The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner
do all these things?
Answer truly and satisfactorily these questions to yourself, and you will learn that I God, within you, your own Self, do all things that you do, and I do them well.
I do them while expressing My Idea, Which is ever seeking manifestation in outer form as Perfection through you, My living Attribute, even as it is in the Eternal, within.
As for your true "Soul Mate," which you have been led by others to believe must be waiting for you somewhere, cease looking; for it exists not without in some other body, but within your own Soul.
For that within you which cries out for completion is only your sense of Me within, yearning for recognition and expression; Me, your own Divine Counterpart, the Spiritual part of you, your other half, to which and which alone you must be united, before you can finish what you came on Earth to express.
This is indeed a mystery to you who are not yet wedded in consciousness to your Impersonal Self; but doubt not, when you can come to Me in complete surrender, and will care for naught else than union with Me, then will I disclose to you the sweets of the Celestial Ecstasy I have long kept in reserve for you.
Chapter 13
Authority
To you who still feel the desire to read books, thinking in them to find an explanation of the mysteries that now hide from you the meaning of the earthly expressions of My Idea, I say: It is well that you seek thus outwardly, following the impulses I send, for others interpretations of the meaning My Idea is expressing through them; for I will make that search to be of benefit to you, though not in the way you imagine.
It is even well for you to seek in ancient teachings, philosophies and religions, or in those of other races and other peoples, for the Truth I wish to express to you; for even that search will prove profitable.
But the time will come when you will realize that the thoughts of other minds and the teachings of other religions, no matter how true and beautiful, are not what I intend for you; for I have reserved for you thoughts and teachings which are yours and yours only, and which I will give to you in secret when you are ready to receive them. When the time comes, as it inevitably will, that you become dissatisfied in your search among the teachings of the various religions, philosophies and cults that now are interesting you, and you grow discouraged at finding yourself no nearer the attainment of the powers and spiritual growth so authoritatively described and supposedly possessed by the writers of the books, the teachers of the philosophies and the promulgators of the religions, then will I show you that while all these books, teachings and religions were originally inspired by Me, and have done and are still doing their part in quickening the hearts of many, yet for you it is now meant that you cease looking to any outer authority, and instead confine your study to My Book of Life, guided and instructed by Me within, by Me alone. If you earnestly and truly do this, you will find that I have chosen you to be the High Priest of a religion, the glory and grandeur of which will be to all others that have been pictured to your former understanding, as the light of the Sun is to the twinkle of the far distant star.
You will likewise realize that the ancient religions were given to My peoples of long ages past, and that the religions of other races are for My peoples of those races, and that none of these are for you; even though I brought them to you and pointed out many wondrous things in them that inspired you to a more determined search for Me within their teachings.
I say to you, these are things of the past and have naught to do with you. The time has arrived, if you can see it, when you must cast aside all accumulated knowledge, all teachings, all religions, all authority, even My authority as expressed in this and My other outer revelations; for I have quickened you to the consciousness of My Presence within, to the fact that all authority, teachings and religions,coming from any outer source, no matter how lofty or sacred, can no longer have any influence with you, except as they become a means of turning you within to Me, for My final authority on all questions of whatsoever nature.
Therefore, why seek in the things of the past in religion, human knowledge, or in others' "experiences" for the help and guidance which I alone can give?
Forget all that has gone before. That which is past is dead. Why burden your soul with dead things?
Just to the extent you hold to things that are past, do you still live in the past, and can have naught to do with Me, Who dwell in the everpresent NOW, the Eternal.
Just to the extent you attach yourself to past acts or experiences, religions or teachings, do they cloud your soul vision, hiding Me from you. They will ever prevent your finding Me until you free yourself of their darkening influence and step within, into the Light of My Impersonal Consciousness, which recognizes no limitations and penetrates to the infinite Reality of all things. Likewise the future concerns you not. He who looks to the future for his final perfection is chained to the past and can never get free, until his mind no longer is thus engrossed with the consequences of his acts, and he recognizes Me as his only Guide and throws all responsibility upon Me.
You, who are one with Me, are perfect now, and always were perfect, knowing neither youth nor old age, birth nor death.
You, the Perfect, have naught to do with what has been or what is to be. You care not for anything but the eternal NOW. That only concerns you which immediately confronts you, - how perfectly to express My Idea here and now in the condition in which I have placed you purposely for such expression.
When that has been done, why not leave it behind, instead of dragging it along with you, burdening your mind and soul with consequences which are but empty shells from which you have extracted the meat?
All this applies to reincarnation, to which belief many minds are fast chained.
What have You, the Perfect, the Eternal, to do with past or future incarnations? Can the Perfect add to Its perfection? Or the Eternal come out of or return to eternity?
I AM, and You Are, - ONE with Me, - and always have been, and always will be. The I AM of You dwells in and reincarnates in ALL bodies, for the one purpose of expressing My Idea.
Humanity is My Body. In It I live, move and have My Being, expressing the Glorious Light of My Idea through My Attributes, whose Celestial Radiance to the human vision is bedimmed and distorted by the myriads of clouded and imperfect facets of the human intellect.
I and You, Who are One with Me, reincarnate in Humanity, as the oak reincarnates in its leaves and acorns, season after season, and again in the thousand oaks born from their thousands of acorns and their oaks, generation after generation.
You say you remember your past lives. Do you? Are you sure?
Very well, what if you do? Just because I have permitted you a glimpse of the Reality of one of My past Expressions, that you might the better comprehend My Meaning which I am now expressing to you, is no assurance from Me that you personally were My Avenue of that expression.
For do I not express through all avenues, and You with Me, and are We not the Life and Intelligence of all expression, no matter what the character, or the age, or race?
If it pleases you to believe that you actually were that expression, it is well, and I shall cause such belief to be of benefit to you; but only to the extent of preparing you for the great Realization that afterward will come.
In the meantime you are chained fast. Your personality, with its selfish desires and selfish seeking, is still bound hand and foot to the past, and looks only to the future for its deliverance, after the final wearing out of all the consequences of its acts; dominating your mind and intellect with this false belief in birth and death, and that such is your only way to final emancipation and union with Me; preventing the realization of Our Eternal and Ever-Constant Oneness, and that You can free your Self any moment You will.
For it is only the personality that is born and dies, and which seeks and strives to prolong its stay in the body and in earth life, and then to return to other