Why You Do ... What You Do

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Let’s establish a couple of facts.

First, no matter how anemic your bank account may be. . .you’re not broke.

Second, even though your money may run out before the month does. . .you’re not broke.

Before going any further. . .let’s define the word broke which according to dictionary.com it means:

“without money, penniless.”

I hear from people who have a six-figure income who talk about how broke they are.

And by the same token, I hear from people receiving government assistance talking about how broke they are.

In our effort to figure out why some people are or feel like they are broke. . .let me ask you several questions.

Are you spending more money than what you’ve got?

Are you living today off money you expect to receive tomorrow?

Are you spending money you don’t have to compensate for stress in some other area of your life. . .such as a hurting marriage, troubled or chronically-ill children or a difficult work situation?

Are you a victim of Parkinson’s Law? Parkinson’s Law says that expenses will always rise to meet income.

Some believers justify their financial mess by saying other people have good luck while they have back luck.

Luck has absolutely nothing to do with your success or failure. . . but trusting in God does. . .obeying His Word does. . .claiming His promises does. . . seeking His righteousness does. . .walking in His anointing does.

Too many people get more excited about finding a four-leaf clover than they do when they find a precious promise that God has made to them in His Word.

To tell you the truth. . .that kind of thinking is just plain crazy. It is exactly what the devils wants … Christians who do not know or exercise who they are in God.

Here are two scriptural reasons why many believers find themselves slowly going under in financial quicksand. .

First, Proverbs 21:20 in The Living Bible says:

“The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.”

Second, 2 Chronicles 24:20 in the New Living Translation says:

“This is what God says: Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands and keep yourselves from prospering?”

If you get nothing else from this teaching please understand that our financial status or outlook should not be determined by advertisers, bankers, creditors or financial plannersbut rather by the Word of God.

No matter how many times you’ve been unsuccessful . . . you’re not a failure.

Failure is an event . . . it’s not who you are.

Let me say that one more time… Failure is an event . . . it’s not who you are.

If you develop rigor mortis of the mind. . .if you refuse to continue your quest for success. . .then you will have failed. . .but that still doesn’t make you a failure.

However, it does make you stupid because you know what to do and you’re not doing it. Wake up and change your future.

Ezra 10:4 in the New Living Translation says:

“Get up, for it is your duty to tell us how to proceed in setting things straight. We are behind you, so be strong and take action.”

We cannot focus on things that happened yesterday, last week, six months or three years ago. If we do. . .we will always remain the victim. Instead, we must elevate our thinking to concentrate on the good things in our lives. . .the things that are going right in the here and now.

We will become slaves to the lenders. . .a servant to the dreams of others unless we begin to focus our faith on our future.

Deuteronomy 28:47 in The Living Bible says:

“You will become slaves to your enemies because of your failure to praise God for all that he has given you. . .”

We will begin to overcome financial or any other kind of failure. . .by IMMEDIATELY praising God for what we’ve got. . .no matter, how meager we may think that is.

There is one other fact we must establish before proceeding to our debt-busting, success-building and wealth-accumulating possibilities.

You have an enemy who wants you broke. . .feeling like a failure and thinking that where you are is where you’ll stay the rest of your life.

He wants you to believe that you have no choice in your destiny.

You might want to write this down. . .the devil is a liar (John 8:44).

If God doesn’t place limits on you and He doesn’t. . .never let anybody limit your destiny.

Here are seven reasons God never wants money or failure to be a problem for you.

1.      Our Heavenly Father is not a God of limitations.

You can be assured scripturally speaking that the greatest limitations you will ever face in life are: self-imposed, self-maintaining and self-defeating.

God wants you to believe in possibilities. . .not limitations. He wants you living in excellence not off excuses.

2 Peter 1:5 in the Amplified Bible says:

“For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence).”

God has also given you the power and the authority for excellence in your life.

Luke 4:6 says:

“And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will.”

There is no dignity in barely scraping by. . . dining on government cheese. . . buying groceries for your family with food stamps. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not condemning any program but rather the spiritual attitude or lack of it that causes a person to reduce their dignity and feel that this is their lot in life.

It’s simply not God’s best for you. He has established a way to get things to you beyond what you have hoped for.

Mark 4:20 in the Message Bible says:

"But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams."

2.      Nothing is impossible to you as a believer.

Mark 9:23 in the God’s Word Translation:

“Jesus said to him, “As far as possibilities go, everything is possible for the person who believes.”

This scripture just ignites my faith and stirs by spirit to new levels of expectation. . “. . .everything is possible for the person [that’s me!; that’s you!] who believes.”

There is no limitation to our manifestation. The Message Bible translation of Mark 9:23 says:

“Jesus said, "If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen."

All things are possible . . .anything . . . no matter how illogical to the natural mind . . . can happen in our lives. . .as we exercise our faith and believe God’s Word.

The scripture says our faith … our belief brings a powerful reaction from God on our behalf.

Luke 1:37 in the Amplified Bible says:

“For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.”

As a child of God who functions with the mind of Christ, each of us need to understand there is NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE to those who believe … for it ignites the power of God to bring it to pass.

Matthew 17:20 in the Amplified Bible says:

“. . . For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

3.      You have the mind of Christ.

The enemy of your financial future wants you to believe you’ll always be broke, busted and disgusted. He wants you to think you’ll never understand either the Word or the world economy. As we said earlier. . .He is a liar, the father of lies and the truth is not in him (John 8:44).

Hosea 4:6 says:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

The devil can’t keep you down … but a lack of knowledge can. Don’t reject knowledge. . .open your mind and heart to receive what God wants to release into your life.

Hosea 4:6 says:

“My people are destroyed forlackofknowledge….”

Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation says:

“… Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think….”

My prayer for you is that the mind of Christ function fully and freely within you every day.

4.      Your confession changes your direction.

First, your confession should be based on your speaking right words. What are the right words? Simply—the words found in the scriptures.

Romans 8:31-32 says:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

Second, you can change where you are in life by what comes out of your mouth.

You can create your confession based on what you want to see manifested and it will come to pass. . .as long as it’s based on the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8 in the Contemporary English Version says:

“God can bless you with everything you need, and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others.”

“Heavenly Father, I praise you that my possibilities are unlimited. . .I have more than enough. . .I have everything I need to do good things for others. . . and rejoice in your plans for me. Every day, help me to focus on You and Your personal promises for my success in the Word of God. I rejoice that soon I will be functioning in the end-time office of the giver. Hallelujah. Amen.”

Third, make your confession for at least twenty-one days. Studies show any action taken daily for twenty-one days will very likely become a habit. The habits we form become the lifestyles we create and live by.

Many believers begin to make daily confessions only to have the toils of the day or other things. . .break their focus on their confession. Determine this will not happen to you! Things can and will change for you!

Fourth, your circumstances should never alter your confession.

Regardless of your circumstances or the balance or lack thereof in your checking account never question or waver from God’s desire for you to prosper.

If circumstances controlled our destiny, then Joseph should have never become second in command over Egypt… BUT GOD!

Genesis 39:1-2 says of Joseph:

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,… bought him from the Ishmaelites…. But the Lord was with Joseph, and he [though a slave] was a successfuland prosperous man….”

Romans 4:20-22 in the New Living Translation says:

“Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.”

If we do not let our circumstances define us … we can achieve the impossible …through the Word.

Fifth, speak your confession every day.

Your confession will directly impact your expectation which determines your manifestation.

Psalm 5:3 in the New International Version says:

“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."

5.      Excuses restrict your ability to change your circumstances.

If you say, “Yes, Brother Harold I know what the Word says but I will never have more than enough because all the income I get is a little Social Security.”

Your attitude of using an excuse has just “fixed your income” and the stressful situations you may be facing.

Excuses are just limitations which fix, restrict or prevent you from realizing the unlimited potential God has placed within you.

It is the devil’s way of keeping your mind focused on what cannot be … instead of what can be …through the Word of God.

It’s important to begin to see possibilities instead of limitations.

Isaiah 45:8 in the Amplified Bible says:

“Let fall in showers, you heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness [the pure, spiritual, heaven-born possibilities that have their foundation in the holy being of God]; let the earth open, and let them [skies and earth] sprout forth salvation, and let righteousness germinate and spring up [as plants do] together; I the Lord have created it.”

On Judgment Day I’m sure you want to be remembered as a person who saw and received “heaven-born possibilities.”

Here’s another great confession.

“Heavenly Father, open my eyes that I might see and act on every heaven-born possibility you set before me today. Help me to recognize divine connections. . .take advantage of supernatural opportunities and maximize the possibilities of my day. I rejoice that you will lead me in the way that I should go and that you have your eyes on me. Hallelujah!! Amen.”

Excuses or circumstances to fix can never limit you to your current reality as long as you’re confessing the Word of God.

6.      God is no respecter of persons.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve ever heard and five dollars for every time I’ve said that God is no respecter of persons. . .I’d be a rich man.

I know you’ve heard that verse many times before. . .but here’s the real question. . .do you believe that Acts 10:34 is the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”

The New International Version of Acts 10:34 says:

“Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”

The Message Bible translation is even clearer:

“Peter fairly exploded with his good news: "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you're from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.”

I have read Acts 10:34 in thirteen different translations and I have not seen any sort of asterisk or footnote indicating that this scripture doesn’t apply to everybody on planet earth.

Now let me ask you the question one more time.

Are you confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that your Heavenly Father is no respecter of persons. . .that what He’s done for one believer. . .He will do for you?

I trust your answer would be an emphatic “YES.” Truth be told . . . anyone who doubts Acts 10:34 may well doubt other parts of the scriptures as well.

If God has never limited the financial success for anyone else’s income. . .He most certainly will not limit yours.

7.      What you sow you reap.

The words you speak. . .will become the reality you experience. If you speak or write (sow) the word “broke” or “failure” that’s exactly what you’re going to live with or reap as your harvest.

You choose your destiny by the words you speak. . .the words you sow.

Need proof? Here are four scriptures you should study.

First, Proverbs 18:21 in the Message Bible says:

“Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose.”

Second, Proverbs 13:3 in the New Living Translation says:

“Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything.”

Third, Matthew 12:34 in the Amplified Bible says:

“You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks.”

The Message Bible translation of Matthew 12:34-37 says:

“How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It's your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation."

The words you sow. . .you will reap.

Fourth, Galatians 6:7 in the Amplified Bible says:

“Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.”

A final thought, the best way to be financially free and successful is by putting your focus on Him and His Word.

Isaiah 26:3 in the New Living Translation says:

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

I’ve never met anyone who said they were broke or a failure who had perfect peace at the same time.

It’s time to pick up the financial mantle that God wants you to carry and change your destiny. It’s in your hands to do so.

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