When we first start out to prove Truth we are all inclined to put things before God; we are like those of whom the Christ said that they did not come unto Him principally in search of Truth but for the material wonders He performed, the "loaves and fishes" that were more dear to them than was spiritual enlightenment.
Let us now be quite clear on this point: these very "loaves and fishes" are an integral part of God's being and as such they are all ours to use and to enjoy, but they are, as it were, the by-products of Life and should be of secondary, not primary, importance to us. If we concentrate upon them we can bring them into manifestation. We have but to look around us to see many people who apparently do not believe in God yet have all the worldly goods they could desire, so it is equally probable that we too have the mental, emotional and physical ability to bring into conscious externalization any concrete thing that we require.
God gives us whatever we want, and every type of self-confidence, all directed thinking, is a form of trust of faith and produces that upon which it has been focused; but these things, unaccompanied by inner peace and harmony, never amount to true happiness or success. God is not averse to our having them in over-flowing measure; in fact, being as He is, All-in-All and omnipresent, He has Himself endowed us with them for He constitutes us, not only as the spiritual Power called Love but as the same Power called Substance, and our desire for any particular thing is not a personalized wish but the urge of infinite Intelligence constraining It to express a greater measure of Itself through us who are Its vehicles.
In all my experience over these many years, when confronted with very serious difficulties of a material nature, I have always found that if one is seeking the Kingdom of God he does not need to centre his attention upon the problem; the man who relies solely upon his faith in the Father achieves his purpose much more easily than does the one who uses intense concentration to gain his ends, even though each is contacting the self same Substance, which, when manifest, we call either "success" or "money".
It happened once that Henry Ford, at a luncheon, was asked how he came by all the spiritual ideas that he put to practical use in his plants and, turning a saucer upside down, he replied: "This bit of china is being bombarded by a terrific force of X pounds to the square inch at this moment; you cannot see this taking place, but science knows it for a fact, can measure it and weigh it, and I believe that every human being is in like m anner continuously bombarded with all the spiritual ideas necessary for his particular needs, no matter what these may be."
We, as Truth students, go further, we do not feel that we receive these spiritual concepts from without; we know that they are already within us, part and parcel of our very beings, and that when we turn mentally to the spiritual side of ourselves it will be as if we opened a tap and permitted these ideas to flow out through us to be molded by us into tangible expression. The trouble is that most people with whom I come into contact persist in looking outside of themselves for their material wealth. They fix their gaze upon human agencies, they question whence their good can come, they watch and wait and nothing happens because they are looking in the wrong direction. It is, of course, more than probable that it will come through some individual or other, but it cannot do this until it has first found itself within the consciousness of the person seeking it.
Let me give you an illustration. A friend of mine who wished to buy a property had every estate agent in the city looking for this for him, but somehow whatever was offered fell short of his requirements, so he decided to make a spiritual plan and to depict upon that exactly what he sought. Some eighteen months later, when dining one night with friends, a fellow guest asked him if he was satisfied with the house in which he was living, and upon his saying that he did not care for it and was looking for something else he was given the address of a man who was building a house as a speculation. He went out to view this and found that it was exactly what he wanted, on the right piece of ground, in the suburb of his choice and in congenial surroundings. It was not until he had completed the purchase that he remembered his treasure map, and when he had dug this up from among his papers he saw to his amazement that the sketch he had drawn upon it was not that of the home he had just bought but was one of the house he had been visiting when he received the information that guided him to what he so badly wanted.
That is how God works, in a natural manner; but we, unfortunately, frequently obstruct Him for, not realizing that we are engaged in treasure-mapping, or spiritualizing ideas all day long, often indulge in negative visioning, and then wonder why discord comes to pass. It used to be like that with me. I would give a certain amount of time to prayer, affirmation or meditation and then, like you, forget all about it, ignoring the fact that during the period that I was not in communication with God I was, nevertheless, also praying, and was asking, not for the good, but, because my emotional reactions to certain conditions were producing for me adverse mental pictures, I was paving the way for the un-good I was holding in consciousness, to manifest.
It is, of course, possible for each and every one of you to bring forth into expression the good that God is desiring through you, either by the way of concentrated thinking, seeing, feeling, speaking and acting that particular thing from the moment you awaken until you go to bed, or by realizing that the idea within you is God's idea and is already done, so that you can dismiss it from your mind as a fait accompli.
Study your thoughts and your emotions daily, when you go to bed, and ask yourselves sincerely, "What have my thoughts been to-day? How have I felt? What have my actions and reactions been?" Then make a note on a pad, and do that every single night and see if, at the end of the week, you can perhaps eliminate the negative side, the destructive aspects that you have been building up over a period of a year.
When I started, I used to ask myself, "Have I done this?" and if I had I ticked it off. "Have I done that? Am I quite sure that I have done it?" If there was any doubt I would put a cross, and so I would go through the whole questionnaire and, after summing up, I would analyse the results to see whether it was negative or positive, in the credit or debit category, and I would make a note of my findings for the following day; and each time I thought of a negative condition I would take out my list and check on it. You too can do this, if you want to! It is not really difficult if you are in earnest, for the moment you are honest in your seeking after Spirit, at that moment all the spiritual forces rush to your aid. But I come across little evidence of this singleness of purpose. Even my own friends seem to be extraordinarily negative; out of the fullness of their hearts they are constantly saying how much they believe in God, and - practically in the same breath - how much they believe in evil; how much they believe in prosperity and how much they believe in lack; what faith they have in health and how completely they accept disease. All day long they are recording a spiritual plan, and spiritual power is faithfully producing for them what they are asking for.
Now I make it a practice - no matter what I may be doing, working in the garden or driving my car - to keep my mind inwardly turned, in spiritual meditation, towards God, not in order to force myself to recognize His Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence, not exactly to strengthen my belief in Him, my recognition that there is nothing outside of Him, but because I realize that it is necessary to keep, as I might say, continuously in touch with Him, because it is only too easy, in these days when most people are harbouring discordant thoughts, to slip into their habit of negative thinking.
Whatever happens in your lives is your responsibility; there is no power greater than God, none that can oppose His will, but we give authority to conditions, to people, to appearances, and then it is done unto us accordingly; and what overtakes individual lives spreads to the family, and from the family to the community, thence to the country and finally it manifests as a global state of being - the reflection of personal thinking and feeling. But there is no reason for concern or panic; whatever occurs is within our own control. We have to ask ourselves in whom, or what, power is established, whether in God or in that which is outside of Him. It should not be difficult for you to distinguish between reality and unreality. Are you not temples of the Most High, enshrining within yourselves His Omnipotence and Omniscience? Of what then should you be afraid? God in the midst of you is mighty, not alone to heal the mind and the body, but to harmonize appearances, conditions, environment and circumstances. I want you to be, as the Bible says, a "peculiar people", peculiar in that you do not judge by the seeming or give power to anything outside the Almighty. Of what value are the teachings of Christ, what is the use of being a student of Truth if we give to illusion the power that belongs alone to God?
Sometimes I feel that teachers of Truth are voices crying in the wilderness, so few people really trust in God, strive to bring Him into their consciousness, or are willing to rely upon His Protection and Love, Which are - if they only knew it - nearer to them than breathing, closer than hands and feet. All the unhappiness and tragedies that overwhelm us are brought to pass by our own erroneous thinking, by our ignorance of the fact that within us - permeating and flooding us - are an infinite Power and an inexhaustible Love waiting to express in, through and for us as all good.
Is it not true that God is in the midst of us, that He is in His Heaven, (the Kingdom within us) and that "all's well with the world"? If this is so, why do I see so little faith, so little belief even; why do people run to and fro like lost sheep? Let us take ourselves in hand and, realizing that it is only as we sow that we shall reap, let us decide henceforth to sow in faith and so eliminate all fear.
We must be clear on this matter of fear. Is there, think you, someone or something that is greater than God? Is it possible if God is divine Justice and divine Love for an injustice to be committed at any time? If this could happen there would be no Justice or Love, but in order for Those to function for us they must be able to express through us. God can work for you and me, becoming our true success and happiness, our true health and prosperity only as we become His channels, but when these are cluttered up with doubts and fears His qualities cannot come through.
We must have faith in the good, vision it, invite it, instead of timorously contemplating adverse conditions that exist only in our minds and persist for us only so long as we entertain them. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me". Let us get to know this one God, let us commune with Him, let the outer man learn of the spiritual man within him, for there is nothing that the first can desire that the second has not already perfected and brought into manifestation for him, his loved ones, his community and his country.
The Kingdom of God is fulfilled, is MADE VISIBLE, but our gaze is directed downwards, our minds are confused, our emotions disturbed, we lose sight of the fact that we are His temples, His vehicles of Love, Power, Knowledge and Beauty; our lamps are not lit, or their shutters are closed so that only a glimmer escapes to illuminate our world. The Prince of this World cometh and we receive him, forgetting that there is but one Presence, one Love that encompasses all the good that is. But this Love is dammed up within us, held captive by our fears; let us then lift up our eyes "unto the hills" raise our consciousness to the spiritual heights upon which God dwells. We have to realize that it is only because He IS that we exist and are equipped with His attributes, and, holding fast to the Truth, we must keep our minds centered within, oblivious of outer conditions so that the true happiness, success and prosperity of which the Christ taught may become manifest in and through us in every increasing measure, to share and to spare.
