now. And let the world bear witness to what you have become in consciousness.