by Rev. Gina Johnson

We are in our Stewardship Month. And our over-umbrella theme, overarching theme for Stewardship Month is Painting Prosperity, the Art of Abundance. And over this next four weeks, we're going to dive into the Bible, we're going to dive into some teachings and some stories to help us recognize the gift of prosperity that all of us have had since the moment that we came into this incarnation.
And long before that, because prosperity is part of who we are as the kingdom of God, as children of God. One thing that I wanted to talk about was in the beginning is Stewardship Month. Isn't it interesting how we've set aside a month of the year to preach messages around stewardship, to get together and get all of our budget planning done.
And this is the month, this is the month that we want to remind you all that you are blessed and you are abundant, and give to the church, make those pledges for the years to come. I just want you to know when I was in seminary, in a class on stewardship and finance, one of the first things we learned is Stewardship Month is just something that is dated and should be long gone and should have never been created. Because it teaches people this practice of like, yes, I give all through the year, but Stewardship Month is when I actually think about these things. Stewardship Month is when I actually do the planning for these things. Stewardship Month is the month that I'm going to step it up because it's Stewardship Month.
Now it's true. As a church, we have to plan for our budget. We have to let people know where we're at so they can help us in bringing this mission to fruition. But that whole idea that Stewardship Month is the time we get together to talk about our prosperity, to talk about how to be good stewards, to share in the abundance of what we have, I know that many of you all practice way beyond that, that many of you all, day in and day out, month to month, are great stewards, not just good stewards, are amazing stewards.
And so yes, it's Stewardship Month, and over the next four weeks we're going to dive into a great series. But I'll tell you as the start and as the close of this month, don't let it be a Stewardship Month. Yes, do the planning you need to do, do the things you need to do. But may this be the last month that in our minds we're like, “It's Stewardship Month,” and instead let's live a stewardship life, day in and day out.
I like the word prosperity, and I know for some people it causes them to pull back a little bit. Ooh, prosperity, because they want to associate it with some of these myths that are out there. I even had to really dive into the meaning of prosperity and the understanding of who I am as a child of God, as a co-creator of God, as the empowerment of God. I had to come to those understandings before I could embrace the word prosperity. So I want to start off by just diving into a few myths around prosperity.
The first myth that I like to dive into is prosperity teachings are developing a selfish, “name it and claim it,” prosperity which is not biblical. Well, I'll tell you, before you reject this idea that it's not biblical to speak and to claim what is already ours, the abundance that is already ours, I would have you pause. I would have you pause and think on this story.
My friend Pat, when he was in seventh or eighth grade, his father was in a car accident that could have been fatal. In fact, his family thought it would be and so Pat prayed and promised to clean the highways if God would get them through this. Well, his father did survive and young Pat carried through with his promise. And in doing that, his friends got involved and soon there were several young people cleaning the highways.
All right, so there is the medical healing. There are the prescriptions and the physical therapy and whatever nurturing love came in from that community for Pat's father to be restored. But there was a boy, he may have thought he was a man, but he was just a boy, who sat there and spoke, you know, “Hey, God, if anyone can do this, it is you. If there is anyone that can remind my father that he has everything he needs to be whole and perfect, it is you. So whatever you want from me, I believe in you. I will do it.”
And it shows up in the way of cleaning up highways. And that in itself, his speaking of that, his acting of that draws other people in. But let's go back to that main part of the story.
He named it. He named that God the Father was the one to go to in this time of uncertainty, in this time of confusion, in this time of pain. And not only did he name it, but he claimed it. And I bet you, although I know nothing about Pat's father, I bet you he had a belief and a faith and a fight in him that didn't think, “I'm going to get out of here and just make this all better,” that thought, “I, with God, for the sake of me and my family, am going to rise up out of here, and this is all going to be better.”
So you can take the name it and claim it approach and say, don't talk like that. You know, that's one of those things. That's what some of those other big television preachers talk about. You're just going to speak it. It's going to come to be. Don't fall into that trap.
Well, you know, here's the thing. If you look into the scriptures, in Proverbs 18:21, it says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Recognize that the words you speak have power. You can ask my closest friends and you can ask my family. As a matter of fact, last night, Travis said something. I was like, “Hey, don't you talk like that.” It's really important to recognize the power you have in naming the blessings that are yours, in naming the good things that are to come.
Just one of those little examples. If you have a bill you can't pay, and you just keep walking around day in and day out: “I'm never going to pay this bill. I'm never going to have enough money. This is just the first of many bills that are going to pile up. This is awful. I'm going to be in over my head. How am I going to survive?” Wow, that's awesome. Because not only did you just speak reality about your situation, but you turned it into an ongoing thought process of, “I don't have enough. My God is limited. My practices are limited. What I'm going to come into is limited.”
Once we start speaking that way, we are, keyword, limited.
It's very important. If you look into the book of James, it says, “Look also at ships. Although they are large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.”
That comes from the book of James. It's saying that, you know what, this tongue is that rudder that's going to power us in the direction that will bring us to prosperity.
It's one of those interesting things because both of these passages talk about the tongue with this great power of life and death and saying that if we love it, if we actually think about the words we say and how we use them, we will then taste the fruit of it, recognizing that by our tongues, we can cast the direction and the vision, not only for our own lives, but for all of those who are following us, who are listening to us. If you ever look at those cycles, because I don't believe in generational curses, I believe that we always have the power within us to overcome them.
At the same time, you can look at those cycles where it was said parents who practiced this, who spoke like this, and this is what they demonstrated and then their children fell into the same patterns and then their children's children and their children's children. But now, in your own life, anyone you know, you can recognize that that is a myth. It's not about, “Oh, I'm going to name it and claim it and come into riches, and that's not biblical.” No, the Bible tells us that we have power in our voice. We have power in the things we say, so name it and claim it, not because it's coming to you, but because it's already yours.
The second myth I want to talk about is prosperity is only meant for some. You know, when you lock yourself into that, and you look at someone and say, wow, you know, yeah, of course they're able to do that. Well, they come from money. Oh, of course, you know, that person's lucky. They just happen to always be lucky at everything they do. Oh, you know, I don't know how that happened to them. It just fell into their lap.
Well, the thing is, God says to us in the Bible, when you look into Genesis, he is making a covenant with Abraham. And what we know about that covenant with Abraham is that Abraham was meant to be the father to the nations, the father to many. And in the call of Abraham, he says, leave your native country, your relatives, your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you.
And here it comes.
I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. Read that again: I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. That covenant promise wasn't just for Abraham. That was for all of us.
Because as he had his first child and was called the father of many, we are those children. And before him, we are God's children. So to go into that place and say, you know, prosperity is only meant for some, well, unless you fall out of that range of being one of God's children, then prosperity is meant for you.
The next myth is to be prosperous is not spiritual or righteous. You know, that's interesting, because what prosperity leads to is generosity and service.
I'm telling you, if you truly embrace the idea that you are an abundant, prosperous individual, that you have more blessings than you could even count, that even in the situation in front of you, it is nothing compared to what God has for you. If you truly live into that and recognize the fullness of all that you have, you can't help but be generous. I think I've used an example like this before, but it's like if you are given this really delicious, pick your dessert, cake, pie, brownies, cookies, and you're given it in such abundance and your best friend comes around and you're like, “Mm, this is so good.”
Now I know some of you might be like, “Oh, I don't have enough.” Okay, that's not prosperous thinking. But on the flip side of that, you want to share it.
That's why we write down recipes, right? Because someone in our family made something so good that we want to pass it on, we want to keep it alive. We make those historical church recipe cookbooks. That's the same thing with our prosperity and with our generosity. It's very spiritual. It's very righteous.
And the funny side is where that idea that being prosperous isn’t spiritual or righteous came from the early church. In the early church, it was taught that, the poor are righteous. Those who are bound with money, how did they get that money? They got that money in a way that they shouldn't have. You know, they would look at wealthy people as something out there. “This is not for us.” Because unfortunately, during that time, the Israelites were subject to the Roman authority, to the religious rule. Who had the wealth? The government had the wealth. And as we move forward in history, we see that that continues. So back in the day, who else had the wealth? The Christian churches. They built huge cathedrals and huge institutions.
And it was so interesting to say, you know, in order to be righteous, you need to humble yourself and be meek. And you don't want to live in this rich arrogance. You know, in order to be righteous, you have less than. You're sacrificing it all. You're making sure that you are back here. Because those who are up there, that is not righteousness.
It's unfortunate. Because the truth is there is nothing in the Bible where Jesus nor any of the other teachers of the Bible are telling us, “Hey, if you are truly close to God, you are poor. If you are truly close to God, you don't have enough.”
As a matter of fact, I think God tells us the exact opposite. That we are abundant. That we are blessed from generation to generation. That when God comes into our life, he is the one that helps us to step into the fullness of who we are. In Ephesians 3:20, it says, “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
Who is that that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask and think? That would be our source. That would be God. That would be the author and the perfecter. That would be the creator. And it says according to the power that works in us. So who are we? We are the perfection of God's power. We are the demonstration of God's power.
We have the ability to execute the greatness and the fullness of God's power. God is able to do more than we could ever think or ask God to do. Now just imagine if we are truly the extension of God, if he is the sun and we are the sunbeam. What can we do in that exceeding power?
And last, but not least, a myth is that prosperity is limited to a particular path that I haven't chosen. That one in itself is like grabbing a box and putting the fullness of who you are, the extent of what you can accomplish, the abundance that is meant to be yours, put it all in there and shut that box. Just box it in. Because that's like someone who says, “Well how would I ever be prosperous? I'm just a blank. But that person over there, they're an entrepreneur. They're running these big companies. They're making these new inventions. Of course they're going to be prosperous. I'm from a small town. Yeah, I got a college education, but I just got a four-year degree. How will I ever be prosperous?”
Or what if you're on the other end? You know, “I completed high school, got a little bit of college, and now I work in construction, or I work at a factory, or I work at a Walmart or a restaurant. How will I ever be prosperous?” Well, with that thinking, you won't be. But the thing about it is, we don't have to think that way. It's always an until.
That is the case until it's not. So when you box it in and say prosperity is limited to this particular path for these particular people, we're just putting it at arm's length. We're putting what is meant to be ours, the abundance that is meant to be embodied by us, we're setting it out here.
And it makes me wonder sometimes, why do we set these things far away from us? Is it because we are afraid to know the greatness of who we are? Is it that we'd rather look upon God and Jesus and see all of the infinite beingness there and say, “Wow, that's beautiful. I want to worship it. I want to learn about it. I want to be drawn into it, but I don't want to be that.” Well, here is the news if you choose to accept it, you are that. You are powerful, you are abundant, and you have the prosperity within you to extend generosity and love and wealth and health to everyone you encounter.
And it doesn't necessarily show up monetarily, and that's one of the first things that you should let go of is that prosperity means that my bank account looks like this. Well, I'll tell you what. Prosperity means that you always have more than enough. Prosperity means there is no end to your abundance. There is no limit to what you can have and what you can give. That's a really hard one to believe.
Even as I stand here and say it, I look at our path and think, gosh, are we really going to be able to do this? Well, what do I say to you all? I say it to me. Not with that kind of thinking, Gina. But that’s what we say as opposed to looking at it and recognizing where we are going, who we are, and knowing that the rest will unfold itself.
So today I just want to give you all a couple of tools, a couple of resources to use as you're going through this stewardship life. Not the stewardship month, but the stewardship life. And the first one is recognizing that your mind is your canvas, and so you need to clear your canvas.
It's that time to sit, whether you want to call it meditation or prayer or just silence, and sit in that space and explore your mind. What are those things that you've allowed to tell you that you're limited? What are those things that you keep saying to yourself day in and day out? And I don't mean just in finances, because prosperity is about wealth and health and power and peace and provision. So when you sit in that space, ask yourself what is keeping me from feeling the way I want to feel? What is keeping me from improving my health the way that I want to improve it? What is keeping me from having these abundant relationships that I want to have?
It's easy to go to each of those and say, well, you know, when it comes to those relationships, if they would just do what they're supposed to do, then I'd have these prosperous relationships. When it comes to our physical health, you know, I would work on my health more, but at this point in my life, really, what can I do? This is where I'm at. Welcome to getting older. It's easy to buy into all of those things, but all of those things limit our prosperous thinking and limit our prosperous embodiment.
So it's very important that you clean your mind, that you move those things out that are no longer serving you. And sometimes it's just the verbiage and how you hear them. If there is something you keep saying to yourself that brings you down, that makes you feel awful, well, reword it or get rid of it.
The next thing is to write it. So once you know what that picture of abundance looks like to you, and let it be the sky's the limit, you know, once you know what you are hoping to achieve, what you know you are hoping to claim, then write it down. Write it down in a journal, type it in your phone, write it on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall, but write it. And be very, very detailed. Because the more that you write this out, the more that you really believe what it is you're writing, then you start to embody it more and more and you bring it to fruition.
The next one is picture it.
So in my house, I'm always talking about visualization. It's so important to spend those moments visualizing what's to come. I'm not saying what can come, what might come, what should come our way, but visualizing what's to come.
You know, if you look at any of these millionaires, billionaires out there, you know what they had? They had vision boards. They had moments where they set themselves aside and they visualized in full detail, not just their company, but they visualized their homes, they visualized their families partaking of this abundance. They visualized the fullness of what could be.
You have that car in your mind? Visualize it in all the details. Some of you are like, why would we be wasting our ideas of visualizing on that? Well, test your power. You know, whatever it is that you are working towards, visualize it.
I constantly am visualizing the church I serve as full. I'm constantly visualizing people gathering in the fellowship hall. And I'll be honest with you guys, I don't do it enough. But just imagine if the entire community all started to do it together.
So write it, picture it, and speak it. You know, that's a big one that I constantly speak about when it comes to meetings is idea that we need to face reality. Because people will say, you know, there's that optimistic view and then there's that pessimistic view, and then they place reality in the middle. Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm not a fan of that way of thinking. I'm more the person who says, you know what, here is the reality of the situation.
We could say in our own life, here is the reality of my situation. Now you've said it, don't dwell on it. Don't sit there in doom and gloom. Don't pretend it doesn't exist, but don't give it the power. Because the moment you give it your power, you are back in that box of limitation. Instead, speak about how you're going to turn it around.
Speak about what you're going to do and what's coming our way that's going to make it better. Speak about the path that's leading you to that promised land instead of speaking about when you used to be in the said promised land and how, my goodness, we probably won't get there because there's this, this, and this, and this.
Remember to write it, picture it, and speak about it. And when you write, picture, and speak that truth, you will own that truth. And it allows others to claim that truth as well.
Another tool that I want to give you is a tool that you're all familiar with. As a matter of fact, we say it in our worship every Sunday, and when I was little, I used to say it at our dinner table probably about five nights a week, depending on what we were praying the other nights, and that is the Lord's Prayer. You know, it's so beautiful that Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer because the Lord's Prayer has so much more meaning to it than what we may think.
In the first half of the Lord's Prayer, we have this beautiful expression of the divinity of God and how it is expressed in man. And in the second part of the Lord's Prayer, we have a picture of how our needs are met in human form, how the divinity of God is with us as we navigate this life. So as much as the Lord's Prayer can be used in so many ways, today I'd like to teach it to you as a prayer of prosperity.
The first part of that prayer says, Our Father who art in heaven, that is the author and the perfecter of all, who is the ultimate space of consciousness within our mind. And when you look to the Lord and you call him our Father, that is you saying, Father, show me the way. Father, guide me. Father, lead me. Father, I trust you. And that is you saying, Our Father who art in heaven, Father, I recognize you as the infinite being you are, and my life is in your hands.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. If you were to look up the meaning of hallowed, it is whole and perfect. So now you are saying, Father, Father in that ultimate space of love and life and awareness, you are whole and you are perfect. God is whole and God is perfect. God is complete perfection and he is the sum total of all. From the very first parts of that prayer, we are recognizing that the beingness of God, our creator, is universal, transcendent everywhere.
That because God is everywhere and in everything, we have the wholeness and perfection all around us, including and most importantly, within us. All of that just in two sentences. This is a prayer that brings us to prosperity.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When you pray thy kingdom come, if you look at the Greek, it's saying thy realm restored. So it's not about going anywhere. It's about a level of awareness in which we are crying out for instruction. We are saying, restore your kingdom. Use us as your vessels to restore your kingdom.
And where is the kingdom? The kingdom is within. So we're saying, our Father, our source of all that we trust, show us the way to restore your kingdom. Show us the way to be in the fullness of our prosperity, so that we may be that for others.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you know that the will of God is perfect and pleasing? When you read in the Bible, it says to delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. I remember very early on, I liked that verse because I misunderstood it.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and whatever you want will be yours, right? Doesn't that mean he will give you the desires of your heart? So whatever my heart desires. Is it a Lamborghini? Is it a big house? You know, whatever it is. But the truth is, it's when you delight yourself in the Lord, and you turn inward, and you lean into the Spirit, you become in alignment with the Lord.
So then, the desires of your heart are given to you from God because they come from that space of ultimate consciousness of who you are. As not only a child of God, but as one with God. So thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Again, it's an inward prayer saying, God, your will is perfect and pleasing. And so what is in my mind in that space I call heaven, what is the kingdom within, help me to bring this out to the earth. Help me to bring this out to all of those who are around me. Help me that I may bring forth in this world that I live in, a true inner expression of the I Am in my outer expression. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The second part of this beautiful prayer, as I said, is how our human needs are met.
You say, give us this day our daily bread. And so what exactly is bread, metaphorically speaking? It's that rich substance of the universe. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God sent manna. And if they could only understand what that manna meant, it wasn't just daily provision. It was God reminding them that I am your provision. I am the one that fills you. I am the one that sustains you. Why was Jesus able to break bread and feed thousands? It wasn't just about the bread being broken up. It was him there in his presence saying, I am your bread.
When you say, give us this day our daily bread, you're saying, give us this day our daily supply in abundance and perfect form. God's supply is extravagant and it's limitless. And it is only us as humans that limits that supply of our daily bread. You may look at what you have and think, I don't have enough. But not only do you always have enough, you have more than enough.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now this one, when you think about it, it's always quick in the realm of forgiveness to wait for someone to act first. But if you read this piece of this prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, we're saying, I am poised to forgive you from the start. We're saying, hey, forgive us as we do forgive others. When you practice forgiveness, you are releasing any and all blocks. And that's why it's so important that you're open to practicing forgiveness even if it's not being practiced towards you.
Forgiveness cannot be contingent on whether someone is forgiving you. Because when you get into that space, you build blocks. You block up the channels and you find yourself in these loops. Because what happens is when you do not give forgiveness, you're not only withholding that blessing to those individuals, you're withholding it from yourself.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now I've told you all many times, I don't believe in this image of a devil. I don't believe that there is this great tempter out in the world that's trying to lure us in. I don't believe that if you don't do it this way, you're gonna go burn in hell. I don't believe in any of that. Any of you who do, there is no judgment from me on that.
I just want to invite you to think a little bit differently. Whenever you come across something that tempts you, that tempts you to fall into separation, remember that it is you that is choosing to see it that way. That it is you that is choosing the action to follow.
And so when we say lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, it's that cry out to God saying, God, remind us. Remind us of who we are. There is nothing that can take us away from the allness and the perfection and the abundance of who we are unless we allow it.
And the only evil that we need to be delivered from, and this is hard to hear from people, is the evil that we're telling ourselves, is the evil that we replay in our minds, is the evil that we decided to give our abundance over to and our power over to. So lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. I think many of you are aware that that was not always a part of the Lord's Prayer. But it's a beautiful, beautiful addition because it is claiming, it is affirming, and it is completing. When you are saying, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, you are saying that, God, the abundance of the kingdom is ours. The power of the kingdom is ours and the glory of the kingdom is ours.
And when you say it with that completion, forever and ever, then you know it is done. There's a lot of times where the only thing that holds us back from something happening is our decision to say, this is what's going to happen. This is what we're going to do.
Indecisiveness is such an enemy to progress. It's such an enemy to stepping into the fullness of your abundance. So when you pray this prayer and you say that, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, and if you are an extension of God, then for you is the kingdom and the power and the glory. It is yours. And if you believe it and say it with that firm belief, that saying, this is what it is, then you too can see the abundance that is set before you.
Please pray with me. Our abundant God, our creator God, our source of all life, father, mother, the great designer, the author, the perfecter.
As we come to you now, let us say nothing but thank you. Thank you for all that you have given us. Thank you for the abundance you continue to pour upon us.
Thank you for the kingdom that is within us and is constantly coming to fruition. Holy Spirit, if you are to move us, move us out of the way that the trueness of who we are, that the abundance of who we are, that the prosperity of who we are will lead us forward into the promised land. God, we thank you.
We thank you, God, as you are going to continue to open our eyes, to drop surprises in our laps, to show us new ways to do new things that are going to bridge this gap that doesn't even exist. God, we thank you because you have put us here and poised us here to lock arms with you as we move forward.
And so, God, whatever it is we need, is it courage? Is it hope? Is it determination? Is it perseverance? God, whatever it is we need, we thank you for giving it to us. We thank you that we have it in abundance and we thank you as we lead us forward. It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
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