Teach Us to Pray, by Charles Fillmore, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
MAN MUST build a perfect soul structure with faculties capable of always producing abundantly for both his spiritual and his material welfare.
In order to accomplish this man must become familiar with what the metaphysician terms omnipresent Spirit substance, which is visible only to mind and the nature of which is to sustain and enrich whatever idea is projected into it.
This Spirit substance stands back of and gives support to man's every thought and word. It is ready to provide food for all living creatures everywhere.
Today man is learning consciously to make union with this invisible spiritual thought stuff and appropriate and manifest it. Our supply and support is governed by our familiarity with substance and by our mental hold upon it.
Spiritual substance is the source of all material wealth and cannot suffer loss or destruction by human thought. It is always with us, ready to be used and to make potent and fertile both the soul and the body consciousness. In this connection Jesus said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not."
Just as God has been from the beginning so Spirit substance has been from the beginning. This substance is in fact the Mother side of God, the feminine element in God's nature. It is the universal medium in which we plant all ideas of supply and support.
Just as the earth is the universal matrix in which all vegetation develops so this invisible Spirit substance is the universal matrix in which ideas of prosperity germinate and grow and bring forth according to our faith and trust. The "dust of the ground" spoken of in Genesis represents the radiant substance, the fruit of the initial thought in the expression of the substance idea. Under the influence of man's mind radiant Spirit substance continues to be manifested in form and shape. For example, the sunshine is incorporated in the products of the vegetable world; these being appropriated by man through mastication, digestion, and assimilation, it becomes part of his body. Light and electricity are forms of radiant substance.
Someone has said,
In this same way the Mother side of God may be said to cradle our good, nurturing it into manifestation and producing the influences that hover over and enrich our life. We should always bear in mind that if we are to demonstrate we must pay strict attention to the conservation of the spiritual
thought stuff. If we are to go forward spiritually, we must not waste our thought stuff in idle thoughts, in thinking thoughts of poverty, discontent, jealousy. We should positively weed out of consciousness all thoughts of poverty and failure, and in thinking or speaking of our affairs we should use the very highest and best language at our command.
Whatever the seed word is that is implanted in omnipresent Spirit substance, this seed word will germinate and grow and bring forth fruit "after its kind." Just as the farmer therefore selects the very best seed corn for planting, so we must choose the words that will bring forth the rich harvest of plenty.
We should bear in mind that God is our silent partner and that His wisdom and strength, His energy and skill are ours to use. We should realize that in every soul there is undoubtedly present (as a result of former effort) a great reservoir of radiant Spirit substance, which is ready and eager to be tapped and freed so that it can supply our every need.
To gain control of Spirit substance we grasp it with our mind; that is, lay hold of the idea back of it. Right thinking is necessary in using the mind constructively to bring about right results.
The Father-Mother God has provided abundantly for all. In truth, when a babe is born into the world it brings with it faculties that, once set to work consciously functioning in the omnipresent etheric substance, open up channels through which unfailing supply and support come to this one. The divine-life idea in the awakened soul is implanted in divine
substance and brings forth a new being, the Son of God.
The realization of the following prayer will awaken man to the consciousness of his divine supply and support:
Sometimes in demonstrating prosperity God's mill seemingly grinds slow. The reason is, first, that man's consciousness is functioning in such a thick envelope of materiality that it is hard to get action. And secondly, man has not yet unfolded the working power of the word.
To overcome this condition man must enter the silence and realize a prayer like this:
Then it is well to clinch the matter with this realization:
God made us, and there is a vital connection between
us and God. Keeping this truth in mind makes demonstration easy and enjoyable.