Chapter 8
GOD WILL
PAY YOUR DEBTS
Charles Fillmore
Prosperity
FORGIVE US our debts, as
we also have forgiven our debtors." In
these words Jesus expressed an
infallible law of mind, the law that
one idea must be dissolved before
another can take its place. If you have
in your mind any thought that someone
has wronged you, you cannot let in the
cleansing power of Spirit and the
richness of spiritual substance until
you have cast out the thought of the
wrong, have forgiven it fully. You may
be wondering why you have failed to get
spiritual illumination or to find the
consciousness of spiritual substance.
Perhaps the reason is here: a lack of
room for the true thoughts because
other thoughts fill your mind. If you
are not receiving the spiritual
understanding you feel you should have,
you should search your mind carefully
for unforgiving thoughts. "Thoughts are
things" and occupy space in the mind
realm. They have substance and form and
may easily be taken as permanent by one
not endowed with spiritual discernment.
They bring forth fruit according to the
seed planted in the mind, but they are
not enduring unless founded in Spirit.
Thoughts are alive and are endowed by
the thinker with a secondary thinking
power; that is, the thought entity that
the I AM forms assumes an ego and
begins to think on its own account.
Thoughts also think but only with the
power you give to them.
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
health, 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. The
two ideas love and hate, or trust and
mistrust, simply cannot both be present
in your mind at one time, and 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
fear 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? Rather 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.
Do not judge others as
regards their guilt or innocence.
Consider yourself and how you stand in
the sight of the Father for having
thoughts about another's guilt. Begin
your reform with yourself. That means
much to one who enjoys an understanding
of mind and its laws, though it may
mean little to the ordinary individual.
He who knows himself superficially,
just his external personality, thinks
he has reformed when he has conformed
to the moral and governmental laws. He
may even be filled with his own
self-righteousness and daily lift up
his voice to praise God that he is not
as other men are, that he has forgiven
men their transgressions. He looks on
all men who do not conform to his ideas
of morality and religion as being
sinners and transgressors and thanks
God for his own insight and keenness.
But he is not at peace. Something seems
lacking. God does not talk to him "face
to face," because the mind, where God
and man meet, is darkened by the murky
thought that other men are sinners. Our
first work in any demonstration is to
contact God, therefore we must forgive
all men their transgressions. Through
this forgiveness we cleanse our mind so
that the Father can forgive us our own
transgressions.
Our forgiving "all men"
includes ourselves. You must also
forgive yourself. Let the finger of
denial erase every sin or "falling
short" that you have charged up against
yourself. Pay your debt by saying to
that part of yourself which you think
has fallen short: "Thou art made whole:
sin no more, lest a worse thing befall
thee." Then "loose him, and let him
go." Treat sin as a mental
transgression, instead of considering
it as a moral deflection. Deny in
thought all tendency to the error way
and hold yourself firmly to the Christ
Spirit, which is your divine self. Part
company forever with "accusing
conscience." Those who have resolved to
sin no more have nothing in common with
guilt.
"Shall I be in debt as
long as I hold debts against others?"
We find this to be the law of mind: 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. Does
this mean that you should give
receipted bills to all those who owe
you? No. That would not be erasing the
thought of debt from your mind. First
deny in mind that any man or woman owes
you anything. If necessary, go over
your list of names separately and
sincerely forgive the thought of debt
which you have been attaching to each
person named. More bills may be
collected in this way than in any
other, for many of these people will
pay what they owe when you send them
this forgiving thought.
Debt is a contradiction
of the universal equilibrium, and there
is no such thing as lack of equilibrium
in all the universe. Therefore in
Spirit and in Truth there is no debt.
However, men hold on to a thought of
debt, and this thought is responsible
for a great deal of sorrow and
hardship. The true disciple realizes
his supply in the consciousness of
omnipresent, universally possessed
abundance. Spirit substance is
impartial and owned in common, and no
thought of debt can enter into
it.
Debts exist in the mind,
and 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. The world can
never be free from the bondage of
financial obligations until men erase
from their minds the thoughts of "mine
and thine" that generates debts and
interest. Analyze the thought of debt
and you will see that it involves a
thought of lack. Debt is a thought of
lack with absence at both ends; the
creditor thinks he lacks what is owed
him and the debtor thinks he lacks what
is necessary to pay it, else he would
discharge the obligation rather than
continue it. There is error at both
ends of the proposition and nothing in
the middle. This being true, it should
be easy to dissolve the whole thought
that anyone owes us or that we owe
anyone anything. We should fill our
mind with thoughts of all-sufficiency,
and where there is no lack there can be
no debts. Thus we find that 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.
Ideas of abundance will
more quickly and surely bring what is
yours to you than any thoughts you can
hold about debtors discharging their
obligations to you. 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. Thus 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.
Let the law of plenty work itself out
in you and in your affairs. This is the
way the Father forgives your debts: not
by canceling them on His books but by
erasing them from His mind. He
remembers them no more against you when
you deny their reality. The Father is
the everywhere present Spirit in which
all that appears has its origin. God's
love sees you always well, happy, and
abundantly provided for; but God's
wisdom demands that order and right
relation exist in your mind before it
may become manifest in your affairs as
abundance. His love would give you your
every desire, but His wisdom ordains
that you forgive your debtors before
your debts are forgiven.
To remedy any state of
limited finances or ill-health that has
been brought about by worry one must
begin by eliminating the worry that is
the original cause. One must free one's
mind from the burden of debt before the
debt can be paid. Many people have
found that the statement "I owe no man
anything but love" has helped them
greatly to counteract this thought of
debt. As they used the words their
minds were opened to an inflow of
divine love and they faithfully
co-operated with the divine law of
forgiveness in thought, word, and deed.
They built up such a strong
consciousness of the healing and
enriching power of God's love that they
could live and work peacefully and
profitably with their associates. Thus
renewed constantly in health, in faith,
and in integrity, they were able to
meet every obligation that came to
them.
The statement "I owe no
man anything but love" does not mean
that we can disclaim owing our
creditors money or try to evade the
payment of obligations we have
incurred. The thing denied is the
burdensome thought of debt or of lack.
The work of paying debts is an inner
work having nothing to do with the
debts already owed but with the wrong
thoughts that produced them. When one
holds to the right ideas, burdensome
debts will not be contracted. 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 from them for all
time.
Your thoughts should at
all times be worthy of your highest
self, your fellow man, and God. The
thoughts that most frequently work ill
to you and your associates are thoughts
of criticism and condemnation. Free
your mind of them by holding the
thought "There is now no condemnation
in Christ Jesus." Fill your mind with
thoughts of divine love, justice,
peace, and forgiveness. This will pay
your debts of love, which are the only
debts you really owe. Then see how
quickly and easily and naturally all
your outer debts will be paid and all
inharmonies of mind, body, and affairs
smoothed out at the same time. Nothing
will so quickly enrich your mind and
free it from every thought of lack as
the realization of divine love. Divine
love will quickly and perfectly free
you from the burden of debt and heal
you of your physical infirmities, often
caused by depression, worry, and
financial fear. Love will bring your
own to you, adjust all
misunderstandings, and make your life
and affairs healthy, happy, harmonious,
and free, as they should be. Love
indeed is the "fulfillment of the
law."
The way is now open for
you to pay your debts. Surrender them
to God along with all your doubts and
fears. Follow the light that is
flooding into your mind. God's power,
love, and wisdom, are here, for His
kingdom is within you. 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, for it
is His righteous desire to free you
from every burden, and He is leading
you out of the burden of debt, whether
of owing or being owed. Meet every
insidious thought, such as "I can't,"
"I don't know how," "I can't see the
way," with the declaration "Jehovah is
my shepherd; I shall not want." You
"shall not want" the wisdom, the
courage to do, or the substance to do
with when you have once fully realized
the scope of the vast truth that
Almightiness is leading you into "green
pastures ... beside still
waters."
In the kingdom of Truth
and reality ideas are the coin of the
realm. You can use the new ideas that
divine wisdom is now quickening in your
mind and start this very moment to pay
your debts. Begin by thanking God for
your freedom from the debt-burden
thought. This is an important step in
breaking the shackles of debt. The
funds to pay all your bills may not
suddenly appear in a lump sum; but 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. For with the
increase will come added good judgment
and wisdom in the management of your
affairs. Debt is soon vanquished when
wisdom and good judgment are in
control.
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 some thing. This easily
leads one into the habit of putting off
paying, which fastens the incubus of
debt on people before they realize it.
It is the innocent-appearing forerunner
of the debt habit and debt thought that
may rob you of peace, contentment,
freedom, integrity, and prosperity for
years to come. The Divine Mind within
you is much stronger than this desire
mind of the body. Turn to it in a time
like this, and affirm: "Jehovah is my
shepherd; I shall not want" this thing
until it comes to me in divine
order.
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. Begin to
free yourself at once by doing all that
is possible with the means you have and
as you proceed in this spirit the way
will open for you to do more; for
through the avenues of Spirit more
means will come to you and every
obligation will be met.
If you are a creditor,
be careful of the kind of thoughts you
hold over your debtor. Avoid the
thought that he is unwilling to pay you
or that he is unable to pay you. One
thought holds him in dishonesty, and
the other holds him subject to lack,
and either of them tends to close the
door to the possibility of his paying
you soon. Think well and speak well of
all those who owe you. If you talk
about them to others avoid calling them
names that you would not apply to
yourself. Cultivate a genuine feeling
of love for them and respect their
integrity in spite of all appearances.
Declare abundant supply for them and
thus help them to prosper. Pray and
work for their good as well as for your
own, for yours is inseparable from
theirs. You owe your debtor quite as
much as he owes you and yours is a debt
of love. Pay your debt to him and he
will pay his to you. This rule of
action never fails.
Far-seeing Christians
look forward to an early resumption of
the economic system inaugurated by the
early followers of Jesus. They had all
things in common, and no man lacked
anything. But before we can have a
truly Christian community founded on a
spiritual basis we must be educated
into a right way of thinking about
finances. If we should all get together
and divide all our possessions, it
would be but a short time until those
who have the prevailing financial ideas
would manipulate our finances, and
plethora on one hand and lack on the
other would again be
established.
The world cannot be free
from the bondage of debt and interest
until men start to work in their minds
to erase those things from
consciousness. If the United States
forgave the nations of Europe all their
debts and wiped the slate clean, the
law would not necessarily be fulfilled;
for there would probably remain a
thought that they still owed us and
that we had made a sacrifice in
canceling the obligations. We should
not feel very friendly about it and
would not truly forgive them, and in
that case the error thought would be
carried on. We must first forgive the
error thought that they owe us money
and that we would be losing money by
canceling the debts. The man who is
forced to forgive a debt does not
forgive it.
Above all we should fill
our mind with the consciousness of that
divine abundance which is so manifest
everywhere in the world today. There is
as much substance as there ever was,
but its free flow has been interfered
with through selfishness. We must rid
our mind of the selfish acquisitiveness
that is so dominant in the race
thought, and in that way do our part in
the great work of freeing the world
from avarice. It is the duty of every
Christian metaphysician to help in the
solution of this problem by affirming
that the universal Spirit of supply is
now becoming manifest as a distributing
energy the world over; that all
stored-up, hoarded, vicious thoughts
are being dissolved; that all people
have things in common. that no one
anywhere lacks anything; and that the
divine law of distribution of infinite
supply that Jesus demonstrated is now
being made manifest throughout the
world. "The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof."
There is a legitimate
commerce that is carried on by means of
what is called credit. Credit is a
convenience to be used by those who
appreciate its value and are careful
not to abuse it, for to do so would be
to ruin it. However, many persons are
not equipped to use the credit system
to advantage and are likely to abuse
it. In the first place, few individuals
are familiar with the intricacies of
sound credit systems and often assume
obligations without being certain of
their ability to meet them, especially
should some unforeseen complication
arise. Frequently an individual loses
all that he invests and finds himself
involved in a burden of debt in
addition. Such things are not in divine
order and are largely responsible for
retarding prosperity.
No one should assume an
obligation unless he is prepared to
meet it promptly and willingly when it
comes due. One who knows God as his
unfailing resource can be assured of
his supply when it is
needed.
Then why should he
plunge into debt when he is confident
of his daily supply without debt? There
are no creditors or debtors in God's
kingdom. If you are in that kingdom,
you need no longer be burdened with the
thought of debt either as debtor or
creditor. Under divine law there is no
reaching out for things that are beyond
one's present means. There is an
ever-increasing richness of
consciousness coming from the certain
knowledge that God is infinite and
unfailing supply. Outer things conform
to the inner pattern, and riches are
attracted to the one who lives close to
the unselfish heart of God. His
environment is made beautiful by the
glory of the Presence, and there is
satisfying and lasting prosperity in
his affairs.
There is but one way to
be free from debt. That is the desire
to be free, followed by the realization
that debt has no legitimate place in
God's kingdom and that you are
determined to erase it entirely from
your mind. As you work toward your
freedom you will find it helpful to
have daily periods for meditation and
prayer. Do not concentrate on debts or
spoil your prayers by constantly
thinking of debts. Think of that which
you want to demonstrate, not that from
which you seek freedom. When you pray,
thank the Father for His care and
guidance, for His provision and plenty,
for His love and wisdom, for His
infinite abundance and your privilege
to enjoy it.
Here are a few
prosperity prayers that may help
establish you in the truth of plenty
and erase the error thought of debt.
They are offered as suggestions for
forming your own prayers but may be
used as given with excellent
results.
I am no longer anxious
about finances; Thou art my
all-sufficiency in all
things.
The Spirit of honesty,
promptness, efficiency, and order is
now expressed in me and in all that I
do.
I am free from all
limitations of mortal thought about
quantities and values. The
superabundance of riches of the Christ
Mind are now mine, and I am prospered
in all my ways.
The 23d Psalm
A Treatment To Free The
Mind Of The Debt Idea
Jehovah is my shepherd;
I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside
still waters.
He restoreth my
soul:
He guideth me in the
paths of righteousness for his name's
sake.
Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of
death,
I will fear no evil; for
thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine
enemies:
Thou hast anointed my
head with oil;
My cup runneth
over.
Surely goodness and
lovingkindness shall follow me all the
days of my life:
And I shall dwell in the
house of Jehovah for ever.
