What Is the “I AM”?

Jesus was asked the question of Pilate, What is truth? (John 18:38). Though Jesus didn’t answer Pilate’s question then, He did answer it on another occasion.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus said that I am is the truth. So, in order to know truth, we must know who Jesus is —who, or what, the I am is. Let’s look at a couple of Scriptures:

Exodus 3:13-14

And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

John 8:58

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

God told Moses that His name was I AM and that it would be His name forever. And Jesus, who said that He was one with the Father (John 10:30), told the Pharisees that I AM was also His name.

We ordinarily think of a name as a noun, but I AM is a verb, not an action verb, but a being verb. It indicates that I exist and I am aware of my existence (or being-ness). The AM signifies existence while the I signifies the awareness of it. Hence animals, trees and stars can be; but since they cannot say I, they are unaware of their being-ness.

But we who are begotten of God (James 1:18) in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) are aware of our existence. And that awareness (I AM) is the name of God and is God.

Both Moses (to some extent) and Jesus (totally) became aware of the Father within saying, I AM is God. They both understood the dominion that was given to man in the beginning (Genesis 1:26) and which remained with man. Their understanding and exercising of that dominion got both of them into quite a bit of trouble.

Exodus 7:1

And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.

John 14:9

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

John 5:18

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

John 10:33

The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

Moses could (even in his limited awareness of his true being) lead the children of Israel out of Egypt —and there was not one feeble person among their tribes (Psalms 105:37). But he could take neither himself nor the Israelites into the Promised Land (symbolically speaking) where nothing can enter that defiles or makes a lie (Revelation 21:27). For he couldn’t as yet reckon his own humanity (or that of the people) to be dead. (Romans 6:11 (KJV) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.)

He could only give the law to restrain the people until such time as God Himself descended in the form of the man Jesus to destroy all humanity on the cross by dying the death required of all those under the law. He rose from the dead not as the human Jesus, but as the Christ —taking up His abode in all men.

2Corinthians 5:17-21  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Now I (and everyone else) can come into the awareness of the I AM that I am —the I AM that is God, the I AM that has dominion over all creation, the I AM that knows:

Isaiah 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord [the I AM] do all these things.

–the I AM that knows that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

Yes, whatever we are aware of, we bring into manifestation, whether it be light or darkness, peace or evil —for the very awareness (the I AM) is Itself God (which is Cause). We can’t help having dominion; we can’t help being the cause of what we are experiencing. (See Consciousness Manifested,)

It is an awesome thing to be still and know that I [the I AM that I am —my awareness of my existence] am God (Psalms 46:10).

Paul said that if the princes of this world had known what they were doing they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Corinthians 2:8). We can also say that if we knew what we are doing —i.e., creating all that we are experiencing— we would have a lot more respect for the I Am that I am. We would begin to become aware of all the wonderful things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (1Corinthians 2:9-10).

And we would cease being aware of the world of appearances and thereby creating that world which Jesus was not of and which we don’t want to experience.

We would do as Paul admonished: Set your affection on [be earnestly aware of] things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).

We would let the same mind that was in Christ Jesus be in us. We wouldn’t think it robbery to be equal with God (Philippians 2:5-6); for we would understand the danger of not knowing that our awareness (or consciousness) does indeed equal God.