The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity (Rediscovered Books): Forces That Bring Riches to You

Introduction

There’s Gold Dust in the Air for You!

This book is the result of several recent recessions and many years of lean living. Nobody likes recessions and nobody likes lean living–and indeed nobody should like them. For fifteen years I tried to find such a book as this one. During those years of searching the bookshelves, I found that there are many books which give various ideas, but in none of them did I find a set of compact, simple laws for assuring success. I began searching for a book such as this after having been widowed and left with a small son to rear and educate. Since I had no training for work and no means of income, I would have given anything to have known then about the power of prosperous thinking.

For a while I experienced depression, ill health, loneliness, financial lack and a sense of complete failure. It seemed that the whole world was against me, and that everything that I did went wrong. But with my son to provide for, I could not settle for failure. I had to succeed for his sake as well as for my own. Finally, when I was at my lowest ebb emotionally, physically and financially, I learned about the power of thought as an instrument for success or failure. I came to realize that the right use of my mind could become the key to healthy, happy, prosperous, successful living.

As soon as I grasped this wonderful success secret, the tide began to change!

The Birth of Prosperous Thinking

You’ve heard much in recent years about positive thinking. Out of the recessions and lean years another term has been born prosperous thinking. The word prosper means to flourish, succeed, thrive, to experience favorable results.

You are prosperous to the degree that you are experiencing peace, health, and plenty in your world. While prosperous thinking means many things to people, basically it gives you the power to make your dreams come true, whether those dreams are concerned with better health, increased financial success, a happier personal life, more education and travel, or a deeper spiritual life.

This book plainly shows how prosperous thinking has helped people in every walk of life to experience these results. Furthermore, it shows how prosperous thinking can do these things for you, too! As you read this book, chapter by chapter, you will automatically begin to develop the power of prosperous thinking, and, almost as easily, you will begin to reap a harvest of prosperous results.

The Salesman With the Golden Touch

Years ago, a salesman used the power of prosperous thinking, although he may not consciously have been aware of it. When people asked him, How’s business? he always gave this standard answer: Business is wonderful because there’s gold dust in the air! For him it seemed to certainly be so–every contact became a sale. After a while, whenever his name was mentioned, people always said, Yes, everything he touches turns to gold.

The Laws of Prosperity

During my first year in the ministry, one of the most severe business recessions since World War II hit this country. Members of my congregation began asking for lectures on ways to survive this difficult period. It was then that these dynamic laws of prosperity began to take form. And, with breathtaking rapidity, these ideas worked–for all types of people!

How the Laws Have Worked for Others

For instance, within a week after the first lecture, two secretaries had received increases in pay, one with a promotion and new title. A stockbroker soon reported that he had more business than he had dared hope for, although most of his fellow workers were comparatively idle. One client whom he had not seen for several years appeared and handed him a check to invest for $200,000! A month after beginning to deliberately invoke prosperous thinking, his income was four times its usual amount. A lawyer, who had several industrial clients then on strike or out of work, reported that the recession was suddenly over for him. His income zoomed upward into the $2,000 a month bracket, which at the time seemed a great increase, though later after he established a definite pattern of prosperous thinking, it seemed only normal.

A steel manufacturer’s agent, whose business was affected by the recession, reported that he unexpectedly received an order amounting to $4,500 which he had not solicited. One woman was a saleslady in a department store which employed more than 100 people. All of her fellow workers had been thinking and talking hard times. At the end of the month, after this woman began to deliberately think prosperously, she was the only one in the store who received a commission check for having oversold her quota for the month. The other employees had decreed hard times and had gotten such results for themselves.

The owner of an electrical business had an outstanding account of $750 owing his company. As he began to think of those owing him as prosperous, the account was quietly paid. A jeweler had an indebtedness owing him which he tried every means he knew to collect, including the use of unkind letters, all to no avail. When he, too, decided to think in prosperous terms about himself and the one owing him, to his amazement the creditor quickly paid up. One family that desired freedom from indebtedness suddenly inherited a nice sum of money. A government employee received a raise in pay that had been pending in Congress for several years. A telephone company employee also received a general raise that had been promised months earlier. A construction engineer received a new assignment to a 15.5 million dollar construction job, after having served on a million and a half dollar construction job. One couple even received an all-expense trip abroad!

These are but a few examples of the power of prosperous thinking.

Prosperity Brings New Look and New Health

But more than financial returns appeared. As I weekly lectured on prosperous thinking, I began to realize that the people in attendance were beginning to blossom forth with a new look–a look of inner peace, poise, happiness, security and stability not previously apparent. The failure look of depression and discouragement was replaced with the look of success, self-confidence and inner happiness. The look of defeat was replaced with a look of dominion, authority, victory. It was wonderful to behold!

New mental and physical health appeared for a number of people, too. One businessman had been told most of his life that he had a serious heart condition that would have to be pampered constantly. As he began to apply the power of prosperous thinking in every phase of his world, he relaxed more and more in mind and body. Tension, both conscious and unconscious, gradually eased. After a time his doctor stated that his earlier heart trouble had vanished. Now, several years later, he remains healthier and happier than ever before.

Several people with nervous conditions found new health, serenity and peace of mind. A housewife in this group had for years visited a series of doctors who could find nothing organically wrong with her. As she began deliberately to practice prosperous thinking, she began to think more lovingly of others–including her husband! Her new attitude of appreciation gave him a feeling of approval he had not had from his wife in many a year. This, in turn, added to his self-confidence and was reflected as new success in his work. His new job success brought a happiness and satisfaction to their marriage that had long been missing. This woman’s health improved so much that she soon appeared years younger, and her aches and pains faded as happiness came into the various departments of her life.

Your Whole Outlook Changes

A lonely, unhappy businesswoman who had often threatened suicide became so intensely interested in the laws of prosperity that she found interests outside herself. This led to a happier, more balanced life. The suicide talk stopped. A housewife and also a businessman, whose secret drinking had become serious problems, found new hope in their practice of prosperous thinking. They began to realize that their drinking problems could be overcome. As they gained this victorious expectation, they were able to begin resolving and dissolving inner hostilities and conflicts. Their drinking gradually diminished. Several marriages were saved, after one or another of the marriage partners began to invoke these laws of prosperity. One person’s divorced partner returned and they were remarried. Several lonely, unmarried people were happily married, one after having been widowed for 20 years.

A businessman who had always detested his work found, as he began using these ideas, that he got a whole new perspective on his job, and in due time he no longer disliked it.

The Salesman Was Right

That salesman was right. There is gold dust in the air–for you, for me, for everyone. The economists know this because they declare that we have now entered one of the richest eras the world has ever known, which they are describing as The Golden Sixties. The scientists know that there is gold dust in the air because they declare this universe to be composed of nothing but radiant substance or ether, to which man has unlimited access. Psychologists and metaphysicians know about the gold dust. They declare that man forms his world from the rich, unlimited substance within him and around him through his thoughts, emotions, words and actions.

And so let us proceed in confidence, knowing that there is gold dust in the air– and that there is gold dust everywhere. As you begin reading this book, no matter what the conditions of your life may now be, do so in this attitude of mind: There is gold dust in the air–for me. Through definite, deliberate prosperous thinking, I now begin assimilating that gold dust. And even now I am beginning to experience gold dust results!

Now proceed quickly to the following pages where you will learn the exciting gold dust secrets of countless others.

Catherine Ponder

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 that–solve 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 man’s blindness to God’s 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 mankind’s 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 can’t 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.

An analyst recently declared to me that he had found the most common cause of failure in people is the conflicting idea about whether success is divinely ordained or divinely damned. For instance, he stated that many had assured him that failure was more spiritually approved than success, since riches are regarded as an object of worship or as a false god. This doctor further stated that he has spent many an hour explaining to people who are not succeeding that being success-minded is not serving a false god, and that they should stop using God as an excuse for their failures.

When you realize that God wants you to be prosperous and that God, as the Creator of this rich universe, is indeed the Source of your prosperity, then you are not worshiping riches. You are not making prosperity a false god. You are simply claiming your prosperous heritage from the Source of all your blessings. God pointed out the right spiritual attitude toward prosperity when He told Moses to remind the Children of Israel: But thou shah remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. (Deut. 8:18 ASV) The word wealth means grand living, and that is what a prosperous thinker should be working toward and should be expecting as his spiritual right. Perhaps you are recalling, at this point, a statement I also heard as a child which confused me about prosperity being a spiritual blessing. People often said, I am poor but I’m a good Christian. Even though I come from a family that has produced several ministers, I always shuddered when I heard that statement. My immediate reaction was, Why should Christians or any other group have to be poor? God isn’t poor and He is our loving Father. Then, too, that statement made it sound as if all the rich folks were bound for hell. Somehow I could not figure out why rich people had to go to hell just because they were prosperous. It seemed rather inconsistent to me.

The Bible is a Prosperity Textbook

Upon entering the ministry, I decided to settle the issue within my own mind by studying the Biblical view of prosperity versus poverty. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the Bible is the greatest textbook on prosperity ever written! The Bible clearly shows that you have not been pleasing God by settling for lack and limitation in your life, any more than you have been pleasing yourself. The very first chapter describes the rich universe created for man; the last book of the Bible symbolically describes heaven in rich terms. Most of the great men of the Bible were either born prosperous, became prosperous or had access to riches whenever the need arose. Among them were Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Elijah and Elisha.

Why Poverty Is Not Spiritual

You may wonder why there has been so much talk of sacrifice, persecution, and hard times as necessary phases of the spiritual way of life. History reveals that the inspired yet practical teachings of the Bible continued to be observed during the early centuries, but soon religion became more secularized, leading to variations and departures from the original teachings. Later, the feudal systems during the Middle Ages assured wealth only for the privileged few.

During this period, the teaching of poverty and penance was offered to the masses as the only way to salvation, in order to keep people in poverty, and to make lack and privation a supposed Christian virtue. Unsuspecting millions were led to believe that it was pious to be poor, a belief which was useful in forestalling revolution among the masses. Some of those old feudal ideas about poverty as a spiritual virtue have persisted until today, but they are false, man-made ideas and not God’s rich Truth for you and me.

Thus, make no further excuses to yourself or others for wanting to be prosperous. It is a divine desire that should be given divine expression. You can boldly give thanks that prosperity is your divine heritage; that the Father’s desire for you is unlimited good, not merely the means of a meager existence.

Right Attitudes Will Pay Your Bills

Now, in order to help you establish the all-important prosperous attitude, that God is the Source of man’s supply as the Creator of this rich universe, and that God’s will for you is therefore the wealth of the universe, I suggest that you paraphrase the words of the Lord to Moses: I will remember the Lord, God, for He it is that giveth me power to experience wealth.

Perhaps you are thinking, Yes, but is this kind of thinking practical? Can such attitudes actually help put shoes on the baby, food on the table and pay the rent? Yes, it can! Recently, I talked with a young woman who seemed to have everything against her. When stricken with paralysis, her drinking, gambling, non-working husband deserted her, leaving several children to support and educate. Though she had a roof over her head, it was mortgaged. Though her husband was required by court order to provide a small monthly allowance for support of the children, it was insufficient to meet their needs. However, each time that I visited this woman, who for many months was bedridden and more recently confined to a wheel chair, she always joyously reported new channels of supply which had opened to her.

On one visit, she stated that she had been given enough canned food to last several months; that money had appeared as needed for clothes for her children from some relatives in a distant state; that her own medical expenses were being met by a friend who is overseas; that, indeed, every financial need was being met. Fresh paint had even arrived for the outside of the house and a neighbor was busily repainting it!

When I asked what her prosperity secret was and how she had been able to meet every bill on time, while she was in a wheel chair with no ample or steady income, she said that one prayer had been her great source of strength and supply: Whenever a financial need was near, she would quietly meditate over and over upon this promise from the 46th Psalm: Be still, and know that I am God.

One day the mortgage payment was due on the house in the amount of $40. She had not a cent of the money, so she quietly began to think on these words: Be still, and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God at work in this situation now. Around noon she got a sense of peace about the situation and so completed her meditation period. About an hour later, as she was being served lunch by a relative, in walked a neighbor who placed some money in her hand. He said, Our Sunday School class got to thinking about you. There was some extra money in the treasury and we decided we would like to share it with you. The amount he handed her was $40! This woman, recognizing God as the Source of her supply, has proved that this Source will never fail her, even under extreme conditions of ill health, marital disappointment and financial uncertainty. Of course, her great desire is to become self-supporting and financially independent of gifts from relatives, neighbors and friends. Surely she will realize this desire as she perseveres in prosperous thinking. She is now beginning to walk again for the first time in several years and will soon be able to work, too. Meanwhile, she is proving that God’s rich supply can come in many unforeseen ways to meet the needs of the moment, regardless of life’s hard conditions.

The Psalmist was recognizing God as the Source of his supply when he declared, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It is a good prosperity prayer to declare often. A housewife needed $100 to cover two bills that were due by the end of the week. Early that week, whenever fear tried to creep in as to how she would pay those bills, she declared over and over, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. On Friday morning, the day the bills were due, a check arrived in the mail for $110! It was from a company her husband had worked for several years previously. They wrote a letter saying that they had just found in her husband’s account that this amount was still due him; and that they were enclosing it to clear his records with them. A businessman with a large family was getting toward the end of the month financially. He was paid once a month and it was still a week until payday. The groceries were getting low. His wife reminded him of these facts on Friday before Saturday morning grocery shopping time. Together they agreed to look to God for their supply and to affirm guidance. They did so by constantly affirming, Our sufficiency is of God. Saturday morning the mail arrived with a check from the State revenue department enclosing an income tax refund in the amount of $60! This couple was expecting several hundred dollars in Federal income tax refunds but had forgotten about a possible State tax refund. The amount covered their needs nicely until payday.

A saleswoman who had had a lot of financial expense and whose sales had fallen off decided to look to God as the Source of her supply by affirming over and over from the Lord’s Prayer, Give me this day my daily bread. It was like