Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ Jesus,
The past several weeks an underlying theme of everything written is the Spiritual and physical fact that God’s Word is alive, is multidimensional and multilayered, and never fails to do what God sent It to do. The more a Believer meditates any of God’s Word, the greater revelation they receive – even after fifty years of meditating a particular Scripture or Scriptures. Why is this? Because The Word is God. And Who is God? He is “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.” “I AM THAT I AM.” He is The Eternal One, The Creator and The Judge, The Ancient of Days, The Beginning and The End, The Word, The Source, Yahweh eloheinu Yahweh (Yahweh is the one true God), our Father, and our Abba. God is both describable and indescribable (meaning we don’t have the words in our language to describe something about God because it defies man’s reasoning).
Psalm 23 is one of the most profound of the Psalms ever written by David. My intent in this message is not to write about the entire Psalm. It is to focus on, and meditate, the first verse, only.
Psalm 23:1
(A Psalm of David.) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The purpose of focusing on this one verse is because of what I see with my eyes and what I hear from others in ministry concerning the need for funding to reach the hundreds of millions or billions that have not heard, or have heard little-to-nothing, about Jesus Christ and The Kingdom of God. But Larry, God will see that the funding is made available and reaches the right ministries and right places in the world. Yes, you’re partially correct. God doesn’t counterfeit, so He must work through people. Those people include US – you and me.
Statistically only 10% of churchgoers tithe the commanded 10% regularly, and this number is continuing to decline. Then, another 25-30% of churchgoers give something regularly to the church or to other ministries or missions. This explains a lot about the ineffectiveness of churches today, and why most new Believers are coming from ministries outside the walls of the many dead churches. This doesn’t surprise me since God’s anointing for me is prosperity. The Holy Spirit has taught Dianne and me God’s prosperity, had us apply it by faith in our lives, in our business, and in our ministry, and has us as living and teaching examples of His covenant promises and His generosity. God is a loving, good, generous, and abundant God and Abba. When we get to Heaven, we can ask Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob what God thinks about today’s seemingly religious and pious theology that anything more than meeting one’s needs is both out of line with Scripture, a temptation, and greed. satan has done a good job from many pulpits in deceiving the church.
At the same time that I see with my eyes and hear from others in ministry the resounding cry for more finances to reach the masses that have fertile and hungry hearts for the good news of The Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Kingdom of God, I’m also hearing from, and of, many Believers who are struggling with finances in the United States, the wealthiest country in the world and in the world’s history. My prayer is this message will strike a chord in the hearts of the many Believers who read and distribute these weekly messages to encourage them that God’s covenant with us, through Jesus Christ, states no Believer should struggle with finances. We should be blessed to the point that people in the church and around us see and take notice of it. This is exactly what God said in Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 12:2-3. I would suggest reading these verses repeatedly and meditating on them for several days. The Holy Spirit will speak to you through these verses.
Jesus teaches us that money is the easiest thing in The Kingdom of God to acquire. In fact, Jesus teaches us that if we can’t acquire and manage money according to God’s ordinances, then we cannot be trusted with the true riches of The Kingdom of God. God’s very Blessing from Genesis 1:28, which He covenanted again with Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3, and again in Ephesians 1:3, states a Believer should be so blessed and abounding they are able to bless the families of the world. Jesus taught, lived, and did miracles that all pointed to God’s generous abundance to His children so they could both be blessed and bless others. His very first miracle was a wealth miracle; not healing, not casting out demons, and not raising one from the dead. Jesus turned water into the most expensive wine that has ever existed in human history. Let me take a quick detour here and then return.
The single-most expensive wine in history is a 750ml bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée‑Conti that sold for $558,000. Jesus transformed six waterpots, holding about 30 gallons each, from water to wine. 180 gallons of wine converts to 908, 750ml bottles of wine that would be valued at $506,664,000 today based on the sales price of the 1945 Domaine. We all know Jesus’ wine would sell for so much more. Now, let’s stop and think about this. Why don’t we just let this sink in and meditate it. Would you say that God is a GENEROUS God and Abba? If Jesus does this for one, He must do it for all or else He is a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) – which is inequity and injustice. I really don’t need to say more, but even The Holy Spirit, through Paul, teaches us in II Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Notice, “all grace abound toward you” means as much as you can believe for Sisters and Brothers. As much as you can believe, decree, and receive. Why? So, “that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Not some good works, EVERY good work. Not some sufficiency in some things, sometimes, but “ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may ABOUND to EVERY good work.” Can The Holy Spirit and Jesus make it any plainer and simpler to us from The Word? We need to quit limiting God and thinking we know it all. Let’s quit trying to work toward a victory and start coming from The Victory. This requires a change in our conscious way of thinking, our mindset. We need to get the “buts” that come from our mouth out of the way of God’s “shall.”
God moves when we move. We’re aligning with a higher Truth, a Spiritual Truth, which supersedes a physical truth. In the infinite consciousness of The Creator, lack doesn’t exist. Money is infinite. Abundance is infinite. We’re not denying our current circumstances. We’re tuning our consciousness, our soul, our minds, to a reality where those circumstances can change. We’re stepping into the consciousness where solutions exist. How do we do this – change our conscious way of thinking and our mind’s way of seeing?
- Prepare our consciousness – we cannot come to prayer through desperation. If we approach Psalm 23 from a “lack mindset or a lack consciousness,” it will not work. Before one Word of the Psalm is recited, we must shift our thinking, our consciousness, our mindset from lack to gratitude. We do this by finding one or more things for which we are grateful. This shifts our focus, our thinking, our minds, from lack to abundance.
- Declare – don’t beg. Every single Word must be spoken as a present reality declaration. Not a hope, not a wish, not a plea. A declaration of what already is. “Adonai ro’i.” “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Not “I hope The Lord will be my Shepherd;” not “please God, be my Shepherd.” “Lo echsar,” “I shall not want.” Not, “I hope I won’t want;” not “please make it so I don’t want.” It is “I SHALL NOT WANT.” This is already true. In the infinite abundance of God, lack does not exist for us. We’re not asking for this to become true. We’re declaring it is true in the highest reality, and we’re aligning our consciousness, our thinking, our minds with this Truth. We’re learning to speak from a mindset of higher abundance where lack is impossible.
- Visualize the vessel. Gratitude creates a vessel for receiving. When we feel grateful, we’re creating space – a container – that can hold more abundance. As we declare, “I shall not want,” we must visualize ourselves as a vessel; not an empty, desperate vessel begging to be filled. But a vessel positioned under a waterfall of infinite abundance. The water is already flowing. It never stops flowing. We’re not begging for the water to flow. We’re simply positioning ourselves to receive what is already pouring. See it in our mind, in our imagination. We have the “One Without End,” The Infinite Source,” inside us. This Source never runs dry, never runs out. It flows continuously, and we are already connected to It. God designed it to flow, infinitely, throughout all eternity.
- Move with action. After we pray, we MUST take one action step forward. Just one. It doesn’t have to be big, but it does have to be something. The prayer shifts our consciousness, our thinking, our mind, and the action demonstrates our faith. And this combination – thinking plus action. – is what creates miracles.
Every morning before we do anything, we must find one thing for which to be grateful. We must tell God about that for which we are thankful. Then we recite Psalm 23 as a declaration – firm voice, present reality, no begging. We must visualize ourselves as a vessel under the waterfall of infinite abundance. Then, we take one action step.
The first week or so, we’ll notice an internal change taking place. Panic, anxiety, and fear will start to ease. Our mind will feel clearer. In three to four weeks, maybe sooner, we’ll start to see external changes. When our conscious shifts from lack to abundance, we start seeing opportunities and resources that were previously invisible to us. They were always there. We just couldn’t see them from a lack consciousness. We will change from being a beggar asking God for a handout and become someone accessing the infinite abundance God has already provided us through Christ Jesus.
What we lack or have an abundance of comes from the mindset or consciousness from which we are operating. When we operate in a scarcity consciousness of begging, fear, desperation, and anxiety, we attract more scarcity through our thinking and our words. Like attracts like. The seed we plant will yield manifold seed of the same nature, same kind. This is the Law of the Seed.
When we shift to an abundance mindset, or consciousness, through declaration, we’re literally changing our posture. We’re aligning with the infinite nature of God. In this mindset, everything changes. We see opportunities we couldn’t see previously. We make decisions from wisdom instead of panic. We attract different circumstances because we’re thinking and operating from a different mindset and from different words.
The Scriptures teach us this principle in Proverbs 23:7, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Our minds, our thinking, don’t just affect how we feel. It affects what manifests in our physical reality. Our thoughts create our beliefs. Our beliefs create our words. Our words create our actions. Our actions create our results.
Quantum physics is now discovering what the ancient Hebrews have known forever, “the observer affects the observed.” Our consciousness, our mindset, literally influences our physical reality. When we declare, “I shall not want” from true alignment, we’re not just changing our mindset; we’re influencing the field of possibilities around us. While it is true physical realities exist, our mindset is the one factor we can control, regardless of our external circumstances. When the internal reality changes, the external reality changes. Our current mindset, or consciousness, is creating our current results. To get different results, we need a different way of thinking. It’s that simple.
The final step in our list of things we must do to change our thinking, our mindset, was “move with action.” We’re told by The Holy Spirit in James 1:22 that we must “be doers of The Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” This means we MUST take an action step. To the first church, this was known as the “daily tzedakah – righteous giving.” Here’s the principle. We cannot authentically say, “I shall not want,” while gripping every penny in fear. We cannot operate in an abundance consciousness while our actions scream scarcity. There has to be alignment between our declaration and our behavior. Giving creates the vessel for receiving. Paul quotes Jesus in Acts 20:35.
Acts 20:35
I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember The Words of The Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
This passage is usually taught to give and to have no expectation of receiving because this is how you receive your blessing. And your blessing is Spiritual rather than physical. If this were true, we would have to tear out all the parables Jesus taught about planting a seed and reaping a many-fold harvest. Did God plant Jesus without an expectation of a many-fold harvest of sons and daughters? Of course not. And was the harvest only Spiritual for God. No, it was also physical. We are not to have any different expectation than God had for Jesus, than Jesus taught in the parables. The “blessing” comes to us in the form of receiving based upon our giving actions.
Scarcity thinking is “I’ll give when I have enough to give.” Giving is a declaration of abundance. I am connected to infinite abundance, and therefore I can afford to bless others. This breaks the scarcity consciousness at the deepest levels. Scarcity says, “hold tight, there’s not enough.” Abundance says, “give freely, there’s always more flowing.” When we give, we create space in our vessel to receive. Giving breaks the scarcity consciousness. Declaration aligns us with abundance. Action demonstrates faith. And this combination creates transformation (Romans 12:2).
Deuteronomy 8:18
But thou shalt remember The LORD thy God: for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
God gives us the power to get wealth. Yes, it’s right there in black and white. We can’t avoid it. We can’t stick our heads in the sand. We’re now accountable to God for what we do with this Word. The Word “power” is the Hebrew word, “koach,” which not only means “power,” but also “capacity,” “ability,” “potential,” and “force of being.” It’s saying God gives us the capacity – the consciousness, the vessel, and the mindset to create wealth. The power is already in a us through Christ Jesus. We just have to activate it. Our mindset and words are actively creating the reality we experience.
God gives us the power, the capacity to expand our vessel, to change our consciousness, to upgrade from a thimble to a cup, from a cup to a bucket, and from a bucket to a reservoir. Oral Roberts taught this in his famous sermon, “Floodscape – a Trickle, a Stream, a River, a Flood.” We must start seeing ourselves as having divine, creative power to align with God’s infinite supply (Phil 4:19).
In closing I want to bring to our remembrance the most important first step to creating the wealth God promises, so we can be the blessing to the families of the earth that we are commanded to be in Genesis 12:2-3. The tithe is not about releasing your money; it is about releasing your trust. The tithe unclogs the heart. Faith always produces; fear always withholds. Tithing weakens fear and strengthens faith. A dimension of tithing is dominion. Dominion is not shouting or forcefulness. It is a Spiritual position. It is a Believer recognizing they are not a subject of the world’s economy but a citizen of The Kingdom. The tithe is a statement of jurisdiction. It says, “I operate under Heaven’s order, not the world’s volatility.”
Much love in Christ Jesus,
Larry