Events and experiences are living things too, and they also seek and follow after their food. The food of events is thought. Your habitual thoughts nourish your conditions and cause them to increase and multiply. Fear thoughts, gloomy and critical thoughts, selfish thoughts, are the food of unhappiness, sickness, and failure. When you supply this food in abundance these things come into your life . . because they seek their food. Thoughts of God, thoughts of kindness, of optimism, and good will, are the food of health, joy, and success; and if you furnish a bountiful supply of this food you will attract these things instead. When you want to get some condition out of your life, starve it out by refusing to furnish any of the food upon which it thrives, and you will be surprised how rapidly it will leave you. It will go away in a hurry somewhere else, where its food is obtainable. “I AM the bread of life.”
The great I AM is not far away from man. Spirit is closely connected with the little things of daily life. “The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” This means that the mighty One is with us in all ways. We are all in touch, heart with heart, and a real sympathy makes us one. In reality we all love the simple life. The pomp and parade and pageantry of the external world do not satisfy the soul. It is the small things that touch the heart and appeal to us.
In Mental Science, the great principle laid down is this: Man is conjoined to the Eternal Life Principle. He is that Principle . . its very self in objectivity . . and in proportion as he becomes intellectually conscious of this tremendous truth, he finds an unfailing supply to all his needs, and grows more into a knowledge of his own mastery. We are manifestations of the unchanging Life Principle; of the Universal Spirit of Being; the inextinguishable I AM. It is the soul to nature . . the body. It is internal man. Man is the external of it. And the seeming two are one. This Law, or Principle, is man in subjectivity. Visible man is the Law, or Principle, in objectivity.
In the Silence, we manifest in our consciousness the Spirit of God. Through our positive and constructive thinking, the individual mind becomes one with the Absolute Universal Mind, making perfect realization possible. As we turn away from the world of the senses, we enter the Within, the Source of all things. God is unity; man is diversity. United, they manifest harmony, the true expression of the Silence. The soul is the constant expression of the I AM. It is the same whether Universal or individual. Heaven and harmony mean the same thing; when we work and think in harmony, all our action is constructive.
Begin now to hear the soft tread of the unseen guest of your heart, your desire. Open your mind and heart and let in your heart’s desire. Welcome it! Say, “This is from God (I AM), a message of inspiration, and new life.” This is God (I AM) letting you accept your good enthusiastically and lovingly. The embodiment of your inner urges will take place in response to such faith and devotion on your part.
Do not be concerned with the horrors of the world; simply remember that all is ordered and correct. Instead, fall in love with the I AM within you and change your world. God made it as it is now and he can change it, for your husband is a creator. Everything in your world can be traced back to your own wonderful human imagination, who is God (I AM). Fall in love with the state you now desire to occupy and to the degree that you are self-persuaded, you will enter it. Don’t believe in anyone outside of your own wonderful human imagination! Every coin is inscribed with the statement: “In God we trust” yet I wonder how many trust in God . . and not the coin! If you really believe in God (I AM), you can be penniless, yet walk in the assumption of wealth and be wealthy. Learn to trust your own wonderful human imagination, for he is the only God. Do that and you will never go wrong!
It is well to remember that the enlightened in every age have taught that back of all things there is One Unseen Cause: In studying the teachings of the great thinkers we find that a common thread runs through all–the thread of Unity. There is no record of any deep thinker, of any age, who taught duality. One of the great teachings of Moses was, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord”; and the saying, “I AM that I AM,” was old when Moses was yet unborn; for it had been inscribed over the temple entrances for generations. We may go back much farther than Moses and find the same teaching, for it crops out from the literatures and sayings of the wise of all ages. Jesus taught this when He said, “I and the Father are One,” and in the saying, “The Father that dwelleth in me.” This teaching of Unity is the chief cornerstone of the Sacred Scriptures of the East as well as of our own Sacred Writings. It is today the mainspring of the teachings of the modern philosophies, such as Christian Science, Divine Science, The Unity Teachings, The New Thought Movement, The Occult Teachings, The Esoteric or Inner Teachings, and even of much that is taught under the name of Psychology. Without this basic teaching of Unity these movements would have but little to offer. Science has found nothing to contradict this teaching, and it never will, for the teaching is self-evident.
Who are you but that unknown power of the Eternal whom no man hath seen or comprehended fully? You are that One coming to consciousness, awakening to the realization of yourself, and just beginning to know and feel that the power of the Almighty is yours to manifest for the good of all. You are growing to Godhood through exerting the power that is inherently yours. The Being of God is your Being, the foundation for all that you are, and God is glorified in glorifying you. Who else shall he glorify but Himself made manifest? Awake! Arise! Proclaim your own Being the King of your nature and of your world. Assert your I AM in the quality of divine love and you will add a positive pole to your mental battery that will make you a mighty magnet, holding subject to your will all the less developed and negative forces of your nature. You can realize by constant practice that your will is the focal point for the mighty energies of God.
The name Jehovah-jireh means “Jehovah will see,” “Jehovah will behold,” “Jehovah will provide.” It signifies “I AM the provider.” If we expect to demonstrate prosperity from without, we find it a slow process; but if we know that the I AM is the provider, we have the key to the inexhaustible resource.
When we speak of the Universal Mind, we mean the Omnipresent Consciousness of God, the One Mind which inheres in all things, whose activity is Universal. Omnipresence completely fills the Universe. Everything is filled with the Principle of Life. Since His consciousness is our consciousness, we lack nothing. Mind is everywhere; there is no place where God is not. Man is a conscious, willing, thinking, knowing center of the Universal Mind of God. The I AM reacts to him according to the sum total of his beliefs. Man is Universal on the subjective side of life, and individual at the point of conscious perception. The individual uses the creative power of the Universal Mind every time he uses his own mind. Mind is everywhere, in everything and through everything: everything can respond to our thought. Jesus revealed this Truth when He spoke to the fig tree, saying, Bear no more fruit, henceforth; when He spoke to the winds and commanded them to be peaceful. When a unity has been established between the individual and the Universal I AM, Mind Substance can be directed into any channel. The Universal Mind is always impersonal. It never decides who shall use it. It becomes personal only as It expresses through us. It doesn’t matter who we are, or what we are. The sun shines on the good and the evil, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. God is accessible and responsive to all. Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. The Law is exact. Thoughts are things, and things are thoughts. Cast your thought into the Universal Mind, and in due time it will return as form.
The feet symbolize our understanding. When we die to our false beliefs and superstitions, we are ready to believe that the God-Presence (I AM) is none other than our consciousness or awareness. Our consciousness is without face, form, or figure. It is the Invisible, Formless Power within us, taking form according to our thought and feeling. Here in your world of the mind or consciousness, you are the Christ or King of your world. Your robe as a king is the garment or mood of love. The crown you wear is the awareness of the Power of God (I AM). The scepter you hold is your authority to use this Power to bless, heal, and inspire.
The I AM affirmation or suggestion is one of tremendous power. In the realization of Oneness with the Infinite, one may affirm with conviction “I AM” . . whatever is affirmative and constructive, whatever is representative of Truth or Principle, whatever is of the quality or attribute of the Infinite. That one does not at the time manifest the ideal that is affirmed is not inconsistent with the statement, while one’s absorption of the ideal tends to transmute it from the realm of Being to that of physical form.
To develop individuality, the first essential is to give the “I AM” its true and lofty position in your mind. The “I AM” is the very center of individuality, and the more fully conscious you become of the “I AM” the more of the power that is in the “I AM” you arouse, and it is the arousing of this power that makes individuality positive and strong. Another essential is to practice the idea of feeling or conceiving yourself as occupying the masterful attitude. Whenever you think of yourself, think of yourself as being and living and acting in the masterful attitude. Then in addition, make every desire positive, make every feeling positive, make every thought positive, and make every action of mind positive.
“Now do I have that serene consciousness that is sure of the fact that thought controls substance and passes it out into form. Now do I feel, deep within my being, that the things I desire shall come to pass. I not only know that these things can be but that they will be. I am conscious of the fact that I and the Father are one. He is creative; I AM creative: He is changeless substance; I AM changeless substance: He is eternal; I AM eternal: He is perfect; I AM perfect: He is complete; I AM complete. As He creates by thinking, so do I. I am conscious of myself as self directing. I have faith; I believe in the power of my own word to bring things forth out of the invisible.”
The entire 15th chapter of the Book of John is devoted to this pruning of the vine. He starts off: “I AM the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” The tree in your garden may be lovely to look at and it may pain you to cut a certain branch, but you know you must do it if you want good fruit next year. That is life. Consciousness (the I AM) is the eternal vine. Your eternal body is the Imagination, which is God himself. We are all members of the divine body . . Jesus; therefore humanity is truly the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every child is part of that universal body; and when he knows that Jesus Christ (I AM) is his own wonderful human imagination, he is confused for the moment, until the realization rearranges itself within him. Then he takes himself in hand, determined to do something about it. I tell you from experience, if you will take yourself in hand and really believe in Christ (I AM) in you to the point that you will turn to no other causation, but will prune your thoughts morning, noon, and night, your world will change. It will mold itself in harmony with the change which has taken place in you, for your outer world is forever reflecting your inner, imaginal acts.
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