TURN
back to chapter 6 and read again the story of the man who formed a mental image
of his house, and you will get a fair idea of the initial step toward getting
rich. You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want; you
cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself.
You
must have it before you can give it; and many people fail to impress Thinking
Substance because they have themselves only a vague and misty concept of the
things they want to do, to have, or to become.
It
is not enough that you should have a general desire for wealth "to do good
with"; everybody has that desire.
It
is not enough that you should have a wish to travel, see things, live more,
etc. Everybody has those desires also. If you were going to send a wireless
message to a friend, you would not send the letters of the alphabet in their
order, and let him construct the message for himself; nor would you take words
at random from the dictionary. You would send a coherent sentence; one which
meant something. When you try to impress your wants upon Substance, remember
that it must be done by a coherent statement; you must know what you want, and
be definite. You can never get rich, or start the creative power into action,
by sending out unformed longings and vague desires.
Go
over your desires just as the man I have described went over his house; see
just what you want, and get a clear mental picture of it as you wish it to look
when you get it.
That
clear mental picture you must have continually in mind, as the sailor has in
mind the port toward which he is sailing the ship; you must keep your face
toward it all the time. You must no more lose sight of it than the steersman
loses sight of the compass.
It
is not necessary to take exercises in concentration, nor to set apart special
times for prayer and affirmation, nor to "go into the silence," nor
to do occult stunts of any kind. There things are well enough, but all you need
is to know what you want, and to want it badly enough so that it will stay in
your thoughts.
Spend
as much of your leisure time as you can in contemplating your picture, but no
one needs to take exercises to concentrate his mind on a thing which he really
wants; it is the things you do not really care about which require effort to
fix your attention upon them.
And
unless you really want to get rich, so that the desire is strong enough to hold
your thoughts directed to the purpose as the magnetic pole holds the needle of
the compass, it will hardly be worth while for you to try to carry out the
instructions given in this book.
The
methods herein set forth are for people whose desire for riches is strong
enough to overcome mental laziness and the love of ease, and make them work.
The
more clear and definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon
it, bringing out all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be;
and the stronger your desire, the easier it will be to hold your mind fixed
upon the picture of what you want.
Something
more is necessary, however, than merely to see the picture clearly. If that is
all you do, you are only a dreamer, and will have little or no power for
accomplishment.
Behind
your clear vision must be the purpose to realize it; to bring it out in
tangible expression.
And
behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing
is already yours; that it is "at hand" and you have only to take
possession of it.
Live
in the new house, mentally, until it takes form around you physically. In the
mental realm, enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want.
"Whatsoever
things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have
them," said Jesus.
See
the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time; see
yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in imagination just as you
will use them when they are your tangible possessions. Dwell upon your mental
picture until it is clear and distinct, and then take the Mental Attitude of
Ownership toward everything in that picture. Take possession of it, in mind, in
the full faith that it is actually yours. Hold to this mental ownership; do not
waiver for an instant in the faith that it is real.
And
remember what was said in a proceeding chapter about gratitude; be as thankful
for it all the time as you expect to be when it has taken form. The man who can
sincerely thank God for the things which as yet he owns only in imagination,
has real faith. He will get rich; he will cause the creation of whatsoever he
wants.
You
do not need to pray repeatedly for things you want; it is not necessary to tell
God about it every day.
"Use
not vain repetitions as the heathen do," said Jesus said to his pupils,
"for your Father knoweth the ye have need of these things before ye ask
Him."
Your
part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a
larger life, and to get these desire arranged into a coherent whole; and then
to impress this Whole Desire upon the Formless Substance, which has the power
and the will to bring you what you want.
You
do not make this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by
holding the vision with unshakable PURPOSE to attain it, and with steadfast
FAITH that you do attain it.
The
answer to prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but
according to your faith while you are working.
You
cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to
tell Him what you want, and the forgetting Him during the rest of the week. You
cannot impress Him by having special hours to go into your closet and pray, if
you then dismiss the matter from your mind until the hour of prayer comes
again.
Oral
prayer is well enough, and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in
clarifying your vision and strengthening your faith; but it is not your oral
petitions which get you what you want. In order to get rich you do not need a
"sweet hour of prayer"; you need to "pray without ceasing."
And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause
its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so.
"Believe
that ye receive them."