All right, and for those of you that are watching this later after the fact, I'm recording this
part for you.
We had some time to gather together in small groups, and now is the time that I love to
just share some downloads and things that God has given me for inspiration and growth.
We're going to do that over the next few minutes, but I'm going to start with prayer,
and then, of course, we'll come back again to community time.
Father, I give so much thanks for this day that you chose to give us life today,
that our heart is beating, our lungs are breathing, and most of all, that your spirit lives in us.
Father, may we be more and more and more conscious that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit,
that we have the mind of Christ, that you've anointed us, you've appointed us, you've equipped
us, you've poured love into our heart, you've given us power, you've given us authority.
Lord, may we realize, like Jesus prayed in his last prayers, to be aware that we are
one, as Jesus prayed, that he is in us, we are in him, he is in the Father.
May we become more and more and more connected, Father, aware of our oneness with you and
with each other.
During this short time, I ask that you speak through my mouth, Father God, think through
my mind, and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart bring glory and
honor to you, I ask in Jesus' name, amen and amen.
All right, let me share the screen and let me go on over to what we're going to be talking
about here tonight.
So let me come back over here.
There we go.
All right, so this is a continuation of the conversation that we've been having as we
wrap up 2022 and we get ready to step into 2023.
I've been talking about powerful habits of releasing, that we can let go of those things
that no longer serve us, and receiving.
And so we've done a lot talking about that, ideas and ways that we can start fresh.
I shared with you the different ways.
So if you missed that, go back and listen to those.
I also put some in the newsletter on Sunday.
And so things we can do in our environment, things we can do in our internal environment.
And so today is a continuation of that process of evaluation.
And I often think about, oh, now I forgot her name, the organizational, you guys could
maybe put it in the chat.
What is her name that is really good at organizing?
The Japanese woman.
Anyway, she has something that I've never forgotten.
And that is, she takes like, for example, she pulls all of the clothes out of scattered
all over the house.
So like all the similar items, like all the coats from all the closets and spare bedrooms
or whatever, she puts them all on the bed.
And then with each one, taking those up and holding them and feeling like, does this really
give me bliss?
Does it spark joy?
Do I love this?
Or we could ask, does it serve a purpose?
And so the continuation of that kind of thought of sorting and sifting and decluttering is
to look on the other side of it.
So we've been covering a lot of the releasing, right?
Do I need to release clutter in my mind, clutter in my environment?
Where do I need to create space for that which I desire?
And now I want to come on the other side of that as we prepare to go into the new year.
And that is to examine what we're creating, what we are building.
And so I put a title there that you see, Masterpiece or Mediocrity.
So let that sink in for a second.
Masterpiece or Mediocrity.
You see, scripture tells us to, in 1 Thessalonians 5.
521, it tells us to examine everything.
And that's what we've really been doing.
We've been examining everything.
Is this fear-based?
Is this love-based?
Does this serve me?
Or is this just clutter?
Is this light?
Or is this heavy?
Is this sparking joy?
Or we're just in this place of sifting and sorting,
which is really the highest level of awareness
and conscious, you know?
So many times, we're not even thinking.
We're just going through the motions, right?
And so scripture tells us, examine everything
and hold fast to that which is good.
And so the idea is that every day, every action,
as we're co-creators with God, we're
either living and creating masterpieces.
And maybe you don't think of what
you're doing as a masterpiece.
I'm going to define that in a minute.
But we're either creating masterpieces of greatness,
or we're settling into comfortable, the known,
the familiar mediocrity.
And so this is an opportunity to step back for a second.
And like scripture says, let's examine everything.
So Colossians 3.23 in the Passion Translation
says, put your heart and soul into every activity
that you do as though you're doing it for the Lord himself
and not merely for others.
Now, if you go back, if any of you've ever
read Practicing the Presence with Brother Lawrence,
a Catholic priest, I think it's like the 1400s,
going way, way, way back.
And he was doing the menial things assigned to him,
like doing the dishes or cooking or preparing
the food that felt menial, right?
And practicing every single moment,
doing every single thing with God, like partnering with God.
And I think that's what this verse is really
talking about.
So often in our life, we have lost that sense of mindfulness,
and we've been very mindless.
We are often in just habit and autopilot, right?
And so our mind is out of control.
It's not being directed.
We lose sight of the presence of God.
We're not in this idea of communion and working together.
And so this verse is saying, hey, let's be mindful.
Let's put our heart.
Let's put our soul, which is our mind, will, and emotions
into every activity.
There's nothing meaningless that we're doing.
And as if we're just doing it like the Lord himself
is right there, because he is.
And everything we're doing is for him.
And so it gets us thinking that idea.
Romans 10, 11 says, each one's work
will be clearly shown for what it is.
Fire will test the quality and character and worth
of each person's work.
Now, as a coach, I get concerned here
for you perfectionists who are so afraid of doing it wrong,
so bound up in fear that then you go, yeah, that's why.
I haven't worked on my book for the last 10 years.
That's why I'm not releasing my courses,
because it's not ready.
That's not what I'm talking about.
So it's not perfectionism here, but what
the Bible calls perfect love.
Now, this is a big difference.
You see, perfectionism is based on the ego.
It's all about what other people are going to think.
And am I going to be wrong?
And am I good enough?
And so it's ego.
It's fear-based.
That's not what we're talking about here.
Perfect love, 1 John 4, 18 says, perfect love casts out fear.
So when we're in love, when we're operating in love,
when love is motivating us, there's
no room for all of that stuff, because it's love-based.
And remember, there's only two tracks.
Every single thing, every word, every thought, every action
is either fear-based or love-based.
There's nothing else.
There's fear-based or love-based.
And so everything that is lasting and lovely and beautiful
and worthy of praise, as mentioned in Philippians,
is based on love.
And this is the very essence.
If you were going to boil down those of us that are Christ
followers or Christianity, what is Christianity?
What does it mean to be a Christian?
Christ follower. And ultimately, it's about love. It's about love. And you know, John 1335 says
this very specifically, we'll be known by our love. It says that God is love. It says that he's
poured love into our hearts. And so really, only love is real. Everything else is a miscreation
and a misuse, right? It's the opposite of love. Although love doesn't have any opposites, because
if God is love, and God is omnipotent, omnipresent, you know, all sufficient,
then that means love truly is truth. It's all there is. But here's a new way of looking at
this. Maybe a fresh approach as you gear up and you're creating content, and you're coaching,
and you're creating programs, and you're showing up, and you're speaking, and you're serving,
you're ministering, whatever it is that you're doing. Here is a fascinating concept, okay?
Love is given to be re-given. You see, so his love has been poured in our hearts
so that we can pour out love to those who come, so they can pour out love, right? And so
Christ came to demonstrate this love so that we could know this love, so we could demonstrate
this love. And so there's always this idea of giving in order to re-give, in order to re-give.
Same with inspiration. We inspire so that they'll be elevated and inspired to be able to give of
their finest and then inspire. So as you begin to think about the way that God has set up the body
and life, this love is given to be re-given. So I have been reading a really powerful book by
Walter and Lau Russell. And so this is written like in the early 1900s. And when you look at
Walter's premise, it was this very thing of consciously, knowingly partnering with God
in every single thing. And as he did that, he created masterpieces in many, many, many fields.
So he made his first living in music, although he had never had music lessons. And he became
a very accomplished musician and teacher. He then became a very accomplished sculptor.
He did some of the finest sculptures in that era of Mark Twain and all of his characters of
Einstein. He really did amazing. He was commissioned to do a lot of amazing sculptures.
He went into architecture after that and created and designed amazing buildings and
millions and millions of dollars back then in those. And then he went into science and miraculous
breakthroughs around hydrogen. And so, I mean, he tamed stallions. He became an ice skater,
a award winning top in his class ice skater at like 60. And he simply kept applying this principle.
So I want to read this to you as a way of kind of letting this settle in and you can read it with me.
He says, the nature of God is to give out his love for re-giving. The nature of the master
must be, and that's us creating masterpieces. The nature of the master must be to give out love,
to inspire others, to re-give love. Masterliness in anything is the fruit of love.
And it goes on to say that the soul alone cannot give out love. The body can render a perfect
technical reproduction. So you could memorize scales on a piano, or you could memorize how to
paint certain lines or whatever. But if the love nature of God is not in it, it's not art. For the
art of anything is not in the skill of rendering a visible or audible thing, but in the beauty
and love, which only the stillness of the light of your soul can give to it.
is the difference between the genius of the master and
soulless mediocrity that really just sent like shivers I had to
just pause there at those two words soulless mediocrity like
in what ways have we just cranked out something or done
something that we know we settled done something that we
know, we didn't consult with God, we weren't operating from
the Spirit, we weren't operating from love. And he goes on to
say that is why your constant communion with God is necessary
for every moment of life and every stage of your creation. He
talks about working knowingly with God. Like I said, Brother
Lawrence practicing the presence or Paul talks about praying
without ceasing. It's this constant awareness that we're
not doing things in our own strength. But as Scripture says
we're co laboring with God. We're co heirs, we're co
laborers, we're co workers, right? There's so many co's in
the Bible. So I made a little chart right there. Just what we
just saw masterpiece versus mediocrity. So a masterpiece is
very presence driven. You feel God's presence, you're inviting
God's presence, you're saying God paint through me, God coach
through me, God, right through me, God, speak through me, God
teach through me, whereas mediocrity is very ego driven. I
need to create this, I need to pay the bills this month, I you
know, I need to be liked, I need to be credible, I need people to
respect what I'm doing, you know, so the masterpiece is love
based, right? It's based on giving love to be re given,
whereas mediocrity is fear based. And so the masterpiece
is coming out of your being you're creating from a place of
abundance that if Christ indeed is living in me, and I have the
mind of Christ, then I have living in me all sufficiency, I
lack nothing. This is cover to cover in the Bible, the cattle
on 1000 hills, the gold, like everything belongs, you know,
like, like the Father said, you know, to the brother of the
prodigal son, everything that is mine is yours. It's a father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom, God so loved that he
gave his son, right. And so, so we're not coming from a place of
lack, we're not coming from a place of despair or
hopelessness. But instead, we're moving from being into doing
from a place of abundance. Wow, if I have Christ working with
me, and I have access to all knowledge, all wisdom, all
creativity, I have a direct line, a direct connection to
God, what can I create, as opposed to mediocrity, which is
driven from a place of doing this, I just need to get I just
need to do I just need more, I just, and it's this place of
striving and and stress. And so he goes on, Walter goes on to
say, that is why your constant communion with God is necessary
for every moment of life. And every stage of your creation,
God must sit with you on your piano stool or workbench, your
hands must be his hands, your thinking must be his thinking,
love must be interwoven in every stitch of whatever pattern
you're weaving, every word that you are writing for all of you
that are writing curriculum and courses and books, think about
this, every word being united with God filled infused with the
Spirit of God, coming from a place of love and abundance, and
every interchange between yourself and your fellow men,
when you inspire others, you are manifesting the love nature of
God and the fulfillment of his law by giving love. You cannot
re inspire others. However, if you leave God out of your
technical rendition, that is why meditation is necessarily
continuous. Like I said, Paul said, pray.
without ceasing. So a little bit of a biblical foundation of this idea of co-laboring, of
partnering with God, of creating with God. So we're removing those things that maybe we gathered
around us that really aren't serving us. They represent an old season, they were built in fear,
they represent clutter, they're keeping us from our purpose, they're not the highest version,
right? And so we're looking at things and we're asking questions like, you know, am I settling?
Another amazing question to ask is, and you can ask this about anything, if I really loved myself,
would I say that or do that or create that or show up that way? If I really loved myself,
would I show up that way? Would I speak that way? Would I dress that way? If I really loved myself,
if I really loved whoever, the next person right here, my spouse, my child, my client,
if I really loved my client, would I? And so you ask these questions to just run it through the
love filter, right? You can also say, if I was really successful, would I show up like this?
Would I act like this? Would I think like this? Would I read this? Would I speak this? Would I
watch this? It's a way of running everything through this filter so that as you build,
you're not just rebuilding what you've already done. You know, you've heard it said that we don't
live 70 years. We often live the same year 70 times. So if we're not doing this deliberately,
prayerfully, consciously, then we're coming from a place of memory because that's all that our
brain is. If we're not meditating, we're not getting fresh revelation, we're not in conscious
co-laboring, then instead we're operating out of memory, out of the known, out of the familiar.
And so everything you see around you is simply a reflection of your thoughts and your beliefs
and your attitudes in the previous season. So if you want something different, you want a
different financial situation, a different relationship, a different business, a different
ministry, a different body, we can't just keep reprogramming the old stuff because the old stuff
got you what you've got right now. So we're needing to be, you know, renewing our mind.
We're needing to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And so, you know, scripture clearly
teaches us we're called to be fruitful and we can't bear fruit apart from him. And yet, if
we're really honest, how often do we stress and strive and attempt to create in our own strength?
And so I put some verses here about that for you to really take time and meditate. Read this slowly,
write it out, pray into it, this idea of remain in me and I will remain in you. Just this idea,
I'm hidden in Christ, Christ lives in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory. I'm hidden in Christ,
right? It's this, I'm in you, you're in me, Jesus's last prayer, right? And just like a branch can't
bear fruit all by itself, if you take a branch and you pull it off the vine, you got it just sitting
there, it's dead wood, right? It's meant to be chopped up, put in the fire. Same thing for us,
when we're disconnected, when we're operating on our own strength, we're going to burn out,
we're going to not create masterpieces. And so this says, neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me. And so he really makes it very clear, I'm the vine, you're the branches,
the one who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit. Apart from me, that is cut off from vital
union with me, you can do nothing. So if anyone does not remain in me, he's thrown out,
it's a broken off branch, it dies, it's lifeless, it's useless, it's no longer fruitful.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, that is if we're vitally, I love that word,
vitality, vitally, you want vitality in your body, vitality in your mind, vitality in your work. If
you're vitally united and my message lives in your heart, well now we can ask whatever we wish
and it'll be done. And the father is glorified by this and you bear a lot of fruit. And so Jesus
modeled that, he said, the son can't do anything.
of himself. So if Jesus couldn't do it of himself, who do we think we are, right?
Paul did the same thing. Here's Walter Russell again. Never start your day's
work by yourself alone. Do you just get a running start and you just jump in and
you're not prayed up, prepped up? You're not just filled with the Spirit. You're
not filled with inspiration. You're not filled with love. You're just going
through the motions. It says never start the day's work by yourself alone. Be sure
you feel God's presence within you. Continuous meditation means continuous
God-awareness and that continuity of awareness is
forever leading you higher and, by the way, insulating your body from physical
ills because physical ills is the body out of balance because we're not in
union. So that awareness and that alone leads us to masterliness of
achievement, peace, prosperity, happiness, and the love of all mankind which is
forever enduring. And so we've seen in Scripture that everything has a heavenly
pattern and an earthly pattern. We saw that many times in Scripture. You get the
download of the heavenly pattern. We're called to bring heaven to earth. So I've
placed some ideas for you. I encourage you in the season to do some reflection.
Really treat this thing seriously. Where have you been striving?
Where have you been stressing? Where are you burning out? Where have you been
trying to sustain yourself, provide for yourself, create or build in your own
strength? Have an honest look at that and invite the Holy Spirit, invite
the Father, invite the Son to co-labor with you. Take a look at what
you're doing on a daily basis. How much of this is love-based and how much is
fear-based? How much are you doing out of abundance and how much are you doing
out of a fear of lack? And begin to... None of this matters if you
don't apply it, right? And so once you've thought about that, what are you going
to do differently so that this is not a repetition of last year? How are you
going to apply this truth? What's going to change in your schedule? How about in
your habits? What habits do you need to create to better partner with God,
consciously co-create with God, right? So these are a little bit of, you know, food
for thought for you and I pray that this goes along with what we've been
talking about, about clearing the clutter and that we begin, that we really... My
prayer for Prosper Women is that we really live this. We spur each other
on to greatness, to see in each other that we're wonderfully, fearfully,
masterfully made and we build each other up, we edify each other, we hold
each other accountable for that, we pray for each other, we encourage, we
support. This is the vision I believe God has shown me for this season for us
and so this is a time to really examine ourselves and to set some new
standards where maybe, you know how it works, you press up against a
threshold, right? So your comfort zone has like a fence, an imaginary, you know,
barbed wire fence, right? And so, you know, that which is familiar and you're
comfortable is all cool but you decide you're going to break out of that, you're
going to really show up, let God show out, you're going to do something different
and you're going to press up against a threshold and that threshold is going to
show up differently based on your experience in your character. You may say
I'm just overwhelmed, that might be your threshold, I'm overwhelmed, I can't do
this and you just like go back, right? So we have these different
thresholds, I'm confused, I'm, you know, so we must prayerfully and carefully
press through this, partnering with God, uniting with each other so that we can
be, you know, like the verse, right? Expand my territory. We can have that
same kind of prayer of expand my territory that God is ever expanding and
I believe he's calling us to be ever expanding and I believe he's calling our
businesses to be ever expanding and our, our creativity to be
ever expanding and our finances. This is the nature of God. I
mean, even the whole universe that's been around for how long
is still expanding. We don't know the ends of the universe.
This is the nature of God. And he's calling us to be ever
expanding. And so this, this happens, when we are awake, when
we start being conscious, when we start being mindful, when we
start operating in a place of awareness, right? And, and this,
this union with God and with each other, is where the power
lies. I mean, I just get in such awe of what I believe God's
going to do in each one of your lives, as we truly link arms and
carry each other. We pray each other, we encourage each other,
we challenge each other, we inspire each other to, to cross
the finish line. So it's this concept of I inspire you to love
and create inspiration and others to inspire others. And so
you've got this ever expansion of God's kingdom, bringing
heaven on earth, of God's love, within and, and without. So
we're going to have some community time, I'm going to
stop the recording. And for those of you who are live, we're
going to have some community