Metaphysical 2nd Commandment and
2nd Law of Prosperity

Previously we discussed the 1st Commandment and the 1st Commandment of Prosperity and determined that the 1st Commandment meant that “God and I are one”. The 1st Commandment of Prosperity is “Thou shalt look to no other source but God for thy Supply”.

Today we shall move on to the Second Commandment which reads according to the New Standard Oxford Dictionary: “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images ...thou shalt not make yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is from heaven above or that is from the earth beneath or that is from the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation to those who love me and keep my commandments”. The Lamsa Bible translates the word “Jealous” as “zealous”, when describing God or Source. “Zealous” means full of enthusiasm, not vengeful as “Jealous” would indicate. “The primitive people needed to be instructed in this way because they were much given to making idols of a palpable sort.” states Emmet Fox.

We do not make idols per se, but whenever we give power to anything over God, we are making that thing into a graven image. For example, when I give power to my back pain, if I let it become a conversation piece for me, an excuse from doing something perhaps, it grows stronger and takes power away from my back to heal. I separate me from my supply of Health, which is Spirit, and I may feel as if I am being punished for I suffer with increased pain. According to Emmet Fox, “You may destroy or demolish a stone statue or burn a wooden one, but the way to destroy a mental image is to stop thinking about it and consequently giving it more power. Many of us," continues Fox, "want to keep God as Vice President and ourselves as President. That is the reason for 'zealous' or even 'jealous'. We can not give just a percentage of power to God. It is all or nothing. Our supply either comes from God or from another source, and other sources don't last."

This commandment like the 1st was written just as the Hebrew people had come from Egypt, the land of limitation or a low level consciousness, and were stumbling around in the desert wilderness, metaphysically “lost in consciousness”. Moses therefore needed some kind of law or set of rules to keep these former slaves from killing each other or themselves with their new found power. So as happened before Moses went up the mountain, metaphysically Moses went to his highest level of consciousness, and began to write. Remember that I said these laws were written in stone to make them permanent both in the visible world of our 5 senses and the invisible world of Spirit. The references to graven images indicates that the Hebrew people had adopted parts of the Religions of the people that they had served while in Egypt. Most of those Religions had Gods and Goddess of all kinds and small statues and idols of these Gods and Goddesses in their homes, their business, and even in their temples. The latter place they were not so small. In fact, they were giant size. The foot alone of a god was often the size a tall man.

If we look closely at the Bible from beginning to end we find a trail, a thread of truth that is echoed from Genesis to Revelations. That thread is the constant bringing forth of the truth that there is only One God, not Gods, One God.

Therefore, the second commandment speaks to that truth. In our modern civilization we seldom see wooden idols or metal statues of the Gods of Nature as they were seen in the Ancient Cultures. Few of us, unless we had a big Feng Shui attack, have shrines at home to the fish God of Prosperity or the rain God or the various fertility Gods.

Still we do have our own personal set of graven images. These, however, are not carved from wood or chiseled from stone. We even worship these graven images and they are far more destructive to us than a wooden or stone statue could ever be. You see, our idols are the false beliefs that we hold in our minds and pass on to each other in our words, our actions, and our emotions in conversations. Every thought of poverty that we have, every thought of lack of emotional or physical health, every thought of limitation, worry, insecurity, and doubt is our own personal idol or graven image. None of these thoughts are the truth, of course. They are Maya, illusion. They are merely appearances, they appear to be true to our 5 senses but they are false. We see them, we feel them because we expect them to be there.

For example, the media reports to us that there is about to be a recession or there is a dangerous current lack in our economy, and because we believe what we hear or read from the media, what do we accomplish? What happens? Chaos.

Our God is indeed a zealous God, our God is an exacting God. The rules began at the beginning of creation. There is only one God. That one God is the source of all that is. That one God creates all light beings, who go on to create our world. Therefore, we must not worship false images in our thoughts. If we do, we will be breaking the law of creation. For every false belief that we worship, we will suffer some kind of unhappiness or pain in return. Here is where the idea comes in that we will suffer for three and four generations, and that my friends is our ego speaking to us, not God or Spirit. We plant seeds with our beliefs, we harvest what we have planted in the events and circumstances of our lives. It may be a low bank account, poor health, lack of friends, family problems, or even a house that just won't sell no matter what we do. We planted the seeds with our thoughts and we experience the upsets in our personal worlds.

We forgot to put God first and we coveted the false beliefs that always follows. Problem is a false belief doesn't last and it doesn't keep us happy.

The second Commandment of Prosperity is “thou shalt make no mental images of lack”. Lack is a false belief, yet we see it in our movies, our books, our newspapers, our conversations, and our thoughts. Georgianna Tree West, in her book, “Prosperity's Ten Commandments”, writes, “We hear a great deal about the creative power of thought. Correctly speaking it is mind that is creative and thought is the action. In short, our mind is the creator, while our thoughts are the action put forth by the mind. Your mind is limitless in its ability. But the thought that you may choose to think could do you great harm.” Not only then do we have the ability to choose our thoughts, we are responsible to choose them carefully and consciously. How often do we daydream and then what harm have we done to ourselves by that unconscious creation?

We often have what we call trains of thoughts. They go like this: “Wow, it is a great day, sunny. Maybe I'll take my dog for a walk to Bennington Lake. I'll call my friend and see if she will bring her dog along too. We'll have a great time. I feel great." Or, we can have our thoughts go in the opposite direction. We may hear that a friend has lost his job in this current unstable market and we think, "oh, I could lose my job as well. How will I then pay my bills? I'll have to sell my house; but what if it doesn't sell? What will happen to me? I feel terrible." Every single thought begins to manifest whatever it is. Put a lot of thoughts together and the power is stronger. Keep it going and it happens to us right here in our lives. Yes, our trains of thought have the power to create our world and they do. It is up to us whether our creation is pleasant or not. If your train of thought is on lack, what will you create? If it is on God and God's superabundance, what will that bring forth? It is always our choice.

I mentioned earlier that lack is an appearance. That means that it appears to be so. But we all know that appearances are deceiving.

Think about it, is there any lack of rain, or air to breathe, creative ideas, or love in creation? All appearance of lack is the result of the incorrect use of the creative energy of our minds. We think it, we believe it, and then we see it. It's that simple.

Instead of affirming lack, think of what we do have. Do a daily gratitude journal. Give thanks for what we have here and now. To be happy we must direct our trains of thought to affirm the unlimited abundance of Spirit in our lives. In other words, we put God first. I want to add something here. Let's not put what I would call “Metaphysical Malpractice” on ourselves and add guilt to the equation. We are striving to stay conscious, but that is far from easy for the average human. We have oxygen and water right here in this room but I challenge any of you to consciously make an ice cube float in front of the podium. I certainly can't. Remember we are “striving” to stay conscious. Few of us have made it yet. As well, we live in a world of Natural consequences and Natural laws, such as gravity. If you fall out a two story building most likely you will break something, if you don't end up dead. As well, many people believe that we came into this world with karmic consequences to fulfill. So as I am teaching these new ideas, don't make it hard for yourself, let go of guilt in any form, just do your best.

Finally,The 1st Commandment of Prosperity is “thou shalt look to no other source but God for thy supply.” The 2nd Commandment of Prosperity is “Thou shalt make no mental images of lack.” Obey the Commandments and you will prosper. Get your train of thought back to the truth, back on track. Be happy.

Namaste,

Barbara