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First I AM

Balboa Press

Contents

Introduction..............................................................xvThe Yet...................................................................xvThe Journey Is the Destination............................................xviiChapter 1 Rethinking Genesis..............................................1Sobering but Not Surprising...............................................1Got Questions?............................................................4A Young or Old Earth?.....................................................6Two Stories or One?.......................................................7Energy of Unity...........................................................8God Is Spirit.............................................................9First IAM Renewal.........................................................9Chapter 2 The First IAM Higher Self Image.................................11Who Do Men Say That I AM?.................................................11Genesis 1:27a and 1:27b...................................................13Called by God's Name......................................................16The Burning Bush of Higher Self Revelation................................17Paul's Second Man—Our First.........................................25The I AM versus the AM I..................................................27The AM I Lower Self Image.................................................28Higher Self Individuation.................................................30First IAM Amnesia.........................................................33Consequences of a Lower Self Image........................................36Our Children..............................................................41Chapter 3 The First IAM Higher Self Mind..................................43Reptiles Can and Do Speak!................................................43The Triune Brain..........................................................45The Garden of Eden and the Triune Mind of Man.............................46Anatomy of the Triune Brain Model.........................................46The Reptilian Brain—"R-Complex".....................................46God on the Brain..........................................................48Venom or Anti-Venom?......................................................49The Paleomammalian Brain—"Limbic System"............................51The Neomammalian Brain—"Neocortex"..................................55The Prefrontal Cortex—"PFC".........................................56Mind Renewal..............................................................58Chapter 4 The First IAM Higher Self Body..................................63Body Image................................................................63God's Word Says We Are Complete...........................................67God's Word Says We Are One with Spirit....................................68The Voice of God..........................................................68The Voice of the Earth....................................................70The Voice of the Body.....................................................72A Shack or a Temple?......................................................74The Voice of Energy—Mitochondria....................................75The Voice of Energy—Metabolism......................................77The Voice of Balance......................................................80The Voice of Elimination..................................................82The Law of Dieting versus the Grace of Healthy Living.....................85God's Perfect Design for the Body.........................................87Chapter 5 The First IAM Higher Self Life..................................90The First Day.............................................................90The Separation of the Higher from the Lower...............................96The Higher Life Promised..................................................100Chapter 6 Living the First IAM............................................107Following the I AM........................................................107Hearing the I AM..........................................................112Believing the I AM........................................................116Shouting at Jericho and Slaying the Giant!................................119Freedom in theChapter 7 First IAM.........................................125The Frankl Factor.........................................................125True Liberation Will Come!................................................128

Chapter One

The word Genesis means beginning or origin. The Old and New Testaments of our Bible represent the story of our spiritual beginning, just as our physical genetics tell the story of our physical origin. Consequently, both our spiritual and physical genesis are intertwined as proven by scientific and spiritual minds. Quite literally, God is in the details of all matter—materially and spiritually.

If we "believers" expect to make a dramatic impact on our world for the sake of God's overall divine plan for mankind, then we must rethink the book of Genesis and our former beliefs and interpretations. More importantly, we must be willing to rethink our own physical genesis. Materially speaking, we are a totality of our genetic ancestry. Every gene, protein, and chemical in our body tells a unique story about who we were in not only our recent past, but more significantly, our distant and ancient past.

Sobering but Not Surprising

We wish we had a nickel for every friend that has said to us, "I left the faith of my youth because ..." Most of our clients have given up on their religious beliefs because it proved to be too hard—too restrictive—too incongruent with their spirit. It appears that what we were hearing was being validated by several surveys concerning today's youth.

According to America's Research Group, Americans under thirty years of age are rejecting the Christian faith in unprecedented numbers. In fact, what the numbers suggest is not a slow move away from the Christian faith, but rather a hurried mass exodus. Ninety-five percent of those polled attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years, however, only 55 percent attended church regularly during their high school years, with only 11 percent attending church into their college years.

The ARG survey discovered the following reasons for the mass departure from faith by today's youth:

• Nearly 40 percent said they first doubted the Bible's authenticity in middle school.

• 43.7 percent said they first doubted the Bible's authenticity during their high school years.

• Only around 10 percent said they first became doubtful about Bible accounts during college.

• 61 percent said they attended Sunday school, while 39 percent said they didn't.

• Those who attended Sunday school were more likely:

* not to believe that all the accounts and stories in the Bible are true

* to doubt the Bible because it was written by men

* to defend keeping abortion legal

* to accept the legalization of gay marriage

* to believe in evolution

* to believe that good people don't need to go to church

Furthermore, among those who said they do not believe in the authenticity of the Bible, the following reasons were given:

• 24 percent said it was written by men

• 18 percent said it was not translated correctly

• 15 percent said the Bible contradicts itself

• 14 percent said modern science is incompatible with the Genesis narrative

The survey found that attending Sunday school proved to be of no help in strengthening a young person's faith. In fact, the survey revealed that Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of children.

In yet another new survey of 1,200 eighteen—to twenty-nine-year-olds, Lifeway Christian Resources found that 72 percent felt they were "really more spiritual than religious." The survey also discovered the following statistics:

• 65 percent rarely or never pray with others, and 38 percent almost never pray by themselves either.

• 65 percent rarely or never attend worship services.

• 67 percent don't read the Bible or sacred texts.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey conducted by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at Trinity College, 46 percent of Americans say they have no religion. However, having no religious affiliation doesn't necessarily mean young people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-give are nonbelievers. According to a survey by Bohan Advertising/Marketing, the Barna Group, and the United Methodist Church, 62 percent of eighteen to thirty-four-year-olds consider themselves to be spiritual rather than religious.

For the most part, these statistics are not surprising, however, as we mentioned earlier, 67 percent of those polled (eighteen to twenty-nine years of age) by the Lifeway Christian Resource survey admitted that they seldom read their Bible or other religious texts. Of all the statistics that we discovered regarding the religious climate of young people in America today, this statistic disturbed us the most.

We believe that people (young or otherwise) are rejecting the wisdom and truths of the Bible because of literal and fundamentalist interpretations of Scripture by former generations. What these stats are really saying is this: young people are being led by their spiritual vibration rather than by their religious ancestor's fundamentalist and literalist beliefs and traditions. This isn't a bad thing.

We have found that our clients and students who have left the faith of their youth do so because they have matured psychologically and spiritually. In short, they have changed their minds about what they believe, and rightfully so. Although many find fundamentalism's death a bit disconcerting, we believe it falls in line with the natural evolution and progression of man's mind renewal and soul regeneration journey. We also feel that fundamentalism's death is completely compatible with biblical truth.

Got Questions?

After reading the first two chapters of Genesis, any serious student of the Bible will come away with more questions than answers. For instance, in Genesis chapter 1 God creates everything before he creates man. However, in the Genesis chapter 2 creation narrative, God creates man first. In the Genesis 1 narrative mankind is created after the image and likeness of God, whereas in Genesis 2, mankind is formed from the dust of the earth. So what gives? Are there two creation narratives, or one? Modern scholarship believes it has come up with the answer.

Traditionally speaking, most every fundamentalist has been taught that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God. As a matter of fact, most fundamentalists believe that all of the stories in the Bible happened just as they were written—literally. The serpent really did speak to Eve, the whale really did swallow Jonah, Lot's wife really did turn into a pillar of salt, and Elijah really did call fire down from heaven. However, liberal students of the Bible view the stories as myth, allegory, and legends intended to lead one toward spiritual enlightenment and self-awareness.

Literalists and fundamentalists believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament referred to as the Pentateuch. However, modern liberal scholarship accepts the Pentateuch as a composite work. Scholars believe that the Pentateuch is the work of many authors, not just one. More specifically, modern scholars believe that Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2 were composed by more than one author. This belief is known as the JEDP Theory.

In short, the JEDP theory states that the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—were written by different authors. This theory is largely based upon the fact that the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 narratives employ different names for God, which are used in various places throughout the Pentateuch. In addition, there are acute differences in the linguistic style of the varying texts.

The letters J-E-D-P stand for the four alleged authors. For instance, there is one supposed author who employs the name Jehovah for God's name, and another uses the name Elohim. Thus, the letters J and E are used respectively. There is the assumed author of the Deuteronomy text, and another believed to be a priestly author of the book of Leviticus. Thus, the use of the letters D and P. In addition, the scholars who created the JEDP theory believe that the Pentateuch was likely written and/or compiled around the fourth century BC.

While scholarship is helpful and needful for a host of varying reasons, we believe that scholarship tends to lean toward an academic approach entirely, whereas we believe that biblical interpretation can only be acquired via the use of the spiritual mind. When an individual attempts to understand that which is spiritual from a purely intellectual and natural mindset, the spiritual interpretation is lost. This, we believe, is the reason for biblical illiteracy among the young and the old of our nation. We also believe that the Bible holds the key to all of life's questions; however, most will never find the life-transforming answers to their toughest questions, because they fear they will never understand their Bible. Sadly, they are right.

The natural mind cannot comprehend the deep things of Spirit. In addition, genuine biblical revelation knowledge, which, by the way, is spiritual wisdom imparted, will never be achieved through a fundamentalist and literalist rendering. The First IAM teaching series requires the employment of one's spiritual mind. Thus, before one can understand the First IAM principles, a consideration to suspend one's old literalist and fundamentalist beliefs must be contemplated long and hard. It has been our experience that letting go of these old religious beliefs and traditions will prove easier said than done. Nonetheless, it can be done, for these two authors have proven it.

A Young or Old Earth?

As children growing up in a fundamentalist protestant belief system, we were taught the "young Earth" creationism theory (YEC). YEC is a form of creation that asserts the universe and all living organisms were created by God during a very short period of time (between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago). We were taught that God created the universe and all living organisms in six twenty-four-hour periods. In essence, we were taught a very literalist interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2.

However, as we entered the public school system, we learned a very different view of creationism. We learned that Earth was much older than a few thousand years, and that most of the life forms on earth weren't created in six twenty-four-hour periods, but rather they had evolved over billions of years through a process known as natural selection. We noticed something very disconcerting about our fundamentalist beliefs; all of the information we were receiving through our science and biology classes at school had been verified by the fields of geology, paleontology, and astronomy, whereas a young Earth creationism theory had no evidence to substantiate its claims except for a few verses in the first two chapters of the Bible. We surmised that a fundamentalist and literalist interpretation of the Genesis narrative might explain why 67 percent of those polled by the Lifeway Christian Resources Survey don't read their Bibles and no longer affiliate with the religion of their youth.

Two Stories or One?

So, what do we believe about the Genesis creation narrative differences; differences which modern scholarship believes can be answered best by attributing them to manifold authorship while science believes it's all a matter of evolution and natural selection? In short, while we believe that there is a strong indication that more than one author contributed to the Pentateuch and that the earth is much older than we were led to believe, we do not believe that there is more than one creation narrative. On the contrary, we believe that there is one creation narrative, but two very different lives being illustrated. We also believe that the life one chooses to abide in has the potential to create one's perceptions about one's self-value, God-value, world-value, and ultimately, one's life-value. In short, we believe how an individual interprets the Genesis creation narrative can mean the difference between departing from the faith of their youth, or deciding to stay the course.

Energy of Unity

Earlier, we discussed some pretty alarming statistics concerning the mass exodus of today's youth regarding their former religious beliefs and faith. We need to make clear that the eighteen—to thirty-year-olds that were polled aren't leaving the church because of the Bible; they're leaving the church because of the flawed biblical interpretation of men, and more specifically, the Genesis narrative. Many young adults feel that the church's young earth interpretation is incompatible with modern scientific evidence.

In addition, they are turned off by fundamentalism's elitism, self righteous beliefs, and intolerance. Many of these young people are closer to the Spirit's vibrational energy field than we old codgers, meaning that the beliefs and interpretation of fundamentalists and literalists are entirely incongruent with the energy of unity they feel within themselves versus the negative energy of disunity and divisiveness of the earth. This kind of attitude and belief-set is extremely off-putting to these spiritually all-inclusive young adults.

That's why the First IAM® and IAMRenewed4Life® programs are so important, not only to the younger generations, but also for the older generations who have moved closer to spirituality versus the institution of organized religion. Through a series of spirit-based programs, we strip away the old interpretations and beliefs that are based upon fear and shame and replace them with the beauty of Scripture through the leadership of the Spirit of grace and truth.

God Is Spirit

God is spirit and if the Bible is truly God's Word, then the words of the Bible are words of spirit. Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 2 that the deep things of the Spirit (God's word and ideas) must be discerned by the spiritual mind. A literal interpretation of the Bible from a purely literal posture will not yield a spiritual truth or hidden mystery of God. The natural mind finds the deep things of God to be foolishness. This might explain why young adults are leaving the church in mass numbers, because of the "foolish" and "natural" reading and interpretations of Scripture.

We find that these young people are justified in their exodus, for even God commands us to come away from these types of idolatrous religious practices and beliefs. Fundamentalism is built upon the faulty foundations of fear and shame; driven by the lower minds of man. Fear and shame are not disciplines of God. Fear and shame are the result of a low and poor self concept created by emotional minds. A poor self concept is the fruit of a false self-obsessed life rather than a life lived by a true spiritual self image.

First IAM Renewal

We can do something about the inner conflict between our faith and our logic. We can begin the renewal process by allowing the Spirit of God to interpret Scripture through us. We can take full responsibility for our spiritual growth and development. So often—too often—we Christians allow fallible men to educate us in the ways of God. This has to stop! You cannot receive spiritual revelation by proxy. Wisdom and discernment are gifts and must be experienced and understood personally.

Something else we can do is to begin thinking about thinking. Many of us think without self awareness. It's important to become aware of who is doing the thinking in our heads. In addition, we need to rethink our interpretation and understanding of the old Genesis creation narrative. We believe that the creation narrative of Genesis holds the vital keys to our true identity (First IAM) which can provide for us a long and prosperous life. Thus, it is mandatory that we reexamine the Genesis narrative texts prudently. With that being said, let's do just that: reexamine our Bible and our beliefs with a new mind, ear, and eye!

(Continues...)

Excerpted from First I AMby Melissa Dunn Leah Dunn Copyright © 2011 by Melissa Dunn & Leah Dunn. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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