Joshua Keith Craft

0:50 Look at us. Here we are. Three episodes in a row. I think we're back. We're trying our best. I'm trying my best here. Um, hope you guys are doing great. Hope you've had a great week. We're going to we're just going to jump in. We're going to continue what we've been talking about with uh with prosperity. And last last episode, not not just prosperity, but God and money. And I want to unpack as much as possible. We're going to spend a lot of time having this conversation. And I know money is a big deal to you. It's a big deal to me. It's a big deal to God. Last episode we talked about these definitions of prosperity. It's probably a little bit more academic than I want to be. But what's really important is that we understand we start this this journey by understanding really how God defines wealth, how God defines prosperity and making a decision about whether or not we believe that's something that he wants for us. And that decision is really important. And that's what we're going to talk about in this episode. because the decision you make about what God wants for you actually is a really a really big deal because God can want a lot of things for us, but that doesn't mean that we'll get those things. And um there's this interesting dynamic that's at work within our lives and that's what we decide. So, and that's what we think. And so there's a problem with defining prosperity or there's a problem, let me say it this way, looking at God's definitions of prosperity creates a problem because it's really clear that God's definitions of prosperity. His definition his definitions of wealth include tangible wealth like literal on this side of eternity. Yes, spiritual wealth is a part of God's definition. But on this side of eternity in our practical life, God wants us to prosper. He wants us to be wealthy. He wants us to be tangibly wealthy. And we'll talk about the definition of wealth biblically because it's not maybe what you think as we journey through this season. But there's a problem for us. And the problem is not what we think it is. So a lot of people in culture, especially Christian culture or western culture, there's a dynamic that's been created where we we have started to be we've started to think or we've built a culture around this idea that money is evil or in Christian culture in Christianity that God doesn't really want that for us. But when we look at the definitions of prosperity and what God wants for us related to prosperity, it's actually really clear. And if you disagree with the definitions that I shared in the last episode, I really hope that it drives you to prove me wrong. I hope it drives you to study the scripture for yourself. Because if you're anything like me, you'll probably see what I saw.

3:29 And that's how much God talks about wanting us to be successful and win in life on this side of eternity. But the problem, so the problem is not whether or not God wants something for us. The problem is what we've heard. It's what we've thought ourselves. and really ultimately what we've decided then then then what's maybe attached to that that's helped us or aided us in our decision so to speak I don't know if it's really been helpful but we've seen a lot of bad examples we've seen bad examples of people using money wrong we've seen examples of people being criminals people being crooks even people in the church using the church as a money-making methodology as a way to make money people operating unethically uh and we've also seen people at the same time. And this is the tension that we're like navigating with prosperity.

4:23 We've seen people that we feel like really have a relationship with God. And obviously God loves everybody and he's for everybody. We've seen those people not really prosper. And so it's hard for us to reconcile the idea for a lot of reasons. It's hard for us to reconcile the idea that God wants to prosper us. God wants us to be successful and see people that love God, who have a relationship with God, not be maybe materially or financially or emotionally or mentally successful, not be successful, let's say, outside of a spiritual success. But then it's also hard for us to live in that the tension between that and seeing wicked people or people that don't serve God or people that are just not good people have prosperity. But for God, and this is something that I want to explore really in this episode, for God, prosperity is not a complicated idea. What makes prosperity complicated for us, what makes wealth complicated for us is what everyone else, including us, says and thinks about it. And Jesus ran into the same kind of problem. In in Mark chapter 7, there's this exchange between him and the Pharisees where they're having a conversation and the Pharisees had noticed that Jesus disciples did not wash their hands before they ate. And the Bible says that they went to Jesus and they said that he had violated the traditions of the elders. Now, it wasn't a sin biblically to not wash your hands before you ate. It was just a tradition that had been upheld. But the Pharisees kind of made this tantamount or equal to in some way dishonoring God because they didn't follow the traditions of the elders. It's not a law that's written down that displeases God. It's just an idea that some people had. And so in Mark 7, Jesus interacts with the Pharisees and and he says they they say to him, "Your disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate as as they were required by these ancient traditions."

6:22 And he they asked him why they don't do that, why they don't follow this ceremonial dynamic of washing their hands before they ate. And Jesus goes on to say this. He says, "You," he replied, Mark, Mark Mark 7:6, Jesus replied, "You hypocrites." Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God." Now, he quotes he's quoting the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 29:13 in the Greek version of the of the Old Testament, but I want to read to you the Isaiah 29:13 itself. Here's what here's what Isaiah said. He said, "And so the Lord says, "These people say they're mine. They they honor me with their lips. Their hearts, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote ." Their worship of me is not about worshiping me. It's just about following a bunch of rules. Jesus goes on in Mark chapter 7 to jump back there. Jesus goes on to Mark chapter 7 and he he adds this to what Isaiah says. He says in verse 8, you ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition.

7:38 And then he goes on to talk about how the Bible says or or the Old Testament said Moses's law, the Torah says, "Honor your father and mother." And anyone who speaks disrespectfully of their father or mother must be put to death. But you say, but he's talking to the Pharisees. He says, "You guys say it's okay for people to say to their parents, they can't they can't help them to disregard their parents." And then in verse 13, this is very interesting to me that Jesus would say this. And a lot of people I think don't see this in scripture and they don't even see this in themselves. And this is what I want to spend this episode talking about. Mark 7 verse 13. You can read it yourself. Jesus says, "And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition." And this is only one example among many others. So that's a really powerful statement that God makes. So God has and and you've heard me talk about this before on this podcast. I I believe that all truth is an extension of God's word.

8:45 God's word that scripture is the foundation of all truth. All truth claims are measured by the word of God. All truth finds its reflection. All all all reflections of truth that we see in society are a reflection of a truth that's written in scripture. But here's what God says himself. Jesus says, he says the word of God, truth, let's say it that way, truth is canceled out. Truth doesn't work in your life because you hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many older many others. So the Pharisees, one of the things you have to understand if you don't understand who the Pharisees were, the Pharisees were traditionalists. They didn't just believe in following God's law. They believed that the traditions of the elders. So all of these things that people had created had uh that they had passed down as good things to do were also a part of being a part of God's requirements for us. This wasn't this wasn't just a problem in Jesus's day.

9:46 This is a problem for us today. So, for instance, let me go go back to what we're talking about on this podcast. There's ideas that you and I have about money. There's ideas that you and I have about prosperity that don't come from scripture, but they come from other people. But because we believe these ideas, we see more evidence of those ideas in our life than we see evidence of what God actually says. So, notice that the problem is not what God says. The problem is not what's written in scripture. The problem in our life is not the truth. The problem is the traditions or let's say the ideas that people have about the truth. The interpretations that we have of truth. The traditions that we hand down based on truth. Verse eight, I think of Mark 7 is something that you should hold on to and remember because Jesus says, "You ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition."

10:47 So why is this why does why does God say all of this? Because there's this question that you and I ultimately have to answer in our life. And this is maybe one of the most important questions you and I can ever answer, especially if we claim to follow God. And that's what's more important. Is what God says more important or what you believe about what God says more more important. So is what is what God says more important or is what you believe about what God says more important? Now that's a really important distinction for us to make because we always have interpretations of everything. See there's truth and then there's our interpretations of truth. If you scroll Instagram, scroll TikTok, look at social media, watch YouTube, watch videos, every thought process and perspective that you're going to hear, including mine, is an interpretation of truth. It's not the actual truth. It's the interpretation of truth. One of the things I like to say is, "Hay always tastes better before it goes through the donkey." What that means is is you can read the word for yourself or you can hear it from me, but reading reading God's word for yourself or understanding truth for yourself will be better for you than just hearing it through other people all the time. And that's really important. That's a really important distinction for us to make because Jesus himself is saying that we limit God working in our lives because of how we decide to think about what God says. So there's the truth of scripture, there's the truth of universal law, there's the truth of prosperity, there's the truth of wealth, there's the truth of health, whatever it is. But then there's also what you believe about it and there's what you think about it and there's the decisions that you make regarding what you believe to be true. And that either allows God's word to work in your life or it actually Jesus says this himself, it prevents God's word from working in your life. And this is in Christian circles. If you grew up in church or you've been around church a long time, one of the one of the kind of basic ideas that we have is there's nothing more powerful than God's word. There's nothing more powerful than the Bible.

12:52 That's to me not actually true because there is something more powerful than what God says. There is something more powerful than the Bible. And God has established it this way. The thing that's more powerful than the Bible is what you think. It's what I think. So think about it this way. God has his definitions of prosperity. So God the there's 2,300 verses in scripture about prosperity. There's definitions in the Old Testament. There's definitions in the New New Testament. And God's definitions of prosperity are really clear. They're about material and spiritual prosperity. Prosperity now, prosperity in eternity. But here's the thing. If we don't agree with God's definitions of prosperity, our prosperity is limited. Not because God's limited, but because we limit God by our own thinking. We limit God from working in our life because of how we think. And this is, I think, a dynamic that exists in all kinds of different ways in our life. Like when you think about there's there's a there's a lot of people in Christianity, a lot of people in the church, they don't believe in miracles.

13:59 They don't believe miracles can happen. They don't believe that people can be healed. and they don't see miracles take place because literally this is the phenomenon that Jesus is describing that what you're going to see in your life is based on your belief. It's not based on what's true. It's not based on what's possible. It's not based on what could happen. It's based on what you believe could happen. So in in the context of what we're talking about with prosperity, if I don't agree with God's definitions, my prosperity will be limited. If I don't if I don't agree that God wants me to be wealthy and successful and happy and whole and healthy and all of that on this side of eternity, then that's exactly what my experience is going to be regardless of what God's word says. If I don't think God wants me to prosper emotionally, if I don't think God wants me to prosper physically and be healthy physically, if I don't think God wants me to be wealthy, well, that's not going to happen for me. Not because God's word doesn't say it, but because I don't believe it, and therefore I won't live according to that. This tradition, this is this is this the problem of prosperity. Let me say it this way. The problem of prosperity for so many people is the negative thinking that we've inherited about it as tradition. There are so many people, there's more people than not that have a poverty mentality than a prosperity mentality. They don't live with this mentality of abundance.

15:21 They don't think there's enough to go around. They're scared. They hoard. They don't manage their resources well. They're bad stewards. And we're going to talk about all that in the context of this podcast. But that's the traditions that have been handed down to us. And so we are actually following the traditions of our elders in that sense. We've inherited these beliefs and these approaches to money, to our emotions, to our mental health. You know, there's there's friends that I have. I I don't have this this story. This isn't my personal experience, but there's friends that I have that they grew up in a home where what their parents taught them was that rich people were evil. And so they have this visceral reaction to anybody who seems rich that that person must not be a good person. That's not true. But what makes it true in that person's life is what they believe. Every thought process that we have and every belief that we have either unlimits us or it limits us. These beliefs are the things that prevent us from living the life God created us for.

16:24 The problem is not how God thinks. The problem is not what the Bible teaches. The problem is how you think. The problem is how I think. And how I think interferes with God's plan for my life. God actually gives me that that much power and agency that what I believe and what I think can actually prevent the will of God from happening in my life. And that's what Jesus is really trying to make clear to the Pharisees and clear to us. So ask yourself this question as you get to and may maybe you're not able to answer this question right now, but as we kind of take this journey on this podcast or or let's go back to prosperity. You you can listen to the previous episode episode two of this season and you can see what God's thinking is about what prosperity is.

17:17 And I want you to ask yourself this question. How much of your thinking aligns? How much of your thinking about money? How much of your thinking about prosperity aligns with what God's thinking is that you can read really clearly in scripture? You can read all the verses that I pointed out. You can go read multiple different verses. You can look it up. So, I've found that a lot of people can't properly answer this question because most of their thinking about prosperity or specifically money is based on someone else's perspective. It's based on their own feelings. It's based on some tradition that they interacted with or taught not just in church but in the context of culture or you know one of the other million reasons why 94% of Christians don't have a biblical worldview. So verse seven is also worth noticing and I want to and I'm just I'm walking you through this because it's really important. It's really important that that we learn to see this as we take this journey and that we kind of break off these biases that we have and these false beliefs that we have because verse 7 of Mark 7 says that they he's talking about the Pharisees teach man-made ideas as commands from God. So there's there's two there's two let's say abilities that you and I have. We can experience information and we can interpret information. So we experience information. Our life is just this constant process of taking in information, processing sight, sound, meaning, purpose, feelings, all of these different things. We're taking all of that in. And then the second that that's the that's the first kind of um ability that we have. The second kind of ability that we have is the ability to interpret that which is the ability to decide what that what that means. The problem in our life in every aspect of our life is not what we experience. So people think and Ryan Holiday talks about this in his book the obstacle is a way is there's objective events. So life events are going to happen. There are things that are going to happen to us. But then about every life event we make what's called a subjective judgment. So something happens and you can think about this in your own life. Something happens and then you decide whether or not it's good or bad.

19:39 And the problem is not in the experience. The problem is what we decide that the experience that the experience means. So the problem is not in the experience but in the interpretation. Let me say it differently than interpretation. The problem is not in what we experience, it's in what we think what we experience means. So a problem always arises that's attached to that. So the problem is what we think something means and it's okay like things mean different things and and and our meaning changes throughout the course of our life and what an event meant when you know if you got broken up with by your high school boyfriend or girlfriend that meant something when you were 15 or 16 it means something different probably now hopefully as a mature adult you're not uh currently being traumatized by what happened when you were 15 years old that someone just hurt your feelings or or whatever in in that in that context the problem doesn't arise in in in the meaning even that we give things the problem arises when we elevate our interpretation to the level of truth. So there's a problem that happens in our life when we take in information.

20:50 Well, there's multiple problems. We take in information that's not the problem. We decide what it means. That's that's kind of a problem. When we decide what it means in a bad way or in a negative way, we realize the real problem. And that's elevating our interpretation or what we think something means to the level of truth. There's nothing wrong with ideas. There's nothing wrong with thinking there. There's nothing wrong with beliefs. Ideas are great. Interpretation, we we can't help as human beings but interpret events and things that happen to us. Interpretation is how the human mind makes sense of the world. But we also have to be aware and willing to admit that our human interpretation is often wrong and needs to change. Now, this is true if you go back to high school and think about the person that broke up with you or hurt your feelings.

21:46 That meant something then based on your level of maturity, based on what you understood, based on what you thought about life. But it probably if you've matured or grown up, uh, it probably means something different today than it meant back then. And that's a really good thing. It's a really good thing that you've grown, it's a really good thing that you've matured. There's probably some things that have happened in your past that you thought the sky was falling. Maybe you got fired from a job. Maybe something something very difficult happened to you and now you have the benefit of hindsight and you've learned a lot of things since then. And so now that's not the most traumatic event in your life. and and may maybe there are events that are really traumatic that have happened in your past that you you still hold on to. Now, there's there's what those things mean and there's there's the there's what we there's what those things mean, which is our interpretation, and then there's our interpretation that rises to the level of truth. So, even if something really really just deeply traumatic happened to you, there's there's people that I've known throughout my life that something traumatic happens to them and they decide what it means and that becomes a truth for them. So they go through a divorce, they go through a really hard time, their spouse cheats on them, they get cancer, someone they love dies a not great death, that something happens to their children, and they make they they interpret that a certain way that's really not great as it relates to what they believe about truth. So people go through hard times, they go through difficult times, they go through adversity, they're they're traumatized at a young age, let's say, and then they decide that because that happened to them, God's not real. God doesn't have a plan for my life or or or everything's everything's meaningless and I'm a nihilist now or I'm or I'm an atheist because if God is real, he wouldn't have let that happen to me. Now, that's an interpretation there. There interpretations are hard and complex.

23:36 I'm not going to sit here and say that that's not hard to navigate. It's hard to navigate. I don't have a simplistic view of the world that says that God only does things that I think are good. And that's a lot to kind of unpack, but God is a good God. And I believe he only does good things. But the thing I also have to admit is that God's definition of good and my definition of good are different things. See, I I don't necessarily personally see adversity as a good thing. I I don't see suffering as a good thing. I don't enjoy that. I don't think that that's what God would want for me. But in a lot of ways, adversity is development. You know, Einstein said, "Adversity introduces a person to themselves." Seneca said you should regard all training as uh you should regard all adversity as a training exercise. Scripture is filled with this idea of God being a refining fire that burns away the dross. The book of Hebrews talks about how the discipline of the Lord is not enjoyable for a certain period of time. So, if I have this simplistic view of God that says God only does things in my life that I think are good, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through something that I think is bad and say, "God, that wasn't supposed to happen because you're a good God." Now, God is still a good God. The problem is not whether or not God is good. The problem is what I believe good is and whether or not God fits into the context of my definition, which is again back to our interpretations. And when we take our interpretations and we raise them to the level of truth, this is the problem that gets created. Now interpretation again is how we make sense of the world. But we have to be really careful about the meaning that we give to things. We have to be really careful about how we interpret things. And this is about money. It's about prosperity. But it's also about everything else. Do you believe that God is a good God? Well, what is his definition of good? That's a really interesting question to ask. And when you go through something hard or something challenging or something difficult or something traumatic, it can make you not it it doesn't mean that God's a bad God, but if you hold on to your interpretation that's not the best interpretation, that's not in alignment with truth, you're going to create a lot of your own personal problems. Now, that's a really hard thing to navigate. But one of the truth, one of the truths that I've discovered in my own life, which I feel like is a universal law, and this is where I want to wrap up all that. I know you're probably thinking about this stuff, like I'm sitting here thinking about it as I'm talking.

26:10 One of the truths that I've discovered in my own life is that the more I pursue God, the more my interpretation of my experiences needs to change. So Jesus gives us this really deep actually philosophical challenge about our beliefs. He shows us that it's not it's not truth that affects us. It's not objective reality that really affects us. It's what we believe about objective reality. It's what we believe about truth. It's not the events in your life that disturb you. Epictetus talked about this. It's not events that disturb us. It's our opinions about events. So, it's not what you experience that messes you up. And and I know this is crazy. Like, if you're hearing this maybe for the first time, you're probably sitting there going, "I don't know how that could could be true." It's 100% true because there's an event and what you believe the event means.

27:05 So, when we go through and and and I use the high school example as a reason. Let's talk about the high school breakup. When you're 15 and you go through the high school breakup, it's maybe the worst thing that's ever happened to you. But then at 30, the high school breakup might have been the thing that was the catalyst towards development or greatness or now it doesn't even matter anymore because now you have the benefit of hindsight. You know, when you're in high school and you're a teenager and you go to school, you think your only world is the four walls of the school you're in every day. You think the only friends you're going to have are the people that you see every day when you're at school. I don't have one friend from high school who I talk to, have their number, know where they're at, know what they're doing. I graduated from high school over 21 years ago, and there's there's so many people that have come into my life. The world's a really big place, and I'm not limited by the proximity of people that I'm friends with anymore. Well, there was a time in my life where that was true. I have the benefit now of 21 years of hindsight where I've realized that the only people in the world aren't the people I went to high school with. So, I've gained this perspective that when I when I look back at my life, I interpret my experiences a little bit differently based on my level of maturity. That's true now. It's also going to continue to be true. And so many people, right, we we've heard this this is almost cliche at or it is cliche at this point. You know, if you if you go back and relive your life over again, would you do anything different? And most people say no, I wouldn't do anything different because the life that I live is the life that I've lived has gotten me to where I'm at today. And we always see that dynamic that happens in our life. Søren Kierkegaard talked about that. He said life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward. So when we understand this dynamic, we understand the importance of the interpretations or the meaning that we give to things and how meaning how the meaning of an event or the interpretation of something that happens to us or the interpretation of something that we learn or something that that we believe actually changes over time as we grow. So the problem is not the truth. The problem is not the experience. The problem is not objective reality. The problem is what we believe about it. So back to the Pharisees, the Pharisees believe that their responsibility was to interpret God's laws for everyone. So they were they were the educated they were educated.

29:33 They were they were academic experts. They studied the law of God. They studied the Torah. They studied all of these different Jewish texts in depth. The problem was not with the study, though. The problem arose when they decided that their ideas were God's ideas. And this is what happens. This is a phenomenon I've seen that happens throughout, you know, with in in any context where people are really pursuing truth. It's very interesting. You start we start this journey and we're very curious and we want to know and we don't know anything. And then this dynamic begins to happen as we learn more. And you see this especially in the world of academia. As we learn more and as we grow, our beliefs actually become more static. When we're younger, we're really open to whatever it is that's true and whatever it is that we like and whatever it is that we're interested in. And then as we get older, we just kind of land the plane and go, "Well, this is just what I believe in. This is just this is just what I think. And this must be because I'm so static in this belief system.

30:38 this must also be what God's ideas and this must also be what God wants. And you see this in all kinds of religious environments, but you see this in any kind of institutionalized environment. You see this in academia, right? You see this in medicine. You see this in uh things that have been around for a long time where people go, well, this is established belief and this is established truth and this is the established way of doing it. Those are just the traditions of the elders. So, the problem is not whether or not we have interpretations. It's how much we hold on to those versus how much we seek truth. In other in other words, the problem is not your ideas. Well, the problem is not God's ideas. The problem is not even necessarily your ideas. The problem is elevating your ideas or your interpretations or my ideas or my interpretations to the level of truth. And that's also the problem with you know modern day Pharisees. So that we have walking around today in the world, we have philosophical descendants of ancient Pharisees. They're the kind of people who are going to tell us that we can't use instruments in worship, dancing, or secular music or demonic.

31:46 The the the King James translation was the only version of the Bible that Jesus ever used, and that's that's that's what he said. Um, women can't wear makeup. You can't wear a hat in church. I grew up in a tradition that said that the only true prayer is if you if you pray in tongues. Uh you know, I've had people around me in my life that have said I should only address God as Adonai. And I didn't make up any of these examples. All these examples are real things that I've personally experienced in my life. And these are all things that I've personally been told. So are these things good ideas? I mean, sure, they're good ideas. I mean, I guess if you don't want to wear makeup, don't wear makeup. If you think that it's disrespectful to God to to wear a hat in church, don't wear a hat in church. If you think not using instruments is is some kind of weird thing, that's that's fine. There's, you know, there's there's all kinds of reasons why people practice what they practice depending on their context.

32:41 There's nothing wrong with that. But are those things commands from God is is my question. No, they're not commands from God. So, we have to be able to clearly tell the difference between God's commands and human human ideas or the thinking of God and our thinking or the or the man-made interpretations and the commands of God. We have to be able to tell the difference between what we believe about money, what we believe about prosperity, what we believe about life, and what God believes about life. Or we can be Pharisees and we can get mad when other people don't wash their hands before they eat because they violated our traditions. So Jesus says, he tells us that our beliefs are so important that they can prevent the truth of God's word from being true in our lives. And what's interesting about the way that we are as human beings is that we tend to find confirmation for our beliefs everywhere that we look. And there's a this is a logical fallacy called conf confirmation bias. So confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms what we already believe. So if you you see this phenomenon when you drive a green car, if you drive green cars, you notice green cars more often.

33:56 If uh you you think that people are if you think that people are mean and evil and trying to take advantage of you advantage of you, you'll probably notice that more often. Some people are the kind of people who will show up to pray for someone in the hospital and they'll pray for God's will. That's what they'll they'll they won't pray for healing. They'll pray for God's will. And I and I've found in my own life that when people pray God's will, they don't often believe the person's going to be healed. So God's will is praying God's will is just a lot of times a spiritual way of deflecting a lack of belief. So when a so because the question is when you pray God's will in a situation, what do you believe God's will is? I is God's will to heal somebody? Is God's will not to heal somebody? Does God even care? So people show up and they're like, "Well, let's just pray God's will over this situation." Well, God's will is written in scripture. God's will is that a person's going to be healed. They could be healed in eternity. They could be healed right now. What do you believe about that? Our belief is so important.

34:59 God gives us all of this space to add our belief. and we overspiritualize and we have a lack of belief. And so we think that if we're not prosperous, if we're not successful, if we're not wealthy, that just might not be what God wants for us. So we're like, "Well, God, I just, you know, I'm not winning in life. I'm not successful. I'm not happy. I'm not healthy." And maybe this is just your will for me. That's not God's will for us. That's what we believe God's will for us. Because what we believe God's will for us is or for other people is will determine how we pray. And it'll determine how we act. And ultimately, you know, in the context of something like healing or or prosperity or anything else, it's it's up to God to determine whether he wants to heal an individual. But if I'm in the hospital, do not come pray God's will for me. Unless you're praying that God's will for me is to be healed completely. So so many people, we we have these limitations and we spiritualize our limitations and then we overspiritual.

35:58 We we think we spiritualize our limitations and then we limit God and we think it's more spiritual for us to be that way. And this is the point that Jesus is making in Mark chapter 7. And this is the point I want to make even on this podcast. It is not more spiritual and we'll explore this. It's not more spiritual to be in poverty. It's it's poverty is proof of a limiting belief system. It's not that that's what God's will for you is. It's not more spiritual to be unhealthy. It's not more spiritual to be emotionally damaged. It's it's not more spiritual to lack meaning and purpose. That is not more spiritual. That's a limitation that's based on how you and I have decided to think and how we've decided to approach life. It's not just about money. It's about life. What you believe, what I believe is more important than what God's word says. And God has given us the power to either cancel or confirm the word of God in our own life through our thinking. So scripture teaches us clearly that God's will is to prosper us in every way.

37:05 And if I decide not to agree with God's definition of prosperity, I'm going to be limited by my belief. I'm not limited by God's will. I'm limited by my belief. The problem of prosperity is not whether God wants it for you. It's whether you want it for you. It's not whether God wants me to prosper. It's not whether God wants me to be healthy. It's not whether God wants me to win. It's whether you want you to win. It's whether I want me It's challenging to think that this is really the issue because God is, you know, because the question for me is, isn't God unlimited? I mean, God's absolutely unlimited. He's unlimited, but we're not unlimited. And God seems to allow himself to be limited by the limited thinking that we choose to have. This is back to what we talked about in the first episode of this season. God's ways are higher than our ways and God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And so is the Isaiah 55. So as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways, and God's thoughts higher than our ways and our thoughts. So God is always trying to do what? He's always trying to remove my limitations. My life, what I have in my life right now is based on what I think my limitations are. God is unlimited.

38:23 He's trying to and I'm limited. God is unlimited. I'm limited. The number one limitation I have on my life is what I think. And if God can get me to think more like him, if God can get me to think better about my life, I will have a more unlimited life. It's just the dynamic of God God pulling me out of what's normal and what's possible and what's human and getting me into an impossible life. Romans 12:2 explains it this way. It's one of my favorite verses in in scripture. I've probably probably quoted it a hundred times on this podcast. Romans 12:2, the Bible says, "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world. Don't be conformed to the way that the world does things, but allow God to transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So, here's the thing. We live in a culture that is limited.

39:19 The Bible literally tells us, do not be conformed to limitations in culture. And that includes Christian culture. Don't allow your thinking on what God can do in your life to be limited by what your culture says, what your church says, what your pastor says, what this person says, what your family member says, or what you even think about your own life, what you even think is possible. Don't allow that limitation to take place. But here's the thing, the only thing that can unlock your thinking, the only thing that can make you unlimited is interacting with God's thinking. Allow God to transform you into a new person. Allow God to break off your limitations by changing the way that you think. And then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. That's such a challenging thought process for us to encounter and interact with. But this is the place God ultimately wants wants to get us to.

40:12 Because if we're going to talk about prosperity, if we're going to talk about living the life that God created us to live, then what we have to do is realize that the number one limitation we have on our life is what we decide to think. In Mark chapter 6, this is not the only time, by the way, that Jesus talked about this limitation. In Mark chapter 6, Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth and he teaches in the synagogue and people, the Bible says people were amazed at his wisdom. And then and then something happened. They remembered that he was Mary's son and he was just a carpenter. To quote the Bible in Mark chapter 6 5 and six, you can read this read this thought process. It says, "And because of their unbelief," Mark chapter 6 verse verse 6, "Because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And God was amazed. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. Jesus, the Bible doesn't say Jesus won't do miracles. That's not what it says. It says he couldn't do miracles because of the unbelief of the people in his hometown. They limited Jesus because of how they saw Jesus. You and I limit God because of how we see God. We limit God's word in our life. We limit, this is to me the number one problem with prosperity is we limit God with our thinking. We don't think that God wants to us to be rich and so we're not going to be rich. We don't think God wants us to be successful so God's not going to give us success. We think we don't think that God cares or wants us to be healthy and so we're not going to be we're not going to be healthy. The problem is not that God won't do it. It's that God can't do it as long as we keep believing in the limitations that we keep believe believing in. And in fact Jesus himself in the Bible was amazed at the unbelief.

42:06 I think God is amazed when we don't believe in the greatness that he has for us. He's amazed when we don't believe in our potential. He's amazed when we don't believe that that the that we can be successful or we can be prosperous or we can meet the right people at the right time in the right places in the right things can happen for us. And and there there there's a story I want to give you a contrast because this is the limiting factor in our life. But there's the contrast to this story of a different way we can approach God. And that's in the book of Matthew in Matthew chapter 8. And in that story, a centurion approaches Jesus to heal his servant. So Jesus says, "I'm going to come to your house." But the centurion believe centurion believes they have so much faith in Jesus that he says to Jesus, the centurion says to Jesus, "All you need to do is say the word and my servant will be healed." And in Matthew 8, the Bible says, 'When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly I tell you that no one that with no one in Israel have I found such faith. So Jesus is amazed at two things.

43:13 He's amazed at our unbelief and he's amazed at our belief. And we get to decide which one we have. So we get the choice to amaze God. Will God be amazed at our faith? Will God be amazed at our unlimited perspective on life? Will God be amazed because we go, God, I just God, yes, I want your will, but I believe your will is for me to be the richest person on the planet. I believe your will is for me to be the most emotionally healthy person I know. I believe your will for me is to me for me to be completely healed. I believe your will is for me to win no matter what in my life. I is God going to be amazed at that at that level of belief or is God going to be amazed at our unbelief at our limitations at all the things that we come back to him and say God I can't do this and I can't have this and this is not for me and I don't believe in that and I don't and I don't want that and I don't think that's going to happen maybe we want it but we don't think it's going to happen and the the problem is not what God says it's what we believe it's always what we believe because what we believe will determine what we do with God with what God says is.

44:14 So if the heavens are higher than the earth and God's ways and God's thoughts are higher than our ways and our thoughts, God is always trying to call us up into this unlimited metaphysical spiritual way of living where we believe and therefore live as if anything is possible. We become fully transcendent. And I don't mean that as like a spiritual some kind of spiritual reality that's new age. I mean that from the perspective of we transcend our limitations in our life by by believing beyond what our limitations are and then we live an unlimited life. So what's the answer to the question? Does God wants us to does God want us to be rich? God absolutely and unequivocally wants us to be rich in every way imaginable. I'm not just talking about finances. I'm talking about life.

45:06 But the problem of our lack of prosperity is not God's desire for us. It's not what God wants for us. It's our thinking. And if we don't believe what God says, we're not going to have what he wants us to have. And it's really that simple. So, I want to invite you and invite myself. I mean, I'm a part of this. I'm a part of this journey, too. And it's it's always a thing that we're I'm navigating. I think we navigate this our whole life. I want to invite you into suspending your disbelief. allow yourself to consider and even believe that God really desires for you to win in every area of life. He not just wants it for you, but he's got a plan for that to happen in your life. And and there's a plan, but there's also a part that you play in your own success. And and we're going to talk about that. But right now, I want to invite you to take this first step to just believe that it's possible. Believe that prosperity is possible for you. I don't I don't know your context. I don't know the million reasons that you have that prevent you from that that put you in a position where you feel like maybe you're you're limited, but just ask yourself something simple in the context of this. What if God wants me to win?

46:14 What if God wants me to be rich? What if God wants me to prosper? What if what if God wants me to be a a massive success that's beyond what I can ask, think, or imagine? We're going to spend a lot of time working through the implications of this idea. And answering this question invites us to ask a bunch more questions that we're going to talk about on this podcast. Like, wasn't Jesus poor? We're going to we're going to start talking about that next episode. What about where the Bible says that bless that people are blessed when they're poor? Uh, isn't it hard the Bible says for a rich man to get into heaven? Um, I I thought that wealth was bad and rich people were evil. And then then we're going to talk about what it means to be rich and what's the purpose of wealth and how do we partner with God to produce wealth in our life and but but but I want us to land the plane on this first question of does God want me to be rich with an absolute yes. And the only caveat to that answer is answering the question do you believe God wants you to be rich? He says yes 100%. But do you believe that? In next episode, we're going to look at the life of Jesus.

47:21 Thank you for being a part of The Dialog . If you liked it, make sure you subscribe and send it to a friend who you think might like it. If you'd like to know more about me, what I do, what I talk about, you can follow me on Instagram @joshuakcraft or go to my website, jkc.is.