The ancients knew that the secret name of God had power. Now we do.
Faith or feeling is the secret of this appropriation. Through feeling, the consciousness desiring is joined to the thing desired.
How would you feel if you were that which you desire to be?
Wear the mood, this feeling that would be yours if you were already that which you desire to be; and in a little while you will be sealed in the belief that you are. Then without effort this invisible state will objectify itself; the invisible will be made visible.
If you had the faith of a grain of mustard seed you would this day through the magical substance of feeling seal yourself in the consciousness of being that which you desire to be.
In this mental stillness or tomb-like state you would remain, confident that you need no one to roll away the stone, for all the mountains, stones and inhabitants of earth are nothing in your sight. That which you now recognize to be true of yourself (this present conscious state) will do according to its nature among all the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay its hand or say unto it, “What doest Thou?”. None can stop this conscious state in which you are sealed from embodying itself, nor question its right to be.
This conscious state when properly sealed by faith is a Word of God, I AM, for the man so seated is saying, “I AM so and so,” and the Word of God (my fixed conscious state) is spirit and cannot return unto me void but must accomplish whereunto it is sent. God’s word (your conscious state) must embody itself that you may know: “I AM the Lord… there is no God beside Me”
Therefore, it is that Jesus tells us that the I AM is “the door.” It is that central point of our individual Being which opens into the whole illimitable Life of the Infinite. If we would understand the old world precept, “know thyself,” we must concentrate our thought more and more closely upon our own interior Life until we touch its central radiating point, and there we shall find that the door into the Infinite is indeed opened to us, and that we can pass from the innermost of our own Being into the innermost of All-Being. This is why Jesus spoke of “the door” as that through which we should pass in and out and find pasture. Pasture, the feeding of every faculty with its proper food, is to be found both on the within and the without. The livingness of Life consists in both concentration and externalization: it is not the dead equilibrium of inertia, but the living equilibrium of a vital and rhythmic pulsation. Involution and evolution must forever alternate, and the door of communication between them is the I AM which is the living power in both. Thus it is that the Great Affirmation is the Secret of Life, and that to say I AM with a true understanding of all that it implies is to place ourselves in touch with all the powers of the Infinite.
I AM come that ye might have life and have it more abundantly. The abundance that we express is always commensurate with our recognition of the Law (God). The greatest good that can come to man is the realization of the full and complete Spirit of Good within himself.
God, within Whom all spirits exist. The Self-Knowing One. The Conscious Universe. The Absolute. Spirit in man is that part of him which enables him to know himself. That which he really is. We do not see the spirit of man any more than we see the Spirit of God. We see what man does; but we do not see the doer. We treat of Spirit as the Active and the only Self-Conscious Principle. We define Spirit as the First Cause or God; the Universal I AM. The Spirit is Self-Propelling, It is All; It is Self-Existent and has all life within Itself. It is the Word and the Word is volition. It is Will because It chooses. It is Free Spirit because It knows nothing outside Itself, and nothing different from Itself. Spirit is the Father-Mother-God because It is the Principle of Unity back of all things. Spirit is all Life, Truth, Love, Being, Cause and Effect, and is the only Power in the Universe that knows Itself.
As we center in the formless presence of God and become responsive only to that which is Good, two things will happen. We shall know sensations never before experienced and shall emerge with definite guidance or leading. In praying, we talk to God and his answer comes in the form of inspiration. The voice of Intuition that speaks in the Silence is the infallible Word of God. The intuitive faculty is by far the most valuable and yet the most delicate instrument of Mind. It is the guiding force of the Soul. But unless we search for it with great patience and are obedient to its slightest prompting, we shall miss it. It is the still small voice of the I AM.
The “I AM” is the door through which the Consciousness, Intelligence and Substance of the Great “I AM,” which is God, comes forth into expression in Form through the individual. This “I AM” Being is Consciousness, Intelligence and Substance, and is given form through Consciousness. Consciousness is the Father, Intelligence is the Mother, and the Substance is the vehicle of expression, and the Divine expression is the Child . . the Three in One. Consciousness is the Will which makes the mold and the Life Intelligence and Substance fill the mold. Consciousness directs, Intelligence fulfils the direction in the Substance, and Form comes forth; the Divine Perfect Image is expressed without effort. The Master said: “According to your faith so be it unto you.” This faith is in the Consciousness, in the Perfect Divine Image; fully comprehend this and you will know the Christ Power. All things are possible to them that believe.
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. He tells these, “I have meat ye know not of. I AM the bread that droppeth down from heaven. I AM the wine.” I know what I want to be, and because I AM That bread I feast upon it. I assume that I AM, and instead of feasting upon the fact that I am in this room talking to you and you are listening to me, and that I AM in Los Angeles, I feast upon the fact that I AM elsewhere and I walk here as though I were elsewhere. And gradually I become what I feast upon.
It is only by a change of consciousness (I AM), by actually changing your concept of yourself, that you can “build more stately mansions” – the manifestations of higher and higher concepts. (By manifesting is meant experiencing the results of these concepts in your world.) It is of vital importance to understand clearly just what consciousness is. The reason lies in the fact that consciousness (I AM) is the one and only reality, it is the first and only cause-substance of the phenomena of life. Nothing has existence for man save through the consciousness he has of it. Therefore, it is to consciousness you must turn, for it is the only foundation on which the phenomena of life can be explained. If we accept the idea of a first cause, it would follow that the evolution of that cause could never result in anything foreign to itself.
That is, if the first cause-substance is light, all its evolutions, fruits and manifestations would remain light. The first cause-substance being consciousness, all its evolutions, fruits and phenomena must remain consciousness. All that could be observed would be a higher or lower form or variation of the same thing. In other words, if your consciousness is the only reality, it must also be the only substance. Consequently, what appears to you as circumstances, conditions and even material objects is really only the product of your own consciousness. Nature, then, as a thing or a complex of things external to your mind, must be rejected. You and your environment cannot be regarded as existing separately. You and your world are one.
Your “I AMness” is God. God is everywhere and in all things. There is nothing outside yourself. You are the center of all creation and all revolves around you. As long as we believe in travel, time and disease, we must experience them. In other words, we must have proof of our convictions.
When we act from the standpoint of body or personality, we separate life from living, Spirit from matter. We cannot hope to claim our Good, for we are reversing the process. If God is all, there cannot be God and something else. There can be no shadows without light. There can be no outside without an inside. There can be no Jesus without a Christ. There can be no effect without a cause. 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.
You must turn from the objective appearance of things to the subjective center of things, your consciousness (your I AMness), if you truly desire to know the cause of the phenomena of life, and how to use this knowledge to realize your fondest dreams. In the midst of the apparent contradictions, antagonisms and contrasts of your life, there is only one principle at work, only your consciousness operating. Difference does not consist in variety of substance, but in variety of arrangement of the same cause-substance, your consciousness.
The world moves with motiveless necessity. By this is meant that it has no motive of its own, but is under the necessity of manifesting your concept, the arrangement of your mind, and your mind is always arranged in the image of all you believe and consent to as true. The rich man, poor man, beggar man or thief are not different minds, but different arrangements of the same mind, in the same sense that a piece of steel, when magnetized, differs not in substance from its demagnetized state, but in the arrangement and order of its molecules.
It is impossible to conceive of anything other than the Word of God being that which sets power in motion. God speaks and it is done! It is evident that First Cause must be Self-Existent, i.e., It must be Causeless. Nothing could come before That Which was First. Hence the Being Whom we call GOD must be Self-Existent. God speaks and it is done. If God speaks, His Word must be Law. The Word of God is also the Law of God. God is Word, God is Law, God is Spirit. This is self-evident. We arrive at the conclusion that God as Spirit is Conscious Life. This is the inner meaning of the teaching of the “I AM.”
Man’s chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes other than his own state of (I AMness) consciousness. All that befalls a man . . all that is done by him, all that comes from him . . happens as a result of his state of (I AMness) consciousness. A man’s consciousness is all that he thinks and desires and loves, all that he believes is true and consents to. That is why a change of consciousness is necessary before you can change your outer world. Rain falls as a result of a change in the temperature in the higher regions of the atmosphere, so, in like manner, a change of circumstance happens as a result of a change in your state of consciousness. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” To be transformed, the whole basis of your thoughts must change. But your thoughts cannot change unless you have new ideas, for you think from your ideas. All transformation begins with an intense, burning desire to be transformed.
The first step in the “renewing of the mind” is desire. You must want to be different [and intend to be] before you can begin to change yourself. Then you must make your future dream a present fact. You do this by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled (I AM That). By desiring to be other than what you are, you can create an ideal of the person you want to be and assume that you are already that person. If this assumption is persisted in until it becomes your dominant feeling, the attainment of your ideal is inevitable. The ideal you hope to achieve is always ready for an incarnation, but unless you yourself offer it human parentage, it is incapable of birth. Therefore, your attitude should be one in which having desired to express a higher state – you alone accept the task of incarnating this new and greater value of yourself.
As the iron worker pours the molten iron into his sand mold, he knows that it will take the shape of the mold. You must be just as meticulous as he in preparing the mold that you wish Creative Principle to fill and just as certain of the result. The visualizing and imaging faculties are the transcendent powers that cause the living Substance of God to flow freely, but It will fill only those molds prepared for it. As you mentally hold your picture in the dark room of the Silence, vigilantly guard against the intrusion of any vagrant thoughts that may distort your image. As your picture is impressed upon your consciousness, it becomes the center of attraction, and the I AM fills it with Substance. It becomes the property of the Universal Mind.
At this point of development, Spirit specializes and differentiates your desire. The power which projects the originating Substance out from Itself is your I AM, and this Substance takes the specific shape which you have given it in your mind. The Universal becomes particular as you recognize that your mind is the particular center through which your I AM is seeking expression in a material sense.
The highest mental practice is to listen to this Inner Voice and to declare Its Presence. The greater a man’s consciousness of this Indwelling I AM, the more fully he will live. This will never lead to illusion, but will always lead to Reality. All great souls have known this and have constantly striven to let the Mind of God express through their mentalities. “The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” This was the declaration of the great Master, and it should be ours also; not a limited sense of life but a limitless one.
All I AM Quotes From The Power of I AM Volume 2 are from the following Authors
Fay Adams, U. S. Andersen, Raymond Charles Barker, M. MacDonald-Bayne, Joseph Benner, Kate Atkinson Boehme, Thomas Parker Boyd, Louise Brownell, H. Emilie Cady, Robert Collier, Florence Gloria Crawford, Mrs. Dan M. Davidson, Walter Devoe, Franklin Fillmore Farrington, Charles Fillmore, Emmet Fox, John Seaman Garns, Harry Gaze, Neville Goddard, Henry Hand, Shirley Bell Hastings, Ernest Holmes, C. W. Kyle, Christian D. Larson, Elinor S. Moody, Joseph Murphy, Janeski Robenoff, Robert A. Russell, John Milton Scott, Elizabeth Towne, Thomas Troward, Helen Wilmans