|
Prosperity
Chapter 1
[<- Go back to Contents]
[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson One
Spiritual Substance, the Fundamental Basis of the Universe
DIVINE MIND is the one and only reality. When we
incorporate the ideas that form this Mind into our mind and
persevere in those ideas, a mighty strength wells up within
us. Then we have a foundation for the spiritual body, the
body not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. When the
spiritual body is established in consciousness, its
strength and power is transmitted to the visible body and
to all the things that we touch in the world about us.
Spiritual discernment reveals that we are now in the dawn
of a new era, that the old methods of supply and support
are fast passing away, and that new methods are waiting to
be brought forth. In the coming commerce man will not be a
slave to money. Humanity's daily needs will be met in ways
that are not now thought practical. We shall serve for the
joy of serving, and prosperity will flow to us and through
us in streams of plenty. The supply and support that love
and zeal will set in motion are not as yet largely used by
man, but those who have tested their providing power are
loud in their praise.
Page 10
The dynamic power of the supermind in man has been
sporadically displayed by men and women of every nation. It
is usually connected with some religious rite in which
mystery and priestly authority prevail. The so-called
"common herd" are kept in darkness with respect to the
source of the superhuman power of occult adepts and holy
men. But we have seen a "great light" in the discovery by
physical scientists that the atom conceals electronic
energies whose mathematical arrangement determines the
character of all the fundamental elements of nature. This
discovery has disrupted the science based on the old
mechanical atomic theory, but has also given Christian
metaphysicians a new understanding of the dynamics back of
Spirit.
Science now postulates space rather than matter as the
source of life. It says that the very air is alive with
dynamic forces that await man's grasp and utilization and
that these invisible, omnipresent energies possess
potentialities far beyond our most exalted conception. What
we have been taught about the glories of heaven pales into
insignificance compared with the glories of the radiant
rays--popularly referred to as the "ether." We are told by
science that we have utilized very meagerly this mighty
ocean of ether in producing from it the light and power of
electricity. The seemingly tremendous force generated by
the whirl of our dynamos is but a weak dribble from a
universe of energy. The invisible waves that carry radio
programs everywhere are but a mere hint of an intelligent
power that penetrates
Page 11
and permeates every germ of life, visible and invisible.
Scientific minds the world over have been tremendously
moved by these revolutionary discoveries, and they have not
found language adequate to explain their magnitude.
Although a number of books have been written by scentists,
setting forth guardedly the far-reaching effects that will
inevitably follow man's appropriation of the easily
accessible ether, none has dared to tell the whole story.
The fact is that the greatest discovery of all ages is that
of physical science that all things apparently have their
source in the invisible, intangible ether. What Jesus
taught so profoundly in symbols about the riches of the
kingdom of the heavens has now been proved true.
According to the Greek, the language in which the New
Testament has come down to us, Jesus did not use the word
heaven but the word heavens in His teaching. He was not
telling us of the glories of some faraway place called
"heaven" but was revealing the properties of the "heavens"
all around us, called both "space" and "ether" by
physicists. He taught not only its dynamic but also its
intelligent character, and said that the entity that rules
it is within man: "The kingdom of God is within you." He
not only described this kingdom of the heavens in numerous
parables but made its attainment by man the greatest object
of human existence. He not only set this as man's goal but
attained it Himself, thereby demonstrating that His
teaching is practical as well as true.
Page 12
The scientists tell us that the ether is charged with
electricity, magnetism, light rays, X rays, cosmic rays,
and other dynamic radiations; that it is the source of all
life, light, heat, energy, gravitation, attraction,
repulsion; in short, that it is the interpenetrating
essence of everything that exists on the earth. In other
words, science gives to the ether all the attractions of
heaven without directly saying so. Jesus epitomized the
subject when He told His followers that it was the kingdom
from which God clothed and fed all His children. "Seek ye
first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you." Science says that the
electrical particles that break into light in our earth's
atmosphere are also a source of all substance and matter.
Jesus said that He was the substance and bread that came
from the heavens. When will our civilization begin really
to appropriate and use this mighty ocean of substance and
life spiritually as well as physically?
This inexhaustible mind substance is available at all times
and in all places to those who have learned to lay hold of
it in consciousness. The simplest, shortest, and most
direct way of doing this was explained when Jesus said,
"Whosoever ... shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that what he saith cometh to pass, he shall have
it." When we know that certain potent ideas exist in the
invisible mind expressions, named by science both "ether"
and "space" and that we have been provided with the mind to
lay hold of them, it is easy to put the law
Page 13
into action through thought and word and deed.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," said
Shakespeare. That flood tide awaits us in the cosmic
spaces, the paradise of God.
The spiritual substance from which comes all visible wealth
is never depleted. It is right with you all the time and
responds to your faith in it and your demands on it. It is
not affected by our ignorant talk of hard times, though we
are affected because our thoughts and words govern our
demonstration. The unfailing resource is always ready to
give. It has no choice in the matter; it must give, for
that is its nature. Pour your living words of faith into
the omnipresent substance, and you will be prospered though
all the banks in the world close their doors. Turn the
great energy of your thinking toward "plenty" ideas, and
you will have plenty regardless of what men about you are
saying or doing.
God is substance, but if by this statement we mean that God
is matter, a thing of time or condition, then we should say
that God is substanceless. God is not confined to that form
of substance which we term matter. God is the intangible
essence of that which man has formed into and named matter.
Matter is a mental limitation of that divine substance
whose vital and inherent character is manifest in all life
expression.
God substance may be conceived as God energy, or Spirit
light, and "God said, let there be light, and there was
light." This is in harmony with the conclusions
Page 14
of some of the most advanced physicists. Sir James Jeans
says, in "The Mysterious Universe," "The tendency of modern
physics is to resolve the whole material universe into
waves, and nothing but waves. These waves are of two kinds:
bottled-up waves, which we call matter, and unbottled
waves, which we call radiation, or light. The process of
annihilation of matter is merely unbottling imprisoned wave
energy, and setting it free to travel through space."
Spirit is not matter. Spirit is not person. In order to
perceive the essence of Being we must drop from our mind
all thought that God is in any way circumscribed or has any
of the limitations that we associate with things or persons
having form or shape. "Thou shalt not make unto thee a
graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath."
God is substance, not matter, because matter is formed,
while God is the formless. God substance lies back of
matter and form. It is the basis of all form yet does not
enter into any form as a finality. Substance cannot be
seen, touched, tasted, or smelled, yet it is more
substantial than matter, for it is the only substantiality
in the universe. Its nature is to "sub-stand" or "stand
under" or behind matter as its support and only reality.
Job says, "The Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou
shalt have plenty of silver." This refers to universal
substance, for silver and gold are manifestations of an
everywhere present substance and
Page 15
are used as symbols for it. Lew Wallace, in "Ben-Hur,"
refers to the kingdom as "beaten gold." You have doubtless
in your own experience caught sight of this everywhere
present substance in your silence, when it seemed like
golden snowflakes falling all about you. This was the first
manifestation from the overflow of the universal substance
in your consciousness.
Substance is first given form in the mind, and as it
becomes manifest it goes through a threefold activity. In
laying hold of substance in the mind and bringing it into
manifestation, we play a most important part. We do it
according to our decree. "Thou shalt decree a thing, and it
shall be established unto thee." We are always decreeing,
sometimes consciously, often unconsciously, and with every
thought and word we are increasing or diminishing the
threefold activity of substance. The resulting
manifestation conforms to our thought, "As he thinketh
within himself, so is he."
There is no scarcity of the air you breathe. There is
plenty of air, all you will ever need, but if you close
your lungs and refuse to breathe, you will not get it and
may suffocate for lack of air. When you recognize the
presence of abundance of air and open your lungs to breathe
it deeply, you get a larger inspiration. This is exactly
what you should do with your mind in regard to substance.
There is an all-sufficiency of all things, just as there is
an all-sufficiency of air. The only lack is our own lack of
appropriation. We must seek the kingdom of
Page 16
God and appropriate it aright before things will be added
to us in fullness.
There is a kingdom of abundance of all things, and it may
be found by those who seek it and are willing to comply
with its laws. Jesus said that it is hard for a rich man to
enter into the kingdom of heaven. This does not mean that
it is hard because of his wealth, for the poor man gets in
no faster and no easier. It is not money but the thoughts
men hold about money, its source, its ownership, and its
use, that keep them out of the kingdom. Men's thoughts
about money are like their thoughts about all possessions;
they believe that things coming out of the earth are theirs
to claim and control as individual property, and may be
hoarded away and depended on, regardless of how much other
men may be in need of them. The same belief is prevalent
among both rich and poor, and even if the two classes were
suddenly to change places, the inequalities of wealth would
not be remedied. Only a fundamental change in the thoughts
of wealth could do that.
Before there is any fundamental social or economic change
men must begin to understand their relationship to God and
to one another as common heirs to the universal resource
that is sufficient for all. They must give up some of their
erroneous ideas about their "rights." They must learn that
they cannot possess and lock up that which belongs to God
without themselves suffering the effects of that
sequestration. The poor man is not the greatest sufferer in
this concentration of wealth, for he has not
Page 17
concentrated his faith in material things and chained his
soul to them. Those who are rich in the things of this
world are by their dependence on those things binding
themselves to material things and are in material darkness.
Every thought of personal possession must be dropped out of
mind before men can come into the realization of the
invisible supply. They cannot possess money, houses, or
land selfishly, because they cannot possess the universal
ideas for which these symbols stand. No man can possess any
idea as his own permanently. He may possess its material
symbol for a little time on the plane of phenomena, but it
is such riches that "moth and rust consume, and where
thieves break through and steal."
Men possess as valuables their education, trade, ability,
or intellectual talent. Ministers of the gospel possess
scholarship or eloquence, and take pride in these spiritual
possessions. Yet even these are burdens that must be
unloaded before they may enter the kingdom of the heavens.
The saint who is puffed up with his saintly goodness must
unload his vanity before he gets in. Whoever is ambitious
to do good, to excel his fellow men in righteousness, must
lose his ambition and desire before he beholds the face of
the all-providing Father.
The realm of causes may be compared to steam in a glass
boiler. If the glass is clear one may look right at it and
see nothing at all. Yet when an escape valve is touched the
steam rushes out, condenses and becomes visible. But in
this process it has also
Page 18
lost its power. Substance exists in a realm of ideas and is
powerful when handled by one who is familiar with its
characteristics. The ignorant open the valves of the mind
and let ideas flow out into a realm with which they have
nothing in common. The powerful ideas of substance are
condensed into thoughts of time and space, which ignorance
conceives as being necessary to their fruition. Thus their
power is lost, and a weary round of seedtime and harvest is
inaugurated to fulfill the demands of the world.
It is the mind that believes in personal possessions that
limits the full idea. God's world is a world of results
that sequentially follow demands. It is in this kingdom
that man finds his true home. Labor has ceased for him who
has found this inner kingdom. Divine supply is brought
forth without laborious struggle: to desire is to have
fulfillment.
This is the second step in demonstration for the one who
has fully dedicated himself to the divine guidance. He
immediately enters into easier experiences and more
happiness than the world affords, when he covenants to
follow only the good. There is an advanced degree along the
same line of initiation into the mysteries of the divine.
Before this step may be taken, a deeper and more thorough
mental cleansing must be undergone. A higher set of
faculties is then awakened within the body, and new avenues
of expression are opened for the powers of the Spirit, not
only in the body but also in the affairs of the individual.
As he proceeds to exercise these faculties
Page 19
he may find some of them clogged by the crystals of dead
thought that some selfish ideas have deposited, which makes
him go through a fresh cleansing. If he is obedient to the
Spirit and willing to follow without cavil or protest, the
way is easy for him. If however he questions and argues, as
did Job, he will meet many obstructions and his journey
will be long and tedious.
Again, he who seeks the kingdom of substance for the sake
of the loaves and fishes he may get out of it will surely
be disappointed in the end. He may get the loaves and
fishes, that is quite possible; but if there remains in his
soul any desire to use them for selfish ends, the ultimate
result will be disastrous.
Many people are seeking the aid of Spirit to heal them of
their physical ills. They have no desire for the higher
life, but having found their lusts and passions curtailed
by physical infirmities, they want these erased in order
that they may continue in their fleshly way. It is the
experience of all who have dealt with Spirit that it is a
vigorous bodily stimulant. It restores the vitality of the
body until it is even more sensitive to pleasure or pain
than it was before the spiritual quickening. This
supersensitiveness makes it more susceptible and liable to
more rapid waste if further indulgence is gratified. That
is why those who receive spiritual treatment should be
fully instructed in the Truth of Being. They should be
shown that the indulgence of bodily passions is a sin
against their success in every walk of life and especially
in the way of finances and prosperity. If substance
Page 20
is dissipated, every kind of lack begins to be felt.
Retribution always follows the indulgence of appetite and
passion for mere sensation. Both sinners and saints suffer
in this valley of folly. The alternative is to dedicate
yourself to the Father's business. Make a definite and
detailed covenant with the Father, lay your desires,
appetites, and passions at His feet and agree to use all
your substance in the most exalted way. Then you are
seeking the kingdom, and all things else shall be added
unto you.
We want to make this substance that faith has brought to
our mind enduring and abiding, so that we do not lose it
when banks fail or men talk of "hard times." We must have
in our finances a consciousness of the permanency of the
omnipresent substance as it abides in us. Some wealthy
families succeed in holding their wealth while others
dissipate it in one generation because they do not have the
consciousness of abiding substance. For many of us there is
either a feast or a famine in the matter of money and we
need the abiding consciousness. There is no reason why we
should not have a continuous even flow of substance both in
income and outgo. If we have freely received we must also
freely give and keep substance going, confident in our
understanding that our supply is unlimited and that it is
always right at hand in the omnipresent Mind of God.
In this understanding we can stand "the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune," depressions, losses, and financial
failures and still see God as
Page 21
abundant substance waiting to come into manifestation. That
is what Paul meant by taking up "the whole armor of God
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day." The
substance that has in the past been manifest in our affairs
is still here. It is the same substance and it cannot be
taken away. Even though there seems to be material lack,
there is plenty of substance for all. We are standing in
the very midst of it. Like the fish we might ask, "Where is
the water," when we live and move and have our being in it.
It is in the water, in the air everywhere, abounding,
glorious spiritual substance. Take that thought and hold
it. Refuse to be shaken from your spiritual stand in the
very midst of God's prosperity and plenty, and supply will
begin to come forth from the ether and plenty will become
more and more manifest in your affairs.
Jesus was so charged with spiritual substance that when the
woman touched His garment the healing virtue went out from
it and she was healed. There were thousands of people in
the crowd, but only the woman who had faith in that
substance got it. It was already established in her
consciousness, and she knew that her needs would be met if
she could make the contact. In this there is a lesson for
us. We know that strength is manifest everywhere, for we
see it in the mechanical world. A great locomotive starts
from the depot, moving slowly at first, but when it gains
momentum it speeds down the track like a streak. Thus it is
with spiritual strength. Beginning sometimes with a very
small
Page 22
thought, it takes on momentum and eventually becomes a
powerful idea. Every one of us can strengthen his hold on
the thought of divine substance until it becomes a powerful
idea, filling the consciousness and manifesting itself as
plenty in all our affairs.
As you lay hold of substance with your mind, make it
permanent and enduring. Realize your oneness with it. You
are unified with the one living substance, which is God,
your all-sufficiency. From this substance you were created;
in it you live and move and have your being; by it you are
fed and prospered.
The spiritual substance is steadfast and immovable,
enduring. It does not fluctuate with market reports. It
does not decrease in "hard times" nor increase in "good
times." It cannot be hoarded away to cause a deficiency in
supply and a higher price. It cannot be exhausted in doles
to meet the needs of privation. It is ever the same,
constant, abundant, freely circulating and available.
The spiritual substance is a living thing, not an inanimate
accumulation of bread that does not satisfy hunger nor
water that fails to quench thirst. It is living bread and
living water, and he that feeds on God's substance shall
never hunger and never thirst. The substance is an abiding
thing, not a bank deposit that can be withdrawn nor a
fortune that can be lost. It is an unfailing principle that
is as sure in its workings as the laws of mathematics. Man
can no more be separated from his supply of substance than
Page 23
life can be separated from its source. As God permeates the
universe and life permeates every cell of the body, so does
substance flow freely through man, free from all limit or
qualification.
In the new era that is even now at its dawn we shall have a
spirit of prosperity. This principle of the universal
substance will be known and acted on, and there will be no
place for lack. Supply will be more equalized. There will
not be millions of bushels of wheat stored in musty
warehouses while people go hungry. There will be no
overproduction or underconsumption or other inequalities of
supply, for God's substance will be recognized and used by
all people. Men will not pile up fortunes one day and lose
them the next, for they will no longer fear the integrity
of their neighbors nor try to keep their neighbor's share
from him.
Is this an impractical utopia? The answer depends on you.
Just as soon as you individually recognize the omnipresent
substance and put your faith in it, you can look for others
around you to do the same. "A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump," and even one life that bears witness to the
truth of the prosperity law will quicken the consciousness
of the whole community.
Whoever you are and whatever your immediate need, you can
demonstrate the law. If your thoughts are confused, become
still and know. Be still and know that you are one with the
substance and with the law of its manifestation. Say with
conviction:
I am strong, immovable Spirit substance.
Page 24
This will open the door of your mind to an inflow of
substance-filled ideas. As they come, use them freely. Do
not hesitate or doubt that they will bring results. They
are God's ideas given to you in answer to your prayer and
in order to supply your needs. They are substance,
intelligent, loving, eager to manifest themselves to meet
your need.
God is the source of a mighty stream of substance, and you
are a tributary of that stream, a channel of expression.
Blessing the substance increases its flow. If your money
supply is low or your purse seems empty, take it in your
hands and bless it. See it filled with the living substance
ready to become manifest. As you prepare your meals bless
the food with the thought of spiritual substance. When you
dress, bless your garments and realize that you are being
constantly clothed with God's substance. Do not center your
thought on yourself, your interests, your gains or losses,
but realize the universal nature of substance. The more
conscious you become of the presence of the living
substance the more it will manifest itself for you and the
richer will be the common good of all.
Do not take anyone's word for it, but try the law for
yourself. The other fellow's realization of substance will
not guarantee your supply. You must become conscious of it
for yourself. Identify yourself with substance until you
make it yours; it will change your finances, destroy your
fears, stop your worries, and you will soon begin to
rejoice in the ever-present bounty of God.
Page 25
Be still and turn within to the great source. See with the
eye of faith that the whole world is filled with substance.
See it falling all about you as snowflakes of gold and
silver and affirm with assurance:
Jesus Christ is now here raising me to His consciousness of
the omnipresent, all-providing God substance, and my
prosperity is assured.
I have unbounded faith in the all-present spiritual
substance increasing and multiplying at my word.
Page 26
[Go forward to Chapter 2 ->]
[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
|