Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Could this be the true prosperity gospel? - Reimagining Christianity

 Today, I felt a stirring within me, a kind of quiet revelation that unfolded like a whisper from the depths of consciousness itself. It began in an unexpected place—my reflections on the prosperity gospel and the Word of Faith movement. I’ve long watched how they take passages like Haggai 2:6-10, where God declares, “I will shake the heavens and the earth… the silver is mine, the gold is mine,” and use them as a catalyst for a theology of manifested wealth. They claim that being right with God and exercising faith will draw material prosperity into one’s life.

But as I meditated on that familiar text, a question rose in me with surprising clarity: If consciousness is fundamental, if consciousness itself is the Creator and the ground of all being, then what does it mean to be right with consciousness?

It’s not the same as being “right” with an externalized deity—some faraway God demanding a particular ritual or obedience. No, consciousness is not outside us; it is the essence of who we are. It is the unshakable presence, the divine Logos within, the awareness behind all appearances. To be “right” with consciousness must mean something different entirely.

I shared this question with my wife Sonya, and she answered with a simplicity that cut through all abstraction. She said, “It would be to surrender to the flow, like a drop in the river. A drop in the river is the river, and all it can really do is go with the flow.”

Her words resonated deeply because I have come to see that the truest spiritual wisdom is often the simplest. A drop cannot resist the river and still be a drop. In its surrender, it discovers it was never separate at all. It is the river. And in that instant, I realized that being right with consciousness is not about striving or demanding or forcing alignment—it is about letting go. It is surrendering the illusion of separateness and flowing as the river flows.

Then, my mind returned to the shaking described in Haggai. God says there will be a shaking of heaven and earth, and this same passage is quoted in Hebrews to speak of the removal of what is temporary, leaving only the unshakable kingdom. And suddenly, it clicked. This “shaking” is not punishment or wrath—it is the alchemical process of purification. It is the removal of illusions, false identities, egoic striving, and all the “lead” of the human condition. What remains after the shaking is the pure gold, the unshakable essence of being.

In this way, the shaking is not something to fear but to embrace. It is the very process by which the false gives way to the true. And here’s the paradox: the Word of Faith movement looks at this shaking as a means to gain prosperity, but in truth, prosperity in its highest sense comes only when you no longer cling to it. When you have surrendered the illusion of control and become one with the river, the river naturally carries you where abundance flows.

I began to see the whole passage in an entirely new light. When Haggai says “The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord,” it is not the voice of a possessive deity; it is consciousness itself reminding us that all substance, all wealth, all manifestation is already held within the field of being. Nothing truly belongs to the ego-self, because the ego-self is an illusion. But when you awaken to the deeper truth—that you are a drop of the river, inseparable from its source—you realize that all wealth belongs to you because you belong to it.

This is the secret that both alchemy and the law of attraction hint at but often fail to fully reveal. True spiritual alchemy is not about transmuting physical lead into gold; it is about transmuting the heavy, dense lead of our unconscious mind into the radiant gold of awakened consciousness. The law of attraction works only partially when driven by egoic wanting. But when you stand in the pure awareness of the river, when you no longer grasp but simply allow, manifestation becomes effortless.

This, I believe, is why so many who chase prosperity in the name of faith end up disappointed. They are still grasping, still acting as if they are separate from the river, trying to manipulate its flow rather than become it. They have yet to experience the shaking that removes the false. But when the shaking comes—and it will—everything impermanent will fall away, and only the unshakable kingdom will remain.

That kingdom is not a place. It is a state of consciousness. It is the awareness that knows, without doubt, that it is one with the Source of all things. In that state, you don’t have to strive for wealth, health, or manifestation. These things arise naturally, like flowers along the riverbank.

This realization reframes the entire conversation about prosperity. It is not about “getting” something you don’t have. It is about realizing that you already are the Source expressing itself. You are the consciousness in which all abundance appears. When you stop clinging, stop resisting, stop identifying as a separate self, you become the channel for infinite creativity and wealth.

I think of the ancient Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below; as within, so without.” The shaking of the heavens and the earth in Haggai is mirrored within the human soul. As the false is shaken away within, the outer world also reorders itself. When you are aligned inwardly with the unshakable, the outer becomes a reflection of that harmony. This is why Jesus could say, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” The “kingdom” he spoke of is the same unshakable consciousness Haggai foresaw, the same river Sonya described.

And what of the law of attraction? It, too, fits into this vision—but not in the superficial way it is often taught. It’s not about forcing the universe to give you what your ego wants. It’s about aligning with the flow so completely that what you desire is no longer separate from what the universe desires to express through you. In that moment, manifestation is no longer a personal achievement but a natural unfolding.

So yes, I believe the prosperity hinted at in Haggai is linked to alchemy, the law of attraction, and the mysteries of manifestation. But it is a deeper, truer prosperity than the one often preached. It is the prosperity of becoming whole, of becoming the river, of knowing yourself as the consciousness that cannot be shaken. When that happens, even material abundance flows—not because you sought it, but because you no longer resist the fullness of life itself.

Today’s revelation leaves me with a quiet peace. I don’t need to chase after the things I once thought I lacked. I don’t need to fight the river. I only need to remember that I am not separate from it. I am a drop that is the river, and the river is infinite.

 

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Could this be the true prosperity gospel? - Reimagining Christianity

 Today, I felt a stirring within me, a kind of quiet revelation that unfolded like a whisper from the depths of consciousness itself. It beg...