All right, good morning, welcome, welcome, welcome.
One of my favorite days of the week, Wednesday, this is the Prosper Power Hour.
Of course, every Wednesday, as part of the Prosper Leader membership, we have the Prosper
Power Hour.
And I like to say this is the heaven part of the heaven and earth.
I like thinking about business, God kind of gave to me about heaven and earth.
Of course, I think it's all heaven, but there's the heaven, which is what we do today, which
is a new promise every single week.
So we can just be saturated, we can marinate in God's promises.
And then there is the teaching around that, so we can grow.
Then there's prayer, and then there is a practice we can do all week.
So I'm super excited, it's a new theme every single week.
So Lord, I thank you for the time that we were sharing before.
And during prayer, we'll just go over a lot of the prayer requests and the praise reports.
Thank you.
I ask today that you just speak through my mouth, that the words of, that the meditations
of my heart will come through with the words of my mouth and be glorifying to you.
In Jesus name, amen.
So it's February and it's a love month.
So love's been on my mind a lot.
I want to share today around love, I think a little bit different teaching than maybe
you typically hear.
It's a very deep truth that God's been revealing, but let's just start with the promise.
I have two verses for the promise today.
The first one is, love never fails.
Of course, that comes from the love chapter, which is 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
This is verse eight.
If you haven't read the love chapter lately, this is a good time.
Read it every day in February, read it in different translations.
But I just grabbed one sentence from the love chapter.
Just think about that.
Love never fails.
And I think we're going to get to the depth of why that's true, the principle behind that.
And so I'm going to combine it with another verse, which is 1 John 4, 18.
1 John 4, 18.
And that one is really good in the Amplified because it talks about how perfect love, or
another translation is mature love, cast out fear.
Or another translation says mature love kicks fear out the door.
And so whenever we have fear, it says that our love is not mature.
That's an interesting pairing, isn't it?
So wherever fear is coming in, that's the degree that love needs to grow.
Yeah, I just, I love, love, love that combination.
I'm just looking, I have so many different translations of that.
I encourage you to read it in the Amplified, in the Passion translation, the Message.
Just really get some depth of what I think is one of the most beautiful chapters, 1 Corinthians
13, one of the greatest treatises on love, and this idea of the relationship between,
the inverse relationship between love and fear.
Really something to think about.
So one translation.
says well-formed love banishes fear and fear is crippling.
So, you know, as we mature in general, we know that God hasn't promised
ease. There's nothing that says everything's going to be rainbows and unicorns. In fact,
what I've learned is that the trials are the very thing that create this mature love.
So, I wish we all learned when we're in our cozy comfy place, but the truth is we don't learn that
much in our cozy comfy place. Unfortunately, I wish it was that way, but the truth is
it's the challenges that really deepen our faith walk, deepen our love. And so,
he didn't promise ease, but he did promise that love will not fail and God is love.
And so, of course, love won't fail because God is love and God can't fail.
So, when you think about that, isn't it nice to know that we have access to something
that has a zero failure rate? Just think about that for a moment.
So, if fear is present, it doesn't mean something's wrong. It means more love needs to mature.
So, kind of let this settle in. Love doesn't fail because when we're walking in love,
we're walking in alignment with God. We're walking as one with God and alignment with God,
we're walking as one with God and alignment with God, union, co-laboring, co-existing,
being one with the Father always produces fruit.
So, in the middle of Hallmark and, you know, Pink Hearts and all of that, to get to the depth
of the implications, and I meant to look this up, I didn't, but I remember a story that touched me
so much. It's the story of Nikki Cruz. Have any of you followed the story of Nikki Cruz,
the evangelist, Nikki Cruz, and the pastor? Can't think of the pastor's name right now.
We read his biography and my daughter in high school in speech club actually did a duo,
that's two people, living out this story. And so, it's a form of speaking that there's no props,
so everything has to be done with just your voice and your body.
And it's the story of this pastor who came from this cozy small town,
little parsonage, white fence, happy life, small church, and he kept reading the newspaper
about Nikki Cruz, who was in New York, was the most violent of all gang members, probably ever.
And he kept seeing it and God convicted him and he packed up his car and he went to New York
to minister to Nikki, and Nikki was brutal. And this pastor, if any of you think of his name,
tell me, it's not coming to me right now, I should have looked it up, but anyway,
they're both famous evangelists now, end of the story. So, the scene that I remember
that my daughter acted out was when Nikki said to the pastor,
if you come one step closer to, and he had a switch, I think the book might be
Crossing the Switchblade, he had a, he was pretty violent with a knife,
and he said, you come any closer and I'm going to cut you up. And the pastor said,
you can cut me into a million pieces on this street, and every single
peace will cry out from the street that God loves you.
And that day he broke. It's David Wilkerson. Thank you, Dave Wilkerson. Thank you, Natalie.
Yeah, it's been a long time. Yeah, it just kept flashing on me this morning and I haven't thought
about it since my daughter's in high school, so that tells you how long ago. Such a powerful,
powerful story about love in action and love not failing. Nikki went through radical changes and
went on to be one of the biggest evangelists and of course David Wilkerson had a huge church too.
So the promise is love never fails and perfect love casts out fear. That's what I want you
thinking about all week as we meditate on love. And then the principle is I want to go a little
deeper in love. So the first thing is understand that God is the source. This is really important.
I'm going to share with you this waterfall principle that God gave me when he really
explained this to me. And so the very source at the top of the water, what's feeding this
three-pronged waterfall is God. And this is really important because we are not the source of love
and others, no person, no thing, which is what we often go for, looking for love. We hope to get
love from people. If we're women, we hope to get love from a man. And that's a beautiful thing that
reflects God, but the origin of love because God is love. And it in scripture tells us that love,
God has poured love into our heart. And so God is the source. So 1 John 4, 8 says God is love.
And 1 John 4, 19 says we love because he first loved us. So many times we think we have to get
our act together for God to love us. If you've been parented this way, if you grew up in a world
that was performance-based, I was. And so you would receive love when you did what the person wanted
you to do, when you were behaving and being what the person wanted you to be. And that went through
a lot of my life. We take that faulty impression of love and we apply it to God. But scripture says
that God loved us before he first loved us. In fact, it says that while we were yet sinners,
he loved us. And Romans 5, 5, which I love that number, double grace, it says love poured into
our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So you were never meant to generate love through effort.
This is not something that we work. You were designed to be open and receptive to the love
that God has already poured in. And you were designed to overflow. So in Mark 12,
God showed me this waterfall. And so if you can, I didn't pick up the picture to put it here,
but if you can picture this very full kind of Niagara fall type thing, that's three prongs.
It starts at the top and there's a first and a second and then a third. And so at the top is God.
God is primary. God is the source of love. And then in Mark 12, where it says the greatest
commandment is to love God, love our neighbor as we love ourself. And so God is primary.
And because he's poured his love into us when we're open, when we're receptive,
we also love ourselves because we understand that we're God's daughter. We're his beloved.
We're his bride. He's given everything for us and we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so
we don't look on ourselves with contempt. We don't judge ourselves. We don't beat ourselves up.
Instead, we start opening ourselves to that love and then that spills out.
The amount of love that we have in us overflows proportionately.
emotionally into
others.
And so it's interesting
in the scripture in Mark
12, it actually
assumes that we love ourselves. It
says we love our neighbor
as we love ourselves.
There's like this assumption that
we love ourselves.
And so
you know, this
self-hatred, this beating
ourself up, this walking in
judgment, this
over-critical
is not humility
and it's not God.
And
self-abandonment,
where we're so giving to others
that we're just in depleted
mode, that also
blocks the flow because the flow
is coming from the overflow.
And so the second thing
that God showed me, he showed me this
overflow principle, and
then as we're looking at love
and fear and the relationship
between love and fear,
he showed me
two tracks
and it's like
two railroad
tracks almost.
And
so
one is love
and one is fear.
And love
is natural.
Fear is actually learned.
We pick that up
from the people that influenced
us when we're young.
You know, I was talking to someone that
didn't learn how to swim
until they were 50, and they were
very afraid of water.
And that was actually the case
with my ex-husband.
His parents, he did not learn
until, well, he was in his 30s
when we got married, and
his parents would just put the fear
of God in him about water, not
going near water because someone they knew
had drowned. But this is
the way that we actually inherit
and pick up fear.
And so love is natural
and fear is learned,
but what's amazing is love
and fear cannot coexist.
And so the more love
comes in, the more fear goes out.
So instead of
wrestling with the fear,
we increase the love.
We focus on
God's love, and we
focus on being receptive
and open
to love.
And I don't have it in front
of me, but I'm thinking of
something that Rumi said.
And he said
something about the idea
is not to try to get love,
but to remove everything
in us that is
blocking, that is not
love, right?
And so love
and fear cannot coexist
and fear
always reveals
a thought problem.
It's a
thought. It's a problem in our thinking.
This is why we're transformed
by the renewing of our mind.
And so whenever you feel
fear about anything, let that
be a signal.
Ah, right now
my love walk needs to grow.
And just like
open yourself, and
just even start speaking
it. I love you, God.
I open myself to love.
Read scriptures about love.
I know your love has been
poured into my heart. Let your love
completely lead
and guide and direct
all my thoughts, all my
actions. I surrender
to love. And the
more that love rises up,
the more that fear
goes down. Now, for
all of you in business, I want to make this
really practical because this
bridges to life and business.
Fear is
often rising up
and so often we struggle
to charge.
People that have trouble charging,
under charge, give
away everything free.
They are
not loving. They're not loving
the client
because the client,
like anybody, is going
to do best when they invest
and are held accountable. They're going to put in
the best and they're going to grow and they're going to
stretch. And they're not loving
themselves. It's
also fear is tied when
we're not showing up.
We fear that we
look too old or
we look too fat or we look not smart
or we fear the imposter syndrome
and we just, that we're going to mess
up and people are going to think we're stupid, whatever.
And so
this fear shows up
in visibility.
Visibility.
It shows up in constant
waiting. The getting
out.
ready to get ready, to get ready, to get ready. The procrastination, it shows up in our relationships
and keeping relationships, sabotaging relationships. It shows up in our ability
to be open to receive help. So, perfect love doesn't remove responsibility.
It removes this striving, fear, punishment-based living. It replaces it.
So, we're going to take time to pray right now, and then I'm going to give you a practice that
we can use. But before we pray, those of you that weren't here earlier, before it started,
we're also praising. We enter his courts with praise, enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise. So, we're really thankful that Kim's mom is getting funding for a home.
She's been a primary caretaker 24-7 for many years. She's been a saint of a woman, and it
looks like she's getting funding and going to have a home, and Kim's going to have a beautiful new
season. We're celebrating that Christy just got back from a marriage retreat. You saw her handsome
husband, and we're celebrating and we're continuing to pray for Natalie, her grandson,
Bruce IV, having that tongue surgery, just recovery and told that that goes well, and that
Bruce III, her son, gets healing from the sciatica, that the shot that he had, and just that
God's hand will just absolutely flow through his body and remove this pain. And then we're
just praying for Natalie. It's interesting, both her and Kim got the same word about
taking up the mat. And so, just praying for breakthrough. Remember, one of God's names
is Jehovah Bel-Perezin, the God of the breakthrough. So, we're praying for Kim and for
Natalie and for all of us, Jehovah Bel-Perezin. So, in what I shared, is there anything that
jumped out for you that you want to share? As you share, it will deepen and it blesses everyone,
and then we'll go into prayer. Any comments, anything that stood out, anything that
you really related to in what I shared?
Anybody? Anything that, was this helpful? Was this meaningful? Was there something that just
was a good reminder for you? Yeah, it's a really good reminder. The whole
thing, speaking of fear and that love casts out all fear, I think it's a great reminder for us,
for each of us to just really remember to just walk in the fruit of the spirit,
because love conquers all. And just being able, and it really made, I have been transitioning
my relationships with customers, team, friends, and I've noticed that there is a shift,
and people are looking for connection, so gratefully, and not necessarily through social
media, but for picking up the phone and just a care. Really want to hear you. Yes. And I think
that, you know, you have to start out with loving yourself enough to say, you know what,
I'm more than enough. Yes. Right. And that I can, and so I have just really shifted my focus on that,
and I'm having fun, great conversations. Love that. And just renewal. Love that.
Love that. You know, Kim, you just reminded me by speaking up, you guys had probably seen the
emails and things on February 14th at 9 a.m. I'm doing a short, just a micro event, one hour,
55 minutes, and it is a whole different way of doing business. And it's exactly that.
God has been showing me these concentric circles, and it's just really very opposite of what's
being taught out there. And so, yeah, it's about relationship, it's about connecting,
and a beautiful, systematic way to do that. So I'm glad that you shared that.
The other thing that really hit me, Kim, is that, you know, often we try to fight the fear, and that's really a futile effort.
And I think fear is like darkness. You just have to turn on the light, and there is no darkness.
And so love is like that light switch. If there's fear and you turn on the light, there's no place for fear.
The darkness can't hide. Light just completely. And you cannot hide.
Love truly, you know, overrides that.
So thank you. Thank you for sharing. Appreciate that.
Anybody else? Anything that just jumped out?
I like how you share that, you know, instead of focusing on the fear, just really to speak out love, right?
To share your love of the Father. I think also to receive God's love.
Like talking about who we are in Christ and that love that we have in Him.
And to not focus on what we're fearful of, right?
So that doesn't have power over us, but that we can...
So good.
I mean, remember, whatever we focus on expands.
So if we give attention to the fear, you get more fear.
If we give attention to the love, you get more love.
So good. So good. Thank you for sharing that. Love that.
Anybody else? Some takeaways?
I really like this. And I don't know if I shared this with you before.
A gentleman, he's a supervisor.
And he's taken the Corinthians, the love prayer.
And every place where there says love, he puts his name.
Oh, wow.
And he reads it every day as a checklist.
Wow.
For how he shows up. Yeah.
So instead of love is patient, love is kind, Natalie is patient, Natalie is...
Natalie is kind.
Reg is patient. Wow.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Really good.
Yeah, yeah. And so...
And he said that when you do that, you just like...
It can shift kind of like, ooh, okay. You know what I'm saying?
It helps him. For him, it helped him.
And so then what I did is I took it and then I did an exchange out and put my name in all the places where it says love.
Nice.
And when I read that, I just go, some days I just go, all right, Lord, I think I'm thankful for your grace.
Yeah. Yeah.
And that's what really hit me in what you're saying, Natalie, is we can't do this by ourselves.
No, we can't. We can't.
And so, you know, last night I woke up several times.
And each time that I woke up, I've been listening to a YouTube that is on surrender.
And I would play it again.
And I believe so much of this is just surrender.
And so it's God live through me today.
God speak through me today.
God love through me today.
God heal through me today.
Right.
And God create through me today.
Because scripture, this is so missed in the modern church, especially if you look at Jesus's final prayers.
Is that he prayed that we would be one and that we would understand oneness.
That he's in the father and the father's in him and he's in us and we're in him.
And you just look at that.
And if you start living instead of separated, that God is far away and he's some genie in the sky.
But that you ask him to literally like that you have the awareness for him to just live through you as you surrender.
That's the only way that that that prayer with your name in it can actually happen.
There's no strength.
We're going to fall a million times.
You know, and you have to just continuously remind yourself because love is often uncomfortable, frankly.
It gets into our comfort level.
You know, some of you know, I've had a homeless woman, Alicia, living camped on my front yard
since October. And I can get pretty impatient. I don't want her coming in and using my bathroom
or my refrigerator. It's not comfortable. It's not my little cozy home. And then I have to ask,
like we used to say, what would Jesus do? I have to say, what would love do?
What would you want done if you were in that situation, right? So it's only by, like you said,
Natalie, it's only by the grace of God that we can even do this. It's only by the grace of God
we can do any of this. But it's not by striving. It's not by push. It's not by might. It's not
by force, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. It's not something we can muscle up. Oh, today I'm
going to be loving. Yeah, that'll last five minutes. All right, before we run out of time,
let's pray. Anybody go first and I'll wrap it up, okay?
Heavenly Father, we are just so thankful for you, Lord. This message of love today,
Father, is just so powerful, Lord, that
it really settles us into your promises and the lack of failure
and the areas of who you are, your eternal love for us, Father. We just thank you that you love
us right where we are at, in the moment that we are at, and that you carry our burdens,
you carry your grace for us, and that you intercede at all times, Father.
How powerful is your love, Lord? We're so thankful for the reminder, and thank you for Brenda,
for reminding us that we live and love through you and only you. Father, we thank you for these
amazing women that showed up today, that chose to show up to hear this message. It's your message.
It is our life source message, Lord. We thank you for the blessings and the healings
over Bruce, Bruce III and Bruce IV, for all Bruce's, Lord. Amen, Lord. We thank you for the
healings over Natalie. Yes. We thank you for the faithfulness that you have on our long journeys
to supplement us with incredible blessings, hope. I pray for, I thank you for the time that you
had with my mother, and that her new journey, Lord, is going to be excellent through you,
that she will see new things in her years that are left, Father, as I hear you call me to that.
We thank you for Christy and her husband, and that their marriage would just intercede
even greater than ever before, Lord. We thank you for Brenda and her amazing tenacity to prove
over and over and over her compassion for each and every one of us, Lord. We thank you for this
day, Lord, the day that you have made. Lord, let us rejoice. Let love come first, Father.
Let love always come first in each and every one of our hearts, Lord, that we may wage against the
enemy, and that your eternal grace and love upon us will shine through each and every one of us
to impact those so greatly.
Amen.
It's great to have you.
Heavenly Father, I stand in agreement with my sister,
Lord Father God.
Your word says with two or more agreed,
there you are in the midst, Lord Father God.
I stand with her, Lord Father God, in the prayers
that she has uttered before your throne of grace,
Lord Father God.
And I thank you, Lord Father God,
that you are a God that hears our prayers and responds.
Your word says, call unto me,
and I will come, Lord Father God.
And so we have called unto you, Lord Father God.
We continue to thank you, Lord Father God,
for the opportunity and the time to be in your presence,
to delve into your word, to hold on to the promise
and to know that they are real, Lord Father God.
So help us activate these words in our lives
in ways that we may not have thought of it before,
Lord Father God.
Help us understand or help us operate in love,
understanding your love is the greatest of them all,
Lord Father God.
We thank you for your mercy and your grace,
Lord Father God, that helps us each and every day
because without it, we are not perfected,
but we are perfected in you.
So we thank you today, Lord Father God,
as we sit with one another, as we speak with one another,
as we learn from one another, Lord Father God,
we thank you for this opportunity to be,
to sit, to know who you are in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, I just thank you for my sisters.
I thank you for this time.
I treasure this time.
I thank you for your word.
I thank you for your promises.
I thank you for your promise that love never fails.
I thank you for the truth
that you've poured your love into our heart.
We were made by love, created by love,
filled with love.
If God is love, then the Holy Spirit in us is love.
Then the mind of Christ in us is a mind of love.
Every fiber of our being was meant to walk and live
and be in love,
not with striving,
not with criticism or perfectionism,
but surrendered.
And so today, together, we say, Lord,
live through us,
live through us, love through us,
heal through us,
coach through us, speak through us,
write through us, create through us,
show up through us.
We're so grateful, Lord.
We're so grateful that love covers a multitude of sins,
that love heals.
We bless your name, Lord,
and we give you all glory, all honor,
all praise in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, practice for the week.
Practice for the week.
First of all,
notice whenever fear appears.
Just notice it.
Awareness is the first step to transformation.
So when something comes forth,
say, is this love-based or is this fear-based?
Which track am I on?
Which monorail?
This one goes there, this one goes this way.
Another really powerful question is,
if I truly love myself deeply,
would I do this or what would I do?
A lot of times we're taking action
and it's apart from love.
It's based on fear.
Oh, if I don't do it, they're gonna be mad.
If I don't do it, I'm not gonna make money.
If I don't do it, like it's this fear-based thinking.
And so if I truly love God, if I truly love myself,
what would I do?
Or another question you can ask is,
what would love do here?
What would love do in this situation?
So your practice this week is to start having awareness.
Is this?
Is this love, or is this fear? Which track am I on?
And then begin to re-script, write a new script.
I choose to completely love and accept myself.
And I like starting with I choose, then going to I feel, and then going to I am.
A lot of times, people, when they do affirmations, the I am affirmations, they can't get straight to the I am.
They're not feeling it. So they, like, if I just say, I am accepting of myself, your brain goes, no, you're not.
So the way that we can work into this is we say, I choose.
Now we're using our God-given ability to choose. I choose to fully love and accept myself.
Then you can go to I feel, and you tap into that feeling.
What would that feel if I truly loved and accepted myself? What would that feel like?
How would I talk? How would I walk? How would I treat myself?
What would I eat? How would I sleep?
Then you can get to the I am.
And then think about one thing you could do this week to put this into action.
One boundary, one truth spoken, one rest choice, one aligned step.
It doesn't have to be dramatic. It doesn't have to be forced, but true.
Just one.
So as I close, when love leads, fear loses power.
And whatever love builds, lasts.
You might want to write that down. Where love leads, fear loses power.
And what love builds, lasts, endures.
All right, ladies. It's been such a blessing.
We'll see you tomorrow in office hours, 9 a.m.
Have a fabulous love-filled day and love-filled month.
See you soon.