Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for October 21, 2007
The First Millionairess, Ruth
We are continuing our millionaire series today with the first millionaires, Ruth. The Book of Ruth is one of the greatest prosperity stories of all times!
It is a master short story containing human interest, tragedy, humor, love, and a very happy ending. It brings a message of hope to those people who have suffered from sorrow and loss, and want to see their good restored. As this story proves, there are always returning cycles, when the good that seemed lost returns again in a new guise.
Technically, Sarah, as the wife of the first historical millionaire, might be considered a millionairess. Surely God gave her a divine blessing which was fit for a millionairess when He made this promise: (Genesis 17:16) "I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."
Also, the wives of Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob and Joseph enjoyed the immense wealth accumulated by their husbands. Yet Ruth was the first among the early Bible women to show through the actions of her own life - and through those of her mother-in-law - the mental steps that were taken to manifest the lavish abundance she later enjoyed.
Although Ruth attracted wealth in a traditional way - by landing a rich husband - her actions symbolize the use of some basic prosperity principles that you can use to manifest increased abundance in your life, too.
By interpreting the mental steps Ruth and Naomi took, you gain a quick review of the basic laws of prosperity that were used by all of the early millionaires.
PROSPERITY BEGINS IN BETHLEHEM
Her prosperity story begins in Bethlehem not with Ruth, personally, but with her future mother-in-law, Naomi. This woman and her husband left Bethlehem because of a famine there. They went into the Land of Moab. Hardship and sorrow followed when Naomi's husband and two sons died leaving her destitute.
Actually Naomi's hardships began when she left Bethlehem, which means "house of bread." Bethlehem is symbolic of that state of mind in which man realizes that Divine Substance is the one and only reality in his financial affairs, regardless of the appearances of the moment.
When an apparent famine or lack arises, man in a prosperous Bethlehem state of mind knows what to do: He affirms that Divine Substance is mightily at work for him, manifesting increased supply for him in rich appropriate form. He does not panic over the temporary appearance of lack.
Naomi did not follow this rule. Instead she panicked over the appearance of poverty and left Bethlehem, thereby leaving a prosperous state of mind.
LACK ALWAYS MANIFESTS IN THE LAND OF MOAB
Naomi went off to the Land of Moab expecting to be prospered there, but she only met with more hardships. Naomi symbolizes every person who learns about the power of prosperous thinking, yet in times of distress does not use it. She symbolizes those people, who in the face of lack, try to find an easy way out by going off to the Land of Moab.
Moab symbolizes that material state of mind that says, "I do not know how to solve this problem of lack and distress in an inner way, so I will go back to my former methods of fixing things up in some outer way." But when Naomi tried to "fix things up" in an outward way, she just encountered more lack and loss.
You must learn to think things through rather than trying to force things through. When you deliberately employ prosperous thinking, your prosperity thoughts move on the lavish substance of the universe, manifesting it as rich ideas, and as increased supply in your life in any number of ways. Your prosperous thinking develops the rich state of mind known as Bethlehem.
When you try to force things through in an outer way and panic at every sign of lack, your hardships just multiply. This develops the limited "hardship consciousness" known as Moab.
Although Moab symbolized hard conditions, those hard, Moab conditions contained the possibility of good. But one must work in and with the Land of Moab to extract its good. Since Naomi did not do this, a "hardship consciousness" developed.
HOW A WIDOW HAPPILY REMARRIED AFTER LEAVING MOAB
A widow of ten years wished to remarry and lead a happier, more normal way of life. She had prayed, affirmed, and pictured a happy new marriage for several years but nothing happened.
She finally realized that she needed to move out of the area where she had overcome tremendous hardships - both financial and in her family life. She began to declare, "I NOW MOVE FORWARD INTO MY EXPANDED GOOD, DIVINELY DIRECTED AND LAVISHLY PROSPERED. I NOW MOVE FORWARD INTO MY PROMISED LAND, WHERE I BELONG."
Soon a job offer came to her from a nearby city. She took it, then she released furniture, clothing, even friends that were connected with the barren widowed-way-of-life she had led for so long.
In her new surroundings, she moved into beautiful new living quarters. New friends opened a busy social life to her. Within the year she had met and married a very fine man - whom she would never have met and married had she remained in her former surroundings. They soon settled in their own new home, surrounded by new possessions, and an expanded way of life. But in spite of all of her former years of praying for a new life, nothing had happened until she first got out of a former Moab-hardship-state of mind, and released all that went with it.
THE PROSPERITY LESSON THAT NAOMI LEANED
Naomi finally came to her senses and returned to Bethlehem, where she got into a prosperous state of mind and met her problems successfully.
She learned what we all must learn: That once you know how to use the power of thought constructively, no other method works for solving your problems. If you try to revert to the former methods of rushing around, trying to make things right in some outward way, the situation only gets worse. It never gets better until you return to Bethlehem, or begin to use the inner laws of prosperity again.
You can quickly return to Bethlehem and reap the prosperous benefits of that rich state of mind:
First: By affirming that you do not depend on persons or conditions for your prosperity; that God is the Source of your prosperity, and that God provides His own amazing channels of supply to you now.
Second: By declaring that Divine Substance (the mystics called it "the body of God") is the one and only reality in your financial affairs; and that Divine Substance is manifesting in rich, appropriate form for you now.
HOW A TEACHER DEMONSTRATED PROSPERITY FOR SELF AND OTHERS
Does it work in a practical way to do this? A teacher from New Hampshire recently wrote: "'DIVINE SUBSTANCE IS THE ONE AND ONLY REALITY.' I am happy to say that shortly after I started to declare these words every day, I obtained two new art students, I obtained an order for the product I sell, and I received the inspiration for a children's book."
"As I used the statement 'DIVINE SUBSTANCE APPROPRIATELY MANIFEST FOR ME HERE AND NOW,' I had several other prosperous results. I gave my brother, a businessman, these statements to use and he has already had three prosperity demonstrations!"
PHYSICAL FORCE IS THE LOWEST TYPE OF ENERGY
Why can't you continue to use outer physical force, instead of the inner mental and spiritual forces, to try to solve your problems?
Because physical force is the lowest form of energy, while mental and spiritual forces release the highest form of energy. Once you learn how to release the highest form of energy and power into a situation, the lower, weaker forms of energy do not respond to you anymore. Physical energy is a slowed-down vibration that has limited power in the midst of accelerated mental and spiritual vibrations. Physical energy is meant to be a vehicle through which high-powered mental and spiritual energies express. Physical power is not an end in itself.
When you revert to outer material methods because it seems difficult to work out your problems through use of inner mental and spiritual methods, the result is always disastrous. Either temporary results, confusion, or hard experiences follow.
Knowledge carries sacred responsibility. You do not learn about the power of prosperous thinking until you are ready in your soul growth to begin using it. Once you are given this valuable knowledge, you must use it for your continued growth and expansion. If you do not, the result is always sad and unproductive.
HOW A BUSINESSMAN GOT OUT OF MOAB AND MADE $75,000
A businessman started tithing at a time when his tithe check amounted to only $10 a month. He prospered enough that his tithe check was soon $100 a month. He then reasoned that $100 a month was "too much" to give away, so he stopped tithing, and returned to the hard-work consciousness known as Moab. Disaster followed. He was brought down to poverty and humiliation through business reverses.
He finally realized his foolish mistake and returned to a Bethlehem state of mind by beginning to tithe again. Later he was making $75,000 a year and gladly tithed $7,500. He had learned his prosperity lesson well.
What had happened? By putting God first financially in the beginning, he had gotten into the prosperous Bethlehem state of mind, where his tithes went from $10 to $100 a month. But when he reasoned that a $100-a-month tithe was "too much" and stopped giving it, he reverted to a Moab state of mind and reaped according to that hardship consciousness. By reverting to a limited way of thinking, limited results naturally followed.
Whenever you revert to material methods because it seems difficult to work out your problems from a higher level, the result is always disappointing. You cannot go backwards, you must go forward, in order to succeed in life.
HOW TO PAY THE BILLS AND TAXES, GET A HOME OR JOB, SELL PROPERTY OR GET EFFICIENT EMPLOYEES
In the Bethlehem state of mind, prosperity and every other blessing is added. The riches that come through the deliberate use of prosperous thinking are permanent, because they are not confined to your outer affairs, but express through every department of your life, both inward and outward.
There is a practical way you can get out of Moab into the abundant state of mind known as Bethlehem: By declaring often that you do not depend on persons or conditions, but that God is the Source of your supply and provides His own amazing channels of supply to you now.
Do you realize the practical power there is in doing this? When there are bills to pay, clothing to purchase, income tax payments to meet, that is the time to declare that in all these situations, God is the Source of your supply.
If there is property to rent, that is the time to realize that God is the Source, and that His Divine Love is providing just the right tenants for you now. If there is property to sell, that is the time to realize that since God is the Source, He can draw to you the ones who are looking for such property, and who will be blessed by it.
If there is a need for a home, that is the time to realize that God is the Source of the perfect place for you to live, that in the Father's house are many mansions.
If there is a need for a job, that is the time to realize that God is the Source of all opportunity, so He has just the right place of service awaiting you.
If there is a need for more workers, that is the time to realize that God is the Source of all work and all workers. Declare that you trust Him to provide everything that is necessary to the expression of a good life.
HOW ARMY OFFICER AND BUSINESSMAN PROSPERED
A businessman said he became a branch manager for his company after he began to declare daily: "I LOOK TO GOD FOR GUIDANCE AND SUPPLY." Another man found work, though he was past retirement age, after he daily declared: "I LOOK TO GOD FOR GUIDANCE AND SUPPLY. I AM NOW GUIDED INTO MY TRUE PLACE WITH THE TRUE PEOPLE AND WITH THE TRUE PROSPERITY."
An Army officer said he and his wife always found just the right home for their family near crowded military bases by declaring: "I DAILY LOOK TO GOD FOR GUIDANCE AND SUPPLY. I AM BEAUTIFULLY AND APPROPRIATELY HOUSED WITH THE RICH SUBSTANCE OF GOD NOW."
HOW TO DEVELOP "A MILLIONAIRE CONSCIOUSNESS"
Naomi had to return to a Bethlehem state of mind in order to demonstrate prosperity, and so must we. Since the word , 'Bethlehem" means "house of substance, " you can get into a prosperous state of mind and reap its vast benefits by quietly inviting the substance of the universe into your life: "I INVITE THE POWERFUL LOVING SUBSTANCE OF THE UNIVERSE INTO MY FINANCIAL AFFAIRS NOW. I INVITE THE POWERFUL LOVING SUBSTANCE OF THE UNIVERSE TO MANIFEST WEALTH AND ABUNDANCE FOR ME NOW, QUICKLY AND IN PEACE."
Does this simple technique really work? Catherine Ponder said she was once startled at how quickly it worked for her. She wrote, "One afternoon I meditated for a long time on the powerful loving substance of the universe, and invited it into my life." That night a friend paid her a visit and handed her a check for several thousand dollars. It was a "love offering" in appreciation for some ideas in one of her books which had prospered this friend. That check to her was a tithe from that prosperity demonstration. In gratitude, she gave thanks for the quick way that universal substance had heard her call and had responded.
So, affirm that you do not depend on persons or conditions for your prosperity. Affirm that God is the Source of your prosperity. Declare that the body of God is the one and only reality in your financial affairs.
Let it be your way.
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 17:16
REFERENCE: The Millionaires of Genesis by Catherine Ponder
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Last updated
October 29, 2007
