I Am

I AM

I AM JEHOVAH, THE KING AND LORD OF ISRAEL - I AM JESUS, THE KING AND LORD OF CHRISTIANS

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Jim Taylor

New Harbor Press

Rapid City, SD

Copyright © 2023 by Jim Taylor.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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Rapid City, SD 57701

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I Am / Jim Taylor. —1st ed.

This book is dedicated to Jerry and Susan Smith, for all they have done for Judy and me, And to Tim Masterson who suggested I write on this subject.

Other Books by Jim Taylor

REVELATION TO JOHN’S APOCALYPSE UNVEILED AND REVEALED

The Spiritual View of a Carnal War

LEVITICUS UNVEILED AND REVEALED

The Lamb and the Altar — The Lamb of God and the Cross

THE POWER OF THE CROSS UNVEILED AND REVEALED IN JESUS

One Man Sinned and all Men Died, another Man Died so all Might Live (Romans 5:12-21)

ALMIGHTY JEHOVAH GOD UNVEILED AND REVEALED IN JESUS

HEBREWS UNVEILED AND REVEALED

Leviticus Fulfilled by the Coming of Jesus

Contents

About This Book

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

I AM JESUS — ALMIGHTY JEHOVAH GOD

I AM JESUS — THE SON OF MAN

I AM JESUS — THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE, THE RESURRECTION

I AM JESUS — HIGH PRIEST OF GOD FOREVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK

CONCLUSION

About This Book

This book is about

Jesus, the great "I AM." He was the Christ child who was born to the virgin Mary, God was his birth father, and Joseph was his adoptive father. When Jesus grew into manhood, and after his resurrection, he became the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Savior of the world, and the cross became his throne of grace and mercy.

In the Old Testament,

before God became the covenant God of Israel, his chosen nation, he was known as God Almighty. His nation, the children of Israel, had its beginning by seventy-five souls, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all moving to Egypt to avoid starvation; it was a threatening force against all mankind, and it was caused by a sever famine that had taken over the world. After God’s children had been in Egypt for several years, Pharoah took them into captivity and made them a slave nation. After 430 years of bondage to the Pharaohs, God needed someone to deliver his children from their bondage, and that is when God met Moses; and he met him after he had been living in the wilderness for forty years. Moses had been born and raised in Egypt, and he lived in Egypt for forty years; he was forced to leave Egypt and flee to the desert to escape punishment for killing an Egyptian.

God met Moses by calling him to a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire. It was at that time God Almighty became known as "I AM," the root word for Jehovah. The Spirit wrote, And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them (Exodus 6:2-3). After God Almighty became the covenant God of Israel, he was known as the great "I AM," or Jehovah, but only Israel knew him by that covenant name.

When Jehovah commanded Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver Israel from bondage to Pharoah, Moses was reluctant, but he decided it best he go as the "I AM" had commanded him. Moses asked God: When I speak to the elders of Israel and I tell them I have come to deliver them from their bondage, who shall I tell them sent me? The Spirit wrote in Exodus,

And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? 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. (Exodus 3:13-14)

God created Israel to become his nation, and later his kingdom, and he used Egypt as their place of isolation and refuge from the world to accomplish his purpose. The children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob went to Egypt as friends of the ruler of Egypt, in fact he was their brother, and his name was Joseph; but they did not know that until Joseph revealed himself to them as the one that many years earlier they had sold as a slave. But as time progressed, they became a slave people, and they were in bondage to Pharoah for 430 years. During that time they became the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, and they would soon be called, the kingdom of God.

It was many years later that Jehovah came into the world as a man by being born of a virgin, born under his own law (Galatians 4:4). He was born the Son of man, and the Son of God, and he again called himself by another name: he called himself the Messiah (Hebrew) or the Christ (Greek), both names meaning the Anointed One; and it is he, the Christ, who is the covenant God of the Christians, just as Jehovah was the covenant God of Israel.

The Christ’s adoptive father, Joseph, and his mother, Mary, were commanded to name their Son Jesus (Savior), and he would be called Immanuel, (God with us). Matthew wrote,

And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us. (Matthew 1:21-23)

When the great "I AM became the Son of man by being born to Mary and Joseph, he became known as Christ Jesus to the Christians, and he became the I AM" to them in many ways that are so very important to God’s children for their security, their happiness, and the new eternal life they have with him in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said to his disciples, I AM the way, I AM the truth, I AM the life, I AM the resurrection, I AM the door, I AM the good Shepherd, I AM the light of the world, I AM the bread of life, I AM the water of Life; and he became the I AM in many more ways. Jesus’ promises to his children were true and reliable, but when Jesus became the fulfillment of those promises himself, he certified to his children that God’s promises to them were confirmed and secured by the integrity of the Almighty himself.

This book explains what each of those "I AM ways mean to the Christians. When Jesus said, I AM the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6), it is quite evident that he is the one and only Way to God, the Father, and he is the only Way the Christians can have life—eternal life—with him and his Father in the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus said, I AM the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live" it becomes clear that it is only through Jesus and his resurrection that the Christians’ bodies shall be raised from their graves and given new, perfect, spiritual life in a new spiritual world. The resurrection of the saints is made infallible by the resurrection of Jesus, and his resurrection makes the saint’s resurrection a fact, not just a promise. God wants his children to be assured that the promises he has made to them are certain and secure, and they cannot fail. The Hebrew author wrote,

For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil. (Hebrews 6:13-19)

The two immutable things that secure the Christians’ hope of their resurrection, and their eternal life, are the promises God made to them, and those promises being secured and made infallible by his oath, an oath that God swore by himself, and on his own integrity.

The most beautiful name in the world is the name of Jesus: He is my everything, he is my all. 

Just as Jehovah was the covenant God of Israel, Jesus is the Christians’ covenant God, and his covenant with them is: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

Summed up, as Jehovah was the covenant God of the nation of Israel, his chosen people; and his covenant with them was to give them the fertile land of Palestine and bless them in every way as his chosen nation—Jesus is the covenant God of Christians, the church, his chosen people, and his covenant with them is to give them the kingdom of heaven—forever—in a new spiritual world. Luke wrote, Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:31-32). Have you ever owned a kingdom? Would you like to? This is the place to start.

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PREFACE

"I AM is the greatest, the most powerful, and the most beautiful word recorded in the Bible. Why? There are several reasons: First, because it was the great I AM" who wrote the Bible. From the first words in Genesis, "In the beginning… to the last word in Revelation, Amen," every word written in the Bible was the exact word chosen by the Holy Spirit to compose his message, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit is the great "I AM." He wrote those words to mean exactly what they say. It was the prophets of God who transcribed those words on paper (papaya) for all mankind to read.

The Bible is the

only source of information we have about the great I AM, whose name is Jehovah; and the book he wrote is all about Himself, the one who wrote it, and it alone tells us who he is, what he does, and the way His creation came into being. The Bible tells us when God created the world, how he created it, why he created it, and how he wants his children, whom he has given life in his own image (Genesis 1:26), to live in it. The Bible is the Christians’ instruction Book that tells them how they should properly use all the good things God has richly given them to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17).

The Bible is so very important because it alone contains the history of how sin came into the world through just one man, Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22), and how that one transgression brought sin and death into the world and condemned everything God made—and broke God’s heart in the process (Genesis 6:6-7). The Bible contains the record of what the great I AM must accomplish to keep his word in either judging and destroying his creation because of Adam’s transgression or redeeming it. God’s love for his new world and for his children was so great it would not allow him to destroy it, with all his children, and so he chose to redeem it. He did so at infinite cost to himself; it cost God his only begotten Son’s life to redeem the creation and restore it back into its original beauty, glory, and perfection—and all of that shall be accomplished to perfection (2 Peter 3:11-13) because of the great price Jesus paid to achieve it. Peter spoke of the infinite price God paid to redeem his creation when he wrote,

And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear: knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without spot, even the blood of Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.  (1 Peter 1:17-21)

Peter also wrote of how that shall all be accomplished, and what the result will be of all that Jesus achieved in his work of redemption.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:9-13)

There are some who would die for another; a father might die for a son, a husband for his wife (Romans 5:6-8); but who would sacrifice the life of their only son to save the life of any other? It appears that God our heavenly Father is the only one who would