Spiritual man is I AM; manifest man is I will. I AM is the Jehovah God of Scripture, and I will is the Adam. It is the I AM man that forms and breathes into the I will man the “breath of life.” When we are in the realm of the ideal, we are I AM; when we are expressing ideals in thought or in act, we are I will. When the I will gets so absorbed in its realm of expression that it loses sight of the ideal and centers all its attention in the manifest, it is Adam listening to the serpent and hiding from Jehovah God. This breaks the connection between Spirit and manifestation, and man loses that spiritual consciousness which is his under divine law. In this state of mind the real source of supply is cut off, and there is a drawing upon the reserve forces of the organism, the tree of life. It is in this experience that man is described as being driven out of the Garden of Eden, or the paradise of Being.
The priesthoods of the ancient world, and some of the modern ones too, have tried to keep the masses in darkness about the nature and character of God. It has been their aim to make people lean on an organization, while knowledge of the nature of God might make them too independent. Thus the name of God was kept secret because they have felt that spiritual power was summed up in the name of God, I AM That I AM.
Consciousness is the result of the I AM expressing life, thought and being, and therefore consciousness acts on a certain plane, or in a certain part, so long as the I AM gives expression to itself upon that plane, or in that part. Consciousness is always active. An inactive consciousness is as impossible as a dark ray of light. When anything is conscious, it must do something, and it continues to do something, either objectively or subjectively, so long as conscious existence continues.
Consciousness is the way or door through which things appear. He said, “I AM the way” . . not ‘I’, John Smith, am the way, but “I AM”, the awareness of being, is the way through which the thing shall come. The signs always follow. They never precede. Things have no reality other than in consciousness. Therefore, get the consciousness first and the thing is compelled to appear.
Instead of sympathizing with the beggars of life at the temple’s gate, he declared, “Silver and gold have I none (for thee), but such as I have (the consciousness of freedom), give I unto thee”. “Stir up the gift within you” [“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee”. Stop begging and claim yourself to be that which you decide to be. Do this and you too will jump from your crippled world into the world of freedom, singing praises to the Lord, I AM. “Far greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” [“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world”. This is the cry of everyone who finds his awareness of being to be God. Your recognition of this fact will automatically cleanse the temple, your consciousness, of the thieves and robbers, restoring to you that dominion over things, which you lost the moment you forgot the command, “Thou shalt have no other God beside ME”.
When man wills, he attempts to make something which does not now exist appear in time and space. Too often we are not aware of that which we are really doing. We unconsciously state that we do not possess the capacities to express. We predicate our desire upon the hope of acquiring the necessary capacities in future time. “I AM not, but I will be”. Man does not realize that consciousness is the Father which does the work, so he attempts to express that which he is not conscious of being. Such struggles are doomed to failure; only the present expresses itself. Unless I AM conscious of being that which I seek, I will not find it. God (your awareness, I AM) is the substance and fullness of all. God’s will is the recognition of that which is, not of that which will be. Instead of seeing this saying as “Thine will be done”, see it as “Thy will is done”. The works are finished. The principle by which all things are made visible is eternal.
I AM the lost word which is hidden within your consciousness, which IS your consciousness veiled over by a mystification of human senses. In judging from appearances you have lost true values, and have accepted shadows as realities. I AM the lost word, the Word before which the doors of the universe fly open . . doors in the impassible walls of human obstacles; doors that lead out on highways never charted by the human sense because of its limitations. Doors that belong to the palaces of the kings, fly open at my coming, and the riches of that which is Caesar’s are laid before me . . to take and do with as I like.
When a sculptor looks at a formless piece of marble he sees, buried within its formless mass, his finished piece of art. The sculptor, instead of making his masterpiece, merely reveals it by removing that part of the marble which hides his conception. The same applies to you. In your formless awareness lies buried all that you will ever conceive yourself to be. The recognition of this truth will transform you from an unskilled laborer who tries to make it so to a great artist who recognizes it to be so. Your claim that you are now that which you want to be will remove the veil of human darkness and reveal your claim perfectly; I AM That. God’s will was expressed in the words of the Widow, “It is well”. Man’s will would have been, “It will be well”. To state, “I shall be well”, is to say, “I AM ill”. God, the Eternal Now, is not mocked by words or vain repetition. God continually personifies that which is. Thus, the resignation of Jesus (who made Himself equal with God) was turning from the recognition of lack (which the future indicates with “I shall be”) to the recognition of supply by claiming, “I AM That; it is done; thank You, Father”.
All the quotes in The Power of I AM are credited
to the following authors.
Neville Goddard, Joseph Murphy, Walter C. Lanyon, Walter Devoe, Lillian DeWaters, Emmet Fox, Ella Wheeler, Christian D Larson, Edna Lister, Thomas Troward