Expect the best and receive it

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EXPECTATION is the natural offspring of desire.

 

In unconscious growth, expectation always comes with desire. If it

were not so, the desire which is of the Law of Attraction, would

never be manifested or externalised, and there would be no visible

universe.

 

It is self-evident truth that the Love Principle, the attracting

forces that men call God, cannot exist without giving expression to

Itself. Such expression becomes what to us appears as externals, and

the principle and its expression are one. The same truth was given by

another in the words, " Man is God's necessity. "

 

Expectation, which is an act of the intelligence, clothes desire and

makes it apparent in the visible world of effects. Every power now

possessed by the individual has been first caused by desiring

something, and then by expecting it. It was in this way that man's

entire organic structure was built.

 

As time passed on and man's brain began to develop the reasoning

faculties, it transpired that desire and expectation, which on the

plane of unconscious growth had gone hand-in-hand, became separated.

This was in the process of transposition from the animal to the

intellectual plane. It is in this process of transposition now, and

though it is advancing more rapidly than ever before, it lacks much

of being completed. As soon as the reasoning powers began to depend

upon themselves for a solution of the many problems of life, they

received answers to nearly all of their questions from the negative

pole of truth; that is, answers which were in accord with their

limited knowledge. They made a critical examination, as they thought,

of desire, and exclaimed, " Why, this thing is of the devil! " But in

spite of their opinion of it, it did secretly mould the race's every

action until it began to be acknowledged as the basis of all growth.

 

It was now promoted in public opinion, and was called prayer; and the

people were exhorted to pray in faith for what they wanted, or in the

expectation that they would receive what they asked for.

 

One of the most common fallacies was to conceive of desire as being

both good and its opposite. One kind of desire they pronounced

carnal, the other divine. Now, all desire is the same in essence; it

is all divine. It is all a reaching forth of the spirit of growth

after greater knowledge and happiness. As before stated,

expectation accompanied every breath of desire during the period of

unconscious growth, and desire was fully realised by the animal. In

this way the animal powers increased and ripened up to manhood.

 

When man had learned to reason, the first use he made of it was to

doubt. He recognised his desires, but began to imagine that they

were mostly evil; and those he did not consider evil he ridiculed

and called them wild and visionary. He said they belonged to the

imagination, and, of course, amounted to nothing. He became that

anomaly of creation, a chronic doubter. He accepted nothing on trust

and looked upon credulous people with contempt. For ages he has

plodded along in the same grooves, and has thrown dirt and stones at

everyone who had intelligence enough to climb out of the grooves he

lived in. This is the case even to this day.

 

Why, it is a tremendous thing to make the statements made in these

pages, and only the most improvident and reckless thinker would dare

do it. Yes, improvident and reckless—a thinker who does not care what

the world thinks of him; who is resolved to burst the bonds of race

ignorance and set the people free in spite of opposition.

 

This mental scientist stands in the position of one who is willing to

be a fool for truth's sake. There is an ever-present atmosphere of

triumph surrounding a position like this. The glow of the conqueror

is felt, because of the certain knowledge that the thought in these

pages is true, and the knowledge that those who now reject it will

soon embrace it and be saved by it.

 

The opposition one meets with under such circumstances has no more

effect than a blow which a mother may receive from the sick and

suffering little one in her arms. This was the feeling of Jesus, when

He said, " If one shall smite thee on one cheek, turn to him the other

also. " This sentence alone proves that He recognised the great fact

of Mental Science; that all these errors we call sin are merely

ignorant beliefs; the result of misdirected intelligence on the part

of the people: " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. "

 

Desire attended by the expectation that the desire will be realised —

this is the mental attitude that brings all things to the individual.

Before this happy conjunction can be effected, however, it is

necessary that a man should know his position in the universe, and

his power. It is necessary that he should know how greatly he has

been belittled in the past, and how this belittling influence has

kept him from expecting that his desires would be realised. A sense

of unworthiness has crushed his desires and deadened his expectation

until he is a dwarf on the face of the earth.

 

His imagination is a part of himself that he cannot understand. He

thinks it is a sort of devil within him that lies to him whenever he

stops to listen to it. No one has ever known what the imagination is,

but recently it is given to me to see that the imagination is the

wings of the intellect, and that the seeming impossibilities it

unrolls before us, are all possible to us, and will all be made

manifest in the farther unfolding of our latent faculties. The

imagination is the advance courier of the future, and its mission is

to lure us onward—farther and farther from the hardened, fixed bounds

of our daily walk, to which we have tethered ourselves in resolute

disregard of the beckoning of the bright angel in front of us.

 

We have turned our backs on the imagination, as if it were our

bitterest foe, and we dwarf and dwindle and die with our eyes glued

resolutely to the past We will not look ahead, and so expectation

dies.

 

Growth is dependent upon two things: desire, which pulses through all

existing things, and expectation, which is of the intelligence. It is

true that the desire and the intelligence are one, but the desire is

internal and the intelligence is external. In other words desire is

the soul of which expectation is the body; or, in other words still,

expectation is the materialising power of desire, and makes it

visible or manifest. Therefore, expectation is to desire what nature

is to the Principle of Attraction, and desire might as well not be as

for expectation not to clothe it and cause it to show forth.

 

From the foregoing statements, the entire position of the race is

defined. Man has crucified desire because he thought it was selfish,

unholy. Nevertheless, desire has pushed through and beyond his

conscientious scruples, and has come into acknowledged recognition

under the name of aspiration, or prayer; but even as aspiration or

prayer, it is held back from fulfilment by the lack of expectation,

so that the things that we desire are not clothed upon and made

manifest to us.

 

Thus, after getting the consent of our conscience to desire

something, we immediately begin to belittle ourselves, and instead of

claiming boldly what we want, we pray, " O Lord, if it is Thy will

that we should have this thing, please deliver it to us. " The

consequence is that our weakness receives the answer which it merits,

and we fail to get the thing desired. As said once before, there

never was a beggar on the earth until the advent of man; and looking

over the past history of man, it really seems as if God, by which I

mean the Principle of Attraction, is absolutely resolved to establish

us in our independence by refusing our requests. And, indeed, this

Principle of Attraction is indifferent to us, and it speaks to us

through its indifference, saying, " Oh! man, I exist for your taking;

take me or let me alone; learn by my silence that you are my

spokesmen, and I the infinite reservoir from which you draw as you

need, and behold, the supply will ever remain equal to your demand. "

 

Man is thus thrown entirely upon himself. During the period of his

unconscious or unreasoning growth, he does draw upon the limitless

reservoir as he needs, and does his own growing. His brain has

yielded him no thought of his unworthiness, and he takes what he

desires, always expressing it in use. This limitless reservoir is as

free to us today as in the past period of our growth, and when we

fully know this, we shall re-establish our growth at the point where

unconscious growth dropped us; but in coming into this position, we

must gradually learn that we are perfectly individualised beings;

that no God holds us accountable for past or present sins; that there

are no sins and never have been; that what the world calls sins are

merely the mistakes our ever-growing intelligences have made in

coming up to our present standing place. Being thus exculpated from

the accusation of conscience, we begin to see ourselves as we are.

 

And what are we? I answer that we are wonderful creatures. Only think

how we have forged our way up from such small beginnings, and where

we stand now; think what conquerors we are; how we have bursted first

one bond of ignorance and then another; and how lobe after lobe has

put forth in our unfolding brains, like buds on flower stalks, and

how as each one put forth it held in latency the germ of another yet

to appear; and how it is evident that there will never be any

cessation of the unfoldment of fresh buds of unimagined power within

us!

 

Can anyone fail to see that man is a scroll unfolding outwardly

continually? And it is because he only unfolds outwardly that his

habit of looking backward stultifies him so.

 

Whatever you desire, claim it. This is not the expression of an

anarchist, and does not relate to external wealth at all. It relates

to such things as build the man into health, strength and beauty —

things the taking of which robs no one.

 

But how shall I claim health, strength and beauty?

 

Make a statement of your desires, then ask yourselves the

question, " Do I not know that these things exist? Do I not see their

manifestation every hour in the wonders of the lily and the rose? How

did the lily and the rose get them? "

 

The flowers get their health and beauty by desires unclouded by a

doubt of their power to obtain them.

 

Desire and expectation did the work for them, and they will do it for

you, if you learn to expect as well as to desire.

 

The chief obstacle to overcome is the thought that there is some

impediment in the way of your getting what you want. When the truth

that we may have what we demand first dawns on one, it sometimes

seems as if there are mountains of impediments to overcome before one

can realise a desire. Once it is understood that the only impediment

is the belief that there are impediments, and when this is fully

realised, you will feel as light as a bird. Do you not see how this

fact brings us face to face with that great truth that all time is

now! and that eternity and immortality are ever present with us?

 

Once you know that there are no impediments to overcome in the

realisation of your desires, except your chronic habit of doubting,

you will see what a mighty power is embodied in yourself—no longer

weak, no longer dependent on any power in all the universe—the very

fountain-head of all power, the great and mighty Life Principle

itself to minister to your claims. Do you not see how this knowledge

of your position will place disease and death under your feet in an

instant? and do you wonder that it is difficult to write of these

shadows of the intellect as if they were, indeed, the realities the

world believes them to be?

 

To make this perfectly clear, let us recapitulate. Man is all mind.

He has been built by beliefs. It may be said of him that he is his

own statement of being. What he owns is what he has claimed through

intelligent unfoldment, and this includes such health, strength and

beauty as he possesses. It may be that instead of health, strength

and beauty, his body shows forth nothing but weakness. If this is the

case, then he must change his statement of being, which he can only

do by an intelligent recognition of truth. No amount of begging for

health and strength will do any good. Begging implies that the man is

not entitled to what he asks for. To cast such a shadow on your

perfect title in your thought will ruin your demand; for what you

want is yours; and unless you know this and make your demand on the

ground of your knowledge, and not base it on any ideas of generosity

from a higher power, you will not get it.

 

Make your demand, then, from the basis of your understanding, and

say, " I am entitled to every good I can recognise " ; then strive to

see that your position is right from an intelligent point of view. At

first it will almost seem as if your position is an aggressive one,

as if there were someone to dispute your right; but there is no one

to dispute it, unless it may be some lingering doubts existing in

your own mind concerning it, and these you must cast out.

 

And is this all? No, it is only half. After you have taken your

position and made your demand, look forward to its realisation;

expect it. Shut out every doubt. Be patient with it and faithful to

it. Days and weeks and months may pass, and your desire may seem as

far away as at first, but continue to hold, for the best things in

life are always worth the wait. Sooner or later things will start to

happen.

 

Supposing your desire is to start up your own business, but you don't

at present have the money to do so. You may receive an unexpected

phone call from an old friend that has recently had a windfall and is

looking for investment opportunities. Or you may get chatting to a

stranger on the bus that just happens to have connections with just

the right type of people you need to meet in order to get your

business enterprise off the ground.

 

Once the first fruits of your desire begin to manifest, take hold of

the opportunities that present themselves to you, and step by step

you will be led to the complete fulfilment of that which you desire.

 

Remember always to exercise cheerful expectancy, for it is your

Father's good pleasure to fulfil your desires.