“I AM” the vine and ye are the branches.” Consciousness is the ‘vine,’ and those qualities which you are now conscious of being are as ‘branches’ that you feed and keep alive. Just as a branch has no life except it be rooted in the vine, so likewise things have no life except you be conscious of them. Just as a branch withers and dies if the sap of the vine ceases to flow towards it, so do things in your world pass away if you take your attention from them, because your attention is as the sap of life that keeps alive and sustains the things of your world. To dissolve a problem that now seems so real to you all that you do is remove your attention fromit. In spite of its seeming reality, turn from it in consciousness.
Become indifferent and begin to feel yourself to be that which would be the solution of the problem. For instance; if you were imprisoned no man would have to tell you that you should desire freedom. Freedom, or rather the desire of freedom would be automatic. So why look behind the four walls of your prison bars? Take your attention from being imprisoned and begin to feel yourself to be free. FEEL it to the point where it is natural – the very second you do so, those prison bars will dissolve. Apply this same principle to any problem. I have seen people who were in debt up to their ears apply this principle and in the twinkling of an eye debts that were mountainous were removed.
I have seen those whom doctors had given up as incurable take their attention away from their problem of disease and begin to feel themselves to be well in spite of the evidence of their sense to the contrary. In no time at all this so called “incurable disease” vanished and left no scar. Your answer to, “Whom do you say that I AM”? [sic] ever determines your expression. As long as you are conscious of being imprisoned or diseased, or poor, so long will you continue to out-picture or express these conditions. When man realized that he is now that which he is seeking and begins to claim that he is, he will have the proof of his claim. This cue is given you in words, “Whom seek ye?” And they answered, “Jesus.” And the voice said, “I am he.” ‘Jesus’ here means salvation or savior. You are seeking to be salvaged from that which is not your problem.
“I am” is he that will save you. If you are hungry, your savior is food. If you are poor, your savior is riches. If you are imprisoned, your savior is freedom. If you are diseased, it will not be a man called Jesus who will save you, but health will become your savior. Therefore, claim “I am he,” in other words, claim yourself to be the thing desired. Claim it in consciousness – not in words – and consciousness will reward you with your claim. You are told, “You shall find me when you FEEL after me.” Well, FEEL after that quality in consciousness until you FEEL yourself to be it. When you lose yourself in the feeling of being it, the quality will embody itself in your world. You are healed from your problem when you touch the solution of it. “Who has touched me? For I perceive virtue is gone out of me.” Yes, the day you touch this being within you – FEELING yourself to be cured or healed, virtues will come out of your very self and solidify themselves in your world as healings. It is said, ‘You believe in God.
Believe also in me for I am he.” Have the faith of God. “He made himself one with God and found it not robbery to do the works of God.” Go you and do likewise. Yes, begin to believe your awareness, your consciousness of being to be God. Claim for yourself all the attributes that you have heretofore given an external God and you will begin to express these claims. “For I am not a God afar off.
I am nearer than your hands and feet – nearer than your very breathing.” I am your awareness of being. I am that in which all that I shall ever be aware of being shall begin and end. “For before the world was I AM; and when the world shall cease to be, I AM; before Abraham was, I AM.” This I AM is your awareness. “Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.” ‘The Lord,’ being your consciousness, except that which you seek is first established in your consciousness, you will labor in vain to find it. All things must begin and end in consciousness.
So, blessed indeed is the man that trusteth in himself – for man’s faith in God will ever be measured by his confidence in himself. You believe in a God, believe also in ME. Put not your trust in men for men but reflect the being that you are, and can only bring to you or do unto you that which you have first done unto yourself. “No man taketh away my life, I lay it down myself.” I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again. No matter what happens to man in this world it is never an accident. It occurs under the guidance of an exact and changeless Law. “No man” (manifestation) “comes unto me except the father within me draw him,” and “I and my father are one.” Believe this truth and you will be free. Man has always blamed others for that which he is and will continue to do so until he find himself as cause of all. “I AM” comes not to destroy but to fulfill.
“I AM,” the awareness within you, destroys nothing but ever fill full the molds or conception one has of one’s self. It is impossible for the poor man to find wealth in this world no matter how he is surrounded with it until he first claims himself to be wealthy. For signs follow, they do not precede. To constantly kick and complain against the limitations of poverty while remaining poor in consciousness is to play the fool’s game. Changes cannot take place from that level of consciousness for life in constantly out-picturing all levels. Follow the example of the prodigal son. Realize that you, yourself brought about this condition of waste and lack and make the decision within yourself to rise to a higher level where the fatted calf, the ring, and the robe await your claim.