Recently a friend sent me a comic postcard which read, “Rich or poor, it’s good to have money!” I’m sure most of us would agree. All sorts of wonderful things are being written about money, and of our potential for having and enjoying more of it. For instance, it has been predicted that our national economy can be 50 percent richer by 1970, which surely reflects possibilities for increase in our individual prosperity.
It has also been pointed out recently that more fortunes have been made since World War II than in any comparable period. Fortunes are still being made, according to the figures of the Internal Revenue Service. One writer recently declared, “You can still make a million!” Another boldly stated, “Your chances of making a million are better than you think.”
As you study the lives and experiences of prosperous-minded people, you will find that they have a friendly attitude toward money. Whereas, you will discover that the more general attitude is that there’s something wrong with having money and being prosperous.
Some months ago I was guest speaker at a club luncheon at which a hospital executive was given a check to aid in furnishing a new wing of his hospital. In response to receiving the check, this executive declared, “It isn’t the money that is so important. It is the club members’ love and interest in this new hospital wing that really counts.”
Somehow I wondered if he realized what he was really saying, because my first reaction (which I suspect was the silent reaction of a number of others) was, “If the money isn’t important, why is this man here? He is a very fine and busy executive, and I wonder if he would have come to lunch with these ladies had they merely sent him word that they were impressed with his hospital expansion program.” Surely this man was taught as a child what many of us were erroneously taught–to dislike money.
If you listen closely to the conversations of people about you, you will discover that this is a general attitude. People often discount the importance of money in one breath, and yet they admit that they are working very hard to get it in the next. They do not realize the cross-current they are setting up in their thinking, which in turn voids most of their efforts. Through such crossed-up thinking about money, they are working at cross-purposes, and often they will experience a crossed-up result.
Money Is Divine
I shall never forget the first time that, as a minister, I lectured on the importance of money for successful living. When I declared that money is wonderful because it is divine substance; that money is good when rightly used, a lady sitting on the front row gasped and almost fell out of her chair. When I stated, “money is divine, because money is God’s good in expression,” she almost passed out. She had come to this lecture because she was interested in having greater prosperity in her life. Yet when I mentioned money as a legitimate form of prosperity, it shocked her completely.
After the lecture, one of the members of the church hoard cornered me and said, “Don’t you think you put it a little too strongly about money being good because it is a symbol of divine substance?” And I found myself replying, “I hope I put it strongly; I surely meant to.” The board member then said, “Yes, but you shocked that lady on the front row so much that she may never come back.” And my reply was, “If I shocked her, it was doubtless because she needed to have some old, erroneous ideas about money shocked out of her thinking, as we all do.”
I then pointed out that my whole purpose in teaching the spiritual and mental principles of prosperity was to help people to learn God’s good truth about prosperity being their divine heritage, so that they might be freed from failure, poverty and all the other sins of lack. I realized that sometimes the process was a shock. At the next lecture that lady was back, sitting in a front seat. The only difference I could detect in her attitude was that she had pulled her chair up a little closer toward the lecture platform, happily awaiting further shocking truths about prosperity!
After she attended a number of the lectures, she calmed down considerably in her strong attitudes regarding the pros and cons of prosperity. In due time she came to see me and confessed that, when she first began attending the prosperity lectures, her life and affairs had been in dire shape, financially and otherwise. Her husband had left her; her children seemed to have turned against her; her physician predicted that she was nearing a nervous collapse; she had a good job, but her money never seemed to go very far, and she could not get along with her fellow workers; she was even involved in a lawsuit concerning her previous job.
But week-by-week as she began to entertain new ideas about prosperity and successful living, her whole attitude changed, as did her way of life. Before long her husband returned; she gradually was able to establish a more harmonious relationship with her children; she did not have a nervous collapse; the lawsuit regarding her former job was quietly and amicably settled out of court; and she began to find joy and satisfaction in her work. Indeed, before long she seemed a transformed individual, and it all began the night she dared to change her thinking about money.
Most people are sensitive about their capacity to earn money. In most instances, a person’s capacity to earn money would increase if his attitudes toward money were positive and friendly. It was the late Mike Todd who has been quoted as saying, “I’ve never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation.”
The Good News About Money
Many people seem confused about the correct spiritual attitude toward money, so let’s get the record straight: There’s nothing wrong with money, or in our wanting money. It is a God-given medium of exchange, and there’s nothing evil about that. The moment we let go of those false ideas that someone ignorantly taught us years ago–that money is evil–we will find that money circulates in our financial affairs much more easily and more satisfyingly.
Appreciating Money Can Prosper You
One lady recently told me that since she had released the vague notion that she was supposed to think of money as evil, she had much more of it to enjoy. She said that previously all her money was gone within three days after pay day, but that now there seemed enough to share and to spare regularly. Truly she is one of the most generous people I know. Another lady recently declared, “One of the things I have learned so vividly is to stop saying, ‘Oh, it’s just money.’ She then went on to say that since she had been appreciating rather than depreciating money, she had gotten a wonderful new job at a much higher rate of pay. She is now enjoying both her new work and her new salary.
Perhaps you wonder why it is important to cultivate a sincerely favorable attitude about money, in order to attract happier financial situations. Well, money is filled with the intelligence of the universe, from which it was created. Money reacts to your attitudes about it. Since it is the law of mind action that you attract whatever you appreciate, and repel whatever you depreciate, money responds accordingly. If you think favorably about money, you multiply and increase it in your midst; whereas, if you criticize and condemn it in any form, either your own money or another’s, you dissipate and repel it from you.
Perhaps you have noticed how this law works in regard to your moods. Notice how much more you are able to purchase for your money when you are in a good mood. But if you shop in haste or while in low spirits, everything seems to go wrong, including the purchasing power of your money.
Since your thoughts make your world, your thoughts about money have to be appreciative in order for money to appreciate you and be attracted to you. In talking with hundreds of people about their financial affairs, I have discovered that often when they do not have enough money to meet life’s demands, it is because they have been scoffing and condemning money in financial matters, their own or another’s.
A man once talked with me who was “down and out” in every way. He was in ill health, out of work, and extremely lonely and unhappy. As he talked I tried to discover what attitude of mind had brought him into such pathetic circumstances. He told me how hard life had been for him and how difficult people, situations and events had been along the way. As his conversation progressed, he began talking about “the politicians in Washington and the terrible way they were spending the country’s money.” As gently as I knew how, I then suggested that he try reworking his attitudes toward people in general and toward the Washington politicians in particular, if he wished health, prosperity and happiness to come to him. After giving me a penetrating look which seemed doubtful of my sanity, he finally agreed to try the prosperous thinking approach.
Months later when he returned, he had to remind me who he was, because his appearance had improved so much. He then radiantly described that previous cold winter afternoon, when he had left my study and walked all the way back to his boarding house because of lack of funds for bus fare. By the time he got home he discovered that, in his absorption of some of the ideas we had discussed, all pain had left his body. That night he slept peacefully for the first time in months.
As he began to use prosperous thinking every day, wonderful things began to happen. He fully regained his health and soon a new field of work opened to him that he had long wanted to enter. At the boarding house he met a lady who was also in ill health and financial despair, and he began to pass on to her some ideas about prosperous thinking that had meant much to him. As he did, her whole outlook toward life changed. When they both began to appreciate rather than depreciate, in due time their appreciation involved each other. On his second visit to see me, this man said that he now wished to marry this fine little lady. Soon he brought her to see me and she was as radiant as any bride-to-be half her age!
This man then declared that all of his life he had been scoffing at money and financial matters, and at people who had wealth. He now realized how much destruction he had doubtless caused in his own life as a result. This man had learned at last that, when we do not have enough money to meet life’s demands, it is often because of our depreciation of money, our own or another’s.
The Golden Rule of Prosperity
People sometimes bring financial hardship upon themselves by declaring that they personally are prosperous and blessed, but that Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so haven’t a cent to their name. Such people often triumphantly discuss the difficulties of others at length. If you think of yourself as prosperous but of others as living in lack, through the law of action and reaction you are inviting the same thing to happen to you. The golden rule of prosperous thinking is that you should not think or say anything concerning another’s financial affairs that you would not want to experience in your own.
An unusual example of this truth was demonstrated in a court case where two partners were dissolving their business. One partner kept declaring that she would get everything; that the court and judge would doubtless favor her completely; and she triumphantly declared that the other partner would be left with nothing. But the other partner was a praying, positive, fair-minded individual who put the matter in Higher Hands, affirming that the Divine Law of love, justice and perfect equity would manifest for the highest good of all concerned in the situation. The accusing partner went so far as to take her lawyer to look over all the property and financial assets that she was convinced the court would give her. She constantly thought of herself as prosperous, but declared that the other partner would be left in utter financial ruin.
However, when the judge heard the facts in court, he decided that the accusing partner was entitled to only one small piece of property. He awarded the rest of the financial assets, which included a housing project, a cleaning plant, and several other pieces of real estate, to the partner who had prayed for divine justice. Thus, this woman proved that if you think of yourself as prosperous but of others as in financial lack, you are unconsciously inviting the same thing to happen to you.
How to Make Money Your Servant
On the other hand, to envy another’s money indicates a belief in lack of sufficient supply for everyone. Remember that you will experience what you most strongly give your attention to. When you hear of another’s good fortune, rich inheritance or wealthy possessions, you should do so with great joy and appreciation. Another’s demonstration of riches is but further proof of a loving Father’s divine bounty, which is available to all mankind. You should rejoice in its every rich evidence.
Money seems so charged with divine intelligence that it seems to tune in on what you say or think about it, and it responds accordingly. A friend has related at various times how the appreciative attitude toward money helped to keep food on her table during the depression years. Her young son seemed to know how to get the most for their money at the grocery store. When the money supply was low, she would send him grocery shopping with the substance on hand. Regularly he would come home with much more than anyone else in the family could have purchased for the same amount. Perhaps it was because any amount of money seemed to work overtime for him!
Through positive, appreciative attitudes toward money, you can make money your servant, instead of becoming its slave. You should master money rather than be enslaved by it, because you were placed in this universe to achieve mastery and dominion of substance in its every form, as is pointed out in the first chapter of Genesis. Deliberately cultivate the habit of appreciating money, and make no excuses about your appreciation.
If you do make excuses and depreciate money, it seems to know it and to be repelled by your depreciation. I shall never forget the first time I made this statement in a lecture: “Appreciate money as the rich substance of God and make no excuse for your appreciation of it, for if you do, money will be repelled from you by your foolish excuse making.” A lady carrying a big purse was sitting in the audience. Suddenly her purse flew open and money fell out all over the floor, making a lot of noise. We all had a good laugh while others helped her to collect her money. Of course, we passed the experience off as a joke for the sake of this woman’s feelings. But later when I met her personally, I gave her some rich statements with which to charge her mind, because she seemed to radiate a deep feeling of financial limitation. It was as though her money had heard what she had been saying about it, and was trying to get away from her!
Charles Fillmore has written:
Watch your thoughts when you are handling your money, because your money is attached through your mind to the one source of all substance and all money. When you think of your money, which is visible, as something directly attached to an invisible source that is giving or withholding according to your thought, you have the key to all riches and the reason for all lack. Perhaps you have heard the story about the careless Scot who tossed a crown, thinking it a penny, into the collection plate. When he saw his mistake, he asked to have it back, but the deacon taking the offering refused. The Scot grunted, “Aweel, aweel, I’ll get credit for the crown in heaven.” “Na, na,” replied the deacon, “ye’ll get credit for the penny.”
Give Up Mixed Attitudes
Let’s give up our mixed attitudes about money which can only bring mixed results. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. once described the wonder and glory of money by saying that man could use money to feed the hungry, cure the diseased, make desert places bloom, and bring beauty into the world. And how right he is! As Solomon once declared, The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty. (Prov. 10:15) Indeed, money is good, and we should have more of it than ever in this rich era we have now entered.
An editorial recently pointed out the power of money for world peace, in suggesting that the president of the World Bank be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because of the excellent work he has done in producing financial peace in several countries. The editorial concluded: “Wouldn’t it be timely to recognize that the proper use of cash can be a big factor for peace in the world?”
Just as you should not turn up your nose at money, neither should you make a god of it. Money is filled with the desire for life, movement, expansion and activity. It does not like to be grasped, clutched or restrained in idleness. Indeed, it is the active circulation of money that brings prosperity, whereas depressions and recessions are caused by the miserly hoarding of money. Even as our national economy depends upon the active circulation of money, so your individual prosperity depends upon the active circulation of money. This does not mean that you should not save money, but you should not abuse money by misuse.
Several other attitudes toward money are especially helpful too: For instance, never declare, “I can’t afford this” or “put on a poor mouth” (as we say down South) about things. Such statements sow seeds of poverty and limitation which will produce after their kind. Instead, it is better to declare that it is not “wisdom’s way” to undertake certain financial matters; or at least it is better to phrase your financial “no” in a more positive and prosperous manner. Affirm often: I use the positive power of God’s rich substance in wisdom, love and good judgment in all my financial affairs, and I am prospered in all my ways.
It is also unwise to magnify financial difficulties. If you brag about your financial troubles (and some people actually do so to gain sympathy and attention), then you will always have financial troubles to brag about. A businessman who has achieved independent wealth through his stock market transactions said that early in his stock market ventures he invested heavily and lost heavily. In one transaction alone he lost $20,000. But never once did he mention his financial losses to anyone, not even to his wife. Instead, they continued to live prosperously, and soon the situation changed so that he was able to compensate in rich gains for the lessons he learned through previous heavy losses. To this day he has never openly discussed those early losses, and he is now enjoying financial independence. In difficult financial periods, it is good to affirm: I have faith that this too shall pass, and then continue holding to the high financial vision of success toward which you are working.
Another attitude toward money to beware of is this: When you give money to another person or to an organization, do not give it with the thought of need or obligation. Such thoughts only attract more needs and obligations to be financially met. Instead, give to “add to their prosperity.” This applies to the money you pass out to your husband, wife, children, employees, club, church, to the grocer, the banker and the candlestick maker, as well as to the government and everyone else. This attitude makes the giver and the receiver feel richer.
Your thinking concerning the receipt of money or other financial supply is also important. The prosperous way is to graciously receive your good in all forms, and make no excuse for your acceptance. It is an offense to both the gift and the giver for the recipient to declare, “Oh, you shouldn’t have done it.” Welcome money and divine supply from all directions, if it is being freely given and incurs no sense of obligation. Declare often: All financial doors are open; all financial channels are free, and endless bounty now comes to me. And then joyously let it come!
I know of a woman who desperately prayed for greater prosperity, yet she constantly refused gifts or favors that were lovingly extended to her, thus closing many channels of her prosperity. If you cannot use the gifts that are bestowed upon you, do not say so; simply accept them for the generous thought they represent, and then pass them gladly along to someone who can use them.
The only time this attitude does not apply is when someone is trying to bribe you or buy your friendship with his favors, so that a sense of obligation is being incurred. True generosity has no strings attached. There are no bribes, unspoken favors or obligations involved in true giving. If you sense such a purpose behind a gift, you should feel free to say “no” to false generosity.
Pray About Your Financial Affairs
Another attitude toward money that needs to be clarified is this: Don’t be afraid to pray about money or to get specific about your financial affairs. The ancient Hebrews did not hesitate to pray to God for exactly what they wanted; many of the great leaders of the Bible prayed specifically for prosperity when it was needed. Elijah, for example, prayed persistently for rain to end a three year drought, so that the Hebrews could again have crops, food and prosperity.
A rich Father never intended men to suffer along in this lavish universe, and we are fooling only ourselves if we think that we must live in lack. If you have a financial need, dare to pray about it specifically, and ask your loving Father to help you meet that need richly and completely. The promise, Ask, and it shall be given you contains no hidden clauses. Nor does this promise from the Book of Job, if they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. (Job 36: 11) We have national days of thanksgiving, and we say grace daily at our tables, to help remind ourselves that God is the source of our supply in every form.
In regard to prayer for riches, you have probably read of the late George Muller of Bristol, England, who established orphanages for children many years ago through his belief in the prospering power of prayer. He has been described as a man of faith to whom God gave millions. He has also been called a prince of prayer, because of his habit of asking God directly for whatever was needed, rather than speaking of his needs to people.
Mr. Muller once said that the great fault of most of us is that we do not ask big enough, and we do not continue in prayer until it comes. He also advised, “Expect great things of God and great things you will have.” He once told a friend, “I have praised God many times when He sent me ten cents and I have praised Him when He sent me $60,000.” Solely in answer to prayers for prosperity, $7,500,000 was given to him for the building and maintenance of his orphanages.
The story has often been related of how Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity School of Christianity in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, often prayed concerning Unity’s financial affairs in the early years of the movement. One time a payment was overdue on the printing presses, and the sheriff came to repossess the machines. But when Mr. Fillmore confidently declared, “I have a rich Father Who is going to take care of this”, the sheriff believed him literally and replied, “Well, in that case we will give you a little more time.”
Mr. Fillmore then continued to pray for prosperity and the money came in. Those printing presses were never repossessed. Later, during the depression years, the love offerings that came in from all over the world to support Unity School were much less than usual. Again, the founders of Unity prayed specifically, boldly and deliberately for money, financial supply and rich prosperity. One day as the workers on Unity Farm were drilling for water, they struck oil! That oil well proved an adequate answer to their financial needs throughout the depression.
Of course, the Unity movement is now worldwide in its scope. In recent years appraisers have stated that the financial value of Unity Village, which is now incorporated, is so rich that its true value can scarcely be estimated, but that it would run into the millions.
How To Demonstrate Money
One of the secret teachings of the occult religions of the past was their knowledge of how to demonstrate money. Those privileged to learn this secret were taught to make a concrete mental picture of the amount they wanted, the denomination of money, and how it looked. After making a picture of a definite amount, they were then taught to hold it distinctly in mind as though it was already visible, and they could mentally see it very plainly. They were then taught to command the rich substance of the universe to give it to them. They were instructed to affirm, “Give me this” and to repeat this demand many times day after day until it manifested. Since the mind is all powerful, you have the same right and privilege of mentally claiming money, financial assets and rich supply if you wish to use a strictly mental method. Many successful people have either consciously or unconsciously used this method. A powerful statement with which to charge the mind, along with charging it with the mental picture of the specific amount desired, is: All financial doors are open, all financial channels are free and (then name the specific amount)__________now comes to me. It is also wise to affirm that it manifests through divine channels in God’s own wonderful way. Along with mentally visualizing and mentally claiming specific amounts of money; and along with praying definitely about money, it is also good to speak specific words of riches for yourself and to your possessions. For yourself declare often, I give thanks that I am now rich, well and happy and that my financial affairs are in divine order. Every day in every way I am growing richer and richer. For your wallet, checkbook or other channels of financial supply, it is well to affirm: Money, money, money, manifest thyself here and now in rich abundance. Don’t be afraid to declare that “large sums of money,” “rich pleasant financial surprises,” and “rich appropriate gifts,” are manifesting for you. Do not be vague about money, unless you want money to be vague in its response to you.
A woman on the West Coast, who had read some of my ideas about money, recently wrote me in appreciation. She said, “I am glad to at last find a minister who isn’t afraid to speak plainly of money as a blessing. A minister I know has often spoken to me in terms of ‘plenty to share and to spare,’ and I found out what this minister meant last Christmas, when I received four fruitcakes. I had been affirming ‘plenty to share and to spare’ for Christmas. I had so many fruitcakes to share and to spare that I gave three of them away. How nice it would have been to have received something for Christmas beside fruitcakes! That experience taught me to be definite about what I wanted, if I expected to get definite and satisfying results.”
Thinking in definite terms opens the way for definite results. Don’t limit your income by decreeing “just enough to get by.” This is a pauper’s prayer. At one period in my life when my financial income was inadequate, I cut these words out of a magazine, pasted them on a card and placed them on my bedside table where I viewed them daily: Your money starts growing now. Your earnings double! I was astounded when my financial income did start growing immediately through a remarkable series of events that occurred. Within a few months I suddenly realized that my income had doubled! Money adores the prosperous attitude and richly responds to it.
Substance, the Source of Money
Along with an appreciation of money, you should also understand and fully appreciate substance, out of which money and all tangible objects are formed. Times of depression bring out the fact that in days of prosperity man either forgot the prayers and struggles that brought him to success and apparent safety, or else he failed to build his fortune on a firm financial foundation. If he had thought more about the source of life and substance, he would have escaped the needless grind of poverty he has endured right in the midst of. abundance.
The scientists say that substance is that which stands under and supports every visible and tangible object. If you do not have money and if it does not seem to manifest as you think prosperously about it, then perhaps the divine equivalent of money wishes to come to you. As you appreciate substance and know that it is everywhere universally present in the ethers about you; as you realize that it is passive, and waits to be formed and brought into visibility by your thoughts and words, you will realize that you have control of the invisible world of rich substance and rich supply, as well as the visible world of riches.
It was Einstein who first stirred up the scientific world when he claimed that substance and matter (which includes money and all visible objects) are convertible. He declared that the formed and unformed world are made out of the same energy, ether, or substance. He said that the visible and invisible realms are relative, convertible, and interchangeable.
From a financial standpoint, we can use his theory of relativity. If the formed and unformed worlds are relative, then what have you to worry about, if your finances get low? You can use the law of relativity to produce either money or its financial equivalent to meet your needs! If substance hasn’t manifested as money, don’t get panicky. Instead, declare that, Divine substance is the one and only reality in this situation. Divine substance does not fail to manifest in rich appropriate form here and now. The scientists declare that substance is filled with life, and. the ability to take visible form. As you affirm that substance is doing whatever is best in the situation, you release its universal intelligence and its ability to take visible form. Your financial good may come forth to you in completely unforeseen ways; perhaps from halfway around the world, or through strangers you have never met. But it will come when you give it your attention, and free it to work in its own wise way.
If the usual channels of supply have not opened, then invite unusual channels of supply to open by recognizing that divine substance stands under every visible form of supply, with endless ways in which to manifest its riches for you. Substance is friendly to you and wishes to supply you richly. Give it your attention and appreciation; place your faith in it, though it seems invisible; and then let prove its power to prosper and care for you.
Never underestimate the power of substance as the one and only reality, which never fails. It will then manifest as money or in the most appropriate financial form, perhaps through people you’ve never seen.
As you invoke the various prosperous attitudes about money and substance contained in this chapter, confidently do so with these words of Emerson ringing in your financial ear: “Man was born to be rich, or inevitably to grow rich, through the use of his faculties.”
And then get ready for rich results! As those rich results appear, perhaps you would like to be reminded of this truth a young man in the armed forces recently wrote his mother: “Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have. Spend it wisely.” Whether in terms of time or money, it still applies, doesn’t it?