by Rev. Gina Johnson
If you all recall, we've already made it through eight of our ten prosperity commandments. So I'm just going to go through those briefly.
1. You shall look to no other source than God for your supply.
2. You shall make no mental images of lack.
3. You shall not speak the word of lack or limitation.
4. You shall let go and let God do it.
5. You shall honor those whom God has given you.
6. You shall leave your wealth in circulation.
7. You shall not allow your wealth to be idle or misused.
8. You shall not seek something for nothing.
As we continue on this path to peace, power, and plenty, we are going to look at those last two commandments today. And I want to start off by sharing a story about me and the habit of lying because the ninth commandment is you must not bear false witness against another.
When I was little, I used to get away with a lot. At least I thought I got away with a lot. And I remember one night that my next door neighbors had invited me over. I don't remember exactly how old I was. I probably was around like seven or eight. And they had a little granddaughter. And she was over there visiting. I wanted to go over there and play with her. I was at that young age where I felt like, with littler kids, I was their babysitter, their big sister.
I went over there and I was playing with her. And I was having so much fun. Then they said, “Gina, do you want to stay for pizza?” I said, “Oh yeah, I want to stay for pizza.” So I picked up the phone and I called my dad and he said, “No, you can't stay for pizza. Your mom's already made dinner.” I said, “Okay, well I'm just going to play a little more and then I'll come home.”
And so I stayed for pizza.
And when I came home, boy, I'll tell you what. Gina only got spanked for certain things. But lying was one of them. Boy, did I get a spanking. And whatever people believe nowadays about spanking, I have no problem that I got those spankings. But I'll tell you what. My dad was always very firm with me in that you do not lie.
You do not lie.
I don't even know what in young children, because I think it starts there, becomes like the teaching that it's okay to tell lies. There was a time where I remember trying to wiggle my way out of a lie. And what happened? I just kept having to lie on top of the lie on top of the lie on top of the lie. Some people pride themselves on never telling the full truth. You know, that they can get away with leaving some little details out. And some people say, “It's just a white lie. That makes it okay. It's just a white lie.”
And it's interesting, because in my own household, I've raised my kids the same way I was. I would much rather you tell me the truth and face the consequences of your action than lie, because it's only going to get worse from there.
When we think about that commandment that you must not bear false witness against another, it's really important that we recognize that the more we are lying, the more we are being deceitful and hiding, the more we're coming away from the trueness of who we are. You are made in the Father's image, you are made in our sovereign God's image, our God is faithful and true. Our God does not lie. Our God makes promises and fulfills them. Our God enters into covenant with us, and he or she or they always uphold what they say in their word, what we hear through the Spirit.
It's really important as followers of Christ, as children of God, that we keep the same practice and we recognize that even when you exaggerate. It's one thing to say I caught the fish that was this big, and maybe it was only this big. But sometimes even an exaggeration, not only is it lying, but it's almost like a space of doubt.
Say you invite a group of people to come into a certain event, and you're really worried about who's going to be there. And so they say, “How many do you have coming so far?” And despite what you know in your head, instead of saying, “We've only had a few people sign up, but if you would help me spread the word, if you'd still be there…”, instead you say, “Oh, my gosh, so many people have already signed up. You don't want to miss it.”
Even in stretching the truth a little bit, it's still lying. Maybe it doesn’t feel the same because we use words like, “I'm stretching the truth.” Well, let's consolidate that.
You're lying.
Even when we insinuate something that we don't have a truth basis for, we're lying. It's one thing to speak in hopes of something wonderful coming to fruition, to manifest things with our words. But even sometimes we'll do things, and we'll practice just a little bit of deceit. And we're like, “That's okay. The reason I'm doing this is to encourage them. The reason I'm doing this is because I know they wouldn't do it if I didn't say this. So I'm going to say that, but once they're there, it'll be okay.” But it’s not okay.
You know, I don't get too caught up in what is sin, what is right, what is wrong. But I know that if you're having to put on a facade, a mask, and the words that are coming out of your mouth are not truly in alignment with what the Spirit calls us to and who we're called to be, then we are in separation. We are lying, and we are in sin.
Did you know that even if you take the time to listen to gossip, you're participating in a space of false witness. Perhaps you're not being lied to. Perhaps you're not even lying. But to hear something spoken in the way of gossip that might be slandering another, that might be telling business that is not theirs to tell, that might be stretching the truth in order to create something, you are now caught up in another form of false witness. To gossip or to listen to gossip and not be brave enough to say, “Thank you for sharing that with me, but I don't need to hear that from you,” or “I appreciate your concern, but that really isn't your story to tell,” is to become a part of that, to become a part of bearing false witness.
That's the basis around that commandment. How does it tie to us? How does bearing false witness tie to our prosperity?
Well, I want to share with you that we are powerful. We are created in God's image. Jesus says, I am in the Father, so the Father is in me, and he is in us. And so just like you shouldn't bear false witness against one another, you shall not bear false witness against your source. Now I'm going to walk with you through this a little bit.
When God created us, when we were created to come into this incarnation, we were created in spiritual perfection. There's a word in the Bible used to describe us; it’s masterpiece. We've been created in God's image and likeness. We bear the characteristics and the traits of God. That is our source. And the moment that we come into this reality, we are perfect in our divinity. We are perfect in our spirit. We are masterpieces created. We are God's own work.
But we are moving and living through areas of separation. Because as spiritual beings in our human experience, we must be faced with poverty. We must be faced with disease. We must be faced with places of limitation, even to the point of death. But everything that we encounter in this life does not change who we are.
You do not stop being a spiritual being made in perfection in the likeness of God because you end up with an illness. You do not stop being God's creation, a masterpiece, a perfectly divine being, just because you couldn't make your monthly bills. You do not stop being a child of God with the Father and the Spirit in you, created in His image and likeness of spiritual perfection, just because you're facing challenges.
What happens, and I talk a lot about verbiage, but what happens is we face a challenge. And it gets in our thoughts, if you remember this from week one, and then it gets into our words, and then it gets into our actions.
So, for instance, say you have a job that you're not very pleased with. And every day you're going into this job, you are unhappy, it's not fulfilling, you're not making a good wage, you don't get along with your coworkers. And so you're going into this place with this attitude, “Ugh, I have to go to work today. Everyone's always in a bad mood. No one is ever working together. People are just punching a time clock and ready to get in and out.”
As you're talking to yourself, now that you've taken the time to bear false witness against everyone else, now you're talking to yourself and you're saying, “Man, I'm never going to get out of this place. I'm going to end up with all sorts of pain. I'm just going to be like that guy I see. Man, he's been there 40 years and he looks miserable. I'm going to end up just like him.”
As you are saying these things in your mind, eventually they start to come out in your words, and then you find yourself going into work like this. And you find yourself saying TGIF, thank God it's Friday.
I don't know if you remember this, it was one of the old networks, but they had the greatest shows on Friday. So they started calling it TGIF, because on Friday, that's when these great shows were going to come out. And I remember when I used to get that. I used to say, “Yeah, thank God it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday.” And then I came to the realization that in saying that, especially when it comes to work, you go into your place and you're working like, “Whew, thank God it's Friday.” The mentality behind it is off.
So should we celebrate Fridays? Absolutely! Just like we should celebrate Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays.
You know, I was saying to someone the other day, I said, “My goodness, I think for the first time in my life, I had a Monday.” Because people say, “Oh, it's a Monday.”
And I think this last Monday, I had a Monday. And I don't even like that I'm saying that, because then that's me putting that out there, that Mondays are harder than other days. Mondays are those days where if anything can go wrong, it's going to happen, because it's a Monday. But whew, thank God it's Friday. Friday makes it all better.
See? And it sounds silly, but we're just not aware of how much our words make a big difference in the people that we are talking to, in the things that we are doing in our own life. Our words are so powerful, they manifest great things.
The other day, one of my children said these things, and I'm not even going to repeat them, but she said, I have nothing but blah, blah, blah in my soul. And I said, “What, what do you mean by that?” She said it again. And they were all just negatives. They were just negative words. I have nothing but blah, blah, blah in my soul, and I can't be around people or talk to people because it's just going to come out.
I said, “I love you.” We said goodbye. She was ready. She was done. She was going in for the evening to relax.
One of my other children was with me at that time, and I remember saying to her, “Gosh, you know, that really troubles me because if someone says those things, if someone lives in that place, I have nothing but this. I am poor. Oh, this is probably the best it's ever going to get. You know, I'm probably going to be down another week because this sickness has taken over me.” Anytime we give life to that, well, then be prepared. Be prepared to reap what you're sowing with your words.
I use this example all the time. If you say, “I know that I'm supposed to go to that thing, but ugh, it's going to be so boring. It's going to be so miserable. I don't even want to go.” Well, then when you get there, do not be surprised if you find it to be boring and miserable because you have put that out there.
You know, sometimes I get a little bit new agey and use words like universe and manifesting, but I want to tell you all that there's a lot of truth to that.
What you think and what you say is going to unfold before you. And this is not a new age teaching. Usually when I study this stuff, it's from people from the late 1800s, the early 1900s, who were studying spirituality, who were studying the way the conscious works and our levels of consciousness, and they were observing people who walked around with the “Woe is me. I know God could give me more, but he just doesn't,” people who walk around with that attitude, “This must be my cross to bear.” The more you say those things, the more you are bearing false witness against our source, the source of our supply.
If every time you walk into your home, you think, “This is great. I know I could have done better, but this will do.” Well, then this will do.
Don't complain about it. This will do. The minute we limit ourselves in understanding who we truly are and the abundance that is at our fingertips, the minute we do that, then we are failing to keep that one thought in the forefront of our mind.
And that thought is God is the fullness of our supply. God will supply the abundance. God will supply everything that we need.
God's presence in itself is enough to count for all of our needs. God gives us more than enough. We're the ones that have been skewed by society, by social media, maybe by our own parents and thinking that what we have isn't good enough and we have to keep seeking more.
I'm not telling you not to go out and seek more. What I'm telling you is when you have gratitude for what you have and when you recognize that God is the abundant source of everything in life and God will provide for all of your needs, all of their needs, and then some, when you can truly live in that place and no longer walk around in those lies, those stories of, “I wish this would happen, but I know it's not going to,” you have prosperity.
I remember when I was a younger mother and one of my children would come in the room and they would say, “I want to ask you for something, but you're probably going to say no.”
I said, “In that case, don't ask me. You already know my answer.” Or they would say, “I really wish I could have some water” or “I wish you'd get me a drink, but you're probably not going to.”
You know, it starts at such a young age, that idea that we can't have, that we are not abundant, that we are not prosperous. I saw this amazing video called Orange Juice the other week about this young man. He's a preacher now, a speaker, but he was sharing how when he was young, they went out for Sunday dinner, him and his family, and every time he would get orange juice, and the orange juice would always come in such a small cup. And I won't go too far into it, because I really, he tells it amazing. You can find the video on BravingBird.com.
But the thing about it is, he started seeing that cup of orange juice, that small cup of orange juice, as limitation. As I get this on Sunday, as this is when I get to have this, this is when I get this treat, and it started causing him to bear false witness against his God, because he started seeing the limitation in front of him as a limitation of what his parents could provide. And it goes on further to the limitation of what God can provide.
And when he was a father, as he was giving gifts to his son, he recognized that. He said, “I don't want to do that. I don't want to teach my children limitation, because you cannot limit God.”
We are children of God, and our children are children of God, and that means that we too have the abundance, the prosperity, all the provision that he has. So I want to challenge you to recognize how powerful you are with your words and your thoughts.
Recognize that, yes, in this lifetime, we are going to face physical limitations, but we are not our bodies. My favorite thing is, when I got to sit with an elderly man, he's passed away now, and his name was Ray. And every time I would visit with Ray, boy, he would always say, “Do you want to go out and pick up some food?” He would offer me to go pick up whatever I wanted. And when I came over to his house, he always had fruit and snacks and wines, and he had just beautiful furniture, and he always had great stories to tell about the books he was reading, and just all this joy in life.
Ray was dying. Ray's time on this earth was coming to an end, but you wouldn't know it.
He needed caregivers. He needed someone to take him places. He needed help, and not once did I ever catch him with a sour disposition. Not once did I ever see him ungrateful. And I hope, I hope it doesn't take us till we're in our 90s, and on the way out of this physical life, before we recognize that we don't have to give in to the limitation, the lack.
Every time you think or say or do something that places God in a box, you are bearing false witness against our source, your God, your Father, and essentially the essence of who you are. I always like to say that I am my father's daughter, and I want you all to know that we are our father's children, and that makes us pretty dang remarkable.
The last commandment says you must not covet, and it actually goes on a lot more than that. It's you don't want your neighbor's wife, nor their pig, nor their sheep, nor their cart, nor their horses, so you must not covet.
And if we take that into prosperity, you shall not covet another's. Claim your own. And I want to share a little reading with you all around that, as I was studying in this book about prosperity.
It says here, the root cause of covetousness is man's failure to look to God as the source of his supply. We see something, and we want it, and in that wanting, we fail to realize that the ever-present, good-willing power of God is going to supply us our own through faith. We make the mistake of thinking that what we see in this realm of form is already someone else's, and so we are not going to have the fulfillment of our desire.
We do not know, or perhaps we forget, that the power of supply is limitless, that our supply can be reproduced endlessly because it comes from a limitless creator. When we covet, we limit ourselves because of our false belief that God is unable to give us our heart's desires. It says in the Bible, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
I know I've said it in many other places. That does not mean, pray to God, close your eyes, and boom, you have a Lamborghini. That's not what that means.
Delight yourself in the Lord means walking in his ways. Turn inward and allow the Spirit to guide you. Delight in the teachings of our way-shower, Jesus Christ.
Read the Bible. Read other books. Listen to audios.
Delight yourself in community and communion. And the more that you come into alignment with God, he will give you the desires of your heart. That's not because he is a “you ask and I throw it before you” material God.
Because the more you become in line with God, your desires will align with God. So the more people get closer and closer to remembering who they are as children of God, they start to find themselves being more generous, serving more, smiling more, sharing joy more. And it's like, how did this happen? Because the more you come into alignment with our ever-loving, grace-filled, abundant God, the more you become that place of generosity and abundance, that place of good cheer, that place of unending love and flowing of abundance.
So when they say, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart, know that the more you seek to know who you are as a child of God, the more that you seek to live in the fullness and the abundance of who you are, the more you will see that abundance around you. I heard of a lady who would always say, “I never get flowers. Nobody ever gives me flowers. I'm never gonna get flowers. No one cares to send me flowers.” And one day she was walking and a flowerpot fell and just barely missed her.
I know of another lady who was thinking to herself, “You know what? I may not see it in front of me right now, but my God is abundant. My God's flow of prosperity in all sorts of ways never stops.”
She didn't have much money, but she took what she had, and she went out and she bought a brand new wallet. And she bought that wallet saying, “I know that my God provides, and this is my wallet of prosperity.” Over the weeks that followed, because her attitude changed, because what she was seeking changed, things showed up along the way.
There's not a lot of places where I wanna say test God, but I will say, you can test him here. Test him. Recognize your abundance. Own who you are. Live in the joy of your prosperity. Share without reservation. Give generously. Look in the mirror every day and say, “I am abundant. I am a source of power and provision. I am a source of peace and plenty.”
Say it. Embrace it. Walk out into the world that day, and then share with me what happens from there. Because I guarantee you, if you really believe it, if you really take ownership of who you are as a perfect masterpiece, spiritual perfection, a glorious divine child of God, I guarantee you, you will see it flow and come all around you.
As we close in our message today, I’d like to share these with you. These are 10 affirmations over what we've been talking about for this past week.
I want to invite you to read these out loud while looking in a mirror. And you need to believe it.
· I look only to God for my prosperity.
· I make no mental images of lack.
· I speak no word of limitation.
· I let go and let God work in my life.
· I keep my wealth circulating with generosity.
· I use my abundance for good purposes only.
· I never strive to get something for nothing.
· I tell the truth of God's abundance.
· I take my eye off my neighbor's wealth, and I claim my own.
Very good, please pray with me.
Our most gracious and loving, abundant, prosperous God, we are thankful that we have been created in your image. We have been empowered with the Holy Spirit that we can live in abundance. That even when we don't see it before us, God, we know that it is there, so help us, God. May your Holy Spirit that is within us, may it help us to embody prosperity and generosity. May we eliminate places of lack and scarcity, and may we take complete ownership of who we are, spiritual beings created in the image and likeness of our Father, our source, you, God. We ask these things and we affirm these things and we trust in Jesus' name, amen.
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