|
Prosperity
Chapter 7
[<- Go back to Chapter 6]
[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson Seven
God Has Provided Prosperity for Every Home
THE HOME is the heart of the nation. The heart is the love
center. Love is the world's greatest attractive power. The
electromagnet that lifts the ingots of steel must first be
charged with the electric current, for without the current
it is powerless. So the heart of man, or the home that is
the heart of the nation, must be aglow with God's love;
then it becomes a magnet drawing all good from every
direction. God has amply provided for every home, but the
provision is in universal substance, which responds only to
law. Through the application of the law the substance is
drawn to us and begins to work for us.
It is the law of love that we have whatsoever we desire. As
a father gives his children gifts so the Lord gives to us,
because of love. When we desire aright, we put our thoughts
into the supermind realm; we contact God-Mind and from it
draw the invisible substance that is manifest in temporal
things. The substance thus becomes a part of our mind and
through it of our affairs. We draw spiritual substance to
ourselves just as the magnet draws the
Page 103
iron. When we think about the love of God drawing to us the
substance necessary for support and supply, that substance
begins to accumulate all around us, and as we abide in the
consciousness of it, it begins to manifest itself in all
our affairs.
"Perfect love casteth out fear." Fear is a great breeder of
poverty, for it breaks down positive thoughts. Negative
thoughts bring negative conditions in their train. The
first thing to do in making a demonstration of prosperity
in the home is to discard all negative thoughts and words.
Build up a positive thought atmosphere in the home, an
atmosphere that is free from fear and filled with love. Do
not allow any words of poverty or lack to limit the
attractive power of love in the home. Select carefully only
those words that charge the home atmosphere with the idea
of plenty, for like attracts like in the unseen as well as
the seen. Never make an assertion in the home, no matter
how true it may look on the surface, that you would not
want to see persist in the home. By talking poverty and
lack you are making a comfortable place for these unwelcome
guests by your fireside, and they will want to stay. Rather
fill the home with thoughts and words of plenty, of love,
and of God's substance; then the unwelcome guests will soon
leave you.
Do not say that money is scarce; the very statement will
scare money away from you. Do not say that times are hard
with you; the very words will tighten your purse strings
until Omnipotence itself cannot slip a dime into it. Begin
now to talk plenty,
Page 104
think plenty, and give thanks for plenty. Enlist all the
members of the home in the same work. Make it a game. It's
lots of fun, and, better than that, it actually works.
Every home can be prosperous, and there should be no
poverty-stricken homes, for they are caused only by
inharmony, fear, negative thinking and speaking. Every
visible item of wealth can be traced to an invisible
source. Food comes from grain, which was planted in the
earth; but who sees or knows the quickening love that
touches the seed and makes it bear a hundredfold? An unseen
force from an invisible source acts on the tiny seeds, and
supply for the multitude springs forth.
The physical substance that we name earth is the visible
form of a superabundant mind substance, everywhere present,
pervading all things, and inspiring all things to action.
When the grain or seed is put into the earth, the
quickening thought of the universe causes the little life
germ to lay hold of the spiritual substance all about it
and what we call matter proves to be a form of mind. "There
is no matter; all is mind."
Words are also seeds, and when dropped into the invisible
spiritual substance, they grow and bring forth after their
kind. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of
thistles?" Farmers and gardeners choose their seed with the
greatest care. They reject every defective seed they find
and in this way make sure of the coming crop. To have
prosperity in your home you will have to exercise the same
intelligent
Page 105
discrimination in the choice of your seed words.
You should expect prosperity when you keep the prosperity
law. Therefore, be thankful for every blessing that you
gain and as deeply grateful for every demonstration as for
an unexpected treasure dropped into your lap. This will
keep your heart fresh; for true thanksgiving may be likened
to rain falling upon ready soil, refreshing it and
increasing its productiveness. When Jesus had only a small
supply He gave thanks for the little He had. This increased
that little into such an abundance that a multitude was
satisfied with food and much was left over. Blessing has
not lost its power since the time Jesus used it. Try it and
you will prove its efficacy. The same power of
multiplication is in it today. Praise and thanksgiving
impart the quickening spiritual power that produces growth
and increase in all things.
You should never condemn anything in your home. If you want
new articles of furniture or new clothes to take the place
of those you now have, do not talk about your present
things as old or shabby. Watch your words. See yourself
clothed as befits a child of the King and see your house
furnished just as pleases your ideal. Thus plant in the
home atmosphere the seed of richness and abundance. It will
all come to you. Use the patience, the wisdom, and the
assiduity that the farmer employs in planting and
cultivating, and your crop will be sure.
Your words of Truth are energized and vitalized by the
living Spirit. Your mind is now open and receptive
Page 106
to an influx of divine ideas that will inspire you with the
understanding of the potency of your own thoughts and
words. You are prospered. Your home is a magnet of love,
drawing to it all good from the unfailing and inexhaustible
reservoir of supply. Your increase comes because of your
righteous application of God's law in your home.
"The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich; And he addeth no
sorrow therewith."
Jesus showed men how to live in rest and peace, a simple
life. Where the simplicity of His teaching is received and
appreciated the people change their manner of living, doing
away with ostentation and getting down to the simplicity
and beauty of the things that are worth while. Every summer
those who feel that they can, plan to go away for a
vacation and many of them enjoy a small cabin in the woods
where they can live a simple and natural life close to
nature. This shows that they long to let go of the burdens
of conventionality and rest in touch with the real of
things. The soul wearies of the wear and tear of the
artificial world, and now and then it must have a season of
rest. Jesus invites, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
There is a great difference between the simple life and
poverty. The two have been associated in the minds of some
people, and this is the reason they shun the idea of the
simple life. Even those who have come into some degree of
spiritual understanding sometimes put out of mind all
thought of a simple
Page 107
manner of living, because they fear that others will think
they are failing to demonstrate prosperity. In such cases
those who judge should remember to "judge not according to
appearance," and those who are judged should be satisfied
with the praise of God rather than with the praise of men.
All those who base their prosperity on possessions alone
have a purely material prosperity which, though it may seem
great for a time, will vanish, because it is founded on the
changing of the external and has no root within the
consciousness.
There is a great similarity in the homes of nearly all
people who have about the same-sized incomes. Each one
uhconsciously follows suggestion and furnishes his home
with the same sort of things as his neighbors. Here and
there are exceptions. Someone is expressing his or her
individuality, overcoming mass suggestion and buying the
kind of furniture he really wants or that is really
comfortable and useful. This free, independent spirit has
much in its favor in making a prosperity demonstration. The
delusion that it is necessary to be just like other people
or to have as much as other people have, causes a spirit of
anxiety that hinders the exercise of faith in demonstration.
The simple life does not imply poverty and it is not
ascetic. It is as different from the austere as it is from
wanton luxury. It is the natural, free, childlike, mode of
living, and one never really knows what true prosperity is
until one comes into this simplicity and independence of
spirit. The simple life is a state
Page 108
of consciousness. It is peace, contentment, and
satisfaction in the joy of living and loving, and it is
attained through thinking about God and worshiping Him in
spirit and in truth.
You want to learn how to demonstrate prosperity in your
home by the righteous exercise of powers and faculties that
God has given you. Realize in the very beginning that you
do have these powers and faculties. You are in possession
of everything necessary for the demonstration of prosperity
and can undertake it with the utmost confidence and faith.
You can draw on the omnipresent substance throughout all
eternity, yet it will never grow less, for it consists of
ideas. Through thinking you take some of these ideas into
your mind and they begin to become manifest in your affairs.
Love is one of the ideas that provide a key to the infinite
storehouse of abundance. It opens up generosity in us. It
opens up generosity in others when we begin to love and
bless them. Will it also open up a spirit of generosity in
God? It certainly will and does. If you consciously love
and bless God, you will soon find that things are coming
your way. It will surprise you that just thinking about God
will draw to you the things you want and expect, and bring
many other blessings that you had not even thought about.
Thousands of persons have proved this law to their entire
satisfaction, and we have many records that illustrate how
people have demonstrated abundance in the very face of
apparent lack, simply by thinking about the love of God and
thanking
Page 109
Him for what they have. This law will demonstrate itself
for you or for anyone who applies it faithfully, for "love
never faileth."
Men in business and industry have demonstrated great
amounts of money through love. They did not love God, but
the love of money attracted the money to them. It drew the
substance right to them and enabled them to accumulate
money, but merely as material, without the divine idea that
assures permanence. We hear about men in high finance going
bankrupt quite as often as we hear about men making great
fortunes. When we develop a spiritual consciousness, we
transfer this personal love to a higher and more stable
plane, from the love of money and material things to the
love of God, and thus conceived it will attract to us all
the resources of infinite Mind forever and ever. Once make
a connection with the universal bank of God and you have a
permanent source of wealth.
Jesus said that when we come to the altar to make an
offering, we should have nothing in our heart against our
brother. He said that before we can make contact with the
love and power of God we must first make peace with our
brother. This means that we must cultivate a love for our
fellows in order to set the attractive force of love into
operation. All we need do is quicken our love for others by
thinking about love and casting out of our mind all hate
and fear that would weaken the perfect working of that
mighty magnet. As love attracts, hate dissipates. Before
you approach God's altar of plenty, go and make
Page 110
friends with your brother men. Make friends even with the
money powers. Do not envy the rich. Never condemn those who
have money merely because they have it and you do not. Do
not question how they got their money and wonder whether or
not they are honest. All that is none of your business.
Your business is to get what belongs to you, and you do
that by thinking about the omnipresent substance of God and
how you can lay hold of it through love. Get in touch with
God riches in spirit, lay hold of them by love, and you
will have sufficient for every day. "Love therefore is the
fulfillment of the law."
The eternal law of Spirit goes right on operating
regardless of what you may think, say, or do. It is
ordained that love will bring you prosperity, and you need
not wonder whether it will or how it will. "Be not
therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What
shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" Do
not worry. Worry is a thief and a robber, for it keeps your
good from you. It breaks the drawing law of love, the law
that says, "Perfect love casteth out fear." Banish worry by
quietly and confidently affirming the drawing power of
divine love as the constantly active magnet that attracts
your unfailing supply. A good affirmation to rout worry is
one like this:
Divine love bountifully supplies and increases substance to
meet my every need.
Nearly all books or articles that deal with success or
prosperity stress the well-known virtues of honesty,
industry, system and order, faithfulness,
Page 111
hard work. These make an excellent foundation and can be
developed. Anyone with determination and will can overcome
habits of laziness, carelessness, and weakness. The use of
the will is very important in the demonstration of
prosperity. If there is disorder or lack of system in your
home, overcome it. Affirm: I will to be orderly. I will be
orderly. I will be systematic in all my work and affairs. I
am systematic. I am orderly. I am efficient.
It takes the use of the will to be persistent, and we must
be persistent in making demonstrations. Spasmodic efforts
count for little, and many people give up too easily. If
things don't come out just right the first time they try,
they say the law is wrong and make no further effort.
Anything so much worth while as prosperity in the home, and
especially a permanent and unfailing supply that continues
to meet the daily needs year after year, is worth any
effort that we can make. Then be patient but be persistent.
Declare: I am not discouraged. I am persistent. I go
forward.
When success fails to crown our very first efforts we
become discouraged and quit. Then we try to console
ourselves with the old thought that it is God's will for us
to be poor. Poverty is not God's will, but man lays it to
the charge of God to excuse his own feeling of inadequacy
and defeat. God's will is health, happiness, and prosperity
for every man; and to have all that is good and beautiful
in the home is to express God's will for us. God's will is
not expressed in a hovel, nor in any home where
Page 112
discord, lack, and unhappiness are entertained. Even a
human guest would not stay long in such a home. To have a
prosperous home prepare it as the abiding place of God, who
gives prosperity to all His children and adds no sorrow
therewith. Determine to know God's will and do it. Affirm:
I am determined to achieve success through doing God's
will. That sums up the whole law. God is more willing to
give than we are to receive. What we need to do is to
determine what is His will, what He is trying to give, and
open ourselves to receive His bounty. We do that by willing
to do His will. You can be and have anything that you will
to be and to have. Will to be healthy. Will to be happy.
Will to be prosperous.
There are many persons who will to be prosperous and who
have made up their minds, as they think, very determinedly.
But they have not overcome all doubts, and when their
demonstration is delayed, as it is in such cases, the doubt
increases until they lose faith altogether. What they need
is more persistence and determination. The word determined
is a good word, a strong, substantial word with power in
it. Jesus said that His words were spirit and life and
would never pass away. Emerson says that words are alive
and if you cut one it will bleed. Use the word determined
and emphasize it in your affirmations. If things do not
seem to come fast enough, determine that you will be
patient. If negative thoughts creep in, determine to be
positive. If you feel worried about the results, determine
to be optimistic. In response to every thought of lack or
Page 113
need determine to be prosperous. The Lord has prosperity to
give, and those who are determined go after their share.
Jesus was quite positive and very determined in all His
affirmations. He made big claims for God, and demonstrated
them. Without the slightest doubt that the money would be
there, He told Peter to put his hand into the fish's mouth
and take out the wanted money. His prayers were made of one
strong affirmation after another. The Lord's Prayer is a
series of determined affirmations. We claim the will of God
is for us to be rich, prosperous, and successful. Make up
your mind that such is God's will for you and your home and
you will make your demonstration.
In the Old Testament, in the 4th chapter of II Kings, there
is a fine prosperity lesson for any home. The widow
represents one who has lost his consciousness of God's
supply and support. That divine idea of God as
all-abundance is our true support. The two children of this
home represent the thoughts of debt, what the family owes,
and what someone owes the family. The prophet is divine
understanding. The house is the body consciousness. The pot
of oil is faith in spiritual substance. The neighbors are
outside thoughts, and their "empty vessels" are thoughts of
lack. To go in "and shut the door," as the widow was told
to do, is to enter the inner consciousness and shut out the
thoughts of lack. This is followed by strong words of
affirmation: "pouring" the substance into all the places
that seem to be empty or to lack, until all are full. In
conclusion it is
Page 114
affirmed that every obligation is met, every debt paid, and
there is so much left over that there are no vessels left
to hold it.
This compares with the promise of God "I will ... open you
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it." "Heaven"
represents the mind. All this is done in the mind, and you
can do it. Carry each step forward in your imagination
exactly as if it were occurring in the without. Form your
prosperity demonstration in your mind, then hold to the
divine law of fulfillment. "And, having done all ...
stand." You may not be able to fill all the vessels with
oil on your first attempt, but as you practice the method
day by day your faith will increase and your results will
be in proportion to your increasing faith.
Work at the problem until you prove it. Apply the principle
and the solution is sure. If it does not come at once,
check over your methods carefully and see wherein your work
has not been true. Do not allow one empty thought to exist
in your mind but fill every nook and corner of it with the
word plenty, plenty, plenty.
If your purse seems empty, deny the lack and say, "You are
filled even now, with the bounty of God, my Father, who
supplies all my wants." If your rooms are empty, deny the
appearance and determine that prosperity is manifest in
every part of every room. Never think of yourself as poor
or needy. Do not talk about hard times or the necessity for
Page 115
strict economy. Even "the walls have ears" and,
unfortunately, memories too. Do not think how little you
have but how much you have. Turn the telescope of your
imagination around and look through the other end. "Revile
not the king, no, not in thy thought; and revile not the
rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the heavens shall
carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the
matter."
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
wicked,
Nor standeth in the way of sinners,
Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers:
But his delight is in the law of Jehovah;
And on his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water.
That bringeth forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also doth not wither;
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
"Through wisdom is a house builded;
And by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge are the chambers filled
With all precious and pleasant riches."
"Jehovah will open unto thee his good treasure."
"And the Almighty will be thy treasure,
And precious silver unto thee."
Page 116
"Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want."
"Trust in Jehovah, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on his faithfulness."
"Jehovah will give grace and glory;
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly."
"That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance,
And that I may fill their treasuries."
"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of
the land."
Page 117
[Go forward to Chapter 8 ->]
[Prosperity]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
|