Chapter 15
PROSPERITY
Charles Fillmore
Dynamics For Living
THE teachings of Jesus stand out prominently, because they can be applied practically to the affairs of everyday life. His is not a religion in the sense that this word is usually taken but is a rule of thinking, doing, living, and being. To some people it is unthinkable to connect His teachings with the countinghouse and the market place. Deeper insight into their meaning and purpose shows that these lofty teachings are the most practical rules for daily living in all departments of life. They are vital to modern civilization and the very foundation of business stability.
We have not been more successful in making the teachings of Jesus a practical standard for everyday guidance because we have not understood the laws on which they are based. Jesus would not have put forth a doctrine that was not true and not based on unchanging law.
Men have taken the letter or appearance side of Jesus’ doctrine and materialized it to fit their beliefs and customs. That is the reason why His message has not purified commerce, society, and government. It should be made spiritually operative in those fields. It will easily do the work desired when its mental side is studied and when it is understood and applied from the spiritual viewpoint. No permanent remedy will ever be found for the economic ills of the world outside a practical application of the laws on which the doctrine of Jesus Christ is based.
The Provider
It is perfectly logical to assume that a wise and competent Creator would provide for the needs of His creatures in their various stages of growth. The supply would be given as required and as the necessary effort for its appropriation was made by the creature. Temporal needs would be met by temporal things, mental needs by things of like character, and spiritual needs by spiritual elements. For simplification of distribution all would be composed of one primal spiritual substance, which under proper direction could be transformed into all products at the will of the operator.
Jesus taught that we can incorporate life-giving rays into our mind, body, and affairs through faith. He taught man how by the exercise of his mind he can make that life obey him. Instead of a universe of blind mechanical forces Jesus showed the universe to be persuaded and directed by intelligence.
What we need to realize above all else is that God has provided for the most minute needs of our daily life, and that if we lack anything it is because we have not used our mind in making the right contact with the supermind and the cosmic ray that automatically flows from it.
New Era
We are now in the dawn of a new era. Old methods of supply and support are fast passing away. 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.
The very air is alive with dynamic forces that await man’s grasp and utilization. These invisible, omnipresent energies possess potentialities far beyond our most exalted conception. Truly, all things have their source in the invisible spiritual substance.
In the new era that is even now at its dawn we shall have a spirit of prosperity. The principle of universal substance will be known and acted on. There will be no place for lack. Supply will be more equalized. 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 neighbor 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 omnipresent substance and put your faith in it, you can look for others around you to do the same. When even one bears witness to the truth of the prosperity law he will quicken the consciousness of the whole community.
The Heavens
According to the Greek, the language in which the New Testament has come 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. He taught not only its dynamic but also its intelligent character, and said that the entity that rules it is within man. He told His followers that it was the kingdom from which God clothed and fed all His children. In His many parables and comparisons referring to the “heavens” Jesus was explaining to His hearers the character of the omnipresent substance that has all potentiality and is the source of everything that appears on the earth. The kingdom of the heavens, or the kingdom of God, is within man. It is a kingdom of substance and of Mind.
Mind
All is Mind. The things that appear are expressions of Mind. Mind is reality, and it also appears as phenomena. The is-ness of mind is but one side of it. Being is not limited to the level of is-ness. It has all possibilities, including that of breaking forth from its inherencies into the realm of appearances. Mind has these two sides, being and appearance, the invisible and the visible. To say that mind is all and yet deny that things do appear to have any place in the allness is to state but half the truth.
Substance
God is substance. 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 an intangible essence. Matter is a mental limitation of the divine substance whose vital and inherent character is manifest in all life expression. God substance may be conceived as God energy, or Spirit light.
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.
Inexhaustible Mind substance is available at all times and in all places to those who have learned to lay hold of it in consciousness. Spiritual substance from which comes all visible wealth is never depleted. This unfailing resource is always ready to give. It has no choice in the matter; it must give, for that is its nature.
Spiritual substance is a living thing. It is living bread and living water. He who feeds on God’s substance shall never hunger and never thirst. This substance is an abiding thing. It is an unfailing principle that is sure in its workings. Man can no more be separated from his supply of substance than life can be separated from its source.
Ideas
Substance exists in the realm of ideas and is power when handled by one who is familiar with its characteristics. The ideas of Divine Mind are contained potentially in substance. All things exist as ideas. These ideas are manifested only as man becomes conscious of them. Divine ideas are man’s inheritance. They are pregnant with all possibility. All the ideas contained in the one Father-Mind are at the mental command of its offspring. Get behind a thing, into the mental realm where it exists as an inexhaustible idea, and you can draw upon it perpetually and never deplete the source.
Unification
Substance is first given form in the mind. You have doubtless in your own experience caught sight of the everywhere present substance in your silence, when it seemed like golden snowflakes were falling all about you. This was the first manifestation from the overflow of the universal substance in your consciousness.
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. In laying hold of substance in the mind and bringing it into manifestation, we play a most important part. Man’s work is to express substance ideas in material form. Identify yourself with substance until you make it yours.
Actually, 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.
Spiritual substance is steadfast, immovable, enduring. It does not fluctuate. It does not decrease.
As you lay hold of substance with your mind make it permanent and enduring. Realize your oneness with it. Then you will soon begin to rejoice in the ever-present bounty of God.
Law
All true action is governed by law. Nothing just happens. There are no miracles. There is no such thing as luck. Nothing comes by chance. All happenings are the result of cause and can be explained under the law of cause and effect. This is a teaching that appeals to the innate logic of our mind. We sometimes feel like doubting it when we see things that have no apparent cause.
Happenings that seem miraculous are controlled by laws that we have not yet learned and result from causes that we have not been able to understand.
Man does not demonstrate according to the law but according to his knowledge of the law. That is why we must seek to learn more of it. What are the rules of the law? First, God is good and all His creations are good. When you get that firmly fixed in your mind, you are bound to demonstrate good, and nothing but good can come into your world. If you let in the thought that there is such a thing as evil and that you are as liable to evil as to good, then you may have conditions that conform to what you believe about evil.
Those who live in accordance with the law will get the desired results. Those who fail to do so will get the opposite results. The law applies to our demonstrations of prosperity.
God is law and God is changeless. God has ordained the law but does not compel us to follow it. We have free will. The manner of our doing is left entirely to us. When we know the law and work with it, we are rewarded by its protection and use it to our good.
The Father’s desire (law) for us is unlimited good, not merely the means of a meager existence. The Father gives us all that He has and is when we return to the consciousness of His house of plenty. We cannot be happy if we are poor. Nobody needs to be poor. It is a sin to be poor. It is a sin to wear poor clothes.
The law cannot fail to operate when once set in operation in the right way. All men who have prospered used the law, for there is no other way. Perhaps they were not conscious of following definite spiritual methods, yet they have in some way set the law in operation and reaped the benefit of its unfailing action. Others have to struggle to accomplish the same things.
You will not have to wait for seedtime and harvest when you learn to use the power of your mind. When you have the consciousness in which your ideas are tangible, all your 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.
Your conscious cooperation is necessary to the fullest results in the working of the universal law of increase. 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. Keep your eyes on the abundant inner reality. Do not let the outer appearance cause you to falter.
Consciousness
The possessions of the Father are not in stocks and bonds but in the divine possibilities implanted in the mind and soul of every man. Through the soul of man God’s wealth finds its expression. Wealth of consciousness will express itself in wealth of manifestation. One who knows Principle has a certain inner security given him by the understanding of God-Mind.
In order to demonstrate Principle we must keep establishing ourself in certain statements of the law. Affirmations are for the purpose of establishing in our consciousness a broad understanding of the principles on which all life existence depends. The more often you present to your mind a proposition that is logical and true, the stronger becomes that inner feeling of security to you.
Housecleaning
A mental housecleaning is more necessary than a material one, for the without is but a reflection of the within. Old thought must be denied and the mind cleansed in preparation before the affirmative Christ consciousness can come in. When we consistently deny the limitations of the material, we begin to reveal the spiritual law that waits within us to be fulfilled. When this law is revealed to our consciousness, we begin to use it to demonstrate all things that are good.
Loose all thoughts of lack and lay hold of thoughts of plenty. See the abundance of all good things. We live in a very sea of inexhaustible substance, ready to come into manifestation when molded by our thought.
No step in spiritual unfoldment is more important than renunciation or elimination. We must learn to let go, to give up, to make room for the things we have prayed for and desired. It is simply giving up and casting away old thoughts that have put us where we are, and putting in their place new ideas that promise to improve our condition. There must be a constant elimination of the old to keep pace with growth. When we cling to the old we hinder our advance or stop it altogether.
Denial sweeps out the debris and makes room for the new tenant that is brought into the mind by the affirmation. It would not be wise to eliminate the old thoughts unless you knew that there were higher and better ones to take their place.
Rewards
Those who seek the things that the material realm has to offer usually find them. Those who aspire to spiritual rewards are also rewarded. The law is that we get what we want and work for. Where there is no reward for effort, there will be no effort, and society will degenerate. We may talk about the inner urge, but when it has no outer field of action it eventually becomes discouraged and ceases to act.
Effort
If your prosperity does not become manifest as soon as you pray and affirm God as your substance, your supply, and your support, refuse to give up. A continuity of effort is necessary. Show your faith by keeping up the work. You do not have to work laboriously in the outer to accomplish. Most of us rush around trying to work out our problems for ourself and in our way, with one thought, one vision: the material thing we seek. You need to devote more time to silent meditation. Remember that substance ideas with which you are working are eternal. The same ideas that formed this planet in the first place sustain it now.
Faith
The subject of faith should be applied especially to the demonstrations of prosperity. It is our starting point in building a prosperity consciousness and making our world as we would have it. We all have faith, for it is innate in every man. Our question is how we may put it to work in our affairs.
In a sense faith represents substance. With it, it is possible to possess a reality that cannot be seen, touched, or comprehended by any of the outer senses. It is faith when we are fully conscious of “things not seen” and have the “assurance of things” not yet manifest. In other words, faith is that consciousness in us of the reality of the invisible substance and of the attributes of mind by which we lay hold of it. We must realize that the mind makes things real.
“Just a thought” or “just a mere idea,” we sometimes lightly say, little thinking that these thoughts and ideas are the eternal realities from which we build our life and our world.
The foundation of every work is an idea. Faith is that quality of mind which makes the idea stand out as real, not only to ourself but to others. When others have faith in the thing you are doing, making, or selling, they see it as real and worthwhile. Then your success and your prosperity are assured. Whatever you put into substance along with faith will work out in manifestation in your world. You demonstrate prosperity by an understanding of the prosperity law and by having faith in it. Faithfulness and earnestness in the application of the prosperity law will assure you of success.
If you have faith in outer things, you are building shadows without substance, shadows that cease as soon as your supporting thought is withdrawn from them, forms that will pass away and leave you nothing.
Do not have faith in anything less than God, in anything other than the one Mind, for when your faith is centered there, you are building for eternity. Mind and the ideas of Mind will never pass away. There will never be an end to God. There will never be an end to Truth, which God is. There will never be an end to substance, which God is. Build with the divine substance. Cultivate faith in realities.
We must find a way to connect ideas of substance with ideas of material expression. This is accomplished by faith through prayer according to our decree. We are always decreeing, sometimes consciously, often unconsciously. With every thought and word we are increasing or diminishing the activity of substance. The resulting manifestation conforms to our thought.
Loyalty
When you first begin to think of God as everywhere-present substance, your mind will not always adhere continuously to the idea. You need to develop certain stabilizing ideas. One of them is continuity or loyalty to Truth. Love sticks to the thing on which it has set its mind. Nothing so tends to stabilize and unify all as love. And nothing is so important as sticking to the ideal and never giving up the work we have set out to accomplish.
Perhaps some adverse condition of your own thought has prevented a full demonstration. Do not let this swerve you from your loyalty to the law. You may seem to attain results very slowly. That is the best reason for sticking closely to your ideal and not changing your mind. Be loyal to Principle. The adverse condition will break up. The true light will come and the invisible substance you have been faithfully affirming will begin to reveal itself to you in all its fullness of good. It will destroy your fears, stop your worries, and change your finances.
Going Forward
It is necessary to let go of old thoughts and conditions after they have served their purpose. One should lay hold of new ideas and create new conditions to meet one’s requirements. We cannot lay hold of new ideas and make the new conditions until we have made room for them by eliminating the old.
Things are never so bad as you think. Never allow yourself to be burdened with the thought that you are having a hard time. You do not want a soul structure of that kind and should not build it with those thoughts. You are living in a new age. Yesterday is gone forever. Today is here forever. Something grander is now unfolding. Put yourself in line with the progress of thought in the new age and go forward.
Nothing is too great for you to accomplish, nor is anything too trivial for you to handle with perfection and dispatch. The Spirit will guide you in perfect ways, even in the minute details of your life, if you will let it do so. You must will to do its will and trust it in all your ways. It will lead you unfailingly when you follow it.
To give up all anxiety and trust in the Lord does not mean to sit down and do nothing. 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. The anxious thought must be eliminated. The perfect abandon of the child of nature must be assumed.
Self Study
There is an all-sufficiency of all things. There is a kingdom of abundance of all things. It may be found by those who seek it and are willing to comply with its laws. Whoever you are and whatever your immediate need, you can demonstrate the laws. If your thoughts are confused, become still and know that you are one with the substance and with the law of its manifestation.
To desire is to have fulfillment. If you are obedient to the Spirit and are willing to follow without protest, the way is easy for you. If you question and argue, you will meet many obstructions and your journey will be long and tedious.
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.
Never allow yourself to come under the control of the “I can’t” man. He believes in limitations. He wraps his talent in them. He hides it away in the negative earth. No increase is possible to him.
If there is any lack apparent in your world it is because the requirements of the law of manifestation have not been met. This law is based on mind and its operation is through thoughts and words. God gives the increase. It comes by the operation of the law. Our part is to keep the law. Use your talent. It will expand wonderfully. Talk about it. Praise it. Give God thanks for it. Act as though it were alive. The increase follows.
See what you need as already manifest and as yours. Do not put it off to some uncertain future time.
Money
Prosperity does not mean the same thing to any two persons. Some people think of prosperity as something separate from their spiritual experience. They live in two worlds. It is not a crime to be rich nor a virtue to be poor. Take God into all your affairs. Do all things to the glory of God seven days a week. Be alert in doing whatever comes to you to do. Be cheerful and competent in the doing, sure of the results.
No one is ever given the keys to the Father’s storehouse of wealth until he has proved his faith and his reliability. Supply unfolds at the same rate as the need or ability to use substance is developed. 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.
There is an inherent faculty that instinctively lays hold of what it calls its own. 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.
Substance in the form of money is given to us for constructive uses. It is given for use and to meet an immediate need, not to be hoarded away or be foolishly wasted.
If you ask for money, do not look for an angel from the skies to bring it on a golden platter. Keep your eyes open for some fresh opportunity to make money. An opportunity will come as sure as you live.
Money is man’s instrument, not his master. Money was made for man, not man for money. It is not money that controls men, but the ideas and beliefs they have about money. Every man should be taught how to handle ideas, rather than money, so that they serve him rather than have dominion over him.
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.
You must have in your finances a consciousness of the permanency of the omnipresent substance as it abides in you. You are standing in the very midst of it. When you take a prosperity thought, 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 and plenty will become more and more manifest in your affairs.
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 personal property. They must give up some of their erroneous beliefs 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.
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 lands 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. It is the mind that believes in personal possessions that limits the full idea.
Money can indeed be a cheat. It promises ease and brings cares. It promises pleasures and pays with pain. It promises influence and returns envy and jealousy. It promises happiness and gives sorrow. It promises permanence and then flies away.
Money saved as “an opportunity fund” brings an increase of good. It is good to have some money on hand for good uses, such as hospitality, education, for developing industries that will contribute to the good of numbers of people, for the furtherance of spiritual work, for helping others to build useful and constructive lives, and for many other purposes and activities. In such conservation of money one should keep ever in mind the necessity of a constructive motive back of the action.
Money accumulated for a definite and definitely constructive purpose is quite a different thing from money hoarded with the fearful thought of a “rainy day” or a prolonged season of lack and suffering. Money saved for a “rainy day” is always used for just that, for fear attracts that which is feared unfailingly.
Do not expect or prepare for adversity of any kind. To do so is not only to invite it but to show a doubt of God and all His promises. Money hoarded from fear as a motive or with any miserly thought in mind cannot possibly bring any blessing. When one finds freedom from the binding thought of hoarding money, he should not go to the opposite extreme of extravagant spending. Money is to be used, not abused. It is good to keep one’s obligations paid.
Do not plan to lay up for the future. Let the future take care of itself. To entertain any fears or doubts on that point saps your strength and depletes your spiritual power. Hold steadily to the thought of the omnipresence of universal supply, its perfect equilibrium, and its swift action in filling every apparent vacuum or place of lack.
If you are fearful that you will not be provided with necessities of life for tomorrow, next week, or next year, or for your old age, or that your children will be left in want, deny the thought. Do not allow yourself for a moment to think of something that is outside the realm of all-careful, all-providing good. You know even from your outer experience that the universe is self-sustaining and that its equilibrium is established by law. The same law that sustains all sustains you as a part. Insulate your mind from the destructive thoughts of all those who labor under the belief in hard times. If your associates talk about the financial stringency, affirm all the more persistently your dependence on the abundance of God.
Blessing
God is the source of a mighty stream of substance. 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. Realize the universal nature of substance.
Giving
The act of giving complies with the divine law. It involves the recognition of God as the Giver of all increase; and unless we have a recognition of the Source of our supply we have no assurance of continuing in its use.
Let us give as God gives, unreservedly, and with no thought of return, making no mental demands for recompense on those who have received from us. A gift with reservations is not a gift; it is a bribe. There is no promise of increase unless we give freely. Let go of the gift entirely. Recognize the universal scope of the law. Then the gift has a chance to go out and to come back multiplied. There is no telling how far the blessing may travel before it comes back. It is a beautiful and encouraging fact that the longer it is in returning, the more hands it is passing through and the more hearts it is blessing. All these hands and hearts add something to it in substance. It is increased all the more when it does return.
True giving is the love and generosity of the Spirit-quickened heart responding to the love and generosity of the Father’s heart. Without giving the soul shrivels. When giving is practiced the soul expands and becomes Godlike in the grace of liberality and generosity. No restoration to the likeness of God can be complete unless mind, heart, and soul are daily opening out into the large, free, bestowing spirit which so characterizes our God and Father.
In order that the plan of giving may be successful there are several things that must be observed. First there must be a willing mind. Second, the giving must be done in faith. There must be no withholding because the offering seems small. It is not the amount of the offering but the spirit in which it is given that determines its value and power. The results of giving in faith are sure. The law is unfailing in all ages.
A requisite for keeping the law of giving and receiving is that the offering shall be a just and fair proportion of all that one receives. Wise distribution is closely related to the matter of filling God’s treasury.
To whom shall we give and when are questions quite important. There are several truths that may be considered in this connection. Each person finds it necessary to trust his spirit of wisdom to manifest in his own heart. There are no rules or precedents that one can follow in detail. Careful study of the underlying laws of spiritual giving will help one to exercise these divine faculties as they should be exercised.
True spiritual giving rewards with a double joy. One of the blessings is the satisfying knowledge that we are meeting the law and paying our debt of love and justice to the Lord. The other is the joy of sharing the Lord’s bounty. Justice comes first: then generosity.
See yourself as the steward of God handing out His inexhaustible supplies. Be happy in your giving. Do not give with any thought that you are bestowing charity. Do all that you can to annul this mental error. The one with the surplus is simply a steward of God and is merely discharging the work of his stewardship. When one asks for divine wisdom and understanding about giving it becomes a joy both to the giver and the recipient.
Tithing
In the Old Testament the tithe or tenth is mentioned as a reasonable and just return to the Lord by way of acknowledging Him as the source of supply. Tithing is the giving of a tenth of one’s supply to God and His work. Tithing is a tacit agreement that man is in partnership with God in the conduct of his finances. This leads to confidence and assurance that whatever is done will bring increase of some kind.
Tithing establishes method in giving. It brings into the consciousness a sense of divine order that is manifested in one’s outer life and affairs as increased efficiency and greater prosperity. It is the surest way ever found to demonstrate plenty, for it is God’s own law and way of giving.
We are living now under larger and fuller blessings from God than man has ever known. It is meet therefore that we give accordingly and remember the law of the tithe. If a tenth was required under the law in olden times, it is certainly no less fitting that we should give it cheerfully now.
The tithe may be a tenth part of one’s salary, wage, or allowance, of the net profits of business, or of money received from the sale of goods. It is based on every form of supply, no matter through what channel it may come, for there are many channels through which man is prospered. The tenth should be set apart for the upkeep of some spiritual work or workers. It should be set apart first even before one’s personal expenses are taken out, for in the right relation of things God comes first always. Then everything else follows in divine order and falls into its proper place.
The great promise of prosperity is that if men seek God and His righteousness first, then all shall be added unto them. One of the most practical and sensible ways of seeking God’s kingdom first is to be a tither, to put God first in finances. It is the promise of God, and the experience of all who have tried it, that all things necessary to their comfort, welfare, and happiness have been added to them in an overflowing measure. Tithing establishes method in giving and brings into the consciousness a sense of order and fitness that will be manifested in one’s outer life and affairs as increased efficiency and greater prosperity.
Another blessing that follows the practice of tithing is the continual “letting go” of what one receives, which keeps one’s mind open to the good and from covetousness. Making an occasional large gift and then permitting a lapse of time before another is made will not give this lasting benefit, for one’s mind channel may in the meantime become clogged with material thoughts of fear, lack, or selfishness.
When a person tithes he is giving continuously, so that no spirit of grasping, no fear, and no thought of limitations get a hold on him. There is nothing that keeps a person’s mind so fearless and so free to receive the good constantly coming to him as the practice of tithing. Each day, week, pay day, whenever it is, the tither gives one tenth. When an increase of prosperity comes to him, as come it will and does, his first thought is to give God the thanks and the tenth of the new amount. The free, open mind thus stayed on God is certain to bring forth joy, real satisfaction in living, and true prosperity. Tithing is based on a law that cannot fail.
Debt
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.
Debt is a contradiction of the universal equilibrium. There is no such thing as lack of equilibrium in all the universe. Therefore in Spirit and in Truth there is no debt. Men hold on to a thought of debt. This thought is responsible for a great deal of sorrow and hardship.
Debts exist in the mind. 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. Analyze the thought of debt. You will see it involves a thought of lack. We should fill our mind with thoughts of all-sufficiency. Where there is no lack there can be no debts. 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.
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. You will help them pay their debts more easily than if you merely erased 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.
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.
The way is now open for you to pay your debts. Surrender them to God along with all your doubts and fears. 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. It is His righteous desire to free you from every burden. He is leading you out of the burden of debt, whether of owing or being owed. Love will bring your own to you.
Waste
Any form of waste is a violation of the divine law of conservation. Men and women scatter their energies to the four winds in the effort to satisfy the desires of the flesh and then wonder why they do not demonstrate prosperity. If your substance is going here, there, and everywhere, being spent in riotous thinking and living, how can it accumulate to the point of demonstration? When you overcome your desire for dissipation, then you will begin to accumulate substance that must manifest itself as prosperity according to the law. Do not spend foolishly or save foolishly.
Lack
The only lack is our own lack of appropriation. We must seek the kingdom of God and appropriate it aright before things will be added to us in fullness.
Overcome any leaning in the direction and every belief that you were meant to be poor. Do not hesitate to think that prosperity is for you. Do not feel unworthy. No one is ever hopeless until he is resigned to his imagined fate.
Deny every appearance of failure. Stand by your guns. Think prosperity. Talk prosperity. Affirm supply, support, and success in the very face of question and doubt. Give thanks for plenty in all your affairs. Know for a certainty that your good is now being fulfilled in Spirit, in mind, and in manifestation.
Every time you say “I am a little short of funds,” “I haven’t as much money as I need,” you are putting a limit on the substance in your own consciousness.
It is important to watch your thoughts so that the larger supply may come through your mind and into your affairs. There is no lack of anything anywhere in reality. The only lack is the fear of lack in the mind of man. We do not need to overcome any lack. We must overcome the fear of lack.
Fear of lack led men to speculate in order to accumulate substance and have a lot of it stored up. This caused a still greater fear of lack in other men. The situation grew worse and worse until it became generally believed that we must pile up the material symbols of substance for a possible lack in the future. We must learn to understand the divine law of supply and the original plan, which is that we have each day our daily bread. Anything more than we need for today is a burden. The substance is here all the time, supplying us with every needful thing. Start with the fundamental proposition that there is plenty for you and for me.
Loss
Deny that you can lose anything. Let go of negative thoughts of financial loss or any other kind of loss. Realize that nothing is ever lost in all the universe. There are opportunities everywhere. There always have been opportunities to produce all that you need financially or otherwise.
New ideas come to you from within. Do not think for a moment that you are limited to the beliefs that come from without. Many of those beliefs are outgrown anyway and have outlived their usefulness. That is why we go through periods of change. Old outworn beliefs should be discarded and replaced with new and better ones. We can find new ways of living and new methods of work. We are not confined to the ways and methods of the past.
Paying Bills
The funds to pay all your bills may not suddenly appear in a lump sum. 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.
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 something. This easily leads one into the habit of putting off paying, which fastens the incubus of debt on people before they realize it.
Creditors
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. There is a legitimate commerce that is carried on by means of what is called credit. It is a convenience to be used by those who appreciate its value and are careful not to abuse it. To do so would be to ruin it. No one should assume an obligation unless he is prepared to meet it promptly and willingly when it comes due.
Never for a moment allow yourself to entertain any scheme for getting the better of your fellows in any trade or bargain. Hold steadily to the law of equity and justice that is working in and through you. Know for a certainty that you are supplied with everything necessary to fulfill all your requirements. Give full value for everything you get. Demand the same for everything you give. Do not try to enforce that demand by human methods. There is a better way. Think of yourself as Spirit working with powerful spiritual forces. Know that the demands of Spirit must and will be met.
Prosperous Home
The first thing to do in making a demonstration of prosperity in the home is to discard all negative thoughts and words. Build a positive thought atmosphere in the home, an atmosphere that is free from fear and filled with love.
The home is the heart of the nation. The heart is the love center. Love is the world’s greatest attractive power. 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. 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.
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 lack you are making a comfortable place for this unwelcome guest by your fireside, and it will want to stay. Fill the home with thoughts and words of plenty, love, and God’s substance, and the unwelcome guest will soon leave.
If your rooms are empty, deny the appearance. 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 strict economy. Even “the walls have ears” and, unfortunately, memories too. Do not think how little you have but how much you have.
Talk plenty. Think plenty. Give thanks for plenty. Enlist all the members of the home in the same work. Make it a game. It’s lots of fun. Better than that, it actually works. Every home can be prosperous.
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 the child of a King. See your house furnished just as pleases your ideal. 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.
Being like Others
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. Each one unconsciously follows suggestions and furnishes his home with the same sort of things as his neighbors. Here and there are exceptions. Someone expresses his individuality, overcoming mass suggestion and buying 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.
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. 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.
Attitudes
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 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. Love and hate, or trust and mistrust, simply cannot both be present in your mind at one time. 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 fearing 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? 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.
Simple Life
The soul wearies of the wear and tear of the artificial world. There is a great difference between the simple life and lack. The two have been associated in the minds of some people. 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 manner of living. They fear that others will think they are failing to demonstrate prosperity.
The simple life does not imply lack and it is not ascetic. The simple life is a state of consciousness. It is peace, contentment, and satisfaction in the joy of living and loving. It is attained through thinking about God and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth.
Success
Success or failure depends upon the attitude of mind active in both those who achieve success and those who fall under the negations of failure. To attain prosperity, think about prosperity, industry, and efficiency. Fill your mind to overflowing with thoughts of success; realize that the fullness of all good belongs to you by divine right. To this add a feeling of happiness and joy, and you have the recipe for abundant and lasting prosperity and success.
Whoever seeks supply through Spirit and submits his cause to the law of justice and righteousness always succeeds. The reason why men fail to demonstrate the many promises of divine support is that they cling to some selfish or unjust thought. Once the Christ Mind is perceived and obeyed, success follows.
God prospers us when we give the best that is in us and do all things unto Him, acknowledging Him in all our affairs. This is a sure way to success, and when success does come we should realize that it resulted from the work of Spirit in us, because we made ourself a channel through which the Christ Mind could bring its ideas into manifestation. The true Christian never boasts that he is a self-made man, for he well knows that all that he is and has, together with all that he can ever hope to be or to have, is but God finding expression through him.
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Dynamics For Living by Charles Fillmore
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