Wealth, Alliance, and Inner Alignment

Neville's Inner Vision

Jehoshaphat stands as a vivid image of a consciousness arrayed in riches and honor, yet hungry for the company of a powerful state. To join affinity with Ahab is to yield part of the I AM to an outer relation—the illusion of security through alliance. The descent to Samaria marks a movement of the mind toward the center of external pleasure and political striving, where abundance is offered as bait: sheep and oxen, a banquet of the senses, used to persuade one to move into Ramothgilead, a place of campaign and potential peril. In Neville's terms, all these names are inner states: Samaria the ego’s capital of opinion; Ramothgilead the stage of action your mind might consent to when swayed by the allure of worldly success. The question is not what the king did, but what your consciousness does when abundance and honor call you outward. Your true wealth lies in the I AM, not in the outward alliance. The moment you remember that, the persuasion dissolves and you remain unmoved by the show of power outside.