The Lie of Poverty Series

Reclaiming the Truth of Abundance

Photo by Raphael Rychetsky on Unsplash

Hey friends, today I am launching something exciting, a new blog series on the spiritual principles of abundance, the trance of scarcity and the lie of poverty that has us in its grip. The idea of this series was inspired by my ministry work at Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, which launched a new program today - 40 Days of Abundance, based on the work of John Randolph Price. It includes daily meditations sent to your phone, affirmations and journaling prompts and a free PDF guide. You can sign up and join here. It’s totally free and totally awesome. Check it out.

As that work launches today with over 500 subscribers, I thought of you, my growing Substack audience (620 strong now!) and how I could bring more spiritual and justice rooted content to the conversation. So here we are! You are welcome to join the 40 Day program if you choose, or just enjoy the blog series here - either way, let’s bust some myths and get free with our Liberation Lens!

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The Poverty Lie

We’ve been told a lie. Not just once, but repeatedly, in ways both overt and subtle, economic and spiritual. The lie is that poverty is natural. That it is inevitable. That it is even, somehow, deserved. This lie infects our religion, drives public policy and seeps into our everyday lives in ways subtle and not so subtle.

But there is a deeper truth, one we can see through the Liberation Lens: that poverty is not a condition of Spirit but a construct of society. That Divine Source is limitless, and that lack is not real, only the absence of recognition and distribution.

In this series, I want to revisit the foundational teachings of New Thought prosperity, not to dismiss them, but to evolve them. For too long, prosperity teachings have been either diluted into feel-good affirmations akin to a “magic potion” or distorted into spiritualized capitalism. But when rightly understood, these teachings are radical: they call us to recognize abundance as a spiritual reality and poverty as a human-made illusion, perpetuated by systems that benefit from inequality.

We will explore what Charles Fillmore meant by “divine substance,” what Ernest Holmes taught about supply and circulation, and why Catherine Ponder believed that prosperity begins in consciousness. But we won’t stop there, as that’s just the typical territory those in New Thought are already familiar with.

Through the Liberation Lens we seek to break free into new understandings that center justice and equity in our spiritual practice. Where personal transformation is not walled off from collective transformation or social responsibility.

Therefore in this series, we will also examine what sociologist Matthew Desmond exposes in Poverty, by America: that poverty persists not because of individual failings, but because of policy, structure, and the choices of the privileged.

And we will reflect on voices like Ezra Klein’s in Abundance, who argue that we live in a world of vast potential—but are held back by our failure to imagine and organize toward a shared flourishing.

This is not just about energy and money, as always it is about liberation. It is about reclaiming the truth that Spirit is not scarce. That God is not withholding. That we do not have to earn our worth, only remember it.

Over the coming months, I’ll be exploring:

• Part 2: The Spiritual Origin of Abundance – tracing New Thought’s metaphysical teachings on prosperity

• Part 3: How Systems Manufacture Scarcity – exploring modern research on the causes and persistence of poverty

• Part 4: The Ethics of Circulation – redefining giving, receiving, and the flow of wealth

• Part 5: Collective Prosperity – toward a justice-centered, spiritual economics

If poverty is a lie, then the truth must set us free.

Mental Mindset

All transformation and shifts begin in consciousness. Having the right mindset about something, anything that we desire is key to bringing it about. That’s why the 40 Day program is so powerful - because it’s an intentional practice to get our minds in the right framework for accepting a greater good.

You have within you the power and capacity to generate and participate in the abundant nature of the universe - in fact, you already are participating. The question is: are you participating at a level that is generative and life giving?

If not, let’s get there together. Stay tuned for this exciting series!

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As always, your support makes this work possible - and as always I am committed to equity and liberation, so my work is always free. Nonetheless acts of economic solidarity that help break the trance of scarcity are greatly appreciated. Together, we can demonstrate that abundance is the nature of reality. Thank you for your support.

Rev. David Alexander D.D. is the spiritual director of the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta, author of Freedom from Discord: The Promise of New Thought Liberation Theology and Recovery from the Lie of Whiteness. David writes a monthly column, Philosophy In Action in Science of Mind Magazine.