There is only one Master and this Master is God, the I AM within themselves. “I AM the Lord thy God who led thee out of the land of darkness; out of the house of bondage”. I AM . . your awareness, is Lord and Master and besides your awareness there is neither Lord nor Master. You are Master of all that you will ever be aware of being. You know that you are, do you not? Knowing that you are is the Lord and Master of that which you know that you are. You could be completely isolated by man from that which you are conscious of being; yet you would, in spite of all human barriers, effortlessly draw to yourself all that you were conscious of being.
Your awareness . . I AM . . is the master magician who conjures all things by being that which he would conjure. This Lord and Master that you are can and does make all that you are conscious of being appear in your world.
You rise to a higher level of consciousness by taking your attention away from your present limitations and placing it upon that which you desire to be. Do not attempt this in day dreaming or wishful thinking, but in a positive manner. Claim yourself to be the thing desired. I AM That; no sacrifice, no diet, no human tricks. All that is asked of you is to accept your desire. If you dare claim it, you will express it.
I AM is that reality to which, whatever happens, we must turn for an explanation of the phenomena of life. It is I AM’s concept of itself that determines the form and scenery of its existence. Everything depends upon its attitude towards itself; that which it will not affirm as true of itself cannot awaken in its world. That is, your concept of yourself, such as “I AM strong”, “I AM secure”, “I AM loved”, determines the world in which you live.
“I AM” is the fact of existence, and to know that gives you all power. When you have to go and tackle the “Egyptians” and your heart turns to water within you, and you say to yourself, “I cannot do this,” “I am not adequate,” “There is no way,” then remember your true identity and say to the “Egyptians,” “I AM hath sent me,” and the road will open and you will surmount your difficulties. Before man can transform his world, he must first lay this foundation or understanding. “I AM the Lord and there is none else”.
Man must know that his awareness of being is God. Until this is firmly established so that no suggestion or argument of others can shake him, he will find himself returning to the slavery of his former belief. “If ye believe not that I AM He, ye shall die in your sins”. Unless man discovers that his consciousness is the cause of every expression of his life, he will continue seeking the cause of his confusion in the world of effects, and so shall die in his fruitless search.
Whatever you affix to the “I AM” and believe, you become. The “I AM” in you is God, and there is none other. “I AM” or Life, Awareness, Pure Being, Existence, or the Real Self of you is God. It is the Only Cause. It is the Only Power making anything in the world. Honor It; live with the feeling, “I AM Christ,” all day long. Christ means the Anointed One, the Awakened One, the Illumined One. Feel you are this Anointed One; continue to live in that mental atmosphere; then you will draw out the Christ (Wisdom, Power, and Intelligence of God) within you, and your whole world will be transformed by that Inner Light shining in your mind. Every time you feel, “I AM the Christ”; “I AM illumined”; “I AM inspired”; you are praying and qualifying your consciousness with the thing you are praying about, and with the thoughts you are thinking.
I came that ye might have Life and that ye might have it more abundantly . . I AM the truth, the LIFE, etc. . “come unto ME” . . blending with this permanent identity will finally defeat the “last enemy” . . and then shall we enter into a plane of manifestation and be freed from the coming and going of this lovely truth.
It is the greatest Affirmation the New Emancipation puts on our tongue. I AM Love directed to my chosen end by thought. The stanza which we sing, “God is Love,” comes as the fulfilling of the Law. There is no longer Law for Man but Man for Law. As Sabbath and State are for Man, so Law is now for Man, and Man becomes the Law unto himself, even as God is Law unto his Universe. I AM Law! Can you climb thus high? I AM Law! Hence forth in my freedom Nature obeys me for, I AM Law. And, I AM Law, because I AM Love, for Love is the fulfilling of the Law. As soon as I recognize that I AM Love, then I become in the universe lawless, and becoming Law I live above all Law. In this connection do you recall Emerson’s most wondrous lines, “Into the fifth himself he flings, and Conscious Law is King of Kings.”
There is but one Truth, one Life, one Intelligence, one Self, one I AM, one Presence, and I AM This. I do not speak with mind. I do not create thoughts. I speak Truth. I speak the Word. I AM the fulfillment of that which I AM.
As long as you believe in a God apart from yourself, you will continue to transfer the power of your expression to your conceptions, forgetting that you are the conceiver. Do you believe that the “I AM” is able to do this? Then claim ME (yourself) to be that which you want to see poured out. Claim yourself to be that which you want to be and that you shall be. Not because of masters will I give it unto you, but, because you have recognized ME (yourself) to be that, I will give it unto you for I AM all things to all. Your belief in masters is a confession of your slavery. Only slaves have masters. Change your conception of yourself and you will, without the aid of masters or anyone else, automatically transform your world to conform to your changed conception of yourself.
We limit our prosperity by the way we identify ourselves. This self identification can be subtle such as: “I AM only….” Be aware of what you tie your “I AM” to. This is a powerful tool of calling the creative process into flow.
There are not two I AM’S, but one I AM. Whatever, therefore, I can conceive the Great Universal Life Principle to be, that I AM. Let us try fully to realize what this means. Can you conceive the Great Originating and Sustaining Life Principle of the whole universe as poor, weak, sordid, miserable, jealous, angry, anxious, uncertain, or in any other way limited? We know that this is impossible. Then because the I AM is one it is equally untrue of ourselves. Learn first to distinguish the true self that you are from the mental and physical processes which it throws forth as the instruments of its expression, and then learn that this self controls these instruments, and not vice versa. As we advance in this knowledge we know ourselves to be unlimited, and that, in the miniature world, whose center we are, we ourselves are the very same overflowing of joyous livingness that the Great Life Spirit is in the Great All. The I AM is One.
If a man tries to achieve what he wants through external means, it will forever elude him. He is a thief and a robber in the sense that he is robbing himself of the joy of manifesting his ideal, by refusing to claim and feel its reality mentally. He must have the mental equivalent first; then its manifestation follows. Our own mind or consciousness . . I AM . . is the door to all expression.
All I ask is that you who read these lessons shall try the effect upon the subconscious mind of vigorous, positive, living words. Even though you are in the midst of poverty, sickness and sorrow, affirm the opposite. Say with all the earnestness you can muster: I AM Rich, I AM Well, I AM Happy. Say it again and again, though all things conspire to give the lie to your words. If you do this faithfully, just as sure as you live the words you thus utter will fall into the subconscious mind and become there a power to work for good in all your conditions.
I AM. What is I AM? It is your true being. It is your real nature, your real self and nobody else, because no one else can say I AM for you. Only you can say I AM. That is your real identity, the Presence of God in you, the Indwelling Christ. That is you, and whatever you attach to I AM with conviction, that you are and that you have.
Jesus of Nazareth, who scattered the evil with his eye, is asleep in the imagination of every man, and out of his own imagination must man awaken him by subjectively affirming “I AM Jesus” Then and only then will he see Jesus, for man can only see what is awake in himself.
The Kabbalists tell us of “the lost word,” the word of power which mankind has lost. To him who discovers this word all things are possible. Is this mirific word really lost? Yes, and No. It is the open secret of the universe, and the Bible gives us the key to it. It tells us, “The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.” It is the most familiar of all words, the word which in our heart we realize as the center of our conscious being, and which is in our mouth a hundred times a day. It is the word “I AM.” Because I AM what I AM, I may be what I will to be. My individuality is one of the modes in which the Infinite expresses itself, and therefore I AM myself that very power which I find to be the innermost within of all things.
To me, thus realizing the great unity of all Spirit, the infinite is not the indefinite, for I see it to be the infinite of Myself. It is the very same I AM That I AM; and this not by any act of uncertain favor, but by the law of polarity which is the basis of all Nature. The law of polarity is that law according to which everything attains completion by manifesting itself in the opposite direction to that from which it started. It is the simple law by which there can be no inside without an outside, nor one end of a stick without an opposite end.
Our subconscious assumptions continually externalize themselves that others may consciously see us as we subconsciously see ourselves, and tell us by their actions what we have subconsciously assumed of ourselves to be. Therefore let us assume the feeling “I AM Christ,” until our conscious claim becomes our subconscious assumption that “We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” Let God Awake and his enemies be destroyed. There is no greater prayer for man.
If I strive to be master, I shall never attain; if I aim to be, I shall never arrive; if I look up and away to a power outside and beyond Myself, I shall never find. Only when I know as I AM known shall I find that I, Self, the Jesus Christ character, am Master. I, the one Life, the one Intelligence, am Spirit, Truth. I, the one and the all, the unborn and the undying, AM the Power and the Glory, the living Reality.
Our behavior is influenced by our subconscious assumption respecting our own social and intellectual rank and that of the one we are addressing. Let us seek for and evoke the greatest rank, and the noblest of all is that which disrobes man of his morality and clothes him with uncurbed immortal glory. Let us assume the feeling “I AM Christ,” and our whole behavior will subtly and unconsciously change in accordance with the assumption.
God is I AM That I AM, and you are I AM, and you make your destiny and your own fate by the things which you attach to that I AM, for that is what you really believe about yourself. If you give credence to fear by saying, “I AM afraid,” then you are destroying yourself. Every time you entertain a pang of fear, or jealousy, or a thought of criticism, every time you speak an unkind word to anyone, and much more so if you say it about them when they are not present, you are definitely shortening and destroying your life. You are definitely breaking down your cells. You are making your body more sensitive to pain. Nor do we lose a grain of good. Nobody can keep it away from you. Every time you say, “I AM one with God,” you are improving your life. Every time you refuse to be bullied by fear, every time you follow the highest you know, and put your trust in God, you are lengthening your life, improving your health, and making it more difficult for disease to attack you.
You are told it happened on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is only the mystical sense of stillness, when you are unconcerned, when you are not anxious, when you are not looking for results, knowing that signs follow and do not precede. The Sabbath is the day of stillness wherein there is no working. When you are not working to make it so you are in the Sabbath. When you are not at all concerned about the opinion of others, when you walk as though you were, you cannot raise one finger to make it so, you are in the Sabbath. I cannot be concerned as to how it will be, and still say I AM conscious of being it. If I AM conscious of being free, secure, healthy, and happy, I sustain these states of consciousness without effort or labor on my part. Therefore, I AM in the Sabbath.
God is immovable, unlimited, unchangeable. The “I AM” within you never changes, it is always the same, but the external form changes because it is relative. Yet the Substance which; is the basis of the form is a Perfect Substance. Relative things are not realities. Therefore I want you to recognize that Reality exists everywhere, and is the basis and the essence of everything. If the external form seems to you imperfect, the Substance and basis of it all is perfect. You have heard of miracles, yet they are nothing more than the perfect action of a Perfect Law that exists eternally and is omnipresent: present everywhere always.
The masterful individuality which speaks from the soul is the Supreme Self, or I AM of God. This I AM is always conscious of Itself. It responds to the man outside as he responds to It. Spirit knows man only at the level of his ability to know himself. Through the spirit . . I AM, we can in the Silence establish a means of communion between the man outside and the Man Inside. Each one of us must contact God through his own mind until He takes possession of our consciousness. The secret of spiritual power is the individual consciousness of union with God. The I AM is Good. It is Love, Life, Law Intelligence and Power, but it interprets Itself to man only as he mentally embodies the whole, only as he recognizes the I AM as the changeless Principle of his own mind. The more completely he becomes conscious of this union, the more power and dominion he expresses. Health, harmony, happiness and prosperity are effects, not causes.
The name Eve means “elemental life,” “life,” “living.” Eve represents the soul region of man and is the mother principle of God in expression through which life is evolved. The I AM (wisdom) puts feeling into what it thinks, and so Eve (feeling) becomes the “mother of all living.” Back of feeling is the pure life essence of God. Adam and Eve symbolize the I AM individualized in life and substance. They are the primal elemental forces of Being itself.
So we see, you must separate the things external to yourselves. Separate your body, your mind from your real self, YOU. That which you are analyzing cannot be you, can it? It is proof of the fact that it has no power of its own, is it not? Do you not see, the Consciousness is always analyzing something external to itself, but it can never analyze itself. It can never know what It is, but only know that It is. So, do not waste your time trying to find out what it is, only know THAT IT IS, and this is the secret. The more you know that It is, the more will it grow in strength and power. Then you will know “I AM.” Immediately you analyze anything external to yourself, even all the forces of the Universe and all in the Universe, even the elements that make up the Universe, you will know they have no power of their own except the power that you give them. You are Spirit individualized. The Eternal Spirit of God is in you, the actual you. Then you will find power and majesty in your Oneness with God. The Consciousness must analyze everything external to itself. When you say “I AM.” realize that it is real. The “I AM” enables you to move, think, act and you are using your instruments as a means of expression. The Substance of the Great “I AM” is the Perfect Substance out of which all things are made, the Substance of the Great “I AM,” the Substance of God. The Great “I AM” is individualized in you and that enables you to say “I AM.” Out of that Substance and in that Substance all things are created and that Substance is perfect in itself. How can any form created in it and out of it have any flaw in it except the individual give it power, who does not understand the Truth?
Jesus found God to be His (I AM) awareness of being and so told man that the Kingdom of God and Heaven were within. When it is recorded that Jesus left the world and went to His Father, it is simply stating that He turned His attention from the world of the senses and rose in (I AM) consciousness to that level which He desired to express. There He remained until He became one with the consciousness to which He ascended. When He returned to the world of man, He could act with the positive assurance of that which He was conscious of being, a state of consciousness no one but Himself felt or knew that He possessed. Man who is ignorant of this everlasting law of expression looks upon such happenings as miracles. To rise in consciousness to the level of the thing desired and to remain there until such level becomes your nature is the way of all seeming miracles.
When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. The Spirit of Truth is the I AM of the Universal Mind. When man recognizes that his consciousness is One with the I AM Consciousness, the recognition will guide him into all Truth. We cannot change the truth, but we can change the manifestation of the Law. There is no lack of substance in the great Universal Mind of God, but it is impersonal. Man can always enter the stream of this Universal Substance through the Intelligence and Power of his own I AM, but he can never approach it through the personality or human intellect. Only by surrendering the finite belief in a personal mind and personal self and personal desire that continually tries to demonstrate substance, is it possible to enter the very Substance Itself.
For your five senses act like five husbands who constantly impregnate your consciousness, your I AM, which is the great womb of GOD; and morning, noon, and night they suggest to you, and dictate to you that which you must accept as true. He tells you the one you would like to have for your husband is not your husband. In other words the sixth has not yet impregnated you. What you would like to be is denied by these five, and they hold the power, they dictate what you will accept as true. What you would like to accept has not yet penetrated your mind and impregnated your mind with its reality. He whom you call husband is really not your husband. You are not bearing his likeness. To bear his likeness is proof that you are his wife, at least you have known him intimately. You are not bearing the likeness of the sixth; you are only bearing the likeness of the five. Then one turns to me and tells me all that I have ever known. I go back in my mind’s eye and reason tells me that all through my life I have always accepted the limitations of my senses, I have always looked upon them as fact; and morning, noon, and night I have born witness to this acceptance. Reason tells me I have only known these five from the time I was born. Now I would like to step outside the limitation of my senses but I have not yet found within myself the courage to assume I AM what these five would deny that I AM. So here I remain, conscious of my task, but without the courage to step beyond the limitations of my senses, and that which my reason denies.
It is on the soul or substance side of consciousness that ideas are “identified,” that is, “named.” Whatever we recognize a thing to be, that it becomes to us because of the naming power vested in man (wisdom). “Every beast of the field” and the “cattle” represent ideas of strength, power, vitality, and life. These ideas must be recognized by the I AM before they can be formed. “The birds of the heavens” represent free thoughts and the interchange between the subconscious and the conscious activities of mind. Man has power to name all ideas that are presented to his conscious mind, whether they come from within or without.
As you progress along the path be not hindered by words, actions, thoughts or deeds of others. Realize that the Perfect is . . I AM That I AM . . and cannot be made more perfect; but the outer you should respond to the inner. “Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” The “I AM” within each is the Christ of God manifesting in humanity, and when this is realized fully by all, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man will be established upon earth. Then, and then only, will we have supreme happiness. This rests with man, not with God. God has already established this for man, and man has only to accept it by acting according to the Law of God. These words and sayings will affect each and every one of you according to your enlightenment. The “I AM” within is your teacher, and will present to your personal consciousness the message for the moment.
The Universal Mind is the Self-Conscious, Self-Knowing, purposeful activity of Spirit. It is at work everywhere and in everything. Even the lowest forms of life reveal the Omnipresent Mind at work. The moneron, the lowest form of independent life, is a perfect model in miniature of our modern submarine. As it inflates and deflates its body in order to rise and sink in the water, it betrays a wonderful intelligence. The spider and the bee show engineering skill that is amazing. The dahlia knows that it must store up starch for the winter while it is growing in the summer. Mind is at work everywhere. It becomes the Consciousness of whatever it contacts. The tree, flower and blade of grass are alive with the Consciousness and Substance of the Universal Mind of God. It is the color, perfume, life and beauty of everything that is. It is the medium through which man comes ultimately to know the truth. Spiritual energy comes from within. The I AM is the source of Divine Energy. It flows through the consciousness of man as an impersonal, silent and Omnipresent Power. Through his soul (subjective mind), man makes his conscious approach to the Universal Mind. To be conscious of It is to be in vital touch with It, to give It conscious direction in body and affairs. Mind meets us at the level of our own understanding and manifests according to our consciousness. Since It cannot give us more than we can receive, we must be consciously receptive to It. Our work in the Silence is dynamic, the results differing according to our various states of consciousness.
“I AM the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” Read these words carefully. They are not my words, they are the inspired words of men who discovered that consciousness is the only reality. If I AM hurt, I AM self hurt. If there is darkness in my world, I created the darkness and the gloom and the depression. If there is light and joy, I created the light and the joy. There is no one but this I AMness that does all. You cannot find a cause outside of your own consciousness. Your world is a grand mirror constantly telling you who you are. As you meet people, they tell you by their behavior who you are. Your prayers will not be less devout because you turn to your own consciousness for help. I do not think that any person in prayer feels more of the joy, the piety, and the feeling of adoration, than I do when I feel thankful, as I assume the feeling of my wish fulfilled, knowing at the same time it is to myself that I turned. In prayer you are called upon to believe that you possess what your reason and your senses deny. When you pray believe that you have and you shall receive.
I AM the Father of the Living, not the Dead.” Jesus made this so plain to His disciples; and it is the same today as it was yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow. As the evolutionary process of the great human family progresses, so the various senses that are at present dormant will come to life. When this body is more spiritualized the “I AM,” which is the Consciousness in the Substance, will bring them forth, for they are already there. Spirit is all. Then you will see the so-called dead.
It is to consciousness (I AM) that we must turn as to the only reality. For there is no clear conception of the origin of phenomena except that consciousness is all and all is consciousness. You need no helper to bring you what you seek. Do not for one second believe that I am advocating escape from reality when I ask you to simply assume you are now the man or the lady that you want to be. If you and I could feel what it would be like were we now that which we want to be, and live in this mental atmosphere as though it were real, then, in a way we do not know, our assumption would harden into fact. This is all we need do in order to ascend to the level where our assumption is already an objective, concrete reality.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
The bread spoken of here refers not alone to food, clothing and money, but to the Bread of Life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The law of increase is in the word. I AM is the active agent of creation. It externalizes itself in the substance that coexists with it. I AM the bread of life. Give us this day our daily bread. These words literally mean to you, “I AM positive to the Substance of the I AM here and now. I AM receptive to It. My needs are met.” The word give is a command to Substance. You are not begging, pleading or beseeching. You are affirming the Truth, identifying yourself with It and accepting It.
We must not bring forth untrue expressions. This is what the majority of people are doing every day by their thoughts, words and actions . . even a word that is unkind is an untrue expression. Do you know what a word really means? Do you know that sound has color and form; that every form has a color and sound; that every audible sound has an invisible color, every visible color an inaudible sound? Even our thoughts have form, color and sound. You have formed the outer expression, but the inner also exists. Realize what your thoughts, words and actions mean. When you understand the power of expression and know the Truth, your knowledge adds power to your word and thought. The “I AM” creates in the invisible world by the voice and by the thoughts; even in the silence we create sound, form and color.
Now it is absolutely impossible for you to make this power do anything. You cannot by sheer force of will bend this power to suit your needs. You are not greater than God. You cannot either stop or start this power in its creating, for it is greater than you are and it moves according to law. You cannot say, “I AM going to make money” with all the determination and ferociousness you can muster and expect that you are creating in your experience anything other than belligerence and opposition. You’ve got to accept, not demand. You can’t will anything. This does not mean a doctrine of resignation, far from it. It simply means that you recognize that it is not you who does the creating; it is a power greater than you are. This power creates what you believe and manifests to you what you are prepared to accept. I AM That power.
Where the consciousness, your I AM, is placed, you do not have to take the physical body; it gravitates there in spite of you. Things happen to compel you to move in the direction where you are consciously dwelling.
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I AM, there ye may be also.”
The many mansions are the unnumbered states within your mind, for you are the house of God. In my Father’s house are unnumbered concepts of self. You could not in eternity exhaust what you are capable of being. If I sit quietly here and assume that I AM elsewhere, I have gone and prepared a place. But if I open my eyes, the bilocation which I created vanishes and I AM back here in the physical form that I left behind me as I went to prepare a place. But I prepared the place nevertheless and will in time dwell there physically. You do not have to concern yourself with the ways and the means that will be employed to move you across space into that place where you have gone and mentally prepared it. Simply sit quietly, no matter where you are, and mentally actualize it.
No matter what concepts you hold of yourself it is a limitation. The Truth is not a concept. Dissolve away all limitations, dissolve away all crystallized concepts of Reality and let yourself be I AM That I AM.
Behold, I AM He that should come… And the government shall be upon his shoulders. The Presence that will finally rule our lives is now offering a full salvation through our consciousness; but flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. Whilst we are at home in the body (material thought), we are absent from the Lord. All flesh must be spiritualized. We must surrender all ideas of bondage. Our senses are really God’s senses; when we realize this, we cannot have poor eyesight, poor hearing, poor health or poor anything. I AM sees through our eyes, hears through our ears, thinks through our minds, works through our bodies. He is All-in-All. I AM declares health and power in every corpuscle, every vein, every cell, every nerve and every atom of the body saying unto them, Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. I AM will fill the body to overflowing with Divine power and Health, for I AM is within every cell, and every cell is alive with the Universal Substance of I AM.
Like the writer who authors a story, each of us authors his own life by his choice of what thoughts he will accept and which he will reject. Each of our lives is a story, unfolded by the silent contemplative author who dwells within us, who does nothing more than accept and reject, who is involved only in making choices. This indwelling Self says, “This is so,” “This is not so,” “I believe this,” I feel fine in this circumstance,” “I feel badly in this circumstance,” “I AM great,” “I AM nothing,” “There is hope,” “There is despair.” And each of these choices is manifested in the physical world.
There is no one thing which will give a timid soul such assurance, which will so brace up one who is inclined to depreciate and efface himself, as the constant affirmation of the ” I AM.” ” I AM courage; I AM health, vigor, strength; I AM power; I AM peace; I AM plenty; I AM a part of abundance, because I AM one with the very Source of Infinite Supply. I AM rich, because I AM heir to all the resources of the universe.”
Stoutly, constantly, everlastingly affirm that you will become what your ambitions indicate as fitting and possible. Do not say ” I shall be a success sometime”; say, ” I AM a success. Success is my birthright.” Do not say that you are going to be happy in the future. Say to yourself, ” I was intended for happiness, made for it, and I AM happy.”
God, the Father of all life is in you! Being all imagination, your true name is I AM, and besides you there is no other God. So I tell you: unless you believe “I AM He,” you will die in your sins in the sense that you will continue missing the mark. You must assume that you are now the man (the woman) you want to be and persist in that assumption, for there is no other way for you to be it, as there is only God (imagination) in this world.
SPIRIT KNOWS ITSELF
God (I AM) speaks and it is done; but if God speaks, His Word must be Law. The Word of God is also the Law of God. God is Word, God is Law and God is Spirit; this is self-evident. We arrive at the conclusion that God, as Spirit, is Self-Conscious Life. That Spirit is conscious is proven by the fact that we have evidence of this consciousness strewn through all time and space. God must know that God Is. This is the inner meaning of the teaching of the “I AM,” handed down from antiquity. “The Spirit is the Power that knows Itself,” is one of the oldest sayings of time.
Since I AM as I think I AM, I have heretofore lived the slave of conditions and subject of environment because God and I were two. But now, no longer separated, the prodigal has arisen and come home to the Father and in Unity found Power, and in this realization has conquered disease and death, and, chanting “I and my Father are one,” he has taken heaven by violence and, planting its Love and Truth upon earth, made all the promised heaven here and now.
Matter and body cannot create, because they are effects. They can only manifest the energy infused into them by their cause. Vitality is not a material force; it is spiritual force. Vitality is cause. Vitality is the creative energy of the love and intelligence of the I AM which holds in its embrace every atom of sentient substance. It is the vitality of the Infinite Mind that we see manifesting in bird and beast, tree and flower, and this same vitality is at this moment giving you all the life that you have, and the Infinite Mind can give you as much as you can individualize and express. Your lack of knowledge of the possibilities of your own nature keeps you from growing out of your weak or sickly condition. Knowledge is power.
Man knows intuitively that he is God’s supreme creation and that dominion and power are his, though he does not understand fully. The I AM of him ever recognizes the one divine source from which he sprang, and he turns to it endeavoring to fathom its wonderful secrets.
It is done unto you as you believe. We limit the expression of the I AM through our belief in limitation. The Divine Law will produce anything we choose. It will produce prosperity instead of poverty, health instead of sickness. The Law is, but It must be definitely specialized. Until we specialize It, It is only a latent possibility. Through this Law, we set the Principle in which we live in motion. When we do not use the Law consciously and constructively, we are using It unconsciously and, it may be, destructively. Prayer is the mental act through which we specialize the Law for specific purposes. In the Silence, we are responsive to the Law. Silence is the home of the soul. It is always at rest, always at peace, always in repose. The unseen and silent forces in the universe are the strongest. Physical activity is noisy and slow; Infinite activity is silent and quick. We hear nothing as gravity holds our material world together. There is no sound as the sun each day lifts billions of tons of water from the earth. Neither is there any perceptible friction or noise in the operation of electricity. What we interpret as such is disturbance in the manifestation and not in the power itself. The I AM is indifferent to things because it recognizes nothing apart from Itself. It desires only man’s unity with Itself. In this unity man embodies his Good. In the intangible world of Spirit, all things needful to man are classified under the heading of Good. If we seek the supremacy of Good (God), we shall never lack. Not until we withdraw our thought from the relative plane are we able to cultivate our inner resources.
Inasmuch as this great Mind is flowing into our bodies, it must of necessity have an outlet. This conclusion leads us to accept the following: The Universal Mind flows through us, but registers or localizes itself in the solar plexus and from this point radiates by thought to the world. Therefore we see that God (I AM) is the only Thinker, Actor, Power and Life. Then “I AM” Success or if it would be easier for the student to realize the impersonal, he may say, “I AM is Success.” If he wishes to say, “God is Success,” he is saying the same thing. It is not so much what we say, so far as the words are concerned; it is the understanding with which we say them.
Troward says, “I AM that which I contemplate.” You become what you claim and feel yourself to be. Except you now believe and accept as true that you now are what you long to be, you will remain as you are. In other words, you will die in your sins, meaning you will fail to reach your mark in life. If a man who is poverty stricken refuses to enter into the mood of opulence and the belief in a God of abundance forever supplying all his needs, he will remain poor regardless of the church he joins or what creed he adopts.
The Law
I AM hard as adamant, cold as steel, bitter as gall, deadly as poison; I AM soft as down, warm as sunlight, gentle as a zephyr, tender as a mother. I AM your adversary, your opponent, your enemy; I AM your counselor, your assistant, your friend. I AM stronger than the strongest, I bend you to my iron will; I AM yielding to the uttermost, gladly I go your way. I AM a curse; I AM a blessing. I AM what you make of me; I thwart or serve, I degrade or exalt; I AM your Master or your servant. Obey me, and you are my Master ; Disobey, and you are my slave. I AM the Law!
In the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers, we are told: “If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and I will speak with him in a dream.” A scriptural prophet is not one who tells your fortune, but one who hears the Word of God and fulfills it. If you asked me if I were a prophet I would answer in the affirmative. I am not one who prophesies by looking into a crystal ball, teacup leaves, cards, or astrology, but one who has fulfilled scripture. I know I AM the central figure of scripture called “the Father.” I came into the world to fulfill scripture and share my revelations, my experiences concerning the power to create. In this simple way God revealed his power to create, his power to remember when!
When the average person employs the term “ego,” he thinks that he is dealing with something that is hidden so deeply in the abstract that it can make but little difference whether we understand it or not. This, however, does not happen to be true, because it is the ego that must act before any action can take place anywhere in the human system, and it is the ego that must originate the new before any step in advance can be taken. And in addition, it is extremely important to realize that the power of will to control the forces we possess, depends directly upon how fully conscious we are of the ego as the ruling principle within us. We understand therefore, that it is absolutely necessary to associate all thought, all, feeling and all actions of mind or personality with the ego, or what we shall hereafter speak of as the ” I AM.” The first step to be taken in this connection, is to recognize the “I AM” in everything you do, and to think always of the “I AM,” as being you, the supreme you. Whenever you think, realize that it is the “I AM” that originated the thought. Whenever you act, realize that it is the ” I AM” that gives initiative to that action, and whenever you think of yourself or try to be conscious of yourself, realize that the “I AM” occupies the throne of your entire field of consciousness.
If the world of “things” still has any hold on you and you have not realized that you are Mind out of which all “things” flow, then you may have to let “things” go. But once you do and you realize that I AM Mind, and you begin to “praise God/Mind . . from Which all blessings flow,” you will no longer be held in bondage to things, no longer feel you need to hold onto, keep, save, or hoard “things,” for you will know creation, or “things” are Spirit, presently manifested in the moment, continually. I manifest, or make visible the world, body, forms, things that I see, hear, touch, smell, taste, etc. as my “world” of awareness. But they are in me! They are all IN MIND! They are Me, The Mind I AM, not separate from, but in and of Me. Spirit . . All is Spirit. They have no substance in and of themselves. They are proceeding in the moment from God-Consciousness. Someone with a poverty consciousness brings forth lack, but it is an illusion, although it seems “real” to them. Someone with a religious consciousness brings forth the law of their particular belief system, and although it is an illusion, it sure seems “real” and necessary at the “time.” Someone with a consciousness of illness and disease reflects illness and disease in a body they think they live in, but again, that is merely an illusion, for here now is the Perfect body I AM, and It is All.
In the degree that you perceive, recognize, and realize your essential identity with ME (I AM), the Supreme Presence-Power, the Ultimate Reality, in that degree will you be able to manifest My Spiritual Power. I AM over and above you, under and beneath you, I surround you on all sides. I AM also within you, and you are in ME; from Me you proceed and in Me you live and move and have your being. Seek Me by looking within your own being, and likewise by looking for Me in Infinity, for I abide both within and without your being. If, and when, you will adopt and live according to this Truth, then will you be able to manifest that Truth . . in and by it alone are Freedom and Invincibility, and true and real Presence and Power, to be found, perceived, realized and manifested.
If Christ is your own wonderful human imagination and all things . . be they good, bad, or indifferent . . are made by him, you can imagine unlovely things and perpetuate their image. To say that Christ makes only the good and a devil makes the evil is false. When you doubt the power of Christ in you . . that’s the devil. Unless you actually believe that “I AM” is the being you are seeking and pray only to him by exercising your human imagination, you will never reach your desire, for awareness is the only power that can give it to you, imagination.
Not infrequently, patients who are students in Christian Science have had enough treatment to heal them a hundred times, but it is very difficult to get them to say, “I AM healed,” even when there is every evidence to show they are healed, and there is nothing the matter but a little bit of fear, or a large measure, as the case may be. But it is difficult to get them to take their stand and say, “I AM healed.” And yet in hundreds of cases, if people could say, “I AM healed,” and stick to it, they would have the evidence very shortly. The mesmeric tendency of human beliefs, self pity, self condemnation, or self-something else, hinders that most important and scientific declaration.
A study of the psychological nature of man verifies the belief in “The Trinity” running through all Life. Man is self-conscious; of this we are sure, for he can say “I AM.” This fact alone proves his claim to immortality and greatness. In psychology we learn that man is threefold in his nature; that is, he has a self-conscious mind, a subconscious mind and a body. In metaphysics we learn that the three are but different attributes of the same life. Man’s self-conscious mind is the power with which he knows; it is, therefore, one with the Spirit of God; it is, indeed, His only guarantee of conscious being.
As Jesus said, if you try to climb up some other way, you are a thief and a robber, and only trouble will come that way. He is emphasizing again the need for strict control of one’s thoughts if one is to achieve that which he really desires. Jesus follows up this idea by saying, “I AM the door of the sheep; by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” The Jesus Christ teaching is the gateway to salvation, not in some distant heaven but in the immediate now. The “door” or “gate” is another very important Bible symbol. Passing through a door or a gate signifies a change in consciousness. When you pass from one room to another, or from one field to another, symbolically you pass from one state of mind to another. “Gate” or “door” means understanding and it also signifies dominion or power. In the Bible we so often find two different meanings or two aspects of the same thing. In this case the two meanings are supplementary . . understanding and dominion. Understanding gives dominion, and understanding comes with a change in consciousness.
You need to withdraw from the vexations of the world two or three times a day to center your thoughts in the quiet place of your own I AM. As you affirm the sacred name of the Divine Being (I AM), you will find rest from your disturbing worries, and in this interior state of peace, you will see more clearly how to will and to plan for a more successful experience.
When you know what you want, use your sense of feeling. Let the feeling of satisfaction so fill your being that the idea ceases to be a desire, but has evoked motor elements. These awaken sensory sensations within you causing the desire’s fulfillment. Imagination is nothing more than sensory states. Learn to go beyond an idea by feeling its reality. Then turn to another and still another, as the being who is feeling it begins to awaken within you. Fulfill all of your desires while you are here, and then when you least expect it, the Divine Breath will breathe upon that immortal tomb where you are buried. And you will awaken to find yourself completely sealed in your Holy Sepulcher where you have been dreaming your life into being. This world is made up of horrible dreams which the one within every individual is dreaming. That one must and will awaken, as you hear the story and put it into practice through repentance. The word “repentance” comes from the Greek word “metanoia,” which means “a radical change of attitude.” This change must be so radical that it gets right down to the root, the I AM! Think of your world as your mirror. Do you like what you see there? You know you can live with it or ignore it, but perhaps you would like to see it differently. If you would, repent by persuading yourself that you are seeing a world to your liking. Persist in your repentance, for to the degree that you are self-persuaded it is so, it will be so.
Repeat: . . “Infinite Substance within me, Infinite Supply flowing through me and to me, Infinite Activity around me and within me, Infinite Intelligence within me, directing me, guarding me, governing me, controlling me; the One and Only within me and through me, that is, Almighty God within me. There is no other, or beside which there is none other. Infinite love within me, seeing all, knowing all, loving all, One in and through all.” Carry this concept out until you see that you live in everybody and everybody lives in you. Then continue: “Infinite One, comprehending, seeing, knowing, understanding, living in and including the All, within me.” Realize what this means. “I AM One with all people. There are no enemies. There is only the One, in all and through all.”
While you are educating your intellect in the principles of truth, keep your heart very close to the loving consciousness of the Ever-Present. Let the immanent All Power in you be fed and strengthened daily and hourly by communion and cooperation with the transcendent I AM within, that you may embody the Power of this enlightening Presence for all humanity. Let your mortal spirit be bathed in the healing stream of Divine Thought, that you may become transformed into the health and perfection of an immortal soul of the Ever-Present’s inspiration.
Throughout the Bible the writers speak of the Name of God or the Name of the Lord. For instance, when the Queen of Sheba, whom Jesus called the Queen of the South, came to visit Solomon, the Bible says that she came to test him with hard questions. She came to inquire, not about God, or about the Lord, but about the NAME of the Lord . . thus again emphasizing the Name. The key to the name of the Lord is found in what we call Jehovah, the personalized God of the Old Testament. Here we begin to get a sense of God expressing Himself as Man. Pure, unconditioned Being . . I AM THAT I AM . . has now become differentiated as men and women. The word Jehovah is an anglicized version of the Hebrew, which was made up of four letters, Yod, He, Wau, Hé . . spelling “Yevé.” These four Hebrew letters represent the masculine and feminine principles, and in this form they mean one God (I AM) expressing Himself in the souls of men and women. The Hebrews went further with this idea of God and added suffixes, Jehovah becoming Jehovah-Ramah, Jehovah-Jire, and so on . . God as peace, God as health, God as abundance, etc.
The “breath of life” is a super-conscious reality. It is the essence of the “I AM.” It is pure “Being” or Universal Substance, and our conscious unity with it enables us to localize it, and thus exercise the powers of this creative energy.
In the King James Bible the Hebrew “Jehovah” has been translated “Lord.” Lord means an external ruler. Bible students say that Jehovah means the self-existent One, the I AM. Then instead of reading “Lord” we should read I AM. It makes a great difference whether we think of I AM, self-existence within, or “Lord,” master without. All Scripture shows that Jehovah means just what God told Moses it meant: I AM. “This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” So instead of “Lord” say I AM whenever you read it and you will get a clearer understanding and realization of what Jehovah is.
Take my message to heart. The God spoken of in scripture is seated right here. He is in everyone as their wonderful human imagination. When you say, “I AM,” that’s God. If, right now you are assuming that you are other than what reason says you are and I ask you, “Who is imagining?” you would say, “I AM.” At that very moment you have spoken God’s name and all things are possible to God. So without the consent of anyone you can move from where you are to where you would like to be by a simple change of attitude. But your move must be fixed so that when you wake or sleep you remain in that attitude, for the state to which your thoughts constantly return constitutes your dwelling place, and your world is forever externalizing your dwelling place.
The Creator will give you generously of the Infinite Life and Power that springs from an Ever-Present Source. The Eternal Power in you can give you a more vigorous heart. Your digestive system can be re-energized. You can make a demand upon the Creator’s power within you for a rich and healthy constitution, and that demand will be recognized and fulfilled. The same Power that created your tissues, glands and organs is still present within you and is always ready to recreate them when the appropriate conditions of mind and body are applied. That same Intelligent Power, which formed your organism from the original cells and then diversified them to create your liver, kidneys, muscles, bones and brain, this instant is willing to do as much and more than It has done for you in the past if you will only allow your lesser self to step aside so that that Power can be expressed. It is already expressing through you every moment. Think what a miracle it is that the intelligence of the Creator is this instant creating the right kind of metabolic constituents that you need through the action of millions of cells in your body. When you turn your attention to this matter of your own life, you will behold so great a wonder that, you will want no other or greater proof of the existence of an intelligent Creator. The wonder and mystery of your being will awaken a great awe within you. You will realize that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” This awe is the awakening of your faculties of spiritual awareness which can know and feel the presence of the I AM. This awe of the Creator is the beginning of wisdom.