Lessons

“THE KEYS TO ABUNDANT LIVING”

Rev. Nancy Worth

“What do you want your life to be?” It doesn’t have to be just a dream for some day in the future. If you can believe it and see it – you can create it and achieve it NOW! Your life can be what you want it to be. You already possess “The Keys to Abundant Living!”

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, wrote in his book Prosperity: “What we need to realize above all else is that God has provided for the most minute needs of our daily life and that if we lack anything it is because we have not used our mind in making the right contact with the Supermind and the cosmic ray that automatically flows from it.”

We have not plugged into God. Do you need love? More money? Greater health? More energy and vitality? If you answered “Yes” to any of these things, you have not yet tapped into the unlimited potential right within yourself. We don’t need any-THING. We only need a greater “awareness” of God within us as our Source of all Supply.

So often we keep ourselves in lack by our own small thinking and negative beliefs: “I’m not good enough.” “I don’t deserve this.” “I can’t do that.” “I’ll never be able to have this” and on and on.

But Jesus taught us how to think correctly. He said: “Seek first the kingdom” (Matthew 6:33). Seek first God, the one Presence and one Power of the Universe – the realm of Divine Ideas – the everywhere present SUBSTANCE – and LIFE – that has unlimited potential and that is the Source of everything that appears in the visible world.

Seek first GOD! And then Jesus said: “ALL [that you need] will be yours as well.” God has already given us ALL that we need. We just have to “wake up” to it and claim it!

We think prosperity is having a lot of money. All we have to do is get more money – more things – and we’d be happy. But we all know people who appear – in the outer at least – to “have it all.” Yet on the inside there is an emptiness – a hunger – a longing for “something more.”

The verb “to prosper” means: “To become strong; to flourish; to thrive; to enjoy vigorous growth.” It doesn’t say anything about money!

Prosperity is ours by “right of consciousness.” Not just “if” we have the right job – right income – right house – right car, but “if” we have the right consciousness! “If” we have the right understanding of where our supply comes from!

So our job is to make contact with this inexhaustible Source of Supply. And how do we do that? I’ve identified FOUR KEYS to ABUNDANT LIVING.

The first key is: GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF SUPPLY. Not your job or your employer or your spouse or partner or your bank account. GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF SUPPLY. Turn to God first – not when all else fails! “Seek first this kingdom.” God gives us IDEAS – not money or things. One of my teachers in ministerial school once said: “God doesn’t have what we want . . .God IS what we want!”

We have this erroneous idea that “supply” is something that comes “to” us. A great deal of time is wasted in praying to God to give “it” to us. What our prayer should be is for a deeper realization of our oneness with God. For when we experience the awareness of God’s Presence as our unlimited Source of Supply then we are living abundantly! GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF MY SUPPLY!

Our second key to abundant living is: WE ARE CO-CREATORS WITH GOD. We’ve got it turned upside down. We think we have to pray for money – for cars – for “things.” But everything begins first as an idea. This podium was first an idea – this church building was first an idea in mind, in the invisible.

We pray for IDEAS, not things! Things are not permanent – they come and they go. But the idea behind the “thing” is permanent.

To an orange grower, oranges are not supply. Because when the oranges are picked the “supply” is still there. Supply is operating within the tree and will appear the next season as a “new” crop of oranges. Just because you can’t “see” the oranges, doesn’t mean they’re not there!

You may lose your job or your wealth, but you will never lose your ability to earn more. You may be fired from your job, but you can never be “fired” from the Universe!

Charles Fillmore said it so clearly: First is MIND – Infinite Supply. . . From which flow Divine Ideas – mind expresses itself in IDEAS – inspiration which flows to us from within our own being. . . And then ideas make themselves MANIFEST – through our realization of our oneness with God – our Source of Supply – we bring forth these ideas into manifestation.

In Unity this is called the “Metaphysical Trinity” – MIND, IDEA, EXPRESSION. We refer to this “Trinity of God” as the Creative Process – how we bring things forth from the invisible to the visible.

Charles Fillmore writes in Prosperity: “We mold omnipresent substance with our mind and make from it things that our mind can see. If we conceive lack and poverty, we mold that. If we visualize with a bountiful eye, we mold plenty from the ever-present substance. . .The infinite substance that Infinite Mind has given to you is all about you now, but you must lay hold of it.”

Jesus was so at-one with God, so charged with spiritual supply. He so clearly knew God as His Source of Supply that he could multiply the loaves and fishes, heal people, calm the winds and seas, raise people from the dead. We call these “miracles,” but what it is, is being in alignment with the “Spiritual Principle of Supply” and then co-creating with God the world around you. I CO-CREATE MY WORLD WITH GOD!

Our third key for abundant living: lies in the spiritual law of GIVING AND RECEIVING. When we understand God as our Source of Supply – and we become co-creators with God, then we begin to manifest things from the invisible to the visible. But then we somehow begin to believe this “stuff” is OURS – that we “own it.” But the truth is that we are only “managers” of what we create – not the owners!

And the better managers we are, the more we’ll be given. Isn’t that the way it is? If you do a good job, then you’re given a promotion with more responsibility and most likely a raise. But if you aren’t doing a good job, everything you have is taken away from you. It’s all about consciousness!

There is this great Universal Law of Giving and Receiving. The law says: we don’t get anything by “chance” or “for nothing.” Things come to us by right of consciousness. We have to “do” the work. And we don’t receive unless we first GIVE – that’s the law!

One way to really understand this principle of Giving and Receiving is to look at where your money is going. Money is a very tangible form of God energy. It’s “Green God Energy.” You can “see” it and “touch” it!

Joseph Campbell said: “Money is congealed energy and releasing it releases life possibilities.”

So, are you moving your money? Are you giving your money to where you receive your spiritual food and inspiration – to God’s work? Are you TITHING – which means giving 10% of ALL that you receive to where you get spiritually fed?

Or is your money going to pay doctor bills – car repair bills – house repairs? The Universe WILL get its 10%. Figure out what you’re spending on “fixing” things and see if it isn’t 10% or more!

The question is: will you give it consciously to God’s work? It ALL belongs to God. Our challenge is to use it wisely while it passes briefly through our hands.

Many of the world’s millionaires attribute their wealth to tithing: The Rockefellers, the Heinz people, the Quaker Oats folks, the Kraft folks. And more recently Bill & Melinda Gates – Warren Buffet. They can’t give their money away fast enough! Tithing Works!

If 10% is too scary at first, pick a smaller percent – 2% or 5%. Begin somewhere! Give a percentage – give consistently. Grow into it. Write your tithe check first whenever you receive any money: paycheck – gifts – bonuses – unexpected income. Put your money where your FAITH is! When you tithe you’re acknowledging God as your Source! If you’re not tithing you’re acknowledging “fear” as your Source!

Remember: The Law of Giving & Receiving is NOT an option. It’s a Spiritual Law. And the sooner you begin to understand it – and work with it – the more you’ll be living abundantly!

And to help you experience this “law” I’d like to invite you to experiment with the “Unexpected Income” Program. . .I love to do this program during the summer – it’s fun and exciting! [You can copy of the Unexpected Income brochure on this website.]

Our final key to abundant living is: AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE. Give thanks for every evidence of financial improvement or prosperity in any area of your life. Give thanks even before you see any evidence of it appearing in physical form. Meister Eckhardt once said that the best prayer you could ever say is a very simple one: Thank You. THANK YOU GOD!!

So the four keys to Abundant Living are:

1)      God is the only source of supply.

2)      We are co-creators with God.

3)      We get into the flow of abundant living by Giving and Receiving.

4)      Our life is blessed by an “attitude of gratitude.”

Abundant living is based on your ability to realize your oneness with God and to live out of that oneness.

Marianne Williamson wrote: “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. . . [You] were born to manifest the glory of God that is within you!”

The Source of ALL supply is within you. You don’t have to “go” anywhere to find “it.” You just have to have faith in God as your instant, constant and abundant supply!

There is more than enough! Step into Abundant Living today!

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Father’s Day

“THE DIVINE MASCULINE”

Rev. Nancy Worth

Sunday, June 20, 2010

On Mother’s Day we honor mothers and the “Divine Feminine.” The Divine Feminine is the principle found within each one of us regardless of the body type we’re expressing at this time. On Father’s Day we honor fathers and we balance it out with honoring “The Divine Masculine,” which is that aspect of God that resides in every man and in every woman. There’s a mothering and a fathering that goes on within all of us – all the time.

The feminine and the masculine – the female and the male – are two entirely different things. The female and the male are people of a specific gender, while the “feminine” and the “masculine” are aspects of God that reside in all of us – male and female alike. They are principles of our being found within us regardless of our gender. This is basic Unity metaphysics.

The “feminine aspect” of our being “metaphysically” is generally characterized by the nurturing, caring, compassionate, creative, intuitive, feeling part of us. The “masculine” characteristics “metaphysically” are assertiveness, willingness to take risks, strength, decision making, the ability to analyze, rationalize, and evaluate – it’s the intellect. And what we want to do is to bring these two “aspects” of our being into balance!

Our society tells us we have to “choose” one or the other because we are male or female. That we have to express either the masculine or the feminine. But that’s not true. What we want is a balance of the masculine and feminine.

And guys. . .it’s okay to feel. It’s okay to have emotions. It’s okay to be compassionate – to be nurturing and loving. It’s okay to cry. That’s the “feminine” aspect of your being coming forth. It’s not weakness!

In Unity we don’t believe God is either male or female. God is not an “old man” sitting on a throne somewhere in the sky. In Unity we believe God is a universal energy, a vibration of love, a presence that is All-Good, All-Loving, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Everywhere Present without form or limits.

In Genesis it tells us: “God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature. . .God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them . . .male and female” (Genesis 1:26-27, The Message Bible­).

We were created in God’s image male and female, not OR – with the perfect balance of the masculine and the feminine. And the important thing for us in being “whole” and “fully functioning” human beings is to strive for this balance. To recognize that within us there is a masculine and a feminine principle – and both can work for us, not against us!

And there’s a wonderful, joyful acceptance of life when we learn how to take the feminine and the masculine within us and lift them through Spirit to become the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. The “feminine” when we lift it up and give it fully over to Spirit – to Love – it becomes the Divine Feminine. It’s a greater feeling of love and peace, a heightened intuition – that “gut feeling.”

When we lift the “masculine” aspect of ourselves up – giving it over to Spirit, the Divine Masculine becomes the Wisdom in us that says: “I know what to do, and I do it. I make the right and perfect decision.” The Divine Masculine within you guides you to make wise choices. And when lifted up to Spirit, the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine work together in a “Divine Synchronization” that makes our whole life work beautifully!

To make it even simpler, we can look at the Divine Masculine as WISDOM and the Divine Feminine as LOVE. And we can see this balance in all of the Spiritual Masters of the world: In the love of the Christ; in the compassion of the Buddha; and in the wisdom of Lao Tzu. They all had this incredible “balance” of LOVE and WISDOM.

In Scripture it says that Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus. And yet he could be strong enough to overturn the tables in the temple and tell the money changers they were making God’s house a den of thieves! And his “intuition” was amazing. He could see into the minds and the hearts of people; what they were thinking and what they were feeling.

Jesus intuitively knew what to say and do; how to approach every situation; how to bring out the best in people. And at the same time, the “masculine” aspect of his being was so in-sync with Spirit that he said words that had such impact, and power, that people’s lives were changed forever!

So how do we live from that “perfect” balance of the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine? From that perfect balance of LOVE and WISDOM? We do this by filtering every word, every thought, every action, and every reaction through a “consciousness” of LOVE and WISDOM. Asking ourselves: “Is this a loving thing to think or say? Is this a wise thing to do? Will this reaction bring peace or push us further apart?”

When LOVE and WISDOM work as a “team” – “in unison” – we come across as powerful, intelligent, wise, loving, compassionate, and balanced. When the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine within us work as a “team,” the peace, the love, and the light of God will shine forth more radiantly from within us. We will recognize ourselves for who we truly are – the Light of the world – and we’ll “act” the part!

There will be magic in the power of our words because they will be enfolded in the LOVE and WISDOM of God. And it’s in this “perfect balance” that the space for healing is created. Our words and feelings are brought into alignment. We know what to do – and we do it – because the LOVE and WISDOM of God is guiding us!

To the Father in us all, Happy Father’s Day!