There is a universal will that operates twenty-four hours a day that is FOR you, and a will that operates twenty-four hours a day that is AGAINST you. You’re familiar with the will that works against you. It’s that will that drags you into internally and externally unprofitable, self-punishing moments. The will that works for you is that which forever says, “Look up. See that there is more to your life than what you presently embrace and that’s causing you this pain.” Put even more simply, the will that wants to raise you up is the will that makes it clear to you that there’s another will that’s trying to pull you down. Were it not for that elevating will, you would never recognize the harmful one.

Please make the following substitution in your mind so that you have a clear picture of what your new mind and new eyes can show you.  If something is either for you or against you, isn’t that the same as saying that something is either trying to pull you up or pull you down? I want you to see clearly that the two words “for” and “against” are connected to directions of the operation of a will.

If indeed it is true that there is a will that is trying to pull you down as well as a will that is trying to pull you up, how do either of these wills come to have power over you? How do they take hold of you to either pull you down or to help you up and out?

The fact is that you do have free will — in a sense. The free will you have is in the choice you make to align yourself with either the will that is ascending or the will that is descending. From now on I want you to picture a hand reaching from below to pull you down, and another hand reaching from above to pull you up. At any moment (even now while you’re reading this), your hand is either in the hand of the will that is ascending, or it’s in the hand of the will that is descending — and it’s your choice. Don’t fall for the lie that says, “No, it’s not my choice because I have to get depressed, I have to get angry, I have to get frightened.” No, you don’t. It’s the voice of deception that accompanies the hand from below that insists you have no choice. In fact, you always have the choice.

Unfortunately, in the initial discovery — and misunderstanding — of these two wills, some men and women fall away from their inner work. It happens when, of necessity, individuals begin to feel the strain of two things pulling on them at once. It’s extremely necessary for this to happen. Why? Because, if you don’t feel two things pulling on you at once, it means that only one thing is pulling at you. And if you’re not already living in a higher place, what do you suppose that one thing is? It’s the descending hand.

I receive countless letters, phone calls, and e-mails from students who declare “Since I started studying your ideas my life has just fallen to pieces — everything is worse! I don’t understand. Why is it this way?” Then they understand even less when say to them “Congratulations. That’s a great sign.” Their shock turns to comprehension when I tell them “It’s great because now at least you know there is another direction. Before you followed the descending hand without question. Now you know it’s possible to go up, which makes you all the more aware of the pain in going down.”

Whether you see it or not (and the purpose of your studies is to give you the eyes to see), this world is in the hands of the hand that is coming from beneath the earth. Just think of all the acts of will that are occurring as they never have occurred before on this planet where young children and adults commit unbelievable acts and then say, “I have no idea what came over me.” I’m telling you what came over them. Through years of abuse by a planet filled with people who don’t care, and through years of refusing the tiny moments when their Father did place His hand in theirs, they have reached the point where they can’t recognize the difference between the hand that wants to pull them down, and the hand that wants to lift them up. And once you come to the point where you can no longer tell the difference — you’re a goner.

But to know the difference costs something, doesn’t it? It means we have to work, when we would really prefer not to be bothered. We want to feel pleasure with no disturbance. But that’s spiritual and psychological sleep. Christ said, “Watch. Watch. Watch,” meaning, “Be awake. Be awake. Be awake.” When he cautioned people to “be awake” he was telling them to see whose hand they were holding. Your Father’s hand not only doesn’t let you go to sleep, but it lifts you. The hand from beneath not only puts you to sleep faster and faster, but it puts you to sleep so fast that one day you won’t even know that your hand was held fast in that descending hand. That’s the truth. Work, work, work. Stay awake, regardless of what it seems to cost you. Remember to do this exercise: Come awake every moment and ask yourself “In whose hand is mine?” When you’re driving your car or sitting in a business meeting ask yourself “In whose hand is mine?” The moment you become aware of yourself and ask the question you will know which spirit just possessed you.

Now, here’s the problem: There are parts of our own nature that don’t want to ask the question — that don’t want to know whose hand we’re in! Are you aware of this defensive spirit in yourself? “I don’t particularly want to know right now whose hand I’m in because I would prefer to believe in what it’s telling me — that what I’m doing is good.” It’s not good!

Just do your spiritual work and leave the battle up to your Heavenly Father. Leave the battle up to Christ — to Reality — to Truth. Leave the battle up to the Light and I promise you the fight will be a right fight and you’ll come out on the right side of it — guaranteed.   ###

Based on a classroom talk by Guy Finley.