The Name of God: 'I Am' Is Synonymous with God

A man’s knowledge of himself depends upon his knowledge of the revealer, so tonight we are looking for the revealer.The Psalmist said, “Those who know your name put their trust in thee” (Ps. 9:10). Well, the name of God is synonymous with God himself. So if I know his name, I will put my trust in God, for the name and God are one. It is first revealed to us in the Book of Exodus, the 3rd chapter: “And when I come to the people of Israel and I say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me,’ and they ask, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say? And the Lord said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me unto you…and this is my name forever throughout all generations’” (verses 13-15).

Now you be the judge.No one judges you…you are the judge of whether or not you put your trust in God.Or do you have something other than your own wonderful I-am-ness?Do you completely trust God or do you have some other thing? It could be, well, it could be the stars, or it could be some creation of his. Now listen to the words carefully, “I am the Lord your God.” That’s like saying, “I am the I AM that is your I am”…same thing. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me. Make no graven image, no likeness of anything that is in the heaven or that is in the earth or below the earth in the water; and bow before none of it” (Exodus 20:2-4), but none of it.

Well, a letter came last Monday…in fact she gave it to me here. This lady was raised in the Catholic faith, a devout Catholic. She’s been exposed here to this teaching concerning Christ. First of all, she thanks me for sharing with her the story of a friend (who is here tonight) who taught his seven year old son how to revise, so when he is hurt he goes to the end as it ought to be. So she said, “On my job I lift a typewriter every day…but it’s a very normal thing. But this day there were obstructions…boxes and packages and all kinds of things…and undoubtedly I got it at a very odd angle, and it strained a muscle in my lower back, and I was in great, great pain. Remembering what this father said to the seven year old son, I revised it, completely revised it, and without any outside assistance in a little while this whole thing subsided and it was perfect.

“Now this part is a dream,” she said. “I had a dream. I took a little boy seven years old into a Catholic church. But instead of entering in at the front door and coming down the center towards the altar, I entered from the side and walked across the entire church to the opposite side without genuflecting. As I got there the Mass is over and they’re all leaving towards the entrance where I entered…so they are making their exit there. So I started, but I had to get in line, and I heard a voice say, ‘Now you will have to face the altar and get on your knees, because a priest is looking at you,’ and he was all robed in black. I said, ‘No I will not. I do not believe in anything on the outside; I believe only in myself!” And then she woke.

Now that is perfectly marvelous! To be raised in the Catholic faith…and to so hear it with understanding and belief that in the state called “dream” where attention is supposed to be the servant, really, rather than the master, so that I’m always looking and following objects as they’re presented. But here she was so alert that she remembered the teaching and put it into practice. Priest or no priest she would not as she crossed towards the exit stand before that altar and bow…again putting into practice this 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus. Here you’ll find the Commandments and here, “I am the I AM that is your I AM. I brought you out of the land called Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods…and make no graven image unto me, whether it be above in the heavens, on the earth, or below in the waters below the earth…and do not bow before it.” And millions every day walk by and they bow before a man-made object called an altar, or a little figurine that they call Jesus Christ. They do not know Jesus Christ; they do no know the Lord. If they knew the Lord, they would know his name, and the Lord’s name and the Lord are one, and his name is I AM. There is no other God, none whatsoever. So when I say, “I came out from the Father and came in to the world; again I am leaving the world and I’m going to the Father,” I came out from myself, for I and the Father are one.

So the full significance of the name of God is known only in light of its consummation: When he manifests the name, the one who was the Word made flesh. Well, who is this one who is the Word made flesh?—you are! Are you not flesh and blood? Don’t you say “I am”? Well, that is the Word made flesh. But you will never know the full significance of this name of God until you in the life of the entire unfolding name reach the fullness of it and you consummate it.

So now let us take the consummation of this Word. There are some questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no, just can’t be answered. They ask a question—you’ll find it in the 10th chapter of John (verse 24)—“Do not keep us in the state of uncertainty…tell us plainly are you the Christ?” That’s the question, “Are you the Christ?” Well, here is a question that you cannot answer with a simple yes or no. You will say, “Am I the Christ?” and if by that you mean the Christ of your own expectations no. No, I am not that Christ. If you mean the Christ who was buried on Golgotha, which is your skull; if you mean the Christ who rose from that state of death; if you mean the Christ who came out of that tomb unaided—no one aided him, he himself pushed the stone, and he himself came out; if you mean that Christ where witnesses came and witnessed to his birth from above; and if you mean that Christ who found David in the Spirit and David called him “My Lord” and David called him “my father”; and if you mean that Christ who tore the curtain of the temple, which was his own body, from top to bottom and then rose—for he is the son of man—and then rose like a serpent, comparable to the serpent that rose in the wilderness; and if you mean that Christ on whom the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove, then to your question I will answer yes. But if you mean by Christ your own expectations, the answer is no.

So do we really this night believe in God? Now the word God means so much to people and the word Lord means so much. But when they say “I am,” which is the foundation of it all, “God” is only something to cover it up like a mask. The word “Lord” is to cover it up; for the word translated God and translated Lord means I AM. So when you say “We will call upon his name” the words “call upon” mean literally “to call with his name.”So if I call with his name, I’m going to say, I am…and then I name it. Call what? What will I call? Well, anything, because with him all things are possible. Therefore, what will I call…well, I name it. The minute I name a thing, then I will call with his name, and then if all things are possible to him, it should rise in my world…it should. So I say I want wealth or I want fame or I want health or I want this, that and the other, well then, “I am”…and then I name it. For that’s actually calling with the name of what the world calls God. Then we are told to not take his name in vain, for he will not hold us guiltless who take the name in vain. So you say, “Alright, I am nobody, I am unwanted, I am not this, that and the other.” Alright, you’ve taken the name and you will conjure exactly what you have assumed that you are…good, bad or indifferent. It’s entirely up to us. So, “Those who know thy name put their trust in thee.”

Now when you read the gospel of John you read these many bold I AM assertions. The first one appears in the 6th chapter, “I am the bread of life” (verse 35). Every statement made concerning these I AMs, when you read, don’t think another being said it; just imagine from the depths of our own soul a being is speaking. You hear the voice and it seems to come from another…it seems to come from without as in the story of Moses and the voice. It seemed to him to have come from without, but how can I AM come from without? It cannot come from without! So when I hear it, it seems to come from without but it is a whispering from the depths of my own soul…it comes from within.

And when you read “I am the bread of life”…it’s coming from within you… “to feed the multitudes.” And one day you’ll have the experience that you actually can feed the multitudes. Not with bread made of flour, but you’ll feed them on what they need most. A blind man undoubtedly wants to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the poor to be affluent. So you will feed them with what you are, for you are the bread of life…the bread that came down from heaven.You will have a vision, an actual experience, where thousands are waiting for you and you come by, and they’re in all different states as you glide by. As you glide by, everyone becomes re-shaped, re-molded in harmony with that which you are which is perfect. You are perfection. And they feed on you and you grant everyone whatever they desire, and before your eyes they are all re-molded in harmony with that perfection which is springing within you. When the whole thing is over, a heavenly chorus cries out, “It is finished!” and you descend to this little world once more clothed in a garment of flesh.

The Word once more returns to this garment of flesh and blood to tell the story, to completely finish and bring to a climax that which was sent forward. For, you sent yourself into this world; you weren’t sent: “I came out from the Father” (John 16:28). Well, I have found him and I have found him as myself. If I have him as myself because his Son calls me Father, and I came from the Father, then I came from myself. I came out of the depths of my own being for infinite reasons, to expand beyond whatever I am, beyond into a far greater translucency, a far greater of everything in this world.

So I came out from myself…everyone did. And the day will come you’ll discover that the self that you are, is God the Father…and that is life eternal…the eternal fatherhood of God. You’ll find the Father not as another; you’ll find him as yourself. You are the Father, but at the moment it hasn’t yet reached the climax, so you think of another. I’m appealing to you to turn within and think only of yourself: You are God the Father. We are the fathers that fell asleep and we are dreaming this dream of life. But you are the being spoken of in scripture as God the Father. The day will come that you will know it because your Son will call you Father, and he is not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Father. “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). It is David who calls you Father; and you will see him, and he will call you Father, and you will know it.

In the meanwhile, test what I’m telling you. Test it by calling with the name instead of calling on the name. Tonight, millions are genuflecting before a man-made altar, a man-made little icon, and all these things, and they actually violate the Commandment, “Make no graven image…and do not bow before it.” They make the graven image with human hands and then bow before it. But this lady did not bow before it. She said, “No, I will not. I do not believe in anything that is external, I believe only in myself.” Now coming from one who was raised in the Catholic faith, that is a tremendous step. The day will come that those who are now honored in the world of men with all their robes and all their positions will come to that same conclusion. And they too will have a dream similar to this dream where they will not bow before their own man-made little altar, they will not genuflect. They will simply know who God really is and they’ll put their trust in him. Well, if I’ve found his name, as told me in the 9th chapter of Psalms: “I’ve discovered thy name and I’ll put my trust in thee,” no other being will I trust. Regardless of what happens to me I will simply trust him, and walk in that state.

Now…when I say, “I am the bread of life”…and the second one “I am the light of the world,” you’ll have that experience (John 8:12).You’ll actually feel yourself sink into infinite, pulsing, golden, liquid light. There is no circumference…you are the center and there is no circumference, infinite light. You’ll have the experience and you will know you are the light of the world. You will have the experience of coming into a room where things seem to be animated and independent of your perception of them, and you will stop an activity within you, and they’ll all freeze and stand perfectly still. You will know from your own experience that you are the life of the world; so when you read “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), you will know how true these statements are.The I AM is the only way to what?—to the Father—“No man cometh unto the Father except by me.” You will never find the Father as something external to yourself. You will find the Father only as his Son stands before you and you know he is your Son and therefore you are his Father. That’s the only way you’ll ever find the Father. “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one know who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mat. 11:27). So there’s no other way of knowing the Father. One day you will see the Son, and it will be something from the depths of your own soul. You will know you are looking right into the face of your Son, who said, when you inspired him to write it, “I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee’” (Ps. 2:7).

So here you’ve come to fulfill all that you said you would fulfill; for I sent myself forth as the Word. For, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). So if the Word was God and the Word was sent, as told me in the 55th chapter of Isaiah “And that which came forth from my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it must accomplish that which I purposed and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (verse 11). I sent myself and there was a pattern that I had to fulfill. Only as I fulfilled the pattern that I had predetermined would I return unto myself, knowing that I am the Father that in my journey I was seeking.

So I came out from myself, came into the world, and return to myself as God the Father. We are the fathers. And when you know it and you believe it and wholly trust in the one and only God, there is no other God, stop all the nonsense concerning this and that and all the little isms, forget it! There is only God and there is nothing but God, and God is your own wonderful I-am-ness. So when you say “I am,” that’s God.But man doesn’t stop there; man will say, “I am poor, I’m unwanted, I’m this, that and the other” and he puts that limitation upon a being that is infinite. But he abides by his own law, and whatever he assumes that he is that he becomes. So if I dare to assume anything, I will become it; and I will live in a world of my own creation for I assumed it. And because all things are possible to me, I create and project on the screen of space.

So here, people are searching to find out if there is something beyond the veil, and they get a medium to interpret for them…men who are supposedly high in the Christian church, knowing about the great Christian mystery. Of all the nonsense in the world! And he asked the medium to ask his son “Have you seen Jesus?” Can you imagine that question by a bishop of the Episcopal Church, the highest order that you can arrive at in our Christian church…“Have you seen Jesus?” and the son supposedly said through the medium, “No, they talk about him, but I haven’t.” And he believes in such a Jesus. He rose to the highest position and he is the great father who blesses and baptizes and does all the nonsense in the world. That is not the Christian faith…hasn’t a thing to do with Christianity.

So when the question is asked in the 10th of John, “Do not keep us in suspension, tell us plainly, are you the Christ?” “Well, if by that you mean the Christ of your expectations, no.” But if you mean the real Christ…and then you itemize the pattern, all the things in the pattern that the real Christ must experience, then if you have had these experiences you can answer in the affirmative yes. It’s not what they are looking for.They’re looking for some glamour boy, some movie star, something that looks altogether wonderful…and that is not the Christ. Christ is the pattern man, the eternal pattern that God from the beginning had established, that he himself would fulfill when he would come into the world and be himself, the Word made flesh. So he comes into the world and then unfolds within himself, and he is that being.

Now you can test it this night, as the lady tested it. She strained her back and applied it instantly, because she remembered what the father said to his little boy of seven. So you do the same thing. Come test me and see—that’s what we are invited to do—if I am really holding to my faith. Well, if I really believe in the name, and the only name is I AM, well then, right now test it and see. What do you want to be in this world? Just what do you want to be? Well then, test it! Dare to assume that you are now, not tomorrow, that you are now the being that you desire to be, and walk as though you were. And if this is a true doctrine, you should in the not distant future externalize it on the screen of space and you actually are that being. You become it. Well, if you prove it in the testing, then try it again…and try it again.The day will come that you will actually fulfill everything said in the gospel; for you are the central figure called Christ Jesus…and there never was another one.

Here is the universally diffused individuality: You say “I am”…same being when I say “I am.” There’s only one God: “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4), not two. So you say “I am,” well, I can’t have a billion little “I ams” running around. There’s only God and “In that day his name is one.” When you say “I am,” it isn’t “we are,” is it? It’s I am and that’s one. Well, in that day his name is one; he is king over all the earth and his name is one; that is I am, that’s one. Therefore, you say “I am,” I say “I am,” and we say “I am,” yet it’s only one I AM. So here is a universally diffused individuality. In the end, fulfilling what it intended, it gathers itself once more into the same oneness—one body, one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of it all. Regardless of what parts you played here, you return to the unity, to the one, and no one is greater than the other, just one…for there is only God. So we are all gathered into the one body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all.

Now let others who want all the little things in the world, trying to shine one over the other, let them be if that’s what they want. You will find great comfort in this unity when you look out upon a world and see your own being and you know that everything you see is yourself pushed out and every one is going to fulfill the identical pattern. The story of Jesus Christ is your story and you fulfill it in detail. It’s a definite pattern. If it does not fulfill that pattern as described in scripture, it is only a foreshadowing if you have a similar experience. Take the foreshadowing as the most wonderful promise it’s coming, it’s on the heels, like little pains prior to birth and so, all are foreshadowings, adumbrations. So these are things…if it’s not exactly as told in scripture then accept it as the foreshadowing, and in the not distant future it will turn from that adumbration into the actual picture, and you’ll fulfill it in detail.

You will find from the beginning to the end there are 1,260 days. From the day you awaken within the skull (called Golgotha) to that moment in time when the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove descends upon you. Count the days…1,260 days. It comes out right on the button. And you will know you’ve finished it. Then why do I remain? You remain to tell it…how else would it be told? You become a witness: “And you shall be witnesses for me.” That is the story. So everyone remains and records himself as the witness, and then he departs this world. Departed not to continue the action which is similar to this, but departed to enter the celestial sphere where all the fathers have returned and the fathers form the Father, the One.

So here, be encouraged. You are a divine being, an infinite being. You seem to be in the world of Caesar a little man, a little woman, struggling to pay rent, to make ends meet, and yet you own the world. You own the world because God is housed within you and the whole thing is yours. Well, start here in this world to put this to the test. “Come test yourselves and see. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in thee?—unless of course you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5). Well then, I will not fail to meet the test: I will call with his name, and I will sleep in the assumption that I am now the man that I desire to be, as though I were that man now. Going to sleep in that assumption I firmly expect the fruit to appear in the world, for the last bold I AM saying is “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). That comes in the last. Here, “I am the way, the truth, the life…no one comes unto the Father except by me,” but the last one, ““I am the true vine,” that completes the I AM saying in the Book of John. So if I am the vine, well then, these things must grow upon my world. If I have found the name and the name is I AM, and the name is synonymous with God himself (it is a synonym for God), well then, I am…and I name it, the thing that I want this vine to grow. It must grow this in my world regardless of what the world tells me. If I dare to remain faithful to this state, it must appear within my world if this is true.

Well, I tell you from my own personal experience it is true. Therefore, you can go out this night and dare to claim for yourself that which you would like to experience in this world. And then, put your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of Christ within you. For, it takes many stages, but they are consummated in, what, a short little interval of forty-two months. When the first act takes place, count the days; it will take exactly 1,260 days. Then you linger to tell your story to those who will hear it. Not everyone wants to hear it, they’re not interested. They want things and things, and they think that things, little tiny things make life. Alright, let them have it. Grant them everything in this world that they want until that moment in time when they want more than anything else the Promise, where the whole thing unfolds within them and they discover they are God, they are the Father…and there’s nothing but the Father. So the climax of the entire thing is the discovery of the Father. All these names are his, but he comes to the end “I am the Father.”

Now tonight, you take it…just as she took it and others in this audience tonight. One (this past week or so) coming from the depth of her soul she heard “I am the resurrection and the life. She that believes in me shall have everlasting life.” Then a few days later, the word is ringing in her ear as she’s coming through into this level from sleep, and the word is “resurrection.” But all of these lovely things are taking place in those who are here. A complete transformation is taking place in the soul, where they are believing to the point where the dream world—where we’re supposed to be victims rather than the controlling factor—the whole thing is unfolding and we are still the controlling factor there.

So I want to thank you for your letters, because if I share them as you’ve allowed me to share them, then we’re all mutually encouraged by the experiences of those who have written me, for that is your faith made visible in the form of a letter. And when I can share them and all hear it and they see what others have done, they’re encouraged to stick to it and put it into practice… because there’s no other place to go. As you’re told in the 6th of John (verse 68), it was difficult yes, and then he said, “Would you go also?”—because they all left him, so many left—and he answered, “To whom would we go? Have you not the words of eternal life?” It may be difficult to grasp, may be difficult to follow, but where would I go if these are the words of eternal life?

Let others hang onto their traditional concepts, perfectly alright. But when someone…as Blake said that his task in this world was to open the eternal worlds…he said, “I rest not from my great task to open the eternal worlds, to open the immortal eyes of man inwards into the world of thought, into eternity, ever expanding in the bosom of God, the human Imagination” (Jerusalem, Chap. 1, Plate 5, lines 16-20). So when you give to one that you have elected your own immortal eyes so that she may become the incurrent witness and turn inward into the eternal worlds, into these infinite states, then she brings back. She’ll bring back and bring back and bring back forever, for her eyes were gifts from the risen Lord, and she will see eternal worlds. And she will bring back all the things, whether she understands them or not, she’ll bring them back. She turns them over to me and I’ll interpret them for her. For, she was given these immortal eyes, and yet the gift did not leave the giver without eyes…and they were not loaned, they were gifts; and yet he kept the eyes that he gave.

So here tonight, do take it seriously and when you go out, dare to put it to the extreme test. Forget all the little nonsense around the world where they’re trying to arrive at God through the backdoor and all the other little things. There is no other way: “No man comes unto the Father except by me.” Diets will not do it, holy retreats will not do it; not a thing in this world can do it but this one and only way. “I am the way”; there is no other way. “I am the truth”; there is no other truth. For if things were true, they could not change. And if the most fantastic discovery today by man in the world of Caesar can be modified tomorrow as man expands, then it wasn’t absolutely true when it was revealed as an absolute. There are no absolutes in the world of Caesar. The only absolute is this pattern of God, and all will fulfill it.

Now let us go into the Silence.