Persistence is Loyalty, not Effort

04–04–2022

I must admit personally that I have had plenty failures in my use of the law. What law? Not the law of men, but the divine law that Imagining Creates Reality. In very many important matters, I have attempted to use the law only to fail — and perhaps other students of the Imagination would agree that there has been such failures. One day, Neville was teaching and Sami who had used the law in many successful ways, asked a question that would admit he had failed to use it in creating one of the most sought after desires of mankind, financial prosperity. Also, in Neville’s own book, The Power of Awareness, he mentioned that he had his personal record of failures. But failures do not mean that the law is at any moment ineffective. Failure indicates to us that we are yet to gain mastery in operating our own imagination. If we are doing everything we could do from having a desire to living in the end, what kind of mastery haven’t we gained? Persistent assumption.

Persistent assumption is the story of Jesus Christ. In other words, the story of salvation or redemption from where we are to where we long to be, this story is persistent assumption. When we begin to practice the law, we often find ourselves not persisting in the assumption that our wish is fulfilled. Why? Because we have yet to grasp that Consciousness is the one and only reality. We have yet to experience or witness by our working with the law to the point where we are convinced. Taking myself for an example, when I began on this journey, I would think that the imagination could work for my health, but I must support it when it comes to my relationship or career. I always had that one place where imagining couldn’t do it, so I had to step in as a support. This reasoning often shipwrecked my imaginings with doubt. ‘If I must support my relationship, shouldn’t I support my health too?’ Now, I totally doubt imagination’s power to actualize the end that I’ve been living in. Another way to put this reason is that we have belief in many causes of reality. But with this belief is doubt in the one cause of reality, the Imagination. The Imagination itself is the only reality, and the experiences we have are but shadows, projections of our imagining.

Whenever I am showing a friend to the Effortless Way in the Power of Awareness (Neville Goddard, the Power of Awareness), I love to start with the remarks, ‘Notice that it reads, “The Effortless Way”. This tells us that there are many ways you could attempt, but there is only one way that is effortless. Ultimately, only this one way really works!’ Then I add examples of the many other ways which personally I have tried a couple of them in the past, and some of us being honest with ourselves, we’ll agree we’ve tried them or are still trying them. ‘You know, there is the manipulative way, and there are books written about how to manipulate people. There is the hard work way, and many books are written, many videos are released on how to be hardworking. There is the disappointment and heartbreak way, where you either disappoint or are disappointed. And there are sympathy books that advise people on how to manage with disappointment, or how to give it skilfully. If you would like to try achieving your goals with these ways or any other way possible, please let’s end the discussion right here. You may still have time to try various methods, theories and philosophies while you stall the fulfilment of your objectives and life. But if you’re tired of stalling your goals and tired of trying out these various ways, then forget about them and focus on the Effortless Way.’ Then I start with the chapter.

This remark is very important for us to remember. And it is such a personal remark from me. I believe that what prompted me to start the search for a better way was a personal discovery I made in my research. It was in economic philosophy and theory and I was focused on just human desire. At a point in my studies, I discovered that things could always be done in a better way. Ever more in a better way, and that explains growth. I didn’t take the lesson to be spiritual (in fact, I didn’t complete the research then because I didn’t understand that IMAGINING IS THE EFFORTLESS ACT that could make the wish fulfilled). But it did inspire me to embrace the idea that abundance, not scarcity, is the principle of life, that hard work isn’t the only way and that there is a better way. Well, I found it. I found this to be the better way. And it is persistent assumption. Even the failures will be overcome by persistent assumption.

Well, if I use it once and it works. And I use it the second time so that it works. When I fail, I know that It Works, and failure is from my ineffective use. Then I encourage myself that I must be persistent, not efforting. To apply efforts is to assume that the wish is unfulfilled. In other words, my failure is only the law working in the favour of my assumption of failure. That is a great paradox. People call it different names. In philosophy, it is called the self-fulfilling prophecy. In my field of economics, they call it the paradox of thrift. It is a great paradox that when I FAILED to objectify my desires, the law of assumption has SUCCESSFULLY objectified my assumption of lack/failure. So, I actually succeed, but not in the way that I want. Why? Because I fell out of harmony with the effortless way. I thought it must come by efforts. Personally, by my early learning of the word persistence, it only meant trying harder and harder. All I ever knew consciously to achieve a goal was hard work. So, if I were to persist, I would work harder and longer. But Persistence is Loyalty, it is not effort. Could I tell from experience? Well, here’s a story that actually happened.

It was in this year that I remember what happened between me and a friend roughly a year ago. Now, he is rising to continental fame in the industry of entertainment. During that time last year, he was hosting the launch of a movie. He had done all that was required of him to make it a success by rational thinking. During the eleventh hour, the celebrities whom he’d invited to crown the event were turning him down. He posted a sighful remark on his timeline if ever this was going to be a success. I’d followed all the news and rejoiced with him. So, when I saw that he suddenly turned sad, I asked him for updates and he shared the expected disappointment. Unconsciously and because I wanted to encourage him positively, I assumed that the celebrities came and it was a success. For two or three different times between then and the actual event when we chatted, I unintentionally imagined that it was such a success with the celebrities and all the wonderful people that attended. Did you know that after the event, he shared a video with me of how it went? And I never saw the video until this last month of March. But when I saw it, I saw that the celebrities came and the event was a success. Now, he’s becoming a star director in the Nollywood industry. That is persistent assumption. Though I did it unconsciously, doing it because I wanted to encourage him that it was already a success, it still happened.

I was loyal to the reality that was not seen by others. His evidence from the celebrities indicated otherwise. To my conscious reasoning mind, I would have tried all the efforts I knew, all efforts ranging from trying to manipulate them to working hard to impress them and get them to come around. That’s what I would have done at the time, because I was yet to accept totally that consciousness is the one and only reality. I’ve heard it, but not always worked with it. And maybe you’ve heard it too, but you keep on thinking, ‘But if I could add this and that to my imagining, then it will happen.’ Maybe you’re even tricking yourself in efforts by thinking, ‘If I stop doing this and that, maybe it will happen.’ So, we could really be making efforts to do or not to do. Either ways, are we loyal to the one reality where your wish is fulfilled?

No one sees it. You know your desire, and you know the imaginal act that would imply your wish is fulfilled. You want to be rich, but the experience of poverty shows up in your world. Now, is there a reality where you are truly rich? Yes, your experiences deny it. They already have; so, you don’t need to consider their evidence again. Only ask, is there such a reality? Would you then see this reality where you are rich? And live in it within your imagination? Would you then remain loyal to it? That is, would you be totally convinced that it is really true that you are now a rich person? This does not take efforts, you know. If you were raised like me, you’d think persistence requires effort. But on the contrary, it is more and more loyalty to the unseen reality in spite of evidence to the contrary.

So, I tell you today that persistence isn’t effort. Persistence is more and more feeling of the wish fulfilled, not more and more effort. Well, I hope you’ll accept it to try. Try it. I did it unintentionally, but you can do it knowingly. You can become a master at it. And this will eliminate your failure to objectify your desires more and more. Do you want to assume for yourself? Or for a friend? Assume that you are now what you want to be, or they are what they want to be. And persist in the assumption. You simply hear the good news. No matter what people say, you only hear the good news. People will say all sort of things. But if you were to live by relying on your senses, you could not live. All the conversations going on in the world right now, and if you were to trust the evidence of your ears, then you would be obligated to hear all the conversations in the White House, in your extended family and among your employees/employers. You would have to hear the conversations of everyone on the same bus with you before you could take a step. If a person wants to live by that evidence, let them go out and get all the evidence there is to fetch. So, you cannot live by the evidence of your senses anyway. Always incomplete! Facts are forever incomplete and forever changing.

So, people will say their mockery for this person or say their sympathy for that person. They may be expressing what they think is their honest views about you, and they are expressing ridicule for your current position in life. But you can lift yourself up; and you can lift anyone in this world. How? By persistent assumption. They will say mockery or ridicule, but you will hear praise and congratulations. You can hear it. No person has ever been able to control what you can assume you hear. No person has ever been able to control what you assume you see. When you hear it or see it for yourself or another, will you persist in it? If something shows up tonight that reminds you of this wish, will you be loyal to what you have assumed that you actually heard or saw?

That reality is existent. Only your loyalty to it brings it to experience. Will you be loyal now to your wish fulfilled?