If, in our solitude, we experience in our imagination what we would experience in reality had we achieved our goal, we will in time, become transformed into the image of our ideal. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind . . put on the new man . . speak every man truth with his neighbor.” The process of making a “Fact of being a fact of consciousness” is by the “renewing of our mind.” We are told to change our thinking. But we can’t change our thought unless we change our ideas. Our thoughts are the natural outpouring of our ideas, and our innermost ideas are the man himself. The end of longing is always to be . . not to do. Be still and know “I AM that which I desire.” Strive always after being. External reforms are useless if your heart is not reformed. Heaven is entered not by curbing our passions; but rather, by cultivating our virtues. An old idea is not fickly forgotten, it is crowded out by new ideas. It disappears when a wholly new and absorbing idea occupies our attention. Old habits of thinking and feeling . . like dead oak leaves . . hang on till they are pushed off by new ones.
In the Heart of man’s being, where he is one with the Father, the Father says, “I AM that power, substance and intelligence which is the fulfillment of your every desire.” In Soul, the question is asked, ”What do you desire?” In Mind, it is required, “Believe ye have that which ye desire.” In Expression, it is promised, “And ye shall have the fulfillment of your desire.” As has been before stated, this is a creative law, the law of bringing forth, and in operation is exactly the same as that used upon the physical plane when father and mother conceive a child, the body of which is given form within the matrix of the mother, and in fullness of time is brought to birth. Even so the Spirit (father) and Soul (mother) conceive what is to be brought forth, and this seed idea is held within the matrix of the soul, the mind, until in fullness of time it is produced in form, or delivered upon the physical plane.
It is now easy to see that your desire in the without must through “the silence,” or in prayer be carried to the inner sanctuary of the soul (“thy closet”) and there placed as a definite request before the Father . . the I AM. This is “asking.” The Spirit asks, ”What shall I do for thee?” You answer by naming your desire . . by asking.
Lifted to the spiritual plane, your request is there quickened by the Spirit and becomes a conception in your soul. Now it is a conceived idea, . . a seed planted in the soil of your soul. As any other seed, it will germinate, develop first in the invisible, and in “fullness of time” come forth.
The mind, conscious of this, expects the fulfillment, as does a mother her child, or a farmer his harvest. This is “believing.” It is “holding in mind” the form of the perfected expression. The mother believes she has her child, even when it is being formed in the invisible. The farmer believes he has his harvest, even while it is growing beneath the soil. We must “believe we have” our demonstration while it is being formed for us in the inner realms of consciousness, for it is “believing we have” that holds definitely in mind the form of our desire, and gives it the desired form. When we believe we have, seeing in faith, “the invisible,” we have.
In fullness of time, this thought form is delivered upon the physical plane. As a mother’s birth effort delivers her child, so you through physical effort perfect your demonstration. It requires strength to speak and act in a way that is true to the conception, and to carry out the idea held in mind. The idea of health and the thought form of health must not be denied by the action of sickness or by resorting to external means to try to get well. The thought form is perfect health now.
If the soul conception is abundance, the action must carry out that idea. The spirit of the action must conform to the image. Until abundance manifests the amount of expenditure need not be increased, but the spirit of the mind must be one of richness, and what is spent must be allowed to leave the hands cheerfully and willingly in no consciousness of loss or of self-denial, but rather in the attitude of trust and thanksgiving because of the ever present supply now being made manifest. Be true. Spirit, soul, mind and body must agree to bring forth even as you have conceived, exactly “according to your faith.” “Ye shall reap in due time (the time of fulfillment) if ye faint not. “Be not faithless, but believing.’
In the 2nd chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the Lord said: “I planted you a pure seed, O Israel. How did you become degenerate?” I will tell you how! By going after foreign gods; by worshipping the gods of astrology, numerology, wealth, or so-called important people. By believing in things on the outside and seeing other causes for the phenomena of your life and not the only cause, who is God, your own wonderful human imagination, whose name is I AM! One day you will awaken to discover that you are the one and only God. But you aren’t going to rob anyone, for it takes all your brothers, together, to form the one pyramid, and when this is accomplished the top stone will be put in place.
So tonight I ask you to exercise your own wonderful human imagination. Since your friends are only yourself out pictured, put them in a glorious light. Don’t justify their actions by saying: “It serves them right”, because all things exist in you. There is no one out there, but all in you! So if you fail a thousand times, saying: “How often Lord must I forgive my brother who sinned against me?” the answer will come: “Seventy times seven.” May I tell you: you can’t say “sin” in any other way than as recorded in the 51st Psalm, the 4th verse: “Against thee, O Lord, thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight; therefore thy justification is in order.”
Who is this being in whom I have sinned? His name is I AM! How have I sinned against thee and thee only? By seeing someone in my world that is in need and allowing them to remain there, for I cannot sin against another as I am the one seeing it. So I must change and represent him to myself as someone I desire to see. And I must persist in that belief until he conforms to the image I have created. That is what you are called upon to do, for you were made subject unto vanity and live alone in your world, so if you desire it to change, you alone must change it and live in the state of the desired change. I know this from experience, because the night that I was lifted up to the state of perfection I came upon this infinite sea of human imperfection, and as I glided by all were made perfect in harmony with that state to which I was lifted. So you must lift yourself to the state you desire your world to reflect, because everything in it is yourself made visible. The whole vast world is projecting God, and God’s name is I AM! Believe my visions, for they have never betrayed me. I may betray my vision by not accepting its message, but when I was lifted up I was shown that everyone I encounter is myself. And when I represent that seeming other to myself as I would like him to be, to the degree I persist in that assumption, he conforms to that state.
There is a sense of being aroused by the assertion “I AM”, which, when exercised, gives one a feeling of conscious power. At first this is felt more sensibly if the eyes are closed and the whole mind is concentrated on the assertion of being, in the use of the words, “I AM”. Persistent affirmation of positive states of mind polarizes, or draws to a center, the nebulous thought elements of mind, so that one gains a personal grasp of one’s self and feels positively powerful to be and do and overcome. Practiced in the, morning for a while, it gives one a sense of poise that remains all through the day. In my own nature, personal consciousness was evolved from a state of subjective vagueness to a state of objective power through methods of mental assertiveness. The development of positiveness will give life, virility, and enduring quality to all your physical and mental work. “Nothing is at last sacred,” says Emerson, “but the integrity of your own mind.”
Word, thought, idea and Spirit-power bear exactly the same relation to each other that the key, hammer, string and vibration bear to each other in a piano. The vibration, or power within the string is released as sound to the ear only as the key in connection with it is struck. The key C moves the hammer C which touches the string C and releases the vibration C. In no other way can that particular tone be brought forth. If we want the tone C, we must be particular to strike the key C. In the same way, the word health moves the thought health, and awakens the idea health until the vibration or feeling of health is released in consciousness. It is for this reason that the weak are told to say “I AM strong.” Strength is what the weak wish to experience, therefore they must say it and think it and in exact fulfillment of the law of faith they will feel it, but they will not do so as long as they persist in saying “weak.”
These true words, or words declaring the truth of Being, are the “keys of the kingdom” to which Jesus referred when he told Peter, the man of faith, that they would be given to him. They are given to every faithful soul who will lift the consciousness above the testimony of the senses, or the opinions of others, and voice the Truth from the prompting of the Spirit within. In no other way can the “church” of Christ which is the “temple of the body” be built, for it must be formed from within, but can be only as the word which calls it forth is spoken from without. The kingdom of heaven is within, and the keys which unlock this kingdom to the consciousness of man are the good words or words of God which we speak. We must speak the words that are true of Being, then will the true become manifest, and the false will pass away.
Often we miss the fruit of faith because we have not continued in faith, or awaited the fulfillment of faith. No farmer would plant his grain and not await his harvest. Instead he would make preparation for his harvest. He would plant his seed believing that he would receive. Even so a mother who has conceived a child trusts that interior growth which takes place and which is hid from her view, and prepares for the birth of the child, believing she has received. So, when we speak the word of Truth which is the seed of the ideal we wish to see manifest, we must believe we have, and with no doubt in the mind, trust that first growth which always takes place within, hid from view. Fear, doubt and uncertainty prevent the perfect “holding in mind” of the thing desired, and until it is established, or made firm, in mind it cannot take form in the external.
Just as a seed must be established in the earth before it will start to grow, so must an idea be established in mind before it will begin to express. A wavering mind is not established, and James tells us that in this consciousness we can never hope to receive from the Lord or from the outworking of the law. “Let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord'”
Therefore be firm in speaking the word of truth for healing. Affirm that which is true in Being by speaking the true word which will unlock the inner kingdom of reality and establish its ideas in experience. When the word for the true condition has been spoken, claim the effect of that word, and be unmoved by any appearance to the contrary. From the moment the word of Truth is spoken, claim its full fruition, believing that you have received, and act in perfect accord with that belief. Action must carry out the spirit of the mind, . . not contradict it. It is this that builds the house, or establishes the body, so that nothing from without can affect it. From the moment you speak the word “health,” hold it in mind, and act as though health is already received for in this way is the law of faith fulfilled.
Regardless of every appearance, claim that health is yours from the moment you ask the Father within to manifest as health, for the Father within, or this Infinite Power in the Heaven within, can no more avoid responding than the sound within the piano can help coming forth when the key is struck. For this reason it is written, “If you ask for bread, will he give you a stone?” He cannot give you a stone, for it is the nature of the Father to give you that for which you ask. “Ask and you shall receive, for everyone that asketh, receiveth.”
All Quotes from David Allen’s The Power of I AM Volume 3 Are Attributed to…
Benjamin Johnson, Charles Fillmore, Charles Haanel, Christian Larson, Edna Lister, Emmet Fox, Ernest Holmes, Eugene Del Mar, Fenwicke L. Holmes, Florence Gloria Crawford. Frances Larimer Warner, Franklin Fillmore Farrington, H. Emilie Cady, Helen Wilmans, Henry Harrison Brown, Jane Woodard, Joseph Murphy, Nancy McKay Gordon, Neville Goddard, Orison Swett Marden, Robert A. Russell, Walter C Lanyon, William Walker Atkinson / Yogi Ramacharaka