"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11: 24). "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12: 32). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14: 12). "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3: 5 & 6).
In the universe of matter, all things are limited. On planet Earth, we have a limited amount of land, drinking water, resources like oil, and even the needed sunlight we receive. Yet, in the material sense of all things, there is a physical source for every river that runs, every beam of sunlight we receive, and every other good and useful thing that we enjoy on this planet. The problem with the material universe, however, is that the physical sources of things are, themselves, limited in amount. Material sources are not inexhaustible in substance; if they were, we'd all be perpetually abundant in all things. For example, even trying to spread our planetary resources around still leaves whole countries of people in lack of drinking water and, certainly, oil. In many individual countries, there is not enough land for all its people to buy or build upon. In other places, the climate withholds proper amounts of rain for crops, resulting in chronic shortages in food production. Although it's true that, to our perception, the Sun seems ever-lasting, even that is not. Stars die, sometimes unexpectedly. Thus, addressing the human problems of lack, limitation, and the sense of poverty these physical sources leave us with, it is wise to reach outside of the material assessment of all things and sources. It is wise to remember that God, the invisible, Intelligent Spirit is the Creator and true Source and spiritual substance of all that is real, even though the physical scene doesn't bear witness of this. It is in the recognition and realization of this invisible and spiritual Source that we find our abundance of all things, which can become manifested, from Spirit, into physical form once we open our thoughts to it. All that is real is Spirit and Its spiritual creation, existing forever in Spirit's infinite, inexhaustible, spiritual supply, even though the physical senses don't perceive it. The existence and ever-presence of God is the divine Source of all real substance; but God is neither a physical entity nor material intelligence. God is a Spirit in substance and a spiritual Intelligence and Creator in effect. God must be perceived mentally, by spiritual sense. We are not, and never were, dependant only upon the material things and amounts that are already 'out there' in the material, worldly environment. Spirit, God, causes all things to be manifested into form, whenever needed. Any physical lack is only temporary to spiritual sense. This fact isn't to be interpreted to mean that God prints money; it means that God is the Source of even the concept of money, of which the material paper is but a symbol of universal exchange, making bartering and trading easier and more intelligent for humanity. Money is a divine creation (concept) which makes our massive societies function beyond just trading things for things. But make no mistake: the concept or idea of money has its spiritual Source in the Intelligence of God, the same as every other good, useful thing. Not only that, but every identity of life, be it people or all other forms of life, have their Source of being, eternally, in the divine Intelligence of God. But it is the substance of Spirit which is everlasting—not the substance of matter. Matter (in this human experience) is our collective false sense of self and creation; it's our lower perception of being. When we depend upon the physical senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell to define reality, we completely miss perceiving the universe of God's creating; thus, the spiritual universe seems invisible to these physical perceptions we depend upon, until we mentally recognize it. This relates directly to supply. In the biblical chapter of John 6, there is the account of Christ Jesus feeding a crowd of about five thousand people, by multiplying a few pieces of bread and fish. Now, to our physical senses, he seemed to be manifesting a form of food out of nothing, hence the term 'miracle' is applied to this demonstration by the Master; but what Jesus' higher concept of being probably revealed to him was that God's universe of Spirit is inexhaustible. Jesus showed the people around him that abundance is an ever-lasting principle in God's spiritual universe, and this abundance is invisibly present everywhere we are. His spiritual level of thought was so much higher than those around him, (and even those of us here today) that every demonstration of Spirit's abundance, Spirit's wholeness and health, even Spirit's eternal life existing for all, still seems out of reach to the rest of us. Yet, understanding and knowing us better than we know ourselves, Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (See full quotation at top of article.) I interpret this as saying that whoever believes what Christ Jesus taught about spiritual being and our own Christ identity will be able to bring forth, into material form, whatever good seems to be missing. Jesus didn't create, or multiply, food out of nothing. He didn't cause disease to change back into wholeness and health out of nothing. He didn't raise the materially dead out of nothing. His higher, spiritually mental knowledge, or enlightened consciousness, was able to recognize the true Source of Spirit, not matter, as our inexhaustible abundance, health, and eternal life. He brought to us the recognition of our own Christ identity, our spiritual Selfhood, right where our physical persona seems to exist but isn't the true one. Thus, this demonstration of supply and abundance came from his knowledge of spiritual, rather than material, reality. Nothing is lacking in the divine substance of things, ever. His unique level of thought—his spiritual sight of these things—was the reason he was 'the chosen one' to enter the collective, material illusion of this human experience and show us the way out of all the trials and tribulations we experience while mentally entertaining the false, limited sense of things. Today, as throughout all history, our invisible abundance, health and wholeness, awaits our realization and recognition. It all awaits our understanding that God is the Source and Creator of all, and God is Spirit—never in the finite forms we, ourselves, produce to immolate Spirit's creation. Our material forms are finite. They are exhaustible. They all boast of having good and evil effects, when God is the only power, and good alone proceeds out of Spirit's power. Here's an incident that happened last spring on how the mental acceptance and realization of God's eternal abundance can be brought into the human scene, filling the nooks and crannies of physical lack. It also shows that it is not money, but God, that we always need to comprehend as our Source of supply: My husband and I have a large yard to mow. We've depended upon paying others to do this service when my husband was working fulltime. Since retiring in 2005, my husband has wanted to take this task over for himself, but we didn't have a riding mower. In the last couple of years, he kept watching for the mower he wanted, but prices were extremely high, in the thousands. This last spring, the price of our lawn service was raised quite a bit, so we decided it was time to get serious about letting go of the service and buying a riding mower. Since we've also been doing a lot of remodeling, however, our available cash was extremely low, and we didn't want to borrow. So, remembering that Spirit is our true Source of all we can ever need, I turned to prayer. Now, my prayer didn't consist of asking God to send us the money for the equipment we needed; I already knew that God doesn't withhold any good. Instead, my prayer was to wipe any worry from my thoughts and remember that the all-knowing, all-seeing Mind of God could call our attention to wherever we need to go in the human scene to find what we are looking for, or this same divine Intelligence could create or produce (bring into human form) whatever may not already be 'out there' in the human scene. In short, our prayers should be prayers of faith, not pleading. I didn't know how our situation of seeming lack was going to turn out. I just trusted that, whatever we needed, we already had in God; and the divine Intelligence is always with us to provide for us, wherever we are. The next day, my husband met with his retirees' weekly breakfast group, and one of the members mentioned that he had a really good riding mower to sell. He asked if anyone was interested. My husband hesitated to speak up because he was sure that the cost would be too high; later, at my urging, he called his friend and asked to see the mower. The riding mower turned out to be just what my husband had been looking for, and it was in great shape. Surprisingly, the price was only $300. My husband asked why the price was so low, and his friend told him that he just wanted to get rid of it quickly, so he didn't have to mow any more grass. Please take it. So, our terrific mower was brought to us, costing us very little money; and we have used it all summer with no problems at all. The point that was brought home to me, from this incident, is that God doesn't need money to solve every human need. Money is just one creation of God to allow exchange among people. Sometimes, money isn't even the issue. Sometimes, all we need to do is find the thing we need because it has already taken form somewhere, and we don't have to buy it. Other times (such as when looking for employment) the job we're seeking may not even exist yet—but the divine Mind can create a new position, for anyone needing it. God is Spirit. The power to produce any and all things belongs to infinite Spirit. The first commandment 'given' to humankind was, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20: 3). What is a god, but a power figure? To mentally accept anything in creation, be it a tree, the sun, a particular animal, material substances, or any person, as a power over us is the primary way we break this all-important commandment, or divine warning from Spirit. Even on the subject of health, God is the only power, on any level of existence. In God's creation, nothing but Love ever touches us to harm us; that's why God is the source of even our health. There is nothing in God's spiritually-present creation to make us ill. Whenever we physically appear to be lacking health, our spiritual, ever-lasting health is still present and ready to be brought forth into our material forms and perceptions of it. When we change our conscious beliefs of lack of health, into the abundance of health, the physical form adjusts back into the manifestation of wholeness, just as in the healing of other forms of lack. Christ Jesus (and his disciples who had learned the spiritual method of healing) didn't ask the name of disease or use matter to heal any physical, or mental, appearance or symptoms, any more than they made a reality of poverty. Instead, they banished from their thoughts any belief in a power opposed to God, and trusted the unseen universe of Spirit. When Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18: 36, first line) he meant it. His, and our true kingdom, is Spirit's creation, which is invisible to the physical senses but still here with us. Matter is not a creation; it has no laws. Spirit is the only Lawmaker, and Spirit says to matter, 'You are nothing.' Spirit's children are abundant. We are these children. For each and every one of us, what is invisible can become visible form. When we find this out, and practice it in every way we are able to perceive, our experiences of healing multiply, just like those loaves and fishes multiplied, so long ago.
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