Giving and receiving in this context is also the explanation of the cause & effect relationship within consciousness.

Let us assume that everything that is in you consciousness is your new normal point, or zero point of balance. In this place that you are at, within your consciousness, you don't have what you want next, and you have clearly recognized and acknowledged that.

What you want is to be in a house, but right now you are in an apartment. The totality of your conscious focus, your beliefs and your past actions have contributed towards this point of reference, which we are now referring to as your new zero point.

To shift from this current zero point, you have to start doing something different from what you have done, and that something has to begin with a new state of mind, that is more in harmony with the person who is living in the house and not the apartment.

The work begins in consciousness, for everything that is experienced by the 5 senses take their cue from the reference point within consciousness.

As you construct a vision of yourself living in this new house, in that instant a new potential reality unravels into a different dimension. Now you have to completely believe this and hold that experience in your conscious attention. According to Abraham, it has to be at least 17seconds or more. From a consciousness perspective, this activity you undertake in consciousness is the "giving" part. You are "giving" attention, which in energy is action!

As you keep giving attention to this alternate reality that has not yet manifested, you are giving more and more energy and attention to a shift out of your current zero point of reference. You are actually doing work here, though it is not physical. It is only because our society has been taught to dismiss imagination as irrelevant that we find it hard to comprehend conscious focus as work.

Now here comes the switch. As you give attention, to this other experience, an alternate portion of yourself is already exploring this un-manifest potential in creation. It is like putting a thumbtack on a location on the world map and saying to yourself "that thumbtack represents where I will be next month when I am on vacation". Now that you have the location sorted out you can plan your entire vacation around it. The same way once we fix a new location of preferred potential manifested reality, the wisdom within creation starts to create an alternate "You" that continues to explore that new reality and starts working out all the details of being "You" at that new location.

Now the switch is where you consciously make a decision to become the person that you have created in your imagination. You are doing a sort of a dimensional jump from where you are to the portion of yourself that you launched, who is now exploring the experience of living in a house. You are doing all this in energy. There is only one physical point of reference, the one at which you are standing right now.

You, having put the "work" into envisioning and energizing this alternate you, now get to drag yourself towards that new you. In other words, you switch your reference point to being the one who lives in the house and all the necessary steps that are required to physically get to this new you will start to magically show up in your life.

But remember, first you have to "give" attention or construct this other "you" before you can "receive" the benefits of that effort.

Nothing is fixed, so the variables are constantly changing. If you sabotage that first opportunity towards becoming this new "you", but maintain the focus, another opportunity will show up.

This is where your work starts to shift from just a mental vision to actually acting upon the physical circumstances that are launched as a result of this new point of reference. The universe is doing everything it can to allow you to catch up to this new "you" that you are preferring to experience within physical reality.

Now you shift more to the "receiving" phase as you start to "receive" situations and circumstances for you to act upon. But you have to act upon them. Otherwise nothing changes dramatically. Just out of the blue a friend might call you and say "Hey I just got my licence as a real-estate agent, can I get some experience by helping you buy a house?" You have to recognize the signs of the effects of your new focus and act upon them.

So you get the idea here. I believe this is the context in which the "giving" and "receiving" is used with regards to consciousness.

You don't have to give the same thing you receive.

Giving in order to receive should come as no surprise to anyone. Before the store gives you a loaf of bread, you have to give them some money. In turn that money you get from your employer, after you provide him with labor as a service.

In spiritual circles giving to receive is used as an example of proper mental attitude. Consider the practice of tithing. Tithing means to give 10% of your money to charity. Giving of your resources in this manner helps you cultivate the attitude of abundance, and reminds yourself that the universe always provides.

This is something that I personally believe- but I have never really seen it written down anywhere exactly: God wired the Universe in such a way that if you give of yourself, what you give will be returned to you at least three-fold.

I can attest to this working in my life. It doesn't necessarily mean giving money! Your time helping others qualifies. (For example, your time answering questions on Inward Quest qualifies as giving of yourself). You can donate clothes. You can spend time listening on the phone to a friend's problems. You can pray. You can distance-heal people.

There are so many things that you can do that qualify as "giving".

The end result is that, as if by magic, the Universe (God Himself, in other words) returns these gifts back to you!

Now, here is the tricky part: Jesus said, "Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing." You must not think much about your giving. You must not think, "Wow! I have given much today, so now I will get three times as much back! Wow! Aren't I a great person!" Rather, you give as secretly as possible. God sees what you do, and will reward what you do in secret openly.

Be humble in your giving.

I think you will be amazed at how this works! When my kids were growing up, my husband and I did not have much money for their clothes. But God saw to it that they not only had clothes, but that they were in style! Just when somebody grew out of something, another bag of donated clothes would show up. (I do not think my kids appreciated this quite as much as I did!) It was amazing.

I hope this helps you understand.

Blessings, Jai

I am quoting the exact same section, but I am emboldening a different part.

In the first place, we must put our knowledge into practice. Nothing can be accomplished in any other way.

The athlete may read books and lessons on physical training all his life, but unless he begins to give out strength by actual work he will never receive any strength; he will eventually get exactly what he gives; but he will have to give it first.

It is exactly the same with us; we will get exactly what we give, but we shall have to give it first. It will then return to us many fold, and the giving is simply a mental process, because thoughts are causes and conditions are effects; therefore in giving thoughts of courage, inspiration, health or help of any kind we are setting causes in motion which will bring about their effect.

Thus, you are not actually told to give the physical object - as that is merely the effect...but you are to give the thoughts, which are causes. It is the mental state that is more important.

So for example, as you walk down the city streets and see homeless beggars you can offer the thought of them having a home of their own to stay in...that is, in your mind they are no longer homeless.

Again, you don't need to offer the physical thing itself...but you can offer the IDEA of it. I do not know what owning your own home would feel like for you - but you can find those feelings and ideas behind them...such as shelter, possession, a certain sense of freedom...and you can give these to others (physically even).

It is quite possible to offer many of these physically to others. I just had a builder who was building next door stay in my room for a month, to save him having to drive hours every day during the week to get here and back to his place. You could go as small as offering shelter to the bugs who decide they enjoy your apartment room. There are always opportunities to give the ideals behind what you desire in those circumstances.

You do not have a home to give (yet...)...but you can give things such as shelter, possession, the sense of freedom or "homeliness" when someone visits.

Give whatever feels right ... it can of course be money, time, love, energy, knowledge ... give that which feels the best ... happy hunting