{"id":218,"date":"2008-02-16T06:07:43","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T06:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/02\/god-put-the-tool-in-your-hands.html"},"modified":"2008-02-16T06:07:43","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T06:07:43","slug":"god-put-the-tool-in-your-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/02\/god-put-the-tool-in-your-hands.html","title":{"rendered":"God put the tool in your hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is more than meets the eye to the so-called Law of Attraction. Much more. Let’s take a look…
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\nNOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Openings<\/em>
\nThis week’s prose…the eighth in a series of excerpts from Happier Than God<\/em>.
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\nAs more and more people around the world are exploring the possibility that they, themselves, have the power to deliberately create whatever they choose, I think it will be highly beneficial to just take a breath here and look at\u2026
\n1.\tWhy Personal Creation works.
\n2.\tWhat we might use it for other than bringing ourselves more money, bigger houses, new cars, or more sparkling jewelry.
\n3.\tHow Personal Creation is reconciled with the all pain and suffering in the world, and how it can be effective in alleviating that pain.
\nWe are talking here about power, folks. We are talking here about huge amounts of power. But so much has been said and written about this power that as I began thinking about this book I found myself wondering, is this text really necessary? Will it really be helpful?
\nThen, just as I was about to drop the project…<\/p>\n


\n…I happened to see, on an Internet bookseller\u2019s site, a critical reader review of the way in which \u201cpositive thinking\u201d and Personal Creation is taught by some.
\nSaid this particular reader, in part:<\/p>\n

I have been interested in the power of the mind for many years now\u2026(but) I am so offended at the “get rich” aspect\u2026 that we all just have to focus on having a new car, money and mansions and it will happen. Some of my greatest lessons in gratitude have come from realizing I have enough now.
\nI believe we should use our positive thoughts to find meaning in the existence we already have and to enrich our spiritual lives. Doubtless, positive thoughts and believing you are worthy of love and abundance will open you up to receive more of the same, but it is not some kind of magic spell and it is not a secret…
\n\u2026.Positive thinking can help you envision succeeding and make you open to new opportunities, but it won’t magically pay your bills.
\nBy far the most offensive part of the message is the suggestion that people who have pain in their lives are somehow attracting it with their thoughts. Darfur rape victims did not ask for it. Children who are molested did not ask for it. Starving Africans did not ask for it.
\nTo suggest that their “incorrect thinking” is the cause of this is sickening\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was astonished to come across these words just as I was about to abandon this book as a bad idea. It was as if the universe was yelling at me: Don\u2019t abandon the book!<\/em> I knew then that if I dropped the project, far too much would be left to misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and mistaken notions of the most important and wonderful aspect of human life.
\nThere are those who are now saying that the way Personal Creation is currently being taught has taken a wonderful gift out of a sacred treasure chest and placed it in a store window. They are saying that the touting of \u201cattraction\u201d and \u201cmanifestation\u201d as a means of personal enrichment and the satisfaction of personal desires could take people to a place of material abundance, all right, but it might leave them in spiritual poverty.
\nWhile I know for a fact that most contemporary teachers of creation theory come from a very spiritual base, I think we all need to hear this critique and not simply write it off as having no validity.
\nI think we need to add more substance to our communications about the Process of Personal Creation so that those who hear of it can move to a place of richer, fuller, deeper awareness with regard to it.
\nHere is some substance that I would like to add: Personal Creation (and the Energy of Attraction that is so integral to it) is a product of Divine Love.
\nPersonal Creation is about the power of life to produce more life. It is about power, plain and simple. The power to change your life.
\n\u201cAttraction\u201d is a gift from a benevolent and compassionate Deity. It is a tool with two handles\u2014one in God\u2019s hands and one in ours.
\nThat tool is in your hands right now. What you think of these words, right here, right now, will empower them or disempower them, and will empower you or disempower you.
\nYour thought about this very paragraph will create your experience of it. If you think that this is all nonsense, then it will be in your reality. If you think that this is true, then it will be in your reality. It is as simple as that.
\nYour ideas about the rest of this book, and about the Energy of Attraction, will be no different. This principle is part of the Process of Personal Creation, a power that is waiting to be wielded, waiting to be used, consciously rather than unconsciously (which is how it is now being used by most of humanity). Like all tools, it is most effective when it is used for the purpose for which it was intended.
\nI want you not to miss the enormous implication of all that has just been said.
\nI have just said that that \u201cattraction\u201d is a TOOL, that this tool was created by God, and that the tool has been given to us to use with God.
\nI have also said that it is most effective when used for the purpose for which it was intended. (And so we see another reason why some people who have used Personal Creation have thought it to be ineffective, disappointing, and disheartening. They are not using \u201cattraction\u201d for the purpose for which it was intended.)
\nAnd just what is that purpose?
\nIt is to create a happy, peaceful, joyous life for everyone whose life you touch, and for you, in that order.
\nPlease take note of those last three words. They will change everything you thought you understood about the Process of Personal Creation and the \u201cmystery formula\u201d behind How Life Works.
\n(Next week: The final installment in a series of excerpts from the new CwG book, Happier Than God.<\/em> The text may be ordered on February 27th from www.Amazon.com<\/a> )
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\nThis week’s gift of poetry<\/em>
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\nI wait for the time,
\nGod,
\nwhen We shall greet
\nEach Other
\nin the reflection
\nof
\nEvery Soulwater into which I gaze.
\nFor now
\nI keep my faith in Us by tending
\nto each
\nof
\nOur
\nDivine
\nSilences.
\n(For Now – m. claire – copyright 2008 – all rights reserved)
\nFor more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to visit www.mclairepoet.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is more than meets the eye to the so-called Law of Attraction. Much more. Let’s take a look… = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-the-new-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nGod put the tool in your hands - Conversations with God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God put the tool in your hands - Conversations with God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is more than meets the eye to the so-called Law of Attraction. Much more. 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