#13: Thinking FROM The End

Thinking FROM The End

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have desired many things. You have pictured them clearly in your mind. You have hoped and you have waited. Yet for so many of you the desire remains just beyond your reach, a distant promise that never quite arrives. Why?

Because you have been thinking of your desire instead of thinking from it.

Listen closely. Every state you could ever long for already exists. It waits, complete, as a mere possibility so long as you stand outside it and think of it. But the moment you enter that state and begin to think from it, it becomes overpoweringly real. It hardens into fact. Thinking from the end is the way of life itself. It is the secret of creation.

Most men live as spectators. They see the thing desired as something separate from themselves. They look at it, they talk about it, they wish for it. That is thinking of. In that attitude the desire remains forever outside them, a beautiful picture on the wall of the mind that never steps down into the living room of their daily experience. They remain the onlooker. And the onlooker never possesses the thing he beholds.

But there is another way. There is the way of the partaker. You move from thinking of the end to thinking from the end by a simple yet profound inner act. You enter the state desired. You take your place within it as though it were already true. You do not merely picture the fulfillment; you occupy it. You view the world from that fulfillment. You think from the consciousness of the wish fulfilled.

This is no idle fancy. This is the law of your own being. The state from which you think determines the world you live in. The rich man, the healthy man, the loved man, the successful man, each is what he is by virtue of the state from which he views everything else. Change the state from which you think and you change the world that appears around you.

You may protest that the evidence of your senses says otherwise. You may say, “But I am not yet there. I still lack the money, the health, the relationship, the opportunity.” That very thought is thinking of. That is the spectator speaking. That is the voice that keeps the desire forever at a distance. The senses will always report the old state until you have the courage to withdraw your attention from them and place it firmly in the new state.

How do you make this shift? How do you pass from thinking of to thinking from? You do it by feeling yourself to be already in the desired state. You do not force a picture upon the mind. You do not strain. You simply let the feeling of the wish fulfilled take possession of you. You relax into it. You dwell in it. You let it become natural. You imagine yourself right into the state of your fulfilled desire, and then you view everything else from that standpoint.

In that moment you have fused with the state. You are no longer the separate thinker looking at a distant goal. You are the goal. You are living from it. And because you are living from it, the outer world must rearrange itself to reflect the inner reality you have accepted. This is not magic. This is the normal, natural operation of your own consciousness.

You have done this unconsciously many times before. When you have fallen in love, you did not merely think of being loved; you felt yourself to be loved. You moved in the state of being loved. You thought from that state. And the world confirmed it. When you have been certain of some outcome, you did not argue with the facts; you felt the certainty so completely that you lived from it. That certainty became your reality. Now you are asked to do consciously and deliberately what you have done unconsciously in the past.

Every night as you fall asleep, you have an opportunity to practice this mighty truth. Do not carry the burdens of the day into your sleep. Instead, before you close your eyes, assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Let the last conscious thought be one of thankfulness that it is already so. Then let yourself drift off to sleep while still dwelling in that state. You are thinking from the end. You are preparing a place for yourself in consciousness, and you will be received into it.

In the waking hours, the pull of the old state will try to draw you back. The senses will shout their old story. Thoughts will arise that say, “But look at the facts.” That is the voice of thinking of. Do not fight it. Do not resist it. Simply return gently to the new state. Return again and again to the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Make it your home. Dwell there more and more frequently. Habitual dwelling in the state will make it natural. And what is natural to you must express itself in your world.

You do not have to create the means. You do not have to figure out how it will happen. That is the mistake of the man who thinks of his desire. He tries to force the how. He plans and schemes and worries. But when you think from the end, the state itself devises the means. The state contains within itself every necessary condition for its own fulfillment. Your only responsibility is to occupy the state. The rest follows as naturally as day follows night.

This is why so many prayers go unanswered. Men pray of their desire. They petition a God outside themselves for something they do not yet possess. They remain in the consciousness of lack and therefore receive more lack. But when you pray from the state of the wish fulfilled, you are not begging. You are giving thanks. You are acknowledging what already is in the only place it can ever be—in your own consciousness.

The Bible speaks of this constantly, though the words have been misunderstood for centuries. “Before Abraham was, I am.” “I am the way.” “It is done.” These are not statements about a man who lived long ago. They are statements of the truth of your own being when you think from the end. The “I am” of your awareness is the creative power. When you claim “I am healthy” and think from that claim, health must appear. When you claim “I am prosperous” and think from that claim, prosperity must appear. The state you occupy determines everything.

You may ask, “But what if I cannot feel it? What if doubt keeps pulling me back?” Then return, my friend. Return as often as necessary. The secret is not in feeling it once with great emotion. The secret is in the repeated, natural occupation of the state. A mood often repeated gains a momentum that is hard to break. So be careful of the feelings you entertain. Habitual moods reveal the state with which you are fused. Choose the state wisely and return to it until it feels natural.

Thinking from the end is creative living. Ignorance of this ability is the root of all bondage. To passively surrender to the evidence of the senses is to underestimate the power that is yours. But once you accept thinking from the end as the creative principle in which you can cooperate, you are redeemed from the absurdity of trying to achieve your objective by merely thinking of it.

You are not the victim of circumstance. You are not the product of your past. You are the operant power. The world is a revelation of the state with which your imagination is fused. Change the state and you change the revelation. It is that simple. It is that profound.

Tonight, right now, you can begin. Take any desire that is dear to your heart. Do not think of it. Do not look at it from a distance. Enter it. Feel the joy of it as though it were already true. See your world from that standpoint. Let that feeling possess you completely. Then carry it with you as you move through the day. Let it remain in the atmosphere of your mind like a fragrant odor. Return to it again and again. Live in it. Think from it.

You will find that the outer world begins to move in harmony with your inner occupation. Things will happen that no one could have predicted. Opportunities will appear. People will act in ways that fulfill your assumption. Not because you manipulated them, but because you have changed the state from which you view them. The world is yourself pushed out. When you change, it changes.

This is the law. It does not fail. It cannot fail. It operates as impersonally as the law of gravity. Whether the desire is noble or ignoble, the principle is the same. But remember, you will live in the state you have chosen. Choose wisely. Choose lovingly. Choose that which lifts you into greater freedom and greater joy.

The man who can think from the end is unstoppable. Nothing can prevent him from experiencing the fulfillment of his desire. He creates the means and grows his way out of every limitation into ever greater and greater mansions of the Lord. He knows that every desire is ripe grain to him who knows how to think from the end. He is indifferent to mere reasonable probability and confident that through continuous imagination his assumptions will harden into fact.

You are that man. You have always been that man. The only difference is that now you are awakening to your true creative power. You are learning to use your imagination masterfully, not as an onlooker thinking of the end, but as a partaker thinking from the end.

This is the great secret that has been hidden in plain sight for centuries. This is the pearl of great price. This is the kingdom of heaven within you. It does not come with observation. It comes when you stop observing the old state and begin living in the new one.

Tonight, as you prepare for sleep, make this your practice. Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled. Fall asleep in that assumption. Wake tomorrow morning still dwelling in that state. Carry it with you throughout the day. Whenever the old thoughts try to intrude, gently return to the new state. Think from it. Live from it. Be it.

You will discover, as you persist, that the state you have entered is not a dream. It is the most real thing in your world. It will objectify itself. It must objectify itself, because consciousness is the only reality and you have placed your consciousness firmly in the desired state.

The world you see is not the cause of your experience. It is the effect. Change the cause by changing the state from which you think, and the effect must change. This is the truth that sets you free.

You are not bound by anything outside yourself. You are not limited by your past. You are not a prisoner of your circumstances. You are the operant power choosing the state from which you will view everything. Choose the state of the wish fulfilled. Think from it. And watch your world transform.

This is the way. This is the only way. Thinking of keeps you in bondage. Thinking from sets you free. Choose freedom. Choose it now. Enter the state. Dwell there. Think from it with quiet certainty. And you will know the truth of your own being: that you are the one who calls things that are not seen as though they were, and they appear.

My friend, you are already the fulfillment of every desire you have ever had. The only thing required of you is to stop thinking of that fulfillment and begin thinking from it. Do this tonight. Do it with all the love and conviction of your heart. And tomorrow you will begin to walk in the world that has always been waiting for you—the world of your fulfilled desire.

The state is yours. The power is yours. The glory is yours. Claim it by thinking from the end. And it is done.