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Money!
Prosperity!
Success!
The newstands are lined with magazines and
the bookstores are filled with books about these
subjects. Schools and colleges include special
classes in their schedules, motivational groups
conduct "how to" seminars and clinics, and pro
moters offer investment schemes and business
opportunities that propose to catapult you to the
top. Even certain religious groups have
developed "blessing plans" which they claim will
produce nearly-instant prosperity for those who
use them.
I've read a lot of these books and magazines,
and I've talked with lots of people about the most
popular success and prosperity programs. Some
of the programs I found interesting and
worthwhile, but others were either foolish or
outright rip-offs. Some of the religious ap
proaches are based on Scripture, while others are
based on mistaken interpretations.
6/HOW TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
Supernatural Prosperity
But there must be something more. Only God
16/HOW TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
Wise Ambition
John Dean, who was closely associated with
the Nixon administration, wrote an interesting
book entitled Blind A m b ition . In the book he
said, "If you want to be successful, volunteer for
the jobs no one else wants. Even if you don't
know how to do the work, you can soon learn.
In so doing you make yourself so valuable your
employer can't do without you. You rise in im
portance and are promoted. This increases your
incom e."
We may not agree with all of M r. Dean's
politics or other activities, but in this case his ad
vice is sound. You can put this to work at your
own job. If you honestly believe that your own
employer would never recognize your efforts and
reward you for it, then by all means change jobs
as soon as you can.
You can learn what you must know to achieve
success in your chosen field. It doesn't matter if
you have too little formal education. All profes
sions and leading business positions require more
40/H0W TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
You Can!
The trick to living life to the fullest is to
become a can d o person. By programming the
subconscious mind with positive, affirmative
beliefs, the subconscious immediately ap
proaches every challenge as though you were a
winner.
Some of the world's greatest athletes take ad
vantage of this and practice subconsciously when
44/HOW TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
Time is life!
The basic resource which each person starts
out with is the minutes, hours, days, and years
that will make up his lifetime. W hatever your
position in life, you have the same amount of this
precious commodity as everyone else alive.
Whether your name is Rockefeller, Ford, Edison,
Smith, Jones, or Lundstrom, you have exactly 24
hours in every day.
Most of us fail to realize— or we forget— that
we have less than 100,000 waking hours in a
lifetime and less than 10,000 working days. Life
is terribly short. If you begin your career at the
age of 21 and retire at age 65, you have only 528
months to fulfill your mission in life.
I didn't realize until a short time ago that an
average person spends 24 years of his lifetime in
bed. This is easy to figure out—simply divide a
24-hour day into three periods. Allow 8 hours
for work, 8 hours for sleep, and 8 hours for free
time. You will discover that one-third of a man's
lifespan of 72 years— or 24 years—is spent in
bed.
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ISO or 5?
Recently I came across one of the most amaz
ing stories of what can be accomplished through
successful time management. At the beginning of
World W ar Tw o, America began building Liber
ty ships for the Navy to use in the war effort. It
took 150 days to build one ship.
Because our need for ships was so desperate,
the word went out that the time had to be cut
down drastically. The builders analyzed all pro
cedures involved in constructing a ship and
reorganized the plant with speed in mind. The
time was cut down to 72 days.
But the planners didn't stop there. They kept
working, coming up with new ideas and new
time-saving proposals. Soon the time was down
to 46 days— then to 29 days. After more changes
and more ideas for proper use of time, a ship was
built in 10 days. Finally, toward the end of the
war, the Robert E. Peary was completed in an in
credible 4 days, 1 5 Vz hours!
HOW TO GET MORE LIFE OUT OF YOUR TIM E/55
Concentrate on Today
A word of caution about time— the most im
portant day in your whole life is the one you're
living right now. Don't allow yourself to be over
ly concerned about yesterday, last week, or last
month. Nor should you focus your attention so
much on tomorrow and the future that today is
used up in dreaming.
There are two days in every week you should
never worry about. One is yesterday, with its
S8/H0W TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
Be Interested in Interest
O f course, there are other kinds of credit
besides charge cards. There is the installment ac
count—or the easy-payment plan—which enables
you to make a sizable purchase by dividing the
purchase price into 12, 18, or 24 monthly
payments. Interest is added for this privilege.
And it is expensive. I'm told that the average
new-car loan in 1977 was for 44 months! W ith in
terest, these buyers will pay for their cars almost
twice!
Then there is “revolving credit," in which you
pay on your total debt and are still allowed to
add to that debt up to a set amount. Many
department stores provide this kind of credit.
Anytime you borrow money you don't have,
you must pay rent on that money. That rent is
called interest. If you borrow against the cash
value of a life-insurance policy, you will pay 6 or
7 percent. If you borrow at the bank, the rate
will range from 9 to 12.5 percent. A finance com
pany will charge from 18 to 25 percent. A credit
union normally charges from 10 to 12 percent,
and retail installment credit is even higher. When
68/HOW TO ENJOY SUPERNATURAL PROSPERITY
God Ow ns Everything
The first spiritual law for success and prosper
ity is—you must recognize that G od ow ns every
thing! A Christian doesn't own anything—he only
manages money for God.
Howard Hughes was a billionaire. When he
died, someone asked how much he left. The
answer was, "All of it." Here was a billionaire
who died naked, swatting flies.
In the ultimate sense you don't own anything.
You don't own houses or land, for as soon as you
die you leave it all.
You don't even own your children. Your
youngsters pass through you, but they are not of
you.
You don't own your body— it goes back to the
dust.
You don't own your spirit—it goes back to
God at your death.
You don't own your soul—it belongs to God.
God says "All souls are M ine."
So what do you own? Only one thing in the
entire universe—your will. If is y o u r so le p o sses
sion in life. You can say "yes" or "no"; you can
make choices on the direction you will go.
So the first spiritual law which helps form the
foundation for financial freedom in your life is to
recognize that G o d ow n s everythin g. You may
possess certain things, but mere possession is not
ownership. Time after time in His W ord God af
firms this truth:
PROSPER WITH THE OWNER OF EVERYTHING/93