How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way: The Prosperity Mindset

Hi, I’m Evangelist Mike Smalley. Welcome to this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™. I’m teaching today out of my book, How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way. God hates poverty. He hates the pain of lack. He hates hungry children. He hates people’s inability to bless their children and grandchildren. He wants you and I to be able to bless the earth by meeting people’s needs, by helping to spread the gospel, and by being good to our own children and family, taking vacations, and creating memories.

Financial blessing enables you to create memories, taking people out to eat, having them on family vacation, maybe getting an Airbnb in all of you together in one place, spending valuable time. Finance helps you create memories. I wrote this book called How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way because I really wanted you to walk in divine provision and do it right, do it God’s way. The Bible talks about the fact that there are people who are wealthy, who have abundance, but it brought sorrow to their life.

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

The Bible says that for the righteous, for those of us who are prospered His way, that we’re blessed and God adds no sorrow to it. There’s no connection to it of wrong. Many times you see Hollywood celebrities and famous philanthropists throughout the years that they lived really wild. They get a little older, some of their friends start passing away and then they look at their own mortality and what do you know? Instantly they’re giving to charity like crazy, millions and millions. Now we can’t judge, of course, every person’s motive, but you have to wonder at some point, do people get close to death and look back at their life and think, “Wow, I better start being good to somebody.”

It’s that inner belief system, though it’s not scriptural, that “if my good deeds outweigh my bad, somehow I’ll impress God.” Well, you and I know as Christians, that’s not how it works. The Bible says that it’s by grace that we’re saved through faith and that not of ourselves lest any man should boast. We have to receive the gift of everlasting life. We do that by confessing Jesus Christ, as Lord, Romans 10:9, and believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, receiving His gift of everlasting life.

Christianity is not just about a changed life. I cuss less, I smoke less, I’m angry less. Christianity is about an exchanged life. I get His perfect record, Jesus’, in place of my imperfect record. One of the ways that you prosper is having a prosperity mindset. You’ve got to think like God thinks. You have to have a provision mindset, an abundance mindset. You have to have an increase mindset. The very first command in the Bible was not to worship, it was not to preach, it was not to pray for the sick. The first command in the Bible was to increase, to make more, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth. God’s a God of increase. There’s not just one breed of dog or cat, there’s not just one kind of animal, one kind of flower, one kind of tree, one kind of mountain, one kind of planet. One kind of person, God’s a God of more, He’s a God of increase. So, understanding that the Scripture talks to us, not just suggests it, but commands us to increase, command us to walk in His blessing and His provision.

We think, “Oh Mike, if I had a lot of money, I might fall away from God.” If money would make you backslide, wouldn’t the devil have already sent you a lot of it? Wouldn’t you have won the lottery two times already? Or somebody dropped a thousand dollars on your doorstep every day. If all it took to make you hate God, would somebody give you an extra dollar bill? You think the devil would have a problem sending somebody to bless you? That’s absurd. Money’s a tree cut down, dyed green. It’s paper, they make it out of trees. It can’t rise up out of your purse and make you hate God. It doesn’t exist. It’s a thing. You can buy cocaine with it or you can print Bibles with it. You can feed a hungry person with it or you can use it to hire a hit man. You decide. But when you and I make a decision to honor God in our giving, in our tithing, in our savings, in our spending and recognize God wants to prosper us. It’s a sin not to prosper because of the promises God has given us in His provision. He’s commanded us to exceed and represent Him on the earth.

So, you want to develop a mindset. If you were raised with a broke mentality, get rid of that. If you were raised with the teaching that money makes you backslide, let’s renounce that right now. I would have a confession time if I were you would just tell the Lord, just say, “Lord, I’ve said some things in my life I don’t mean anymore. I renounce all that and I confess what Your word says that you desire your servants to prosper.” That doesn’t just mean you get an extra quarter on your next paycheck. It means abundance.

Think about the Bible. The Bible says heaven is a city and it’s got gates. The Bible says that heaven measures out to be 1500 miles tall. It’s 1500 miles wide. It’s 1500 miles deep. That’s a big town. And the Bible says it has gates. Now, how big a gate do you have to have for a city that’s 1500 miles? One thousand five hundred miles high and wide. That’s a big gate. And the Bible says those gates are made of pearl. But you know the largest pearl ever found in the world is only the size of a man’s fist? The most expensive pearl ever found is the size of a man’s fist. But God says my place has hinges of pearl. One thousand five hundred miles.

God is a God of abundance. Get a prosperity mindset. Get into the scriptures. Confess what God says about it. Watch what God will do. Thank you so much for joining me today for this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™.

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