The Power of "I Am"

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to this episode of Decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Kovalt, and my name is Reverend Dr. P. J. Stanley. Thanks so much for being here today. And we, in general, are talking about various aspects of new thought spirituality and sometimes beyond that. And today we're talking, the title of today's episode is The Power of I Am. PJ, you want to elaborate on what that is? Yes. So just, I'm going to go back to what we're doing here. And part of the, our our mission is to, to learn, to understand how spiritual concepts work, the power that we have of our minds and ours, our, our statements to create in the principles of the universe to create our own lives. So understanding all the things that help you create, create, create. our lives, help you create your life, is what we're trying to share with you and and hopefully have you a better understanding and put you more in control of how your life is turning out for you. And not everything, of course you can't, some things are just going to be accidents, we are living in the world, but for the most part, for the main, for What, what, what you can do to live the life that you say you want to live. So understanding the power of I am when you, whenever you say I am, whatever goes behind that is what you end up calling in to your life. I am not a biblical scholar at all, but one of the, One of the things about I am that I recall from Bible studies and Bible school was when, when Jesus asked, and people said, who do you think you are? And he said, who do you say I am? And that was just one, there was many other times when You use the word I am and so it it says to me and I know from my own experience That calling things into your life starts with you saying I am and it doesn't have to be a positive thing You can say I am something negative and still draw that into yourself. So Such as I am smart. I am I am Whatever I want to say about myself, I am strong, I am courageous I am afraid. All of those things, we, we're calling it, that into our lives, whatever, however we say it. So when, when you say that, do you have to believe it? You are believing it because you're saying it. So it goes the other, you know, it goes in the opposite direction. The reason why you call, you say it is because it's what you already think about yourself. And so what ends up happening is, is that you have to change your mind about what you think about yourself. I'm afraid. Okay, and you could be, it could be a situational fear. Or it could be fear of movie stepping into something it's stepping into your greatness stepping into your purpose in life stepping into a talent that you have. I know I certainly denied a talent that I have But didn't believe that I did so it was my belief and so I never thought I was a good singer and would say that And and would be reinforced by other people around me saying the same thing right, but Here we're talking about purposely late I'm sort of doing affirmations. That is correct. That's correct. As I understood, part of that is about building your belief. That's correct. Not just that you have to totally believe you are powerful when you say it. Got you. Repeatedly it's laying some tracks. Yes. Thank you for clarifying that question as you're asking. You're exactly correct That is the reason why we're talking about it because you can if you have found yourself owning something or having a Way of being that you want to change You can't actually begin to two things that you can do. You can't actually start to lay down some Affirmations or so I I am statements that are the opposite of that or that are actually the thing you want to bring in as well as you can do denials when you hear yourself saying the Automatic thing that you say about yourself. I am afraid you can stop and say that's not true You can I I literally put my hand up To stop myself so I can see no i'm not going to let that end to my life I am afraid no I am not afraid I am Courageous I step into whatever it is that I'm stepping into. So yes, both affirm it. You're, you're absolutely correct about that. So how, how does using that sort of statement empower you? What is, what's, what's going on there? So I, it's that you're, you, the mind is so powerful and what our heart hears Is, is, is what we say to ourselves repeatedly. And so when you say, I am, you are convincing yourself, you're saying to yourself, you are believing yourself that this thing, whatever you are amming about is true. And so the more that you say it, whether it's currently true or not, it either becomes true, which is not something you want. I am afraid. And maybe you weren't. But you are because you consistently say it and convince yourself that that is true. So the opposite can also happen. If you want to change that, and instead of saying, I'm fearful, I am courageous. And you can continue to tell yourself that. And the more that you say it, the more you're convincing your subconscious that it's true. And that's what we get to do. Did that answer the question you had? It's awesome. Helpful if you can avoid having your subconscious running a counter statement under there. Exactly. You may be saying, I am courageous and back there your mind's going, no, you're not. And that, that will happen. That's your thank you for bringing that up because that will happen. And that is the power of continuing to say it, to say what you really want. The reason why you're, you're, you're the background, it's saying, no, you're not because it's heard you say many, many times, I'm afraid. And so it's remembering that. It's like, no, you're not courageous because you're fearful. You've told me this already, and you've told me this many times, so I know what is true. So it's going to take a number of times of you saying that and starting to, starting to feel that truth on your heart, the energetic truth of that that we start to feel that. So the number of times that you say it and start to feel energetically the truth of it is how it's going to con change. But you do have to say it a number of times to continue to say it and con and affirm the truth now. That was true. It is no longer true. Here's what is true. You're not saying all of that. This is what's going on in your mind. Yes. It was true It's no longer true for me. Here's what is true. So so and those words Actually have the power to to shift things The words themselves. I don't believe the words themselves do I think you convincing yourself is what the same those words over and over Convinces your heart so that so it it just It helps you bring in the truth of who you are now. Because you know, we're always evolving, and sometimes we simply remember who we were. And we have to continue to say that's not who I am anymore. And sometimes we have changed. We have actually evolved, but we're still claiming what we used to be. And so, that's just the way the mind works. It's just the way history works. That's the way the people around us work. That's one of the reasons why, you know, we talk about crabs in a barrel and all this sort of thing. It's difficult to come out of one mindset and go into another because not only are you remembering what What you used to do, but other people around you are still emotionally remembering that, too. Who, that's, who are you to say that? That's not who you used to, that's not, you don't do that. Okay, I, I have to know. Yes, please. I heard the phrase crabs in a barrel there. Did I hear that correctly? Yes. And what does that mean? Oh, is that it? Yeah. So, so, you know, when crabs try to get out of a barrel, they pull each other down. As one's trying to get out, they try to climb over each other. Oh, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. I've had no exposure to crabs and barrels. Oh, crabs and barrels, yes, yes. They'll just pull each other down. One will try to get out, and the other will try to get out too, and pull that one down and try to climb on top of it, and they all just fall back down. None of them can get out, yes. Yes. A metaphor for current politics there. Ooh. Ooh. We won't go there. Oh. Okay. Moving on. Yes. In all directions, not, not any specific person we're referring to there. Yeah, so, and, and yeah, you, you talk about the, the, Like with the Krabs, the influence of other people trying to keep you as to what they know you as. That is correct. That is correct. And that's of course that happens. It does. People don't, people want their world, we're, we're comfortable with what we know. There's a, there's a path we're used to taking, there's a, we're used to you being this person and it, it disrupts our world when you show up as something different or someone different than we've known you to be. And so we're like. Well, what's this about no get back get back there get back to being the person I know you to be And unfortunately, that is the evolutionary process that you do change It's and and the here's what we know Is that we're either moving forward or we're moving backward. We're not staying the same. You're not standing still We're not standing still. Either for age experiences, we're not standing still. And so it's the natural process for us to move forward or to move, whether it's forward or backward. But for whatever reason, again, And part of it, part of what we do as we're trying to do something different, become something more is that we actually move away from the group that we were in and into the group that is doing or behaving the way we want to behave. They talked to us about that in school all the time. Your parents always said it, well, stop hanging around with those dummies you've been hanging around with and start hanging around with the smart kids, you know, start going to studies hall with them. We were told this our whole lives. Mm hmm. And And probably literally in addition to the input that you might be getting from other people and I don't say that always happens certainly I have known people to To when I haven't seen them in a while and, and I see them again and they, they perhaps have changed for the better in my opinion anyway. Right, right, right, right. And that, and that's exactly, that's how you see it. So it's good for you. And I recognize that and I, I don't, I don't try and get them to be what they were before because I didn't maybe like that, you know, so I'm like, okay. So again, who they are works for you, so no need to change it. Yes. But if it doesn't work for you, then we're like, of course. Trying to change it. Yes. Back to our comfort level. And there's, like you've laid down those patterns in your mind for yourself about what you are. Yes. The same, those patterns have been laid down in theirs, you know, that is not necessarily a voluntary thing on their part. It just, it just is. It's just, it exactly is that they've just and there's a word for it, but it's eluding me right now, but we do lay down these patterns, these pathways of being behavior wise and just thinking wise, probably literal neural neural pathways for sure. We do. And so breaking out of those are it. Is a, is a focused attempt. It's a focused, determined attempt to break away from those pathways when it's no longer serving you. Yes. So that's, that's essentially what all this I am thing would be achieving. Thank you. Yeah. That's a very valid, that's an absolute valid point. You're exactly right. Okay. You are breaking the neural pathways. All right. Yeah. We can stop there for today. I think that's good. That sort of sums it up. Okay. Thank you for being here and we'll see you at the next episode. Yeah.