Prosperity Sunday 4 of 12

This is the text of the talk I gave on Sunday, December 1, 2013

Today is Prosperity Sunday number four of twelve. We are examining the book SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS: The principles and Process of True Prosperity by Eric Butterworth. This month’s chapter is titled, “If You Can Believe.”

In Mark 9:23 these words are attributed to Jesus, “…All things are possible to the one who believes.”

What do you think Jesus meant by “one who believes?”

What does it mean to you to believe?

Does it mean, “I believe in God?” OK, what does God mean to you? What do you believe? These are questions that are well worth thinking about and after you’ve answered them for yourself, think about your answers. Challenge yourself… ask yourself, “Why is this my answer? Why do I believe this?”

Now, hopefully I’ll “upset the applecart” when I suggest to you that belief isn’t a believing “in something” something but an “openness to” something.

We likely have been trained to view “believing in God” as believing in a “super-force (or Super-person) out there to whom we ask give to us; take away; prevent.

Butterworth write on page 68, (SLIDE) “God is not the Grand Man of the heavens, a great purser of accounts and distributer of divine substance. God is the transcendent whole of things of which you are [operating as] an individualized part.”

Butterworth goes on to say, “The whole Universe of “God Substance” is centered in you. There is nothing you can do to add to that or take away from it.”

Now maybe we’ve thought, or think, “The whole universe of God-substance was centered in Jesus, but it isn’t in me.”  Remember that Jesus said in John 14:12, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Just so you know, all this things that I do you can do too. In fact, you can do even more than you’ve seen me do!” and then there’s that little tag line, “if you believe.”

The out-picturing of our believing is not the result of magic. The out-picturing of our believing is not the result of a miracle. The out-picturing of our believing is not the result having done, “all the right things,” it’s the result of believing (or we could say faith)

Believing is the “openness to” something.

When you say you believe in something you are really saying, “I’m open to it.” And the deeper we believe the more open we are to it.

In the sound room we have a number of rheostats that operate banks of light.

Michelle, would you gently lower all the rheostats, please? If you close down the rheostat the light decreases. On the other had if you raise up the rheostats, the light increases. Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle, would you show us the next slide, please? (SLIDE is V=I x R)

Does anyone recognize this equation? This is Ohm’s law and you use it to do circuit analysis. It’s called Ohm’s law because Mr. Ohm figured it out. When you figure out something like this, you get to name it after yourself. After you leave here today you are going to be able to do your own circuit analysis for your life using not Ohm’s law, but “your” law. In other words you just insert your own name. You’ll see what I mean.

Next slide, please. Here we see (V=I x R)

V=voltage; I=current; and R=resistance. In order to know the voltage present we multiply the current times the resistance. Otherwise stated, voltage is the result of current working through resistance. Let’s solve a couple of simple equations.

(SLIDE) What voltage is present if you have 120 amps of current and 2 ohm’s of resistance? 240 volts.

(SLIDE) What voltage is present if you have 120 amps of current working through .10 ohms of resistance. 12 volts.

Now let’s look at this metaphysically. (Slide) (V=I x R )

V=the experience of your life. I=the current of God. R=the belief (openness) resident in your consciousness. Now we have: Experience of our Life = God x (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

          The experience of your life is equal to the current of God working through you personal openness.

          In “Circuit Analysis” of your life, God is a constant. The current of God never changes. The experience of our life is relative to the resistance we put forth, or to the openness we have, to the current of God.

Experience of our Life = God (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

The question we want to explore when we think our life isn’t all it could be is, “How many me’s of resistance are present for God to work through?

For myself I could think of it this way, “How many Brad’s of resistance are present in my consciousness to the open flow of the current of God?”

 (Brad’s Law)

Experience of my Life = God (working thru) Brad.

You can fill in you name in the equation and make this your law instead of Ohm’s law.

Butterworth writes on page 72,  “The most widespread disease of our time may well be “I-can’t-itis.” It is contracted by many of us early in life from our elders. Society has made a song of it that has neither rhyme nor reason, and it may be heard everywhere:

I can’t because I am poor.

I can’t because I am sick.

I can’t because I do not have the ability.

I can’t because there is no opportunity.

I can’t because I am too old.

I can’t… I can’t… I can’t.

Experience of our Life = God (working thru) the openness of our Consciousness.

I experience poorness/ sickness/ no ability/ no opportunity, etc because the creative current of God is working through the openness in my consciousness to the belief that “I am poor, I am sick, I have no ability, I have no opportunity, etc.” (If you look at this closely you’ll see that we put effect first and call it cause.)

It may have been the Buddha that said, “If you keep saying, “I want more money,” that’s exactly what you’ll have… the wanting of more money.”

(Butterworth, Page 77) “The [belief] required to demonstrate prosperity is not simply a pious pronouncement, it is expectancy. You do not receive what you want; you do not receive what you pray for, not even what you say you [believe] in. What you will always receive is what you actually expect.”

That’s why we need to take a self-assessment once in a while and “inspect for what we expect.”

Now, it is important for you to remember that despite what your consciousness may be, you can grow, you can improve, you can be prosperous, you can succeed, if you believe. When you say yes to the creative flow within you, you begin to experience I-am-positive-I-can attitudes which illuminate the powers and skills needed to accomplish. When you believe you can do it, the how-to-do-it develops.

It’s not the other way around – “When I see how it can be done, I will believe I can do it.”

No miracles are required. You are a rich and creative spiritual being. You can never be less than this. You may frustrate your potential. You may identify with that which is less than you can be. Within you now, and always, is the unborn possibility of a limitless experience of inner stability and outer treasure. You posses the privilege of giving birth to it and you will, if you can believe.

Thank you for being here today. God bless you.

(If you are participating transforming your abundance experience, your assignment is to write the following 10 times each day: “Abundance = the current of God moving through my belief.”)