They purchased them for me as gifts. In each instance, it was items of clothing I had been mentally imaging as hanging in that closet! One friend back home went on a shopping trip there. We had not corresponded in some time, so she had no conscious way of knowing about the empty closet. Nevertheless, packages arrived with gifts of clothing for me resulting from her shopping trip. She wrote later, “I just kept ‘getting the feeling’ you could use those various items, and somehow I could not resist getting them for you. I shall be very happy if you can use them.” I learned quite a lesson from this experience. None of this happened until I freely released the clothes I had sent my sister. A gift that is not freely released after being given is not a gift at all. If you cannot give freely, don’t bother. But if you do give, be sure you graciously release what you have given. Otherwise, no good has been done; no vacuum has been formed.
Use the Substance at Hand
Another way of invoking the vacuum law of prosperity is by using your present visible substance without withholding it, thereby making way for new prosperity to flow to you. However, you have to do this in a certain attitude of mind in order to produce rich results.
When there does not seem enough prosperity on hand to meet present needs or when you seem blocked in attaining greater prosperity, take control of the situation; take control in your thoughts and feelings. Rather than feeling helpless, defenseless, or sorry for yourself, declare to those financial appearances: Peace, be still.
Take your wallet, checkbook or other tangible evidences of financial supply in your hands and declare concerning them: You are even now filled with the rich bounty of God who supplies my every need now. Then is the time to fearlessly and boldly use the substance they contain as far as it will go in the present situation. If there are bills to be paid, do not wait until “enough money” comes in to pay all of them, but go right ahead in faith and pay those you can. That is breaking the substance on hand and sending it forth, so that it can multiply.
Look Up! Toward Prosperity
Establishing and maintaining a prosperous attitude just as though your bounty was already completely visible is important at this point. This is not the time to talk lack, to withhold, or to practice stringent economy. Instead, this is the time to use up to the last of your financial assets to the last penny–if necessary. If you withhold, talk about financial lack at this point, it will cost you double. Instead, look up mentally and give thanks for the substance you already have to send out. Then boldly send it forth with a rich flourish and a rich blessing. Joyously declare: This is the bounty of God and I send it forth with wisdom and joy. When you “look up,” regardless of appearances to the contrary, you are always provided for!
Perhaps the person who taught me the most about this phase of the vacuum law of prosperity is a quiet, unassuming housewife who constantly “looks up,” boldly sending forth the money in her pocketbook with a rich flourish. Unfailingly, she is provided for in opulent ways.
Several years ago she became interested in beautifying the church in which I was then serving. Quietly, she came to me and suggested various improvements she would like to make, assuring me that she had “private funds” to do this. It was months later that I learned the “private funds “she had were her own grocery money, which she generously used for some lovely items for the church.
In that way she began to send forth with a rich flourish the money she had. As she continued to “look up,” her every private need was met. New channels of supply opened to her and her husband in most unexpected ways, so that for the first time in her life she employed a maid, received gifts of a new car and a monthly allowance.
As for the church redecoration, it “snow-balled” and many rich gifts then came, all because one housewife dared to quietly “look up” and use the substance at hand boldly, fearlessly, richly–even if that substance was her own grocery money. It overwhelms me even now to realize what faith she has had in the vacuum law of prosperity, and what rich results she continues to experience. She has often said that she has had no financial need that has not been met, since she began forming a vacuum.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
Another way to “look up” regardless of financial appearances is to put your best foot forward. Wear your best clothes; ‘look your best’. Live as richly as possible on what you already have. I recall once needing new clothes for a conference I was required to attend, but there seemed no money on hand for new clothes. When I prayed about the matter, I got the feeling that I should begin wearing my very best clothes in order to help me feel rich. Every day for almost a week I wore my best dress, over and over. One day a gift of money was sent to me for some services I had rendered in the past. Of course, I immediately shopped for the desired new clothes.
When you have released, let go, and formed a vacuum for new prosperity, that is the time to do whatever you can to effect the rich feeling, the rich atmosphere, the rich look with your present substance. Mention the apparent lack or vacuum to no one. Speaking of economic lack and limitation keeps many people in the poorhouse financially. Never think of yourself as poor or needy. Do not talk about hard times or the necessity for strict economy. Do not think how little you have, but how much you have.
As you form a vacuum and let go of what you do not want; as you use your present visible supply to meet the immediate needs as best you can, not withholding it; and as you live as richly as possible in the face of appearances–the rich results will begin to come forth. Almost mysteriously, new channels of supply will appear to meet your needs. You will discover other financial assets in your midst, of which you were previously unaware, to meet your needs. Other people will unknowingly do things to add to your supply, too.
In quietness and confidence is your strength when there is a need for greater prosperity, if you dare to “look up,” bless, and break the substance at hand in whatever ways seem best. Always ask for divine guidance concerning the practical as well as the spiritual ways in which you may form a vacuum for new prosperity when these financial needs loom upon you. Don’t get panicky; this is just further opportunity for you to prove that the invisible laws of prosperity can produce visible, satisfying results. This is just your initiation in the power of prosperous thinking.
If you learn how to form a vacuum for new good early in your conscious development of prosperous thinking, then you do not panic at financial challenges, but know you can and shall meet them victoriously and be much richer in the long run for having learned how to use the invisible laws of supply to meet visible needs.
Often when you are forming a vacuum by using what you have, you find that the amount on hand is sufficient; that too much is wasted or spoiled; and that that amount which at first seems small or even insufficient, becomes adequate as you use it fearlessly. It even seems to supply you during that period when no more substance immediately appears, if you continue to use it fearlessly, and in the faith that every need is being met.
Make Room for Your Good
We all want better financial conditions and we should have them. Here is the way to obtain them: Do not talk about financial lack, but begin thinking in terms of the rich, universal abundance that is everywhere. Then learn to let go, to give up, to make room for the things you have prayed for, worked for and so strongly desire. As you give up and cast away old ideas, attitudes, old possessions, and put in their place new ideas of prosperity and progressive achievement, your conditions will steadily improve. You always want something better than you now have. It is the urge of progress. Just as children outgrow their clothes, you outgrow former ideals, broadening your horizons of life as you advance.
There must be constant elimination of the old to keep pace with this growth. When you cling to the old, you hinder your advance or stop it altogether.
Why not dare to form a vacuum now, and invite that complete prosperity and success which you have so yearned to experience and which is divinely meant for you?
Chapter Four
The Creative Law of Prosperity
Let us get down