Prosperity Sunday 6 of 12

January 26, 2014

When Jesus says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:32 KJV), he implies that our bondage in life is caused by our acceptance of erroneous beliefs. A Greek philosopher, Zeno, says, "The most important part of learning is to unlearn our errors."

Why do you work?

For many the answer would be, “Well, that’s obvious; to earn money to pay the bills for the things I have to have (food, clothing, shelter – preferably warm on a day like this) and to be able to buy and do the things I want that bring me pleasure.”

If you think that’s the only reason, then that may be one of the errors that need unlearning.

Your prosperity is always a reflection of your consciousness, the degree to which your thoughts are centered in the divine flow. You spend most of your life engaged in some kind of gainful employment; thus if your attitudes about work in general and your job in particular are not right, then truly you are working against yourself. You may seek diligently to demonstrate prosperity, but unless you unlearn your error thoughts about work, you will forever be out of “sync” with the creative flow of the universe.

A German educator Frederick Froebel, suggests that to work simply to pay the bills is degrading.

“Wait a minute… I do need to get paid to pay the bills.”

Yes, the bills do need to be paid and Rev. Butterworth suggests, and I agree, that work ought to be thought of as a giving process rather than a getting one.

We can see this even on the most mundane level. Work is a giving process. What job interview or job description goes this way:

Seeker: “I’m interested in working for your company.”

Employer: “Great! Here’s how much you get for working here.”

No, it’s a giving process. The essence of the job agreement is: if you give us this (job description), then we’ll give you this (Salary or wage).

Give - give.

Notice – and you’ll see that the people around you who are working to get are the least happy and those who give to their jobs are the happiest.

Work is a creative outlet and when you work merely to get you have absolutely no understanding of the components of the law of prosperity.

From the book (Spiritual Economics) “A distinguished professor at Harvard University once said, "The University pays me for doing what I would gladly do for nothing, if I could afford it."

“Most persons might laugh at his naïveté. However, what he is saying is that his work is not just a place to tediously make a living but an opportunity to joyously live his making. In other words, he is looking at his teaching work in terms of the privilege it gives him to grow as a person. And growth is what life is all about … not just paychecks and fringe benefits, but growth. It is probably true that the best living is "made" by those workers whose chief motivation is to give themselves away.”

As you sew, so shall you grow.

The seeds (ideas) you plant in your everyday thinking grows into, becomes, your consciousness.

If your approach to work is, “I do what I get paid to do,” then your life is stagnant and we all know that stagnancy begets putrification.

Emilie Cady write in her book, LESSONS IN TRUTH, “Stagnation is death. A pool cannot be kept clean and sweet and renewed unless there is an outlet as well as an inlet.  It is our business to keep both the inlet and outlet open, and God’s business to keep the stream flowing in and through us. Unless you use for the service of others what God has already given to you, you will find it a long, weary road to spiritual understanding. (or inner peace on the job)

You are the inlet and the outlet of all God has to offer. Keep the inlet (awareness of God) open, keep the outlet (expressing (giving) everything in your life from a foundation built on the awareness of the Love, and Presence, and Power of God) flowing and your work, (your life) will be clean and sweet and renewed.

There is a story about a man who was overlooked for a promotion. He went to his boss and complained, “I have 25 years of experience. I should have gotten that job.”

“That’s not quite correct,” his wise employer replied, “You have one year of experience 25 times over.”

This employee was doing the work but wasn’t growing.

It would seem to me he must have done his work well and maybe even become indispensable.

I learned a lesson when a manufacturing company I worked for went through a series of downsizing. I continued to survive the cuts because I was indispensable. No one else could do the job I did. I ran the shipping and receiving department. Anyone could do that. Where I became indispensable was I had training, knowledge, and experience in working with a spray foam packaging system and I also had knowledge of international shipping and receiving requirements.

Being indispensable meant I survived each downsizing. It also meant I was subject to a ceiling in the company. I couldn’t go to any other position which I may have been capable of doing or learning, a position that paid more money, because I was seen as “indispensable.”

There was no future in my job but because I put myself into the job, rather than do the job, there was a future in me. Since there was nowhere for me to go in the company, I had to go somewhere else. I didn’t understand that; so it wasn’t easy staying and life conspired to push me out the door.

When you discipline yourself to let God into your awareness and let God out into everything you do in the world one of two things will occur:

(1)                                Your consciousness will bring about a change in the job, making it right for you and you for the company, or

(2)                                Another job will open up for you where a transfer will be effected (or a new opportunity will occur) in the way that is beneficial to all concerned.

Number two was the way it was for me. Life affected a transfer via my deciding to quit. It was a good choice for both of us.

Prosperity is a divine flow from within. You are a radiating center of the Christ Light. Let your light shine; not to get, but to give.

Remember, consciousness is the key. Make a new commitment to think of your work not as a place to make a living but as an opportunity to make a life. Think of yourself as a channel through which creative activities flow, and there is no limit. Your mind is one with the same mind that is in the genius, the successful, and the affluent. Wonderful ideas and boundless energies flow forth easily through you. You are free from tension or stress, for you know that you are an inlet and may become an outlet to all there is in God. You are not alone. The whole Universe is on your side, guiding your hands and directing your footsteps in the way you go.

Our affirmation to write ten times a day every day for the next month is: “I am God's living enterprise, and God cannot fail.”