Ten Prosperity Commandments
Rev. John W. Adams
2. You Shall Make No Mental Images of Lack
Prosperity is the out-picturing of substance in our affairs. Everything in the Universe is for us. Nothing is against us. - Ernest Holmes
During their bondage in Egypt the Israelites had absorbed many pagan superstitions and, at times, faltered in their worship of the one God and
sought favor of the various Egyptian deities. When Moses returned from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, he found the people, weary of
waiting for him, worshiping a golden calf which Aaron had made from melted-down jewelry.
We have outgrown idol worship, but we have by no means outgrown the essential truth in this commandment that we are not to create and serve
false concepts. However, we still make "graven images" and bow down to them, serve them, and fear them.
These images are the false concepts that we are constantly engraving on our own minds and impressing upon the minds of others through the power
of suggestion. Every poverty, fear, limitation, worry, doubt is a false image, and every thought, word, and act of ours motivated by such an idea
constitutes the bowing down to "graven images" and serving them. As a result, we have unfortunate conditions in life.
The results that spring up in our lives are the unfortunate harvests that we have to reap. We hear a great deal about the creative power of
thought. Correctly speaking, it is mind that is creative and thought is its action. Thought is the use we make of mind with its vast creative power.
Since all appearances of lack have been brought about by the wrong use of the creative energy of mind, the remedy lies in making right use of
this same creative energy in order to bring the limitless good of the invisible realm of Spirit into manifestation.
Jesus always knew exactly what He wanted of His heavenly Father. He knew His Father had already fulfilled His every possible need in the realm
of Spirit, so that He had only to shape His desire through the creative action of His own mind in order to see it in manifestation. For instance,
in all matters of healing, He was keenly conscious of God's presence as pure and perfect life.
In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus undoubtedly controlled the electronic action in the atom in such a way as to produce instantaneous
increase. He gave no thought to lack or limitation. In all His miracles He saw God's omnipresence manifesting itself in the form of His heart's desire.
This shaping of the desire is the forming of the mental image. The mental image is the mold that the creative power of mind fills. Only when you
learn to obey prosperity's first commandment and look only to God for your supply are you able to hold mental images of the fulfillment of your
desires in the face of all appearance of lack or limitation.
When you learn to do this you are following Jesus' example. You feel God's presence within you and all around you as the perfect fulfillment of
the need of the moment. With joyous assurance you can say, "With my mental tools, imagination, will, faith, and all my other glorious faculties, I
fashion the mold that God fills."
When you have asked God's guidance and under His guidance shape your desires after this fashion, you are obeying prosperity's second commandment:
You shall make no mental images of lack. Rev. John (Adapted from "Prosperity's Ten Commandments" by Georgiana T. West)
