In his book Like A Miracle, Ernest Wilson said “Prosperity is basically an attitude of thought and feeling, only secondarily a matter of money. For ideas are coin in the mind realm.”
Dollar bills and coins are the legal tender here on earth – but, when we are praying for prosperity, God doesn’t open a heavenly billfold and hand out bills and coins – no, when God is paymaster, Ideas are the Spiritual Tender of the universe. To be prosperous, we can’t discount or throw away God’s divine ideas.
There was a man who couldn’t come up with any new ideas. This man was a cartoonist, and this occurred in 1950. He had a little cartoon column in a local paper, but he wasn’t making enough money to support his wife and small son.
He sat at his drawing table and prayed “God, I know that you are the giver of all good ideas. Now I have my pencil in my hand and I know through you I can have a cartoon strip that will be successful not only here in this town but will be successful all across the country. I give myself to you. Here is my hand, here is my pencil, here is my mind, give me the idea.”
He didn’t even have the chance to open his eyes before his wife came storming into the room shouting. She said, “Your son is a menace!” He said, “You mean Dennis?” A light bulb went off in his head and he drew all day and all night long on the comic strip Dennis the Menace.
He prayed for an idea and a simple ordinary event, his son misbehaving, triggered something really big.
One of my favorite Dennis the Menace cartoons had 2 frames. In the first frame, Dennis and his family are in church singing the song In the Garden – they are singing the verse that goes “…and he walks with me, and he talks with me.” The second frame shows Dennis asking his parents and the minister who Andy is. And they obviously don’t have a clue what he’s talking about. I know that this was published years ago, but I still remember it and get a chuckle. It has brought me pleasure each time I hear the song.
In her book, Meet it with Faith, Martha Smock wrote, “Anyone who has ever prayed earnestly and sincerely for prosperity has discovered that his answer came, not as manna from heaven, but as an idea that cried out for action.”
In Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus told Peter to go fish and take the coin from the mouth of the first fish that comes up. Metaphysically, fish represent ideas in which there is great possibility of increase. It says that Jesus frequently used fish to illustrate his teachings because he was a living demonstration of ideas and that all that Jesus did was in the realm of ideas rather than in the real of effects. The miracle of the coin being in the fish’s mouth emphasizes the fact that divine substance is at hand to meet all needs. Gold in the fish’s mouth tells us that plenty exists in the most unexpected places. We should never limit supply channels by our thoughts, but we should keep our consciousness receptive to the idea of abundance so that good can manifest in any of God’s ways.
So how do we get and capitalize on these divine ideas?
For us to be prosperous in any area of our life, we must pay attention to the ideas that come to us. Then we must spend time with the that idea until it becomes a clear picture in our mind. And then we must take action to bring the idea into manifestation.
Before Unity Village existed physically, it was an idea in God Mind – and then it became an idea in the Fillmore’s minds.
Being from Louisiana, an example of a great idea that I am familiar with is Tabasco Sauce. In 1868, Edmund McIlhenny of Avery Island, La., created this wonderful condiment. He had an abundance of ripe red peppers that he needed to use. He took the ripe red peppers, mashed them up with a small amount of salt and aged them. Today, they are aged in white oak barrels for up to three years. The “mash” is then blended with vinegar and bottled. The box says that it is made and aged much like a fine wine.
Following through with his idea, has not only prospered the McIlhenny family, but Avery Island, all of the people who work for the McIlhenny Company, and the state of Louisiana. Now you can buy green Jalapeno Tabasco sauce, and you can buy ties, T-shirts and all sorts of Tabasco memorabilia. tobacco is so well known, Tabasco ties are available at the mall here in Melbourne, Fl. Two weeks ago, I saw them in the Atlanta airport. The McIlhenny Company sells so much Tabasco today, that instead of having peppers that they don’t know what to do with, they are having to import peppers because they can’t grow enough peppers, fast enough.
Not only has this been a good idea as Tabasco sauce, if you visit the hot sauce section of Albertsons or Winn Dixie or Publix or on Amazon you will find that others have modified this idea and today there are many varieties of Louisiana hot sauce. And each one appeals to someone’s taste. Many people and companies are benefiting from this one idea.
One of my favorite lines from Eric Butterworth’s book Spiritual Economics is “You are never further than one idea away from all the wealth in the Universe.”
Norman Vincent Peale was approached by a young man who wanted to start his own business but lamented that he had no money.
Peale reportedly responded to him, “empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty head and empty hearts can do that.” Ideas that influence our lives spring from people who are not concerned with what they lack, but people who focus their attention and persistence on making their idea a success.
If we get an idea or an inner urge, we need to pay attention. Like going to a meeting or speaking to someone you don’t know.
At one Thursday noon prayer service, a parent came and shared a concern about their child’s health with a friend. And someone who was at the noon prayer service for the first time shared their story about a similar health challenge and a new book and diet that had relieved their symptoms. I believe that God wanted the parent to know about this book and this treatment and that God arranged them to meet. Both parties responded to the urge or idea to be at that prayer service.
Whatever our prosperity need is, be it for money, or love, or happiness, or health, God will prompt us with ideas. It is our job to be open and receptive to letting God’s perfect idea express through us.
This week’s ever lasting truth is that the Spiritual Tender of the Universe is Ideas. And the next idea we get, might be the next Tabasco Sauce or it might be the urge to say hello to someone who connects us with our next job or someone who is destined to be our best friend. But we have to take action
I have a very small book available on Amazon: 30 Simple Ways To Change Your Life: Manifest your Purpose and Dreams. It is filled with ways for you to make small changes in your life. If you have Kindle Unlimited you can read for free. If you read it and find it helpful, please leave a favorable review on Amazon.