Living in the Flow of Increase

by Pastor Gina Johnson

Last week we talked about living in the flow of union and we talked about how everything flows when we have a strong connection with God. When we are aligned with the I Am effortlessly, we can feel the abundance that we have. We can feel sparks in our creativity. We can feel a new level of vitality and your faith is strong. And that's what we call movement. That's what we call increase. And it happens when you are living in the flow, when you are living in the flow of that connection that you have with God.

It's easy to think of the word increase and think about it's about having more. It's about doing more. It's about getting more. But actually, increase comes when we're focused on being. When we are living in the flow with God, then we can see how God's gifts can move through us, can move from us, can move all around us. And we're not just talking about financial gifts. Because a lot of times when we hear words like increase, right away, we're thinking about finances.

When we take God's gifts and we don't run off and bury them out of fear, but instead we take them and we trust and we multiply them, then we're not spending our time using our fear and our worries to dam the river. Instead, we are allowing that river to flow and move more freely.

I know many of you all are familiar with the story of the parable of talents from the book of Matthew in chapter 25, beginning in verse 14.

For it is as if a man going on a journey summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had received two talents made two more talents.

But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, Master, you handed over to me five talents and see, I have made five more talents.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been trustworthy in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.

Enter into the joy of your master. And the one with the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you handed over to me two talents and see, I have made you two more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been trustworthy in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy with your master.

Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, Master, I knew that you were a harsh man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here you have what is yours. But the master replied, You wicked and lazy slave, you knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And on my return, I would have received what was my own with interest.

So take the talent from him and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given and they will have abundance. But from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

And that ends the reading. So, we know this story, the parable of talents. Jesus is telling it; this master was preparing to travel. And as we heard, he gave some talents to his servants and they were to be stewards with the talents that they were given.

Two of the servants went out immediately and they put their talents to use. They didn't wait for better conditions. They didn't make sure that they've gone through their plan five, six, ten times and questioned themselves along the way. They went out immediately and trusted, decided that they were going to make an effort on what had been given to them.

Then, of course, there was the third talent, the third servant who was receiving this. And what did he do? He buried his talent in the ground because he was afraid. So when the master returned, as we saw, the first two were given more because of their movement and their trust and their alignment, they were given more. But the one who froze in fear, he didn't receive so much punishment as he received more of what he sowed—and he didn't sow anything. His fear gave him sorrow and his fear froze his flow.

See, when we hear this parable, it's so easy to relate it to money. If I manage my money correctly, then this will increase and multiply. And of course, there's truth to that. But I think we need to go a little bit deeper and understand how this is a story of consciousness. This is a story of awareness and what happens when we trust and we're awakened.

So, a side note on consciousness. I use that word often, and I think you guys are used to it by now, but some people are like, what's consciousness? Consciousness is simply awareness. And when I use this word, I'm not talking about something that's mysterious and far away. I simply mean awareness. It's how awake we are to the presence of God's movement in our daily lives.

It's how awake we are to not only the I Am, something outside of us and external that we just can't put our finger on, but we're going to pray to it and we're going to hope it answers all our problems. Or consciousness is when we are awake to the I Am that is within us, the I Am that has always been there. And the more that we turn inward, the more that we awaken to that awareness of what it's like to live as conscious stewards. I just wanted to take some time because I use that word a lot.

Now I want to go over with you guys a little illustration that will help bring this story to life. Imagine I have three jars here and these each represent our stewards.

Our first steward is represented with “trust”. This is our conscious steward.

And in a pitcher we have “increase”. This is what is given to us when we have relationship and connection and flow with the I Am.

It's when we are actually taking the time to make sure that we're not letting the noise of the world drown us. It's when we're taking the time to be open. As we see our master putting something in our hand, can we have trust? Can we have trust in what's been given to us, trust in who we are, and trust what we can do with what's been given to us to multiply it? When we have trust, it's effortless. The flow of increase pours into us just as the liquid pours easily into this open jar. There is nothing standing in our way. That is very much like the first steward, the conscious steward.

But then we have our second steward. And our second steward, not like our third, did a little bit. They were making an effort and so we have our second jar, “effort”, which is filled with small rocks and marbles and things. They were open to the possibility, but there is so much in there that even though the flow is going to enter, it's not going to move as easily as it would, but there's still room to receive because even with everything that was already present to that steward, he left himself open to receive. And as we leave ourselves open to receive and the increase continues, then we have movement and we will move into being more of a conscious steward.

But then we have that third steward who was fearful, which is the label on our final jar, and from his fears and his doubts and his worry, it doesn't matter that the increase is always available. It doesn't matter that the spirit is always present. It doesn't matter that God continues to abundantly pour out upon us when we are closed off by fear because just like this jar that is taped shut at the top we’re not going to receive what God is giving us. Maybe a little bit is going to get in there, but it won’t be very much. We have managed to block ourselves off.

We can block ourselves off by filling ourselves with programming of this world just like the second jar filled with rocks. We can fill ourselves with busyness, with condemnation, with comparison, looking all around constantly. And when we don't want to see the noise of our world, we continue to fill our place with all sorts of things. This way we can block it out. And hopefully we still stay open enough to let some of the flow in.

And then, yes, there are those of us who are open like our first jar, and I know I sure haven't perfected it, but we try to keep coming back to that openness so the abundance can always flow in and the abundance can go out and always create more increase. But when we allow fear, whether it's something from our childhood that got embedded in a traumatic situation that now we're carrying around that story forever, or maybe we don't have to go that far back. Maybe it's something that happened the other day.

Maybe that day you were running late and behind, you should have started blocking yourself and said, gosh, we're always going to be late. We're always going to run behind. Things are never going to change. Maybe we should let our fears and our disappointments and our burdens block us off.

The truth of the matter is, again, it's so easy to think about stewardship and what we've been given and bring it back to money. But I was thinking about some of the ministries of the church I pastor, the ministries of my life, and I would assume you all have your own ministries in your own life, regardless of where you fall.

You might say, I'm not in ministry. We are all in ministry. We are all in ministry each and every day.

But I thought about this. I thought about The Giving Tree as a great example. One day I was sitting in a meeting, for those of you who don't know, The Giving Tree is a ministry we have here at the church, and the way it works is we take donations of household items, small appliances and furniture, and people are allowed to come here pick these items up.They don't have to show me their income. They don't have to go through their long story. I always like to get to know them, but they can come here and say, “I just had a house fire and we don't have anything. Can you help us?” And we set up an appointment and they go and they take what they need.

“I just moved to the area because I'm a freshman or a sophomore or a junior in college and I got an apartment. I don't have a lot of stuff.” Cool. What can I help you with? Here we have some sheets. Here we have some things for your kitchen. Oh, look, here's a bed in this room over here.

It could be someone that came in and said, “Hey, Gina, it's me calling from social services.”

“Yeah. How can I help you?”

“Gina, I have this family that we had to rush out right away because there was domestic violence. Is there any way we could come over today, short notice and grab things?”

“Absolutely. Virginia, can you meet with them? And then I'll catch them on the back end.”

And that's what it looks like. That's what The Giving Tree looks like. When we were given The Giving Tree, we were given 10 talents, an opportunity. And we came together and some of us took some of the talents and started putting together the rooms and moving the furniture. And some of us took some of the talents and started making advertising and publicizing The Giving Tree. And some of us showed up for the ribbon cutting.

But I think some of us in our congregation took the talents of The Giving Tree and went and buried them in a hole and said, “You know what? I'm going to pray for this ministry. I'm going to cheer on those who are doing it, but I don't think that's really for me. So, I'll just leave it over there.”

And then there were some who said, “You know, I definitely want to help out.” And they came and they helped a little bit, but then that was the end of their effort. And I know, you know, sometimes when I use illustrations like this, does my congregation feel like I'm picking on them? Does it feel like I'm asking more of them when they're all giving everything they can? You know, all I'm asking is to check your talents. Have you been given talents that you are not running out there and trusting and multiplying so the increase just continues to go and go and go and go? Or are you guys still trying to see where you can fit it in?

You know, we really want this church to grow. We really want our life to change. We really want our relationships to change, our education at school, our job environment. We really want to make a change, but we're not willing to get rid of all the stuff blocking the transformation.

Or maybe we're just sitting here watching to see how the story goes. Will the church stay open? Will it close? We got one year, five years. What do we know? And maybe this is what it's like. Maybe it's the same in your personal lives. Man, I've been in this crappy relationship so long. Let's just see how it rides out. Or heck, I've been at this job for 20 plus years. Maybe I'll get that dollar raise or cost of living increase, but I'm just going to complain every time I go in and out, day in and day out.

Or maybe it's time we pull all the tape off, right? And maybe it's time we get rid of all the fears. And maybe we open ourselves up and allow that increase to come through.

We have a new service coming out, those of you who are here local, starting in November. We're going to have a dinner church service. And it's coming together.

You come here on a Wednesday night, grab a meal, have some community, have some fellowship, and receive a message. As your minister, I'm tossing out talents to all of you and saying, this church, this second service, it's not about comparison. We're not trying to create something over here to outdo what we got going on right here. It's going to be another outlet. It's going to be another flow of our union with the Source, another flow of increase.

And so I'm giving you talent. Spread the word. Maybe you say, “Gosh, Gina, I'm too old to attend an evening service.” Cool. Stay home, but tell everyone about it.

“Oh, Gina, you know, I don't mind helping out in this way, but I can't do that.” That's okay. It's just finding those ways that you can let your increase flow. It's finding those ways to take your trust and to put in the effort and make a difference.

So, I'm throwing out these 10 talents as we're launching this service in November. I'm throwing out these talents as we have that Giving Tree ministry. I'm throwing out those talents as we have another Show Down Hoe Down event. What are you going to do with them? And what other spots in your life? Has it been your professors? Has it been your parents? Has it been your friends? Has it been your employers? Has it been your spouses? What other parts of your life do you see God handing you these talents? And now you're in a place where you can make a decision.

Am I going to multiply them? Am I going to put in a little bit of effort and see what comes back? Or am I going to bury them? I'm letting you know, when you dig holes, you're going to bury your talents. But when you trust in the flow, consciousness comes through, the channels are open, and you can finally stand in the increase that you've always been standing in.

Please pray with me.

Almighty God, we give you so much thanks for the abundance that you continue to pour into our lives. God, help us to focus inward on who we are because of you. Help us to find the Spirit's voice within us that reminds us that we have limitless possibilities ahead of us, that we are all your awake, conscious stewards, and that we have been given a mighty mission to push forward.

God, we thank you for the increase in our lives. We thank you for the flow of your love, of your grace, and of your peace. It's in the most beautiful name of Jesus Christ we pray.

Amen.