The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner
did the blossom and the chick have anything to do with it?
No, only as they submitted or united their will with Mine and allowed Me and My Wisdom to determine the hour and the ripeness for action, and then only as they obeyed the impulse of My Will to make the effort, could they step forth into the New Life.
You may, with your personality, try a thousand times a thousand times to burst through the shell of your human consciousness.
It will result only, if at all, in a breaking down of the doors I have provided between the world of tangible forms and the real of intangible dreams; and the door being open, you then no longer can keep out intruders from your private domain, without much trouble and suffering.
But even through such suffering you may gain the strength you lack and the wisdom needed to know that, not until you yield up all desire for knowledge, for goodness, yes, for union with Me, to benefit self, can you unfold your petals showing forth the perfect Beauty of My Divine Nature, and throw off the shell of your human personality and step forth into the glorious Light of My Heavenly Kingdom.
Therefore I give you these directions now, at the beginning, that you may be learning how to recognize Me.
For I here promise you, if you follow and strive earnestly to comprehend and obey My instructions herein given, you shall very soon know Me, and I will give you to comprehend all of My Word wherever written, in book or teaching, in Nature, or in your fellow man.
If there is much in what herein is written that seems contradictory, seek out My real meaning before discarding it.
Do not leave a single paragraph, or any one thought in it, until all that is suggested becomes clear.
But in all your seeking and all your striving, let it be with faith and trust in Me, your True Self within, and without being anxious about results; for the results are all in My keeping, and I will take care of them. Your doubts and your anxiety are but of the personality, and if allowed to persist will lead only to failure and disappointment.
Chapter 3
I, Life, God
If that which you have read has awakened a response within, and the Soul of you yearns for more, then you are ready for what follows.
If you still question or rebel at the seeming assumption of Divine authority for what is herein written, your intellect telling you it is but another attempt to beguile your mind with cunning suggestion and subtle sophistry, then you will receive no benefit from these words; for their meaning is as yet hidden from your mortal consciousness, and My Word must come to you through other avenues of expression.
It is well if your personality with its intellect impels you thus to question and rebel against authority you do not yet know to be Mine. It is really I Who cause your personality thus to rebel; for your personality with its proud sense of individuality is still needed by Me to develop a mind and body strong enough that they can perfectly express Me. Until you have become prepared to know Me it is but natural for your personality thus to question and rebel. Once you recognize My Authority, that moment the undermining of the authority of the personality has begun. The days of its dominion are numbered, and you will more and more turn to Me for help and guidance.
Therefore, be not dismayed. Read on, and mayhap the recognition will come. But know that you can read or not, as you choose; but if you do it is really I Who choose, and not you.
For you, who seemingly choose not to read further, I have plans, and in due season you shall learn that whatever you do, or like, or desire, it is I leading you through all the fallacies and illusions of the personality, that you may finally awaken to their unreality and then turn to Me as the one and only Reality. Then these words will find a response within:
"Be still! - and KNOW - I AM God."
Yes, I AM that innermost part of you that sits within, and calmly waits and watches, knowing neither time nor space; for I AM the Eternal and fill all space. I watch and wait for you to be done with your petty human follies and weaknesses, with your vain longings, ambitions and regrets, knowing that will come in time; and then you will turn to Me, weary, discouraged, empty and humble, and ask Me to take the lead, not realizing that I have been leading you all the time. Yes, I sit here within, quietly waiting for this; yet while waiting it was really I Who directed all your ways, Who inspired all your thoughts and acts, impersonally utilizing and manipulating each so as eventually to bring you and My other human expressions to a final conscious recognition of Me.
Yes, I have been within always, deep within your heart. I have been with you through all, through your joys and heartaches, your successes and mistakes, through your evildoing, your shame, your crimes against your brother and against God, as you thought.
Aye, whether you went straight ahead, or strayed aside, or stepped backward, it was I Who brought you through.
It was I Who urged you on by the glimpse of Me in the dim distance. It was I Who lured you by a vision of Me in some bewitching face, or beautiful body, or intoxicating pleasure, or overpowering ambition.
It was I Who appeared before you within the garb of Sin, or Weakness, or Greed, or Sophistry, and drove you back into the arms of Conscience, leaving you to struggle in its shadowy grasp; until you awakened to its impotence, rose up in disgust, and in the inspiration of a new vision tore off My mask.
Yes, it is I Who cause you to do all things, and if you can see it, it is I Who do all things that you do, and all things that your brother does; for that in you and in him which IS, is I, My Self. For I AM LIFE.
I AM the Innermost, the Spirit, the animating Cause of your being, of all life, of all living things, both visible and invisible. There is nothing dead, for I, the Impersonal ONE, AM all that there is. I AM Infinite and wholly unconfined; the Universe is My Body, all the Intelligence there is emanates from My Mind, all the Love there is flows from My Heart, all the Power there is, is but My Will in action.
The threefold Force, manifesting as all Wisdom, all Love, all Power, or if you will, as Light, Heat, and Energy " that which holds together all forms and is back of and in all expressions and phases of life, is but the manifestation of My Self in the act or state of Being.
Nothing can Be without manifesting and expressing some phase of Me, Who AM not only the Builder of all forms, but the Dweller in each. In the heart of each I dwell; in the heart of the human, in the heart of the animal, in the heart of the flower, in the heart of the stone. In the heart of each I live and move and have My Being, and from out the heart of each I send forth that phase of Me I desire to express, and which manifests in the outer world as a stone, a flower, an animal, a man.
Is there nothing, then, but this great I? Am I to be permitted no individuality for myself? I hear you ask.
No, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is not a part of Me, controlled and ruled eternally by Me, the One Infinite Reality.
As for your so-called individuality, that is nothing but your personality still seeking to maintain a separate existence.
Soon you shall know there is no individuality apart from My Individuality, and all personality shall fade away into My Divine Impersonality. Yes, and you shall soon reach that state of awakening where you will get a glimpse of My Impersonality, and you will then desire no individuality, no separation for yourself; for you will see that is but one more illusion of the personality.
Chapter 4
Consciousness, Intelligence, Will
Yes, I know the many mixed thoughts that have been crowding into your mind as you read, the doubts and eager questionings, the vague fear that imperceptibly changed into a growing hope that this glimmering of My Meaning, which