BY NOW ye should know Me as I AM, as the One and Only Self of thee—yea of all who read. For I, Jesus Christ, AM the Light that lighteth and liveth thee and am all that thou art.

I AM likewise that which thy Father in Heaven is, Who I have shown thee is a Son of God, thy Highest Self. For He and I are One. All Sons of God are One in Me, the Christ, the Only Begotten of My Father—His Holy Spirit in every man that dwelleth in the darkness until his blossoming time.

But perhaps ye do not yet know Me as thy Self. Perhaps thy mind cannot as yet separate Me from its concept of Jesus of Nazareth and know Me as all that thou art. To thee perhaps there is still Jesus and thy Higher Self, the Lord God in thee; thou dost not yet know them as One. But My purpose, beloved, in this Message is to get thee to know that thou, thy Father in Heaven as a Son of God and also the Lord God within—thy Highest Self, and My Father God and I, are One—that none are separate or different from thee; for I, God, Alone, AM all that They and thou art.

I AM thy True Self, yet I AM the True Self of every man. For I AM the Christ, the Consciousness or Holy Spirit of God in every man which gives him life and all the intelligence he has.

When man’s intelligence has grown to where he knows him self as I AM, and he surrenders all desire and all concern about himself and allows Me to rule his consciousness and express My Self as I will, man then is no more as a separate self, and I alone AM his consciousness.

But if man hears this and accepts its truth and is willing and even anxious to surrender all to Me and to allow Me thus to rule and express My Self, ye may ask, why then does he not do this at once and fully?

Ye forget that I AM within man and AM all that he is, that man of himself is nothing—no more than his hand of itself is anything. The hand, in order to be of the highest and most efficient use to any man must be taught and trained by much exercise and practice for the tasks required of it. Likewise the outer man, with his mind and will, must be taught and trained by exercise and much practice for the tasks I call upon him to do.

I may show him the Kingdom and may teach him what he must do to gain and enter and abide in it; but the learning of all this with his mind and the doing of it are two different things—it cannot be accomplished until, through persistent trial and effort, much faithful practice, and many failures, mind and will have been developed into a perfectly synchronized instrument that I can use to express My and My Father’s Will and Purpose on earth equally as in Heaven.

This dear one, is the greatest problem before all who would be My conscious disciples in these last days. Many have learned the laws I have taught them and know with their minds just what they need to do to surrender and to allow Me completely to rule—but they find they do not and cannot let go, no matter how much they yearn and pray so to do.

It is because I have not yet trained and disciplined their minds and wills sufficiently so that they submit fully to My Will, and thus enable Me to take complete charge.

But always remember that I and ye are One and the same, that therefore ye in My Consciousness must do the training and dis ciplining, must guide and control all the forces of mind and will until they perfectly obey thee. Until ye learn to do that, they will always rebel, hold ye back, and prevent the surrender ye crave.

But know this—if it is the doing of it in My Consciousness that makes ye doubt your ability to guide and control those forces, ye are always in My Consciousness when ye actually take charge and compel mind and will to obey thee. For the definite attempt so to do frees thee from self’s control and releases My Power in thee that enables thee to do it. Think on this until it is clear, and then prove it.

No man of himself can do anything, yet not until man wants to do something does he or can he do it—unless he does it without thinking because something impels him so to do. But always that which causes him to want to do anything or which impels him to do something is I, his One and Only Self, Who am all that he is.

This is hard for many to see and accept. They ask, Do I, Jesus Christ, man’s True Self, cause or impel anyone to steal, hurt or kill another?

If I, as thy True and Only Self, AM all that thou art, then how canst thou do anything of thyself? Must I not know, be responsible for, and permit—if I do not actually cause—thee to do all that thou dost? But ye have not yet learned that all that thou dost is good, that out of the seeming bad that results from acts done in thy ignorance, thou in time learnest what is NOT good, and it maketh thee to long for and seek the good and to avoid that which causes the inharmony and troubles of life.

But, ye ask, is it good that another is hurt or killed, or has much needed money taken from him?

Ye forget that I AM in that other, even as I AM in you, and that I must cause or permit what happens to his outer self for some good that I intend for his soul’s need. For am I not growing his soul and teaching it daily what it needs to learn, as fast as his mind can understand and accept it? And if his mind influenced by his ignorant and rebellious soul refuses to accept, then it may be that misfortune, hurts and even death may be necessary to awaken his soul to the truth of what his mind would not accept in the flesh.

No, beloved, I as thy Higher Self, God’s Holy Spirit in man, know what is best for thee, and am always supplying it. For I AM always with thee, guiding and teaching thee, when I have grown thee to where thou wilt listen to Me; and, until then, plac ing thee in conditions where, through the inharmony, trouble and suffering that result from not listening and from following self’s de sires and will, thou learnest what is NOT My will and desire for thee. And in placing thee in such conditions it must be I Who cause or impel thee to do what brings thee to those conditions, knowing in advance the lessons I intended to teach thee from them, when thou wert ready to listen.

Thus thou canst see that thou canst do nothing of thyself. Thou canst not even listen to Me, until I have grown thee the in understanding and taught thee how to listen. Thou even canst not want anything, for I inspire or permit all thy wants—the good and the seeming bad, allowing thee to be filled with “bad” desires until thou hast harvested everyone, gained the “good” from their lessons that each contain, then no longer heeding such, having learned discrimination, ye respond only to the “good.” Thou canst not even want always the good, until I have taught thee fully what all “bad” is not.

Thou likewise canst not consciously submit to My will, allow ing Me to rule all thy thoughts, words and acts, until I have grown thee to the place where thou hast learned that there is no bad—that ALL is good, and thou hast no longer any desire or will for thyself. The full surrender to Me comes only when, through the grace of My Father in Heaven, His Spirit “descends” and abides in thee, and I Alone AM thy consciousness, life and will.

From this ye may become fearful and say man then has no free-will, that he is just a puppet and it matters not what he does, for God makes him do everything and therefore he is not responsible for what he does.

Nay, this is not wholly so; for when I place thee in conditions in order to teach thee needed lessons, while I may know in ad vance because of thy weakness or lack of understanding what thou wilt do, yet thou art left to choose for thyself. For only thus canst thou learn that thy choice is not good, and will then begin to search for the good.

But this is so only for those who are young in understanding. When they grow up, they learn to work with the Law. For all are under the Law. “As a man soweth, so shall he reap.” As a man thinketh and believeth, so shall it manifest for him. When a man learns to sow only good seeds, he reaps a full harvest of good. When a man grows to where he shuns evil of every kind and thinks and believes only good about himself and his fellow men, then only good will manifest in his life.

For then he has learned to unite his will with the will of his Father in Heaven, and to want nothing that He does not want him to have. He has learned from much experience to work with the Law of Love, the Law of serving God in his fellows and of making that first in his thoughts and life, and then as a natural consequence the Law of Love always works with and for him.

Then he is no longer concerned about his “free” will; he now wants only God’s Will to rule, and he gladly waits upon Him in all things.