Here’s how to trigger a Christian: tell them God wants to prosper them or heal them. Then sit back and watch them manifest. They will shift, get uncomfortable, dart their eyes, and start gnashing (grinding) their teeth. It’s quite a sight to see, honestly. You could also tell them to meditate. You’ll get a good eye-roll from that one.

Here’s the thing about the biggest trigger word in Christianity: prosperity is Biblical. It’s okay to prosper. In fact, prosperity is your inheritance as a Believer. And I believe it’s true that in any area we are not prospering it is sin for us. 😲 Yep. But before you curse and shut down this page, let me explain.

It’s amazing how any new movement in the church does two things. First, the movement twists into a version that looks nothing like the original when the second and third-generation of “movement evangelists” champion it. For whatever reasons they seem to move further and further from the original truth and corrupt the message. Second, we eat our own. We see new ways of spreading the gospel work for other congregations and we immediately downplay the success, criticize the strategy, and throw shade by acting all religious about it. Because God-forbid, if people are coming by droves into the Kingdom, clearly it’s been built on heresy!

I’ll share a little church history of my own. I was raised in the Assemblies of God denomination. I am a Spirit-filled, tongue-speaking radical for Jesus. I believe in miracles, and I believe physical healing still happens today. It’s how I was raised. It’s who I was. It’s who I still am.

In my early adulthood, the church I spent most of my life in had a leadership change. The new pastor brought the purpose-driven church model to our congregation and he was, basically, lambasted for it. He had dreams of taking a very traditional church to a place they didn’t want to go. They thought they wanted to be seeker-sensitive but couldn’t let go of their traditions.

A seeker-sensitive church does its best to think like someone who didn’t grow up in church. They try not to sing songs with lyrics like, “are you washed in the blood of the lamb” for fear of sounding like an animal-sacrificing cult.  

I get that. I’m even down with that.

I’ll never forget a church service that opened with the blowing of a ram’s horn. I thought to myself, “I could never ask the friends I used to party with to come here. They would freak out and run out the door!” Even I almost ran out the door! I had no idea what the blowing of the shofar meant, let alone what freaky thing was about to happen next, so how was I going to explain it to a non-Believer? I would have been okay with the shofar-show had the pastor or worship leader at least explained what had just happened.

But nothing. Just the shofar followed by worship songs where everyone sings along and claps. Where else does singing and clapping in unison happen other than preschool? We do all manner of things that are culturally strange. It doesn’t make them wrong, but it does make them strange to outsiders.

I fully embraced the seeker-sensitive model. I found myself working for over a decade in churches that were led by pastors who were licensed through the Assemblies of God but followed the seeker-sensitive model. We didn’t model speaking in tongues as part of the services. We believed in healing but altar time was few and far between. Speaking in tongues wasn’t not taught from the pulpit, but we didn’t disciple people in the use of spiritual gifts.

All of this made sense to me at the time because people tend to exploit the empowerment they’re given. You’ve seen these churches. These are the ones that haven’t had church unless someone was screaming tongues into the microphone and people were falling down all over the alter for three hours. Minimum. Chaos and disorder take over. But unless bonified miracles take place on the regular in these services, their growth eventually taps out. People grow weary of looking for miracles and not receiving them. They grow weary of “taking the Kingdom by force” and begging at the altar for God to change their circumstances. They grow tired of giving more than ten percent but still facing poverty regularly.

They grow tired of having answers but never any solutions. After decades of dedication to the message, they tire of not getting life to work.

This was me. For three decades I was caught between the promise that God wanted me to flourish in life but Him dangling the perverbial carrot of abundance in front of me until I was broken. I was d-o-n-e DONE. You can only take so much hope deferred. A sick heart has no ability to walk in Godly desires fulfilled.

But I still believed. Like Job, I thought God was allowing all of this pain to happen to me, though I never cursed Him or walked away. I never denied Him. But I did begin to pursue the truth. I wanted a gospel that worked. If Jesus said I could have it—if He died to give it to me, I wasn’t going to be denied it any longer. All I knew was that the doctrine I was raised on—the doctrine I led others with, had no ability to put my life back together when it fell apart. If Jesus wasn’t a total liar, something had to give.  

The Prosperity Gospel attracts the broken, poor, destitute, and oppressed. It promises you can have whatever you speak; if you name and claim it, it’s yours! But you’d be surprised to learn it didn’t start out that way. The radical behavior of the prominent prosperity teachers of today is not the marker of those who championed the message of faith and grace. As I studied the writings of various prosperity teachers over the years, I discovered some very level-headed thinking! I found a path that led towards activating faith that moves mountains without screaming at the devil.

God is passion and love. But God is also logical.

Take Kenneth Copeland, for instance. His ministry started when he was broke and had thousands of dollars of debt. In eleven months, he was debt free and has never looked back. He outlines the principles he followed in his book, The Laws of Prosperity, written in 1974. Here are a few quotes:

“True prosperity is God manifesting Himself to us in His Word.”

“True prosperity is the ability to use God’s power to meet the needs of mankind in any realm of life.”

“When you make it your need to get salvation into the hands of the people, when you make it your purpose to feed the gospel to the unsaved, God will support what you do. This is true prosperity.”

“When you put the Word of God first in your life and it becomes your final authority, prosperity is the result.”

All good. But fast forward to today…

The prosperity gospel is suddenly something you can use to kill a manmade virus and demand a vaccine come forth. The problem is, both the virus and the vaccine are killing people now. That doesn’t seem like a God-inspired solution.

And He isn’t the prince of war. He’s the Prince of Peace.

Twisted. Exaggerated. Manipulated, and exploited. For what? For gain. What is gained? A crowd of followers who think screaming at a defeated enemy will bring health and wealth.

The truth is, God gives us the power to create wealth so He can establish His covenant in the earth (Deuteronomy 8:18). We SHOULD have wealth. God wants us to control the wealth of the world. It’s not hard to understand why He doesn’t want evil men to control it. He wants wealth used to spread the Gospel of Peace to the world, not immorality.

But how can that happen if Christians don’t know how to prosper?

The bottom line is this: wealth doesn’t come to us by screaming at the devil or by thinking or speaking it into existence. All manner of Christian books has been written about taking every thought that crosses your brain captive, controlling your thoughts, positive self-talk, and speaking Bible affirmations. Yet we aren’t any wealthier or healthier than other people groups.

This problem is not a mind or speech problem. It’s a heart problem. The prosperity gospel has all but ignored the Bible’s instructions on our personal responsibility to minister to our own hearts. It is out of the heart that the mouth speaks. In other words, you will speak out whatever you believe to be true in your heart. This is why it’s so important to guard whatever enters our hearts. You can recite positive self-talk out loud all day but if your heart doesn’t believe is it true about you, you’ll never be able to see it activate in your life.

The same is true for your thought life. Your thoughts are generated by the belief in your heart. You can’t think your way into changing your thoughts. You must change the belief in your heart to change your thoughts and your speech.

According to scripture, the heart is the seat of your identity. It is where you hold your beliefs about who you are. Unless those beliefs are aligned with the finished work of Jesus, you won’t be able to prosper in life the way Jesus’ demonstrated you could.

This week on the podcast, I break down what it looks like to take your land. Your land is any solution that solves a problem in your life. Your land is moving from lack to prosperity, whether it’s prosperity in health and finances or in relationships and careers.

The glaring difference between the truth of the Bible and how the prosperity gospel has perverted the truth is this: you cannot take your land by force. Your land can only be taken by faith and faith only comes after rest. We are never told to strive to be prosperous. In fact, the only thing we are ever told to strive for is to enter into rest. Adam started from a position of rest. It was only when he wanted to be his own source that the striving began. The land was never cursed by God. It was cursed because of Adam’s belief he could be his own source. Our land is never placed back under the curse by God. It is only subject to the curse of the world’s system when we refuse to take it by the yoke Jesus longs to give us. His yoke and easy and light, not toilsome and difficult.

We become like the god we believe in.

We never have to behave like a prince of war when we have the Prince of Peace.

I mentioned that not prospering is sin for us. Sin isn’t just direct defiance of the ten commandments. Sin is when, in any area of our lives, we function in a way that isn’t God’s best for us. What is God’s best for us? Whatever Jesus died to give us. This is why prospering in our hearts, relationships, finances, physical and mental health, and spirituality is so important! We want to be functioning in the freedom we have been given!

A final thought regarding my church upbringing. I need you to know, I had to repent for my buy-in on the seeker-sensitive movement. Just like any movement, it wasn’t all bad. But not discipling people in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not teaching them how to operate in words of knowledge, have faith for miracles, how to attain physical healing, the purpose of speaking in tongues and why it’s so important, words of wisdom and the like is never okay. These abilities should be like breathing for the Christian. Throwing them out because we’re afraid we can’t control the people is nothing short of the Catholicism control tactics.

But on the back of that repentance, I had to repent for having an “us and them” mentality toward church leadership. I participated. Wherever I went, there I was.

Three different people gave a word of knowledge that I had spears in my back from the accusations and anger church leaders threw at me. And wouldn’t you know it, I had unexplained back pain for several years. I knew in my heart these words of knowledge were almost right. The prophecy is subject to the prophet’s preconceived notions about God. I know no one’s judgment of me can cause debilitating pain unless I have somehow come to an agreement with them.

The sin for me was believing I wasn’t the perpetrator and that they were. And yet, by taking a paycheck, I was just as guilty. I led the flock away from the healing power of Jesus by refusing to teach the full Gospel of Peace, even while I operated in the supernatural in my own private life.

Not okay.

And wouldn’t you know it, the minute I repented, the debilitating back pain left immediately.

I agree with the prosperity gospel that God’s will for physical healing is always yes and amen because of Jesus. How our healing comes is where the prosperity gospel and I are miles apart.

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Wow!! The story of Elijah in the cave has had so many interpretations. As one Rabbi said, "The interpretations of this episode in Elijah's life are endless, and none has achieved definitive status. The story, as we shall see, is too complex for that. Each reading leaves a thread or two or three untied...".

I couldn't agree more! I too have felt there were too many untied threads in the common narrative we've accepted. Not to say that I haven't received ministry from our understanding of Elijah. I have lost ground to my fair share of Jezebel's. But based on what we now know about the original Hebrew language of the Bible, it's challenging to affirm Elijah was a fragile prophet who suffered from an identity crisis.

This message challenged me! I hope you will listen, even if just to consider a different possibility and discover a model for a faith that moves mountains!

What we believe about God determines how well we function under pressure. And really, the root of all emotional stability starts from this same place. Who we believe God is and what we believe He is willing to do for us will determine our next move when we feel backed into a corner.

There is a very interesting exchange between Jesus and a blind man in the book of Mark:

“And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” Mark 10:46-52

We can be assured Jesus knew the man was blind. And yet Jesus still asks him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” In other words, what are you willing for me to do for you? Belief in God’s ability is rarely a problem for the Believer. The problem is we are not sure what He is willing to do for us.

And that begs the question: if it is impossible to please God without faith, but we don’t know what God is willing to do for us in our given situation, then how can we pray a prayer of faith for the outcome?

The answer is, we can’t.

The only way to pray a prayer of faith is to be absolutely certain what God’s preferred outcome is.

Which begs the next question: how can you always know God’s preferred outcome for your situation? Join me for this podcast episode where we learn how to become certain of God’s character, intentions, and will toward us. Once you know His desired outcome for your problem you will have to decide if you are willing for God to do it for you. If you know His will, and you are willing to agree with Heaven, you can pray the prayer of faith and experience miraculous results!

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Many would describe grace as God’s unmerited favor, but really that’s more akin to mercy. While favor is certainly a dimension of grace it isn’t a holistic view of grace. Grace is favor but it is a favor that EMPOWERS. It gives us ability beyond our own. It literally empowers us with God’s ability to do what we could never do on our own.

God’s grace working in us is SHEAR. RAW. POWER.

While there are numerous things twisted and wrong about the Supernatural TV series, one thing they did do was provide an excellent picture of grace. In the show, two of the main characters are angels. These angels only had supernatural power when they had their grace. When they lost their grace or if their grace was stolen they were left with mere human ability.

Paul understood the power of grace better than most. Check out these verses:

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:21 (KJV) The word frustrate means to neutralize. If grace were defined simply as unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor rather than a favor that bestowed power on us and in us it wouldn’t be something we could just neutralize. We can neutralize grace or keep grace from working in us by operating in our own ability versus God’s ability. When we operate in our own strength Christ becomes of no effect to us and we fall from grace (Gal. 5:4). Falling from grace doesn’t mean losing our salvation experience. It means leaving that realm of God’s ability and choosing instead to operate through our strength.

You can see why grace is so vital to living a successful Christian life. Paul knew that aside from grace he was left to his own weakness. But with grace, even his weakness was strong! Paul described his thorn in the flesh as a “messenger of Satan” buffeting him (2 Cor. 12:5). Because a thorn referred to people in the Old Testament (Joshua 23:13) we see that Paul was referring to the crowds of haters that were constantly trying to cancel him (the original cancel culture) so they could persecute him. God responded to Paul’s plea for the thorns to be removed by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor. 12:9. This was not God saying He would put Paul on life-support with a steady drip of grace. This wasn’t God saying, “Paul, I’ve given you unmerited favor. That should be enough for you. Get over yourself.” This was God saying He would empower Paul to triumph! God couldn’t change the free will of the haters but He did give Paul His own grace or ability to be strong in any situation.

God’s ability. Let that sink in.

Jesus had it. We can have it too.

Grace is available to us in abundance. James 4:6 says, “But he giveth more grace.” More grace than what? More grace than the power sin has over us. More grace (His ability and empowerment) than any situation or stronghold has to overpower us. Anywhere that sin abounds, grace abounds more (Rom. 5:20).

So what does this mean? Well, let’s define sin first. There are several Greek and Hebrew words for sin throughout the Bible. If you were to take a zoomed-out look at sin as a whole you would see that sin is not just violating the Ten Commandments. Sin is anytime we are living in a standard that is less than what Jesus died to free us from. Sin is anytime we come short of functioning in our new man, our new nature.

Addiction, depression, fear, unbelief…these are all expressions of sin. But where these abound in us grace ABOUNDS MORE. This means that if we choose to partner with God and lean on His ability to overcome addiction or any pattern of behavior that has held us captive, we can activate His grace which is more powerful and more abundant than the thing we want to overcome!

This takes practice. It could truly be summed up in the only thing God ever told us to strive for…entering into rest.

When we finally rest from trying to white-knuckle it,

grace can take over.

I have a million books in my head. It’s possible the next one could be a grace challenge. I hope you’ll stick with me. Podcasting is coming soon, and more teaching in my Getting Life to Work mentorship group…all designed to help you learn to walk in grace to defeat your addictions, codependencies, and repeated patterns of failure.

Because here’s the thing: many of us came to salvation in Jesus and were immediately set free from a whole slew of destructive behavior patterns. But the reality is, most Christians never overcome their most life-controlling issue, whether it be overeating and yo-yo dieting, pornography, codependency, shame-based thinking, etc. The good news is that it is the same grace working in us at salvation that will work in us to overcome that thing we haven’t been able to defeat!

Photo Cred: @where.mike.at

My Bible teaching centers around one fundamental truth that isn’t very popular. In the Kingdom of Heaven (the realm in which all of God’s resources are available to us), pain is never gain. Pain is pain. Pain comes to steal, kill and destroy. Always. Every time. No exceptions.

And that is why God never uses it to get a desired response from us.

I know. Saying this doesn’t always win me more friends. In fact, it makes a lot of people really mad. But the truth is the truth.

I’ve said over and over that pain has no ability to teach you, train you, or make you a better person. It is only your response to pain that can do that. And that is why God doesn’t use pain to train you.

And He doesn’t even allow it in your life. Man allows it.

Here is where people start freaking out and their heads start blowing up. People will do anything to protect the bad doctrine they’ve used to reconcile the pain that came into their lives.

How can I say God doesn’t allow pain? Because He doesn’t. And those who teach otherwise have to contend with thousands of Bible verses that don’t support their ‘no pain, no gain’ narrative, all of Psalm 121 being just a few of them. Check it out:

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from ALL harm—
    he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121

I’m not sure how much clearer the Psalmist can be. God KEEPS you from ALL harm. If we find ourselves suffering it’s the result of a fallen world and/or we didn’t heed God’s warning. It was man’s free will that got us here.

God is only in control of our outcomes to the degree
we choose to take responsibility
and refuse to hold Him accountable for our pain.

If God allowed pain even when He could relieve it, He would be in violation of His own system of justice.

“But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” Ezekiel 33:6

“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them.” Proverbs 3:27

God holds those accountable who see evil coming and do nothing when it is within their power to act. God always sees down the line and it is always within His power to act. Would He not require the same justice of Himself?

The man who is overcome by the sword is overcome because of his own sin. Sin comes in many forms. Sin is not limited to simply violating the 10 commandments. In fact, there are 33 different words for sin in the New Testament. Sin is any form of unbelief in the goodness of God, missing the mark, or living below the standard of the abundant life Jesus modeled for us.

By giving us free will, God has OBLIGATED Himself to hand us over to our desires and beliefs. If we believe He is causing our pain, allowing our pain, or using our pain, we won’t recognize His warning to avoid the pain or take hold of His way out of the pain.

God is always trying to prevent our pain. And when we find ourselves in pain He is always trying to show us how to overcome it. He isn’t using the pain to teach us a lesson. God uses His word and the Holy Spirit to teach and train us. It is a fool that learns through pain alone. It is the wise that heed the warnings of wisdom and learn from instruction.

In my book, Prosperity to Providence, I use Biblical evidence to make the case for the failure of American Christianity, an extrapolated doctrine that taught us to blame God or blame satan for everything that happens in our lives. In all cases, whether we caused our pain, someone else caused it, or Adam’s original sin caused it, we are responsible… we are able to make a response that gets us out of pain. I’ll show you how to get the pain to stop by viewing pain through the lens of the finished work of Jesus. Download a copy today and learn how to get back on the racetrack you were born for!

At a crossroads? Me too. In a world with nearly endless possibilities and paths to take it seems crossroads appear daily. Negative circumstances outside of our control can force us into decision-making time. We might see multiple opportunities to overcome our challenge but are torn as to which one to take.

Do I turn left or right? Do I get on or off? Do I go straight or take the detour? Do I take the quick-fix opportunity or a longer route with greater potential gain? Or should I hold out for a third option?

Can I have my cake and eat it too? Decision-making time. We all face it.

The question I find most helpful in times like these might surprise you. It’s not, “Is this God’s will for my life?” This question is disempowering right out of the gate because what we are really saying is, “If I do this, will God show up for me?” We express and reinforce our lack of belief in God and His character every time we ask this question.

Maybe a better question to ask is, “Will this opportunity bring peace or strain to other areas of my life that I value?”

The Bible says, “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” Proverbs 10:22.

“The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” Proverbs 10:22.

The Hebrew word for rich is ‘ashar. It means to go straight on, advance, to lead on, to set right, righten, to pronounce happy, call blessed, to be advanced, be led on, to be made happy, be blessed.

The path to victory that God chooses for you won’t add sorrow (toil, pain, hurt, or hardship) to other areas of your life. You might want a higher-paying job but it requires 60 hours a week at the expense of your family and your health. But you need the money. So the temptation is to believe it is your only option instead of standing on the promise of Proverbs 10:22.

So maybe the second most important question you should ask is, “What else is possible?” If what looks like my only out is going to remove peace and add toil to other areas of my life that are valuable to me and a priority to God, what else is possible? As soon as you start asking yourself this, your mind will start mapping out other possibilities. Keep asking, keep searching, and keep knocking until you find the solution that fits God’s description of what He calls blessed. This is using your faith in His promise to gather evidence that supports God’s preferred outcome for you.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

And trust the process. Give the solution time to come. When you let patience do its work you will find a solution that leaves you whole and complete in all areas and lacking nothing.

“But patience will have a complete work for itself that you would be perfected and complete, and that you would be lacking nothing.” James 1:4 (ABPE)

It will be worth the wait. He promised.

In my quiet time yesterday, I put on a worship song. If I’m honest, worship music that I can bare to listen to is hard to come by these days. So much of our Christian music tends to put our focus on guilt, shame, and inability (the old man) instead of the new man that is already alive in us. I have found that if I continue to reuminate about my failures I forget about my authority.

But that’s a whole other blog post. ;)

A particular line in one song stood out to me. It said, “My anchor holds within the veil.” It comes from this verse in Hebrews: “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.” Hebrews 6:19 (NKJV)

Every time I think of hope I think of this scripture: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

When you put the two verses together they seem to contradict each other. Is hope an anchor or does it make your heart sick? And hope in what? Just hope for the sake of hoping?

God never wanted us to live in the hope deferred condition. He wants us to live with desires fulfilled. The key is putting your hope in the right thing. The answer to what we must put our hope in is found in the verses that precede Hebrews 6:19.

“Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument. So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath. Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.” Hebrews 6:16-18

There are two immutable things to put your hope in:

1. God doesn’t lie.

2. He guaranteed your inheritance of all the resources of the Kingdom of Heaven and sealed it with an oath by the sacrifice of Jesus.

I’m feelin’ like that is a pretty great place to anchor yourself.

Keep renewing your mind in everything Jesus died to give you. I say this all the time because I do it all the time. When I’m overwhelmed, frustrated, scared, sick, in grief, lack, or pain I recount what is already mine; what has already been done for me.

Here’s my list straight outta scripture:

·       I have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything I need to complete my mission and fill my purpose is already here.

·       Every promise God ever made to anyone is yes and amen for me because I am in Jesus.

·       All things can work together for a victorious outcome if I will allow the Kingdom of Heaven to be my only reality.

·       I can always be the head. I don’t have to be the tail.

·       I can always be above. I don’t have to be beneath.

·       God is always FOR me. He is NEVER against me.

·       I am saved, healed, delivered, prospered, protected, anointed, set apart, holy, and righteous.

·       This isn’t God testing me. He tested Jesus for me.

·       Jesus won the victory and gave me the keys to the same authority over death and decay that He has.

Once you’ve renewed your mind to these realities your heart will begin to anchor itself in the right thing and you will begin to see desires fulfilled.

But if you keep hoping in “maybe God will help me” or “God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants so it’s up to Him what happens to me now” you’ll never have the faith to see what you’re hoping for through to fruition. God exercised His free will to give you authority, dominion, and the right to choose whether to partner with Him for your outcome or partner with chance.

In and of itself, hope has no power to anchor you.

Hope for the sake of hoping is not an anchor for the soul. Hope in the finished work of Jesus is an anchor for the soul.

Hoping with fingers crossed that God will do something will make your heart sick with fear of the unknown, longing, and desperation. But hope in the knowledge that the victory for what you’re facing has already been loosed for you in Heaven will anchor you. It will cause you to be immovable and unwavering about the outcome.

In a word, anchored.

And it’s the one who is anchored, immovable, and unwavering that is able to receive what they need from God.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” James 1:6-7 (NIV)

A friend told me yesterday her (now ex) pastor said, “You can’t manifest anything.”

Wow.

Maybe he was trying to speak into the “manifesting” fad that is trending on social media and use a shock statement to get attention. Or maybe he wanted people to fear God as the ultimate authority and make man out to be a puppet on His strings. Regardless of the motivation, he was wrong.

Here’s how I know: what one might call manifesting the Bible calls sowing and reaping. To say we can’t manifest anything because God is the ultimate decision maker is to have a very fatalistic view of God and to ignore every scripture that says He gave man authority, dominion, autonomy, and freewill.

Several years ago, when the book The Secret came out, Christians lost their minds. And recently a movie and documentary have come out, with Christians losing their minds all over again.

Meanwhile, non-Christians all over the world are successfully using the law of sowing and reaping that God wrote into the universe and not even knowing they’re doing it. And yet both the Bible and science (particularly quantum physics) back it up. We may not all use the same terminology, and The Secret may get some details wrong here and there, but manifesting is the Bible, whether we want it to be or not.

The truth is, made in the image of God, we are creators (Gen. 1:27, Psalm 82:6). We create futures. Our lives are the sum total of our past and present belief systems. We are daily reaping what we have sown (2 Cor. 9:6, Matt. 18:18). If we sow in fear we will reap more fear. If we sow lack, we will keep coming up short and even what we do have will disappear (Matt. 25:29).

In the same way, if we believe we have everything we need in the present, even when it doesn’t look like it (Luke 9:16, 2 Peter 1:3. Matt. 25:29), even more will come to us.

Some call it the Law of Attraction, others call it the Law of Belief. I personally lean toward the latter. When we believe there is a way out, we will find one (Matt. 7:8). When we believe we have everything we need to solve any problem (2 Peter 1:3) the solution will come, followed by the steps to get there. When we start with the basic belief that God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31) and that He always provides a way out when we’re under duress (1 Cor. 10:13) we are sowing a seed. We are sowing a seed that begins with the truth and it will reap a harvest.

But as a seed, it only, ever, bears after its own kind (Gen. 1:11). It won’t bear anything else.

God has given you the ability to choose what you will sow and thereby choose what you will reap. All throughout scripture, He puts the responsibility back on man to decide what the outcome of any given situation will be.

Unfortunately, we miss endless possibilities of a great outcome because we think God is in control.

Nope.

He used His authority to give us authority. And He doesn’t lie or change His mind.

God is only in control to the degree that man gives Him control. And history proves time and time again (as does the present and as will the future) that man does a very poor job at giving God control.

BUT this is all incredible news for you today and every day after if you’ll let this sink in and put it to the test!

Here is my personal process of choosing my own outcome:

1. Look at the finished work of Jesus and decide what He died to give me:

   • Abundant life (John 10:10)

   • A healed heart and every wound relieved (Psalm 147:3 and Strong’s 2280, Isaiah 61:1)

   • Salvation from affliction (Isaiah 61:1 and Strong’s 1319)

   • Set free by any stronghold (limiting or lying pattern of thought/belief) holding me captive (Isaiah 61:1, 2 Cor. 10:3-5, Jonah 2:8)

   • An opening when I am trapped, bound, backed into a corner, or surrounded (Isaiah 61:1)

   • Healing from sickness and disease (Isaiah 53:4, Matt. 8:17)

   • A way out when I am tempted to fear or cave, have a fatalistic mindset about my situation, or tempted to sin in any way (1 Cor. 10:13)

   • “Yes” to all the promises above (2 Cor. 1:20)

2. Recognize God won’t violate my freewill (Jonah 2:7-8)

3. Confess (say the same thing) God has already said about my situation (review step #1) until I see His preferred outcome (for His preferred outcome see step #1) materialize in the natural.

There’s your manifesting folks. And it works if we decide to work with God to see it through to fulfillment, no matter how long it takes and no matter how bad things appear in the natural.

So happy manifesting friends!