Mastering Money

The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity : A Simple Guide to Unlimited Abundance
by Edwene Gaines

Chapter 1

We as a human race have managed to build the internal combustion engine, eradicate polio, and make TV dinners you can heat in just minutes in the microwave. But we have not yet learned one of the most important things of all: how to form a healthy attitude toward money. We have to learn to be masters of our money, and not let it be the master of us. We must realize that the power to bring about real and positive change in this world is not in gold bullion, stocks, or bonds. Instead, the power is within us, as children of God, at the level of our spirituality.

Money is a means to an end, not the end itself. You cannot eat money, and it cannot keep you warm or cuddle you at night. Simply having money is not the goal. The goal is to use it to do whatever your heart leads you to do, and to do that which fulfills your divine purpose.

Many people who attend my workshops struggle with conflicting issues of morality and money. Perhaps you do, too. Perhaps you've been brought up to believe that money is evil. Perhaps you were taught the myth of noble poverty—that good people don't dream about wealth and prosperity, because doing so is greedy. As a result, part of you chooses to remain poor, and your life feels constrained and unfulfilled. You may have a sense that your dreams will never be achieved, and you live with the fear that life is passing you by.

Then perhaps another part of you—the part that caused you to pick up this book—believes that God wants more for you, that it's not God's will for you to endlessly struggle from paycheck to paycheck. In your heart you know that God loves you and wants the best for you. You sense that God has a special plan for you, and that if only you had the financial means, you could be out in the world, doing God's work and making a positive difference in the lives of other people, as well as fully making the most of this precious life that God has blessed you with.

A lot of us are torn between these two sides of ourselves because of the contradictory messages we've gotten our whole lives concerning spirituality and money. It's no wonder that when it comes to our finances, so many people feel conflicted and confused.

LEARNING TO ACCEPT OUR DESIRES

Many people want something—a house, a car, a new pair of shoes—but feel that they can't afford it. So they feel virtuous when they let themselves off the hook by saying, "Oh, I don't really want that thing. And anyway, I shouldn't be so materialistic."

Contrary to popular belief, God doesn't love a martyr. I should know; I played one for many years. Denying our material desires is not what God wants us to do. What we could choose to do instead is grow, develop our courage and faith, and stand up and say without guilt or hesitation, "This is what I want!"

If you desire something, and then you deny that you desire it, that's cowardice and spiritual laziness. And what's more, it's a lie.

God wants us to do more, to have more, to play big. God doesn't want us to deny our desires. After all, God put those desires in us, and we must celebrate them! Life is not about struggling, and being unhappy, and then dying. It is about enjoying and appreciating everything life has to offer. Through joy, we glorify God.

These ideas may be new to you. They often are to the people who attend my seminars, and those people often have lots of questions. Let me pose some of the most common questions and share my ideas about them.

"WHAT IS MONEY, ANYWAY?"

There is a lot written about what money is. Some scholars say it is "deferred service." Some say it is energy. Some believe that money is a spiritual symbol of invisible spiritual substance. Spiritual substance is what the mystics call the invisible body of God out of which all things are created—your clothes, your jewelry, your shoes, and the chair you are sitting in. It's all created out of one invisible substance called the body of God.

Money is an energy system we are using right now, which I believe will one day disappear. Money will no longer be necessary. Because, as Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of the Unity Church, says, "We shall serve for the joy of serving." And when we do, everything that we need and want will flow to us. So we won't need money.

But money is not going to disappear until we have mastered it, until we know that there is really no power in it, that it's here as an item to serve us, and that we don't have to earn it, or struggle for it, or do anything we don't want to do to get money. We certainly don't have to work a job we hate for it.

I believe that God is not way high up, way far away. I believe God is within us. I believe God is a part of everything we see and do, no matter how mundane. And what is more mundane than money? We touch it and handle it every day, in so many big and small different ways. You carry it with you. Every single piece of our money, down to the lowly penny, has a prayer on it: In God we trust.

"IS IT GREEDY TO DESIRE MATERIAL GOODS?"

Being rich doesn't mean you're greedy or bad. Still, when we think of accumulating wealth, many of us think of Ebenezer Scrooge, counting his coins in a cold, unlit room, and we don't want to be like that. We may instinctively dislike and distrust people when we feel that they want everything for themselves, and nothing for anyone else.

But this need not be the case. Let's take as an example Oprah Winfrey, who has far, far more money than any one person could ever need or possibly spend. If great wealth is an indicator of greed, then she must be one of the greediest people on the planet. But do we think that Oprah is greedy and materialistic because she lives in lavish mansions? Of course not! We're too busy paying rapt attention to how she went to South Africa to work with AIDS orphans. We admire her for her genuine care for other people and for her giving and generous spirit.

Greed is when you say, "I want this, and I don't want you to have it." It's not greedy to say, "I want lots, and I want you to have lots, too." If you believe that there is no end to God's abundance, then everyone should have all that they want, and then more.

Money is like love: The more you give away, the more you have. Love is a limitless resource, and so is money, and both were created by God to enrich our lives and allow us to live fully, joyfully, and completely. And you're going to discover the truth of the law of compensation, that you cannot outgive God. Emerson said that: You cannot outgive God. And he was absolutely correct.

© 2005 Edwene Gaines. All rights reserved. No Part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

About the Author

Edwene Gaines, overcame poverty to live a lifestyle of wealth. She has been an ordained Unity minister for the past 25 years and gives prosperity workshops throughout the United States, speaking as often as 250 times a year.