BY BAYO OGUNMUPE The Four Laws Of Abundance

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

The Four Laws Of Abundance

THE word abundance sounds sweet. It is likeable. Translated from Latin, it means “rise up in waves.” So when you imagine and practise abundance, you stimulate riches to rise up toward you in waves.

  According to the scriptures, the first law of abundance is giving. To give is to pray daily, tithe daily and serve others regardless of your situation. This is amplified by the Bible: “Bring ye all the tithes into the store house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it,” Malachi 3:10. So the secret of abundance is giving. Thus, to receive the good things of life, you must give. This creative law of plenitude is expressed in familiar words: “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it,” Mathew 10:39.

  Poverty is caused by ignorance. Poverty has no place in the planning of Jehovah who crammed this world with riches. It is man’s selfishness that messed up the supply of abundance to the masses. Such a simple thing as the giving of self, of thought, of money or time, of helpfulness, starts abundance flowing. Begin each day with the affirmation: “I am the rich child of a loving Father. All that the Father has is mine. Divine intelligence is showing me how to claim my God-given blessing of wealth, health and happiness. All that is mine by Divine inheritance now comes to me in abundance.”
  accordingly, the more you keep yourself, the less you have and the more you give, the more you have to give.

  In service as the second law of abundance; the Tao scripture, the Chinese Book of changes, popularly called The 1 Ching, a rich man is warned to serve others in order to retain his possessions. Even as the sun reaches its Zenith at noon, it is beginning to set, when the moon is full it begins to wane. So too if a man is rich, refuses to spread his wealth; and pursues indulgent luxury, he will gradually become poor. And when a man is successful, he may easily become arrogant, lose his friends and develop enemies and rivals. With a correct attitude, however, he can retain his prosperity. Thus, if a person is modest, then he will gain happiness. Service also means tithing yourself to people and God; doing something for your fellow man and for Jehovah’s work in the world. As you do this humbly and sincerely, abundant prosperity will flow up to you in waves.

  Because prosperity isn’t what you accumulate, but what you give away to assuage the needs of others, tithing is our third law of abundance. God gives us a lot of latitude in our financial dealings. This is where we humans get into trouble. But the bottom line is that each of us will give account of how we spent Yahweh’s resources. By way of tithing however, there comes outstanding moments when our prayers are answered, and a miracle is ours to claim. In an instant, we know that God is at work. Such a moment is never forgotten, a turning point that will forever be etched in our memory. God is always there, so never lose courage.

  Finally, your attitude will determine your attitude. Researchers at the University of California, United States have proved that attitudes make a difference in the germination of seeds. So, if attitudes of humans do that to seeds, what would they do to humans? Therefore you can decide to end your unhappiness by changing your attitude. Saint Paul said, “I beseech you… be not conformed to this world,” Rom 12:1. This translates to “Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold.” No one can escape the impact of his environment. But we can overcome it.

  Again St. Paul said, I beseech you therefore, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Thus, the only way to change a bad attitude is to change the way  you think.

  Our champion this week is Elie Wiesel, by name of Eliezer Wiesel, the Romanian born American novelist whose works provide a sober yet passionate testament of the destruction of the European Jewry during World War II. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986.

  Wiesel was born in September 1928 in Sighet, Romania. He spent his early life in hermetic existence of prayer and contemplation and was barely touched by the war. But in 1944 all the Jews of the town including the Wiesels were deported by the Wazis to Auschwits where his mother and younger sister were killed. He was later sent as a slave labourer to Buckenwald where his father was killed.

  After the war, Wiesel settled in France, studied at the Sorbonne (1948-51) and wrote for French and Israeli newspapers. He went to the United States in 1956 and was naturalized in 1963. From 1972, he was a professor of history at the City College of New York and from 1976, was professor of humanities at Boston College, USA.

  During his time as a journalist in France, Wiesel was urged by the novelist Francois Mauriac to write his memoirs as an Auschivitz inmate. The outcome was Wiesel’s first book, and the world has remained silent (1956), a semi-autobiographical account of a boy’s spiritual reaction to Auschwitz. The book is considered by literary critics as the most powerful literary expression of the Holocaust. His other works include, The Town Beyond the Wall (1962), a novel examining human apathy; A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968), which raises the philosophical question of why people kill; souls on Fire (1972) an acclaimed collection of tales; The Testament (1980); The Fifth son (1983); Twilight (1987); and The Forgotten (1989).

  All of Wiesel’s works reflect his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust and his attempt to resolve the ethical torment of why the Holocaust happened and what it revealed about human nature. He became a noted lecturer on the sufferings of the Jews and other peoples during the Holocaust. Wiesel is also celebrated for his ability to transform this personal concern into a universal condemnation of all violence, hatred and oppression. This was also responsible for his being awarded the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.

  For the enlightenment of my readers, let me explain the term Auschwitz as Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp and extermination camp. It was located near the Polish town of Oswiecin. Hitler’s Internal Affairs minister Heinrich Himmler established it in 1940 for political prisoners. There, they gassed prisoners to death, about four million European Jews were exterminated by Hitler’s Germany. To prevent a repeat is the reason for the establishment of Israel as a nation state.

  For Holocaust, this means the state sponsored killing of Jews by Hitler’s Germany, for which Germany paid reparations. The issues are ethnic rather than religious. The Jews are not Christians, they worship Judaism, the first religion that believe in one God.