Are You In A Dysfunctional Relationship with Your Finances?
If you don’t realize you are in a relationship with your money, you probably aren’t treating it right.
It’s always a good idea to have different messages around your house – maybe certain pictures that make you think a little differently, or certain quotes, or even having your goals posted in different places. Well, for me, I have different passages that move me and keep my mind centered and focused on some very important things, and also guide and direct me.
When I woke up this morning, my eyes were looking at a door where I have taped various different passages over the past year that have been speaking to me. This morning I read the one that’s on the very bottom. This one got to me a little different than normal.
Now, I’m taking a major risk in telling you what this passage is, because I have no idea what your faith is, what your beliefs are, or whether you adhere to a certain faith or not. So please take what I’m about to share with you as a piece of wisdom. Please don’t get your emotions all tied up in a knot or put me in a box based on what I’m about to tell you. I want to share this passage with you, and I hope you have the maturity to just accept the fact that I am a woman of faith, and I do turn to my most favorite book of wisdom to lead and guide me on a daily basis.
I feel like this one passage might speak to you in a similar way as it spoke to me. It’s actually found in the Bible, in Luke 17:6. It says, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you." Now, I read that probably every single day, and back in March 2010 I actually did an entire teaching on this one passage. (That video is normally locked up for Insider Members only, but I’ve unlocked it for you for 1 week…I suggest you go watch it immediately.) And it’s the same scripture that is blowing my mind even more today.
See, what prompted me this morning was not the "if you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say…" part. That’s the part that really nailed me in the beginning – if I had faith, what would I say? But today, the part that got me was "you would say to this mulberry tree…" So I began to say, what is my mulberry tree? What is your mulberry tree?
So I sat there and pondered that mulberry tree…or in other passages it says "tell this mountain to move and it will be moved". So what is my mulberry tree? Is it Kristina & Allen and my grandkids? Because obviously, I pray for my kids every day. Or is it Arika, and her brain coming to complete restoration with no more swelling in it? (I don’t know if you know the story – if you read the book Grooming the Next Generation for Success, you know that Arika had a double aneurism when she was 16. Her legs were healed from the brain damage, but there’s still this part in her brain that is not fully healed yet.) Is that my mulberry tree? Or maybe it’s my goal of giving a million dollars a month away.
What is it that I lack some faith to believe that my God, who has done so many glorious and phenomenal things in my life, that somehow I have limited Him because of my lack of faith? I pray for you every single day, and I totally believe for everything I ask on your behalf, I really do. I mean, I’ve heard the wildest stories and I’ve seen some crazy miracles happen as people have come through First Steps to Success and Creating a Dynasty. But there are some areas where my faith may not be as passionate or potent.
I don’t know about you, but you may have a mulberry tree in your life – an area where you may be lacking faith – and that may be the thing this passage is speaking to you about. The Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say…" So, what would you say to that mulberry tree if you had faith? What would you say to that situation that’s going on with your married children or if your child has a disease or a deformity or a terrible health condition? If you had faith, what would you say to that situation? Or if it is that you have this big audacious goal – for me, it’s giving a million dollars a month away, and even though we are climbing in how much we are giving away every single month, I’ve gotten to a place where I have said, ‘it’s going slower than I want it to.’ Have you ever been there?
This morning I got convicted, and this message hasn’t left me all day. This was early this morning, and here it is in the afternoon, and this thing is still gnawing on me. I am in tears even now, as I write to you.
Identify what your mulberry tree is. Imagine if you had faith like a mustard seed. What would you say to that mulberry tree?
I identified 3 mulberry trees in my life this morning. And I think it would be a good idea for you to identify 3 mulberry trees in your life. Because what the rest of this passage says is, "it would be uprooted and planted in the sea and it will obey you." So I am very boldly speaking to that 1 million dollars a month that I want to give away, without worry, without tarrying, without wondering, without anxiety, without even curiosity as to how it’s going to happen, and I believe, without question, that it will come. I pray for my daughters, and for Arika’s brain. ‘Obey and be healed’ is what I speak to that brain. To the rest of the things that are on my prayer list – you included – I speak that you will succeed. You will be debt free. You will exceed your financial dreams. You will be a part of this team that is giving a crazy amount of money every month to help orphans and widows and the sick and those who have been affected by natural disasters, like our brothers and sisters on the East Coast who have been hit by Hurricane Sandy. I say to you, believe! And what you believe, you will receive!
I hope this passage has challenged you, as it has me today. I needed a shot in the arm of greater passionate faith, and I needed to realize that I have allowed my faith in a couple areas to just get a little bit stagnant, or I’ve allowed it to slip somewhere into the background of my mind, instead of the foreground, which is where it really belongs. Even though I pray for you every day, and even though I pray for my children every day, and even though I pray for the orphans every day, this passage really spoke to me and told me very clearly that I am to believe with passion as though it will obey, and to speak as though I have faith the size of a mustard seed, because if I do have faith I will speak to that thing with authority and walk towards it wholeheartedly.
So I encourage you today, whatever is on your mulberry tree list – that thing that’s bigger than what you think you can accomplish, that problem you’re facing that seems so impossible to bring a solution to, or that big audacious goal you have that you keep feeling pressured by and you wonder if it’s really going to happen – I’m telling you right now, buoy up that faith, strengthen that faith, feed passion to that faith, and know that if you believe, you will receive. You really will. I’ve seen it so many times in my life, and in our clients’ lives. Every day I hear the wildest testimonies of the most impossible things coming to pass for people. Your time is coming.
So today, rise up in your faith. Identify those things that you have lost your faith in and that you have pulled back from. I want you to put those things on the forefront today, and know and believe they are on their way. Don’t stop believing! I believe in you. Don’t forget to go watch "How to be Supernaturally Unstoppabe in the Marketplace" while it’s available for free! And until next time, God bless!
In great faith,
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