The Science of Living

What is Rev. Ike’s Science of Living  Philosophy? – Listen now and find out!

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The Mission:

To offer each person the opportunity to create his/her best life by unlearning the information presented in this world every day that fosters fears, doubts, insecurities, violence, sickness, and poverty.

The Foundation

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2

2009 Study Topic #19 - A Winning Attitude Creates Success!

Chapter 19

HOW SWEET IT IS!

Dr. Frederick Eikerenkoetter

You are responsible for making every day a happy day. When God individualized Himself in you, He gave you the power, the ability, to have all the good you desire.

Quote: “Life meets you like you meet life.“— Rev. Ike

Quote: “How sweet it is!”—Jackie Gleason

Quote: “The more you begin to appreciate the good you have, the more good you will have to appreciate.”—Rev. Ike

Quote: “Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.”—William James

The next stop on our Kingdom Within journey takes us to Rev. Ike’s teaching, "How Sweet it Is!" found in Chapter 19 of his Science of Living Study Guide. In this month of August, in addition to working with of Rev. Ike’s Science of Living Study Guide we also offer you a second message from Rev. Ike. This month’s featured message is titled, The Winning Component.

Rev. Ike developed and first taught this lesson in January 1978.

Now, here is the August 2009 message from Rev. Ike.

The Winning Component

There are some people that just seem to have something about them that make them win in the game of life.  I’m sure you’ve seen some of those people and then there are some other folks that just seem to just trail behind.  And I’m going to get into this; I am calling that quality, The Winning Component. 

What is it that makes a person a winner?  What is that winning component that gives a person success and prosperity—seemingly regardless of situations and circumstances?  The winning component is right attitude.”

Your attitude in life will make you or it will break you.  I’ve seen educated people never get anywhere.  Why, because of their wrong attitudes.  No matter how much education or talent you have, your attitude will hold you down if you don’t work with it, to make it right, and keep it right.  This is why the Psalmist says in a prayer in the 51st Psalm, the tenth verse, “Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

On the other hand, there are those people who may have little education and perhaps not as much talent, yet they succeed because they have a certain attitude.  There is such a thing as a winning attitude. 

Affirmation #1
A winning attitude creates success.

Winning Attitude Component #1 - A happy disposition

You need to cultivate a happy disposition.  When you have this winning component  it means that whatever circumstances may come your way as a temporary measure, these circumstances will not be able to keep you down or to hold you down, you’ll always rise above circumstances.

Attitude could be the most important thing that you have ever overlooked.  It’s so simple that the high-minded miss it and people, in general, pay no attention to it, but it’ll trip you up, and this is why sometimes people fail and never know why.  Right attitude is your key to life. 

Affirmation #2
Right attitude is my key to life.

And again, the immortal words of the Psalmist in the Scriptures: “Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me.”  Attitude is your mental approach to life, your disposition toward life, your disposition toward yourself, other people and things. I want to ask you a question that I want you to answer on paper as well as in your heart:  What is my mental approach to life?  Don’t answer me, answer yourself.  This bears repeating over and over, “Life meets me exactly as I meet life. “

Affirmation #3
Life meets me exactly as I meet life.

If you really want to win in the game of life, you have to meet life with a winning attitude.  You have to meet life feeling like a winner, acting like a winner, looking like a winner, talking like a winner and even smelling like a winner.

I have observed two types of dogs and I share this with you because you can see the power of attitude even in the lower animals.  I have seen an old dog that went around with his tail between legs, head down, looking around, afraid that everybody’s going to kick him.  He was the dog that always got chased and kicked around.  Oh, but there’s another kind of dog, perhaps a bulldog, that struts around, looks as if he’s not afraid of anybody, and he has just a slight growl.  Nobody messes him.

Excuse the expression, but you may ask yourself, “What kind of dog am I?”  Am I facing life like a scary dog or like a bulldog?  I’m not talking about growling at other people, I’m not talking about being menacing toward other people, I’m talking about growling at your obstacles.  I’m talking about showing your teeth to your problems, with the attitude, “Get out of my way, I’m coming through!”

A minister said something that I will never forget.  He said, “You know everybody may not love a bulldog, but they respect his teeth.”

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What is my mental approach to life? 
2. How am I meeting life today? 
3. With what attitude am I meeting life today? 

You must meet life with a fearless attitude.

Affirmation #4
I am a winner and I believe it.

When you develop this attitude in your heart, in your spirit, you will find a lot of wonderful and great things happening to you.  Your attitude is your disposition; first, toward yourself, because you can’t be right with somebody else until you’re right with yourself.

If you’re not right with yourself, you can’t be right with God, you can’t be right with anybody else.  Get a right attitude toward yourself first.  Let me give you another little trick.  If you find that perhaps your relationship with somebody else is not as you wish it to be, stop trying to manipulate the other person and just get right with yourself.  If you get right with yourself, your relationship with everybody else will fall right into line.

And that’s really the mystic thing about it.  You only need to be right with yourself and if you get right with yourself, it will compel you to be right with everybody else and it will compel everybody else to be right with you.  People may even try to cheat you but they can’t do it because you’re right with yourself.  If you ever got cheated, it was because you were not right with yourself.  Being right with yourself also means being right with the Divinity within you—believing that God lives within you will make you right with your spirit.

Winning Attitude Component #2 - A happy, believing, and loving approach to life

Let’s continue with the definition of right attitude.  A right spirit, as it is spoken of as in the 51st Psalm, is a happy, believing, and loving approach to life.  Let’s examine these adjectives for a moment.  First, your approach to life should be happy. Second, you should believe in the goodness of life, believe in the goodness of God, believe in the goodness of God within your own soul, and believe that God means you good. God is not out to get you—too many religious people believe that God is out to get them.  I’ll never forget years ago in New York City the emergency operator called me to say, “Sir, I don’t know what kind of who in Buffalo, NY that wants to get through to you on the phone because his son is ill and at the point of death and he believes that you can help him.”  I said, “Put him through.”  So the man spoke to me and said, “Oh, Rev. Ike,” he said, “my little son is sick and the doctors can’t help him. I went to my pastor for help and consultation and my pastor told me that because I did wrong, God is taking it out on my son.”  I told him, “God is not against you, God is for you and you must go forth into life believing.”  In some religious circles, you know God is after you on one hand and the devil is after you on the other.  I mean there’s just no way, if the devil doesn’t get you, God will.

Third, I use the adjective loving.  You’ve got to have love in your heart—loving others begins with loving you.  I don’t trust the person that doesn’t care for himself or herself. You can’t give me any more love than you have for yourself. You can’t give what you don’t have, and I’m not talking about loving oneself as an ego-trip type of love, that’s a different thing altogether.  Love and ego-tripping are two different things, and when we say love yourself around here, we’re not talking about an ego trip; we’re talking about loving God-in-you, loving the good possibilities, the good realities God has placed within your own being. 

Affirmation #5
I go forth into life loving the God-in-me, loving the good in me. 

Let me tell you something beautiful. When you love the God-in-you, when you love the good in you, you will begin finding more good in other people to love.  Everybody in your life is a reflection of some facet of you; you change others by merely changing yourself.  But the mysterious thing is we don’t recognize ourselves when we meet ourselves.  There are certain subconscious beliefs deep within us and when we see the behavior produced by those hidden beliefs in other people, we think they are other people, but they’re not other people, they are you. 

When you are truly right with yourself, if you’re truly right with God-in-you, then the world can’t do you any harm, nothing else will matter.  That’s when you’ll be as Jesus said, “You can walk on scorpions and serpents and nothing shall be able to hurt you.”  It’s a wonderful thing to have a right attitude, a right spirit.  A right attitude includes a believing approach toward life, believing in the good.  If people would believe in the good as much as they believe in negatives, life would be a lot different.

I had a very beautiful meditation to come to me during one of my prayer periods and I’ll share it with you. I believe in the greatest idea of God-in-me.  I believe in the greatest possibilities of God-in-me.

Affirmation #6
I believe in the greatest idea of God-in-me.

Affirmation #7
I believe in the greatest possibilities of God-in-me.

Now begin to think about the greatest possibilities that you have; think of the greatest thing that you can ever be, that you could ever do, that you could ever have and say within yourself, “I believe in that.  I believe in the greatest possibilities of God-in-me.”

Now I dare you to do this: doubt your doubts but don’t doubt God.

Affirmation #8
I doubt my doubts but I do not doubt God-in-me!

Continue with right attitude.  Right attitude is a good loving feeling toward you.  Ask yourself this question out loudly as well as writing it on paper, “How do I feel about myself?”

Question:
How do I feel about myself?

Your attitude toward yourself is composed of the way you feel about yourself and what you tell your feelings about you.

Affirmation #9
I feel good about myself.

Affirmation #10
I feel like a winner.

Affirmation #11
I feel the victory.

Affirmation #12
I feel healthy about myself.

Affirmation #13
I feel happy about myself.

Affirmation #14
I feel successful about myself.

Affirmation #15
I feel prosperous about myself.

I suggest you ask yourself that question (How do I feel about myself?) several times a day, at least three times a day, even while you’re at work, while you’re riding, while you’re going about your business, examine your feeling about yourself, and if you feel right about yourself, everything will turn out right, because your feeling is in your heart> And it bears again upon Scripture, “Create in me a clean heart,” give me positive feelings in the depth of my mind about myself.”  I feel good about myself.  There may be a lot of situations and circumstances swirling around you like a storm, but say to yourself, “I feel good about myself.”

Right attitude is an optimistic disposition. 

Affirmation #16
I have an optimistic disposition.

Expecting the best and believing that good comes out of everything brings out the good.  I want to ask you a question. What do you expect?  Don’t answer me, answer yourself. 

Question
What do I expect?

Really, what do you expect?  It is imperative that you know what you are expecting because you’re going to get it.  Expect nothing, you get nothing or you will just to have to take whatever comes your way.  This is why sometimes people say, “No, Rev. Ike, I didn’t think that up.”  No? What did you think up?  If you don’t think up something, you’ll have to live by the Law of Chance, under the law of that’s-the-way-the-cookie-crumbles and that’s-the-way-the-mop-flops. 

Learn how to crumble your own cookie.  This is what we do here at the Science of Living using Thinkonomics; we teach you Mind Science.  We teach you how to crumble your own cookie.  You don’t like the way your cookie’s been crumbling, somebody else has been crumbling your cookie, learn to crumble it yourself.

Learn to apply the Law of Mind.  What is it?

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Thoughts are things and there is nothing in your life but the projection of your own state of mind.  There’s a thought behind everything in your life.

Affirmation #17
There is a thought behind everything in my life.

Things will surprise you. When you start practicing positive thinking you will always be surprised by something good. When you think negatively you’ll always be surprised by something bad, and you’ll swear you had nothing to do with it.

Attitude is even more important than education or talent, and right here I’m going to tell you how to tell your fortune because a lot of you, you have already bought your astrological charts. I’m going to tell you exactly what this month and this year are going to bring you.  This month and this year are going to bring you exactly what you bring into it.

If you bring a nasty attitude into this month and the rest of this year, you’re going to have some nasty experiences.  My future is in my present attitude.

Affirmation #18
My future is in my present attitude.

If you want to know what your future is going to be, stop in your tracks and examine your present attitude, and if you don’t like your present attitude, do something about it and thereby you can re-direct your future.  This is why every day you have to work on your attitude.  “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” My future is my present attitude.

Your future is always unfolding out of your present attitude.  That’s where your future comes from.  Your future does not come from outside of you; your future comes from right in your own mind.  Your future in your own mind and it unfolds.  As a man [mind] thinks in his heart, so is he.  My success or failure is in my present attitude.  The attitude that you have at present, the state of mind that you’re in, determines your success or your failure; your entire fate, in general and in particular, is in your present attitude.

Affirmation #19
There is nothing in my future but the outcome of my present attitude.
--Rev. Ike (January 1978)

Let’s become aware that we can develop a winning attitude that will allow us to do anything we want to do, be anything we want to be, and have anything we want to have. Make this a life changing month, one day at a time.

MIND POWER TREATMENT FOR AUGUST
read by Carolyn

I want you to sit back and get relaxed and comfortable, listen to and repeat this Mind Power treatment. As you listen and repeat this treatment place your hands in a receptive position. 

Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. I open my mind and my heart to receive the Infinite Love of God that fills my being with Peace and Love. Daily I realize the greatest and happiest possibilities of God-in-me.  I see the greatest and happiest possibilities of good for myself, for everyone and everything.

Daily I practice a happy, believing and loving approach to Life. I go forth into life loving the God-in-me, loving the good in me. Because I believe that God is for me I now doubt my doubts but I do not doubt God. I feel good about myself. I feel like a winner; I feel healthy about myself. I feel happy about myself. I feel successful about myself.  I feel prosperous about myself. 

I expect to receive all the good I desire because I believe I deserve it. I love God-in-me; I love the good possibilities and the good realities God has placed within my own being. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. According to the decisions I make, the actions that I take, I create my life experiences. If I don’t like what I am experiencing I know that I can change my future by changing my attitude which in turn changes the decisions I make and the actions I take. 

I continue to see the greatest possibilities of happiness for myself and everyone.  With God happiness is not only a possibility but a reality to me as I maintain a winning attitude of, “I can!”

Now go forth into August knowing and believing you are a child of the Creator therefore you deserve all the Good of your Father. In Luke 15:31 the Scriptures say, “And he [the Father] said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Rejoice and become excited about the things you are creating in 2009 and begin working your plan to acquire all the good you desire.  There is only one economy and that is God’s Economy, Thought. Remember, your good comes to you according to your Faith through planning and by taking the corresponding actions.

SELF -INTERROGATION
Your personal self-interrogation questions for “How Sweet It Is!” and A Winning Attitude Creates Success!, Thinkonomics Online Study lesson #19, is in a .pdf file. Click this link to save your copy. 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD PRINCIPLE SAYS YOU ARE A WINNER THERFORE MONEY IS ALL AROUND YOU ALL THE TIME. IN GOD’S ECONOMY, SOWING GOOD SEED PRODUCES A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST.  GOD GUARANTEES YOU ALWAYS RECEIVE WHEN YOU SOW YOUR SEED OFFERING. EVERYTIME YOU SOW EXPECT TO RECEIVE A HARVEST OF MONEYMAKING IDEAS AND ANSWERS THAT ALLOW YOU TO TURN POSSIBILITY INTO REALITY.

At this time, we ask you to sow an I-AM-a-WINNER offering into this Ministry if this teaching has helped you realize your identity in God. Always use the Power of your spoken words to say these Affirmations aloud in order to prepare the fertile ground of your subconscious mind for saying YES to the Goodness of God:

Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.

With God ALL things are possible.

I AM the very SELF-AWARENESS of PROSPERITY, LOVE, HEALTH, and SUCCESS therefore money flows into my hands easily and constantly!

I gladly bring my tithes and offerings into God’s storehouse that God may reveal His mysteries to me and bury them in my heart.

I expect the LORD to give me an idea that will solve a problem for others and they will pay me for my solution.

I expect the LORD to protect my home and my finances as I honor His Universal Law. My offering opens the door to my blessings.

Luke 6:38 (AMP)
⁸Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.

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Science of Living Study Guide
Please do not forget to read Chapter 19, “HOW SWEET IT IS!” in Rev. Ike’s Science of Living Study Guide. To get the most from that lesson please answer the Review Questions at the end of the chapter. If you have questions please contact us using the link on this page.  We would love to hear about your progress.

We recommend you recite these positive affirmations throughout this lesson and in Chapter 19 of Science of Living Study Guide at the beginning of your day, at the end of your day, and at any point during your day. When you use all the tools Rev. Ike gives you plus speak aloud all the affirmations you will be able to speak you way out of your current situation into you better day!

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