Catherine Ponder - The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity: Forces That Bring Riches to You

Dancing Unicorn Books

Copyright 2016

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-0838-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Chapter One

The Shocking Truth about Prosperity

The shocking truth about prosperity is that it is shockingly right instead of shockingly wrong for you to be prosperous! Russell H. Conwell emphasized this in his famous Acres of Diamonds lectures:

I say you ought to be rich; you have no right to be poor. To live and not be rich is a misfortune and it is doubly a misfortune because you could have been rich just as well as being poor... We ought to get rich if we can by honorable methods, and these are the only methods that sweep us quickly toward the goal of riches. Please note that the word rich means having an abundance of good or living a fuller, more satisfying life. Indeed, you are prosperous to the degree that you are experiencing peace, health, happiness and plenty in your world. There are honorable methods that can carry you quickly toward that goal. It is easier to accomplish than you may now think. That, too, is the shocking truth about prosperity.

Several decades ago a businessman predicted that the religious leaders of the future would be forced to give more attention to helping their followers solve their economic and personal problems of the present; and that they would be less concerned with the dead past or the unborn future. I agree with that businessman and I wish to help you do just thatsolve your economic and personal problems of the present. As you do, your dead past and your unborn future will surely be taken care of.

You Should Desire Prosperity

Perhaps one of the greatest shocks I ever received was the one that became apparent when I began lecturing on prosperity. I soon realized that many of the people attending the lectures were still trying to resolve that old conflict of whether they should desire to be prosperous. Of course, they wanted prosperity; every normal person does. But they appeared to secretly wonder whether they should seek it or not, especially from a spiritual standpoint. Most of the business people attending the lectures seemed to feel guilty about wanting to be prosperous, though of course they were working hard every day in their jobs to do so. The question, obviously, was still in their minds: whether poverty was a spiritual virtue or a common vice. That conflict in their thinking was setting up a conflicting result in their affairs, which neutralized their efforts to succeed, no matter how hard they were working.

Soon it became apparent that it would take the expression of some bold, even shocking ideas on the subject to blast out the limited beliefs that had bound these people to mediocre living for years. Realizing this, I spent several lecture periods explaining how God, man, and prosperity are all divinely related. After the initial shock of these ideas had passed, these fine people were greatly relieved and very happy that, at last, they no longer had to feel guilty about wanting to be prosperous. It was then that they began to experience the previously described results in rapid time.

Since that time, in my lecturing around the country, in private counseling and correspondence on the subject with countless people, in radio, television and newspaper interviews, I find that the same idea still persists. Perfectly wonderful people seem quite confused about whether prosperity should be considered a spiritual blessing. But how relieved they are when shown that it definitely is.

Poverty is a Sin

And so again I say: It is shockingly right instead of shockingly wrong for you to be prosperous. Obviously, you cannot be very happy if you are poor, and you need not be poor. It is a sin. Poverty is a form of hell caused by mans blindness to Gods unlimited good for him. Poverty is a dirty, uncomfortable, degrading experience. Poverty is actually a form of disease, and in its acute phases, it seems to be a form of insanity. Poverty fills prisons with thieves and murderers. It drives men and women to drink, prostitution, dope addiction, suicide. It drives potentially fine, talented, intelligent children to delinquency and crime. It makes people do things they otherwise would never dream of doing. Communism, one of the most dread movements in the world today, often gets a stronghold as the direct result of poverty. The governments which have become Communist dominated have usually done so for financial reasons, believing it a way to financial security. The sinful results of poverty know no bounds. That is one of the reasons why, as a minister, I have felt so strongly led to do whatever I can to help people learn how to eradicate the sin of poverty from their lives. A doctor I know has said that he would have few patients if it were not for financial problems, which cause them worry, strain and tension, all of which lead to ill health. He states that our mental hospitals are filled with people who have found that financial strain over a long period impaired their minds and bodies to the point of incapacity. It has even been estimated that nine-tenths of mankinds ills are caused by the strain, misery and unhappiness of poverty.

Let us be done with thinking of poverty as a virtue. It is a common vice. If you have been living in financial lack and limitation, you have literally been living in vice. That, too, is the shocking truth about prosperity. But you need not continue living in financial vice. There is a way out.

Prosperity Is Your Divine Heritage

The Bible is filled with rich promises regarding your potential prosperity, as a child of God. You should be prosperous, well supplied and have an abundance of good because it is your divine heritage. Your Creator wants you that way! That is the shockingly nice truth about prosperity.

Besides, you cant be much good to yourself or to anyone else unless you are prosperous. The person who does not desire to be prosperous is abnormal, because without prosperity you live abnormally. You cannot live fully on the physical plane without proper food, comfortable clothing, warm shelter and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also needed for your physical life.

You cannot live fully on the mental plane without satisfying creative mental activity; without books and time to enjoy them; without time to enjoy music, art and other cultural interests; without opportunity and money for travel and intellectual association with others of similar interests. To live fully on the spiritual plane of life, you need time for quiet contemplation; for meditation, prayer, spiritual study, attendance at churches, lectures and satisfying association with others on the spiritual path. It is, therefore, of supreme importance that you be prosperous for your physical, mental and spiritual welfare and development.

Make no excuses for putting up with lack or accepting it as a permanent arrangement in your life. Do not go to the other extreme either, and talk of wanting to be prosperous for the good you can do. That is secondary. You want to be prosperous mainly because it is right that you should be. Prosperity is your divine heritage as the child of a King, as a son of God.

Success is Divinely Ordained

There is no reason for you to think of prosperity as something separate from your spiritual life or beyond the pale of religion. You do not have to try to live in two worlds where you run things for six days and then on the seventh give God a chance to show what he can do. Take God as a rich, loving, understanding Father into all your affairs each day of your week. Ask His divine instruction and guidance about all your affairs, financial and otherwise, and you will be pleasantly surprised how much better every phase of your life will become.