Your Faith Is Your Fortune
| Chapter 6 |
I AM HE
For if ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins. – John 8:24.
“All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” [John 1:3].
This is a hard saying for those trained in the various systems of orthodox religion to accept, but there it stands.
All things, good, bad and indifferent, were made by God. “God made man (manifestation) in His own image; in the likeness of God made He him” [Genesis 1:27]. Apparently adding to this confusion, it is stated, “And God saw that his creation was good” [Genesis 1:31].
What are you going to do about this seeming anomaly? How is man going to correlate all things as good when that which he is taught denies this fact?
Either the understanding of God is erroneous or else there is something radically wrong with man’s teaching.
“To the pure all things are pure” [Titus 1:15]. This is another puzzling statement. All the good people, the pure people, the holy people, are the greatest prohibitionists. Couple the foregoing statement with this one, “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus” [“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”, Romans 8:1], and you get an impassable barrier to the self-appointed judges of the world. Such statements mean nothing to the self-righteous judges blindly changing and destroying shadows. They continue in the firm belief that they are improving the world.
Man, not knowing that his world is his individual consciousness outpictured, 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”, John 17:19].
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 [Matthew 6:33].
He also stated, “I AM the truth” [John 14:6]. 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.
All things are made by God (consciousness) and without him there is nothing made that is made [John 1:3].
Creation is judged good and very good because it is the perfect likeness of that consciousness which produced it.
To be conscious of being one thing and then see yourself expressing something other than that which you are conscious of being is a violation of the law of being; therefore, it would not be good. The law of being is never broken; man ever sees himself expressing that which he is conscious of being.
Be it good, bad or indifferent, it is nevertheless a perfect likeness of his conception of himself; it is good and very good.
Not only are all things made by God, all things are made of God. All are the offspring of God. God is one. Things or divisions are the projections of the one. God being one, He must command Himself to be the seeming other for there is no other.
The absolute cannot contain something within itself that is not itself. If it did, then it would not be absolute, the only one.
Commands, to be effective, must be to oneself. “I AM that I AM” is the only effective command.
“I AM the Lord and beside Me there is none else” [Isaiah 45:5; Joel 2:27].
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!
It does not matter what the appearances round about you are like. All things make way for the coming of the Lord. I AM the Lord coming in the appearance of that which I am conscious of being. All the inhabitants of the earth cannot stay my coming or question my authority to be that which I AM conscious that I AM [“All the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing, and He doeth according to His will in the armies of Heaven and among all the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, nor say unto Him, ‚What doest Thou?‟”, Daniel 4:35].
“I AM the light of the world” [John 8:12], crystallizing into the form of my conception of myself.
Consciousness is the eternal light, which crystallizes only through the medium of your conception of yourself.
Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.
Now you will realize why Jesus sanctified Himself instead of others [Ioan 17:19], why to the pure all things are pure [Titus 1:15], why in Christ Jesus (the awakened consciousness) there is no condemnation [Romani 8:1].
Awake from the sleep of condemnation and prove the principle of life. Stop not only your judgment of others but your condemnation of yourself.
Hear the revelation of the enlightened, “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Christ Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that seeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean” [Romans 14:14], and again, “Happy is the man who condemneth himself not in that which he alloweth” [“Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth”, Romans 14:22].
Stop asking yourself whether or not you are worthy or unworthy to claim yourself to be that which you desire to be. You will be condemned by the world only as long as you condemn yourself.
You do not need to work out anything.
The works are finished.
The principle by which all things are made and without which there is not anything made that is made is eternal.
You are this principle.
Your awareness of being is this everlasting law.
You have never expressed anything that you were not aware of being and you never will.
Assume the consciousness of that which you desire to express.
Claim it until it becomes a natural manifestation. Feel it and live within that feeling until you make it your nature.
Here is a simple formula. Take your attention from your present conception of yourself and place it on that ideal of yours, the ideal you had heretofore thought beyond your reach. Claim yourself to be your ideal, not as something that you will be in time, but as that which you are in the immediate present.
Do this, and your present world of limitations will disintegrate as your new claim rises like the phoenix from its ashes.
“Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s” [2Chronicles 20:15].
You do not fight against your problem; your problem will only live as long as you are conscious of it.
Take your attention away from your problem and the multitude of reasons why you cannot achieve your ideal.
Concentrate your attention entirely upon the thing desired.
“Leave all and follow me” [Matthew 8:22; 9:9; Luke 5:27].
In the face of seemingly mountainous obstacles, claim your freedom.
The consciousness of freedom is the Father of freedom.
It has a way of expressing itself which no man knows.
“Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourself, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you” [2Chronicles 20:17].
“I AM the Lord”.
I AM (your consciousness) is the Lord. The consciousness that the thing is done, that the work is finished, is the Lord of any situation.
Listen carefully to the promise, “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: Set yourself, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you” [2Chronicles 20:17].
With you!
That particular consciousness with which you are identified is the Lord of the agreement.
He will without assistance establish the thing agreed upon on earth.
Can you, in the face of the army of reasons why a thing cannot be done, quietly enter into an agreement with the Lord that it is done?
Can you, now that you have found the Lord to be your awareness of being, become aware that the battle is won?
Can you, no matter how near and threatening the enemy seems to be, continue in your confidence, standing still, knowing that the victory is yours?
If you can, you will see the salvation of the Lord. Remember, the reward is to the one who endures [Matthew 24:13].
Stand still [Psalm 46:10].
Standing still is the deep conviction that all is well; it is done. No matter what is heard or seen, you remain unmoved, conscious of being victorious in the end.
All things are made by such agreements, and without such an agreement, there is not anything made that is made [John 1:3]. “I AM that I AM” [Exodus 3:14].
In Revelations, it is recorded that a new heaven and new earth shall appear [21:1].
John, shown this vision, was told to write, “It is done” [21:6].
Heaven is your consciousness and earth its solidified state.
Therefore, accept as did John – “It is done”.
All that is required of you who seek a change is to rise to a level of that which you desire; without dwelling upon the manner of expression, record that it is done by feeling the naturalness of being it.
Here is an analogy that might help you to see this mystery.
Suppose you entered a motion-picture theatre just as the feature picture came to its end. All that you saw of the picture was the happy-ending. Because you wanted to see the entire story, you waited for it to unfold again. With the anti-climactic sequence, the hero is displayed as accused, surrounded by false evidence, and all that goes to wring tears from the audience. But, you, secure in the knowledge of the ending, remain calm with the understanding that, regardless of the seeming direction of the picture, the end has already been defined.
In like manner, go to the end of that which you seek; witness the happy end of it by consciously feeling you express and possess that which you desire to express and possess; and you, through faith, already understanding the end, will have confidence born of this knowledge.
This knowledge will sustain you through the necessary interval of time that it takes the picture to unfold.
Ask no help of man; feel, “It is done”, by consciously claiming yourself to be, now, that which as man you hope to be.
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