As mankind searches for better ways of doing things, the greatest progress will come as a result of productive ideas that not only increase quantitative efficiency but also bring satisfaction and a degree of spiritual fulfillment to individuals.

During the children of Israel's journey through the wilderness, Moses was both their spiritual and secular leader. He was the sole judge to whom the people could turn with their problems, and they did so from morning until evening. His father-in-law Jethro pointed out that he would wear away with such a heavy burden. Jethro, receptive to God's wisdom, was inspired to see a better method by which Moses could cope with his manifold tasks. He suggested to Moses that he delegate the daily work of settling simple disputes to able men who worshiped God and had good qualifications for such duties.

As he outlined to Moses this more productive approach, Jethro said, "If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace." ^{Ex. 18:23.} What Jethro said points to the fact that the effect of obeying an unfoldment of divine wisdom provides inspiration not only to accomplish human tasks more efficiently but also to bless all concerned.

Moses was humbly willing to listen to his father-in-law's plan, recognizing that it was wise and progressive. He promptly acted upon the idea and chose able men for judges. This system of judges proved to be a definite step forward for the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness and later in developing a nation. Soon afterward, God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses so that he might give them to the people. Moses' willingness both to listen to and to act upon a course of action inspired by God's wisdom led him forward to higher service. And all concerned—even all mankind—were blessed.

These ancient stories illustrate how God's ideas became productive in a human situation. As we are receptive to spiritual, right ideas from God, we are inspired, as were Jethro and Moses, with the qualities we need to work out the human situation in an increasingly productive way. God's ideas present an infinite range of useful qualities such as intelligence, creativity, intuition, originality, judgment.

Mrs. Eddy describes how God's ideas become productive in the human situation. She writes: "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307.} As we learn more of our spiritual identity as God's offspring, we discover within our own consciousness an unlimited supply of right ideas of home, work, companionship. These spiritual ideas in turn provide us with the intelligence and fresh inspiration we need to make progress in our present experience. Our daily supply of good is enhanced; we find less restricted and time-consuming ways of doing routine tasks, right timing, more creativity, clearer guidance, increasing orderliness. Frustration, friction, and wasted time and effort proportionately disappear.

God, the source of infinite wisdom, does not know mortal circumstances or human needs, but because He knows that the man of His creating includes all good, each individual can claim the inheritance of this abundance in terms of his or her present need and experience. For example, an individual who is prayerfully learning more about the right idea of home, the spiritual concept which divine Mind imparts, can expect to see and express more order, peace, harmony, beauty, and loving hospitality in his or her present home.

Receptivity to God's ideas and a willingness to obey the intelligent intuitions that these ideas include result in great benefits in schoolwork, business relationships, artistic endeavors, church work, professional pursuits. The individual who is prayerfully, constantly obedient to Mind, God, finds dominion over obstacles and material resistance, the mastery of fatigue, friction, obsolescence, greed. Obedience to Mind's productive ideas in any situation is the difference between satisfying accomplishment and mere routineness, between abundance and lack, between superior results and mediocre ones.

When mortal man relies upon limited mortal thinking for productive ideas, he is simultaneously accepting restrictions of background and education, beliefs of age limitations, economic uncertainties, the nagging possibility of mistakes in judgment. Such mortal mental activity, based upon the misconception of separation from God, is inevitably unproductive, frustrating, and disappointing. Freedom from such restrictions progressively appears to the individual who recognizes that there is one source of truly productive ideas, divine Mind, God. We all can avail ourselves of Mind's ever-present ideas by learning to claim—and to practice—more consistently and understandingly our oneness with God.

Christ Jesus, the master Christian, understood the supreme importance of demonstrating his oneness with God, his Father. Jesus knew that only what God gives is good and that there is no genuine source of good within mortal thinking. When a man addressed him as "good Master," Jesus answered, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." ^{Matt. 19:17.} By acknowledging God to be the one source of all good, Jesus demonstrated in his mighty healing works that God's wisdom could be proved in every area of experience. Because he understood his oneness with God, Jesus fully utilized the marvelous productivity of divine Mind's ideas.

Jesus also understood and taught that God's goodness and all its inherent demonstrable power are found by each individual within his own spiritual consciousness. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the coming of the kingdom of God, he answered, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." ^{Luke 17:20, 21.}

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook: "This kingdom of God 'is within you,'—is within reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God." ^{Science and Health, p. 576.} God's productive ideas are available for each one of us, here and now, as we find the kingdom of God within our own spiritual consciousness.