People never ask a man who is a failure, "What is the secret of your failure?" It is quite easy to see and they are not interested. People all want to know how to open the secret door to success.
For each man there is success, but it seems to be behind a door or wall. In the Bible reading, we have heard the wonderful story of the falling of the walls of Jericho.We will talk now about your wall of Jericho: the wall separating you from success. Nearly everyone has built a wall around his own Jericho. This city you are not able to enter, contains great treasures; your divinely designed success, your heart's desire!
What kind of wall have you built around your Jericho? Often, it is a wall of resentment - resenting someone, or resenting a situation, shuts off your good. If you are a failure and resent the success of someone else, you are keeping away your own success. I have given the following statement to neutralize envy and resentment.
What God has done for others, He now does for me and more.A woman was filled with envy because a friend had received a gift, she made this statement, and an exact duplicate of the gift was given her - plus another present. It was when the children of Israel shouted, that the walls of Jericho fell down. When you make an affirmation of Truth, your wall of Jericho totters.
I gave the following statement to a woman: The walls of lack and delay now crumble away, and I enter my Promised Land, under grace. She had a vivid picture of stepping over a fallen wall, and received the demonstration of her good, almost immediately. It is the word of realization which brings about a change in your affiars; for words and thoughts are a form of radio-activity.
Taking an interest in your work, enjoying what you are doing opens the secret door of success. A number of years ago I went to California to speak at the different centers, by way of the Panama Canal, and on the boat I met a man named Jim Tully. For years he had been a tramp. He called himself The King of the Hoboes. He was ambitious and picked up an education. He had a vivid imagination and commenced writing stories about his experiences. He dramatized tramp life, he enjoyed what he was doing, and became a very successful author. I remember one book called "Outside Looking In." It was made into a motion picture.
He is now famous and prosperous and lives in Hollywood. What opened the secret door to success for Jim Tully? Dramatizing his life - being interested in what he was doing, he made the most of being a tramp. On the boat, we all sat at the captain's table, which gave us a chance to talk.
Mrs. Grace Stone was also a passenger on the boat; she had written the "Bitter Tea of General Yen," and was going to Hollywood to have it made into a moving-picture; she had lived in China and was inspired to write the book. That is the Secret of Success, to make what you are doing interesting to other people. Be interested yourself, and others will find you interesting.
A good disposition, a smile, often opens the secret door; the Chinese say, "A man without a smiling face, must not open a shop." The success of a smile was brought out in a French moving-picture in which Chevalier took the lead, the picture was called, "With a Smile." One of the characters had become poor, dreary and almost a derelict; He said to Chevalier "What good has my honesty done me?" Chevalier replied, "Even honesty won't help you, without a smile." So the man changes on the spot, cheers up, and becomes very successful.
Living in the past, complaining of your misfortunes, builds a thick wall around your Jericho. Talking too much about your affairs, scattering your forces, brings you up against a high wall. I knew a man of brains and ability, who was a complete failure.
He lived with his mother and aunt, and I found that every night when he went home to dinner, he told them all that had taken place during the day at the office; he discussed his hopes, his fears, and his failures. I said to him, "You scatter your forces by talking about your affairs. Don't discuss your business with your family. Silence is golden!"
He took my lead. During dinner he refused to talk about business. His mother and aunt were in despair. They loved to hear all about everything, but his silence proved golden! Not long after, he was given a position at one hundred dollars a week, and in a few years, he had a salary of three hundred dollars a week.
Success is not a secret, it is a System.Many people are up against the wall of discouragement. Courage and endurance are part of the system. We read this in lives of all successful men and women. I had an amusing experience which brought this to my notice. I went to a moving picture theatre to meet a friend. While waiting, I stood near a young boy, selling programs.
He called to people passing, "Buy a complete program of the picture, containing photographs of the actors and a sketch of their lives." Most people passed by without buying. To my great surprise, he suddenly turned to me, and said - "Say, this isn’t no racket for a guy with ambition!"
Then he gave a discourse on success. He said, "Most people give up just before something big is coming to them. A successful man never gives up." Of course I was interested and said, "I'll bring you a book the next time I come. It is called The Game of Life and How to Play It. You will agree with a lot of the ideas."
A week or two later I went back with the book.I returned to the theatre in about three weeks, Eddie had gone. He had expanded into a new job that he liked. His wall of Jericho had crumbled; he had refused to be discouraged. Only twice, is the word success mentioned in the Bible -- both times in the Book of Joshua.
"Only be strong and very courageous to observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee: turn not from it to the right nor to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart from thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein, for then shall thou make thy way prosperous and thou shall have good success. Turn neither to the right nor to the left."
The road to success is a straight and narrow path; it is a road of loving absorption, of undivided attention. You attract the things you give a great deal of thought to.So if you give a great deal of thought to lack, you attract lack, if you give a great deal of thought to injustice, you attract more injustice.
Joshua said, "And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout: and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before him."
The inner meaning of this story is the power of the word, your word which dissolves obstacles, and removes barriers. When the people shouted the walls fell down. We find in folk-lore and fairy stories, which come down from legends founded on Truth, the same idea - a word opens a door or cleaves a rock.
We have it again in the Arabian Night's Story, "Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves." I aw it made into a moving picture. Ali Baba has a secret hiding place, hidden somewhere behind rocks and mountains, the entrance may only be gained by speaking a secret word. -- It is "Open Sesame!"
Ali Baba faces the mountain and cries - "Open Sesame!" and rocks slide apart. It is very inspiring, for it gives you the realization of how YOUR own rocks and barriers, will part at the right word.
So let us take the statement -- The walls of lack and delay now crumble away, and I enter my Promised Land, under grace.The Children of Israel were in bondage to Pharaoh, the cruel taskmaster, ruler of Egypt. They were kept in slavery, making bricks, and were hated and despised. Moses had orders from the Lord to deliver his people from bondage - "Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh -- Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness."
He not only refused to let them go, but told them he would make their tasks even more difficult: they must make bricks without straw being provided for them. "And the task-masters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw."
"Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet ought not to of your work shall be diminished." It was impossible to make bricks without straw. The Children of Israel were completely crushed by Pharaoh; they were beaten for not producing the bricks -Then came the message from Jehovah. "Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale (number) of bricks."
Working with Spiritual law they could make bricks without straw, which means to accomplish the seemingly impossible.How often in life people are confronted with this situation. Agnes M. Lawson in her "Hints to Bible Students" says -- "The Life in Egypt under foreign oppression is the symbol of man under the hard taskmasters of Destructive thinking, Pride, Fear, Resentment, Ill-will, etc. The deliverance under Moses is the freedom man gains from the taskmasters, as he learns the law of life, for we can never come under grace, except we first know the law. The law must be made known in order to be fulfilled."
In the 111th Psalm we read in the final verse, "The fear of the Lord (law) is the beginning of Wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever." Now if we read the word Lord (law) it will give us the key to the statement.
The fear of the law (Karmic law) is the beginning of wisdom (not the fear of the Lord). When we know whatever we send out comes back, we begin to be afraid of our own boomerangs.
I read in a medical journal the following facts telling of the Boomerang this great Pharaoh received. It would appear that flesh is indeed heir to a long and ancient line of ills, when, as was revealed by Lord Monyahan at a lecture at Leeds, that the Pharaoh of the oppression suffered from hardening of the heart in a literal sense. Lord Monyahan showed some remarkable photographic slides of results of surgical operations a thousand years before Christ, and among these was a slide of the actual anatomical remains of the Pharaoh of the Oppression.
"The large vessel springing from the heart was in such a well-preserved state, as to enable sections of it to be made recently from the lantern slide. It was impossible to distinguish between the ancient and modern vessel. Both hearts had been attacked by Atheroma, a condition in which calcium salts are deposited in the walls of the vessel, making it rigid and inelastic."
Inadequate expanse to the stream of blood from the heart caused the vessel to give way; with this condition went the mental changes that occur with a rigid arterial system: A narrowness of outlook; restriction and dread of enterprise, a literal hardening of the heart.
So Pharaoh's hardness of heart hardened his own heart.This is as true today as it was several thousand years ago -- we are all coming out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage. Your doubts and fears keep you in slavery; you face a situation which seems hopeless. What can you do? It is a case of making bricks without straw.
But remember the words of Jehovah, "Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale (number) of bricks."I was told the story of a woman who needed money for her rent. It was necessary to have it at once, but she knew of no channel, she exhausted every avenue. However, she was a Truth student, and kept making her affirmations. Her dog whined and wanted to go out; she put on his leash and walked down the street, in the accustomed direction.
However, the dog pulled at his leash and wanted to go in another direction. She followed, and in the middle of the block, opposite an open park, she looked down, and picked up a roll of bills, which exactly covered rent. She looked for ads, but never found the owner. There were no houses near where she found it.
The reasoning mind, the intellect, takes the throne of Pharaoh in your consciousness. It says continually, "It can't be done. What's the use?" We must drown out these dreary suggestions with a vital affirmation!
For example take this statement: "The unexpected happens, my seemingly impossible good now comes to pass." This stops all argument from the army of the aliens (the reasoning mind.). "The unexpected happens!" That is an idea it cannot cope with.
"Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies." Your enemy thoughts, your doubts, fears and apprehensions! Think of the joy of really being free forever, from the Pharaoh of the oppression. To have the idea of security, health, happiness and abundance established in the subconscious. It would mean a life free from all limitation!
It would be the Kingdom which Jesus Christ spoke of, where all things are automatically added unto us. I say automatically added unto us, because all life is vibration; and when we vibrate to success, happiness and abundance, the things which symbolize these states of consciousness will attach themselves to us.
Feel rich and successful, and suddenly you receive a large cheque or a beautiful gift.I tell the story showing the working of this law. I went to a party where people played games, and whoever won, received a gift. The prize was a beautiful fan. Among those present, was a very rich woman, who had everything. Her name was Clara. The poorer and resentful ones got together and whispered: "We hope Clara doesn't get the fan." Of course Clara won the fan.
She was care-free and vibrating to abundance. Envy and resentment short-circuit your good and keep away your fans. If you should happen to be resentful and envious, take the statement: What God has done for others He now does for me and more!
Then all the fans and things will come your way. No man gives to himself but himself, and no man takes away from himself but himself. The "Game of Life" is a game of solitaire; as you change, all conditions will change.
Now to go back to Pharaoh the oppressor; no one loves an oppressor. I remember a friend I had many years ago, her name was Lettie. Her father had plenty of money and supplied her mother and herself with food and clothes, but no luxuries. We went to Art School together, and all the students would buy reproductions of the "Winged Victory," "Whister's Mother" or something to bring art into their homes.
My friend's father called all these things "plunder." He would say, "Don't bring home any plunder." So she lived a colorless life without a "Winged Victory" on her bureau or "Whistler's Mother on the wall. He would say often to my friend and her mother, "When I die, you'll both be well off." One day someone said to Lettie, "When are you going abroad?" (All art students went abroad.) She replied, cheerfully, "Not 'till Papa dies."
So people always look forward to being free from lack and oppression. Let us now free ourselves from the tyrants of negative thinking. We have been slaves to doubts, fears and apprehension and let us be delivered as Moses delivered the Children of Israel and come out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage.
Find the thought which is your great oppressor; find the "king-pin". In the logging camps in the spring, the logs are sent down the rivers in great numbers. Sometimes the logs become crossed and cause a jam. The men look for the log causing the jam (they call it the king-pin), straighten it, and the logs rush down the river again. Maybe your King-Pin is resentment. Resentment holds back you’re good. The more you resent, the more you will have to resent; you grow a resentment track in your brain, and your expression will be one of habitual resentment. You will be avoided and miss the golden opportunities which await you each day. I remember a few years ago, the streets were filled with men selling apples. They got up early to get the good corners. I passed one several times on Park Avenue. He had the most disagreeable expression I have ever seen.
As people passed he said, "Apples! Apples!" but no one stopped to buy. I invested in an apple and said, "You'll never sell apples unless you change your expression." He replied, "Well that guy over there took my corner." I said, "Never mind about the corner, you can sell apples right here if you'll look pleasant." He said, "O.K. lady," and I went on. The next day I saw him, his whole expression had changed. He was doing a big business selling apples with a smile. So find your king-pin (you may have more than one); and your logs of success, happiness and abundance will go rushing down your river.
“Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you, yet ye shall make bricks without straw."My subject is the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. "And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." The parable teaches that true prayer means preparation.
Jesus Christ said, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Math. 21:22). "Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). In this parable he shows that only those who have prepared for their good (thereby showing active faith) will bring the manifestation to pass. We might paraphrase the scriptures and say: When ye pray believe ye have it. When ye pray ACT as if you have already received.
Armchair faith or rocking chair faith will never move mountains. In the armchair, in the silence, or meditation, you are filled with the wonder of this Truth, and feel that your faith will never waver. You know that The Lord is your Shepherd, you shall never want. You feel that your God of Plenty will wipe out all burdens of debt or limitations. Then you leave your armchair and step out into the arena of Life. It is only what you do in the arena that counts.
I will you give you an illustration showing how the law works; for faith without action is dead. A man, one of my students, had a great desire to go abroad. He took the statement: I give thanks for my divinely designed trip, divinely financed, under grace, in a perfect way. He had very little money, but knowing the law of preparation, he bought a trunk. It was a very gay and happy trunk with a big red band around its waist. Whenever he looked at it gave him a realization of a trip.
One day he seemed to feel his room moving. He felt the motion of a ship. He went to the window to breathe the fresh air, and it smelt like the aroma of the docks. With his inner ear he heard the shriek of a sea-gull and the creaking of the gangplank. The trunk had commenced to work. It had put him in the vibration of his trip. Soon after that, a large sum of money came to him and he took the trip. He said afterwards that it was perfect in every detail.
In the arena of Life we must keep ourselves tuned-up to concert pitch. Are we acting from motives of fear or faith? Watch your motives with all diligence, for out of them are the issues of life. If your problem is a financial one (and it usually is) you must know how to wind yourself up financially, and keep wound up by always acting your faith. The material attitude towards money is to trust in your salary, your income and investments, which can shrink over night. The spiritual attitude toward money is to trust in God for your supply. To keep your possessions, always realize that they are God in manifestation. "What Allah has given cannot be diminished," then if one door shuts another door, immediately opens.
Never voice lack or limitation for "by your words you are condemned." You combine with what you notice, and if you are always noticing failure and hard times, you will combine with failure and hard times. You must form the habit of living in the fourth dimension, "The World of the Wondrous." It is the world where you do not judge by appearances.
You have trained your inner eye to see through failure into success, to see through sickness into health to see through limitation into plenty. I will give you the land which you though seeth."
The man who achieves success has the fixed idea of success. If it is founded on a rock of truth and rightness it will stand. If not, it is built upon sand and washed into the sea, returning to its native nothingness. Only divine ideas can endure. Evil destroys itself, for it is a cross current against universal order, and the way of the transgressor is hard. "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." The lamp symbolizes man's consciousness. The oil is what brings Light or understanding.
"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, give us your oil; for our lamps are gone out." The foolish virgins were without wisdom or understanding, which is oil for the consciousness, and when they were confronted with a serious situation, they had no way of handling it.
And when they said to the wise "give us of your oil," the wise answered saying, "Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." That means that the foolish virgins could not receive more than was in their consciousness, or what they were vibrating to. The man received the trip because it was in his consciousness, as a reality. He believed that he had already received. As he prepared for the trip he was taking oil for his lamps. With realization comes manifestation.www.BindalTech.org
The law of preparation works both ways. If you prepare for what you fear or don't want, you begin to attract it. David said, "The thing I feared has come upon me." We hear people say, "I must put away money in case of illness." They are deliberately preparing to be ill. Or, "I'm saving for a rainy day." The rainy day is sure to come, at a most inconvenient time.
The divine idea for every man is plenty. Your barns should be full, and your cup should flow over, but we must learn to ask aright. For example take this statement: I call on the law of accumulation. My supply comes from God, and now pours in and piles up, under grace. This statement does not give any picture of stint or saving or sickness. It gives a fourth dimensional feeling of abundance, leaving the channels to Infinite Intelligence. Every day you must make a choice; will you be wise or foolish? Will you prepare for your good? Will you take the giant swing into faith? Or serve doubt and fear and bring no oil for your lamps?
"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not."
You may feel that the foolish virgins paid very dearly for neglecting to bring oil for their lamps, but we are dealing with the law of Karma (or the law of come back). It has been called the "judgment day," which people usually associate with the end of the world. Your judgment day comes, they say, in sevens - seven hours, seven days, seven weeks, seven months, or seven years. It might even come in seven minutes. Then you pay some Karmic debt; the price for having violated spiritual law. You failed to trust God; you took no oil for your lamps.
Every day examine your consciousness and see just what you are preparing for. You are fearful of lack and hang on to every cent, thereby attracting more lack. Use what you have with wisdom and it opens the way for more to come to you. In my book, "Your Word Is Your Wand," I tell about the Magic Purse. In the Arabian Nights they tell the story of a man who had a Magic Purse. As money went out, immediately money appeared in it again.
So I made the Statement: My supply comes from God - I have the magic purse of the spirit. It can never be depleted. As money goes out, immediately money comes in. It is always crammed, jammed with abundance, under grace, in perfect ways.
This brings a vivid picture to mind: You are drawing on the bank of the imagination. A woman who did not have much money was afraid to pay any bills and see her bank account dwindle. It came to her with great conviction: "I have the magic purse of the spirit. It can never be depleted. As money goes out, immediately, money comes in." She fearlessly paid her bills, and several large cheques came to her that she did not expect. "Watch and pray lest ye enter into the temptation" of preparing for something destructive instead of something constructive.
I knew a woman who told me she always kept a long crepe veil handy in case of funerals. I said to her, "You are a menace to your relatives, and are preparing to hurry them all off, so that you can wear the veil." She destroyed it.
Another woman who had no money decided to send her two daughters to college. Her husband scorned the idea and said, "Who will pay their tuition? I have no money for it." She replied, "I know some unforeseen good will come to us." She kept on preparing her daughters for college. Her husband laughed heartily and told all their friends that his wife was sending the girls to college on "some unforeseen good." A rich relative suddenly sent her a large sum of money. "Some unforeseen good" did arrive, for she had shown active faith. I asked what she had said to her husband when the cheque arrived. She replied, "Oh, I never antagonize George by telling him I am in the right."
So prepare for your "unforeseen good." Let every thought and every act express your unwavering faith. Every event in your life is a crystallized idea. Something you have invited through either fear or faith. Something you have prepared for.
So let us be wise and bring oil for our lamps - and when we least expect it, we shall reap the fruits of our faith.We might say, according to your expectancies be it done unto you; so, what are you expecting? We hear people say: "We expect the worst to happen," or "The worst is yet to come." They are deliberately inviting the worst to come.
We hear others say: "I expect a change for the better." They are inviting better conditions into their lives. Change your expectancies and you change your conditions. How can you change your expectancies, when you have formed the habit of expecting loss, lack or failure? Begin to act as if you expected success, happiness and abundance; prepare for your good.
Do something to show you expect it to come. Active faith alone will impress the subconscious. If you have spoken the word for a home, prepare for it immediately, as if you hadn't a moment to lose. Collect little ornaments, table-cloths, etc., etc.!
I knew a woman who made the giant swing into faith, by buying a large arm-chair; a chair meant business, she bought a large and comfortable chair, for she was preparing for the right man. He came. Someone will say, "Suppose you haven't money to buy ornaments or a chair?" Then look in shop windows and link with them in thought.
Get in their vibration: I sometimes hear people say; "I don't go into the shops because I can't afford to b