Does God Want You to be Rich or Poor?
A recent edition of Time Magazine covered the ongoing debate between Christians regarding whether it's "God's will" for you to prosper or be impoverished.
With Your Best Life Now by Pentecostal minister Joel Olsteen topping the charts at over 4 million copies, many fundamental Christians are up in arms.
Olsteen states that "God wants you to prosper in all areas of life" while some evangelicals like the bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life, fellow mega-pastor Rick Warren, finds the very basis of prosperity "laughable." "This idea that God wants everyone to be wealthy?" says Warren. "There is a word for that: baloney."
So, with each side of the house throwing philosophical and biblical rocks at each other, the question for us to ponder is, "which is right?"
The answer... Both.
Understanding the fundamentals of consciousness, as well as the laws of the Universe, "God" wants whatever you want.
No more, no less.
James Fowler of Harvard School of Divinity conducted exhaustive research regarding the individual's "god model." In other words, how we each define the Creative Source. His research found conclusively that God didn't "create us in His own image." In fact, he found that we create God in our own image.
According to Fowler, as we grow and expand, so does our opinion of God.
Case in point, compare the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God is vengeful, jealous and temperamental. While in the New Testament, He does a 180 and becomes a loving, caring Father.
Obviously, these two books were written several hundreds of years apart, allowing for several hundred years of evolution. I submit that the differences are not as much a product of the teacher per se as they are a product of the consciousness level of mankind as well as the teacher.
Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Karl Pribram's research proved that everything we observe or perceive about the world is nothing more than a projection of our own consciousness.
All our perceptions are our own projections.
Dr. Fowler's work proves that as an individual expands his or her consciousness, their model of the Creative Source expands accordingly. Hence, the idea of God being temperamental, vengeful and jealous will have some in today's world think, "I better walk the line or I'm going to get punished." While others may think, "Why would I choose to worship someone who has no more emotional mastery than I do?"
A potentially higher level of understanding is that "the Great Guy in the Sky" is nothing more than a projection of the limited mind of humankind attempting to understand the understandable. To anthropomorphize (or to turn into a person) God is acceptable to a degree because it helps us give the ineffable a relatable mental construct.
But to hold this anthropomorphic figure as "ultimate reality" is limited.
What does God want for you? Whatever you project He/She/It wants. God's will is your will.
Now, I realize that this may seem outrageous, arguable and even heretical to many, and that's okay. But I encourage you to at least consider that the Christian prophet stated, "I and the Father (Creator) are one."
This is the statement of an evolved and expanded consciousness, versus the one-time revelation and actualization of a dead prophet. If this pushes your buttons, then please remember that all great traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, tell us that we are created in God's image.
The more you own it, the more you are it.
Quantum physics proves that we create and attract whatever is the focus of our attention. If you focus your energy and attention on poverty and make it righteous, that's how it is in your world. Conversely, if you focus your energy and attention on prosperity, more of that energy will flow to you.
It's your choice.
Many of the ultra-traditional variety like to quote Matthew 6:19-21 where Jesus states, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart is also."
If you agree with that potentially limited logic, here's some food for thought:
The word "heaven" comes from the original Greek meaning "expansion." Furthermore, Jesus also stated, "The kingdom of heaven is within." Nowhere in his teachings does he ever promise the "condo on a cloud" that has been so popularized by traditional thought.
Following this through, if heaven is expansion and it's within, then his advocacy in Matthew is not a divorce from the joys of Earth but rather a lesson in the focus of our primary attention.
Written in current vernacular, the teaching may read:
"Don't place your primary focus of attention in Earth (the world outside yourself). Rather, place your focus on the internal world within of expanding consciousness (heaven). For where your primary focus is resides your primary love (heart)."
This may give new meaning to the advocacy of St. Paul of the same tradition who stated, "Be transformed (moved beyond current form) by the renewing of your mind (redirection of attention and love)."
Is it possible that as we evolve and expand our wisdom and understanding, we are truly transformed not only spiritually... but mentally, emotionally, physically and financially?
I submit that as long as we place our primary attention on our own evolution and growth, we can still be comfortable and enjoy the pleasures of Earth in the process...
And maybe even prosperous and ultra-comfortable.
This can be God's will or not... it's up to you and what you're prepared to embrace. And if that doesn't work for you, that's okay and respectable as well.
By and large, we've taken quantum leaps in our technology, and yet only baby steps in our spiritual understanding. While many in our own country, as well as cross-culturally, still argue over the "rightness" or "wrongness" of each others "gods," maybe some of us can step out of that sandbox altogether.
The key to leaving the sandbox is not to judge the rightness or wrongness of the sandbox we left. For as we judge, we merely play the same game in a different box. The key is to appreciate each game for what it is, and to recognize that all games have a time and place in the grand scheme.
With this broadening of focus, you can choose whichever path is going to most rapidly and harmoniously advance your own expansion/heaven...
And you can joyously allow all others to do the same.
To your wealth and happiness,
James Arthur RayPosted December 12, 2006
President/CEO
James Ray International