The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner
I have said that man does not think; that it is I, within him, Who do his thinking. I have also said man thinks he thinks. As this is an apparent contradiction. I needs must show you that man ordinarily, does not think, any more than he does anything else he supposes he does.
For I, within him, do all that he does; but I necessarily do it through his organism, through his personality, his body, mind and soul. I will point out how this can be.
First, try to realize that I made you in My Image and Likeness, and that I have My Being within you. Even if you do not know this now and believe that I, God, AM somewhere without, and that we are separated, try for the time being to imagine I AM within you.
Next, realize that which you do when you think is not real thinking, because it is not conscious thinking; for you are unconscious of Me, the Inspirer and Director of every idea and thought that enters your mind. Next, realize because I AM within you, and you are My Image and Likeness, and therefore possess all of My Faculties, you have the power of thinking; but not being conscious that thinking is creating and that it is one of My Divine Powers you are using you have indeed all your life been thinking, but it has all been mis-thinking, or what you would call error thinking. And this error-thinking, this not knowing it is My Power you have been thus misusing, has been separating you in consciousness farther and farther from Me; but all the time fulfilling My Purpose, which later on will be made manifest to you.
The proof of this is, you think you are separated from Me, that you are living in a material World, that your body of Flesh engenders and harbors pleasure and pain, and that an evil influence, called the Devil, is manifesting in the world, opposing My Will.
Yes, you think all these things are so.
They are - to you, for all things are to man's mortal consciousness what he thinks or believes they are.
I have likewise caused them to appear to man to be what he thinks they are. This also is to suit My purpose, and to fulfill the law of creating. Let us see if this is not true. If you believe a thing is so, is not that thing really so to you?
Is it not true that a thing seems real to you, like some sin or evil, so-called, some sorrow, trouble or worry, only because your thinking or believing it so makes it such? Others might see that thing entirely differently and might think your view of it foolish. Might they not?
If this is true, then your body, your personality, your character, your environment, your world, are what they appear to be to you, because you have thought them into their present status. Therefore you can change them by the same process, if they do not please you; you can make them whatever you will, by thinking them so. Can you not?
But how can one do real thinking, conscious thinking, so as to bring about this change? You ask.
First know that I, your Real Self, purposely brought to your attention these things which now are displeasing and which cause you to think them as being what they now seem to be to you. I, and I alone, AM thus preparing your human mind so that, when you turn within to Me in abiding Faith and Trust, I can enable you to see and bring into outer manifestation the Reality of these things which now seem so unsatisfactory. For I bring to you everything that, by its outer seeming, can attract or lure your human mind onward in its earthly search, in order to teach you of the illusoriness of all outer appearance of material things to the human mind, and of the fallibility of all human understanding; so that you will turn finally within to Me and My Wisdom, as the One and Only Interpreter and Guide.
When you have turned thus within to Me, I will open your eyes and cause you to see that the only way you can ever bring about this change in thinking, is by first changing your attitude toward all these things you now think are not what they ought to be.
That is, if they are unsatisfactory or obnoxious to you and affect you so as to cause you discomfort of body or disturbance of mind, - why, stop thinking that they can so affect or disturb you. For who is the master? Your body, your mind, or You, the I AM within?
Then why not show You are master, by thinking the true things the I AM of you within wishes you to think?
It is only by your thinking these other things, by allowing these inharmonious thoughts to enter your mind and by so doing giving them the power so to affect or disturb you, that they have any such influence over you. When you stop thinking into them this power, and turn within to Me and allow Me to direct your thinking, they will at once disappear from your consciousness, and dissolve into the nothingness from which your created them by your thinking.
When you are willing to do this, then and then only are you ready to receive Truth, and, by proper conscious thinking, directed by Me, to create the true and permanent things I within wish you to create. Then, when you can thus distinguish the true from the false, the real from the seeming, your conscious thinking will be as potent to create all things you desire, as has been your unconsciousness thinking in the past in creating those things you once desired but now find obnoxious.
For it was by your unconscious thinking, or thinking unconscious of the control your desires exercised over your creative power, that your world and your life are now what you sometime in the past desired them to be.
Have you ever studied and analyzed the process of the working of your mind when a new Idea fertile with possibilities appears?
Have you noticed the relation that Desire bears to such an Idea, and how, through thinking, that Idea is finally brought to actual fruition? Let us study this relation and process.
There is always first the Idea, not considering at this moment the necessity or occasion for Its appearance. It matters not whence the Idea comes, from within or without; for it is always I who inspire It or cause It to impress your consciousness at the particular moment it does. Then, just to the extent that you grow quiet and focus your attention upon that Idea, stilling all the activities of your mind and eliminating all other ideas and thoughts from your consciousness, so that Idea can have full sway, do I illumine your mind and cause to unfold before your mental gaze the various phases and possibilities contained within that Idea. This takes place, however, up to this point, without any volition on your part, other than focusing or concentrating your attention upon the Idea.
Once I have given your human mind a view of Its possibilities, and have enlisted your interest, then does your human personality take up its task; for as I created and inspired the Idea in your mind, so did I cause that Idea to fructify therein and give birth to Desire, desire to bring into outer manifestation all the possibilities of the Idea, Desire thus becoming the mortal agent of My Will and supplying the motive Power; just as the human personality is the mortal instrument used to confine and focus that Power.
Yes, all ideas and all desires come thus from Me. They are My Ideas and My Desires which I inspire in your mind and heart in order to bring them through you into outer manifestation.
You have no ideas of your own and could not possibly have a desire that came from other than Me, for I AM all there Is. Therefore all desires are Good, and when thus understood unfailingly come into speedy and complete fulfillment.
You may wrongly interpret My Desires, My Urges from within, and seek to use them for your own selfish purpose, but even while permitting this they still fulfill My Purpose. For it is only by letting you misuse My Gifts and by the suffering such misuse brings, that I can make you into the clean and selfless channel I require for the perfect expression of My Ideas.
We have, then, first the Idea in the mind; then the Desire to bring the Idea into outer manifestation. So much for the relation. Now for the process of realization.
In accordance with the definiteness with which the picture of the Idea is held in the mind, and the extent to which the Idea possesses the personality, does its creative Power, impelled by Desire, proceed with Its work. This It does by compelling the mortal mind to think out or to imagine (image in), or, in other words, to build mental forms into which I can pour, as into a vacuum, the Impersonal, elemental, vital substance of the Idea. When the Word is spoken, either silently or audibly, consciously or unconsciously,