Neville Goddard teaches that consciousness is the creator and your present awareness shapes reality. He uses the sculptor and marble as a metaphor for how self-concept transforms into lived experience, emphasizing the power of claiming "I am" now rather than waiting for future change.
Neville Goddard. I know my Father. Chapter nine. Thy will be done. Not mine, not my will, but thine be done. This resignation is not one of blind fatalism. But it is the illumined realization that I can have myself do nothing. The Father within me he do. If the work. When man wills, he attempts to make something appear in time and space which he knows does not now exist. He is not aware of what it is he is really doing. But what he actually does is this. He consciously states, I do not possess the capacities to express it now, but I will acquire these capacities in time. In short, I am not, but I will be. Man does not realize that consciousness is the Father who does the work. So he attempts to express that which he is not conscious of being. Such struggles are doomed to disappointment. For only the present expresses itself. Unless I am conscious of being that which I seek, I will not find it. Unless I am conscious of that which I seek, I will not find it. God, your awareness is the substance and fullness of all. God's will is the recognition of that which is not, of that which shall be. Instead of seeing this and saying, excuse me. Instead of seeing the saying, as thy will be done, see it as thy will be done is done. The works are finished. The principle by which all things are made visible is eternal. Even though eyes have not seen nor ears heard, neither hath it entered into the hearts of man the things which God hath prepared for those who love the law. When a sculptor looks at a formless piece of marble, he sees buried within its formless self his finished piece of art. So the sculptor, instead of making his masterpiece, merely reveals it by removing that part of the marble which hides his conception. The same applies to you. In your formless awareness, I am lies buried all that you will ever conceive yourself to be. The recognition of this truth will transform you from that of an unskilled laborer who tries to make it so. To that of a great artist who recognizes it to be so. The unskilled laborer who tries to make it so. To the great artist who recognizes it to be so. Your claim that you are now that which you want to be will remove the veil of human darkness with its I will be and reveal your perfect claim, I am that man. God's will was expressed in the words of the widow. It is well. Man's will would have been. It shall be well. To state, I shall be well is to say I am ill. God, the eternal now is not mocked by words or vain repetition. God continually personifies that which is. And if you're, if you're reading along and you're going along with this chapter and you're realizing if you are in fact that the habits of the the habits of a lot of the out there and the Persona personages out there are not looking at this chapter or not becoming aware of this information like you are. So you have a leg up. Yes, it's true, but you're also swimming against the massive current of out thereness. It is not to be concerned with that. That doesn't matter one bit how much out there is pushing against this new realization you're going through. If you are going through this, if you are waking up with this out there doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is in here. In here where my consciousness dwells. What is it that I am? What is it that I am? I claim to be I am that I am. That's the most important subject, no matter what you think is pushing back against your new lessons and learning here, it is still just you because everything is you pushed out. So you're only ever going to be fight. You're only going to ever meet resistance that's in here, not out here. Thus the resignation of Jesus, who made himself equal with God in parentheses, was turning from their recognition of lack which the future indicates with I shall be, to the recognition of supply by claiming I am that now you will see the wisdom in the words of the prophet when he stated, let the weak say I am strong. Joel 3:10 man in his blindness will not heed the prophet's advice, so he continues to claim himself to be weak, poor, wretched, and all other undesirable expressions from which he is trying to free himself by ignorantly claiming that he will be free from them. There's only one door through which that which you seek can enter your world. When you say I am, you are declaring yourself to be first person, present tense again, to know that I am is to be conscious of being. Consciousness is the only door. Again, to know that I am is to be conscious of being. Consciousness is the only door. Therefore, unless you are conscious of being that which you seek, you seek in vain. If you judge after appearances, you will continue to be enslaved by the evidence of your senses. To break from this hypnotic spell of the senses, you are told, go within and shut the door. The door of the senses must be tightly shut before your new claim can be honored. This closing the door of the senses is not as difficult as it first appears to be. It is done without effort. It's impossible to serve two masters at the same time. The Master man serves in that which he is. The master man serves is that which he is conscious of being. I am Lord and master of that which I am conscious of being. It's no effort for me to conjure poverty. If I am conscious of being poor, my servant poverty is compelled to follow me. Consciousness of poverty as long as I am the Lord conscious of being poor. Instead of fighting against the evidence of the senses, you simply claim yourself to be that which you desire to be. As your attention is placed on this claim, the door of the senses automatically close against your former Master, that which you were conscious of being. As you become lost in the feeling of being this which you are now claiming yourself to be true of yourself, the doors once more open. But as you have discovered, they permit only the present that which I am now conscious of being to enter. And you behold your world expressing that which you are conscious of being. Therefore, let us follow the example of Jesus, who, realizing that he could as man, do nothing to change his present picture of lack of, closed the door of his senses and went to his Father, to whom all things are possible. Having denied the evidence of his senses, he claimed himself to be that which but a moment before his senses told him that he was not knowing that consciousness expresses its likeness on earth. He remained in the claimed consciousness until the doors his senses opened and and confirm the rulership of the Lord. Remember, I am is Lord of all. Never again use the will of man which claims I will be be as resigned as Jesus and claim I am that oh boy, I am that I am man. Oh man, oh man, man, oh manifestation. I know My Father. Chapter nine. Thy will be done. I love the sculptor piece because the self concept is in the sculptor. The self concept is in the giant block of marble. Your self concept needs things removed. Be your being is what you need to be the new self concept. You need to be it. And therefore all the shackles of it will fall away from this supposed what your senses are telling you here. Those shackles and those limitations will fall away and you will become that sculptor, that sculpted art that's within the granite block. You will be the artist. You will remove the limitations and you will be the art just by being it. Wonderful chapter. Oh my gosh. I Know My Father. Chapter nine Thy Will be done. We'll see you in the next one.
