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awaits demand. When he said, "Ask and you will receive" (Jn. 16:24), he was simply stating an unalterable Truth. He knew that the instant we ask or desire (for asking is desire expressed), we touch a secret spring which starts on its way toward us the good we want. He knew that there need not be any coaxing or pleading about it, that our asking is simply our complying with an unfailing law that is bound to work; there is no escape from it. Asking and receiving are the two ends of the same thing. We cannot have one without the other.

Asking springs from desire to possess some good. What is desire? Desire in the heart is always God tapping at the door of your consciousness with His infinite supply --- a supply that is forever useless unless there be demand for it. "Before they call I will answer" (Is. 65:24). Before you are ever conscious of any lack, of any desire for more happiness, or for fullness of joy, the great Father-Mother heart has desired them for you. It is He in you desiring them that you feel, and think it is only yourself (separate from Him) desiring them. With God, the desire to give and giving are one and the same thing. Someone has said, "Desire for anything is the thing itself in incipiency"; that is, the thing you desire is not only for you but has already been started toward you out of the heart of God; it is the first approach of the thing itself striking you that makes you desire it or even think of it at all.