The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner
consciousness of My Divine Powers ever waiting to manifest through you.
These high vibrations are only the arousing into action of certain Soul qualities and their corresponding faculties, which must be awakened before I can manifest such Powers. And naturally when such Soul qualities are aroused, they meet active opposition from certain other qualities which heretofore held undisputed sway in your nature, and which must be overcome and brought under subjection and then lifted up into their true service before the Soul qualities can freely express.
And this opposition should and will strengthen and test and perfect the expression of these Soul qualities, for you must be capable of withstanding every attack from without before you can fully manifest all My Divine Powers pushing forth from within.
Know that I AM manifesting these Powers in you just as fast as you can bear it and be strong. The mistake you make is in trying to grow yourself.
I AM the Tree of Life within you. My Life will and must push forth, but It will do it by gradual and steady growth. You cannot come into your fruitage before you have grown to it. Remember, My Life is all the time building you up into the perfection of health and strength and beauty, that must express outwardly as It is even now expressing within.
You who have begun to realize I AM within, but have not yet learned to commune with Me, listen and learn now.
You have learned to "Be Still," and you have perhaps felt My Presence within. If so, realizing I AM there, ask Me a question. Then , with a silent, earnest prayer to Me for an answer, but without anxiety, care or personal interest, and with an open mind, wait confidently for the impressions that will come.
Should a thought come in answer that you recognize as what you have heard or read somewhere, cast it out immediately, and say, "No. Father, what do you say?"
Other thoughts may come from other human sources, but if you are alert you will recognize them as such and refuse to accept them. Then if you persist in asking Me, you will finally get an answer that you will feel is really from Me.
Thus it will be at first. When you have learned to distinguish My Voice from all other voices, and can keep your personal interest wholly suppressed, then will you be able to hold silent communion with Me at will, without interference from others' ideas, beliefs, and opinions; and you can ask any question you wish, or another can ask you any question on any problem on which they need help, and I will that moment place in your mind the words to speak, either silently to yourself, or audibly through your tongue to the other.
You, My Beloved, who have consecrated your self to Me, and are bending every effort to find union with Me, but instead have found apparently that every prop of the World's support has been withdrawn or is being withdrawn, and that you are without money and without friends and know not where to turn for human help;
Learn, My Blessed One, that you are very, very close now, and that if you will only continue to abide in Me, letting My Word abide in and guide you, resting and trusting absolutely in My Promise, I will very soon bring to you a Joy, a Fulfillment, a Peace, that human words and human minds can not possibly picture.
For you have obeyed My Commands, and you have trusted Me, and have sought first My Kingdom and My Righteousness, and therefore will I add all other things unto you, even those the World has denied you.
You, My Dear One, who likewise have consecrated your self to Me, but who are still holding to some of the World's standards, being unable to let go and trust wholly to Me;
You to whom, therefore, I have permitted failure, disappointment, even poverty, in order to let you learn the false value of all worldly things, their impermanence, their lack of power to provide happiness, their having nothing to do with My Real Life;
You, dear child, who do not yet see this and whose heart is full of anxiety and fear because you do not see where tomorrow's bread is coming from, or the money for next week's rent, or for the past due mortgage;
Listen once more to My Words long since given to you in the Sermon on the Mount.
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
"Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
"For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God (being interpreted His Consciousness) and His righteousness;and all these things shall be added unto you.
"Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
Do you need any more definite Commands or any more definite Promise than these? - You who have consecrated yourself to Me, and call yourself My disciple. Listen!
Have I not always provided everything? Have you ever been in need but what I always appeared with help just at the right moment? Has there ever been a time when things looked dark that I did not bring Light?
Can you, with what you know now, look back over your life and see where you could have ordered it better? Would you exchange your Spiritual understanding for the earthly possessions of any one you know? Have I not done all this, despite the fact you have been rebelling and refusing to listen to Me all your life?
Ah, My Children, can you not see that money, home, clothes, food, and their acquirement are only incidents and have nothing to do with your real Life, excepting as you make them real by thinking into them so much importance, and letting Me remain only a side issue?
If it becomes necessary for you to be deprived of the things of the world that you may learn the Truth, - that I AM the only important thing in Life, that I must be FIRST if you truly love Me, - I permit this that real and lasting Happiness and Prosperity can be yours.
This applies to you also, My Child, you who have lost health, have lost courage, have lost all hold of your Self, and after weary years of seeking without from earthly physicians and remedies, following faithfully every instruction and suggestion given, in order to regain the Life you have lost, - you who have turned finally within to Me, with the faint hope that I may be able to help you.
Know, My Little One, that you, too, must come in complete surrender to Me, the One and Only Physician who can heal you. For I AM the Life Omnipotent within you. I AM your Health, your Strength, your Vitality. Not until you can feel ME within, and know I AM all this to you, is real and lasting Health for you to experience.
And now, My Child, draw close. For I AM now going to tell you the means of obtaining all these things - Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Union, Peace.
In the following words lies hidden the Great Secret. Blessed be you who find it.
Be still! And KNOW, - I AM, - GOD.
KNOW I AM in you. KNOW I AM you. KNOW I AM your LIFE. KNOW All Wisdom, All Love, All Power abides in this Life, which is flowing freely through your entire being NOW.
I AM the LIFE, I AM the INTELLIGENCE, I AM the POWER in all Substance, - in all the cells of your body; in the cells of all mineral, vegetable and animal matter; in fire, water and air; in Sun, Moon and Stars. I AM that in you and in them which IS. Their consciousness is One with your consciousness, and All is My Consciousness.
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