“I AM the vine, ye are the branches”. . . A branch is rooted in the vine. In order to change the fruit you must change the vine. I AM is God, Being, Life, Awareness; and seven billion people in the world are rooted in the I AM, or Life Principle. All men and women are extensions of the I AM, or Life Principle; therefore, they are all rooted in you and you in them. Like fruit, others bear witness to the state of consciousness in which you dwell. Your I AMness, your Consciousness, is the way in which you change your world. Whatever you attach to I AM you become. As you affirm with feeling, I AM illumined, inspired, loving, harmonious, peaceful, happy and strong, you will resurrect these qualities that lie dormant within you, and wonders will happen in your life. When men and women help you in the realization of your dreams, they are playing their part and are messengers testifying to your beliefs and convictions. You wrote the play, and other men and women execute the parts conforming to your concept of yourself.
Man, not knowing that his world is his individual consciousness out pictured, vainly strives to conform to the opinion of others rather than to conform to the one and only opinion existent, namely, his own judgment of himself. When Jesus discovered His consciousness to be this wonderful law of self government, He declared, “And now I sanctify Myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth” “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”, He knew that consciousness was the only reality, that things objectified were nothing more than different states of consciousness. Jesus warned His followers to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven . . that state of consciousness that would produce the thing desired . . and all things would be added to them. He also stated, “I AM the truth”. He knew that man’s consciousness was the truth or cause of all that man saw his world to be. Jesus realized that the world was made in the likeness of man. He knew that man saw his world to be what it was because man was what he was. In short, man’s conception of himself determines that which he sees his world to be.
“To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away”. You have in manifestation exactly what you have in consciousness (I AM) . . good, bad, or indifferent. Why waste any further time trying to change the outside condition, when it is held in manifestation by the inner state of consciousness? To him that hath shall be given . . because he will take, be it a good, bad, or indifferent manifestation. A man with a consciousness full of troubles always gets more troubles, and he finds them everywhere. It is what he finds to be true, and so he must find it in manifestation. No wonder the prophet asked, “What have you in your house?” What have you in your house, your consciousness? You have just what you conceive the Father within to be, and you cannot increase this until you begin to recognize the nature of the pure substance of Spirit from which all things come into manifestation. Until you recognize the true Self, and stop trying to doctor up an old body or condition, you cannot know the glory of the Son of God. You are not an old creature patched up. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. You are a new, perfect manifestation; to recognize this is to claim your rights and press your claim by the serene power of the Almighty.
“I AM the Lord and beside Me there is none else”. You cannot command that which is not. As there is no other, you must command yourself to be that which you would have appear. Let me clarify what I mean by effective command. You do not repeat like a parrot the statement, “I AM That I AM”; such vain repetition would be both stupid and fruitless. It is not the words that make it effective; it is the consciousness of being the thing which makes it effective. When you say, “I AM”, you are declaring yourself to be. The word that in the statement, “I AM That I AM”, indicates that which you would be. The second “I AM” in the quotation is the cry of victory. This whole drama takes place inwardly with or without the use of words. Be still and know that you are. This stillness is attained by observing the observer. Repeat quietly but with feeling, “I AM . . I AM”, until you have lost all consciousness of the world and know yourself just as being. Awareness, the knowing that you are, is Almighty God; I AM. After this is accomplished, define yourself as that which you desire to be by feeling yourself to be the thing desired: I AM That. This understanding that you are the thing desired will cause a thrill to course through your entire being. When the conviction is established and you really believe that you are that which you desired to be, then the second “I AM” is uttered as a cry of victory. This mystical revelation of Moses can be seen as three distinct steps: I AM; I AM free; I really AM!
The Names in the Nativity
Joseph represents your conscious, reasoning mind with its superficial beliefs, opinions, creeds, dogmas, traditions, thoughts and fears . . the five sense man who judges according to appearances. Joseph also means imagination and the autocratic intellect.
Mary represents the subconscious mind, full of wisdom and intelligence, the seat of intuition, memory and emotion. Within your subconscious is the I AM, the Higher Self, sometimes referred to as the Superconscious. Mary is with child of the Holy Ghost . . the Holy Spirit, the Presence of God, and Joseph is instructed to keep away, which means that your conscious mind is not to impregnate and browbeat your subconscious with its false sense knowledge. Joseph is the guardian of the threshold and is to see to it that nothing enters into the subconscious that does not fill the soul with joy. Joseph . . the conscious mind . . should protect the subconscious from all pollution and negative impressions.
Jesus and Joshua are synonymous. Both names mean the same thing; i.e., God is your Savior, or God is the Emancipator. In other words, God within you is the solution to all your problems. The realization of your heart’s desire is your savior. For example, if you are in prison, freedom is your savior; if sick, health is your savior; if dying of thirst, water would be your savior; and if lost in the jungle, God, or the Guiding Principle, would lead you out.
The inn is the outer meeting place of superficial human beliefs, fears, customs, traditional concepts, and beliefs of the mass mind. In other words, it is the law of averages, what the mass mind is thinking. When you inform the average man that the Infinite Intelligence within him can heal his body, inspire him, guide him and reveal to him all answers, and that It actually is the Presence of God, he all too frequently rejects it and instead postulates an anthropomorphic being up in the skies who judges, punishes and condemns. There is no room in his mind for the realization that his awareness of the Presence and Power of God and his contact and application of It in his life is his real savior. The stable is the subconscious mind, the place where the “animi” or “animals” (basic urges, feelings, emotions, passions) are to be found waiting for the coming of the Shepherd, the Lord and Master.
The Shepherd is your dominant conviction of God and the truths of life which keep a check on the sheep (the harmonious feelings and ideals) lest the wolves (destructive emotions) eat them up or destroy them. Your thoughts need a shepherd, which means your dominant idea of the goodness and love of God in the land of the living controls all lesser thoughts and emotions, actions and reactions. The nativity, or birth of God, is taking place in you when you begin to radiate light, love, truth and beauty to all those around you and to all people everywhere. Become a channel for Divine love, harmony, peace and joy, and all the Divine forces will hasten to minister to your eternal growth and expansion in the light.
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