When people first hear the phrase “Ask, believe, receive,” it can sound like a spiritual vending machine. But this principle, highlighted again and again by Jesus in the Gospels, is not about making requests to a distant God—it’s about an inner relationship: the sacred interplay of desire, imagination, and feeling. It's significant that it's a phrase spoken of in all four gospels:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
— Matthew 7:7
“And whatever you ask for in prayer, if you have faith, you will receive it.”
— Matthew 21:22
“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
— Mark 11:24
"And I say to you: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”— Luke 11:9
“Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
— John 16:24
These verses are not instructions to beg, but invitations to assume. Neville Goddard taught that these teachings reveal not a system of petition, but a law of consciousness. When read symbolically, the Gospels unfold like the inner anatomy of prayer—a guide to the imaginal act.
Neville understood this deeply. To him, the Bible was a psychological guidebook dressed up in history. And hidden within its earliest stories is the very mechanism behind “Ask, believe, receive.” In fact, the original catalyst for all biblical creation lies in this verse:
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
— Genesis 2:24
The Inner Marriage of Desire and Feeling
Read symbolically, this is not a statement about human marriage—it is a formula for manifestation:
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Leaving father and mother = turning away from outer evidence, inherited beliefs, and old conditioning.
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Cleave to his wife = uniting with the subconscious through feeling and imagination.
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Becoming one flesh = manifestation—what is felt within is externalised without.
Neville says, “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, and then you believe it to be true.” This is the deeper essence of Ask, believe, receive.
This inner union is portrayed most tenderly in the Song of Solomon—a book often misunderstood or overlooked, yet rich in spiritual symbolism. The lover's longing in the Song is not for a physical romance, but a mystical cleaving to love itself. It is the soul reaching for the Beloved—unashamed, exposed, persistent.
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.”
— Song of Solomon 1:2
Here, desire is elevated to devotion, and the seeking is not desperate, but worshipful. This is what it means to ask: to reach inward with reverence and emotional depth.
Ask: The Act of Reaching for the Delightful
To ask is not to plead. It is to form a desire, to reach in thought for what delights you. Yet here lies the struggle: the human mind, if untended, often returns to self-doubt, guilt, or unworthiness. It is bogged down by what Neville calls the “outer man”—a self-image shaped by facts and failures.
So the true asking begins when you choose to reach upward in consciousness. You dare to say, “I AM worthy of joy,” even if nothing in your outer world confirms it. Asking is an act of rebellion against self-depreciation. It is the planting of a seed—not in desperation, but in delight.
“Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live.”
— Neville Goddard, Your Faith is Your Fortune
The Song of Solomon echoes this upward stretch of the soul. The beloved asks not with timidity, but with fervour—because love is her right. She delights in her beloved, and in turn, becomes delightful.
Believe: Cleaving to the Inner State
Believing is not hoping. It is assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled, as though it were already so. In the Genesis verse, this is the cleaving—the deep union with your inner conviction.
This is where most people falter. They ask, but they do not remain faithful to the desire. They return to old doubts, old states. But belief means cleaving to the delightful thought, not allowing the subconscious to be impregnated by fear.
“You rise to a higher level of being by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled.”
— Neville Goddard, Feeling is the Secret
Song of Solomon reflects this same devotion. The beloved searches through the streets in the night, asking,
“Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?”
— Song of Solomon 3:3
This is emotional fidelity—a refusal to let go of what the heart has seen within. Belief is not passive. It pursues.
Receive: The Birth of the Imagined
Once the inner union is complete—once imagination (the man) has faithfully cleaved to feeling (the wife)—the manifestation must come. “One flesh” becomes the body of your world. What is held within will be expressed without.
This is not reward, it is law. As Neville often said, “You do not attract what you want, you attract what you are.” If you are one with the state of already having it, reality conforms.
“My beloved is mine, and I am his.”
— Song of Solomon 2:16
This is the language of manifestation. Not “I hope he will love me,” but “I am his.” The inner state is claimed in certainty. Therefore, it must become flesh.
Why It Must Be Delightful
Here lies your insight: asking, believing, and receiving are only effective when your inner state is joyful, uplifting, and clear. The subconscious, like a fertile womb, responds to whatever is impressed upon it—but especially to feeling. If you dwell in fear, that too is received.
This is why the Bible continually calls for praise, rejoicing, and thanksgiving—not for moral reasons, but because these are the vibrational moods of creation.
To truly manifest, you must reach for the good—not as escapism, but as an act of spiritual fidelity.
“Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and live in that assumption as though it were true.”
— Neville Goddard
In Summary
Ask = Reach for what delights you. Desire with joy, not lack.
Believe = Marry that desire in feeling. Cleave to it with devotion.
Receive = Live from it. It will externalise.
This is not a technique. It is a transformation. The Bible gives us a pattern of inner union—from Genesis to Revelation—and Neville shows us that it always begins with the choice to dwell in the delightful.
In Song of Solomon, we find the soul in full submission to its love, asking not to be shamed but to be fulfilled. This is the emotional core of manifestation: not commanding the world to change, but wooing it inwardly with beauty, fidelity, and delight.
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