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The Secret Door to Success, by Florence Scovel Shinn, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve."—Josh. 24:15.
Every day there is a necessity of choice (a fork in the road).
"Shall I do this, or shall I do that? Shall I go, or shall I stay?" Many people do not know what to do. They rush about letting other people make decisions for them, then regret having taken their advice.
There are others who carefully reason things out. They weigh and measure the situation like dealing in groceries, and are surprised when they fail to attain their goal.
There are still other people who follow the magic path of intuition and find themselves in their Promised Land in the twinkling of an eye.
Intuition is a spiritual faculty high above the reasoning mind, but on that path is all that you desire or require.
In my book "The Game of Life and How to Play It," I give many examples of success attained through using this marvelous faculty. I say also that prayer is telephoning to God and intuition is God telephoning to you. (Correspondence Course.)
So choose ye this day to follow the magic path of intuition.
In my question and answer classes I tell you how to cultivate intuition.
In most people it is a faculty which has remained dormant. So we say, "Awake thou that sleepeth. Wake up to your leads and hunches. Wake up to the divinity within!"
Claude Bragdon said, "To live intuitively is to live fourth dimensionally."
Now it is necessary for you to make a decision, you face a fork in the road. Ask for a definite unmistakable lead, and you will receive it.
We find many events to interpret metaphysically in the Book of Joshua. "After the death of Moses, the divine command came to Joshua, 'Now therefore, arise, go over the Jordan, thou and all thy people, unto the land which I do give to them. Every place the sole of your feet shall tread upon; to you have I given it'."
The feet are the symbol of understanding, so it means metaphysically all that we understand stands under us in consciousness, and what is rooted there can never be taken from us.
For, the bible goes on to say: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. . . . I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest."
So we find we have success through being strong and very courageous in following spiritual law. We are back again to the "fork in the road"—the necessity of choice.
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve," the intellect or divine guidance.
A well-known man, who has become a great power in the financial world, said to a friend, "I always follow intuition and I am luck incarnate."
Inspiration (which is divine guidance) is the most important thing in life. People come to Truth meetings for inspiration. I find the right word will start divine activity operating in their affairs.
A woman came to me with a complication of affairs. I said to her, "Let God juggle the situation." It clicked. She took the affirmation, "I now let God juggle this situation." Almost immediately she rented a house, which had been vacant for a long time.
Let God juggle every situation, for when you try to juggle the situation, you drop all the balls.
In my question and answer classes, I would be asked, "How do you let God juggle a situation, and what do you mean when you say I should not juggle it?"
You juggle with the intellect. The intellect would say, "Times are hard, no activity in real estate. Don't expect anything until the Fall of 1958."
With spiritual law there is only the now. Before you call you are answered, for "time and space are but a dream," and your blessing is there waiting for you to release it by faith and the word.
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve," fear or faith.
In every act prompted by fear lies the germ of its own defeat.
It takes much strength and courage to trust God. We often trust him in little things, but when it comes to a big situation we feel we had better attend to it ourselves; then comes defeat and failure.
The following extract from a letter which I received from a woman in the West shows how conditions can change in the twinkling of an eye.
"I've had the pleasure of reading your wonderful book, The Game of Life and How to Play It.' I have four boys, ten, thirteen, fifteen and seventeen, and thought how wonderful for them to grasp it, in their early life, and be able to get things which are theirs by Divine Right.
"The lady who let me read her copy gave me other things to read, but it seemed when I picked this book up it was magnetic and I could not let go of it. After reading it I realized, I was trying to live Divinely but did not understand the law, or I would have been much further advanced.
"At first I thought it quite hard to find a place in the business world, after so many years of being a mother. But I got this statement, 'God makes a way where there is no way.' And He did that very thing for me.
"I am grateful for my position, and smile when people say, 'How do you do it, manage four growing boys, a home, after all the times you have been hospitalized with such major operations, and none of your relatives near you?' "
I have that statement in my book, "God makes a way where there is no way."
God made a way for her in business when all her friends said it couldn't be done.
The average person will tell you almost anything can't be done.
I had an example of this the other day. In a shop I found a delightful little silver dripolator which would make just one cup of anything. I showed it to some friends with enthusiasm, thinking it so very cute, and one said, "It will never work." The other said, "If it belonged to me, I'd throw it away." I stood up for the little dripolator and said I knew it would work, which it did.
My friends were simply typical of the average person who says, "It can't be done."
All big ideas meet with opposition.
Do not let other people rock your boat.
Follow the path of wisdom and understanding, "and turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest."
In the thirteenth verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of Joshua, we read a remarkable statement: "And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not, do ye eat."
This shows that man cannot earn anything, his blessings come as gifts. (Gifts lest any man shall boast.)
With the realization of wealth, we receive the gift of wealth.
With the realization of success, we receive the gift of success, for success and abundance are states of mind.
"For it is the Lord our God, he it is, that brought us up, and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
The land of Egypt stands for darkness—the house of bondage, where man is a slave to his doubts and fears, and beliefs in lack and limitation, the result of having followed the wrong fork in the road.
Misfortune is due to failure to stick to the things which spirit has revealed through intuition.
All big things have been accomplished by men who stuck to their big ideas.
Henry Ford was past middle age when the idea of the Ford car came to him. He had great difficulty in raising the money. His friends thought it was a crazy idea. His father said to him, tearfully, "Henry, why do you give up a good twenty-five dollar a week job in order to chase a crazy idea?" But no one could rock Henry Ford's boat.
So in order to come out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, we must make the right decisions.
Follow the right fork in the road. "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest."
So, as we reach the fork in the road today, let us fearlessly follow the voice of intuition.
The bible calls it "the still small voice."
"There came a voice behind me, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it'."
On this path is the good, already prepared for you.
You will find the "land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not, do ye eat."
I am divinely led, I follow the right fork in the road. God makes a way where there is no way.