Poverty is not economical. It is the acceptance of meager possibilities. There’s a poverty of thinking, imagination, passion, courage, vision and the will to succeed. We become limited by our fears. Fear of failure, change, looking foolish and being criticized makes us dormant and inactive. Fear of man is one of the most debilitating phobias available to us in our experience of the world.
We can convince ourselves of a lack of resources but the reality is that we do not go out to meet them. In our anxiety, we wait for them to come. We are the people of God so we can never allow ourselves to be defined by externals… what shall we eat or wear-Matthew 6: 31? Our bank balance has nothing to say about what God will do. We are defined internally by the nature of God towards us. He has no restrictive labels for us. He empowers us to believe in him as he believes in us. When we believe that He is with us then faith rises up and we believe in ourselves too.
People need to understand identity and destiny. As part of that development, we cultivate an environment that empowers them to step into all that the Lord wants to be on their behalf.
The questions we must ask: Are our personal assumptions of ourselves self-defeating? Or do they inspire us to attempt new things?
A poverty mindset diminishes our personality and prevents us from realizing our truest identity in Christ. It starves us of hope and vision. We then define ourselves by what we cannot do. We follow the path of least resistance because we do not realize that it is the resistance, we encounter that actually empowers us to succeed. We must have something big to overcome. The starting point to victory is recognizing the present giant that is in our life and what it will develop in us when we overcome it. Personal assumptions can either be destructive or productive to our development. Impoverished assumptions are not the truth. Only the truth can set us free.
When we know our permissions, we will also discover the current portion of our inheritance. If we are too focused on finances at the beginning of an enterprise, we may well not be seeing the bigger picture. The Father will always show us the truly impossible element of the dream, His calling. When we depend upon His passion for us, we get to also joyfully confess that He is our full provision. If He is not under attack, then our resources are safe in Him. We rest in our confession of Him. We use our declaration of His intentionality towards us to celebrate His passion. We must have the peace of God so that our proclamation of Christ can become the focal point of our believing in the circumstances. The enemy is defeated by our rest and confidence in Jesus Christ.
In the beginning there is always God. At the start of any enterprise, we must not focus on the task ahead; first we must upgrade our relationship with the Lord.
We strengthen the foundations of our relationship with the Godhead by seeking a place of prayerful upgrade with each member. We increase our celebration in terms of rejoicing and thanksgiving. In this place of upgraded presence, we are given clarity about God’s intention. We are able to come to a fresh place of rest and confession. We become aware of our role in the process of our development.
It is in these areas that we improve our partnership with God. If we are scrambling to make ends meet, we are not partnering with the father. The pressure of survival will cause us to focus too much on the present. Therefore, we do not look forward enough to develop a vision for the future, because that seems to us to be a luxury. Abundance surely means that we have the luxury to partner with God of the future.
Reinvention has many layers. It covers our personality, attitude, focus, renewed mind, communication, faith and identity. To name but a few! Everything we are in ourselves is subject to adjustment. We are learning to listen for the future in all our present conversations. To be prophetic means that we discern emerging possibilities before they become visible. In the process of reinvention, we will close the gap between vision and success by the determination of God to make us in His image, and by our joyful willingness to take our full responsibility in that process.
What are the basics that you need to return to if you are to successfully reinvent your identity in Christ?
What poverty thinking is holding you back in your vision of the future?
What are you listening for in regard to your own future?