I AM - The Name of God

THE BIBLE DECODED

Part II — I AM - The Name of God

"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM."

— Exodus 3:14

Of all the names God could have revealed, he did not reveal a title, a description, or a doctrine. He revealed a state of being.

Simply:

I AM.

Perhaps the most profound truth hidden within scripture is that the name God gives himself is the very same experience available to every human being. 

The Meaning of "I AM"

For Neville Goddard, this was one of the greatest revelations hidden within the Bible.

The name of God is not presented as something separate from us, but as the very awareness through which we experience life itself.

Before we are rich or poor, successful or unsuccessful, confident or fearful, there is first the simple awareness that says:

"I am."

Most people rarely notice this.

Instead, attention becomes fixed on what follows.

I am tired.

I am unlucky.

I am overwhelmed.

I am successful.

I am loved.

I am rejected.

Yet the creative power does not lie primarily in the condition that follows.

It lies in the awareness that precedes it.

The "I AM" is like a blank canvas upon which every identity is painted.

It is the silent presence behind every experience.

The screen upon which every story appears.

The space in which every state is occupied.

Discovering the "I AM" Within Yourself

The "I AM" is not something you need to create.

It is not something you need to achieve.

It is not something you need to believe in.

It is already present.

In fact, it is so close that it is often overlooked.

Try this for a moment.

Set aside your name.

Set aside your age.

Set aside your relationships, your work, your successes, your struggles, your beliefs, and your history.

Without referring to any of those things, what remains?

There is still an undeniable sense that you exist.

A simple knowingness.

A silent presence.

An awareness that remains even when every description is removed.

That presence is what Neville was pointing toward.

That presence is what scripture symbolically calls "I AM."

Neville taught that God is not a being existing somewhere outside of man.

Rather, God is the awareness of being itself.

The "I AM" within you is the doorway through which every state, identity, and experience is entered.

For this reason, Neville encouraged people to become conscious of what they were attaching to the words:

"I am."

Because whatever follows eventually becomes a state consciousness occupies and expresses.

The Difference Between "I AM" and Identity

Most people spend their lives living through identities.

An identity is simply something we have become aware of and attached ourselves to.

I am a mother.

I am successful.

I am spiritual.

I am anxious.

I am healing.

I am lost.

None of these are the "I AM."

They are identities arising within awareness.

The moment we mistake an identity for what we truly are, we become limited by it.

We begin defending it.

Protecting it.

Fearing its loss.

Yet every identity changes throughout life.

The child becomes an adult.

The student becomes the teacher.

The employee becomes the business owner.

The confident become uncertain.

The uncertain become confident.

Identities come and go.

Yet throughout every stage of life, something remains unchanged.

The simple awareness that knows:

"I am."

This awareness has been present through every version of you.

The Silent Witness

Imagine sitting beside a river.

The water continuously moves.

Different currents pass by.

Different reflections appear.

Different leaves drift downstream.

Yet the riverbank remains.

Thoughts are like the flowing water.

Emotions are like the flowing water.

States are like the flowing water.

Experiences are like the flowing water.

The "I AM" is the riverbank.

It witnesses every experience without becoming the experience itself.

It witnesses joy without becoming joy.

It witnesses sadness without becoming sadness.

It witnesses success without becoming success.

It witnesses failure without becoming failure.

This is why awareness itself is free.

States change.

Awareness remains.

Why This Matters

At first glance this may seem abstract or philosophical.

Yet it has profound implications for how we understand ourselves.

Most suffering arises when we believe we are the state we are experiencing.

We say:

"I am anxious."

"I am broken."

"I am a failure."

"I am not enough."

Yet these are states passing through awareness.

The moment we recognise ourselves as awareness first, something begins to shift.

A space opens between who we are and what we are experiencing.

Rather than becoming trapped within a state, we become aware of the state.

And what can be observed can also be transformed.

This understanding sits at the heart of Neville's teaching.

Because if awareness can occupy a state, it can also occupy a different one.

The state is not the self.

The state is something consciousness enters.

The Beginning of the Journey

This is why the symbolic journey of scripture begins here.

Before Adam.

Before Eve.

Before the serpent.

Before the fall.

There is awareness.

There is being.

There is simply:

"I AM."

Every story that follows can be understood as a movement within consciousness itself.

Every symbol emerges from this foundation.

And every journey of awakening begins with the same recognition:

Before every label, every condition, every identity, every fear, every desire, and every assumption...

I am.

From “I AM” to Adam

If "I AM" represents the pure awareness of being, then the next question naturally arises:

How does scripture personify this awareness?

The Bible's answer is Adam.

Far more than the first man, Adam becomes the symbolic embodiment of awareness itself — the conscious "I AM" through which all experience is known.

And it is with Adam that the symbolic story of consciousness truly begins.

In Part III, we explore Adam as Awareness.

S. Eve

Next in The Bible Decoded:

Part III — Adam as Awareness