Financial Coaching (eBook)

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Faith Cometh by Hearing

As it pertains to financial coaching, I think about things that just make sense. I think about how they say “faith cometh by hearing.” The scripture says, “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). That says to me, if I continue to hear something that may be negative long enough, it may really begin to affect me in a negative way. That’s why who you hang around is so important. So if you constantly hear how tough things are, how things are always hard and how everybody is struggling, it’s going to have a negative effect on what you believe, because it says, “faith cometh by hearing.”

Faith cometh. You could begin to develop faith in a negative way as it pertains to finances, if you’re constantly hearing how hard it is, “It’s tough, everybody’s struggling…” But the flip side is, if I’m in an environment where I’m hearing positive things about finances, and I’m seeing prosperity close up and in person, and I’m hearing principles about increase, all of that will impact my faith. It awakens my faith to cause me to begin to develop faith for increase and prosperity!

Understand that when it comes to finances, it may sound weird, but money has a spirit. I won’t go into that right now, but let me just say that when you have confidence, as it pertains to finances, money will be attracted to you. If you feel like, “Money is over my head. I can’t reach it. I’m not on this level. This is not for me,” then you can’t dominate in that arena. You have to believe that you belong here in order for you to really be able to function in the area of finances.

For example, if somebody invited you somewhere and you felt like you were out of place, you may be shy. You would say, “I don’t know if I can mingle or cope with the people here because I feel like I don’t belong.” But when you know you belong, you go in there with confidence, and with your head up. You’re not intimidated because you know you belong there. Similarly, there are certain arenas, even as it pertains to prosperity, where people can almost be shy about it. They think, “I don’t know if I can ever go here. I don’t feel like I belong here.” If you don’t begin to anticipate going to a place, you will never go there.

Another example of this is a football game. The players may practice five days, but only play once a week. Let me say that again, they practice five days and only play once. So, we have to think about this when we talk about “faith cometh by hearing”. What we continue to hear, what we continue to practice, it affects what we believe. You can meditate on how you believe your future should be financially. If you meditate on the fact that your future is dull, that it’s hard, if you say, “Oh, my God, it’s going to be tough,” then you are already dreaming that your future is going to be hard financially. You have faith for a hard future, financially. You are contemplating that. You believe it. That’s faith. That’s why it manifests in your life.

However, somebody can be sitting there, they may not have much in the bank, but they’re dreaming big. They are dreaming, “I believe this is going to happen.” They continue to hear of good things. They are like, “Yes, my circumstances are going to change.” They haven’t done anything yet. They’re just thinking about it and because they are thinking about it, they are developing faith. “I’m coming out. I need to do this step, that step, that step. But I’m sure it can happen and it’s going to happen for me.” That person is on their way because they believe it’s going to happen. A lot of things occur based on what we believe. One person is sitting there, believing, “It’s tough, it’s hard. I don’t know. Nobody in my family ever had it. I heard the news report. They said a recession is coming.” They have faith for that. That’s why they are always going to be down.

Around 2012, in the middle of a recession, the church I pastor, Mt. Gilead Full Gospel International Ministries got out of debt. My spiritual father, Apostle Leroy Thompson, Sr. taught us, “Yes, a recession is coming, but we’re not going to participate.” So we made up our minds that we were not going to participate. In the midst of that, instead of our church going down, we got out of debt. $1.6 million in three months and one week came in to pay the church off. We made up our minds, before the recession came, that we were not participating. “We know it’s coming, but it won’t pull us down. We’re going to be on top of it.” So we prepared. Training for reigning. We trained to win. We prepared ourselves to be successful and that’s what we did!

Then, we faced COVID-19. People knew all about COVID. You couldn’t go to work, couldn’t go out of the house, all kinds of different things going on. But instead of us losing, we trained our people to succeed. So, we had members get new homes. We paid off our own personal home during the pandemic, even before our pastoral anniversary. I remember for the anniversary, the congregation wanted to have a parade of cars to bring gifts. We couldn’t gather all those people in the building, so we did the parade. People were fired up saying, “We’re going to pay Bishop’s house off.” I said, “It’s too late, it’s already paid for!”

Prosperity principles work no matter what! It doesn’t matter what’s going on or what’s taking place, God is bound by His Word. The Word works! I saw God do all of these things, but I prepared my spirit for increase, for more, for success, to dominate and that’s why it happened. The circumstances in society didn’t change, but I was ready and prepared to deal with it. That is my mindset and what I believe. You have to believe. Things don’t just happen. It’s what you believe will happen. If you believe it, you will attract what you believe will happen. I prepared myself to be successful. So when it was time for me to be successful, I was because I rehearsed it. Like those football players I talked about before, they rehearse and rehearse, practice and practice, then play a game. They practice some more then play a game. Notice you practice more than you play. If you don’t practice right, you’re not going to play right. After you’ve done it so long, it almost becomes second nature.

You don’t have to try to think about it. You just do it. It’s game time now. I just do what I’ve rehearsed and practiced to do, now it just comes out of me. It’s easy because I’ve rehearsed it. I have it straight in my mind. I’m determined I’m going to produce. I’m going to go forward because I train myself that way. Then, when game day comes, it looks like “This guy’s a superstar. All this stuff is coming against him but it doesn’t seem like it’s affecting him.” That’s because I trained myself to win. I sat down. I already saw all the stuff that would come against me and what would try to dismantle where I’m trying to go. Then, I determined, I’ve won so many times before that it’s easy for me to believe I can win today because I already did it. I’ve already rehearsed it. I’ve already seen it. I didn’t dream it and lay down. I got up and did it. Some people dream with their eyes closed. I dream with my eyes wide open, so I’m able to go forward. People ask, “How do you do this?” I sit down, I meditate, I get it in me. I know. I’m expecting certain things to be a certain way and it lines up every time, but I rehearsed it. A lot of people can’t deal with when something goes wrong or is negative, but when it has become a part of you, you know it can’t stop you. You just know that you’re going to be successful.

We’ve learned from Apostle Thompson, Money Cometh. Then we also learned that The Money Just Keeps on Coming. We have learned that. It’s kind of hard to explain, but once you get into a flow, it doesn’t stop. I often say it like this. “It just gets gooder and gooder!” It just keeps coming and keeps coming.

I remember when we were paying our home off and I shared this at the dining room table. “It’s basically done.” My kids looked, and they said, “It’s done?” Daniel was there, David, and the rest of my family. Daniel called a few of his friends and they were like, “I have to get in on it.” He said, “So and so wants to get in on it. Can they get in on it?” I said, “Oh, yeah, we still have a little bit of room where we can get it in.” They came that day with some money. I think my family was fascinated to know that it’s already here right now, it’s done. It’s not going to take two more months. It’s done right now. They were even shocked. To be honest, as I went through it, stuff just happened so fast it’s like a cumulative effect where it starts happening and you just don’t...