“Let us illustrate what we mean by being acquainted with this law on the lower plane of action. We know that in order to develop a muscle we must use it. How to use it? We must begin to act as if we had muscular power. Therefore, we have to believe that we have it and go to work to use it, and the more we use it, the more vivid the realization becomes that we have it, and the more fully will the muscle develop, and become firm and strong.
Again, so much is said about a trained mind. What does this mean? Let us see. A young man may grow up to manhood without training – grow up like an animal, simply following the impulses of his own nature. Finally, the impulse arises within him that he wants knowledge, he wants culture, development. He begins to study, and he pursues his studies diligently. He does not know, but he believes that he can know, and he applies the means for gaining knowledge, and as he studies, the brain organs fill out and grow. We know from experience that it is a law that a man after maturity may begin to study, use his brain, and cause the size of his head to increase considerably. These material things are accomplished through prayer, the sincere desire of the heart.
The poet James Montgomery gives this beautiful definition of prayer: “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed; the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast; prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of an eye, when none but God is near.” That prayer – neither more nor less than the sincere desire of the heart, the interior yearning loving desire for something – is in perfect keeping with the law that we have just brought to your mind.
Unless a person desires knowledge, he cannot get it. If a child at school has no desire to learn, he cannot learn. There may be a forced external desire causing the child to memorize his lessons to prevent being punished, but if he gains knowledge, the desire must be there. And this same law increases its potentiality, in its active efficiency as it nears the Source of our Being. When the sincere desire of the heart unites the consciousness with Jesus the Christ, or to Yahveh Elohim, and our earnest desire is that we may have power to know the Father, and to be like him; such desire, being in harmony with the trend of all creative law, becomes very effective. And the more perfectly our consciousness is allied to Yahveh Elohim, or to the Christ, the more effective and active will be our desire to reach out to Yahveh.
This is the method by which you may apply the divine law that was brought to light in the teachings of the Christ, and it was one of the main objects of his mission to make it possible for man to apply this law. We repeat, “He that overcometh, shall inherit all things.” Therefore, neither Elohim nor his angels will overcome for you, for if they overcame for you, you would be neither the overcomer nor the inheritor. It is their office to teach you how to become Yahveh Eloah, the same as they are; that is, it is their office to teach you how to inspire, draw in, and incorporate and embody in yourself the spirit of Yahveh, the God of the Universe. By becoming the embodiment and expression of Yahveh, you become Yahveh Eloah.
How to begin this inspiring is an important matter. You have seen that it is necessary to ally your consciousness either to the Lord Christ or to Yahveh Elohim, but you do this that you may become one with Yahveh as well as one with Yahveh Elohim, in the same way that Yahveh Elohim is one with Yahveh. The word Yahveh means, “I will be what I will to be.” This we have seen is the surface meaning. There is a deep, hidden, underlying meaning in this name, that no man in his present form of existence can put into words.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 