From the book "Gods About Us", Max Rempel
There is another principle one ought to be acquainted with - the principle of substitution.
Its essence is that when a person wants something very strongly and pictures in his mind how it will come to pass, then by his very desire he occupies the place in the higher world where the matrix of that event might have formed.
Thus too strong, too concrete a desire hinders the accomplishment of the desired event.
In other words, if you ask your angels for something too loudly and insistently, then the angels lose all desire and all possibility of fulfilling it. Since angels are in most cases very delicate beings, they bring events about very delicately as well. For angels, the chief means of governing events - that is, of luck and misfortune - is the rigging of the cards. Also the whispering of ideas and inspirations to all the participants in events - that is, the delicate manipulation of the players. That is, the manipulation of players and events is done on the sly and very unobtrusively. If you want something very much and demand it of your angels, then this insistence, this passion destroys, blows away the card-castle constructions that the angels are delicately erecting. Therefore one may desire something very passionately, but one should not expect that by the law of attraction good fortune will assist it. It may assist, but only if all the other conditions favor it. Instead, the Teachers from above recommend a more unobtrusive way of applying the law of attraction. They advise you to formulate your desire, to visualize it, to tune yourself to that wavelength, but then to release the events and grant the higher powers the opportunity to assist. That is, to make up your mind about your desire, your passion, and then to trust in the will of the universe.
Here we have arrived at an apparent contradiction: on the one hand it is asserted that thoughts attract events, and on the other hand it is asserted that thoughts repel events, that they prevent them from being realized by occupying the place in which those events might have been embodied. How is this contradiction to be resolved? One way to resolve it is by separating the sending and the receiving in time. First we make a decision, send the universe our intention, our passion, our request; then we tune ourselves to the wavelength of reception and accept events as they are, passively allowing the universe to express its own desire, its own vision of how to give us what we asked for.
In principle, it is not obligatory to separate the sending and the receiving in time. What matters is that both functions be present. One is the sending of desires to the universe, the communicating to your angels, the conversing with your angels; the other is the reception of information, the reception of counsel, the listening to the voice of the angels. Having expressed a wish, it is important to accept what happens, not to dismiss the events and possibilities that fall out at first sight. That is, it is important to rid oneself of fear of life and of the new. It is important to understand that it is impossible to change the surrounding world without changing oneself.
As a rule, the manner in which what we asked for comes to us differs from how we expect it. This is an important, well-known, and even obvious regularity. What we ask for never comes in the form in which we imagined it. It may come in a worse form or in a better one, but always in an unexpected one. As a rule, not the way we saw it. Therefore it is important to tune oneself to a far broader wavelength of reception and to be ready for good fortune to come by the most unexpected path.
For example, in the experiment with the five-pound banknote none of the subjects knew in what form good fortune would come, but the lucky people were ready to receive it in the form of a banknote underfoot, while the unlucky were closed off from receiving any form of good fortune other than the one they had imagined for themselves.
Here is an old joke that illustrates this thought:
"Once God sent a flood upon the Earth. Everyone saves himself as best he can, and only one very devout Jew sits and prays. A truck drives past, and those sitting in the back shout: 'Chaim, climb into the back, save yourself!' 'All my life I have prayed and observed all the traditions; God will save me,' answers Chaim. The water already reaches the windows. A boat floats past. The same question and the same answer. The water reaches the roof; Chaim sits on the roof and prays. A helicopter descends from the sky. The same question, the same answer. So Chaim ends up in the next world and asks God: 'All my life I prayed and observed all the traditions; why then did you not save me?' And God replies: 'Did I not save you? I sent you a truck, and a boat, and a helicopter; why did you not make use of them?'"
The moral - be open to help in any form. Do not teach the universe in what form to help you.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that the law of attraction (of events by thought), though it works, is not all-powerful. The universe, the angels, and the higher self fulfill those requests that aid in passing through the lessons chosen by the soul at incarnation. Besides this, an important limitation is a person's fear and disbelief - in his own powers and his own good fortune.
In particular, very important is the law of repulsion (of good fortune by fear: fear repels good fortune). Therefore, in order to be rid of old, groundless fears, it is important constantly to reexamine one's convictions, to find which of them have grown obsolete, and by an act of will to be rid of them.
If you strive toward something, if you try to change your life, then first of all you must change yourself and cleanse your soul, your life, your soul, of the burden of old delusions. They were once useful, once served their purpose, but for a new life they are no longer fit, and one can and must part with them. Bless them, and consign them to the archive of memory. There are many convictions one must be rid of. First of all, those convictions that assert inequality. About the superiority of man over woman, of adults over children, of one's own nationality over others, of one's country over others, of one's social stratum over others, of the human being over animals, plants, the planet. All are equal, all are parts of a single whole, each passing through his own lessons.
The law of repulsion asserts that the material circumstances of life, and the immaterial convictions and fears, that have grown obsolete, that a person no longer needs, that hinder development and obstruct the attainment of the chosen goal - that they strive to leave their owner. Events in the visible and invisible world develop so as to lead a person to the appointed goal. The universe, the higher self, and the angels try to develop events so as to free the person's hands, to cast the burden from his soul, to free him of obligations that hinder his development in the chosen direction. Therefore, in choosing a goal, it is very important not only to acquire something, to learn something, but also to be rid of the soul's burden and of obligations inherited from previous years of life. It is impossible to pour water into a full glass, impossible to seize good fortune with a hand that is not empty, impossible to take flight with a heavy load.