Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for August 12, 2007
The Peaceful Millionaire, Isaac (part 2)
This week, in our millionaire series, we are going to talk about part two of The Peaceful Millionaire, Isaac. From Isaac you learn how to increase your income a hundredfold in just one year! Last week we talked about the first two wells that Isaac dug which the Philistines then took away from him.
ISAAC'S THIRD WELL OF ABUNDANCE
After Isaac left the Valley of Gerar, his herdsmen dug a third well, which he named "Rehoboth." It meant "a broad place, enlargement, greater expression, expansion of thought." The Philistines did not try to take this well. Instead when they appeared, they wanted to make peace with Isaac!
You may have this same experience as you expand your prosperity consciousness: When you are digging inwardly and outwardly for your good, perhaps you will get results. But the Philistines of limitation may appear in some form and demand the good you have realized. Like Isaac, you can know that you still have more wells to dig!
You should continue to dig deeper in consciousness because you are not yet in your true place - that big place in your growth where your full-blown good awaits you. Like Isaac, if you refuse to fight back - if you refuse to say, "My good has been taken from me" or "My good has been withheld from me" - then you will expand into that place which Isaac called "Rehoboth." It will be your place of enlargement, and of greater expression.
When you have expanded sufficiently in consciousness to a broad place, there will be no negative experiences to try to claim your good. After this third well named "Rehoboth" was dug, Isaac said, (Genesis 26:22) "Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." It is in such a broad place in consciousness that you demonstrate vast benefits as never before!
HOW ISAAC "SEALED" HIS GOOD & MADE IT PERMANENT
Isaac was so grateful that they were able to keep this third well that he built an altar to God and gave "thank offerings"
People sometimes neglect to give thanks for so long that things get very bad for them. Most of us have had hard experiences because we neglected to be thankful. Giving thanks in Biblical times was not done through mere lip service. It always took definite financial form.
Before embarking on a journey, going into battle, or facing any challenging experience, the Hebrews gave "faith offerings" to their priests or place of worship in the faith that their mission would be successful.
After returning from any challenging experience, they went directly to the priest or temple - or set up an altar of worship - and gave "thank offerings" in appreciation for the blessings they had received, and in order to "seal" their blessings and make them permanent.
This is what Isaac did: He built an altar and gave "thank offerings," not only in appreciation for being able to keep this third well, but also to "seal" this blessing and make that third well a permanent one in his possession. God promised to bless Isaac in return for his offerings.
A person from California wrote to Catherine Ponder and said: "I realized recently I had not 'sealed' our latest good fortune with a 'thank offering.' So here is a tithe from the sale of our house. It sold within a week from the time we placed it on the market, and at the price we had asked! 'Sealing' one's good with 'thank offerings' is a part of the process that assures successful results, then makes them permanent, I have discovered."
THE HARMONIZING POWER OF NONRESISTANCE
After Isaac's herdsmen discovered this well, the Philistines appeared for a different reason: They wanted to make peace with Isaac. As they approached, Isaac asked them, (Genesis 26:27) "Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?" They replied, (Genesis 26:28-29) "We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. Let us make a covenant with you so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord."
Isaac might have argued the point with them when they claimed they had not hurt him; that they had done nothing but good to him, even though they had taken his wells from him, and had pushed him out of their land. They had also demanded reconciliation with him. But Isaac seemed pleased that these troublesome Philistines wanted peace at last. He prepared a feast for them and asked them to remain overnight as his guests. The next morning they departed in peace.
In the East overnight hospitality is given only to those people who are regarded as lifetime friends. Isaac's generosity indicated complete reconciliation with the Philistines.
ISAAC'S FOURTH WELL OF ABUNDANCE
From Isaac's experiences we observe why you can afford to be nonresistant, even to the most demanding "Philistines" that may appear in your life. When you are, your good overflows. As soon as the Philistines departed in peace, Isaac's servants rushed in to say they had just dug another well and had found water! Isaac victoriously named this place "Beersheba" which meant "well of fulfillment."
After you have been tested and have reacted with nonresistance, then comes fulfillment. If you have been seeking fulfillment and it has not come, don't give up hope. It is because you are still on your way into that bigger place in consciousness. When you are nonresistant and divinely indifferent to the Philistines - when you don't make a fuss about what they seem to take from you for a time - they have no permanent power over you. They finally depart in peace and you demonstrate your "well of fulfillment."
THE PROSPERING POWER OF AGREEMENT
You may have regarded nonresistance as an indifferent yielding to whatever occurred. You may have considered it a teaching fit only for the unfit, or as a practice suited only to those who are incapable of self-defense. Most people have.
However, nonresistance is stronger than resistance. Its practice requires far more mind power than is required for just fighting back. You resist what you oppose, criticize, or resent. Resistance centers on detail. Nonresistance accepts the generalization. When you resist a difficulty, you antagonize it and it fights back.
You probably know people who are constantly upset over details. They "can't see the forest for the trees." Such people either die young or suffer from ill health, emotional stress, or financial problems caused by their own fretful attitudes.
How can you refrain from criticism and resentment to a situation that is not being handled right? If you will agree where you can agree and refrain from dwelling on points that you cannot accept, you will keep in harmony with your inner self and with the universe. Always there is ground for agreement. Agree or withdraw in peace.
This is the prosperity lesson you learn from the peaceful millionaire, Isaac. He did not become upset by apparent injustices. He did not fight for his rights. He withdrew in peace and dug deeper wells in consciousness. Isaac went deeper within his own being each time to meet the challenges presented him by the hostile Philistines. As he looked for grounds for agreement and refused to fight back, it's little wonder that his income increased a hundredfold in just one year! Isaac knew that no one could take his good from him, and that which was his by Divine Right would come to him under "divine timing."
HOW BUSINESSWOMAN PROSPERED THROUGH USING THE POWER OF AGREEMENT
A businesswoman found herself exposed in business to a man who always talked about poverty and financial limitation. This made her feel poor and her business was affected.
In order to demonstrate increased supply, she knew she must feel prosperous because a feeling of opulence precedes opulent results.
She had disliked the businessman who made her feel poor. She had blamed her dwindling business on him. Then she reversed her thinking. She began to bless this man. Every time she thought of him she would say to herself, "This man is in my life for my good and for my prosperity."
Through this same man, she soon met a client for whom she performed a business service. In return the client paid her several thousand dollars. The troublesome man soon moved to a distant city, and faded out of her life harmoniously.
This businesswoman proved that when you agree with the good in a situation - whether you can see the good there or not - and when you consider likenesses instead of differences, then your life becomes frictionless and your growth is unaccompanied by pain. For this purpose declare often, "Through nonresistance, my life becomes frictionless and my growth is unaccompanied by pain."
Let's say that together, "Through nonresistance, my life becomes frictionless and my growth is unaccompanied by pain."
HOW BUSINESSMAN PROSPERED THROUGH AGREEMENT
A businessman often said, "I baptize every event in my life with the same name. If I have a failure, I call it a success, and eventually it proves to be a success."
Isaac proved this. As he kept moving on non-resistantly, he expanded into his own true place of fulfillment. But each experience that had seemed to be a failure had actually been an experience in success, because it had pushed him on to a bigger place that became one of fulfillment.
Go back in your thinking to those experiences in which you thought you failed. Rename them a success. They were because they prodded you on to a greater good.
Jesus said, (Matthew 5:25) "Come to terms quickly with your accuser." When you agree with an adverse situation of the past or present, and are undisturbed by it, it has no power to hurt you and it fades out.
Baptize that situation as "good." Pronounce it good regardless of what it appears to be. Find some point of agreement with it. You will be victorious in meeting it, and you will be prospered by it, as you do this.
So, let's say that affirmation together, "I baptize every event in my life with the same name. If I have a failure, I call it a success, and eventually it proves to be a success."
HOW THE POWER OF AGREEMENT WORKED ON A COMPLAINING WIFE
At the end of her first year of marriage, a young wife decided the time had come to tell her husband about all of his faults. "Now that we've been married a year, we should be able to be honest with each other," she said to her husband. "I am going to point out all your faults to you, dear. Then you can point out all my faults to me."
She recited a long list of her husband's faults, all of which centered on details. Then she said, "Now it's your turn. Tell me what is wrong with me."
This nonresistant husband wisely replied, "You are perfect in every way, and I would not have one thing about you changed."
The woman was speechless. She inwardly vowed that never again would she allow herself to think that her husband had any faults.
When you find yourself in the midst of negative experiences ask, "What details am I resisting, opposing, or criticizing?"
Dwell on likenesses, not differences. Look for something to agree with in the situation. Agree with it and withdraw in peace. By doing so, you keep your peace of mind. You become victor instead of victim to the experiences through which you have passed.
HOW CRUELTY IN MARRIAGE WAS HEALED
A wife had what she considered to be a very cruel husband. She kept trying to find something good about him but his cruelty overpowered everything else. She began to realize that by thinking of him as cruel, she was giving his cruelty emotional power.
She decided she must find something about him with which she could agree. She decided that if she refused to allow his cruelty to upset her, and if she refused to feed it mental or emotional power, his cruelty would fade away for lack of attention. She realized that the only way a negative condition can remain in force is for someone to continue to feel badly about it.
Then she remembered how kind he was to their dog! She reasoned that anyone who was that kind to animals could not be all bad. This was the point of agreement she held to when old criticisms of him tried to flare up.
As she deliberately dwelled on this one good trait, other of his commendable qualities came to her attention. As her attitude toward her husband began to improve, he subconsciously responded. His previous cruelty toward her gradually lessened, so that harmony and peace finally existed between them again.
The success law of agreement says: Be undisturbed by a situation and it will dissolve from neglect. When you can no longer be disturbed, all inharmony will disappear from your external world.
Isaac refused to be disturbed by the Philistines and they pushed him into a large place - a place of fulfillment. After they appeared one last time to make their peace with him, they faded away completely. Though this man of peace let them think they were having their own way, he was the ultimate victor!
AGREEING WITH A FORMER MARRIAGE BRINGS A HAPPY ONE
One man had suffered through several unhappy marriages. A friend, who knew the success power of agreement, advised him to go back in his thinking to his first marriage, and to find some point of agreement with that marriage; then forgive that partner, and release the experience - baptizing that marriage a success.
When the man did this, he realized how much he still resented his first wife. That resentment had unconsciously been carried over and directed toward other matters, so that none of his marriages had worked out.
His mental treatment was, "I forgive you. I release you. Our marriage was for good. Our marriage was a success because we both learned from it." For each succeeding marriage, he gave the same mental treatment until he felt a sense of peace. When he later married again, it proved to be one of fulfillment. He named it a success from the start as he often looked for points of agreement.
Don't say that you have "failed in marriage," or that you have "failed in business," or that you are in "failing health." You have never failed in any experience because you learned something from it. So long as you keep your thoughts on personal troubles of the past or present, you bind them to you. When you name them a success and look upward, the forces of heaven rush to your aid.
HOW A BEREAVED WOMAN GOT A JOB THROUGH THE PROSPERING POWER OF AGREEMENT
A woman was curt and rude to a widow. The bereaved woman used nonresistance on the thoughtless acquaintance: "I will remember only how kind you have been to me in the past. There are many nice things to remember about you, so it does not matter what you say to me now."
The previously rude woman soon surprised the widow by finding a job for her just when she needed it most.
When you are nonresistant to negative appearances and give them no power, this opens the way for your good to still appear.
When you are in a true millionaire consciousness of supply, you don't need to fight for your good or compete for it. Like Isaac, you will find yourself unfolding into your place of fulfillment.
For this purpose declare often: "Always there is ground for agreement. I find some point of agreement and dwell on it. I think about likenesses, not differences. I baptize every situation in my life a success. I have never failed because I have learned from each experience. Every experience in my life has been a successful one. When I am undisturbed by appearances, that which is worthwhile remains. That which is no longer of value fades away. When I am nonresistant toward my good, it comes to meet me from every direction and through every experience. Knowing this, I rejoice as I now experience the prospering power of agreement."
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 25:5; Genesis 26:12-14; Psalms 122:7; Genesis 26:16; Genesis 26:20; Genesis 26:22; Genesis 26:27-29; Matthew 5:25
REFERENCE: The Millionaires of Genesis by Catherine Ponder
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Last updated
August 21, 2007
