How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way: The Power of Ants

Hi, this is Dr. Mike Smalley. Welcome to this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™. I’m teaching from my book, How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way. And I want to give you a key today of advice from the Holy Spirit through the richest man who ever lived. Who was that, of course? It’s King Solomon.

King Solomon was the richest man who ever lived. What was some of his financial advice? Listen to this. It’s really amazing. “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider, ponder, meditate on her ways and be wise. Which having no captain or overseer or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.” Proverbs 6:6-8.

Watch How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way with Mike Smalley

The richest man who ever lived said, “go to the ant and study the ant.” You want to understand work and prosperity and something? Go to the ant. He said, “Go to the ant and look. Learn some lessons.” I want to give you a couple keys from studying ants. Ready for these? This will help you.

Number one, the ant is self-motivated. The ant’s self-motivated. Ants are not having to have a pep talk to each other every 20 minutes. They get up, they work, they do it, they go, they follow the leader, they do what they have to do. And their motivation produces great results. They’re prosperous. Many times the only difference between the prosperous and the non-prosperous is just motivation. The ability to stay motivated.

Number two, second thing. The ant doesn’t look to others to fulfill its own responsibilities for provision. Think on that. The ant doesn’t look to other insects to bring in what they need. Individual creativity is often destroyed, even for Christians. Individual creativity in your mind, your spirit. It could often be subdued, blacked out, destroyed, etc. when you operate within a belief system that somebody else is responsible for what God has made you responsible for.

You know, if your yard is three feet tall, the grass is overgrown, you can sit there and pray all day. “God, send an angel to cut my grass” and it probably won’t happen. You or somebody else has to cut that grass, but you have to take initiative, take initiative. Write out some financial goals, write out some income goals, work with your faith and watch what God does. Let me give you two other things.

Number three, the ant saves for the future. An ant saves. Look at this verse again, “who having no captain or overseer or ruler,” in other words, they don’t have to do it, but “they provide their supply in the summer and gather their food in the harvest.” They plan for the future. I’ve talked about in the previous teaching. If you haven’t seen it, go back and watch it in this series. God says twice in the scripture, “I’ll command my blessing to attach itself to something my people have.” And both of those times, it wasn’t their talents, it wasn’t their giftings, it was their savings account. If you don’t have a savings account, how can God bless it? How can God command the blessing to it?

We think if God blesses us in other ways, we’ll just have more to put aside in the savings account. No, when we start putting in something no matter where we are, even in a place where we’re lower income, where we’re broke, when we’re struggling, you start there and God sends extra and increase because you’ve done that. He commands blessing to attach itself there.

Let me give you one last one. Ants give immediate focus to the critical task at hand. Ants give their focus to the immediate task at hand. Giving your mind total focus, you’ve heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Focusing in. How do you kill a man with a dream? Dr. Mike Murdock said years ago, “How do you kill a man with a dream? You give him a second one.” Broken focus is the reason people fail and goals aren’t met. So listen to this, I wrote it this way, “Giving your complete focus to one goal is more productive than giving a little of you to many different goals. Too many goals can be as dangerous as having no goals at all.” The Holy Spirit wrote through Solomon years ago, “Go to the ant, study her, you’ll be wise.” You can get financial secrets even from God’s creation in the insect world.

Father, thank You so much for the privilege of studying Your word. It’s a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We honor it today. We have a prosperity provision mindset. We have a prosperity vocabulary. We have a prosperity work ethic, dream wall, vision board. We’re ready for you to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. In Jesus’ name, amen. This is Dr. Mike Smalley. Thanks for joining me today for this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™.

Watch Now