Across the Starting Line – Gaylon McDowell

Gaylon closed our May Series, “GIVE IT AWAY NOW,” with his talk titled “Across the Starting Line”, reminding us that we deserve to live happy, healthy, and prosperous lives. And that we can’t finish, if we don’t start.

Transcript
This “talk” is electronically transcribed. Please excuse any errors or omissions.

Gaylon: Before I start, as always, I always mention that I’m grateful to be here. I know I’m like family now. I am family and not like family. I am family.

Audience: You are.

Gaylon: I bring greetings from Christ Universal Temple and everyone who is there who knows I’m is like, “You know what? You down there a lot lately.” I was like, yeah. They kind of like me. I bless Lola and Nathan and their family as they do what they need to do to, again, support their children and create a bridge for their transformation, because it’s important that we pay it forward with our children, with other people’s children, with other people in general.

Gaylon: So, today we’re going to wrap up this series called Give It Away Now, and my lesson sermon is titled Across the Starting Line. Across the Starting Line.

Gaylon: Now, first of all, let me just get this out of the way. This sermon is an unapologetically prosperity and success sermon. Let me just get that out of the way, because I think that’s important. Because at times, we allow the conversation that’s out there to dictate what we do, and what ends up happening is, something that is sacred to us, we allow someone else to distort and then we stop using it. I refuse to do it. So, at times, as a part of the New Thought community, which I represent as a New Thought minister, it’s important that I understand that teaching prosperity is a part of our community. And I don’t care who has taken it, who has distorted it, who has done anything with it that has been out of side of integrity, we deserve to live healthy, happy, and prosperous lives. I believe it.

Gaylon: Now, you got to do the consciousness work. You have to do the consciousness work, but we deserve it.

Gaylon: Now, let me just get right to my first point. Many people fail to get what they desire because they are afraid to start. They allow their negative inner conversations to freeze them. Now, why is this important?

Audience: Break it down. Come on!

Gaylon: Many times, we don’t get that the desire is the manifestation in its infancy. It comes to you as a desire first, but you can… excuse the term, ladies… miscarry an idea or a desire because you allow fear to interject into what spirit is leading you to do. The desire shows up and then we start to have the inner conversation. The desire shows up and we start to have the inner dialogue. The desire shows up and then the fears start to show up, the beliefs start to show up, our upbringing starts to show up, the reasons why we can’t have what we say we want starts to show up. And you have to realize that this conversation goes across every area of your life, not just goals and money. It’s a blind spot. We allow fear to interfere with what we can demonstrate in our lives. So, if you want to be powerful in your life, you have to learn how to start. Is it the whole thing? No, but if you don’t start, you can never what?

Audience: Finish.

Gaylon: Finish. Oh, you all are smart.

Gaylon: How many people here, you know you’ve gotten great ideas and you’ve done anything with them. Raise your hand. Testify.

Audience: Come on.

Gaylon: You know. You know it already. You knew if you would have put the time in on that idea, if you would’ve worked it, if you would’ve put the energy into it that you put into your fears, you would have that demonstration right now. We have to be mindful of desire.

Gaylon: We’ll read something from Catherine Ponder. This is from The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity. A lot of you all have this book. If you don’t, you should. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Gaylon: She wrote:

Gaylon: “There is nothing weak or lukewarm about true desire. It is intense and powerful. If properly developed and expressed, a strong desire always carries with it the power for success. The stronger your desire for good, the greater the power of your desires to produce that good for you.

Gaylon: In counseling people who have had various problems, I have discovered that the right kind of desire will dissolve anything that has stood in the way of fulfillment. Right desire is truly the first step in solving problems and getting on the road to prosperity.”

Gaylon: So, what she’s saying is, if you can’t accept the desire in your own soul, how you going to start? If you can’t say yes to what’s welling up in your own soul, how can you demonstrate? You have to recognize that you are the conduit for it. It doesn’t come to you, even if the outer circumstances seems as though that you are attracting it to you from other people, they are only the physical equivalent of what’s actually happening in your mind. So, if you can’t have the pattern of it in your mind, you can’t have it as people showing up to give it to you in outer expression.

Gaylon: So, what am I saying? If you don’t have the goal, if you don’t have the money in your consciousness, then nobody’s showing up to give you a check. This is plain talk, you all. I don’t play with this stuff. Hardcore metaphysics. That’s what I do.

Gaylon: Next point. What beliefs do you need to give up to start working towards your goals? Financial goals, health goals, peace goals, relationship goals, whatever, because for me, prosperity is total well being. Total well being. But we have beliefs, and I’ve said before, a belief is what you accept as true. It doesn’t have to be true. It’s what you accept to be true.

Gaylon: Some of us have beliefs that are based on fear. Some of us have beliefs that are based on lack. Some of us have beliefs that are based on entitlement. We think we’re showing up and people are just supposed to do stuff because we show up. No. Life is a game of consciousness, and if you don’t understand what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, what you’re believing, and then what you’re saying and what you’re doing, then you won’t know if you’re in or out of alignment with what you say you desire.

Gaylon: But many times what ends up happening is, our actions are outside of… out of alignment with what we say we want. Our beliefs are out of alignment with what we say we want. We talk this game. We talk this conversation when we’re around people. “I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that. And I got these goals and whatever.” But if WGN was following your mind, if they had a camera in your head, what they would discover is, that’s all surface conversation. What’s really driving you is your beliefs. Not what you say to other people to sound cute and sound progressive. But what you really believe, what you really believe. It’s sort of like a person stepping outside and they got all their best clothes on and looking really, really fine yet they’re wrestling with issues that are going on in their souls. Don’t look to the left or right, it might be one of them. Just joking, you all.

Gaylon: Next point. Where is your indifference showing? You cannot be neutral about your own life. Give up indifference.

Gaylon: We tend to be indifferent when it comes to things like success, prosperity and money. We tend to be indifferent about things like giving, as Lola was mentioning earlier on the video tape. We get indifferent about it. Why do we get indifferent? Because when we don’t know how to handle a thing, we try to subconsciously pretend like it doesn’t matter. And when you really want a thing, and you really don’t believe that you can have it, you get indifferent about it. “I really don’t care if I’m really with somebody or not,” knowing you want a Boo really bad.

Gaylon: Saying that “It doesn’t make a difference how much money you all make off this business. I just want to be happy.” Stop lying. There used to be this song back in the day when I was a young man, it was called You’re Faking the Funk.

Audience: Yeah.

Gaylon: Stop faking the funk. In other words, stop pretending, by being indifferent, that you don’t really want something. So, what we try to do is be cool instead of getting what we desire. You learn this masterful skill in your teenage years. Yeah, when you a little kid, you don’t care who’s watching you do what you do. He-Man is beating up Skeletor. You’ll do that anywhere, the grocery store, church, living room, basement, car. It doesn’t make a difference. Look at Barbie and Ken. It doesn’t make a difference. But then somebody tells you, “You got to be cool. Put the dolls down. Put the comic books down. Put the toys down. Stop using your imagination. Be cool. Stop being creative. Blend in.”

Gaylon: You learn this masterful skill as a teenager. And look, I used to be a teenager. Everybody who’s older has been a teenager, and there’s teenagers in the room. It’s not a dis. Everybody goes through the phase. What we discover is… and anybody can raise their hand if you know this to be true… How many people really thought prom was a big deal? How many of you all now still believe that’s a big deal? Exactly.

Gaylon: Life is over if everything’s not perfect, according to that stage of life, because you have to be what? Cool. You have to be accepted. You have to be a part of the crowd. I’m saying, no.

Audience: I do, too.

Gaylon: If you want to success, you have to be undeniably great. So much so that people can’t deny that you deliver whatever it is that you deliver. In other words, be undeniable so when people show up, they don’t have to like you, but they know you bring the goods.

Gaylon: Where’s your indifference showing when it comes to money?

Gaylon: I’m going to read something else from Catherine Ponder. This is kind of funny. She actually quotes Charles Fillmore in this book. Charles Fillmore was the co-founder of Unity. And the quote says this. This is interesting. Please listen.

Gaylon: “Watch your thoughts when you are handling your money because your money is attached, through your mind, to the one source of all substance and all money. When you think of your money, which is visible as something directly attached to an invisible source that is giving or withholding according to your thought, you have the key to all riches and the reasons for all lack.”

Gaylon: What is he saying? He’s saying how you think about your bills, how you think about your responsibilities, how you think about your money, how you think about your bank account, how you think about what you have to do on your day to day, all of those things matter because you are infusing your consciousness into the thing that is connected to the invisible source of all good. So, in other words, if I don’t have the proper consciousness, I can be creating the scenarios for my money to leave me.

Gaylon: Don’t miss it. Don’t miss it. Well, you can say, “Money’s not an issue for me.” What I’m saying to you is this. Either you’re conscious or you’re unconscious about everything, including money. You’re either conscious or you’re unconscious about everything. Have you ever had a friend who was kind of unconscious about who they were dating?

Audience: Yeah.

Gaylon: You’re like, “Look, I don’t know what you’re seeing, but what I’m seeing…” And what do they do? Do they believe you?

Audience: No.

Gaylon: Absolutely. So, I’m ask you not to do that when it comes to money because you have a relationship with abundance, and it’s either conscious or you’re unconscious. You’re either not paying attention to the beliefs you have, the justifications you have, the indifference you have as it concerns money… Some people have a sense of entitlement, like I said earlier before. Have you ever seen that person who just believes that they’re entitled to your stuff?

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: It’s not always your child, by the way. It can be them. Let me not go there. Move on, because I was about to jump somewhere else. It about to pull me away. Lord, bring me back.

Gaylon: Next point. It’s okay.

Gaylon: What cultural hangups and identities are attached to… What cultural hangups and identities are you attached to that keeps… that’s keeping you from allowing spirit to express through you as you? Now, if you’ve heard me before, you know one of the things that I’m always drilling home is we just attach our mentalities to a whole bunch of stuff that’s temporary. And we don’t really get clear about one thing. I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual universe governed by spiritual law. That’s the truth of who I am. I’m a spiritual being. Now, I might be expressing through various identities, but who am I? I’m a spiritual being.

Gaylon: Now, if I am a spiritual being, if I am one with the source of all good, if I am one with spirit, God, or whatever term you use, then I am one with the good that I say this universal presence is. So, why am I always so scared? Because deep down inside I really believe that I’m on my own.

Gaylon: Now, I know we’re walking around and we sing the songs with the choir and the singers and the musicians, and we listen to the preachers, and we have our ready-made affirmations to sound all spiritual. But I’m talking about those deeply seated, rooted beliefs that have a way of popping up to disrupt.

Gaylon: For instance, consciousness is sort of like a thermostat. What’s the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer? One sets the temperature. The other one reports the temperature. Consciousness is like a thermostat. If you believe that you are not supposed to be below a certain level… your money, your love life, your family relationships, your gear, how you look and show up… when something disrupts it, you start to work harder, you start to get more focused, you start to concentrate, you start to draw experiences because somewhere in your mind you say, I deserve better than this.

Gaylon: Now, here’s where the trick bag is. If subconsciously you believe that you’re not supposed to be at a certain level, if subconsciously you believe that wealth is for those other people who lack integrity, if somewhere subconsciously you believe that there are reasons why you can’t have massive success, whatever those fears are, whatever those beliefs are, whatever those concepts are, whatever those ideologies are, and you have accepted them as true, subconsciously, when you start to climb the ladder of success, prosperity, and money, the thermostat will kick in. Emergency, emergency, emergency.

Audience: Come on.

Gaylon: Get rid of that money, family stuff, dramas and traumas alike to distract you from your focus and your concentration, because what it will do is pull you back down subconsciously to where you believe you belong. So, when you see yourself bumping into problem after problem after problem, investigate yourself and say, what it is about my belief systems that’s not allowing me to walk in abundance? Every moment I get it, now I’m ready to spend it.

Gaylon: Some people can’t get money fast enough, because they’re ready to give it away. Talking about give it away now. Giving it to the credit card companies. Giving it to the stores that give you the credit for your $6 discount.

Gaylon: Stop getting caught up in all this stuff. Get clear about who you are.

Gaylon: Next point. How do you feel about money? Do you think that there are places it should be mentioned and places it should not be mentioned? Are you comfortable earning it? Are you comfortable giving it in the support of the things that matter to you?

Gaylon: No, leave that up. Don’t take that away.

Gaylon: I didn’t say, what did you think about money. Notice the usage of words. How do you feel? Feel. Just notice the language we use about money. “Love and money is the root of all evil.” I go along Reverend like the lack of money is the real root of all evil. But anyway. And that scripture was actually talking about greed, by the way. Look at how we talk about filthy looker or whatever the terms they use. I try not to even have these things in my consciousness.

Gaylon: How we talk about money, how we talk about abundance, how we talk about prosperity, how we talk about success, can affect how you show up and give to things that matter to you. What am I saying? What I’m saying is, if you think that there are places where it shouldn’t be mentioned, then tell me a place where it doesn’t affect it, where it’s not affected by it.

Gaylon: Does money affect your home?

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Does money affect your career?

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Does money affect your transportation?

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Last I checked, the city was taking money out of our pockets to pay for these potholes.

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Okay. It affects food?

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Right. This is a spiritual community. Did Jesus pay the… the light bill? I’m just checking. Because if he did, I need his number.

Audience: Amen, get some. Cough it up.

Gaylon: I’m just saying.

Audience: Be for real.

Gaylon: See, the moment we start saying you shouldn’t talk about that there, we are now putting our own identity and cultural conditioning on a subject that is just free. “Well, why we got to talk about money?” Why not? “Why do we got to talk about prosperity?” Why not? What it always boils down to is the dollar. Money can’t buy you love. Okay. Well, love isn’t for sale. Money can buy the rest of the stuff.

Audience: Come on.

Gaylon: I’m just clowning up here.

Gaylon: Now, don’t get me wrong. Again, I believe that prosperity is total well being. Money, health, happiness, peace, love, joy, health. All right? But if you are uncomfortable in any setting being free to talk about what you choose to talk about with the people you choose to talk about it with, then that’s your thing. Yes, the spiritual community. I wasn’t even going to go here, but now I’m just rolling. So, I’m just rolling down the line now.

Gaylon: Yes, the spiritual community that you are… not Lola, not the core council, not the musicians or the singers… that you are… All of you. And what does that look like as a community of giving? So, when she’s saying, hey… I’ve caught a little bit of the Facebook page. You all are trying to get a new building, right? Or something like that? You’re moving, right? Okay. Guess what? The people who take stuff from one place to another, they got to get paid. Again, I don’t think you can write, notarized Jesus, on the People’s Gas bill.

Audience: Come on. Keep going.

Gaylon: This is a real conversation.

Audience: Come on. We’re going to listen to you.

Gaylon: Are you comfortable earning it? Never be indifferent towards what you seek to earn. Repeat after me. You must be definite…

Audience: You must be definite…

Gaylon: …with the infinite.

Audience: …with the infinite.

Gaylon: You must be definite…

Audience: You must be definite…

Gaylon: …with the infinite.

Audience: …with the infinite.

Gaylon: That was a Reverend Ike quote, and he would use the analogy that if you were going into a skyscraper and you got on the elevator and you wanted to go to a specific floor, do you just walk in the elevator and just stand there?

Audience: No.

Gaylon: What do you have to do?

Audience: Elevate.

Audience: Press the button.

Gaylon: You have to press the button. What is the button? The button is choice. The button is intention. The elevator has the power to take you to the floor you desire. But the elevator, with all of that power, will sit there and not move until it is triggered to do so. You trigger the power of God with your choice.

Gaylon: Let me wrap up these points. How do we work with this? Number six point.

Gaylon: Systematic giving creates systematic receiving in all areas of life. Your giving is like a seed that creates a harvest for the giver and the receiver. How do you give? Where do you give? A seed is the beginning of a forest. One seed can create a forest. How do we know it? Just don’t do anything to your lawn for the summer. See what happens. It’ll grow stuff on its own when you’re in… Don’t miss it.

Gaylon: When you’re in the right consciousness of abundance, prosperity, love, peace, and joy, your abundance will find a way to grow beyond your conscious thought. One of the ways that you do that is through systematic giving. Why systematic giving? And, again… this is not a plug… but again, we can talk about money anywhere, right? Because we’re free, without hangups, and if this conversation got you like, “Ugh, my stomach,” or you’re feeling some stuff, that’s your stuff, because I’m showing up in an authentic way in love and I don’t have any hidden agendas. I’m free. I’m free.

Gaylon: So, why systematic giving? Because, like anything else, everything has giving and receiving, inlet, outlet. Like a farmer, you plant the seed. You produce harvest. You get more from the seed than one plant or one tree. The seed creates the harvest that has more… that produces fruit that has more seeds in it to produce more trees, that will produce more fruit, that will produce more seeds that you can plant, that will produce more trees, that will produce more fruit, that will produce more seeds, and so on and so on and so on. Like anything else, if you can’t get your consciousness in order around money, then possibly you might not be getting your consciousness in order around your health.

Gaylon: Are you giving yourself water? Giving yourself healthy food? Giving yourself proper rest? Are you allowing yourself to give yourself the love you desire? You want somebody to treat you right? Are you treating yourself right? How can you expect somebody to treat you better than how you treat yourself? You want to go eat at that restaurant? Take yourself. You want some flowers? Stop at the florist after this service and go get you the flowers you deserve.

Audience: That’s right.

Gaylon: Stop waiting.

Audience: Hell, no.

Audience: Yes.

Gaylon: Got one more point, and keep it moving so I can sit down.

Gaylon: I keep trying to tell you, you’re the source of it. Stop playing with this truth.

Gaylon: Giving is between you and the omnipresent, universal, intelligence, love, and power we call spirit. Not between you and a charity. Not between you and a non-for-profit. Not between you and the church, mosque, synagogue, or spiritual center. Between you and God. And you’re the steward, because here’s what I believe. And you don’t have to believe it. I believe it all belongs to God. And I’m the steward, I’m the conduit through which it flows. But nothing on this plane belongs to me, not even my own child. I don’t own anything. How do I know? I can’t even take it with me.

Gaylon: So, in closing, what do you have to give away to be free? What beliefs do you have to give away to be free? What thoughts do you have to give away to be free? I’m challenging you today to drill down past the surface of your Memorial Day barbecues. That’s good. I’m going to one later today. Get past the cultural and family conditioning about how money was presented to you, prosperity was presented to you, love was presented to you, relationships were presented to you. On anything, give it away. It’s possible that we are holding on to a thing because we have a fear of the unknown, but I’m saying take the leap. Because what you have, potentially, is some area of your life is not giving you the desired results. And if that is the case, be free.

Gaylon: Julian, give me two minutes, please.

Gaylon: Thank you, but I don’t want to abuse it.

Gaylon: This just came up in me, so I just needed to say this. Just literally this idea came into me… into my head. There’s somebody in this room right now that’s not even speaking to somebody you love. There’s somebody in this room right now that you need them to show up a certain kind of way for you to even have a comfortable thought about them, let alone a conversation. Give it away. I’m not saying you got to be bosom buddies. I’m not saying that you have to reconcile anything that you don’t want to reconcile. I’m not saying you have to be around people you don’t have to be around. What I am saying though is if the thought of them, if the thought of having the conversation, if the thought of being around them upsets you, makes you scared, puts you in fear, leaves you in a place that is disempowered, give it away.

Gaylon: And when you give it away, you’ll discover that you can give away all these beliefs and then show up as the abundant experience or expression of God that shows up in support of your communities, of your family, and, most importantly, of to yourself. And so it is.

Gaylon: Amen.