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Prosperity
Chapter 5
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[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson Five
The Law That Governs the Manifestation of Supply
IT IS SAFE to say that all men are striving to fulfill the
law of their being, but few have understood the law. The
law is one of the most important things we can study,
because only as we come to understand it and in proportion
as we understand it can we comply with its requirements and
demonstrate our divine possibilities through it.
In reading the Scriptures we gradually raise our
consciousness of them as mere history and begin to
apprehend them as setting forth the principle or law of
life. We find the great Bible characters fitting into the
pattern of our own consciousness, where they represent
ideas. This makes the Bible a divine Book of Life rather
than merely the history of a people. The idea of the law is
symbolized by Moses. In our individual consciousness he is
denial, the negative side of the law that precedes its
affirmative expression. Moses gave the law as "Thou shalt
not." Jesus represents the law in its affirmative
expression "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God."
Moses could not go into the Promised Land, the
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four-dimensional state of consciousness, for there can be
no negation there. Joshua, whose name has the same meaning
as that of Jesus, entered the Promised Land and opened the
way for the Children of Israel. He represents the first
step in mind toward that full consciousness of the
omnipresence and omnipotence of God that was attained in
Jesus. Moses was the lawgiver, and Jesus was, in His own
words, the fulfillment of the law.
We must begin to see this four-dimensional world within,
with its innate capacity for all things. Everything is
right here, all that ever was or ever could be, simply
waiting to be brought forth into manifestation. The Lord
has prepared a great feast and invited all of us to it,
just as Jesus explained in parable. We have right here
within and all around us this substance ready for our
appropriation or eating. Eating is the outer symbol of
mental appropriation. We begin to break bread by breaking
the substance of mind, everywhere abundantly provided.
We have discovered that there is within us a life force
that can be quickened into greater activity by thinking.
Everyone has at some time demonstrated that he could
overcome the negative condition of weakness by holding the
thought of strength. Sometimes the strength follows the
thought immediately, sometimes the thought must be
persistently held for days or weeks. In demonstrating the
law of ever-present abundance we should and do expect the
same results. If the demonstration seems slow in coming,
patience and persistence will win. That may be because
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the poverty consciousness has a tenacious hold and takes
effort to be got rid of.
There is a law that governs the manifestation of supply,
and we may learn that law and apply it by mental
determination and faith in the logical sequences of
spiritual realities. We have thought that the laws of God
were mysterious and sacred, far removed from the ordinary
individual, and that we had better try first to learn the
laws of food, of medicine, of a thousand other secondary
things. A strict metaphysician looks on all these temporal
laws as secondary to the one law of God. That one law, we
are told, is to be written in our heart, our inward parts.
Then there is something within us that naturally responds
to the law of God. If we accept this as true, that we know
the one law by an inner intelligence and that all other
laws are secondary to it, we are in a position to get
results, to demonstrate prosperity.
In the natural world about us we see that everything is
governed by law. We are told that the whole animal kingdom
is guided by instinct. Many theories have been advanced to
explain instinct in terms of material thought. Some
philosophers have stated that it is something handed down
from one generation to the next, incorporated in germ
cells. Whether this is true or not, there is every evidence
that there is a law either in or around the cells that
controls their formation and duplicates the pattern laid
down ages ago in Mother Eve and Father Adam. This is the
law written in our inward parts, which is not a
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figure of speech but a recognized fact. We must look within
for the law and not without. The laws we find in the outer
are the secondary laws. The infinite, creative Mind has
given to every one of us a key to the workings of this
unfailing inner law. It is that everything we touch
mentally or physically represents substance and that it is
limited only by ourselves in our thought capacity. We
cannot ask God for more substance, for the universe is full
of it. We can and should ask for understanding to lay hold
of it with our mind; that is, for an increase in our
capacity. Back of the substance is the substance idea, and
man is related to the cause side of this idea through his
oneness with God.
You may think that you could live better and do more good
if you had lots of money. Things would not be a bit better
with you if you had a million dollars, unless you also had
the understanding to use it for the good of yourself and
others. Would you give a child a million dollars to go buy
candy and ice cream for himself? We must evolve with our
possessions until we get the ability to handle them. Then
the law is fulfilled. The supply unfolds at the same rate
as the need or ability to use substance is developed. Let
us realize this law of unfolding substance and get busy to
fulfill it in ourselves by developing our understanding and
appreciation of it. We should pray for just as much each
day as we need or can handle. "Give us this day our daily
bread" is a prayer that conforms to the divine law and
answers itself.
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Infinite Mind has a lawful way for providing its children
with supply for all their needs. Nothing is left to chance.
God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of
the field, and He will feed and clothe us unless we make it
impossible by our refusal to accept His bounty. Paul said
that the fulfilling of the law is love. That is exactly
what we must do, love the Lord and love our neighbor as
ourselves, and love our work. The law is there, in our
inward parts, in our very heart. We know what to do. We
don't have to pray or beg for God to give us anything. All
we need do is to meditate quietly and affirm the presence
and power of the great Giver of all, and then accept the
gifts. To be true to the law is to stop looking to the
without and to look within for supply. Looking to the
within means fixing the mind on God as an ever-present
Spirit that is also substance and power. Wrapped up within
each of us is a great richness of thoughts. These thoughts
are prisoners in the subconsciousness only waiting to be
set free to go to work for us. They are waiting for the
coming of the Son of God, who releases the prisoners and
sets the captives free. This Son is now seeking expression
in you; is you. Release your rich thoughts, set free your
innate powers, and take from the rich substance of the
Father what you will.
Through faith in the overcoming power of Jesus Christ, the
sense mind will be overcome and the spiritual mind brought
into control of your life and affairs. The sense mind is
filled with lacks and limitations; the spiritual mind knows
only limitless abundance.
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You are linked with the universal spiritual mind through
the Christ Mind. It is through the Christ Mind that all
things come to you; it is the channel to the all-mind of
the Father. Make the unity of wholeness with the Christ
Mind. Hold that you are master with the Master, one with
the all-providing substance and that your prosperity
runneth over. As you begin this process of unifying
yourself consciously with the inner life and substance, it
will begin to well up within you and to overflow into your
affairs, so that you will be prosperous. Remain true to
this inner life no matter what the outer appearance may be,
and you cannot help but bring the good things of life into
manifestation.
All manifest substance flows from a realm of light waves,
according to the findings of modern physical science. James
says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of lights." This is an
exact statement of a scientific law, even to the use of the
plural form of the word "lights," for as science states,
one or more light particles, electrons, form the atom that
is the basis of all material manifestation. God ideas then
are the source of all that appears. Accept this as an
absolute truth, an all-productive truth, and consciously
connect your mind with the Father-Mind. Then you will begin
to realize a never-failing prosperity that comes from Being
itself.
The German philosopher and poet Goethe says, "The highest
and most excellent thing in man is formless, and we should
guard against giving it
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shape in anything less than noble dress." This is a
recognition of the truth that man has the capacity within
himself to give form to the formless substance. Jesus
expressed the law by saying, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This heaven is
the realm of pure ideas in Mind. We are constantly
incorporating these ideas into our mind and giving them
form and shape according to our loyalty to Truth.
To every metaphysician this is a very important and very
delicate process, because it is through this that we
develop our soul. This soul development is often compared
to the development of a photographic plate. The light puts
the image on the sensitive plate in the first place, or as
James says, it is a gift from "the Father of lights." There
is then an image on the plate, but it is invisible and
unmanifest until it goes through a developing process.
Infinite Mind has imaged all its attributes in the soul of
every man. But man must develop this image into the clear
picture, and much of that work must be done in the dark
with perfect faith in the law of manifestation. The
photographer works in the darkroom, putting the plate
through many processes. Sometimes the developer may make an
error in some of the operations and the plate will come out
with an imperfect image. So the human manifestation
sometimes seems distorted, but the image of perfection
imprinted by creative Mind is there. This perfect image is
"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
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Our body and affairs are first proofs of the development of
the picture, but floating in our mind are the higher ideas,
the real image to be developed. Our mind is engaged more or
less in a chemical process. It is hard to find a line of
demarcation between physical and mental chemistry, for they
follow the same law. However what has been imaged can be
brought out by the proper method of development. Whatever
you image yourself as doing, you can do.
In our human understanding we have divorced this imaging
power of the mind from the executive power. Now let us
bring them together and unify them, for when imagination
and will work together all things are possible to man. The
will is symbolized in Scripture by the king. King Solomon
was probably the world's richest man, and in so far as the
world is concerned he was a great success. He demonstrated
prosperity. He did not ask God for riches. Let us note that
carefully. He asked God for wisdom, for ideas. God is mind
and His gifts are not material but spiritual, not things
but ideas. Solomon asked for and received the ideas and
then developed them himself. Because he was wise all the
world came to his court seeking wisdom and bringing riches
in exchange for it. The King of Tyre brought the material
he needed to build the Temple. The Queen of Sheba brought
him great quantities of gold. From this we should get our
cue: ask God for rich ideas (substance) and then put them
to work in our affairs.
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Do not hesitate to use the divine ideas that come to you,
but do not forget their source or foundation. There are
many people who are very active executives. The moment they
get an idea they make use of it, but oftentimes they do not
get far, because they forget the foundation on which such
ideas rest and from which we must start to build. With a
foundation of Truth, of spiritual ideas and substance we
can build an enduring structure of prosperity. It will not
be based on a false premise. It will stand when the rains
descend and the floods come and the winds blow and beat
upon it. We do not desire prosperity today and poverty
tomorrow. We should seek for the steady, day-by-day
realization of abundant supply.
Jesus understood and used this law of forming the formless
substance by the power of imagination and will. When the
woman touched the hem of His garment, some of this
substance, of which He was vividly conscious, flowed from
Him and healed her. He immediately remarked that someone
had touched Him. Many had touched Him in the throng and no
substance had left His body from those contacts, but the
woman of faith was open to receive the healing substance
and consciously appropriate it. This proved her faith, and
Jesus told her to be of good cheer, for her faith had made
her whole. The same substance was available to others who
crowded against Him, but only the one who recognized it and
laid hold of it received. Even so you and I shall receive
no benefit, although substance is everywhere around us and
in us, unless we
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recognize its presence by faith and lay hold of it by the
hem of its garment (outer expression).
Jesus recognized the omnipresence of substance when He laid
hold of it to multiply the loaves and the fishes. He dwelt
in a consciousness of it at all times. Once He told the
apostles when they asked Him to eat, "I have meat to eat
that ye know not of." He built this divine substance into
His body, cell by cell, replacing the mortal flesh with the
spiritual substance, until His whole body was immortalized.
He demonstrated it and told us how it was done. He said,
"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also; and greater works than these shall he do." Then why
are so many people poor, distressed, ill, or troubled?
There is a way, a law, and a wisdom to apply the law, and
there is an abundance of substance waiting to be formed by
each of us into whatsoever we will, when we apply that law
as a son of God.
There is an inherent faculty that instinctively lays hold
of what it calls its own. Even little children like to have
their own toys and to keep them separate from those of
other children. There is nothing to be condemned in this,
for it is the natural outworking of a divine law. It proves
that we know, somewhere in our deepest being, that we have
been provided for from the foundation of the world and are
entitled to our own portion without question. The power of
the mind to draw to us those things to which we are
divinely entitled is a power that can be cultivated and
should be.
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We are now on the verge of a new state of mind in matters
financial. Let us do away with the erroneous idea that men
must be poor to be righteous. Money is man's instrument,
not his master. Money was made for man, not man for money.
Only those who put money above man and give it power in
their minds by worshiping it, are the "rich" men to whom
Jesus referred in His story about the camel and the
needle's eye. It is not money that controls men, but the
ideas they have about money. Ideas of poverty are just as
powerful to enslave men as are ideas of wealth. Every man
should be taught how to handle ideas, rather than money, so
that they serve him rather than have dominion over him.
Some physical scientists are telling us that the time is
near when men will manufacture from the ether, right at
hand, everything that they need or desire. Man will not
have to wait for seedtime and harvest when he learns to use
the power of his mind. When we have that consciousness in
which our ideas are tangible, all our demands will be
quickly fulfilled by the higher law. Throw into your ideas
all the life and power of your concentrated thought, and
they will be clothed with reality.
When Jesus went into the wilderness of His (then) untried
mental powers He was tempted to turn stones into bread. We
all have had this temptation, and most of us have succumbed
to it. We get our bread out of material things (stones)
instead of out of the words that proceed from the mouth of
God. It is the word, the idea, that feeds the soul of
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man. That is admitted. But we must realize that it is the
word, the idea, that feeds the body and the affairs of man
also, for unless the word is recognized and appropriated,
there is a lack of the true substance and there is no
satisfaction in the food. Fortunately the "Father knoweth
that we have need of all these things," and in His
compassion and mercy He feeds us with the substance even
while we still try to assimilate the stones. If we would
seek first the kingdom of God, the substance, the "things"
would be added and we should consciously enjoy the fullness
of living, the abundant life of Jesus Christ.
There is a universal law of increase. It is not confined to
bank accounts but operates on every plane of manifestation.
The conscious co-operation of man is necessary to the
fullest results in the working of this law. You must use
your talent, whatever it may be, in order to increase it.
Have faith in the law. Do not reason too much but forge
ahead in faith and boldness. If you let yourself think of
any person or any outer condition as hindering your
increase, this becomes a hindrance to you, for you have
applied the law of increase to it. Fear of it may cause you
to become timid and bury your talent, which defeats the
law. Keep your eyes on the abundant inner reality and do
not let the outer appearance cause you to falter.
Do not give too close study to yourself or your present
condition. To dwell in mind upon your seeming limitations
only prolongs their stay and makes your progress slow. A
child loses sight of everything
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but his increase in size. The boy sees himself as a larger
boy, even as a man. It is the childlike mind that finds the
kingdom. Then look ahead to the perfect man you are to be
in the Spirit and behold yourself as the beloved son in
whom the Father is well pleased.
God gives the increase, we are told in the Scripture. This
is to be remembered, for we so often think that increase is
the result of our personal efforts. Increase comes by the
operation of a universal law, and our part is to keep that
law. Use the talent of life, and it will expand
wonderfully. You do this by talking about life, praising
it, and giving God thanks for it. Act as though you were
alive and glad to be alive and you will gain a new
realization of life, an increase in life itself.
Never allow yourself to come under the control of the "I
can't" man. He believes in limitations, wraps his talent in
them, and hides it away in the negative earth, and no
increase is possible to him. Be positive in Spirit and you
will succeed. All the negative talents that are buried away
in the depths of material thought can be resurrected by
Spirit and made positive, put to the right use,
contributing to the increase of your good. Appetite and
passion, which are decreasing and destructive in the
material can be made increasing and constructive when
directed to the things of Spirit. "Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
filled."
If there is any lack apparent in man's world it is because
the requirements of the law of manifestation
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have not been met. This law is based on mind and its
operation through thoughts and words. The key to the
operation of mind is symbolically set forth in the Genesis
account of the six days of creation. Man's mind goes
through the identical steps in bringing an idea into
manifestation. Between the perception of an idea and its
manifestation there are six definite, positive movements,
followed by a (seventh) "day" of rest, in which the mind
relaxes and sees its work in process of fulfillment.
In bringing forth a manifestation of God's abundant supply,
take the first step by saying, "Let there be light"; that
is, let there be understanding. You must have a clear
perception of the principle back of the proposition "God
will provide." The one universal, eternal, substance of
God, which is the source of all, must be discerned and
relied on, while dependence on material things must be
eliminated from thought. So long as you depend on money
alone you are worshiping a false god and have not discerned
the light. You must first enter into the understanding that
God, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, is the source
and that you can draw on this source without limit. If you
have established that light, you have begun your
demonstration and can go to the second step. A "firmament"
must be established; that is, a firm place in the mind, a
dividing of the true from the apparent. This is done
through affirmation. As you affirm God as your supply and
support, your words will in due season become substance to
you, the substance of faith.
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The third step is the forming of this substance into
tangibility. "Let the dry land appear." Out of the
omnipresent substance your mind forms whatever it wants by
the power of imagination. If it is food you need, see
yourself as bountifully supplied with food. If you have
already taken the other steps, you can picture in mind the
things you desire and bring them into your manifest world.
If the other steps of understanding and faith have not been
taken first, there will of course be no demonstration, for
above all the creative law is orderly and works by
progressive steps. Many people have tried to demonstrate by
visualizing and concentrating and have failed because they
have put the third step first. They have not developed
understanding or faith. If you work according to the law,
conforming to its orderly operation as revealed in the
degrees of creation, you cannot fail, because when you have
fulfilled the law you have found the kingdom.
Jesus recognized order as a fundamental factor in the law
of increase. When He fed the multitude He made them sit
down in companies. If you study the story carefully you
will see that there was a great deal of preliminary
preparation before the demonstration was made. There was a
recognition of the seed ideas, the loaves and fishes
carried by the small boy. There was a prayer of thanks for
that supply and then it was blessed. All this preceded the
actual appearing and appropriation of the supply. Every
demonstration is based on the same law
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of increase and goes through the same orderly steps.
Pray, but let your prayer be affirmative, for that is the
prayer of faith. A begging prayer filled with ifs is a
prayer of doubt. Keep praying until affirmations become a
habit of mind. The race thought of lack must be penetrated
and so charged with the truth of God's omnipresent
abundance that all consciousness of lack and poverty
disappears from the face of the earth. The more we trust to
the simplicity and infallibility of the law the better will
be our individual demonstration and the more we shall
contribute to the transformation of the race thought that
causes lack and famine. Those who make the greatest
spiritual demonstrations are not the wise of the world but
the obedient children of the law on the bosom of infinite
love.
See what you need as already manifest and as yours. Do not
put it off to some uncertain future time. God wants you to
have it now. Remember always God's omnipresence, and if
doubts come in, do not entertain them. Say: "I trust
Omnipotence." "I refuse to be anxious about tomorrow or
even the next minute. I know that God does provide for the
fulfillment of His divine idea, and I am that divine idea."
This divine idea is the son, the perfect man, the Christ,
brought forth on the sixth day. If you would have your
inheritance, you must not omit this sixth-day realization.
God expresses Himself as man and works through man to bring
perfection into expression.
To give up all anxiety and trust in the Lord
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does not mean to sit down and do nothing. "My Father
worketh even until now, and I work." We are to work as God
works; to work with God, as a son follows the occupation of
his father. We are to form what God has created. In the 1st
chapter of Genesis we see how the Father works. The various
steps in His method are clearly pointed out, and we shall
have results only as we faithfully follow them.
Some people think of prosperity as something separate from
their spiritual experience, "outside the pale" of religion.
They live in two worlds: in one for six days of the week
when man runs things, and in the other on the seventh day
when God is given a chance to show what He can do. It is
personality's demonstration when people find themselves
complaining of hard times and depression, but it is not the
way to demonstrate God in the fullness of all things. Do
all things to the glory of God seven days a week rather
than one. Take God into all your affairs. Use this thought
in the silence and bring God and His law of prosperity into
your affairs: I trust Thy universal law of prosperity in
all my affairs.
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[Prosperity]
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