Exodus 3:13-14

“But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:13-14).

Question:

In a group meeting recently, this was referred to as “The Moses Code,” and it was suggested that it should be written as “I Am that, (enter here what you want to manifest) I Am.” E.g., I Am, radiant health I Am. (I Am being the name of God the Creator.)

Comment:

This important passage is deliberately ambiguous. The Hebrews were very careful not to be too specific in terms of defining or naming the spiritual power we today call God. They used different words to describe different aspects of God, but they shied away from presuming to name the totality.

Metaphysically, we understand I AM to be, in essence, the name of the Christ Presence of God that is the true spiritual identity of every person. I AM names and calls upon the creative Power of God to express through us according to the words we attach to the great I AM. That’s why we must be careful about using the words; I AM activates our innate creative power and brings into expression the belief or intention we are claiming.  If we focus on self-abasing statements like “I AM so sick!” or “I AM always tired!” we are making those statements true as we speak them. We can recognize that ‘I feel sick,’ or ‘I feel tired.’ And if we link that human awareness with a spiritual affirmation, we can move forward powerfully. Thus, “I feel tired, and I AM one with the infinite Energy of God.”

I think what God was telling Moses was, ‘You don’t need an outside authority. I AM your own I AM—the Presence of God within you. Tell the Israelites that it is your own innate spiritual knowing that guides your words and your message.’

More than a thousand years later, Jesus would call upon this same understanding in the great ‘I AM’ statements he utters in the Gospel of John. “I AM the way, the truth and the light,” for example, means ‘The Christ within me is the way, the truth and the light. And the Christ within you is the way, the truth and the light.’ We cannot create the kingdom until we recognize and believe in our own innate Oneness with God. So the adaptation of the verse you suggest makes sense. We affirm I AM to call upon the creative Power of the Christ that is our true identity. And we make a choice as to how we want to express that Power in our lives.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed