It’s time to get a hold of your Self.
“It’s odd that religion often imagines a different and better world to come later, normally after death or some sort of apocalyptic end to our current world. Many people are anxiously awaiting the passing of this world in order to get to Heaven, the perfect place and paradise. But our world first appears as a paradise in the Book of Genesis and the Garden of Eden.
Why do we not see that the state of our world currently has been created and conditioned by our way of perceiving, understanding and being. Think of the impact Jesus had as one human being and 30-year life on earth. And yet Jesus said we would do greater things than he did. The big miracle is not escaping this earth; it’s transforming it.
It’s time to get a hold of your Self. In our lifetime there is only one person we must encounter, one person we must meet and know, one person we must be and express. That person is our essential Self, the true Self, the Self that was born out of the image, likeness and being of God. That Self that holds the kingdom of God. That Self that is united with God. The Self that was on display in and through Jesus.
Jesus made many “I am” statements about his Self, and Jesus intended us to identify our sense of Self in them. Jesus said in John 17, “The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” And Paul said that we were meant to attain “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Think of this glory and fullness in the context of the “I am” statements and understand them as they relate to our own spiritual identity.
“I am the bread of life” is the “I am” of experiencing yourSelf as the completion of all spiritual desire and longing.
“I am the light of the world” is the “I am” of spiritual clarity, true perception – seeing things as they truly are, and the dissolution of all falsehood and illusion.
“I am the Door” is the “I am” of experiencing oneSelf as a channel through which the divine life and spirit flows.
“I am the Good Shepherd” is the “I am” of goodness and a bond and solidarity of humanhood, where every man is our brother and every woman is our sister.
“I am the Resurrection and the Life” is the “I am” of knowing oneSelf as pure eternal being – unthreatened, boundless, infinite, victorious.
“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” is the “I am” of seeing oneSelf as complete and whole as an expression of the image, likeness and being of God.
“I am the Vine” is the “I am” of experiencing yourself as a source of spiritual energy to nourish, heal and strengthen what is weak or broken.
The world as it currently is has been created and conditioned out of a lot of spiritual ignorance, falsehood and illusion. What would happen if we claimed our true Self and began to operate within the reality of these “I am” statements that Jesus offered us? Maybe that’s what the scriptures means when they say that all creation moans, waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes From (over) The Edge
