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PROSPERITY
by Charles Fillmore
 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 everpresent 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 aslove. 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 nowunfolding. 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 inall 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.
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