Thriver Series Week 1 Day 2

Welcome Thrivers to Day 2 of week 1…

Today, I want to focus your attention on Manifesting. For some, manifestation is akin to notions like “The law of attraction” or some other new-aged theory for attracting wealth or material things into our life. That’s not what I’m referring to. I want to take the time to examine a more powerful and biblical meaning of manifestation that will transform your life from the inside out.

Years ago, my mentor said to me, “If you make joy, happiness and peace dependent on the things, external things, you will never have real joy, happiness and peace.” In other words, manifesting is about aligning our expectations with internal truth that agrees with the wisdom of our position. Let me explain…

Suppose you’re in an intimate relationship with someone who believes that a healthy adult relationship is for getting things, and based on whatever their dysfunctional upbringing, toxic training or traumatic experience was, they associate getting things with what they deserve — based on what they didn’t get as a child or what they were taught as a child. Now, this mentality is rooted in a deeply held, often unconscious, toxic belief that manifests itself in ways that undermine the foundation of love. To manifest a healthy relationship, there has to first be a foundation built, based on truth, that can hold the weight of love.

The foundation that can support the weight of love is not built with emotional deficits, dysfunctional emotions and toxic beliefs. The foundation that holds the weight of love consists of four things: selflessness, sacrifice, dependability and loyalty. These are actions, not words. To weight of love represents the realities that love must bear — adulting, household responsibilities, illness, setbacks, spiritual attacks, seasons of lack, seasons of struggle, children, financial struggles, priorities and valleys.

Now, let’s say your partner is an emotional “kid-ult” who believes that the benefits of love don’t come with the responsibilities of building a foundation that holds the weigh of love. In effect, they believe in the benefits of love but not the foundation that holds the weight of love. And while you have a hope and a prayer that they will change, they have a hope and a prayer that things stay the same — love without works.

Now, how do you manifest a healthy relationship without truth? The truth is, a healthy relationship is built on a foundation of selflessness, sacrifice, dependability and loyalty. Intimacy, vulnerability, trust and safety are the result of behavior that builds a foundation that supports the weight of love, not entitlement or dysfunctional beliefs or toxic emotions. If your position is based on truth, God’s word — faith and love without words is dead, then what will you manifest if the internal truth of both partners does not align with external expectations of a healthy relationship? Nothing, except disappointment. Why? Because manifestation is based on a position that aligns internal truth with God’s word and wisdom to produce an external reality or result that we desire. You cannot produce covenant benefits without covenant responsibilities, and you cannot build a covenant relationship on a foundation that does not support the weight of love. Those who have tried and waited for a manifestation of change, despite external change not aligning with internal truth, know this to be true. Change or manifestation has to align with internal truth — our divine position.

Let’s say you’re in the midst of a life struggle, walking out your healing journey, starting over again in life, or you’re pursuing your vision for life. Now, let’s imagine for a minute that you’re being challenged, attacked and overwhelmed, and you’re praying to God for the manifestation of whatever it is that you want or need for your victory. We’ve all been there, right?

If you’ve lived long enough, you have experienced attack, distress, difficulties and challenges. In those situations, if you’re like most, you’re praying for manifestation of an external thing to relieve you of the internal stress, fear, hurt. But here’s the truth, the manifestation of the external thing is the result of our internal truth being in alignment with God’s truth. In other words, the bible put’s it this way: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). What does this tell us about manifestation? There is a condition. Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words [truth] abide in you,” which means external manifestation is based on our internal truth aligning with God’s truth.

Sometimes, what we are praying for externally, is already answered. But to manifest it, we have to first align our internal truth, faith and behavior with what we desire.

Walk with me for minute through the bible for an illustration of what I’m talking about. How many of you have heard, or been told, that God parted the Red Sea? This version of what happened, like many biblical fables, undermine the thriver in you and the key to manifestation. When the children of Israel were freed from Egypt, they found themselves at the edge of the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his army in hot pursuit. Doesn’t this scenario sound familiar? No sooner than we think life is good or everything seems to be going good, the enemy is tests what we believe with conditions that test our position — our internal truth.

As Pharaoh’s army approached, the children of Israel feared for their life. Why? Because they believed, contrary to the truth, that the God who freed them Egypt couldn’t save them from Pharaoh and his army. Listen to what they said to Moses: “Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:12). Does this sound familiar to you? When our position is based in fear rather than truth, we cannot manifest boldness and confidence.

Remember what Jesus said? “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” The bible tells us: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). Think about that. If we allow manifestation to mean what we’re waiting on as opposed to what we’re abiding in, truth, our conditions can overwhelm us with feelings of hopelessness and defeat in the face of our struggles.

Listen to what God told Moses after he prayed on behalf of the children of Israel’s distress: “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:15-16). Did you hear what God said? Did God part the Red Sea or did God tell Moses to use what he already had, truth and faith, to do what God gave him power to do?

This my friends is how divine manifestation works for the thriver. Thriving, as we said in our previous study, is our position not our condition. As a thriver, your confidence and assurance comes from knowing that in every situation and circumstance, you have what you need on the inside to manifest God’s will and plan — on the outside. Manifestation on the outside, whether in life, relationship or healing, is a result of our position being aligned with the truth — “If you abide in me and my word abide in you…”

To put this into practice, I want us to examine the truth we’re abiding in, our position, in relationship to what we’re expecting or desiring to be manifested in our life. What truth are you abiding in to manifest a healthy relationship, what truth are you abiding in to manifest a breakthrough in your healing, what truth are you abiding in to manifest peace that surpasses all understanding, what truth are you abiding in to manifest the courage and the power you need to do what God said you could do, what truth are you abiding in to manifest victory over the enemy or to overcome a challenge?

Let’s look at what this looks like in our everyday lives in this weeks thriver challenge.

Patrick