“I Am…That…I Am”
I am well aware that you have probably heard of and /or read this Bible verse, “I Am that I Am”. It comes from Exodus 3:14. It says:
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (King James Bible)
When Moses was at the burning bush speaking with God, actually getting instructions from God, the LORD told him to go to Pharoah and tell him [Pharoah] to “let My [God’s] people go”. Moses pushed back on God by saying what if he [Pharoah] doesn’t believe me and ask who sent me. God said, tell Pharoah “I AM THAT I AM” sent you. This…right here… is where it gets interesting.
What most people believe is that God said, “I AM THAT I AM” sent you. I truly believe that what the LORD said was “I AM…THAT…I AM” sent you. Though both versions may seem similar to the naked eye, they are worlds apart in impact and importance. This difference is critical to Foundational Black Americans (FBAs). There is a huge difference between those two statements, both in context, as well as in their meaning for FBAs.
“I AM…THAT…I AM“
I Am…That…I Am is a powerful statement. Think about T-H-E point of this declarative statement: the word”…That…”! Why is this word so very important in this statement? It signifies that whatever we say, whatever we use instated of the that word becomes us, it becomes what we truly are. I am a firm believer that the “power of life and death is in the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). So, whatever we substitute for the word “That” will truly come to pass because we have the “stuff” of God within us. Here are some examples:
I AM…(Powerful)…I AM!
I AM…(Successful)…I AM!
I AM…(At Peace)…I AM!
I AM…(Healed)…I AM!
I AM…(Influential)…I AM!
I AM…(Filled with God’s Spirit)…I AM!
See just how powerful that one declarative statement is? And it is more so when you consider that we, FBAs, are already a spiritual people. Have you ever wondered why we are hated so much? Even more than other persons of African descent. Even other African lineages do not like us. There is something special about us, and everyone seems to know this but us.
We think of ourselves as regular, but other see us as special. That is why we seem to stay on their minds so much. We, FBAs, seem to have rent-free lodging in other peoples’ minds. We are on their lips so often. Why is that? It’s that way because they realize something about us that we don’t see in ourselves: WE ARE A SPIRITUAL PEOPLE! This is why that statement, “I AM…THAT…I AM“, is so powerful when we say it. It becomes a (supremely) declarative statement of a spiritual people.
Nothing I have written should lead anyone to think that I believe we are better than any other group. I do not think that. What I know is that we are indeed different than any other group of people. Consider this: what other group could have gone through what we went through and come out on the other side as well as we have? Think about it: at the end of the Civil War, there were approximately 4 million FBAs. Now, there are approximately 45 million…and growing.
Remember, between the Civil War and the present, we suffered through: Reconstruction; the birth of the Klu Klux Klan KKK) and other racist/murderous Black-hate groups; the separate but (un)equal period; the lynching period; numerous race riots and town burnings; organized terror campaigns; local, state and Federal law enforcement terror; having entire owns flooded to make way for lakes, city parks and freeways; the Federal government flooding our communities with drugs; police brutality; etc. But, through it all, we made it. How many other groups would have done so? Not many!
We are a spiritual people! That fact cannot be denied, though many try. And that is fine, as long as we are not one of them. We must recognize and continue to call upon our spiritual nature. Others see it in us. Too bad, many of us don’t see it in ourselves!