The ancients knew that the secret name of God had power. Now we do.
We do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have taught that all power is in the “I AM,” and to accept this teaching by faith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the more excellent way is to know why they taught thus, and to realize for ourselves this first great law which all the masterminds have realized throughout the ages. It is indeed true that the “lost word” is the one most familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost, not the word, but the realization of its power. And as the infinite depths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us, we begin to realize the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very power which we seek.
When a great teacher said, “Go into your closet and shut the door,” I am sure that he meant go into your mind. Take your attention off the world, off your individual world and the collective world. Begin to explore the depths. No wonder it has been said that the kingdom of heaven . . I AM . . is in man, because those depths on the inside of consciousness are the most satisfying, the most refreshing that you will ever know. They are the key to achieving your potential.
We have learned that the discovery of God has to be linked up inevitably with Self discovery, that the Universe in which we live is spiritual and not material, that there is only One Mind, to which time and space are nothing, and that this Mind of God is really our Mind. We learned, too, that there is one Substance . . the Substance of our own mind . . which is always active in the soul and ready to take form on the surface. Since the whole process through which the I AM works is one of consciousness, one must look to consciousness for everything needful in his life. Man is solely dependent upon himself . . upon his own consciousness and the power of his own Mind. He becomes masterful to the degree that he is able to harmonize his consciousness with his own divine Mind and to recognize that Mind is the Substance of all things. Mind does not become things; It is things.
When Jesus says, “I AM the Truth,” he is not referring to himself as a man, but to the Principle which he teaches. “I AM” means Pure Being, Life, Awareness, Consciousness, or The Unconditioned One. Our “I AMness” is God. “I AM all things to all men.” This Formless Awareness becomes that which man conceives It to be; this is the law of believing . . the corner stone of life which the world rejects. When we read the word, “Verily, Verily,” it means stop, look, and listen! To be born again means a spiritual rebirth . . the birth of God in man.
BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD”
To many who are not familiar with our thinking, this statement, applied to an individual, is considered blasphemous. But as we interpret it, there is a Divine creative center in each and every one of us. When we say, “Be still and know that I AM God,” we mean that I AM the potential, I AM the creativity, I AM the possibility, I AM That which shall be. I AM not that which was. People of wisdom measure themselves in terms of today and the future. But average persons measure themselves in terms of the past. Ask them to describe their lives and they describe life entirely in terms of the past. Go to a creative mind and say: “Tell me about your life.” He or she describes what they are doing right now, not what they did years ago. They talk about what they are doing now and what they are expecting to do. That’s creativity. That’s a now person in a now experience, creating something greater in the period to come. That is a person who knows he has a success mechanism and is using it. Such a person has accepted himself as he is, not as he was. You are what you are, and that is good. You can direct it. You can become more of it. You can experience its benefits. That’s what we are trying to do. We are trying definitely, with intent and purpose, to have health, to have ease, to have order, to have peace within ourselves, to have self-expression, and to have loving relationships with others. We can have all of these because all of the equipment necessary is already within us. We do not plead to a deity for what we want. We are it. We do not beseech the gates of heaven, because your next thought is the gate of heaven.
When you say, “I AM” that is God. We do not speak of God to come. God is here already . . your own I AMness . . the Eternal Now. Accept your good now; unite with your desire in consciousness. Enter into the finished state of accomplishment. Let your psychological time-clock be, “It is done!” “It is finished!” Never say, “Oh, next year business will be better.” The time the average man speaks of means his relationship to earth in its diurnal motion, and the position of the sun; it means his relationship to the events of today and tomorrow. Prolonged desire and failure to realize your heart’s desires give rise to frustration, illness, and neurosis. The ideal, the desire of your heart exists now. It is the concrete living reality in the next dimension of mind. Remember that thoughts are things. Recognize the power of your thought; it is supreme in your life. Go within now, and enter into the mental atmosphere that your prayers are answered . . your dreams are fulfilled. Accept your good now. Say from your heart, the thing I AM seeking already exists, otherwise, I could not even desire it. I accept the fulfillment of my desire completely now, and I rest in the conviction that “It is done.” “Now is the accepted time.” I accept my good now . . not in some future day. I give thanks for it now . . this moment . . and enter into the joy of the answered prayer.
Realize that it is actually God . . I AM . . Who is living in this body you call your body, Who is walking around in it, doing in it what you do, and causing your brain mind to think and your mouth to say what you think and say.
On another memorable occasion Jesus declared again that the I AM is the enduring principle of Life. It is this that is the Resurrection and the Life; not, as Martha supposed, a new principle to be infused from without at some future time, but an inherent core of vitality awaiting only its own recognition of itself to triumph over death and the grave. And yet, again hear the Master’s answer to the inquiring Thomas. How many of us, like him, desire to know the way! To hear of wonderful powers latent in man and requiring only development is beautiful and hopeful, if we could only find out the way to develop them; but who will show us the way? The answer comes with no uncertain note. The I AM includes everything. It is at once “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”: not the Life only, or the Truth only, but also the Way by which to reach them. Can words be plainer? It is by continually affirming and relying on the I AM in ourselves as identical with the I AM That is the One and Only Life, whether manifested or unmanifested, in all places of the universe, that we shall find the way to the attainment of all Truth and of all Life. Here we have the predicate which we are seeking to complete our affirmation regarding ourselves. I AM . . what? the Three things which include all things: Truth, which is all Knowledge and Wisdom; Life, which is all Power and Love; and the unfailing Way which will lead us step by step, if we follow it, to heights too sublime and environment too wide for our present juvenile imaginings to picture.
What we know about Subjective Mind proves that It is unconscious of time, knows neither time nor process. It knows only the completion, the answer. That is why it is written, “Before they call, I will answer.” Cosmic Creation is from idea to object. It does not know anything about process; process is involved in it but not consciously. Correct practice should know that ultimate right action is now, today. If we say, “Tomorrow it is going to be,” then according to the very law we are using we hold the answer in a state of FUTURITY WHICH CAN NEVER BECOME PRESENT. If a gardener holds his seed in his hand and says, “Tomorrow I AM going to plant this seed,” his garden will never start growing. Therefore, Jesus said: “When ye pray, believe that ye have and ye shall receive.” He did not say believe and you will immediately have. He said, “Ye shall receive.” He did not deny the natural law of evolution and growth. Nature operates according to a law of logical sequence.
God is consciousness and awareness and order and design and knowledge and intelligence and spirit. He is infinite. He cannot know himself as infinity, but only by becoming something finite. Thus God seeks to expand His sense of Self by becoming things, and each thing says, “I AM this.” What you believe yourself to be is what you believe God to be. The limitations and lacks you impose upon yourself you impose upon I AM. No one can possibly believe there is any limitation on I AM, thus the magnificent truth is that there is no limitation on any man.
All I AM Quotes From The Power of I AM Volume 2 are from the following Authors
Fay Adams, U. S. Andersen, Raymond Charles Barker, M. MacDonald-Bayne, Joseph Benner, Kate Atkinson Boehme, Thomas Parker Boyd, Louise Brownell, H. Emilie Cady, Robert Collier, Florence Gloria Crawford, Mrs. Dan M. Davidson, Walter Devoe, Franklin Fillmore Farrington, Charles Fillmore, Emmet Fox, John Seaman Garns, Harry Gaze, Neville Goddard, Henry Hand, Shirley Bell Hastings, Ernest Holmes, C. W. Kyle, Christian D. Larson, Elinor S. Moody, Joseph Murphy, Janeski Robenoff, Robert A. Russell, John Milton Scott, Elizabeth Towne, Thomas Troward, Helen Wilmans