I thought God printed his own money...  

~Zoo

I've just read the following in a book, and thought it was very powerful and significant. This is true meat for the soul:

"We all of us believe in God as the Source of all things, but some of us cannot quite see Him as our Supply, our Support, and our Sufficiency in all things. Why, if we accept Him as the Source of all? Is it not because we do not try to prove Him as such – truly and definitely try to prove Him?

Jesus, our Master and Teacher, has told us many times and in many ways of actual promises of the Father to those that love and trust Him. But we do not believe Him or we would prove it by acting as if we believed.

This is peculiarly true in the matter of material supply. How many really – unquestionably – trust Him? How many take no thought – are not anxious – at some time or other about what they shall eat or drink, or whether they shall be clothed, realising that their Heavenly Father knows their need of these things, and as commanded are seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, fully expecting all things to be added unto them?

Is it not so that instead of such expecting most earnest people go about trying to trust Him, but with so many sub-conscious doubts and fears that they actually drive the Good waiting to manifest far from them.

It resolves itself to this – and think these words over carefully: Until we learn that all that we have comes from the Father, and that God is our true Supply and Support, and we then act in that consciousness, KNOWING that as we use all in His service more and plenty will be given us for further use, we may find our present supply cut off or grow less, and we will be allowed to feel the stress of lack for a while. It is as if we must keep the stream ever flowing, and as we give out, more and more will be poured in. This law, which applies to all phases of human endeavour, is: ‘As you freely give, so will you freely receive.’

We all of us have to learn that just as we pinch and hold on to money we automatically stop its inflow to us. By learning to give or use money freely and fearlessly from a consciousness that knows that by every act of our giving we open the gate, as it were, for more to flow in, and in greater measure – for such is the actual way it does flow – naturally we not only never hesitate when our heart urges us to give, but we learn to love to give.

It is purely a matter of attaining the right consciousness – that of absolutely trusting in God as our supply. For many have discovered the law of loving giving which automatically brings its sure returns.

And you might as well know now that our loving Father is putting us through all experiences in life that seem so hard solely in order to bring us to such trust in Him. For He longs with a great longing to have us give up self, so that He can be all things to us and can do all things that He wishes to do through us and for us.

Some may say, why should any of our cherished things be taken away in order to turn us to God? Each can answer that question for oneself. Why did you not turn to Him before – really turn to Him? When you had health and money and loved ones and the desires of your heart, where and when did God come into your thoughts? Was He not then but a vague term, an abstract ideal, who stood as the fountain of all religious thought, but who actually had no real existence in your life? Yes, you accepted Him as the author of your being and that He was responsible for all things in your life. But did you really know Him?

Well, the time has now come for many when He can prepare your human mind so that it can become conscious of Him, can learn to know Him as He is, and can eventually co-operate with Him, by first letting Him use you and all that you are and have, and then giving to you those qualities of mind and soul and then those things in the material world for the purpose He intended from the beginning, for the good of many.

A tither is one who gives a tenth of his income back to God, seeking to support such phases of God's Work as enlist his heart interest. There are many notable instances of those who have attained to such faith and trust in Him that they have prospered to an almost incredible extent.

The law of giving does not pertain to money only, but is a phase of the greater law of Love, whose outer manifestation is service. And service is naturally pure giving – not only of money, which is the least that we can give in actual value, as it deals only with effects, but of spiritual help, which reaches into, heals and removes the cause.

We cannot impress too strongly upon true followers of Christ the vital importance of learning to live and work with this great Law of loving service, letting it rule in every thought, word and act. It is the basic element of discipleship and leads directly to the Kingdom

In this law is hidden the magic secret of attaining success, prosperity, health, happiness, peace and oneness with the Father. To fortify and strengthen you, read the Master’s own words regarding it all in the 6th chapter of Matthew, especially beginning with the 19th verse. Study it carefully, chiefly in order that you may see that our Father requires of us an absolute trust in Him, even exhorting us not to lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but to lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

Now try to realise that to have reached the stage of spiritual growth, where we gladly tithe (i.e. give) – materially or spiritually - we must know that we have had little to do with such growth. It was something within us that was growing, and in order to grow, some of the old confining and conflicting qualities of soul and the thoughts and ideas they engendered had to be loosened from our consciousness and left behind – that such was part of the cleansing process. And if such loosing and freeing hurt, which is natural, we should be glad, and should at once seek to learn why it hurt – and the quality of self that we being hurt was refusing to let go and was thus holding us back from the goal that awaits.

Keeping in mind the unconscious growth within taking place, we can then see that if health departed, or financial reverses came, or some loved one was taken away, or one of the cherished desires of our hearts was suddenly removed, that it was necessary to bring such about first in order to awaken the soul, and then when that was accomplished the mind’s attention could be turned to God, the Giver of all things.

We know that God, like an expert husbandman, when a branch does not blossom or bear any fruit, cuts it off, takes it away and burns it. On the other hand every branch that produces fruit such a husbandman trims close, lets it bleed, and thus purges it, in order that it may draw to itself the special renewing force of the life in the vine, which makes it grow more freely and thereby bring forth fruit more abundantly.

Christ is the conscious partaker and producer of the fruit of God’s love – is the Vine whose roots are in God – and ever seeks to produce through His people, the branches, but cannot until the branches recognise their identity with the Vine, and thus abide in Its life and lets Its life abide in and flow freely through them. Only then can that life blossom and bring forth its fruit plentifully.


“I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. ... These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”