The will plays the leading part in all systems of thought concentration. The simple statement, I will to be well, gathers the forces of mind and body about the central idea of wholeness, and the will holds the center just so long as the I AM continues its affirmation. No one ever died until he let go his will to live, and thousands live on and on through the force of a determined will.
“I AM the Lord; that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another”. “I AM the Lord, the God of all Flesh”. This I AM within you, the reader, this awareness, this consciousness of being, is the Lord, the God of all Flesh. I AM is He that should come; stop looking for another. 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. The power conceiving and the thing conceived are one but the power to conceive is greater than the conception.
“Whom do you say that I AM?”. This is not a question asked two thousand years ago. It is the eternal question addressed to the manifestation by the conceiver. It is your true self, your awareness of being, asking you, its present conception of itself, “Who do you believe your awareness to be?” This answer can be defined only within yourself, regardless of the influence of another. I AM (your true self) is not interested in man’s opinion. All its interest lies in your conviction of yourself. What do you say of the I AM within you? Can you answer and say, “I AM Christ”? Your answer or degree of understanding will determine the place you will occupy in life. Do you say or believe yourself to be a man of a certain family race, nation etc.? Do you honestly believe this of yourself? Then life, your true self will cause these conceptions to appear in your world and you will live with them as though they are real.
The problem of self control is never settled until all that man is comes into touch with the divine will and understanding. You must understand all your forces before you can establish them in harmony. This overcoming is easy if you go about it in the right way. But if you try to take dominion through will, force, and suppression, you will find it hard and will never accomplish any permanent results. Get your I AM centered in God, and from that place of Truth speak true words. In this way you will gain real spiritual mastery and raise your will consciousness from the human to the divine.
You are God. You are the “I AM That I AM”. You are consciousness. You are the creator. This is the mystery, this is the great secret known by the seers, prophets, and mystics throughout the ages.
Never say, “I don’t know,” “I don’t understand.” Claim your Christ understanding at all times, and declare: I AM not under any spell of human ignorance. I AM one with infinite understanding. The accumulation of ignorance gathered through association with ignorant minds can be dissolved by using the word. You may know by simply holding the thought that you know. This is not egotism, but spiritual knowing. When you declare divine understanding, you sometimes meet your old line of thought and are disappointed. Right then continue to hold to your declaration for knowing. Judge not by appearances. Do not act until you get the assurance; if you keep close to Spirit by affirmation, the assurance will come. Will it come by voice? No! You will know through the faculty of intuition. Divine knowing is direct fusion of mind of God with mind of man. Sometimes we are taught by symbols, visions, and the like, but this is only one of the ways that Divine Mind has of expressing itself. When the mind deals with God ideals it asks for no symbols, visible or invisible, but rests on pure knowing. It was in this consciousness that Jesus said: “Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. And I knew that thou hearest me always.”
Make your daily assertions, “I AM love, health, wisdom, cheerfulness, power for good, prosperity, success, usefulness, opulence.” Never fail to assert these things at least twice a day; twenty times is better. But if you do not attain to all immediately, if your life does not at once exemplify your words, let it not discourage you. The saying of the words is the watering of the seeds. After a time they will begin to sprout, after a longer time to cover the barren earth with grain, after a still longer time to yield a harvest.
Your I AM is a center of radiance in the source of supply. You are a magnet! You are an image of the Great Magnet, the omnipotent Will that holds the universe in form! You can attract from the soul and nature of the universe all that you need for the growth of your own I AM. There is no limit to the supply. It is equal to your demand. It will manifest for your use as you learn how to express and exercise the magnetic powers of your mind. Your affirmations enable you to call forth from your soul and to individualize the qualities and powers of this Great Magnet.
Creative thought uses the will to build up individual consciousness. The Lord God, or Jehovah, of Genesis, is the original “I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE.” In mind, both Jehovah and Jesus mean I AM. I AM is man’s self identity. I AM is the center around which man’s system revolves. When the I AM is established in a certain understanding of its Principle, it is divinely guided in its acts, and they are in harmony with divine law.
If man’s concept of himself were different, everything in his world would be different. His concept of himself being what it is, everything in his world must be as it is. Thus it is abundantly clear that there is only one I AM and you are that I AM. And while I AM is infinite, you, by your concept of yourself, are displaying only a limited aspect of the infinite I AM.
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