Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for July 1, 2007
The Pioneering Millionaire, Abraham
I would like to continue, today, with my series on the millionaires of the Bible. If you really look at the well known mystics in the Bible, you will find that they prospered, abundantly. Through faith in God and in their God-given talents, abundance was magnetized to them through the Law of Attraction.
Catherine Ponder tells of a lecture she did on Abraham in her book The Millionaires of Genesis. She said that when she first mentioned that Abraham was a millionaire, a Texan in the audience asked, "If Abraham was a millionaire, how man oil wells did he have?"
She told him that she didn't know, but she would find out. When she checked in the Book of Genesis she couldn't find a single oil well for him. So she restudied the book very carefully where it described his wealth. She was relieved to find a verse that said, (Genesis 13:2) "Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold."
So she told the skeptical Texan that Abraham had been a rich cattleman. He was so impressed that he decided Abraham was not only a millionaire but a "Texas millionaire." He said that Abraham's cattle had probably been "Longhorn steers" just like the ones found in the Lone Star State.
ABRAHAM'S MILLIONAIRE BACKGROUND
The 12th chapter of Genesis, begins by describing the life of Abraham and his tremendous wealth. At that time in his life he was known as Abram. We all know Abraham as the Father of the Hebrew people and as a great spiritual leader. But, the Bible also describes him as a man of vast wealth.
His background gave him both a material and a spiritual understanding of prosperity and how to manifest it in his world. Abraham began his life in the Babylonian City of Ur.
The Babylonians were an advanced and prosperous people. Babylon's citizens became the richest of their era through their ingenious techniques in agriculture, commerce, and finance. It was the Babylonians who first developed and practiced sound financial principles. They had insurance, savings, home ownership, investments, and practiced systematic tithing.
Abraham spent his first 75 years in this prosperous, advanced civilization. He picked up their business practices which led to vast wealth. He absorbed the millionaire consciousness of the Babylonians and it gave him a material understanding of wealth and all that it could do to make life easier.
ABRAHAM STUDIED AT A PROSPERITY ACADEMY
According to ancient lore, during the first period of his life, Abraham also studied in the academy of Melchizedek. Legend says that Melchizedek was a mystical millionaire who taught the mental and spiritual laws of prosperity in his academy.
Abraham learned this teaching and used it throughout his life. This secret instruction gave him a mental and spiritual understanding of prosperity and how to manifest it lavishly.
ABRAHAM WAS AN ARISTOCRAT
In reading the Bible, you may have thought of some of the people of Genesis as native tribesmen, wandering around in the dusty, sandy desert. But historians have described Abraham as a learned man and prophet of God. He belonged to a wealthy Babylonian family. They describe him as having a "princely nature," as being a true gentleman of "pioneer aristocracy."
A "pioneer" is one who goes before, preparing the way for others to follow. That's what Abraham did.
Abraham had gained an understanding of the nature of substance and how to manifest it as vast wealth through his thoughts, words, and acts. He had learned that everything has its root in substance - that substance is the basis of all wealth.
THE UPLIFTED STATE OF MIND PROSPERS
The name "Abraham" in Hebrew means "Father of Height" or "Father of Exaltation." It is the heightened, uplifted, exalted state of mind that is the prospering state of mind. There is absolutely no prospering power, healing power, peace or harmony in a depressed state of mind. Negative, depressed thinking scares the wealth of the universe away from you rather than attracting it to you.
Through the actions of his life, Abraham reveals the secret for developing an uplifted state of mind in which you are able to manifest abundance.
Abraham has been described as "the man of faith." Here is his first prosperity secret: The ancient people knew that faith moves on substance. The events of Abraham's life show you how your simple acts of faith can move on the lavish substance of the universe, and manifest it as increased abundance in your world. Indeed, a review of his life reveals a fascinating study of his use of "the dynamic laws of prosperity" - which are available to you, too.
HOW TO GO FROM COMPETITIVE TO CREATIVE PROSPERITY
Abraham's first act of faith was to follow the Lord's command to get out of the country he had occupied for 75 years. God said to Abraham, (Genesis 12:1-2) "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
His leaving Babylon symbolizes our departure from a material and competitive consciousness of prosperity, and our growth into a creative level of supply through the use of our minds. Many people who are striving to be successful are still in a physical, sweat-of-the-brow, hard-work consciousness. They wrongly believe that they must compete for the wealth that is already visible in the world around them, the wealth that belongs to someone else.
Abraham's journey into the Land of Canaan symbolizes the development of a creative consciousness of prosperity that does just the opposite. It does not compete for wealth already visible. It dares to create its own new wealth from the invisible substance of the universe through prosperous thoughts, words, and actions. The Land of Canaan symbolizes that rich realm of substance.
Most of us are in the process of growing out of a competitive, hard-work consciousness of prosperity into the creative level of prosperity where we first create our prosperity in our thoughts. In this process, we grow into an understanding of the "realm of substance" in order to get into the Land of Canaan. We learn to mold that rich realm of substance with our prosperous thoughts, words, and acts.
This Land of Canaan that was given to Abraham's heirs by God for "an everlasting possession" is a gift to every one of us! This realm of substance is also your "everlasting possession" which you can claim as you deliberately employ prosperous thoughts, words, and actions.
Catherine Ponder tells of a schoolteacher who learned that she could go from a competitive, hard-work level of prosperity to a creative level. She learned from Abraham that her acts of faith would affect substance and draw far greater prosperity to her than ever before.
She began with the affirmation, "I am now shown new ways of living and new methods of work. I am not confined to the ways and methods of the past."
At first nothing happened. But, as she persisted in affirming these words every day, her work load became lighter, and her working conditions more pleasant. When she continued reminding herself that she did not have to compete for her prosperity, ideas began to come to her and she wrote them as articles, which she later sold.
This encouraged her to begin writing more of her ideas in books. Within two years, she had prospered to the extent that she was able to retire early from her teaching job. Her statement worked! She was shown new ways of living and new methods of work. She is no longer confined to the competitive ways and hard-work methods of the past - and she is far more prosperous.
So say with me, "I am now shown new ways of living and new methods of work. I am not confined to the ways and methods of the past."
HOW TO GET OUT OF STRESS & STRAIN
The person in a material and competitive consciousness of prosperity would not have dared to do what Abraham did - leave the old country, especially such an affluent one. The person who is in a competitive state of mind depends on people and conditions for his prosperity. He panics if the people and conditions connected with his prosperity fade out or change. He may try to hang on to them or he may try to force his good in other ways.
Such a person is in a constant uproar over world conditions and economic trends because he feels they control his destiny and that he is subject to them. He feels he is their hopeless, helpless victim. He blames forces outside himself - people and conditions - for all his financial problems of the past or present. His life is a vicious circle of financial uncertainty and strain.
In getting out of the old country, Abraham was trying to show us that we must release such limited ideas about the Source of our supply. We must recognize that God - not man - is the true Source of all our good.
There was a chiropractor who said that learning that God is the Source of his supply turned his life from failure to success. It freed him from depending on his patients, or from blaming economic conditions when things did not go right.
After he realized the true Source of his wealth, he was able to build a new $100,000 clinic within eight months. His daily prosperity statement was, "I do not depend on persons or conditions for my prosperity. God is the Source of my supply, and God provides his own amazing channels of prosperity to me now." As he continued to affirm God as the Source of his prosperity, people and conditions adjusted to his prosperity consciousness.
So, say with me now, "I do not depend on persons or conditions for my prosperity. God is the Source of my supply, and God provides his own amazing channels of prosperity to me now."
VAST BENEFITS OF THE CREATIVE LEVEL OF PROSPERITY
On the creative level of prosperity, you work for the joy of it and prosperity flows to you and through you in streams of plenty. Instead of working to make a living, you are busy making a life - which includes so much more.
Going from the competitive to the creative level of prosperity does not mean that you talk down the money idea. Instead you could embody the idea that money is Divine Substance dressed up in green pants.
On the creative level of supply, it has been established that prosperity may be the result of 98% mental preparation, and 2% outer action. On the competitive, hard-work level, it is reversed. We often spin our wheels with too little mental preparation and too much outward action.
WHY YOU SHOULD FORM A VACUUM
Like the pioneering millionaire, Abraham, you can get out of the old country by forming a vacuum. You must learn to let go, give up, make room for the things you want and desire. You should always want something better than you now have. That is the urge of progress. It shows development and growth.
You outgrow your previous ideals and ambitions, just like children outgrow their clothes. You broaden your horizons of life as you expand inwardly and advance outwardly. There must be a constant elimination of the old to keep pace with your new growth. If you cling to the old, you hinder your advance, or stop it altogether. This applies to your tangible possessions as well as to your intangible ideals.
You can unblock and un-dam your good by forming a vacuum. Countless people have done so with amazing results. It is a delightful act of faith that inevitably brings results.
A young couple heard about the prospering power of forming a vacuum at an Iowa prosperity seminar that Catherine Ponder did. The wife had always been a "pack rat" and had kept their home filled with many items they no longer used. She decided to form a vacuum by having a "garage sale" at which she sold hundreds of dollars' worth of unused items. This was their first prosperity demonstration.
As they continued to clean up and clean out, the husband was offered the finest job of his life in Denver. A few months later, he and his wife attended Ponder's Denver seminar and gave a "prosperity testimonial" explaining how the vacuum law of prosperity had quickly worked for them.
WHY SOME ARE NEVER PERMANENTLY PROSPERED
You can also get out of old states of mind and circumstances (symbolized by the old country that Abraham left) by forming a vacuum in an inner way, through the practice of forgiveness.
Many people are never permanently prospered, no matter what else they do, because they are holding grudges and negative feelings toward other people. Until they get down to business and forgive, their prosperity does not come because they have not made room for it, mentally or emotionally.
The word "forgive" means "to give up." Forgiveness is not an unpleasant, dramatic, outer act in which you say, "I am sorry," when you are not. Instead, forgiveness is a pleasant inner act which leaves you at peace with yourself and others.
It is wise to give yourself a universal forgiveness treatment every day. This keeps your mind and emotions cleared of negative feelings that can block your good. You might affirm daily, "All that has offended me, I forgive. Within and without, I forgive. Things past, things present, things future, I forgive. I forgive everything and everybody who can possibly need forgiveness of the past or present. I forgive positively everyone. They are free now, and I am free, too. All things are cleared up between us now and forever."
When you hold resentment toward someone or some condition of the past or present, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. This blocks your prosperity, and keeps you tied to the very person or condition you are trying to get free of. The practice of forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that unhappy link and to go free to a better life.
A woman in New York began to practice forgiveness daily. So many names and situations of the past and present began to float up in her memory that she made a "forgiveness list," placing each name and situation remembered on it. Daily she spoke words of forgiveness for all the people and situations on her list, "I fully and freely forgive you. I loose you and let you go. You fully and freely forgive me. You loose me and let me go. All things are cleared up between us now and forever."
She was very honest. She said it took her a year to forgive some of the names and situations appearing on her list. But it proved to be the most fabulous year of her life! First, a great sense of peace enveloped her and released her from past unhappiness and judgments. Second, she was healed of a supposedly "incurable" health condition. Finally, one of the people she had just spent a year forgiving made her a gift of a quarter of a million dollars!
You can make a "forgiveness list" and begin to practice forgiveness daily in the full assurance that forgiveness heals, forgiveness prospers.
Say this affirmation with me now, "I fully and freely forgive you. I loose you and let you go. You fully and freely forgive me. You loose me and let me go. All things are cleared up between us now and forever."
WHEN YOU ARE READY FOR THIS SUCCESS TECHNIQUE NOTHING ELSE WILL WORK
Abraham knew that all loosing is not simply the loosing of so-called evil. And this is what he did when he left posh, elegant Babylon with all of its obvious wealth, and boldly went off to that barren land of Canaan.
You must loose forms of good as well when your progress or that of others demands it. Your good is seldom static. It is progressive. It changes and evolves. You must change and evolve with it. In the Land of Canaan, Abraham became rich.
But he had something to learn first. When he arrived in the Land of Canaan, it looked so barren that he left it and decided to try his luck in fertile, prosperous Egypt. Judging from appearances, Abraham had made a wise decision. But he got into trouble in Egypt, and was soon forced to leave and return to the Land of Canaan.
This may happen to you, too, as you begin to develop your millionaire consciousness. Egypt appeared to be a rich land of opportunity, but it symbolizes a material consciousness of prosperity. Abraham only got into trouble in Egypt because he was ready for something more than mere rich appearances of wealth. He was ready to develop an inner understanding of supply - a mental and spiritual one.
Abraham was forced to return to the Land of Canaan which means "realm of substance" - and in that apparently barren place to gain an understanding of divine substance, and how to manifest it through the action of the mind. As he practiced this prosperity method, he gained vast wealth.
Like Abraham, even after you have learned the deeper mental and spiritual laws of prosperity (such as he had allegedly learned at the academy of Melchizedek in Babylon), you may first attempt to return to old methods of demonstrating prosperity. If so, like Abraham in Egypt, you will quickly discover that they no longer work for you because you are ready to learn how to take hold of invisible substance, even though it looks barren and inadequate to you. You are ready to begin the practice of manifesting that invisible substance as visible results in your life.
Once you learn this inner method, you will never again depend on the outer competitive methods of supply. Gaining an inner hold on substance and learning how to manifest it as visible supply are fascinating, soul-satisfying processes which give you "cosmic security." You will never fear lack again. Abraham proved this when he returned to the Land of Canaan and settled down there. So can you, as you use his methods
You can get busy helping your dreams come true by declaring daily, "I have faith in God. I have faith in people. I have faith in things." This is how Abraham became a millionaire.
SCRIPTURE: Galatians 6:7; Philippians 4:8- Hebrews 11:20-21; John 4:13-14; Proverbs 22:6; Galatians 6:9
REFERENCE: The Millionaires of Genesis by Catherine Ponder
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Last updated
July 2, 2007
