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Writer's pictureVirginia Ripple

Prosperity Road: A Path to Peace, Power, & Plenty – Part 2

Updated: Jul 12

by Rev. Gina Johnson



We are going to be continuing in our series, so those of you who are here for the second week in a row, I haven't scared you off saying we're going to be talking about prosperity and finances for three weeks in a row, I'm glad you are still here, because the truth of the matter is, prosperity is about peace, and it's about wealth, but it's also about health, it's not just about dollars, so the fact that you guys are here is wonderful. I'm glad to be having this time to go back into what is the road to prosperity. We're all on it. How do we get to that place of recognizing that every day of our lives, we have peace, we have power, and we have plenty, because our God is an abundant God, and he ensures that we partake of that same abundance, if we allow ourselves to.

 

So last week, we looked at three commandments that were altered from the ten commandments into commandments for prosperity. The first one was, you shall look to no other source than God for your supply, and the second one, you shall make no mental images of lack. The third one, you shall not speak the word of lack or limitation, and if you all remember, just a quick recap, that's recognizing that all we have and all we are is from our generous, most abundant God. It's something to celebrate every moment, and the moment we get caught up in thoughts or actions that say otherwise, the moment we take any time to put ourselves down or put someone else down, is the moment that we are giving in to separation, that we are blocking our prosperity. Because if we are God's children, if we are one with God, if our Father is that Father that would not hand us a stone, but would hand us a loaf of bread, then we are to sit in that, and to be in that all the time, recognizing that there's no need for lack or limitation or even actions that say such things, because that is not our God, thus that is not who we are.

 

So today we are going to continue on with that fourth commandment. It is remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Now, who really takes a Sabbath day? I don't mean Sunday, I just mean even one day a week, who actually takes a Sabbath day?

 

The Sabbath is so important, and I think in order to understand how Sabbath attaches to prosperity, you have to understand the word itself. The word says it's a time for rest or repose.

 

It's an intermission of efforts. The Sabbath day is given to us so we can gather strength, so we can gather creativity, so we can renew our bodies, our minds, our souls, so then we can go forward. What was Jesus' rinse and repeat cycle? It was pray, work, which was his healing and his teaching, and rest.

 

Pray, work, and rest. There was always that factor of rest. He always made it a point to get up and to go and spend that time in prayer, then he would go and do what he was blessed to do, what he wanted to do, what was a gift for him to do.

 

And then there were times where he would say to his disciples, go on ahead of me. I'm going to stop and take a rest. Many of you are familiar with farming and agriculture, and there's a lot to that process.

 

It's not just a matter of, “I'm going to plant something, done and done.” When the farmer is ready to plant, there is selecting of the seeds. That's part of that same process, that process of prayer and work and rest. There is that selecting, “What am I going to tune my mind into? What is this desire of my heart that's in alignment with the spirit that I'm going to seek?”

 

And then after that, the farmer prepares the ground. And as he's preparing the ground, that is that prayer that is saying, spirit, I feel this upon me, and now I'm laying it before you, asking you to guide me in this endeavor. Show me the way, equip me, show me the empowerment I already have so I can move forward.

 

And then there is the planting. And the planting is just like the planting of our hearts and minds. Once we recognize what God has called us to do, once we've surrendered to the spirit's leading in everything that we do, now we can plant those seeds in our mind and in our hearts, that they will grow things to fruition that will be a harvest of plenty.

 

And then after the planting is done, we're not quite off the hook yet. There's the tending. There's the making sure that the pest and the weeds are not getting into what we planted. There's the making sure that there is enough water, enough sunlight, that there's the proper protections. And we need to do that with the things that the spirit has planted in our lives. You know, people used to always tell me, “You're being called to do something that's going to be very impactful, be prepared for all the trials that are going to come with it.”

 

I hate that. Because my mind will get there, okay, where are these trials? Where are they? When's that other shoe going to drop? It's going to happen. No.

 

I do want you to deny the doubts and the fears and the worries. I do want you to affirm the fullness of who you are, the recognition of who God is and who he is through you. Do recognize that's part of it, but I don't want you to run around waiting for the pests to show up, waiting for the weeds to show up.

 

Then comes that Sabbath. You've done the preparation, you've done the planting, you've done the tending, and now it's time to wait. It's time to rest and trust that what you have done in communion with the Lord is going to bear a great harvest. So we look at that commandment and it says, remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You shall let go and let God do it.

 

And that is the rest. When you understand where God is calling you, where you have taken the proper steps to preserve yourself, your mind, your spirit while honoring him, you can let go and let God do it.

 

How many of you have ever had sleepless nights? And you wonder what those are from. Perhaps they're from some physical ailment. Well, let's go back a step further. What was that physical ailment from? Because when you really get down to the root of things, it's usually something incongruent with another space in our life. Whether it's our finances, our relationships, our work, whatever it is, when there is something that is weighing on the mind that is taxing the soul and taxing our energy, it brings us to a sleepless night.

 

But look at Jesus, right? Our way shower, our master teacher. Do you all remember the story of him being out on the sea with the disciples? And a storm comes rushing in, and they are in a panic. They are thinking, “We're going to die. What's going to happen here?” You know what Jesus is doing? Man, after my own heart, he's sleeping. He is sleeping because he has the knowing, he has the fullness and the trust that he can rest in God's care and provision.

 

He taught, he healed, he has his disciples, he's out on the boat, and now he can trust and he can let God. So that is your commandment, to let go and let God do it. Yes, show up and do your part, but there is a part of your role that says, now be still. Be still and know that I am God, and you will bear the fruit that you're meant to bear.

 

The next one that we are going to talk about is honor your father and mother. Let's look at the word honor for just a second. It means to accept, and it means to pay when it's due. When I think about that in the way of parents, and many of you all are familiar with this, when you are young, they spend those years nurturing you, pouring into you in the way that they see fit, truly thinking they're doing what's best for you. I understand not everyone has had the exact same situation, to some it's been picture perfect, to others it hasn't been, but your parents, one or the other, your grandparents, your guardian figures, whoever it was that was in that mother and father role, did the best they can with what they had. And so they cared for you the best they could.

 

Then there comes that time in life where it's your turn to pay because it's due. And I don't mean now you have to pay up. I mean think about all the blessings that you have received from your parents, your guardians, your mother and father, and now it’s their time of needing care. It's your time to nurture and care for them, to return to them what was given to you.

 

Recently I was at a wonderful speaking event called Activate Your Power Now, and the subject topic was honor your father. I got to hear multiple speakers talk about how in their childhood their fathers were absent, or cruel, or very hard on them, lots of expectations.

 

And then I got to hear their stories of redemption and reconciliation, how they recognized that their fathers, and some talked about their mothers, were doing the best they could. One gentleman shared a story that touched my heart, how he never got from his father what he got from his grandfather. So his grandfather served in that role, and as much as it bothered him as a child, it angered him, it caused him sleepless nights, when it was all said and done, he learned.

 

His father never got from his father what was to help him in his walk. That he spent his life longing to have from his father what the son was longing to have from him. So it's really interesting that we can sit there and look at all the things that haven't gone well, all the places that our parents or our guardian figures have fallen short, when in truth they showed up to do their role, and they did it perfect.

 

And because of it, even in the challenges, even in the struggles, you can find the blessings. You know, I heard one other story at that event of a person saying, “My father was never around, and so I believed in my mind that he was Superman. I believed in my mind that he must be some kind of superhero that didn't have time to be there, and that's how I stayed in peace.”

 

And then when this person met their father, they recognized they are just a fallible human, just like they are. And now they have the greatest relationship with their father. And so I'm going to tell this to you and say, you shall honor those whom God has given you.

 

And it's not just people, it's everything that God brings into your life. Whether it's your parents, whether it's your aunts and uncles, your grandparents, your siblings, your friends, your church community, recognize that people are moving at their level of awareness, and they are doing the best they can with what they have. My children push back on me a lot and say, “Well, if they're doing the best they can, why does it look like this and look like that?” I don't know.

 

When I fall short, why does it look like this and look like that? Recognize that we may not understand where they're at. We may not even enjoy the treatment we're receiving where they're at. But maybe when we honor them for what they are pouring into us, then we can see the prosperity. Then we can feel it. From the people in our lives, we have been given far more than we will ever express gratitude for. So I'm telling you to live a prosperous life.

 

Honor those who have been given to you. Accept them and love them. And when it's your turn to pay, then care and nurture them.

 

Maybe it doesn't look like the way they cared and nurtured you, but it's not a comparison. It's about recognizing you've been blessed in this abundance by these beautiful people. And now you have a chance to give it back.

 

All that has been given to you has an opportunity for you to give back in a beautiful way. It's up to you to see it that way. It's up to you to receive it that way.

 

The next commandment is, you must not kill. What an interesting one, right? Are we sitting here wondering, how is Gina going to open this one to sound like prosperity? Well, I'll tell you what. Killing is anything that brings destruction.

 

And if there is one thing that kills, it's fear. It's destructive thoughts. It's destructive doubt.

 

And we kill the opportunity where something is going to sprout in our faith. When that abundance is going to come upon us, sometimes we miss that window of opportunity because we've already allowed our doubt and our fear and our destruction to get in the way of it.

 

You know, if you think about circulation in the body, it's really important that you have great circulation. Well, the same thing comes with all that we have been given. So you must not kill. You shall leave your wealth in circulation.

 

The minute that you start to fear that you don't have enough, the minute you start to hoard, the minute you start to build the grain house and have that overflowing, but you can't give out here. You can't put back into the community. You can't put back into your loved ones.

 

You can't return what was given to you. That's when you start to kill your prosperity. Your wealth must be left in circulation.

 

You have to have complete trust that if I pass this on, it's going to come back. I like to always say, the last thing you want to do is get caught up on what you're going to get out of it. And I'll talk about that more in a moment.

 

But it's important to recognize that when you give, you will receive. When you give, you will receive. Jesus tells us a story about  a master going to his three servants, and he gives them each a certain amount and says to them to go and multiply this. I'm giving you the awful paraphrase version. But here goes.

 

The one goes and does his thing. The other one goes and does his thing. And the other one goes and does his thing.

 

When they come back to give a report, one of them has multiplied everything by ten. It's absolutely beautiful. And it's a great, it's a well done, good and faithful servant. The other one has not multiplied it by as much, but still there is multiplication, there is return. Because both of these individuals took what they were given and took responsibility with it.

 

To whom much is given, much is expected. And much is not defined. So much is whatever your much is. This is how much I've been given. And so there is expectations for what I've been given. This is how much you've been given. It may not look the same. It may not feel the same. But we both have been given what we've been given. And now we are expected to use it.

 

That third servant, that third steward was afraid. That steward went and buried the money and came back at a later time and said, “Here you go. I kept it safe for you.”

 

And my question is, did you keep it safe for me or did you keep it safe for you? It's so important that we recognize that everything we have been given is not meant to be hoarded for ourselves. When we do that, we are killing its opportunity to bear fruit.

 

When people used to offer me financial help, I used to get really kind of in a tizzy about it. I felt very prideful. It wasn't a matter of whether I needed it or not.

 

It was just like, “Why is someone helping me? Why is this going this way?” And people would say, “But Gina, don't worry. Later in life, you'll have a chance to pay it forward.” And some days I'm like, “Well, when is that later in life? Can someone explain that one to me?”

 

And then I also got this great advice from my dad. And it was, don't block people's blessings. You see, when something is given to you by someone else, that person who is giving it, they are receiving a blessing from spirit, from the universe, from someone else in their life. Either way, they are receiving a blessing.

 

And also, when you are given a blessing, recognize that a time will come that you will bless someone else. And perhaps in receiving that blessing, it just takes a burden off your own shoulders that allows you to be in a better place to bless others.

 

So my dad said, say thank you and mean it. Don't duck your head and back away like there's something wrong with you for accepting help. Say thank you and mean it. Because you've been blessed to be a blessing.

 

But the moment you say, “No, no, I don't need your help. It's okay. I'll figure it out.” Well, not only did you block your blessing and your moment of growth and humility, you've also blocked theirs. So do not kill. Keep your wealth in circulation.

 

It's actually fun sometimes to go out and do something amazing. It doesn't have to be monetary. Perhaps you come to the church one day and say, “Hey, Virginia, is there a project I can do?” And go and do it.

 

And then spend the next days wondering, how is this going to show up? And not in a way of like, is it coming? Is it coming? Where's my blessing? No, but just paying attention in life. Because whether it's the time you stopped and held the door for the person who's way far behind you and you're in a rush but you held that door, just wait until the next time when you're walking in somewhere and your hands are full and someone runs up past you to get the door for you. Keep your wealth in circulation.

 

Maybe that wealth is a smile. Maybe that wealth is a kind word. Maybe that wealth is a monetary blessing or The Giving Tree, passing on what you have to someone else. Keep your wealth in circulation.

 

The other thing I want to warn you in this example is about when you don't keep your wealth in circulation and you become overly fixated on your wealth, whether that's material things, whether that's an abundance of knowledge, whether that's a large network of friends, whether that's dollars in the bank, when you start to see that as a representation of who you are, you are then losing sight of what's more important.

 

All right, I'm going to tell you a story. There was a god, Dionysus. And in return for a favor, he's willing to grant one wish to Midas. And he says, “I want everything I touch to turn to gold.”

 

He wants everything he touches to turn to gold because that is his priority. Having that wealth. I get one wish? Oh, well it's wealth.

 

And in the beginning it was fun. It was lots of fun. It's like, oh, increase my riches. Oh, increase my riches. I am the king and I have the golden touch. And then he goes out into his garden and he sees a rare beautiful bloom and he wants to pick it and smell it and it turned to gold.

 

And so now he's reflecting and he's thinking about what he wished for and he goes in to get himself something to eat and it turns to gold. And now he's really in that place of pondering, “What have I done? How can I undo this?” And he gets disturbed by the sound of his lovely daughter, whom he loves more than anything else, and so his natural inclination is to open his arms to her and now she's a gold statue. He goes back to Dionysus and pleads, “What do I need to do? I need to change this. This needs to be undone.”

 

And he tells him to go and dip himself, bathe himself, and this will be undone. And so he does.

 

And as he dips himself, he comes out and things he touched are no longer turned to gold but he has the ears of an ass. There's a lesson to that. The minute that you put anything of higher value, it can be gold, it can be status, it can be the way you look, it can be anything, even your own despair, the minute you put that above God, don't worry about having the Midas touch. Just worry about becoming an ass. That's what I would say.

 

And we'll move on to the next one. You must not commit adultery. When it comes to adultery, it's been taught to us in the Bible that once you commit adultery with your mind, you might as well have committed it with your action. And it's so easy, like many other topics in our world, to think of adultery and think of sex. It's way more than that.

 

Adultery is about purity. It can happen when you are not serving in purity with your outer actions just as much as your inner actions. If you take what you have and allow it to become idle, allow it to become misused, you are opening yourself up to the temptations of the outer world.

 

You shall not allow your wealth to be idle or misused.

 

King David, everyone's favorite story of adultery. I know it's mine. He sits there and he sends people off to war. He doesn't go because he is the king, even though David is known for leading these armies. Not this time.

 

“I got my men. I'm on a winning streak. Everyone knows how great I am.”

 

He sends them out to war. And in his idleness, in him sitting there just waiting for reports from his different soldiers, his different captains, he gazes upon a beautiful woman bathing, and what happens? In his idle mind, he then misuses his wealth and his power, his authority, and he goes to serve himself. The word adultery means to corrupt or debase.

 

You all think about when there is food, natural food that just tastes so good, and then next thing you know, we're adding all these chemicals and additives to it, and this is our way of preserving it or making it better or making it grow larger. We're just corrupting it. We're becoming adulterous with our animals, with our plants, with our harvests.

 

We become adulterous with our minds, with our bodies, with our families, with our circles of friendship, because what we do is we allow ourselves to become idle. We sit in that space of having what we have, and we take it for granted. You are all wealthy in so many ways.

 

Do not let your wealth become idle. Do not misuse it. We have to recognize that God is the supply of everything that we have. God is the supply of all that is, all that is good, all that is wonderful. And when we know that he is our supply, we know that it is coming, always coming, always showing up. The abundance is without end.

 

So we could say, “Okay, I have this great abundance. I don't need to worry about anything. I can just sit now and be lazy. I can just sit now and bask in my riches. I can take big trips. I don't have to work. I don't have to do these things. Would you want me to get that one? No, we're good. Okay.”

 

We can do those things. But then, we lose sight of what we're supposed to be doing with our wealth, we are blessed to be a blessing. No matter what we are classifying as our wealth, do not let it become idle, and do not let it become misused.

 

And if you have to pause for a second saying, “Is this the right question?” If we have to stop and ask ourselves that question, then I invite you to take a moment. Because it's one thing to say, I have this wealth, and this is what I'm going to do with it, and feel confident, and trust in the spirit’s leading.

 

It's another thing to say, “I don't know about this. I'll do it anyway.”

 

No. If you hear, I don't know, explore that I don't know. If you're going to invest in something and you feel a little shaky, explore that. It might just be an opportunity to find affirmation that you have nothing to worry about. It may be a warning. You get to decide that. But to make that decision requires that exploration and leaning into the spirit.

 

So don't be idle with it. Don't misuse it. Don't debase it or corrupt it. Recognize that everything you have, from your friendships, to the blessings in your home, to the blessing of the creation in your yard, to the people sitting here now, is a gift. Let's not let it be idle. Let's not misuse it.

 

And then the last one this morning is you must not steal.

 

And this is what I was talking about earlier, when people get in that mindset of saying, “What am I going to get out of this? You know, I'm going to do this. What's in it for me?” How many of us at times have decided, yes, I'm going to do this, but what's in it for me was the first factor in our decision making? If I'm going to be a part of this, am I going to walk out of it with more than I had walking into it? Or what if you're that person who says, “I'm going to do this, but don't expect me to put anything into it. You asked me to come. So if I'm coming, then you should be taking care of me.”

 

I want to tell you all a story about a lady. She was very much in a bragging state of mind because she had multiple relatives and she traveled a lot. And every time she would go to visit any particular town, even if it had nothing to do with seeing that relative, she knew that she had a place to stay for free. And sometimes she thought she would test it because she would stay with them so often that she would just pack her bags and show up on their porch. She would think, “I can call them when I'm an hour out of town and say, hey, guess what? Something's brought me to town. I won't really have a lot of time to visit, but I'm going to come and stay. Is the guest room ready?” And it just meant so much to her.

 

She would tell all her friends, “ I'm so lucky. When I travel, I stay with my sister. Oh, I stay with my uncle. I stay with my cousin. I don't pay a dime.” She saw it as getting something for nothing. And there it is the next commandment: you shall not seek something for nothing.

 

Let me tell you the other funny thing about this same lady. So she went on with this behavior over and over again. But then she would be on these trips, staying at her sister's house, not investing any time in being with them, pouring into them, just getting her free motel room. She would go out and do her shopping, have her lunches, be with her friends. And then she would come back at night and say, “You know, I haven't seen them in a long time. They didn't even buy my lunch.”

 

And then days later, she would look and she'd say, “You know that dress that I bought last week for $80? It's on sale this week for $25.” And she would start to look at all the places where she was not receiving, where she felt like she was being cheated. And I'm not one that gets all caught up in karma, but at the same time, boy, do I believe what you sow is what you will reap.

 

So her attitude of saying, “I can do this and take advantage of this and do everything I want and I don't have to pay a thing.” Well, it's so funny that in the times that she wasn't doing those things that all she could think about is, gosh, people are taking advantage of me and people aren't giving me what's due to be mine and people aren't acknowledging who I am. I wonder when she finally took the time to recognize that's the exact same thing she was doing.

 

Watch what you put out there into this universe because it does have a way of coming back around to you. Just like there's the positive side of the coin, pay it forward and know that it has ripples in the ocean that you can't even see because your motive in doing it was right.

 

But flip the coin over and recognize that you go out there and you sow lack of gratitude and you sow entitlement and you sow some kind of arrogance that puts you up here and says, “I deserve this and I'm going to get this and watch how I do it with little effort,” and see how that comes back to you just the same. It's important that when you go into a situation that you focus on what you're going to bring into it more than your focus on what you're going to bring out of it.

 

It's nice to get a bonus, to get a surprise. It's nice to go and make a purchase and find out that, hey, you didn't know, but today all of that's 25% off. Or, hey, you didn't know, but today we're giving this free gift.

 

That's beautiful. It's nice to be surprised by those things, but we don't spend our days trying to see how we can steal, how we can take what's not ours, how we can put in minimal effort and reap in abundance. Yes, I'm a big fan of work smarter, not harder, but it doesn't mean work cheaply. It doesn't mean give a little because if you do it just right, you're going to get a lot back. It means put yourself into it. Put your whole heart into it.

 

Recognize the abundance of what you have and trust that as much as I give, it doesn't matter because it's not about I gave to get. It's not about who can give the most. It's about I gave with an open heart. I gave with a full heart, and prosperity, which is already mine, is my return.

 

I'm going to close with this today. A lot of times the Ten Commandments are either here's your Ten Commandments, and this is what you live by, or else you're a sinner, and you're going to hell. There's that side, right? Then there's the side of the Ten Commandments, they're so old school. Why are they there?

 

I remember in Fargo, there used to be two stone tablets. There was a big situation about wanting them removed because what does the Ten Commandments imply? What do those stone tablets imply? Should they still be there? I remember learning in that time that when Jesus came, not to absolve the law, but to fulfill the law, he gave us two commandments. And if you are practicing these two commandments, those other ten fall under. And that is the same with prosperity.

 

If you are loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you will be in your abundance and prosperity. If you are loving your neighbor as yourself, you will be in your abundance and prosperity. The little side note to that is make sure you're loving yourself. Otherwise, you're only loving your neighbor as much as you're loving yourself.

 

But I'm telling you, when you look at your neighbor and think, “Ah, I'm going to make sure they don't cheat me,” that's the wrong way to look at them. As the more you lean into God and lean into the trueness of who you are, abundance and life and joy, prosperity, you're going to look at your neighbor and say, “Man, I am not going to cheat them. I'm going to make sure that I love them like I love myself, like God loves me.”

 

Please pray with me. Our most gracious and loving God, we don't say thank you enough for all that you give us. So thank you. Thank you that we are abundance, that we are life, that we are generosity, that we are wealthy in all aspects. God, help us to look at the situations that challenge us, the struggles that come upon us.

 

Help us to look at those as another opportunity to display our wealth, to display our abundance because we know you are the source of all that we have, all that is good, all that is. And so, God, we give you thanks and we trust that as we are blessed, we will go forward in being a blessing. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

 

Amen.

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