Chapter 3
FAITH IN
THE INVISIBLE SUBSTANCE, THE KEY TO
DEMONSTRATION
Charles Fillmore
Prosperity
IN THIS LESSON we are
considering the subject of faith
especially as it applies to the
demonstration of prosperity. In this
study, as in all others, we must start
in the one Mind. God had faith when He
imaged man and the universe and through
His faith brought all things into
being. Man, being like God, must also
base his creations on faith as the only
foundation. Here then 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.
Jesus gave us our best
understanding of faith when He
described Peter as a "rock" and
asserted that His church, the ecclesia
or "called-out ones," was to be built
up with this rock or faith as its sure
foundation. In this sense faith
represents substance, the underlying,
basic principle of all manifestation.
"Now faith is assurance of things hoped
for, a conviction of things not
seen."
It is quite 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 real things. "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.
Faith is the perceiving
power of the mind linked with a power
to shape substance. You hear of a
certain proposition that appeals to you
and you say, "I have faith in that
proposition." Some man whose character
seems right is described to you and you
say, "I have faith in that man." What
do you mean by having faith? You mean
that certain characteristics of men or
things appeal to you, and these
immediately begin a constructive work
in your mind. What is that work? It is
the work of making the proposition or
man real to your consciousness. The
character and attributes of the things
in your mind become substantial to you
because of your faith. The office of
faith is to take abstract ideas and
give them definite form in substance.
Ideas are abstract and formless to us
until they become substance, the
substance of faith.
A very important work in
soul culture is the establishment of a
faith substance. Once we discern this
law of soul building by faith, we find
the Hebrew Scriptures full of
illustrations of it. The 1st chapter of
Luke's Gospel tells us how Elisabeth
and Zacharias were told by an angel
that they would have a son and that his
name would be John. Zacharias was
burning incense at the altar in the
exercise of his duties as a priest.
This means that when the mind is
looking toward Spirit, even if it be in
a blind way, and is seeking spiritual
things, it will become spiritualized.
The burning of incense typifies
spiritualization. Zacharias represents
the perceptive and Elisabeth the
receptive qualities of the soul. When
these two work in conjunction in
prayer, meditation, and aspiration, the
soul is open to the higher thoughts or
angels that bring the promise of a new
and definite state of consciousness.
Zacharias doubted the promise of a son
because his wife was past the age of
childbearing, and because of his doubts
he was stricken dumb. This means that
when we perceive spiritual Truth and
doubt it, we retard its outer
expression; it cannot be spoken into
manifestation through us because of our
doubt. All the growth is then thrown
upon the soul. Elisabeth "hid herself
five months," but when the soul begins
to feel the presence of the new ego or
new state of consciousness, then we
again come into faith expression: the
speech of Zacharias is
restored.
It was the same way in
the bringing forth of Jesus. A promise
was first made to Mary, and Joseph was
assured that the child was the
offspring of the Holy Spirit. This
represents a still higher step in the
work of faith. The bringing forth of
John the Baptist is the intellectual
perception of Truth. The intellect
grasps Truth first. The next step is
the bringing forth of substance and
life in the subconsciousness. When we
have given ourselves entirely to
Spirit, we may do things without
knowing exactly why. That is because
faith is at work in us, and even if we
do not know the law and cannot explain
faith to the outer consciousness, it
continues to do its perfect work and
eventually brings forth the
demonstration.
Do not fear the power
that works out things in the invisible.
When you get a strong perception of
something that your inner mind tells
you is true and good, act on it and
your demonstration will come. That is
the way a living faith works, and it is
the law of your creative
word.
Faith can also have
understanding added to it. We call our
spiritual faculties out of our
subconsciousness. When Jesus did some
of His most remarkable works He had
with Him Peter, James, and John; Peter
represents faith, James wisdom or
judgment, and John love. These three
faculties when expressed together in
mind accomplish apparent miracles. You
have called out faith in things
spiritual, you have faith in God, and
you have cultivated your unity with the
one Mind; if you then use spiritual
judgment and do your work in love, you
have become "a teacher in
Israel."
In order to have
understanding of the law through which
we gain or lose in the use of the
invisible substance, we must use
discrimination or judgment. There is a
guiding intelligence always present
that we can lay hold of and make our
own. It is ours. It belongs to us and
it is our birthright both to know it
and to use it. Some metaphysicians
mistakenly think that they must have
hard experiences in order to appreciate
the better things of life. They think
poverty is a blessing because it
educates people to the appreciation of
plenty when they get it. They say that
it is God's will for us to have some
hard times and some good times, feasts
and famines. This is not logically true
when you consider God as principle. If
you think of God as a man who
arbitrarily gives or withholds by the
exercise of His personal will, you
might reach such a conclusion. But God
is changeless, and if He gives one
moment He will continue to give
eternally. It is His nature to give,
and His nature is eternally the same.
When you talk of hard times, famines,
lack, you are talking of something that
has no place in the Mind of God. You
are not acknowledging God in all your
ways but are acknowledging error and
affirming that the world has its source
in outer things. You must turn around
and get into this consciousness, that
in Mind, in Spirit, there is
abundance.
We often wonder how
Jesus could multiply the five loaves
and two fishes to meet the hunger of
five thousand persons. It was done
through a thorough understanding of
this law. The five loaves represent the
five-sense application of divine
substance. The two fishes represent the
yeast or multiplying power put into the
substance, the source of the increase.
We are told that if the yeast of a
single setting of bread were allowed to
increase, it would fill a space larger
than this planet. This shows that there
is no limit to the increasing power of
elemental substance. It is for us to
use as Jesus used this power. It was
not a miracle but something that we all
have within us as an unawakened ability
and that we can learn to develop and
use as Jesus did.
Jesus entered into the
silence; prayed and blessed the
substance at hand. If we would multiply
and increase the power, substance, and
life in us and at our command, we must
get very still and realize that our
resource is Spirit, that it is God, and
that it is here in all its fullness. We
must make contact with it in faith.
Then we shall find it welling up within
us. Some of you have no doubt had that
experience. But if you just let it ooze
away without understanding it, you get
no benefit. Here is the key to this
life and substance you feel when you
sit in the silence. You must begin to
speak these words with power and
authority.
When there is world-wide
belief in financial depression, lack of
circulation, stagnation, things do not
go as we expect and we develop fear, a
belief in lack of circulation of money.
But if we know the law, we do not come
under this fear thought. At any time
many persons make money; they use this
law and take advantage of opportunity.
We should bless everything that we
have, for we can increase and multiply
what we have by speaking words. Jesus
said that His words were spirit and
life. Did you ever think that your word
is charged with great spiritual life
force? It is. Be careful of your words.
Man shall be held accountable for his
lightest word. If you talk about
substance in a negative way, your
finances will be decreased, but if you
talk about it in an appreciative, large
way, you will be prospered.
If we could release the
energy in the atoms the scientists tell
us about, we could supply the world.
This power lies within every one of us.
We can begin by freeing the little
ideas we have and making them fill the
world with thoughts of plenty. We must
realize that all power is given to us
in heaven and in earth, as Jesus said.
He told His apostles that they should
receive power when the Holy Spirit had
come upon them. They were told to go up
into that upper room, in the crown of
the head, where spiritual forces begin
the formation of new ideas. After you
get into the spiritual consciousness
and receive the quickening, speak the
word with authority and power,
concentrating the attention at the
power center in the throat. We find it
effective to speak the words aloud and
then sink back to "the other side"
(Galilee), as Jesus often did, to rest
and speak them again silently. You can
send forth this vibratory energy of
Spirit and break down the inertia
caused by thoughts of fear and lack,
carve out ways, open new avenues to the
demonstration of your good.
To bring forth these
undeveloped spiritual qualities we must
believe in them. "For he that cometh to
God must believe that he is." Lord,
keep us from unbelief, from leaning on
the things we see, from judging
according to appearances.
You can conjure up in
your mind a thousand imaginary things
that will seem real to you. This shows
that the mind creates by forming things
according to its ideas. The world is
awakening in a wonderful way to the
truth about the creative power of the
mind. Everywhere people are studying
psychology or soul culture. The
imagination builds things out of the
one substance. If you will associate
faith with it in its creative work, the
things you make will be just as real as
those that God makes. Whatever you make
in mind and really put faith in will
become substantial. Then you must be
constantly on your guard as to what you
believe, in order that you may bring
what is for your good into
manifestation.
In what do you have
faith? In outer things? If so, 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. If you would
demonstrate true prosperity, you must
turn from things and, as Jesus told His
disciples, "have faith in God." 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 and "lay up for
yourselves treasures in
heaven."
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 ourselves but to
others. When others have faith in the
thing you are doing, making, or
selling, they see it as real and worth
while. Then your success and your
prosperity are assured. Only that
exists in whose becoming really visible
or valuable you have great faith. If
you say and believe, "I have faith in
the substance of God working in and
through me to increase and bring
abundance into my world," your faith
will start to work mightily in the mind
substance and make you prosperous.
Whatever you put into substance along
with faith will work out in
manifestation in your world. We have
seen it done and we have proved the law
too many times to have any
doubt.
The Scriptures are
filled with illustrations of this
activity of bringing things to pass
through faith in substance. The
characters of whom we read in the
Scriptures represent ideas carrying
forward their work in human souls. If
we think that they existed only as
people of thousands of years ago, we
put our faith back thousands of years,
instead of letting it work for us this
minute in our everyday affairs of life.
To demonstrate as Jesus did we must put
our faith in the one substance and say,
"I have faith in God."
You demonstrate
prosperity by an understanding of the
prosperity law and by having faith in
it, not by appealing to the sympathy of
others, trying to get them to do
something for you or give you
something.
Faithfulness and
earnestness in the application of the
prosperity law will assure you of
success.
"Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom can be no variation, neither
shadow that is cast by
turning."
"In all thy ways
acknowledge him,
And he will direct thy
paths."
Let us all know that
just now we are in the very presence of
creative Mind, the Mind that made the
universe and everything in it. This
Mind is here and at work right now as
much as it ever was or ever will be.
When we fully realize this, we increase
the activity of Mind in us
immeasurably. You must realize that God
is Spirit and that Spirit is very real
and powerful, and by far the most
substantial thing in all the
world.
It may be hard for those
who have become attached to material
things to realize that there is an
invisible real life and substance that
is much more substantial and real than
the material. The men of science tell
us that the invisible forces have a
power that is millions of times more
real and substantial than all the
material world. When we read statements
about some of the recent discoveries of
science, which everyone accepts and
talks about, we are truly amazed. Such
statements made by religionists would
be called preposterous and
unbelievable. Yet religion has been
making the same statements in different
ways for thousands of years. Now
science is helping religion by proving
them.
In comparing substance
and matter as regards their relative
reality one scientific writer says that
matter is merely a crack in the
universal substance. It is universal
substance that man is handling all the
time with his spiritual mind. Through
your thoughts you deal with the
wonderful spiritual substance, and it
takes form in your consciousness
according to your thought about it.
That is why we must hold the thought of
divine wisdom and understanding: so
that we may use these creative mind
powers righteously. We use them all the
time either consciously or
unconsciously and we should use them to
our advantage and blessing.
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. Is that wisdom?
You want a larger supply, not a limited
supply of substance. Therefore it is
important to watch your thoughts so
that the larger supply may come through
your mind and into your affairs. Say to
yourself, "I am God's offspring, and I
must think as God thinks. Therefore I
cannot think of any lack or
limitation." It is impossible that in
this universal Mind that fills
everything there can be any such thing
as absence. 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, but we must overcome the fear of
lack.
This 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, and 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 have
tried that system and found that it
fails us every time. We must learn to
understand the divine law of supply and
the original plan, which is that we
have each day our daily bread. That is
all we really want, just the amount of
things we need for today's use, plus
the absolute assurance that the supply
for tomorrow's needs will be there when
tomorrow comes. This assurance cannot
be found in hoarding or piling up, as
we have learned by experience. It can
be had if we have faith and understand
the truth about omnipresent, always
available substance. Anything less than
today's needs is not enough. Anything
more than we need for today is a
burden. Let us start with the
fundamental proposition that there is
plenty for you and for me and that the
substance is here all the time,
supplying us with every needful thing,
according to our thought and
word.
In the morning,
immediately upon awakening, take a
quiet meditative thought. A good
foundation statement to hold in the
silence is:
"Let the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my
heart
Be acceptable in Thy
sight,
O Jehovah, my rock, and
my redeemer."
Think of the meaning of
these words as you meditate on them.
The words of your mouth and the
thoughts of your heart are now and
always molding the spiritual substance
and bringing it into manifestation.
They will not be acceptable to the Lord
unless they bring into manifestation
things that are true, lovely, and
altogether good. After your morning
meditation, when you have declared the
omnipresence and the allness of the
good, receive it as true and go forth
to the day's activities with faith that
all things needful are provided and
your good must come. The soil and
substance omnipresent has many
names.
Jesus called it the
kingdom of the heavens. Moses in
Genesis named it the Garden of Eden.
Science says it is the ether. We live
in it as fishes live in the sea, and it
lives in us and supplies us with all
things according to our thoughts. When
you start to your work, pause a moment
and declare: "I set God before me this
day, to guide and guard, to protect and
prosper me." Or: "The Spirit of the
Lord goes before me this day and makes
my way successful and prosperous." Make
this your proclamation for the day.
Decree it to be so, and the Lord will
bring it to pass. During the day, if a
thought of lack or limitation should
for a moment disturb you, banish it at
once with the statement: "Jehovah is my
shepherd; I shall not want."
When your mind comes
around again to the subject of
prosperity, realize most strongly that
your prosperity comes from God. It came
with you from God, from your contact
with God-Mind in your silence, and your
prosperity is right with you wherever
you are. Supply may seem to come
through outer channels, but your real
success depends on your inner hold on
the prosperity realization. Be thankful
for supply that comes through outer
channels, but do not limit God's giving
to any one channel. Look unto Him and
be prospered.
Some Prosperity
Prayers
I am always provided for
because I have faith in Thee as my
omnipresent abundance.
I have faith in Thee as
my almighty resource and I trust Thee
to preserve me in my
prosperity.
I trust the universal
Spirit of prosperity in all my affairs.
I come to God because I believe that He
is and that He is a rewarder of them
that seek alter Him.
