With this mental atmosphere of fear, lack and hopelessness with people’s financial, housing and employment situations overshadowing everyone (and not just in the West, but more urgently, in the developing countries where they don’t have the luxury of perhaps being able to cut back on unnecessary spending like we do here) I thought it was time I shared some good news for a change.
When I was still in my teens and living on my own, I went through an experience of poverty and through it, had a glimpse of the fact that God, Spirit, has infinite recourses with which to bless us and have never been afraid since. I thought it might encourage some of you to hear this and I’ve also found a few articles on where others have similarly overcome financial challenges.
I was 18, it was my very first winter ever (having arrived from Singapore the previous summer) and I was working as a beautician in a hairdresser’s in North London. One Monday morning we got our first snowfall. I was very excited, but as I stood in the snow waiting for the bus, wearing open-toed sandals I began to have second thoughts! I’d only just started my first job and didn’t have any money for shoes let alone boots.
I got to the salon to be hit by an absolute bombshell – the entire hairdressing staff, bar one new stylist had walked out and moved to the salon across the road. This walkout included the owner’s nephew. Well, I guess she had a sort-of breakdown. She would sit in the window all day long shouting curses at the salon opposite and if any poor unsuspecting woman happened to walk past the salon, she would rush out onto the pavement and try to physically drag them in! My salary was a pittance - £8 per week (well, it was the 60’s) but even then it was not enough to live on. My tips used to more than double it, but with no customers, we had no tips.
On top of everything else, a friend of a friend in Australia who was living in my kitchen on a deckchair (honestly) got in with a hippie crowd and suddenly I had 4 extra mouths to feed when I could barely feed my own! I was having to walk instead of taking the bus and getting a boyfriend to come and buy me lunch as I couldn’t afford to eat. So that’s the scene.
Mary Baker Eddy saw the importance of young adults being able to discuss and share ideas and experiences and in Christian Science churches, we have Sunday School up to the age of 20. Such a precious time. Well, I told my SS teacher and the rest of the class all my woes and we discussed how to pray about it. We spoke of how Jesus recognised infinite supply as being always present, evidenced through (but not created by) material supplies as in his demonstration of the loaves and fishes, of finding the right amount to pay his tax in the fish's mouth etc. We talked about Mary Baker Eddy's statement:
Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.(Science and Health p 494)
And then my dear teacher suggested that I read an article called “God's Law of Adjustment.” It was written by a man called Adam Dickey who was Mrs Eddy’s secretary for a number of years and is very clear and powerful.
I’m quite sure my Sunday School teacher never meant me to study it quite as earnestly as I did, to the exclusion of all else, but it certainly had the desired effect. Well, every moment I sat in that empty salon, I just kept reading it, over and over again, until I really understood it. The ideas became tangible substance to me – it’s hard to explain, but I just grasped their truth. Let me quote from a bit that really spoke to me:
Dickey quotes Paul’s words from Romans 8:
“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
and he asks:
“Why? Because all the power there is, is on the side of the law of Life, and that which is opposed to this law of Life is not law at all; it is only belief. In other words, every law of God has behind it infinite power to enforce it, while the so-called law of sin and death has no foundation, has nothing back of it that it can depend upon.”
And he goes on:
“When we understandingly declare that the law of God is present and is in operation, we have invoked or brought into action the whole law and the power of God. We have declared the truth, God’s truth – and that truth of God is the law of annihilation, obliteration, and elimination to everything that is unlike Him. When we have stated this truth, and applied it, as taught in Christian Science, to any discordant belief with which we are confronted, we have done all that we can do and all that is necessary for us to do in the destruction of any manifestation of error that ever claimed to exist. Error, which has no place in the divine Mind, claims to exist in human thought. When we have put it out of human thought, we have driven it out of the only place where it ever pretended to have a foothold, and thereafter to us it becomes nothing..” (God's Law of Adjustment)
Thinking back to that time, I realise that I wasn’t praying the prayer of petition (what prayers usually are) – you know, “Father-Mother, please take me out of here, please find me a new job, more money, more customers” etc etc, no, I was praying the much higher (and more effective prayer of AFFIRMATION.
Jesus gave thanks for the healing BEFORE he raised Lazarus from the dead – that was a prayer of affirmation! Also:
“And he … took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.” (Matt 14:19)
He looked away from the material picture of lack up to heaven – to the ever-present harmony of the Kingdom of God. With the seven loaves and fishes in Matt 15 and the John 6 version it also adds that he gave thanks, as he did with Lazarus. He gave thanks because he knew the supply was already there and he also knew it would be such an abundant supply that there would be enough fragments left over to fill a basket for each of the disciples – there was proof for them of the infinite abundance of divine Love, God.
I was praying with the ideas above. I was affirming that God was in control and that HisHer law and only that law were in operation. I was so engrossed in what I was learning, I didn’t stop to wonder HOW God was going to get me out of this mess, in fact, I stopped seeing it as a mess and began to realise that right where lack and anguish seemed to be, God was.
Very shortly after that the salon was sold and customers started coming again. There was a beautiful Belgium lady called Mrs Lucky and one day out of the blue she asked me if I would do her a great favour and allow her to give me some clothes as they were moving back to Brussels and she wanted some new clothes and her husband said she already had too many.
She came and picked me up and took me to her home. The very first thing she offered me was a pair of fur-lined boots. They were not only in my size, but I have a narrow AA fitting and they were the exact fitting too. (God never takes us half the way – HeShe always takes us ALL the way)
Well, after that, there were clothes, shoes, bags. Then, she opened her kitchen cupboards and showed me row upon row of tinned food. “I don’t know what to do with all this” she said “Will you take it?” Well, that food fed me and the kitchen-camping hippies for months. There were boxes and boxes of food.
The best was yet to come. She said to me that what she loved most of all were her house plants and would I give them a home? Those plants nurtured in me a great love of gardening, a hobby that has brought me so much pleasure since. Had I sat down and listed all the things I wanted, I would never have added all the extra blessings that I received. God’s abundant love for us is always so much more, so much higher than we could ever imagine.
So that’s the story of how the spiritual ideas passing from God to us (angel thoughts) helped me to just turn my whole life around and the new boss recommended me for a job at the Savoy Hotel where I was very happy for years until someone else recommended me somewhere else and so it went on until I ended up with an airline and had 31 years of interesting and fun work until I “retired” a few years ago, only to have an opportunity to work for church offered me and this has brought great satisfaction.
God is SO wonderful and ALL that is HisHers is OURS! We only have to claim it!
Here are the articles below that I promised.
Love and peace,
Judy
[url]Freed from financial worry[/url]
[url]Freedom from foreclosure[/url]
[url]To live a life of true abundance[/url]
Abundance of good is the very fabric of your identity as God’s image………
Imagine! You are a divine heir to the greatest riches the world has ever known—the wealth of Spirit. And garnering the wealth of Spirit translates into human needs met. Seek spiritual mindedness. Pursue spirituality. Rejoice in the omnipresence of good, and you’ll live a life of true abundance.
Though I started the thread above back in July, it seems that suddenly people are in a state of panic which is causing catastrophic (but completley man-made) results. We need to counteract this fear through prayer and by realising that God, good is the only REAL power.
I have been thinking of all the times in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, when despite the desperate situation people appeared to be in, turning to (or finally listening to) God brought the answer – for example: Hagar; the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness for 40 years under Moses; the supply realised through Elijah and Elisha’s spiritual discernment; Jesus’ feeding of the thousands, direction to “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find”, finding the coin in the fish’s mouth (And many more).
Then, I have also been remembering the hundreds of articles and testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals I’ve read, (plus other Christian denominations as well as from other religions) of supply and answer to prayer that has flowed in through gratitude, trust and demonstration of the laws of divine Science. Here is an example from WWII:
At Munda, on New Georgia, during more than two weeks of almost incessant fighting, I was cared for and saved from fear. We had been fighting for a number of days and were out of water. Many were being wounded, and many others were going off the front carrying the wounded. Few men were left to hold ground. Our nearest source of drinking water was nearly five miles behind us, from which we had been cut off. The jungles were steaming hot; we had been without water for hours and faced going without it all night.
This was a human need and all realised it. Each turned to God in his own way. Indeed, all men pray under circumstances like this. I stepped off the trail and sat down to pray. It was up to God and I just let it be up to Him. Soon afterwards, an artillery shell of our own, intended to blast the enemy ahead of us, fell short and hit the trail, hurting no one. Water gushed out of the hole! Our need was met. We were all grateful and praised God, one to another. We didn’t feel than any miracle had occurred; this was just natural.
As I left the front a day or so later, I found a small Bible on the trail. Having lost my own, I picked it up eagerly. The water incident had been continually in my thought since it occurred. I opened the Bible at random and my eyes fell on the 35th verse of Psalm 107, “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”
(Page 409, The Story of Christian Science Wartime Activities 1939-1946)
There was also a recent article in one of our periodicals, (but I can't find it) of some archeologists (I think - they might have been engineers) who were out in the desert somewhere, but hadn't finished their work when their water supply was almost gone. The author who was one of the team, walked away from the camp to quiet his fear and frustration and to listen for answers. As he sat praying on a rock, he noticed a tiny bit of green moss on a nearby one and scratched at it and discovered an underground stream which gushed out, just like with Moses!
Love and peace,
Judy
Thanks for those, Judy. I missed the thread when you began it, too.
One thing occurring to me in all this is that it's harder for a few spiritual people to overcome the whole downturn right now through their prayerful lives - did Jesus spiritualise the whole world and all people through his life? - but that a general downturn never has to be a personal downturn. It can even, if we understand where abundance comes from, persuade us to get closer to God.
There was that love some had for "The Secret" a while back, but it missed out God / Spirituality, the real source of All Things, and IMO what all matter is made up of anyway. IMHO, if we become more of God, through prayer say, then we are more attractive for abundance to come to (though that's never the motive).
I basically mean, anyway, that the doom and gloom is general and doesn't have to be ours personally. It probably will be if we accept its "vibration" and get too caught up in it. I've posted on the economy not out of fear, but simply to point to what might have been coming in general for the world, as it's well to be informed.
What comes out of individual spiritual ability to live an abundant life (in some sense) is that only we can do it for ourselves. Spirituality can't be shared or given out like a spiritual welfare system of Light, really. We do it ourselves. This may not be a welcome or popular message today, but economics work out of the same laws as do spiritual ones. In the end, there's just simply not enough money to go around to give to everyone all the time in a welfare state. Welfare states kinda get along so long as many aren't relying on them. But in the end it just can't be done. Someone has to have the individual drive to be earning the money or making the money, right? And that's how I feel we'll find ourselves now: getting a better connection to God-Spirit-the Divine is Step 1, as you show, to material things which are an off-shoot of that connection, because we've become part of the flow of how energy, at spiritual and material levels, actually works.
It'll be an individual adventure for some. 😮
V
Lovely post V - thanks! 🙂
To me, it's not about money, but income, the incoming realisation of Truth and Love. After all, Jesus fed 5,000 with just two loaves and five fishes (and had 12 baskets of fragments left over!)
Material things are finite, but spiritual ideas are infinite! Though you say this can only be experienced personally (and I agree, we all have to work out our own salvation - no-one else can do it for us) yet, there are spiritual ideas that can go out into the world and circulate and multiply, like love, kindness, unselfishness, generosity, ethics, principles, integrity, law, order etc. It's us all practising those qualities and spreading them that will help to change the world mind-set to a higher one.
Jesus gave us lots of pointers towards unlocking our God-given supply and abundance:
[COLOR="Purple"] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt 6)
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. (Luke 6)
I have often quoted from an inspiring Thanksgiving message for 1900 (signifying what the new century meant) that MBE gave, when I have written about praying for the weather; but don't think I've ever given the end of that bit before:
[COLOR="Blue"]...that the atmosphere of the human mind, when cleansed of self and permeated with divine Love, will reflect this purified subjective state in clearer skies, less thunderbolts, tornadoes, and extremes of heat and cold; that agriculture, manufacture, commerce, and wealth should be governed by honesty, industry, and justice, reaching out to all classes and peoples.(Miscellany p 265)
Attain a purified human world consciousness and it kills two birds with one stone - gets rid of destructive weather and put the human economy on a spiritual basis!
Love and peace,
Judy
This is the essence of what I meant, yes, and I know it is not airy-fairy words, but practical Cosmic Law which works:
[COLOR="Purple"] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt 6)
... where "kingdom" of God, means "consciousness" of God, or to seek oneness with the Divine, to become at-one with the One. For the One creates all and can manifest all. However, the motive must be not the abundance, but the true oneness. And this takes self-change and "application" i.e. actual spiritual practices which we put our heart into and give some time to.
None of us are as Godlike as we could be, let's face it, so it applies to us all.
V
Good point
Hi V,
I was just reading your two posts again - oh, it's so good to have our Venetian back again! :p
One thing occurring to me in all this is that it's harder for a few spiritual people to overcome the whole downturn right now through their prayerful lives - did Jesus spiritualise the whole world and all people through his life? -
You are so right - he only healed those who came to him, not those who stayed at home! Good point, though as I say above, we can all play a part through love in sending those ripples out.
There was that love some had for "The Secret" a while back, but it missed out God / Spirituality, the real source of All Things,
Hmm it makes me shudder when people try to use spirituality to acquire material possessions. Jesus perceived that sort of mind-set two thousand years ago when he remarked:
[COLOR="Sienna"] John 6:26 Jesus answered, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.
27 "Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last." (The Message)
Love and peace,
Judy
For the record, I do believe after all that the economy, and any healing that's occurred in it, has in fact been much aided by individual spiritual practices of people applied to this affair, as it happens. A number of people have been specifically "praying" (or whatever their actual practice is called) on the subject.
I doubt that it's only the visible, physical beings who have been overshadowing world leaders at this time, too. 🙂
V