#29: Signs Follow, They Do Not Precede

Signs Follow, They Do Not Precede

A Lecture in the Voice & Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have waited long enough for the evidence to appear before you would dare to believe. You have looked out upon your world, upon the empty measures, the closed doors, the silent telephone, the unchanged body, the unchanged bank account, and you have said within yourself, “When I see it, then I shall know it is true.” Yet I tell you tonight, with the authority of one who has tested the law and found it flawless, that you have reversed the order of creation. Signs follow; they do not precede.

The proof that you are will follow the consciousness that you are. It will not precede it. This is the eternal law. Consciousness is the only reality. All that you see and touch and hear is but the outpicturing of what you are conscious of being. When you change the consciousness, the outpicturing must change. But the change in the outpicturing cannot come first. It is impossible. It is the effect, never the cause.

You have been looking at the effect and calling it the cause. You have been demanding that the mirror change before you will change the face that is reflected there. How long will you continue this futile attempt? How long will you stand before the barren field and refuse to plant the seed until you see the harvest? The harvest is the sign. The seed planted in consciousness is the reality. Plant it first. Then, and only then, will the signs appear.

I tell you plainly: stop looking for signs. Stop searching the outer world for confirmation. The outer world has no power to confirm or deny anything. It is passive. It is dead. It is the womb that receives the impression you give it. Give it the impression of the thing desired as already fulfilled, and it will bring forth that fulfillment in its own time and in its own way. But the impression must come first.

Your awareness of being is God. Your awareness of being is the cause of all that appears in your world. When you are conscious of being healthy, health must follow as the sign. When you are conscious of being wealthy, wealth must follow as the sign. When you are conscious of being loved, loving circumstances must follow as the sign. The sign cannot precede the consciousness any more than the fruit can precede the tree. The tree is the reality. The fruit is the sign.

You may object and say, “But I have tried this. I have felt for a moment and then the old condition returned.” I answer you: you did not dwell in the consciousness. You visited it as a stranger. You touched the feeling lightly and then returned to your former state of awareness. You must abide in the consciousness. You must make it natural to you. You must live and move and have your being in the assumption that the thing desired is already yours. Then, and only then, will the signs appear and remain.

The world you see is the world you have been conscious of being. Change your consciousness and you change your world. But do not expect the world to change until the consciousness has been changed. Do not look outside for proof before you believe. That is the error that has kept you bound. Believe first. Assume the consciousness first. Then watch the signs follow with the certainty of law.

Think of it. Your every desire is a command to your own awareness. When you desire health, it is your awareness telling you that you are now to become conscious of being healthy. When you desire freedom, it is your awareness urging you to become conscious of being free. The desire itself is the proof that the thing is possible. For nothing is impossible to consciousness. But the desire must be accepted as already fulfilled in consciousness before the outer signs can appear.

You are an eternal dreamer dreaming dreams. Your dreams take form as you assume the feeling of their reality. Do not limit yourself to what the senses report. The senses report only the past. They report what you were conscious of being yesterday and the day before. They have no power to tell you what you can be. They can only tell you what you have been. Turn from them. Disregard appearances. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and the signs will follow.

I tell you this with quiet certainty: the moment you truly become conscious of being the thing desired, that moment the machinery of the outer world begins to move in your favor. Invisible forces are set in motion. Circumstances begin to shift. People you have never met begin to play their part. All this happens without your conscious effort, without your planning, without your scheming. It happens because consciousness is the only reality, and when you change the consciousness, the outpicturing must conform.

But you must not look for the signs too soon. You must not run to the window each morning to see if the harvest has come. That is doubt. That is looking for the sign before the consciousness has been established. Dwell in the end. Live from the end. Feel the end as true now, and let the signs take care of themselves. They will come. They cannot fail to come. The law is absolute.

You have heard it said, “Seeing is believing.” I say to you, reverse it. Believing is seeing. First believe. First assume the consciousness. First feel the reality of the thing desired as already accomplished. Then you will see. The signs will appear. They must appear. For the consciousness you accept as true must objectify itself.

Let me speak to you of the widow who was asked what she had in her house. She answered that she had three drops of oil. In that recognition of substance, even in small measure, lay the power. She did not look at the empty vessels and declare them empty forever. She claimed the oil, and the oil multiplied. Your awareness magnifies all that it is conscious of being. Claim now, in this very moment, the consciousness of the thing desired, and it will multiply beyond your present ability to measure.

Signs follow; they do not precede. You will never see the signs of that which is not yet established in consciousness. Take no thought of tomorrow, for your tomorrows are merely the expressions of your todays impressions. Now is the accepted time. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Your awareness is the savior that is with you always. Claim it now. Do not wait for it to appear in the outer world. Claim yourself to be the thing desired now, and the signs of your claim shall follow.

You may say, “But the condition is still with me. The lack is still visible. The body still shows the mark of disease.” I answer you: pay no attention to the condition. It is the old outpicturing. It is the sign of what you were conscious of being. It has no power to continue once you withdraw your attention from it. Turn your attention to the new consciousness. Dwell there. Abide there. Live there as though it were true, and the old condition will dissolve as the new one solidifies.

This is not a matter of positive thinking or hopeful wishing. This is the law of consciousness. What you are conscious of being, you express. What you are not conscious of being, you cannot express. The signs cannot appear until the consciousness is assumed. Do not be deceived by the seeming solidity of the outer world. It is fluid. It is malleable. It is waiting for your impression. Give it the impression of fulfillment, and fulfillment must follow.

You are the operant power. You and you alone decide what you shall be conscious of being. No one else can do it for you. No circumstance can force you. You are free to choose the consciousness you will accept as true. Choose now the consciousness of the wish fulfilled. Choose it with conviction. Choose it with feeling. Choose it until it becomes natural to you. Then rest in that assumption. The signs will follow in their own perfect timing.

Do not be anxious about the how. Do not concern yourself with the details. Consciousness has ways that you know not of. It is infinite in its wisdom and power. Your only concern is to be the consciousness of the thing desired. Feel it. Accept it. Live in it. And leave the rest to the law.

I tell you from experience: when you truly dwell in the end, when you make the assumption natural, the signs appear so naturally that you almost forget you ever desired them. They come as the normal, inevitable result of your changed consciousness. You do not have to make them happen. They happen. They follow as day follows night.

The error of mankind has been to reverse the order. Man has demanded that the sign appear first so that he might then believe. But the law declares that belief must come first so that the sign may appear. You cannot see the signs of health until you are conscious of being healthy. You cannot see the signs of wealth until you are conscious of being wealthy. You cannot see the signs of harmony until you are conscious of being harmonious.

This is not theory. This is not philosophy. This is the simple, inescapable operation of the law. Consciousness is the cause. The world is the effect. Change the cause and the effect changes. But the effect cannot change the cause. The sign cannot create the consciousness. The consciousness creates the sign.

Tonight, in this very moment, I ask you to turn within. Turn from the reports of the senses. Turn from the testimony of the outer world. Turn to your own awareness of being. What do you desire to be? What do you desire to have? Assume the consciousness of it now. Feel yourself to be it now. Dwell in that feeling until it feels natural. Until it feels real. Until it feels like the truth of your being.

Do not look for results tomorrow. Do not check the outer world for confirmation next week. Live in the assumption tonight. Sleep in the assumption tonight. Rise in the assumption tomorrow. Carry it with you as your secret, your treasure, your reality. And watch, in quiet certainty, as the signs begin to follow.

The signs will come. They cannot help but come. For you are dealing with law, not with chance. You are dealing with the only power there is: your own awareness of being. When you accept a new consciousness, the old must go. When you accept the consciousness of fulfillment, lack must disappear. When you accept the consciousness of health, disease must dissolve. The signs follow inevitably.

You have been given the key. The door is open. Enter now. Enter with the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Enter with the quiet certainty that what you are conscious of being, you shall express. The world will rearrange itself to confirm your new consciousness. People will move into your life or out of your life according to the new assumption. Circumstances will shift. Events will transpire. All because you have changed your consciousness.

Do not be troubled if at first the outer world still shows the old pattern. It is slow to catch up sometimes. It is like a great ship that takes time to turn. But turn it must when the captain changes course. You are the captain. You have changed course by changing consciousness. Hold the new course. Do not waver. Do not look back. The signs will follow.

I repeat it because it is the central truth you must grasp tonight: signs follow; they do not precede. Proof that you are will follow the consciousness that you are; it will not precede it. This is the law. This is the gospel. This is the good news that sets you free.

You are not at the mercy of the world. The world is at the mercy of your consciousness. You are not the victim of circumstances. Circumstances are the victims of your assumption. You are the operant power. You decide. You choose. You assume. And then the signs follow.

Tonight, before you close your eyes in sleep, make this your practice. Not as a ritual, but as the natural movement of your being. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Feel it deeply. Feel it completely. Feel it as the most natural thing in the world. Then sleep in that feeling. Let it impregnate your subconscious. Let it become the new pattern of your consciousness. And when you wake, carry that same feeling with you into the day.

Do this persistently. Do it faithfully. Do it until the new consciousness is established. Then you will see the signs. You will see them in your body, in your affairs, in your relationships, in every area of your life. They will appear so naturally that you will wonder how you ever lived without them.

But remember: the signs are not the reality. The consciousness is the reality. The signs are merely the confirmation. Cherish the consciousness more than the signs. Live in the consciousness even after the signs appear. For it is the consciousness that sustains them.

You have been given dominion. You have been given the power to create. That power is your awareness of being. Use it now. Use it wisely. Use it with the quiet certainty that what you assume, you become. What you become, you express. What you express, the signs will confirm.

This is the simple, profound truth that has been hidden in plain sight. You do not need new techniques. You do not need new information. You need only to reverse the order. Stop seeking the sign first. Assume the consciousness first. Then the sign will follow as naturally as the fruit follows the blossom.

I speak to you as one who has tested this law in the furnace of experience. I speak to you not from theory but from realization. The law is infallible. The law is exact. The law is immediate in its inner operation, even if the outer signs take a little time to appear. Trust it. Rely upon it. Rest in it.

You are the light of your world. You are the cause of your world. You are the creator of your world. Awaken now to this truth. Awaken to the power that is yours. Awaken to the simple fact that signs follow; they do not precede.

Let this truth sink deep into your being tonight. Let it become the foundation of your life. Let it be the rock upon which you stand. Then no storm of circumstance, no testimony of the senses, no appearance of lack or limitation will ever shake you again. For you will know, with unshakable certainty, that the consciousness you accept as true must and will objectify itself.

The signs will follow. They always do. They always have. They always will. For this is the law of your being. This is the law of creation. This is the law of God.

You are God. Your awareness of being is God. What you are aware of being, God is aware of being. What God is aware of being must be expressed. The signs must follow. They cannot do otherwise.

Go now in peace. Go in the quiet certainty of this truth. Assume the consciousness of your desire fulfilled. Dwell there. Live there. And watch, with the eyes of faith, as the signs begin to appear. They are already on their way. They are already moving toward you. They are already preparing to confirm what you have accepted as true.

You have only to remain faithful to the consciousness. The signs will remain faithful to you.

This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the truth that sets you free tonight.

Signs follow. They do not precede.

Believe it. Live it. And the signs will be yours.