Joanna Cherry
There are some pretty wild things happening right now. Many of us have reduced income, or have even lost job, home or business. The financial downturn looks scarily real if we really do have no job anymore. TV, Internet, radio and newspapers all confirm the bad news: it’s scary out there.
Key words are, “out there.” If we give dire economic news our attention, and our power, we hypnotize ourselves. But even if our own world tumbles about us, it’s still “about us,” “out there.”
Our translation of a particular Chinese character has become almost a cliche: “Crisis equals opportunity.” (Of course, there is also the Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times!”) But in fact, crisis DOES equal opportunity. Being affected by a dismal economy equals time to intensify meditation, prayer, however we walk our spiritual path. A more 3-D saying is similar: when the going gets tough, the tough get going: in this case, including spiritually.
The primary purpose for each of us is to experience our divinity, oneness with God, life or whatever we call the great Is. Secure and easy times do not challenge us to go beyond a humdrum consciousness. Times of upheaval can open gateways to our great self.
Looking “in here,” we touch the source and truth of our lives, including our financial good. All life, from the tiniest to the greatest event, is created from consciousness. Consciousness is first cause; what we see is the effects of consciousness.
Our own consciousness can shine great truths: God/dess, or Life, is Love. Life is Whole. It is Joy. Nothing is amiss. Everything is perfect. We not only are a child of God, we are ONE with God; God is Itself as us, exactly as we are. We are part of the wholeness of life. Nothing is left out. These are truths of BEING, and thus reflect in our life—when we know them. Regarding our personal economics, they translate to: my finances are totally whole and abundant, here and now.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is seeing up close and personal a situation that appears hopeless—and not believing it. Knowing it isn’t true on the most real level of life, spirit-consciousness-cause. Knowing we are taken care of, no matter what the appearance, when we turn to spirit—our great Self—and call upon It to express the wholeness of life right here, right now in our own life.
A most helpful thing to know is that whatever our job is or was, it is not our source. God is our source. God-Life can bring us unlimited amounts of good at any moment. “There is no order of difficulty in miracles,” says A Course in Miracles. When we are able to feel, know, and rejoice in our financial good here and now, it IS here and now. Miracles can abound!
Just a little ahem to the words “here and now.” Of course we may not see or hold in our hands the needed supply the instant we deeply feel and know it is here. It comes as it comes to us, through the channels of life on earth. Our goal is to CONTINUE to know it is here now, to continue to rejoice and give thanks for it. This sets up the frequency by which it is pulled in. When we throw a hissy-fit (as I did recently!) when it isn’t here by a certain day, we may interrupt what is flowing to us. Being by deep nature a calm and peaceful center, we accept things as they are, and see the higher reality.
A member of my old church shared with us that he prayed deeply to God for $10,000. Literally the next day, $10,000 more was in his bank account. He called his bank, asking if perhaps there had been some mistake. “No,” the clerk told him, “Everything is in order.”
Let’s call for what we want, but be careful about limiting it. A friend once was working to create $200. Her affluent mother paid her a visit soon thereafter, but my friend made no mention of her need. At the end of their visit, her mother took out her checkbook and wrote a check to my friend, who saw that the amount was $200. “It’s the funniest thing,” her mother said. “I was going to make it out for $500, but I found myself writing $200 instead.”
We may think of life as a more or less random series of events, but it works in such mysterious, synchronous ways. The following account, which is in another of my articles, is worth retelling here. About 10 years ago, following guidance, I had developed a mail order company with spirit-filled pictures of masters and ascended masters. My friend Neil had developed a similar company, with pictures of mostly Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist deities. He tired of running it and decided to sell out. I had no extra money, so I wrote Neil and asked if he would consider my handling his business, for a percentage of the profits, until it was paid off.
Meanwhile, my friend Merlin had drifted into Mt. Shasta from Canada to go camping, and had called a few times to see about getting together. When finally he came over, I showed him Neil’s pictures and shared how excited I was about possibly being their steward in the world.
The next morning there were two messages on my answering machine. The first was from Neil, saying he was sorry but he wanted to be bought out up front. The second was from Merlin, who said if I needed any help procuring Neil’s business, to let him know.
Merlin drove over, in the same old beat up Toyota truck he had owned forever. I’d never known him to have money. He said his dad had passed away the year before, leaving him a substantial sum. He’d been sitting on it, but recently had begun to pray to use some of it to benefit the world. He felt this was the answer to his prayer. Together we called Neil, who immediately felt the rightness of the transaction, but said someone had promised to give him a check the following day. As it turned out, however, everything else simply fell away. Never have I experienced such amazing timing, such grace of spirit in a money matter. Such possibilities are here for each of us.
TITHING, which is giving first a portion of what you receive to a spiritual source(s), has helped many people enter greater financial prosperity. (Most consider a tithe to be 10%, but any percentage, even 1% or 2%, can work too.) Tithing places into one’s own consciousness that God, or the source of life, comes first. It seems to open up the mind and heart to both give and receive more openly.
My friend Iris Jackson has created miracles around tithing. Just after she and her husband Jerry committed to tithing 10%, they received a bill from American Express, due within the next month, for over $31,000. After paying other bills, they had exactly 83 cents in their bank. But they hadn’t taken a vacation in eight years, and decided to go to Hawaii for a week, where they used the same credit card to stay in five-star hotels, sparing no expense. Coming home to weeks of rain, Jerry couldn’t work at his swimming pool business; instead, to make sure his men got their paychecks, he gave them chores around his and Iris’ home. They also paid $5,000 in cash for a scheduled house re-painting.
The day before the bill was due, Iris tithed $3100 from the same card IN ADVANCE. She said to God, “Now, what are you going to do?” The next day, not only was the $31,000 there, but another $5,000 for a house payment. To this day, Iris has no idea how it happened.
GRATITUDE for all that we have right now attracts every kind of good, including money. There’s an old folk tale about a poor village at the bottom of a great hill, upon which lived the only wealthy man in the area, a known skinflint. The people wished to raise money to build a chapel, and they sent one of their wiser fellows to knock on the rich man’s door.
Asked to support their purpose, the wealthy gentleman grudgingly fished out a penny and put it in the villager’s palm. “Oh, thank you so very much, good sir!” he exclaimed sincerely. “This will help greatly! Thank you, thank you!” “Well, wait just a minute,” replied the donor. “I can find some more for you.” He gave a dollar, again met with the same genuine thanks from the other. Finally, the man on the hilltop (not such a skinflint anymore!) wound up donating everything needed to build the new chapel.
So what do we have, right this moment? A place to lay our head? Food for the table? Health? Friends? A family? A car to get around in? A loving pet? Stores to buy what we need, because of people who work many hours to provide these things for us? Beauty to enjoy? The great silent holiness of life behind everything? Let us give thanks.
MONEY CONSCIOUSNESS
At the physical core of financial matters is, naturally, money. In my experience, nearly all spiritually oriented people have a problem with money. Certainly I have longed for, judged and feared the abundance I have wanted and needed. Many of us have been nuns and monks who have taken vows of poverty; all of us have seen how badly the workings of money are abused by banks and many corporations. In fact, only a very few people let themselves have abundant money easily and joyously. Only a very few owe nothing—are sovereign and free.
I recently asked spirit about money. I was shown that money itself has a spirit, and that this spirit is often sad. God being all substance, God is also the substance of money and money is part of God. It longs to be a loving, abundant, humble servant in the life of every person who uses money. It longs to be considered a friend. It longs to be used rightfully, for happiness and well being. It longs to bless and be blessed.
I have learned to connect with this spirit of money and speak with it lovingly, calling for it to be abundant in my life, enough to share with others. I call it “divine, loving, happy, peaceful, friendly, passive, blessing and blessed.” I see it falling like a beautiful green rain into my lap, to be lovingly passed on.
BEING FEARLESS—TWO SIMPLE PRACTICES
Love is who we already are; being love is part of being God. Where love is, fear cannot exist. Here are practices to bring forward our love.
Heart Center Breath
Ram Dass suggests this practice (I’ve added a bit). Sitting quietly, become aware of your heart center between your breasts. Begin to breathe love in and out of your heart center, as if it had nostrils. Expand the love and the breath for a few minutes (or longer), until you feel “full up” with love. Now, heart-open and heart-centered, say or feel: “I am heart-connected to Mother Earth, and Father Sky.” (Or, to Life, God, or whatever you wish.) Reconnect with your heart center during your day.
Sit and Smile
I am just reading the marvelous book,
Eat Pray Love . A simple meditation is given to the author (Elizabeth Gilbert) by her friend the Bali medicine man: just sit quietly, and smile. (I find myself smiling the lovely half-smile of the Buddha.) Smile on the outside, and smile on the inside. Let your whole body smile. This is wonderful!
AFFIRMATIONS
Here are statements that assist me; perhaps they will do the same for you. Change them as you will:
One with God, I am love. I am divinity. I am a calm and peaceful center. I give my power and attention to the fullness and goodness of life.
I am so grateful for everything I have, this moment. I dwell on each aspect of my life that is wonderful to me, and give thanks.
I am not a victim of financial downturn. I refuse to accept that the economy is low for me, or for those I associate with. My source is God/Goddess, ever present, all knowing, all loving, all powerful and providing for me, right now. No matter what my situation, I choose to know and feel that all is well, NOW.
I invite you, dear money, to be my humble, loving, abundant servant. I invite you to be my friend. You are part of divine energy: good, happy, peaceful, loving, friendly, blessing and blessed, rightfully used and shared in my life. I invite you to be here with me in great abundance now, for loving use. I do not limit how you come; God/Goddesss has infinite harmonious ways of bringing you, infinite channels of supply. You are here, falling all around me, falling into my lap and into my hands. I rejoice in your wondrous abundance!
If it feels right to me, I give first to God in my life, however that best works for me.
I have no debt in my soul; therefore I have no financial debt. All debt is paid off. I am sovereign in the ways of money. This is the way God-as-me naturally is in life: sovereign and free. I do only what I love. I am at peace.
I accept that miracles are real, here and now. They happen every day. I expect and accept miracles in my life, in money matters and all other ways. And so be it.
Prosperity, like everything, is a matter of consciousness. Recommendations for further reading:
Catherine Ponder’s free monthly newsletter, Keys to Prosperity. All her books are available through it, and I recommend them. Good openers: The Prospering Power of Love,and Open Your Mind to Receive. Write Unity Worldwide, P.O. Box 1709, Palm Desert, CA 92261.
The Sixty Day Non-Human Process by John Randolph Price, and his other works.
Books by Ernest Holmes, Neville, Emilie Cady, Florence Scovel Shinn, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Charles Fillmore, Edwene Gaines.
Humbly including my own books (a two-volume set) and CD sets.
The Infinite Way and all other books by Joel Goldsmith. To end, here is a quote from The Infinite Way, page 122:
“Now it becomes clear to you that God-consciousness is the consciousness of individual man; It is the all-power and ever-presence which will never leave you nor forsake you, and It is closer than breathing….From now on you will relax and feel the constant assurance of the presence and power of this illumined consciousness. You can now say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” No more will you fear conditions or circumstances seemingly outside of you or beyond your control. Now you know that all that can transpire in your experience is occurring within your consciousness and therefore is subject to its government and control.”
Greatest of blessings to you upon your path!
©2009, Joanna Cherry. You are welcome to copy and distribute this article,
as long as you acknowledge its source. Thank you.
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