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