No one on Earth can take your individual power away. No one. I speak of your sense of self. I am speaking of your own use of freedom of thought, responsibility for your Self. No one can wrest that from you.
But, oh, you can give your power away. You can give it away to individual people, to mass thinking, and advertising moguls. If you feel you have lost your key self-power and motivation, then it can only be you who has lost it. You have let someone or something or a school of this or a school of that take over your God-given mind.
Much of the time you are in a daze and are unaware of how much of your originality you have dribbled away. Sometimes it would seem that you have given carte blanche to the world, as if you trustingly wrote a blank check and gave it to anyone who happened to be around and offered you something, an illusion perhaps. Sometimes it would seem that you have been looking to give yourself away. You may have wanted someone or something to take you over. You may have wanted your thinking to be kidnapped.
Beloveds, you have wanted allegiance to something greater than yourself, but this does not mean to abandon yourself. You may have given permission for food or drugs to take you over or the CEO of your company to think for you, or masters of influence, or anyone.
Pause a moment and consider whom or what you adhere to and whether that is what you really want. What are you thinking about? What are you moving toward? What do you run to and what do you run away from?
Two common expressions: "To thine own self be true." And "In God we trust." Consider them. Perhaps there is no more to say but that. Perhaps they sum up all the human lessons in life.
You, who resist being told what to do, have let others' thinking tell you what to do, what to think, what to covet, where to spend your money — as if it were a wonderful talent to spend money and to ignore your own sovereign thinking. You, who would refuse to be an automaton, have indentured yourself to the world out there and perhaps neglected the world within. This is almost too much for you to think about.
No one can steal your thinking and substitute their beliefs unless you are, to some degree, a willing partner. It is yourself you need to caution. You may have perhaps closed your eyes and chosen unawareness. You perhaps would have rather slept than be awake. You perhaps would rather give away your power of attorney than to keep it.
You have perhaps raised your children the way someone else said to. You have perhaps thought someone else must know more than you. You have perhaps thought that others are experts, and you are not. Surely, you can learn from others. But, surely, you do not have to disregard yourself and give authority to others. You were made self-sustainable.
Do not blame the world if you are in a trance. You perhaps said: "Take me. I'm yours. Do with me as you will." Perhaps you just stood in line. Perhaps you moved from one line to another, and considered that you were thinking for yourself.
Pay attention to yourself. You are a child of God. I gave you your mind and heart for you to use. Everyone has their own. Consider where you put your money and your heart. Happiness lies with Me. Life is between you and Me.