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“This
week we are in week #4 of a 6-week prosperity series of lessons that I
am giving so that each of us have an opportunity to "discover"
the way in which we can increase our measure of prosperity and financial
ease. [previous lessons in Archived
Messages ] I am presenting these lessons via the web site text
messages, on the Sunday morning radio program and on the 6-Wednesday
evening radio programs. The first step to realizing greater
prosperity is "commitment to prosperity" and so to
"activate" our commitment to prosperity, I am suggesting that
after each lesson, everyone is to send $1 to Rev. Bates at P. O. Box
1173, Palm Springs, CA 92263 ... I will also accept non-U.S.
currency
... write on the outside of the envelope "#3"
this week ... and then "#4", etc.
for the remaining of the 6-weeks of commitment to
prosperity as we gain a "conviction" that we can experience a more
prosperous life, now.
If you are just beginning this week to respond to this exercise in
prosperity, write # 4 on your envelope.” -
Rev
Bates
"Happy
Mother's Day to All Mothers and those who care for others. ...
When I was a child my mother would read the
Bible to us on Sunday afternoons. After my father made his
transition, my mother made it a practice to read the Bible at night.
Her faith was very simple, but it served her well. My mother and
father raised twelve children on a farm in Missouri. My mother
never knew what it was like to work outside of the home, yet, she
prospered abundantly. When she made her transition, I received her
Bible. This is what I found when I looked inside to find what had
meaning for her:
"Matthew 6:6But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly."
- from the Holy Bible
Many spiritual teachers have taught
that we are to pray in secret and keep that which is between us and G-d
secret and sacred. As we understand that all things have a certain
energy about them, especially words, thoughts and ideas ... then it is
easy to understand that we don't want to scatter the energy that we have
intensified in our mind with our prayers. When the Master Mind
Jesus helped the man with leprosy to be healed, he instructed him not to
tell anyone about it. Most people think that this was because
someone may have talked the man out of his healing by creating doubt and
disbelief in his mind, but since Jesus was a spiritual genius, I am
certain it was more than that. "Thy faith has healed
you," Jesus said ... he didn't say "how lucky you are" or
you have met with "God's favor" ... or "I have healed
you" ... he recognized the "power of faith" and was fully
aware that faith is a "state of mind" highly charged with
dynamic energy and simplicity.
We can develop this same "highly
charged" energy about money and wealth, if we are willing to pray
in secret and to keep the secrets that are between us and G-d. In
doing so, we can live in a consciousness of wealth and success rather
than the upswings and downturns created by the ego mind. But, this
means we must not only make the decision to keep our divine-secrets, but
we must also be willing to resist the impulse of ego to take credit for
our wealth and success and fully understand that "it is the Father
that doeth the work" ... and it is all done in Mind, the Mind of
G-d.
Let us look at the Master Mind Jesus' first
instruction which is to pray. We know that we must not pray by
rote or without thought of the meaning of our prayers or tell the Divine
how to bring our prayers to pass. Let's look to the masterful Eric
Butterworth for some words of wisdom regarding prayer from his book,
"The Universe is Calling":
"Let me repeat: you do not pray to God, but from a
consciousness of God. Think about this. Get it into
your awareness. So whenever you have something to pray about,
before you start looking up and reaching out, pause for a moment and
remember; first get the awareness of oneness, as a mighty
potential of life, substance, and intelligence within you. Then
set about spiritedly to pray from that awareness. .... You may
have thought that you were only praying when you said, "Now I am
going to start praying." No matter what you call it, your
thought concerning any subject is a prayer treatment."
We can ask ourselves, what is my
thought right now about my health, success, relationships, and my
wealth? Whatever my thought is, that is my prayer ... that is what
I am feeding my body, my career or work, my relationships, my financial
condition ... and the One Mind, which is G-d. We may not keep our
communions with G-d secret, but it is impossible to keep a secret from
G-d ... for Mind Is All and All Is Mind ... we are in It, and It is in
us. And I am not writing this from any perspective of judgment but
from an understanding that we are always "using the One Mind"
.. It is All-Knowing, infinite Intelligence ... and always and in
all-ways, responding to us through Love and Law. We can change
these thoughts that we have about the circumstances and conditions we
are experiencing in our lives by keeping our prayers simple, specific
and definite. And we can make these simple prayers powerful by
keeping them secret and sacred between us and G-d. Now this
doesn't mean we cannot have a confidant, someone we know that supports
us in our good, but this person too, must keep our prayers secret and
sacred.
All of these things we have been studying
about prosperity and success are so simple and so easy to practice.
Some people do these things naturally and easily as some of these
practices are part of the way they think and contemplate their lives,
for others of us, we must make a conscious effort to put these things
into practice ... but many of us won't, because it seems too easy ...
too simple ... and almost too good to be true that this is all that is
required of us. But, think for a moment about the man with leprosy
... his healing was brought about in absolute simplicity. And
that's the way of all spiritual growth and especially the development of
a prosperity consciousness.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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Rev
Bates on the Radio
