"It is your Father’s
good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) I know we have all heard this.
God knows I have said it often enough. But do we really believe it? As we think about it
we may say, "Yes, I have a home and a little money put away, but I worked to get
it."
It has been twenty years since I was working in Las Vegas and had just
spent my last dollar on breakfast at the Orbit. As I walked out of the restaurant, I said,
"Lord, what am I going to do?" And then I stepped on a twenty-dollar bill in the
street. I needed money and I found it. There are an infinite number of channels through
which our good comes but we become confused. We look at the ways that good comes to us and
think of them as the source of the good itself.
It is important to understand the distinction between the channels, or
ways good comes into our lives, and the Source which is the origin of all good. There was
a point beyond all time and space where there was no time nor space and no-thing-ness.
Then, within Divine Mind, there was an idea. Out of that idea the universe was born. None
of us could work long or hard enough to earn the universe. It was the Father’s good
pleasure to give it freely and completely.
Then there was an idea within Divine Mind of the expression of itself.
That expression of Divine Mind was freely given and is every person. Each of us is a
channel through which Divine Life expresses, but there is only one source of life. It is
not your life or my life; it is God-life expressing. It is the Father’s
good pleasure to freely express the principle of life. In each of our lives we have many
desires for many specific things. If God is the Source, why don’t the things drop
into our laps. The answer is that the Divine has created generically the energy or
substance necessary. We form substance into the specifics which meet our needs; generic
creation is ours to use.
The Divine which created this universe has a characteristic and that is
givingness. We think of the act of giving, but givingness is a quality of the
Divine. It must give; that is part of its nature. Out of itself it has given the universe,
everything in it, you and everything you will ever need. Since it is the nature of God to
give, it makes our work easy. If there is givingness, then there must be
receivingness. If we would receive what God is already giving, our lives would be so
much simpler. We get caught up in beliefs that we have to do something to get it, that it
has to come from some distant place or that it takes so long to come. If we set up
conditions in our minds that our good will come by getting a different job or making more
money or by being in the right place at the right time, then we are inhibiting the
universe’s givingness.
In the Bible, this idea of God as givingness is well established
through statements we call "the promises." We all make promises and we do intend
to keep them–well, most of them–or at least some of them, some of the time. It
is not the same with the universe; it cannot be. This is proven daily. All the devices in
our lives work every day in the same way. Electricity continues to light our homes, planes
continue to fly and water runs downhill. These operate under principles that do not and
cannot change. Simply stated, the promises of God are the laws of God which are
unchanging. Some of those promises are: "I am the Lord who heals you; I am making all
things new; Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; I will also give you riches,
possessions and honor."
God must give; if we would do our part, we would receive. That seems to
be difficult for many of us. What is required to accept the promises of God? A little
thing called faith and that is where it all seems to break down. Abraham represents faith
and in his life you will see that at times his faith was very much in God and at other
times not so much in God. He represents faith, but a faith that is growing and developing.
"Behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of
nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings
shall come forth from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your
descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God
to you and your descendants after you." (Gen 17:4,6,7) We are the descendants of
Abraham; the same promise stands for us also. Know the promise, believe in it and receive
the rewards of it. The formula is simple. Our faith must be in the presence of God as givingness,
in our lives at all times and in all places, providing for us always without
qualification. We do not have to postpone or stop receiving by placing limitations on the
channels through which we receive.
God is givingness; it is its nature. Givingness is
balanced within mankind by receivingness. There is only one source of giving but
infinite ways to receive. It is necessary that we see beyond the various ways we receive
our good to the Source. The ways that good comes to us change, but the Source never
changes. Channels open and close, but the infinite Source is ever giving itself to all
creation. If we remember the Source, it does not matter how channels open and close. When
we remain in a receiving attitude, our good comes through one channel or another, but come
it must because it is the Father’s good pleasure to give.