Wanting Is a Declaration of Lack: Change Your Thinking in Business

Sermon outline

It is settled that God wants you to prosper, so change the way you think, see and speak, let go of the wanting, and follow the Holy Spirit's leading in your business.

1. Settle it: it is God's will to prosper you

   Nail this down like a board on a fixed structure, with no argument or doubt. A struggle or a storm in your situation is not a sign that God does not want you to prosper. Your soul, your mind, must prosper first, so become a lifelong student and invest in good books, because a sharp blade cuts in an hour what a blunt one takes a day to do.

   Illustration: Mowing a lawn with an old blunt roller mower takes all day.

   “God wants you to prosper, period.”

   • 3 John 2

2. Make sure you don't have a crushed spirit

   A cheerful heart is good medicine, and he calls this his first important point. Challenges come to everyone and grow bigger at higher levels, but they are designed to maximise you, not minimise you. God wants you to fight the good fight of faith, and business people are already faith people: they start businesses, resign from salaried jobs and wake up each morning by faith.

   Illustration: Raising the money for his first car was a challenge at one level; years later a far bigger repair bill was a challenge at another. The greater the challenge, the greater the victory.

   “Your challenges are not designed to minimize you. Your challenges are designed to maximize you.”

   • Proverbs 17:22
   • 1 Timothy 6:12

3. As a man thinks, so is he: change your thinking

   Even an educated person can think like a poor man, and no pastor can change your thinking for you. Changing levels may mean letting go of friends and even family voices that tell you what you cannot do, because sparrows don't roost in an eagle's nest. When you are challenged, God is making a demand on potential you do not know you have, as He did when He greeted Gideon as a mighty man of valour.

   Illustration: God told him in a restaurant that he thought, bought and even ate like a poor man; his hands used to perspire before the bill came. He also uses the 'crayfish mentality': crabs in a can pulling down any that try to climb out.

   “They're telling you what you can't do when God is telling you what you can do.”

   • Proverbs 23:7
   • Hebrews 13:5
   • Judges 6:12

4. The Spirit burns the ropes: Samson's jawbone

   When the Spirit of the Lord rushed on Samson, the ropes binding him burned like flax, and with the jawbone of a donkey he struck down a thousand men. Lehi means the lifting up of the jawbone: God uses the Holy Spirit in the material realm to bring supernatural resources through whatever small thing is in your hand. The greatest challenge often comes after the greatest victory, but when Samson called on God in his thirst, God split the rock and gave him water.

   Illustration: Samson, thirsty after his victory at Lehi, calling on God and drinking from the spring God opened.

   “When the Spirit of God rushes on you, it will burn up those ropes and release you to do great things.”

   • Judges 15:14-19

5. God's grace is bigger than your mistakes

   Many people cannot forgive themselves for bad deals, bad loans and trusting the wrong people. When he argued with the Lord that he was not qualified to make every church decision right, God told him His grace is sufficient to cover his mistakes. He prophesies that whatever has been lost will come back sevenfold.

   Illustration: Even qualified pilots make mistakes.

   “God's bigger than your mistake.”

   • 2 Corinthians 12:9

6. The law of attraction is a biblical principle

   We become what we think about and draw towards us what we hold in our minds. You must love people to draw people, and put helping people before making money, because if you put money first it will evade you. The Lord teaches you to profit: the Hebrew word means He trains you by memorable events, techniques and lessons, giving ideas to save money, make money and know whom to trust.

   “If you put money first, money will evade you.”

   • Isaiah 48:17

7. Step 1: Visualise and affirm

   Take time to see your success with your spirit and to affirm it out loud, as he has done in the car every day for years. Negativity is venom on the tongue, so speak life over your business and your files, and treat money with respect, because what you respect comes towards you. Affirm for at least 21 days, the time it takes to form a habit.

   Illustration: God told him to start picking up the small coins he used to step over, saying the way he treated money would decide where he ended up with it. He also used to cover his mouth while making confessions in the car, until hands-free kits meant nobody noticed.

   “What you respect will come towards you, what you disrespect will go away from you.”

   • Proverbs 18:21
   • Mark 11:24
   • 1 Corinthians 14:15
   • Philippians 1:4

8. Step 2: Release the wanting and let go

   If you keep asking for what you have already asked for, you are affirming that you have not received it. Ask once, believe you have received, then turn your wanting into thanking. Doubt is a negative mind in motion, and it stops you attracting what you want.

   Illustration: He stopped praying for great audiences and began thanking God for them, because he already has them.

   “The expression of wanting is a declaration of lack.”

   • Joshua 1:8
   • Colossians 4:2
   • Romans 4:17

9. Step 3: Take action from intuition

   God speaks by inner leading and divine inspiration, so you do not need a prophet from abroad to tell you your future; the word already says you will succeed. He can speak through a child, a cleaner, a staff member or the evening news. When He leads you, act without asking too many people for advice: whatever He says to you, do it.

   Illustration: Days before a deadline to secure a bond for the church building, after two banks refused, he saw a newspaper headline on a lamp pole naming the exact amount he had applied for. God told him to say it, he declared it in the car, and the bond was granted the next day. He also tells Pastor Yonggi Cho's story of a woman whose business failed, who saw a two-storey shop in prayer, found it for rent a week later and became a multi-millionaire.

   “God can speak to you any time, anyhow.”

   • Joshua 1:8
   • Numbers 22:28
   • John 2:5
   • Proverbs 16:9

10. Last point: trust spiritual guidance in the business world

    The Holy Spirit is a friend who walks with you; ask Him before every business meeting whom to trust and how to negotiate. He will sometimes lead you away from a tempting deal and into one that looks wrong. Clear out emotional conflict, because bitterness is a blessing blocker: forgive the person's deed while still recovering the debt. Work from a position of rest, and remember past victories as David remembered the lion and the bear.

    “Emotional conflict inside of you is a blessing blocker.”

    • Proverbs 4:23
    • 1 Samuel 17:34-37