Now, first of all, when you start with the realization that God is your mind, God is your consciousness, and that this consciousness is the substance and the law and the activity unto all formation, you have stated the truth that makes you free from the belief of a separation from God and the things of God, the things of good.

Understand that this entire universe is embodied in your consciousness and of your consciousness since God is your consciousness. Then all things become subject to God, which really means subject to your individual consciousness, your consciousness of truth.

Once you understand God as your individual consciousness, you will understand this entire universe to be but forms and activities of your consciousness, and subject to that divine consciousness of you, which is God.

Then you will never find yourself separated from any form of good. You will find then that it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. As a matter of fact you already have it. It is embodied within your consciousness.

Now, we come, at this point, to one of those points that separates us from the demonstration of our good, and that is in this: The Master says: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you.”

Now, in the subject of supply, every one on the spiritual path must ask themselves this question, “Do I really mean it when I say that I am seeking this ‘My peace,’ that is, the Christ peace, or am I still determined to have my human will and human way fulfilled?”

In other words, do I want the peace that the world giveth? Do I want my good to appear in the form that I believe to be for my good? You see, we entertain this false or material sense of creation, and we then want it in the form that we have decided is good.

But here we have, and on this point remember, all of Christianity is formed. There’s only one difference between the ancient Judaism—that is the Judaism of the days of Jesus, and his ministry of the Christ.

The Hebrews were of a material state of mind, even their worship was in forms of ceremonies, rituals, creed, and their sense of good was entirely on the human sense—in many ways, remember they had very fine and very high ideals of human good.

Remember it was our ancient Hebrew friends who gave us this idea of tithing, of setting aside ten percent of their possessions, land, cattle, whatever it is, for spiritual purposes. There’s no higher human ideal than the setting aside of a portion of our possessions for an unselfish and impersonal good. Tithing only got to be an evil when the church adopted it as a means of income and presented it to the people as an idea of: “You must give us this for your soul’s sake.”

And, of course, that really made a racket of it. That’s what we call those things today—rackets—where you impose your will on somebody and show them some good reason why they need your protection. And so the church had protection to give and it sold it to you for a tithe of your income—ten percent of your income.

Whenever anyone suggests the idea of tithing to any form of human institution for its support, it is merely adopting the church idea of supporting itself without too much labor.

But the idea of tithing as it was conceived by Abraham was a spiritual activity, which if followed today, would prove one of the greatest blessings in our individual, as well as, collective experience.

If you can see the benefit of expressing your gratitude for the furtherance of spiritual work, for benefits you have already received, for a joy or a service that you have already received, for the purpose of offering to others that which you have through Spirit discovered, you will soon find that the ten percent that you seem to give away will come back to you twenty, thirty, and fifty percent.

But let one trace of belief enter your mind that in giving that ten percent you are going to get, and you have voided the entire activity of tithing. You have then put it on the basis of an exchange with God, of a deal with God, and it will not work.

The outstanding experiences that we know of in tithing have been where men in their desperation—I’ve spoken of this before—one, a Jewish man in Milwaukee, and another, this LeTourneau.

Both of these men in their bankruptcies, in their loss, and both touting themselves good men, wondered why this had happened to them, and both discovered the same thing. They had left God out of their business, out of their lives.

Oh, I suppose they go to church, and I know this Hebrew went to his temple, but somehow the realization came that God had been left out, and he made an agreement with himself that if he ever got another job, no matter what it was, ten percent of his earnings would go to some impersonal cause.

And when he got his job it was only twenty dollars a week, and when he came home the first week with only eighteen dollars his wife asked why. Where was the other two dollars that he’d earned?

He reminded her of his promise to tithe, and her answer was, “Well, of course that’s a wonderful thing when we’re on our feet, but how are we going to live and support a family on eighteen dollars a week, twenty is bad enough, but eighteen is worse.

And he said, “How have we been supporting them these weeks when I’ve been unemployed and had no income?” And so out of that twenty dollars he set two dollars for his spiritual gift.

I knew that man up into the years when he was giving eighty percent of his income to charity and still having much more than a hundred thousand dollars a year left for his family.

And so it was with LeTourneau. In his bankruptcy he also figured something was wrong since he was a very religious man, but the idea came that he’d left God out of partnership, and he took Him in partnership to the extent of ten percent—not as a bribe—but as a partner.

And as you probably know, today he also gives eighty percent of his income to charity, and I understand has several hundred thousand a year left over for himself.

Now then, always this idea of giving, sharing, bestowing brings a spiritual prosperity for this reason. Now this is the principle in back of it. We are spiritual beings. We’re not human beings. We’re not mortal beings. We’re not material beings. We are spiritual beings.

If you want to know the truth, we’re children of God, we’re joint heirs with Christ in God to all the heavenly riches. All that the Father hath is mine. Now that’s the actual truth of being. I don’t care what any appearance to the contrary may be. That is the truth. Now how would I go about living that truth? By trying to get more or to share of the abundance that I already have?

Well, of course, you can see readily that the moment that I attempt to get something, the moment I attempt even to desire or want something, even something good, I’m denying my divinity. I’m denying my heir-ship with God.

I am denying that I already am the child of God, and that all that the Father hath is mine.

Now, there is only one way in which we can live, and that’s out of our true identity—first of all to know what it is, and secondly to accept it, and thirdly to live it.

And so, the only individual who is fulfilling his spiritual destiny is the one who is thinking of prosperity as an act of giving—not an act of getting. No one can fulfill the destiny of spiritual prosperity who has any thought of getting anything at anytime from anybody.

It is an utter impossibility to think of yourself as a spiritual being and then to desire something or to say I need something, because there’s only one thing I need, and that’s more outlets for pouring out.