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Prosperity
Chapter 8
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[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson Eight
God Will Pay Your Debts
FORGIVE US our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors." In these words Jesus expressed an infallible law
of mind, the law that one idea must be dissolved before
another can take its place. If you have in your mind any
thought that someone has wronged you, you cannot let in the
cleansing power of Spirit and the richness of spiritual
substance until you have cast out the thought of the wrong,
have forgiven it fully. You may be wondering why you have
failed to get spiritual illumination or to find the
consciousness of spiritual substance. Perhaps the reason is
here: a lack of room for the true thoughts because other
thoughts fill your mind. If you are not receiving the
spiritual understanding you feel you should have, you
should search your mind carefully for unforgiving thoughts.
"Thoughts are things" and occupy space in the mind realm.
They have substance and form and may easily be taken as
permanent by one not endowed with spiritual discernment.
They bring forth fruit according to the seed planted in the
mind, but they are not
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enduring unless founded in Spirit. Thoughts are alive and
are endowed by the thinker with a secondary thinking power;
that is, the thought entity that the I AM forms assumes an
ego and begins to think on its own account. Thoughts also
think but only with the power you give to them.
Tell me what kind of thoughts you are holding about
yourself and your neighbors, and I can tell you just what
you may expect in the way of health, finances, and harmony
in your home. Are you suspicious of your neighbors? You
cannot love and trust in God if you hate and distrust men.
The two ideas love and hate, or trust and mistrust, simply
cannot both be present in your mind at one time, and when
you are entertaining one, you may be sure the other is
absent. Trust other people and use the power that you
accumulate from that act to trust God. There is magic in
it: it works wonders; love and trust are dynamic, vital
powers. Are you accusing men of being thieves, and fear
that they are going to take away from you something that is
your own? With such a thought generating fear and even
terror in your mind and filling your consciousness with
darkness, where is there room for the Father's light of
protection? Rather build walls of love and substance around
yourself. Send out swift, invisible messengers of love and
trust for your protection. They are better guards than
policemen or detectives.
Do not judge others as regards their guilt or innocence.
Consider yourself and how you stand in the sight of the
Father for having thoughts about another's
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guilt. Begin your reform with yourself. That means much to
one who enjoys an understanding of mind and its laws,
though it may mean little to the ordinary individual. He
who knows himself superficially, just his external
personality, thinks he has reformed when he has conformed
to the moral and governmental laws. He may even be filled
with his own self-righteousness and daily lift up his voice
to praise God that he is not as other men are, that he has
forgiven men their transgressions. He looks on all men who
do not conform to his ideas of morality and religion as
being sinners and transgressors and thanks God for his own
insight and keenness. But he is not at peace. Something
seems lacking. God does not talk to him "face to face,"
because the mind, where God and man meet, is darkened by
the murky thought that other men are sinners. Our first
work in any demonstration is to contact God, therefore we
must forgive all men their transgressions. Through this
forgiveness we cleanse our mind so that the Father can
forgive us our own transgressions.
Our forgiving "all men" includes ourselves. You must also
forgive yourself. Let the finger of denial erase every sin
or "falling short" that you have charged up against
yourself. Pay your debt by saying to that part of yourself
which you think has fallen short: "Thou art made whole: sin
no more, lest a worse thing befall thee." Then "loose him,
and let him go." Treat sin as a mental transgression,
instead of considering it as a moral deflection. Deny in
thought all tendency to the error way and hold
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yourself firmly to the Christ Spirit, which is your divine
self. Part company forever with "accusing conscience."
Those who have resolved to sin no more have nothing in
common with guilt.
"Shall I be in debt as long as I hold debts against
others?" We find this to be the law of mind: a thought of
debt will produce debt. So long as you believe in debt you
will go into debt and accumulate the burdens that follow
that thought. Whoever has not forgiven all men their debts
is likely to fall into debt himself. Does this mean that
you should give receipted bills to all those who owe you?
No. That would not be erasing the thought of debt from your
mind. First deny in mind that any man or woman owes you
anything. If necessary, go over your list of names
separately and sincerely forgive the thought of debt which
you have been attaching to each person named. More bills
may be collected in this way than in any other, for many of
these people will pay what they owe when you send them this
forgiving thought.
Debt is a contradiction of the universal equilibrium, and
there is no such thing as lack of equilibrium in all the
universe. Therefore in Spirit and in Truth there is no
debt. However, men hold on to a thought of debt, and this
thought is responsible for a great deal of sorrow and
hardship. The true disciple realizes his supply in the
consciousness of omnipresent, universally possessed
abundance. Spirit substance is impartial and owned in
common, and no thought of debt can enter into it.
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Debts exist in the mind, and in the mind is the proper
place to begin liquidating them. These thought entities
must be abolished in mind before their outer manifestations
will pass away and stay away. The world can never be free
from the bondage of financial obligations until men erase
from their minds the thoughts of "mine and thine" that
generates debts and interest. Analyze the thought of debt
and you will see that it involves a thought of lack. Debt
is a thought of lack with absence at both ends; the
creditor thinks he lacks what is owed him and the debtor
thinks he lacks what is necessary to pay it, else he would
discharge the obligation rather than continue it. There is
error at both ends of the proposition and nothing in the
middle. This being true, it should be easy to dissolve the
whole thought that anyone owes us or that we owe anyone
anything. We should fill our mind with thoughts of
all-sufficiency, and where there is no lack there can be no
debts. Thus we find that the way to pay our debts is by
filling our mind with the substance of ideas that are the
direct opposite of the thoughts of lack that caused the
debts.
Ideas of abundance will more quickly and surely bring what
is yours to you than any thoughts you can hold about
debtors discharging their obligations to you. See substance
everywhere and affirm it, not only for yourself but for
everyone else. Especially affirm abundance for those whom
you have held in the thought of owing you. Thus you will
help them pay their debts more easily than if you merely
erased
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their names from your book of accounts receivable. Help pay
the other fellow's debts by forgiving him his debts and
declaring for him the abundance that is his already in
Spirit. The idea of abundance will also bring its fruits
into your own life. Let the law of plenty work itself out
in you and in your affairs. This is the way the Father
forgives your debts: not by canceling them on His books but
by erasing them from His mind. He remembers them no more
against you when you deny their reality. The Father is the
everywhere present Spirit in which all that appears has its
origin. God's love sees you always well, happy, and
abundantly provided for; but God's wisdom demands that
order and right relation exist in your mind before it may
become manifest in your affairs as abundance. His love
would give you your every desire, but His wisdom ordains
that you forgive your debtors before your debts are
forgiven.
To remedy any state of limited finances or ill-health that
has been brought about by worry one must begin by
eliminating the worry that is the original cause. One must
free one's mind from the burden of debt before the debt can
be paid. Many people have found that the statement "I owe
no man anything but love" has helped them greatly to
counteract this thought of debt. As they used the words
their minds were opened to an inflow of divine love and
they faithfully co-operated with the divine law of
forgiveness in thought, word, and deed. They built up such
a strong consciousness of the healing and enriching power
of God's love that
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they could live and work peacefully and profitably with
their associates. Thus renewed constantly in health, in
faith, and in integrity, they were able to meet every
obligation that came to them.
The statement "I owe no man anything but love" does not
mean that we can disclaim owing our creditors money or try
to evade the payment of obligations we have incurred. The
thing denied is the burdensome thought of debt or of lack.
The work of paying debts is an inner work having nothing to
do with the debts already owed but with the wrong thoughts
that produced them. When one holds to the right ideas,
burdensome debts will not be contracted. Debts are produced
by thoughts of lack, impatient desire, and covetousness.
When these thoughts are overcome, debts are overcome,
forgiven, and paid in full, and we are free from them for
all time.
Your thoughts should at all times be worthy of your highest
self, your fellow man, and God. The thoughts that most
frequently work ill to you and your associates are thoughts
of criticism and condemnation. Free your mind of them by
holding the thought "There is now no condemnation in Christ
Jesus." Fill your mind with thoughts of divine love,
justice, peace, and forgiveness. This will pay your debts
of love, which are the only debts you really owe. Then see
how quickly and easily and naturally all your outer debts
will be paid and all inharmonies of mind, body, and affairs
smoothed out at the same time. Nothing will so quickly
enrich your mind and
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free it from every thought of lack as the realization of
divine love. Divine love will quickly and perfectly free
you from the burden of debt and heal you of your physical
infirmities, often caused by depression, worry, and
financial fear. Love will bring your own to you, adjust all
misunderstandings, and make your life and affairs healthy,
happy, harmonious, and free, as they should be. Love indeed
is the "fulfillment of the law."
The way is now open for you to pay your debts. Surrender
them to God along with all your doubts and fears. Follow
the light that is flooding into your mind. God's power,
love, and wisdom, are here, for His kingdom is within you.
Give Him full dominion in your life and affairs. Give Him
your business, your family affairs, your finances, and let
Him pay your debts. He is even now doing it, for it is His
righteous desire to free you from every burden, and He is
leading you out of the burden of debt, whether of owing or
being owed. Meet every insidious thought, such as "I
can't," "I don't know how," "I can't see the way," with the
declaration "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want." You
"shall not want" the wisdom, the courage to do, or the
substance to do with when you have once fully realized the
scope of the vast truth that Almightiness is leading you
into "green pastures ... beside still waters."
In the kingdom of Truth and reality ideas are the coin of
the realm. You can use the new ideas that divine wisdom is
now quickening in your mind
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and start this very moment to pay your debts. Begin by
thanking God for your freedom from the debt-burden thought.
This is an important step in breaking the shackles of debt.
The funds to pay all your bills may not suddenly appear in
a lump sum; but as you watch and work and pray, holding
yourself in the consciousness of God's leadership and His
abundance, you will notice your funds beginning to grow
"here a little, there a little," and increasing more and
more rapidly as your faith increases and your anxious
thoughts are stilled. For with the increase will come added
good judgment and wisdom in the management of your affairs.
Debt is soon vanquished when wisdom and good judgment are
in control.
Do not yield to the temptation of "easy-payment plans." Any
payment that drains your pay envelope before you receive it
is not an easy payment. Do not allow false pride to tempt
you to put on a thousand-dollar front on a hundred-dollar
salary. There may be times when you are tempted to miss
paying a bill in order to indulge a desire for some thing.
This easily leads one into the habit of putting off paying,
which fastens the incubus of debt on people before they
realize it. It is the innocent-appearing forerunner of the
debt habit and debt thought that may rob you of peace,
contentment, freedom, integrity, and prosperity for years
to come. The Divine Mind within you is much stronger than
this desire mind of the body. Turn to it in a time like
this, and affirm: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not
want" this thing until
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it comes to me in divine order.
Bless your creditors with the thought of abundance as you
begin to accumulate the wherewithal to pay off your
obligations. Keep the faith they had in you by including
them in your prayer for increase. Begin to free yourself at
once by doing all that is possible with the means you have
and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you
to do more; for through the avenues of Spirit more means
will come to you and every obligation will be met.
If you are a creditor, be careful of the kind of thoughts
you hold over your debtor. Avoid the thought that he is
unwilling to pay you or that he is unable to pay you. One
thought holds him in dishonesty, and the other holds him
subject to lack, and either of them tends to close the door
to the possibility of his paying you soon. Think well and
speak well of all those who owe you. If you talk about them
to others avoid calling them names that you would not apply
to yourself. Cultivate a genuine feeling of love for them
and respect their integrity in spite of all appearances.
Declare abundant supply for them and thus help them to
prosper. Pray and work for their good as well as for your
own, for yours is inseparable from theirs. You owe your
debtor quite as much as he owes you and yours is a debt of
love. Pay your debt to him and he will pay his to you. This
rule of action never fails.
Far-seeing Christians look forward to an early resumption
of the economic system inaugurated by the early followers
of Jesus. They had all things in
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common, and no man lacked anything. But before we can have
a truly Christian community founded on a spiritual basis we
must be educated into a right way of thinking about
finances. If we should all get together and divide all our
possessions, it would be but a short time until those who
have the prevailing financial ideas would manipulate our
finances, and plethora on one hand and lack on the other
would again be established.
The world cannot be free from the bondage of debt and
interest until men start to work in their minds to erase
those things from consciousness. If the United States
forgave the nations of Europe all their debts and wiped the
slate clean, the law would not necessarily be fulfilled;
for there would probably remain a thought that they still
owed us and that we had made a sacrifice in canceling the
obligations. We should not feel very friendly about it and
would not truly forgive them, and in that case the error
thought would be carried on. We must first forgive the
error thought that they owe us money and that we would be
losing money by canceling the debts. The man who is forced
to forgive a debt does not forgive it.
Above all we should fill our mind with the consciousness of
that divine abundance which is so manifest everywhere in
the world today. There is as much substance as there ever
was, but its free flow has been interfered with through
selfishness. We must rid our mind of the selfish
acquisitiveness that is so dominant in the race thought,
and in that way do
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our part in the great work of freeing the world from
avarice. It is the duty of every Christian metaphysician to
help in the solution of this problem by affirming that the
universal Spirit of supply is now becoming manifest as a
distributing energy the world over; that all stored-up,
hoarded, vicious thoughts are being dissolved; that all
people have things in common. that no one anywhere lacks
anything; and that the divine law of distribution of
infinite supply that Jesus demonstrated is now being made
manifest throughout the world. "The earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness thereof."
There is a legitimate commerce that is carried on by means
of what is called credit. Credit is a convenience to be
used by those who appreciate its value and are careful not
to abuse it, for to do so would be to ruin it. However,
many persons are not equipped to use the credit system to
advantage and are likely to abuse it. In the first place,
few individuals are familiar with the intricacies of sound
credit systems and often assume obligations without being
certain of their ability to meet them, especially should
some unforeseen complication arise. Frequently an
individual loses all that he invests and finds himself
involved in a burden of debt in addition. Such things are
not in divine order and are largely responsible for
retarding prosperity.
No one should assume an obligation unless he is prepared to
meet it promptly and willingly when it comes due. One who
knows God as his unfailing resource can be assured of his
supply when it is needed.
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Then why should he plunge into debt when he is confident of
his daily supply without debt? There are no creditors or
debtors in God's kingdom. If you are in that kingdom, you
need no longer be burdened with the thought of debt either
as debtor or creditor. Under divine law there is no
reaching out for things that are beyond one's present
means. There is an ever-increasing richness of
consciousness coming from the certain knowledge that God is
infinite and unfailing supply. Outer things conform to the
inner pattern, and riches are attracted to the one who
lives close to the unselfish heart of God. His environment
is made beautiful by the glory of the Presence, and there
is satisfying and lasting prosperity in his affairs.
There is but one way to be free from debt. That is the
desire to be free, followed by the realization that debt
has no legitimate place in God's kingdom and that you are
determined to erase it entirely from your mind. As you work
toward your freedom you will find it helpful to have daily
periods for meditation and prayer. Do not concentrate on
debts or spoil your prayers by constantly thinking of
debts. Think of that which you want to demonstrate, not
that from which you seek freedom. When you pray, thank the
Father for His care and guidance, for His provision and
plenty, for His love and wisdom, for His infinite abundance
and your privilege to enjoy it.
Here are a few prosperity prayers that may help establish
you in the truth of plenty and erase the
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error thought of debt. They are offered as suggestions for
forming your own prayers but may be used as given with
excellent results.
I am no longer anxious about finances; Thou art my
all-sufficiency in all things.
The Spirit of honesty, promptness, efficiency, and order is
now expressed in me and in all that I do.
I am free from all limitations of mortal thought about
quantities and values. The superabundance of riches of the
Christ Mind are now mine, and I am prospered in all my ways.
The 23d Psalm
A Treatment To Free The Mind Of The Debt Idea
Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's
sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies:
Thou hast anointed my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the
days of my life:
And I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah for ever.
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[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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