Can we pray to God and get what we want? How come this works sometimes, and sometimes it does not? What’s up here? And is there a formula that can make it work more often?
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Wednesday is Question and Answer Day on the blog…a time for exploring many of the questions that people have recently asked about the nine Conversations with God books and the New Spirituality. Here’s this week’s entry…
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Question: I’ve read your explanation about why one does not get what one asks for-and correct me if i am wrong-because the universe creates for you the situation of wanting and not having.There have been times in my life where I have visualized myself having a desired outcome, and GETTING it. But then there have also been times in my life when I did NOT GET what I have asked for. Can you clear up my confusion around this. James
Neale’s Response: James…I do not believe that there is a guarantee in the universe that says that whatever you choose, you get. I believe that it would be naive to think so — and maybe even dangerous. Here’s what I imagine myself to know about all this: MORE OFTEN THEN NOT, what we believe, we create; what we think, we experience; what we say, we produce. But NOT ALWAYS. This is because there are, from my observation, far too many factors at play in the delicate Process of Personal Creation — not the least of which is the Law of Opposites.
This law states that the moment you declare anything, everything unlike it will come into the room. This is necessary in order to create a context within which what you choose to experience becomes possible. That is the only way it can work in the Realm of the Relative, where on thing exists relative to another.
(For a deep and rich explanation of this, please read Chapter 12 of Happier Than God, the latest book in the CwG cosmology, now available from Amazon.com and other online and onstreet bookstores.)
Because of the many factors playing their effect on the Process of Creation, one would have to be a Perfect Master to…well, to master all of these effects and factors, lining up every single one of the multitudinous energies swirling about the central movements of Life and creating both our individual and collective realities.
One of the most impacting of those factors is the fact that we are all creating simultaneously on this planet. We are co-creating our collective reality. This means that, as individuals, we are constantly working with not only our own energies (created by our Thought, Word, and Deed — the three Tools of Creation), but also with the energies of others: those immediately around us, those in our greater environment, and, indeed, those across the world.
Now it is true that the farther from us another person is, the less they can have an effect on our own personal creation, yet they do have some effect. And, of course, the closer a person is to us, the more effect they have. So those right next to us — members of our immediately family, those with whom we are directly partnered in life — can have an amazing effect on our moment-to-moment reality.
Therefore, it is highly beneficial to seek vision alignment with those immediately around us. I love this statement, attributed to the power of love and life as personalized in the Christ: “Wherever two or more are gathered, there I am.”
The point of that statement — and the point I am making here: Collective creation can be more powerful than individual creation, at least until we reach the level of mastery where our personal creative power is sufficient to overcome the Collective Consciousness. This is the place at which all the great Masters in history had arrived and resided.
In addition to these factors (the Law of Opposites and the Collective Consciosness), there is the business of our own personal awareness, and the level it has reached. For instance, James, you have said…
“But then there have also been times in my life when I did NOT GET what I have asked for.”
I know that you may have just been using a common turn-of-phrase…or were you? Is it possible that this is, in fact, how you were thinking about it? That is, have you been “asking for” things? Outcomes or conditions or experiences that you wish to create? Because if you have, that could be your problem right there.
You see, James, you may not have anything that you ask for. Why? Because the very act of asking for it is your announcement to the universe that you do not now have it. And that announcement is a statement to the universe of your perspective.
Obviously it is your perspective that you do not now have what you are “asking for,” or you wouldn’t be asking for it. Now this perspective, James, creates your perception. That is, you tend to see things in a certain way, depending on the place from which you are viewing them. Perspective creates perception, James. Always remember that.
But it goes further. Perception then creates belief. It turns out that seeing IS believing, for most people. So, you see what you see because of the way you are looking at it, and what you see is what you believe. But wait, it goes further…
Belief then creates behavior. All behaviors spring from our beliefs about a thing. Every behavior, without exception, is a demonstration in physical form of something that you believe. It is a putting into action of your thought about something — or it is a reaction to such a thought. But wait, it goes further…
Behavior creates experience. All experience is a product of our behavior. If we act a certain way we create a certain experience. It’s as simple as that. But wait, it doesn’t end there…because…
…experience creates reality. What we experience, we assume to be true. We make it our reality. But wait, it STILL hasn’t ended…because…
…our experience creates our next perspective!!!
It’s a circle.
Here it is again, in case you missed it:
Perspective creates perception, perception creates belief, belief creates behavior, behavior creates experience, experience creates reality, reality creates perspective.
Do you see it now? So…if your perspective is that you do not now have a thing — anything…whatever it is that you want — if your perspective is that you are lacking it, you will create that reality, because that is how the Circle of Creation works.
How to break this vicious circle? Change your perspective. Move from “I do not now have this,” to “I have always had this, and I have this now.” Then, ACT AS IF YOU DO.
SPEAK as if you do.
THINK as if you do.
Do not, therefore, “ask” for anything. Rather, call it forth.” You already have what you are “asking” for. Simply bring it forward into your present experience.
By the way, the fastest way to do this is to bring it forward into the present experience of another. This is because it is easier for you to believe that another can have this experience than to believe that YOU can. (This is true of virtually any good experience.)
And THIS is because most of us see others as more WORTHY of the experience than we are.
Everything changes, then, when we shift our perspective. Christ, you will notice, did not ask for anything. He CALLED IT FORTH. He spoke with absolute authority. “Arise and walk,” he said to Lazarus. And to the leper, “Take up your pallet and go hither. By your faith have you been healed.”
So, what does all that look like in your own life, James? It looks like this, to me…
Never ask for anything, but rather, thank God in advance for it already being there (“Even before you ask, I will have answered”) and thank God for giving you, now, the ability to see what is true, both now, and even forevermore.
My favorite prayer is this: Thank you, God, for helping me to understand that this problem has already been solved for me.
You see, James, the purpose of all of life is for us to announce and declare, express and fulfill, become and experience Who We Really Are.
There is nothing else going on here, there is nothing else happening. Everything else that is occurring is attendent to that. We have come to the Realm of the Physical in order to experience what we know in the Realm of the Spiritual to be true.
All of this is wonderfully explained in HOME WITH GOD in a Life That Never Ends, the final text in the 9-book Conversations with God series.
So here is what “calling it forth” sounds like, James…just to give you a practical example. If what I wish now to experience is my right and perfect relationship, I would move immediately into gratitude around that. Remember always, gratitude is the attitude. I would say, “Thank you, God, for the fact that my perfect relationship is coming to me now.” Or, if I was already inside of a relationship what I wanted to make work, I would call forth that result with gratitude: “Thank you, God, for the experience, moving through me AS me, of my perfect relationship, right here, right now.”
I would call this forth at moments of stress, not only at moments of peace; at moments of anger, not only at moments of love.
Then I would move immediately into the DEMONSTRATION of that. I would ACT AS IF my relationship was perfect, right then and there (even though it may not have felt that way the moment before, because of something that has been said or has happened). This is how to heal your relationship in five seconds.
The same could be true of, say, abundance. If I wished to experience more money in my life, I would immediately move into gratitude for that. “Thank you, God, for bringing me all the money I need, right here, right now.
Then I would move immediately into the DEMONSTRATION of that. I would ACT AS IF my funds were sufficient, and I would do this by sharing them with others; with those who are less fortunate than even I imagine myself to be. I would immediately find someone who has less than I, and I would give to them, so that they have more.
In all things, I would do unto others as I would have it done unto me. In this way, I demonstrate that that which I wish to experience, I may experience at any time that I choose.
Once I have given myself the experience for which I have yearned by giving OTHERS the experience for which I have yearned, I will have discovered an extraordinary key to happiness.
All of this has been explained in far greater detail in Happier Than God. There you will also find, James, 17 Steps to Being Happier Than God. I strongly recommend this book to your reading.
And I hope that my answer here has given you some little assistance as you move through your life, my friend.
All ways….neale.
(Ask Neale may be accessed on a daily basis in the Messengers’ Circle at Neale’s personal website: www.nealedonaldwalsch.com. Each week Neale selects a question from those posted there and publishes it in this blog.)
P.S. More of this kind of insight can be experienced with Neale this summer, should you choose to make this year’s vacation coincide with his. Neale would love to have you accompany him as he vacations this summer in Alaska. For more information on how you may join him for seven wonderful days of personal interaction in a spectacular setting, go now to www.nealedonaldwalsch.com and click on the Alaskan Cruise icon.