In part 3 of How to Attack Lack, Ashley and Carlie look at what causes lack in our lives. When we don’t see our needs met there are some reasons for it. Recognize these causes of lack and how to combat them.
Transcription
Announcer: Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life. Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley: Hi, welcome to Abundant Life. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. We’re talking about how to attack lack, how to attack poverty in our lives. God’s will for you is to prosper, God’s will for you is to have an abundance, God’s will for you is for him to provide for all your needs. But sometimes we don’t experience that in our daily lives. Sometimes we have a experience of lack or poverty. You know what? God wants that lack gone. He wants that poverty gone.
Carlie: Amen. That’s the good news.
Ashley: That’s the good news. Amen. We’ve looked at a number of things. If you’re just joining us today, we’re halfway through a series here. We’ve looked at the fact that it’s God’s will for you to prosper. We looked at the fact that Jesus paid for you to prosper financially. And in II Corinthians eight and nine, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,” Jesus was rich, he had abundance obviously in heaven, and while he was on earth. “Yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.”
So, Jesus took poverty and lack, financial poverty and financial lack, to the cross and defeated it. And just like he took sin to the cross in II Corinthians 5:21, when we took on his righteousness, just like he defeated sickness and disease, he took stripes on his back, I Peter 2:24, he took stripes on his back so that we could be healed, he took poverty and lack to the cross so that we can receive his abundance and his provision. So, it’s part of the gospel. God wants you to prosper financially, God wants to provide for your needs, God wants you to have all sufficiency in all things.
In fact, II Corinthians nine and eight. So, that was II Corinthians eight and nine. This is II Corinthians nine and eight. It’s quite tongue twister. But II Corinthians 9:8 says that… Let me read that to you. It says, “God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.” So, God’s will for you, God’s will for us, God’s best for us is to not only have our own needs supplied, but also have an abundance for every good work. So, we’ll be able to help people, we’ll be able to support missionaries, we’ll be able to help neighbors who need help, we’ll be able to give to churches, give to ministries, partner with people. That’s God’s best risk.
And we also talked about in the previous shows how me and Carlie, we grew up, we got married very young, and grew up. I was a youth pastor. Carlie worked in a Christian coffee house. We had very little. We experienced a lot of lack in our life. And we also talked about how poverty is relative and it’s from extreme poverty to where there’s literally not enough to eat, to poverty where you’re just not able to make decisions because you haven’t got the money to make decisions. Wherever that is, all lack and all poverty is evil. It’s not good.
Poverty and lack is never good. It’s always described in the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, it’s always described as in a negative way. Lack and poverty is always looked at negatively, whereas prosperity and provision is always looked at positively. Often, lack and poverty is listed in the curses, whereas provision and blessings is listed as a blessing. Provision and abundance is listed as a blessing. You could find that in Deuteronomy 30 all the way… Deuteronomy 28, sorry. That whole chapter is talking about how, the first 15 chapters is talking about how prosperity is a blessing and provision is a blessing. And then from verse 15 on to verse 68 talks about how lack and not having enough and poverty is a curse. And praise God, Galatians 3:13, we’re redeemed from the curse. We haven’t got to worry about the curse anymore. But we could see that poverty is always looked at negatively, and prosperity and provision is looked at positively. So, it’s God’s best for us to not have lack in our life. It’s God’s best for us to have prosperity in life.
We also looked at what lacked does. Lack can limit your choices. Lack can hinder you serving the Lord and helping people. When you don’t have enough financial yourself, it’s harder for you to help other people. When you don’t have enough financially, it’s harder for you to make decisions about maybe you want to take a part-time job so you can be at home. We’ve got friends who are… In fact, she had a baby, and they actually purposely saved her salary so that when they had a baby, she could stay at home full-time. Now, if they had lack, they wouldn’t be able to do that. And I know a lot of our viewers are experienced in these things, they’re experiencing a lack in their finances, and that’s what I’m excited about showing you God’s promise for you is to have prosperity.
But you know what? We hear a lot of people teach this, but we want to show you some practical things about how you can receive it. We’re going to show you some things that are going to help you practically. So, that’s what this series is about. We’ve called it How to Attack Lack. So, if you’ve got lack in your life, how you can attack that lack and overcome that lack. Even though Jesus ultimately overcome it at the cross, we’re going to show you some things you can do to stop lack manifest in your life day to day.
Carlie: Amen. And I know that some of the lack that people are experiencing isn’t necessarily a supply issue, but a stewardship issue. Is that right? I mean, you just mentioned our friend there that was having a baby and they planned ahead. They knew that she was going to have a baby. They planned ahead, even before she got pregnant, actually, to live off just one of their salaries and then cut back on their outgoings as much as they could so they could live on just one of their salaries. And on the second salary, on her salary, they just saved everything. And the point was, she had a goal in mind, she wanted to be a stay at home mom and raise a baby at home, and if they were going to do that, they were going to have to get used to living off one salary anyway and so they may as well stop practicing what that would look like before the baby came along.
And so, when the baby did come along, she was able to leave work, and then they had that nest egg of all of the money that they’d saved from that second salary. So, they planned ahead, they became good stewards. But if they hadn’t of done, I know many people, same situation, but they didn’t plan ahead. And so, when they get to it, and the baby is born, they find themselves in a position, “Well, we really wanted to be a stay at home mom or stay at home dad, but we can’t afford it now.”
Ashley: Right. So, again, lack is limiting choices there, essentially. It’s limiting their choice to whether they’re going to stay home or not. And this is just an example. There’s no right or wrong. We’re not saying that you should always stay home or not stay home. I know people that work because they choose to work, even though they don’t need the money. They choose to work.
Carlie: I had to be both.
Ashley: Carlie had to do a bit of both. You was not cut out for-
Carlie: Yeah. For my sanity, I had to work some.
Ashley: We had three children under three, so when you have three toddlers in the house, we’re talking literally three in diapers at one point, nappies if you’re watching in the UK, but diapers here in America, three in diapers. Just no adult conversation, no conversation at all because there’s no one to talk to.
Carlie: Right. I went to work a day a week just to have some adult conversation.
Ashley: She had to get some adult conversation in, so she went to work for a break. In fact, work was a break in our house, going to work was a break. So, whatever the situation is, that’s not the point. The point is, is that by the decisions you make can really help defeat lack in your life. And that’s one of the points we’ve got today, actually, is we’re looking at today is what causes this lack in our lives? So, if we use to back up again and say God’s will for us is to prosper, God’s will for us is to have all our needs met, then when we don’t see that happen in our life, when we don’t see our needs met, when our month is longer than our paycheck, or maybe we don’t have… We’ve been in situations in our first year of marriage, I remember going into the store and having enough money for either coffee or cereal, but not both. It was like-
Carlie: It was a bad day.
Ashley: All I had was the money for the coffee or cereal. I couldn’t buy both. I just had the, whatever it was, $5. Coffee or cereal, but not both. And I remember thinking, “That’s a tough decision. I’m either going to be hungry or tired or tired and hungry. What am I going to do?” So, we’ve been in the situation, and that’s just a silly, small example. There’s been major times when we’ve been limited by the amount of finances we’ve had and we’ve not been able to do the things we wanted to do, as well as times when we’ve have had the finances and we have been able to make the decision. So, what causes lack in your life? What’s going wrong, if you like? Or what’s causing this lack of finances in your life. And there’s three things we’re going to look at real quickly today. Hopefully we’ll get through them today. [inaudible].
Carlie: It’s a [inaudible] statement.
Ashley: It’s a [inaudible] statement, but the first thing is… Well, first of all, Deuteronomy 30, we looked at this in a previous lesson, but Deuteronomy 30 really lays it out in a way, it says, Deuteronomy 30, verse 19, God says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses; therefore choose life.” The promises of God are not automatic. This is where the balance of grace and faith comes in. Jesus paid for it all. Grace, that’s grace. He paid for it all. He paid for your righteousness, he paid for your healing, on your health. He paid for your provision, your prosperity. He paid for it all. It’s done. Grace is giving it all to you, but faith is you appropriating in that, faith is you walking in the, faith is you reaching out and accepting that gift and unwrapping it.
Carlie: A positive to a response of what grace has already provided.
Ashley: That’s a perfect way of putting it. Say that again, Carlie.
Carlie: Faith is our positive response to what grace has already provided.
Ashley: That’s good. I’m going to steal that and use it myself [inaudible].
Carlie: Have at it.
Ashley: That’s true. What’s going on there is, is that we still have a part to play. Somebody said, “Well, you’re saying this is works, actually.” It’s not works. It’s like one time at church I remember I gave someone a $100 check because they were in need, and I gave him a $100 check and they were very excited about it, whatever. But the point is this, they had to take that check down to the bank and cash it to get the money. I gave them $100 [inaudible] can’t believe it. Actually is making me walk down to the bank and hand this over to the teller and get that $100 cash. He’s making me work. No, they’re just basically walking out what I’ve already done for them. That’s just an example.
Carlie: They had to respond to that check.
Ashley: They had to respond positively and they had to receive it. They could’ve said no. So, anyway, my point is this, is that you’re already prosperous. God’s already paid for your prosperity. If you’re born again today, you’re already prosperous and you already have your needs met. But if you’re not seeing it in your natural life, if you’re not seeing it in the day to day, there’s some reasons for that. So, the first reason for that is… And some of these reasons I’ve got to say, don’t be mad at me. Okay? I’m just saying, don’t be mad at me, but this is the word of God. I mean, these are the word of God. The first one is maybe you’re overspending, and I’ve got stewardship is the issue. I’m just saying.
Carlie: People are going to write us now.
Ashley: They’re going to write. We’re going to be in a bit of trouble [crosstalk].
Carlie: Make sure you address those letters to Ashley. Ashley.
Ashley: That’s right. You c an go to Terradezministries.com and complain if you want. But overspending, stewardship. I’m sorry, it’s in the word of God. And it really is, if you spend too much, if you spend more than you make, it doesn’t matter if you make $200,000 a year, if you spend $220,000 a year, you’re going to experience lack. If you make $20,000 a year, but only spend $18,000 a year, you’re probably not going to experience lack, so it’s just a very simple math-
Carlie: Living beyond your means.
Ashley: … living beyond your means, living beyond your means, stewardship. The Bible has so much to talk about stewardship. We could do a whole series on stewardship. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to do stewardship in five minutes. So, I want to give you the basics because this is important. This is going to help you realize, this might be your situation, it may be you in a point where the Holy Spirit’s saying, “You need to maybe look at your spending in these areas,” and that’s fine. This is practical advice to help you walk out the promises of God. So, in Luke 15, Luke 15, there’s the story of the prodigal son, and usually, we talk about the prodigal son, talking about people being born again or maybe we talk about the ungrateful older brother and things like that. But today, there’s one verse I want to pull out of the prodigal son, and that’s in Luke 15 and in verse 14. This is Luke 15:14. If you’ve never read the prodigal son, he basically gets his dad’s inheritance early and runs off with it. What is it? Have you got that verse there?
Carlie: Yes. Verse 14 says, “But when he had spent all,” all of the money that his father gave him, all of his inheritance, “there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want.”
Ashley: So, he went out, he spent, or he took this inheritance from his dad-
Carlie: So, he had a whole chunk of money.
Ashley: Probably a good summer money from his dad.
Carlie: Right. Took his inheritance early, which is kind of rude.
Ashley: We know his dad was a rich man, a wealthy man, because later on the story, all what he did for him and everything else, had parties and killed the fattened calf and robes and all that stuff, rings and everything else. So, his dad was prosperous, so when he got his half of the inheritance, we’re talking about a lot of money here. We don’t know how much, but a lot of money.
Carlie: He got his advance.
Ashley: He got his advance. He got a lot of money. But guess what? He ended up being in want, he ended up in lack, he ended up in poverty, to the point where he wished that he could eat the pig food, basically. The food given to the pigs. That’s how much poverty experienced. Now, why was this? Now, it says, “There were a severe famine in the land.” You say, “Oh, it’s because there’s a famine in the land.” Well, famines, yes, outside circumstances can make you experience lack, so there can be an outside circumstances that happened that unexpectedly can… Whatever it is. You lose your job or something can happen that you can experience lack. So, that is definitely one way that lack can come upon you.
But in this instance, I don’t think this was the only reason because we know that Jacob sewed in a time of famine and he prospered. Jacob prosperous in a time of famine. Other people prosper in time of famine. In fact, some of the wealthiest people in the world will tell you that they’ve prospered more in down markets and they have in up markets. They’ve prospered when it looks like everyone else isn’t because-
Carlie: Well, always it’s because they’ve planned ahead. I’m thinking of, actually, of Donald Trump. He was a real estate mogul, wasn’t he? He talks about this. He makes a lot of money when the downturn of the economy happened, and he was able to buy a lot of real estate. Well, the reason he was able to buy up a lot of real estate was because he’d planned ahead and he had savings.
Ashley: To be able to buy that.
Carlie: Right. Otherwise-
Ashley: The conditions to be able to-
Carlie: Exactly.
Ashley: … pay the down payments and get the loan because he’d already established himself, he’s able to get the loans and things like that. Yeah. And have the money to do it. So, yeah, planned ahead.
Carlie: So, it made himself recession proof.
Ashley: That’s right. So, here, in this verse, it said he spent only had. So, the prodigal son took all the money he had and spent it all, and it says on riotous living.
Carlie: Riotous living.
Ashley: Riotous living. Whatever riotous living is. Maybe he went to Las Vegas. Whatever he did, but he spent all his money. He spent everything. He had nothing left. And that’s why lack came upon him. And there’s no getting away from it. If you spend everything, if you consume everything that comes into you, you’re going to experience lack. That’s just how it works. That’s not God doing that to you, that’s not the economy, that’s not the government, that’s not people conspiring against you. It’s the simple fact is when money comes into you, if you’re spending everything that comes into you that you get, you’re going to experience lack. That’s just a natural consequences [inaudible].
Carlie: This is a sacred cow, as well.
Ashley: Uh-oh.
Carlie: But riotous living doesn’t necessarily mean going out and getting drunk and paying for prostitutes and buying drugs and just being completely wild. Okay? Right? But there are plenty of us that are living riotous lives when it comes to our spending, so maybe that’s eating in restaurants every night rather than buying groceries. That’s buying a Gucci handbag, whereas you could go to the mall and get one a lot cheaper. You don’t need those 60 pairs of shoes and four cars when only two of you drive. Things like that. It’s not like we’re necessarily going out and living in sin, but we’re just living beyond our means. We’re living with more stuff than we really need.
Ashley: Right. England, we’re from England, England is just as bad as America. We’re bombarded with commercials and this whole idea that we have to have stuff, and really, it’s [crosstalk].
Carlie: And we have to have it now.
Ashley: Yeah. It’s [crosstalk].
Carlie: That’s the thing.
Ashley: We have to have this stuff now.
Carlie: People do not want to wait for anything.
Ashley: Otherwise, you won’t be happy. Yeah. Not only do you spend all you got, it gets worse than that. You end up spending all you’ve got and you put someone on loans and credit cards.
Carlie: You’re spending money you haven’t got.
Ashley: You spend money you haven’t got, and nowadays, you can basically go anywhere and get credit on anything. In fact, I went into the pet store… True story.
Carlie: Oh my goodness.
Ashley: In the pet store and they had a parrot, and you could buy the parrot on monthly installments. I kid you not. I wish I took a photo of that.
Carlie: It was $1,500 parrot.
Ashley: It was a $1,500 parrot. And whatever it was, it was like $250 a month or whatever. And I was thinking, imagine having a parrot on loan, on payments. A parrot on payments.
Carlie: Can you get foreclosed on a parrot?
Ashley: I don’t know [inaudible] parrot then. “Pay your payments, pay your payments.”
Carlie: Pay your bills.
Ashley: It’s like, seriously, you can get credit on anything. Sofas. I mean, anything. You can get furniture.
Carlie: I had somebody, they got a lawn, like a front lawn, and they had some landscaping done, and they didn’t pay for it.
Ashley: Turf, the turf.
Carlie: The turf, yeah. So, they came by and I just dug it.
Ashley: They got their turf repossessed.
Carlie: Turf repossessed.
Ashley: Repossessed turf.
Carlie: Foreclosed lawn.
Ashley: So, you can go spend spent more than you have. So, not only could spending all your money will lead you to lack, but spending more than you have will definitely lead you to lack. And we talked about this in a previous lesson, debt is not a sin, but debt is not God’s best. And certainly consumer debt, debt on things that are going down in value is not a good move. And when you buy things with money you haven’t got… I had one person put it this way. Often, we spend money we haven’t got on things we don’t need to impress people we don’t really know, and unfortunately, that’s part of the culture. That’s part of the American culture and the Western culture, is you just got to have this stuff and you have to have this stuff. You have to have the latest this, the latest that.
And I like stuff. There’s nothing wrong with stuff. In fact, you can have stuff, you can have possessions, you can go and buy the latest this, the latest that. That’s not a problem. The problem is if that stuff has you. And you know what? If you’re buying that stuff out of money that you can’t afford, then that’s really not good. Wealthy people, people that understand this, they will buy this stuff off the top of the barrel-
Carlie: Out of their abundance.
Ashley: … the cream off the top. They won’t be spending money on… The majority of their money is going on to assets, things that are going up in value and things that are investments. A little part of their net worth is going towards cars and toys and things like that.
Carlie: Right. And this is not like a, well, this is a really fun message, but it really, it can be life-changing for people. I think it takes a little bit of courage here to take a cold, hard look at ourselves, and if we’re finding ourselves and our family as being in a place of chronic lack and constantly worrying about how you’re going to pay the bills, how are you going to make it through, but yet you’re falling into this category as we’re talking of riotous living, maybe living beyond your means… Life is not going to change unless you decide to change your thinking. Right?
But the good news is it can absolutely change. And God’s behind you, and God wants you to be free from the chains of financial that maybe you’re experiencing right now. But it starts with a heart change. It starts with being prepared to take a cold, hard look at your situation, and together, maybe with your spouse as a family, coming into agreement saying, “We don’t want to live how we’re living anymore. And because we don’t want to live how we’re living anymore, we’re going to agree to make some sacrifices now so that later on, we can live in the freedom and liberty that Jesus wants us to live.”
Ashley: Amen. It’s delayed gratification., and yeah, that’s so important. Sometimes just saying no to things if you haven’t got the money for it. One of the things, some people say, “What’s some advice you’d give?” We’ve been married 20 years and we immigrated to America and now we work for our ministry full-time and things like that, and they say, “What’s your…” We’re debt-free. And one of the most important things I tell people is we often said no to things. When we started out, especially in the first, probably, 10 years or more, you know what? There was a lot of times we didn’t have the money to buy it, we didn’t buy it. The only thing we ever bought that we didn’t have the money to buy was houses, and we’d always try and have like 20% down payment and pay off mortgages. But really, we never bought anything, I don’t think we bought anything that we couldn’t afford. If we didn’t have the cash, we just didn’t buy it.
Carlie: We saved up for it. We saved up for a new sofa. We saved up for a new car. There’s something really fun about when you take time to save up for something that you really want and then finally you have the money together and you go to the store and buy it, man, that’s like the fruits of your labor. It’s a reward rather than a burden at that point.
Ashley: For me, what happens is I often save the money up and then go to buy it, and then think, “Actually, I don’t really need to buy it anymore.” I’ve done that a number of times. In fact, I did a little challenge, I called it a buy, sale, repeat challenge, and I actually went from something from zero-
Carlie: An empty box.
Ashley: … an empty box.
Carlie: He sold empty boxes.
Ashley: Yeah, I sold an empty box and I’ve documented it as a challenge. I have a course on this. It’s called Buy, Sell, Repeat. But anyway, I did this challenge, and the idea was to buy this new computer which was $2,200. So, I finally did it, it took me, I think it was 15 deals, and it took me some time but I did it. And I went from zero to $2,200 cash from nothing. And then I went to buy the computer with $2,200 cash, and I was like, “I really don’t need a new computer,” so I didn’t buy the new computer.
Carlie: Isn’t that strange? And oftentimes, I mean, it’s funny anyway because there’s many people that would just go into the store and swipe their credit card and get the computer. Right? But often, I think those are impulse purchases, and the fact that you had worked and saved over a period of time, you realized, even though you’d gotten the money, you’d gotten the cash, by the time you’d really thought it through, it wasn’t as exciting a purchase. You didn’t really want it after a while.
Ashley: Why do you think these stores are so… I used to be in sales. Why do you think these stores are so big on credit and get it now, buy it instantly?
Carlie: Impulse purchases.
Ashley: Because of impulse purchasing. We used to call it buyers remorse. A lot of time, people would try and return it, or they would want to back out of the deal because they got buyer’s remorse. If you sleep on it, the next day, just 24 hours later, you’re thinking twice. So, use wisdom when making purchases. My advice would be, if you can help it, only buy what you can afford, only by what you’ve got the cash to buy to spend. And that means sometimes you’re not going to get the nicest car. We’ve had some bad cars, we’ve had some bad houses, we’ve had… Not bad, I shouldn’t say bad, but we’ve had some-
Carlie: But it’s just for a season. Right? You delay gratification, maybe living in a house in an area that you don’t particularly like, it’s not your dream home necessarily, but it’s a roof over your head, being thankful for what you do have, that’s huge, and understanding that it’s not forever, it’s just for a season. And now, we live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, and it’s paid for and it’s not a stress.
Ashley: Amen. Yeah. And we’ve had an opportunity to move up in house, but we chose not to. We’d rather be debt free than move up in house.
Carlie: Amen. Amen.
Ashley: So, anyway.
Carlie: Stewardship is important.
Ashley: Stewardship is huge. Jesus put it this way, he said, “Man’s life does not consist in the possessions that he has.” So, you got to learn, Paul talked about it this way, he said, “I’ve learned, whatever state, to be content.” So, just, like Carlie said, be thankful for what you have and learn to be content. Contentment is a state you can be in, and it’s a state you have to learn because it doesn’t matter how big a house you get, if you get your dream house, if you get your dream cars, if you get all this stuff, it still won’t make you content. So, you have to learn to be content now, and once you learn to be content, it’s going to help you with your spending and it’s going to help you not to overspend and over commit to things. So, that’s the first thing, the way that lack can come upon you, is overspending and basically using God’s provision wrongly and living a too high lifestyle.
The second thing I’ve got here is equally as exciting: laziness. Being lazy. The Bible has a lot to talk about being lazy.
Carlie: Oh my goodness.
Ashley: I’m getting lots of new friends today. So, next time, it’s going to be positive. I promise you, the next show is going to be all positive about how to get out of lack, but this show we’ve got to dig a little bit and find-
Carlie: You got to lay some foundation.
Ashley: Yeah. Find out what’s wrong here. So, laziness. Proverbs 6:10-11 puts it this way, Proverbs chapter six, verses 10 to 11 puts it this way, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.” Wow. Now, we’re not talking about you shouldn’t sleep. It’s healthy to sleep, have a good night’s sleep and everything else. But if you are having excuses for working, if you’re using excuses to put your hands to something and just lazy and not get into things and just procrastinating, then poverty can come upon you. And I like that it says, “Poverty can come on you like a prowler,” so one way it describes it as a prowler, that it sneaks up on you, and the other way it describes it as an armed man. So, like we’ve talked about earlier-
Carlie: Hold you to ransom.
Ashley: … if you’ve been held to ransom, it limits your choices, you’re stuck, you’re in trouble.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: So, laziness.
Carlie: I’m just going back to the prodigal son here because I just love that story. But he was lazy. While he was out living his riotous life, you can bet he wasn’t working. Right? He wasn’t working. And he made some mistakes. But we didn’t finish the end of that story, and I just think… I love the end of the story because we know that he had a heart change. Right? And I think there are people watching that are being convicted. Right? There’s a difference between condemnation. Our heart is not to condemn you, but the Holy Spirit brings conviction. And the difference between those two is when the Holy Spirit brings conviction, he leads you into all truth., he leads you into the way of truth and freedom. Amen? And the story of the prodigal son here, he had that epiphany, he had that moment when he realized, “You know what? I have really messed up. I’ve messed up big time. I’ve been lazy. I’ve been riotous, I’ve been all of these things, but I’m going to go back to my father.”
And if you’ve been convicted by the things that Ashley’s been sharing today, whether it’s laziness or if it’s just poor stewardship or living beyond your means or over-exerting yourself in some way, overspending, you need to understand that if you make that decision in your heart today, that, “Lord, I want to be different. Holy Spirit, help me,” I tell you, God is going to add his super to your natural. Right? God wants you to be free more than you want to be free, but it takes a decision in our heart. And like with the story of the prodigal son, he came back to his father. We can come back to our father.
And if you follow the end of that story through, as he came back to his father, his father was there at the end of the property looking out for him, to welcome him home, and to actually bring restoration to all of the things, all of the mess ups that the son had made, the father restored to him. He put a robe on his shoulders, a ring on his finger, he killed the fattened calf, and he restored him in every area that he’d lost in. So, even if the devil’s been having a field day in your finances and he’s been stealing from you through worry and stress and just tension, and your mind has been on things, consuming your mind, drawing you away from your relationship with God, just because you’ve been distracted by the cares of the world, man, the minute you decide in your heart to come back to your father, he’s just waiting there to bring you restoration.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: I mean, that’s good news, isn’t it?
Ashley: That’s a good word. And really, in context, what we’re talking about here is secondary. Financing and stuff is the least important thing. Relationship with God is always the most important thing. And our relationship with God and how much God loves us, receiving God’s love for us, receiving God’s exceptions for us is infinitely more important. So, as Carlie said, read that story, that’s God the Father looking at you. It doesn’t matter what mistakes we’ve made. We’ve all made so many mistakes. You know what? When we turn to God, when we run back to the father, when we run back to our loving God, he can put things right just like that. Praise God.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Isn’t that neat?
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: So, that’s good news. Amen?
Carlie: That is good news. Do you want to pray for the people?
Ashley: Let me pray. Yeah. Father God, I thank you, Lord, that you are always welcoming us back, Lord. Whatever mistakes we’ve made, however we’re living, you always welcome us. And I thank you, Lord, that whoever’s listening today or watching the show today, Lord, I thank you. You love them, you have good for them, you have good plans for them, and you want them prosperous, Lord, in every area of their life, not just financially but in every area of their life. And I thank you, Lord. We’re looking at this series of attacking lack, Lord, I thank you, Lord, that we will realize knowing you, having a relationship with you will be so much more important, but at the same time, Lord, I thank you that you’ve given us the grace to deal with our finance, you’ve given us the grace to prosper your way so that we can go on and help more people and do more for you. Amen?
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Thank the Lord. That’s awesome. Praise God. Well, thanks for joining us today. We’ll see you next time. And remember, don’t just live a normal life when you can live the abundant life. We’ll see you next time.
Announcer: To order your copy of this teaching, visit our website, Terradezministries.com. Download your free copy of Ashley and Carlie’s teaching notes at our website, Terradezministries.com.
Ashley: Hey, I want to thank the partners of Terradez Ministries. Thank you for your support. You know what? By your financial support, we’re able to go out and touch the world for Jesus. We’re seeing people’s lives turned around. We’ve seen people healed. We’re seeing people set free. We’ve seen people born again. And your gifts are enabling us to do that. So, we want to thank you and thank you on behalf of all the people we’re touching. Praise God. Thank you for your partnership. We appreciate you. We’re praying for you. We know you’re going to increase as you sow seed into this ministry. So, we’re praying for you regularly. Thank you for your partnership. We love you all.
Announcer: Your faithful financial support enables us to produce the Abundant Life program and spread the good news of God’s love around the world. If you have been blessed by this program, we invite you to donate and partner with Terradez Ministries. Visit our website, Terradezministries.com, and become a partner today.