The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner
finally and completely shines through Its mantle of flesh, will compel you to worship and glorify Me far above all that your human mind and intellect now conceive of as God.
Before you can become conscious of all this and can truly comprehend it, you and your human personality must make it possible for Me to reveal it, by turning within to Me as the One and Only Source, bringing to Me your measure absolutely empty of self, and with mind and heart as simple and trusting as those of a child. Then and then only, when nothing of the personal consciousness remains to prevent My filling you full to overflowing with the consciousness of Me, can I point out to you the glories of My Real Meaning, for which this whole Message is but the outer preparation.
The time has now arrived, however, for you to comprehend somewhat of this. Enough has been revealed to prepare you for the recognition of My Voice speaking within.
Therefore, I shall now proceed as if you realize I AM within, and that these Truths which I voice through the medium of these pages are but to impress more strongly upon your consciousness those phases of My Idea which you could not clearly receive direct.
That which herein appeals to you as Truth is consequently but a confirmation of that which My Idea has heretofore been struggling to express from within.
That which does not appeal and which you do not recognize as your own, pass by, for that means I do not desire you to receive it as yet. But each Truth I voice herein will go on vibrating until It reaches the minds I have quickened to receive It; for every word is filled with the potent power of My Idea, and to minds that perceive the Truth hidden therein this Truth becomes a living Reality, being that phase of My Idea they are now worthy and capable of expressing.
As all minds are but phases of My Infinite Mind, or parts of It manifesting in different forms of mortal nature, when I speak through the medium of these pages to your mind and to other minds, I AM but speaking to My mortal Self, thinking with My Infinite Mind, pushing forth My Idea into earthly expression.
Just so will You soon be thinking My Thoughts, and be conscious that I AM speaking within directly to your human consciousness, and you will then no longer have to come to this or to any other of My outer Revelations, either spoken or written, in order to perceive My Meaning.
For AM I not within You, and AM I not You, and are You not One with Me, Who live in and express through the consciousness of all minds, knowing all things?
All that remains for you to do is to enter into the All-consciousness of My Mind and abide there with Me, even as I abide within My Idea in Your Mind. Then all things shall be Yours, as they now are Mine, being but the outer expression of My Idea, and existing only by reason of the consciousness I gave them when I thought them into being.
It is all a matter of consciousness - of your conscious thinking. You are separated from Me only because you think you are. Your mind is but a focal point of My Mind. If you but knew it, what you call your consciousness is My Consciousness. You cannot even think, much less breathe or exist without My Consciousness being in you, - Can you not see it?
Well, then, think, believe you are I, that We are not separated, that We could not possibly be separated; for WE are ONE, I within You, and You within Me, Think this is so; determinedly image it as so; and verily the moment you are conscious of this, that moment are you with Me in Heaven.
You are what you believe you are. Not one thing in your life is Real or has any value to you only as your thinking and believing has made it such. Therefore, think no more you are separated from Me, and abide with Me in the Impersonal Realm, where all Power, all Wisdom, and all Love, the threefold nature of My Idea, but await expression through You.
Now I have spoken much of this, and have apparently said the same thing more than once, but in different words. I have done this purposely, presenting My Meaning in different lights, that you might finally be brought to comprehend My Divine Impersonality, which is in Reality Your Impersonality.
Yes, I have repeated and will continue to repeat many Truths, and you may think it tedious and unnecessary; but if you will read carefully you will find that each time I repeat a Truth I always add something to what has already been said, and that each time a stronger and more lasting impression is made upon your mind.
This done, My purpose has been accomplished, and you will soon come into a Soul realization of that Truth.
If you receive not such impression and still think such repetition a useless waste of words and time, know that your intellect only is reading, and that My real meaning has altogether escaped you. You, however, who do comprehend, will love every word, and will read and reread many times, and consequently will receive all the wondrous Pearls of Wisdom I have held in reserve for you. These words and their message will be to you hereafter merely a fount of inspiration, or a door through which you will be enabled to enter into the Impersonal estate and to hold sweet communion with Me, your Father in Heaven, when I will teach you all things you desire to know.
I have been picturing the Impersonal estate from many viewpoints, in order that it may become so familiar that you can unerringly distinguish it from all inferior states, and may learn to dwell consciously in it at will.
When you can consciously dwell in it so that My Words when and wherever spoken can always find lodgment and understanding in your mind, then will I permit you to use certain faculties I have been awakening in you. These faculties will enable you more and more clearly to see the Reality of things, not only the beautiful and lovely qualities in the personalities of those about you, but their weaknesses, faults and shortcomings, as well.
But the reason you are enabled to see these faults and shortcomings, is not that you may criticize or judge your brother, but that I may arouse in you a definite resolve to overcome such faults and shortcomings in your own personality. For, mark you! - You would take no note of them in others were they not still in your self; for I within, then would not need to call them to your attention.
As all things are for use, and use only, let us study the use you have hitherto made of other faculties, gifts and powers I have given you. You must realize by this time I have allowed you all things. All you have, or are, be it of good or evil, of blessing or suffering, of success or failure, of riches or lack, I have allowed you or attracted to you. - Why? For USE - in awakening you to a recognition and acknowledgment of Me as The Giver.
You could not honestly acknowledge Me as such until you knew I AM, The Giver. Your personality, in fact, had become so engrossed in trying to get rid of or to exchange many of the things I had given you for other things you thought were better, that of course you could not even dream, much less acknowledge, Me, Your Own Self, as The Giver.
Possibly you do now acknowledge Me as The Giver, as the Inner Essence and Creator of all things in your world and in your life, even of your present attitude toward these things. Both are My doing, for they are but the outer phases of the process I AM using in the expression of My Idea of your inner Perfection, which Perfection being My Perfection is gradually unfolding from within you.
As you more and more realize this, will the true meaning and use of the things, conditions and experiences I send be revealed unto you. For you will then begin to glimpse My Idea within, and when you glimpse that Idea will you begin to know Me you own Real Self.
Before you can truly know Me, however, you must learn that all things I give you are Good - and that they are for use, My use, - and that you personally have no interest in or actual right to them, and they are of no real benefit to you, only as you put them to such use.
I may be expressing through you beautiful symphonies of sound, color or language, that manifest as music, art or poetry, according to human terminology, and which so affect others as to cause them to acclaim you as one of the great ones of the day.
I may be speaking through your mouth or inspiring you to write many beautiful Truths, which may be attracting to you many followers, who hail you as a most wonderful preacher or teacher.
I may even be healing through you diverse diseases, casting out devils, making the blind to see and the lame to walk, and performing other marvelous works which the world calls miracles. Yes, all these I may be doing through you, but of absolutely no benefit is any