Episode 17 – Lasting Prosperity Part 1

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts, Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast with Kimberly Faith and John Mack. We’re so glad that you joined us for the first podcast of 2025. And, dad, are you excited?

John McLarty: Oh, my. It’s hard to believe it’s 2025. But, yes, I am excited.

Kimberly Faith: Do you remember Y2K when we all thought the world was gonna end? Exactly. Well, I mean, we didn’t necessarily think the world was gonna end, but everybody was freaked out about the computer crashes and everything. And here we are 25 years later.

John McLarty: Yeah. There’s definitely a lot of changes in store in 2025

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. At many levels. Absolutely. And I think that this, that this choice that we we’ve been guided by God’s spirit to make to start off in a year about biblical prosperity is, such a good way to start, at least it has been for me studying this.

John McLarty: Absolutely. So New Year’s New Year’s resolutions, titles, thoughts, ponderings.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Because if you think about it, all the New Year’s resolutions that we’ve ever made have something to do with a degree of prosperity in our life, whether that’s a facet of prosperity that involves our health or our wealth or our family or, you know, whatever, because prosperity just means making something, having something more. A

John McLarty: lot of more that way.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. That’s the norm. So so we’re gonna talk about the mother of all prosperities. Right?

I mean, or the father. Mhmm. That’s kind of a word. We’re doing some The

John McLarty: fountainhead.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. The fountainhead of all of all prosperity. So that I think the the first question, you know, I like to do when I’m in in the practice of law anyways, we ask what is prosperity according to God’s word. We talk about what it’s not first. What do you

John McLarty: think about that? Exactly.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So what what what do you think, if you were to tell somebody what it’s not, what what do you think you’d start with?

John McLarty: Well, I would say most people think of prosperity as financial success, material success, having everything you need and more, and saving up for having no needs in terms of your physical well-being and your goal.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And what what it’s what’s interesting to me I think you’re a 100% right

John McLarty: because we have you know, we hear a lot

Kimberly Faith: about the prosperity gospel, right, and people who equate, being having a lot of of worldly goods with being a spiritually intact Christian or a spiritually prosperous Christian, But if that were the standard, all we need to do is look to the life of Jesus to know that’s not the standard because by all all means, he was he was the most successful person that ever walked upon the face of the earth, but he died with nothing

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: In a popper’s grave, in a borrowed grave

John McLarty: True.

Kimberly Faith: Not a popper’s grave, but a a borrowed grave, and he died I mean, he was penniless. He was convicted criminal, you know, by the world’s standards, but yet he purchased the richest gift by his death than any of us, ever have owned.

John McLarty: Right. And the apostle Paul, he wrote so much of the new testament Right. Ended up just in destitute, imprisonment, house imprisonment, needing, you know, needing help

Kimberly Faith: Needing help. Yeah.

John McLarty: From material.

Kimberly Faith: It kinda goes back to the first beatitude, being poor in spirit. Right. This attitude of being completely dependent upon God. So we’re gonna I think to to dig into this today, you know, we need to first understand that physical prosperity, wealth, even health, really, is not, indicative of spiritual prosperity because we see too many Christians who, I think of Joni Tata Erickson. You know, she was she was she was, drove off.

She was 19, drove off a, you know, cliff into the ocean or the lake.

John McLarty: It was a swimming pool. Oh, it was

Kimberly Faith: a swimming pool? Oh, I totally got the story wrong. And and she’s had this ministry that she would have never had.

John McLarty: Became a quadriplegic.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. And, she probably would have never had that ministry if she if that hadn’t happened. So I think the enemy’s definition of prosperity has, infiltrated our Christian culture, and I think it’s important. Good.

Yeah. I think it’s important that we, you know and this is why I I was motivated to study this because I I have a lot of friends who kind of equate that. They they may look at me and say, oh, you’re a lawyer. You have all this money or you have this and this. I’m like, no.

None of it belongs to me. That’s the attitude I wanna have. Not let my possessions possess me because that’s not indicative of prosperity. So, what do you think is a a good indication when you when you talk to somebody, what is a good indication of of where you think they think prosperity lies?

John McLarty: When I talked to, just a normal person Yeah. The worldly definition, just Right. Just, you know, material well-being and security.

Kimberly Faith: Isn’t it isn’t it kinda what you love?

John McLarty: It’s what you love. Yeah. And it’s what you focus your life around.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Which we just say it pretty pretty bluntly, money. Yeah. You know, which provides all these other things. Right. Things.

Right. Supplies. You know, I didn’t remember as back in our back to the land lifestyle. Actually prosperity for us wasn’t money per se, but if you can recall back to your teepee days, we were surrounded by food. We had £50 of beans, £50 of rice, £50 of lentils.

Right. And I consider that prosperity. Prosperity. We had what we needed. Right.

Shelter and feed ourselves. So Simplified version of the same thing.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and we’re kind of talking about the difference between physical prosperity and spiritual prosperity, which, you know, we’ve are always emphasizing the design of man. We have body, soul, and the spirit, and instead of focusing on the the physical part of us, what this kind of this podcast has kinda taken us to the spirit man, our soul and spirit, and producing or having a life of spiritual prosperity because that’s the only thing that’s gonna last forever. And that’s what I really enjoyed about doing this study was that we’re gonna look at the benefits of spiritual prosperity in order to get God’s perspective, the perspective he’s trying to get a give us in the his word so that to encourage people to have that focus because it’s our physical our flesh is so loud, you know? It’s so needy.

Right. It’s so demanding that we tend to focus on.

John McLarty: A a life changing perspective. Yes. So I just thought of a a lead off verse here. It’s the apostle Paul, and it’s very interesting. It’s in, Philippians, 4:11.

A lot of people know this verse. And, Paul says, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. For everything, I am instructed to be full and and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need, but I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. That’s interesting because Paul realized that in what the world would consider lack or prosperity, he can be content.

But if we’re in a, we have wealth, not wealth, but we have our needs met. Right. Remember being

Kimberly Faith: some struggles? Yeah.

John McLarty: Americans have their own set of struggles. Right. And it’s like we’re not, you know, out just scraping for our next meal every day, most of us. Right. Some are.

Kimberly Faith: But you’re you’re scraping to pay that mortgage you can’t really afford, you know, or whatever the next thing you’ve been driven by or to possess. And the the incredible thing about spiritual prosperity, since we’re kinda dividing this into 2 categories, is physical prosperity leaves you always needing more. Spiritual prosper and you lose it when you die. Right? Spiritual prosperity satisfies your deepest need of your your soul man, which is your who you really are, and feeds your spirit because you’re going it’s it’s like God is feeding you, so you’re being fed directly from God.

And it also gives you eternal rewards, and it takes care of the physical because you’re like you that verse you read, Paul said, to be content with what whatsoever state you’re in. He was sold out for Christ, and he thrived on spiritual prosperity, spiritually being fed and feeding others, which is the hallmark, really. You’re building eternal treasures. Right? You’re not building physical treasures.

He was building eternal treasures, but he was enjoying those eternal treasures on this earth.

John McLarty: He could literally be in a jail cell singing praises to the Lord.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Which I think is a great misnomer, I think, for myself. I mean, for years, I didn’t surrender my life to Christ for life. I had surrendered him to for salvation, but not for life because I thought I was gonna get I was gonna miss

John McLarty: out.

Kimberly Faith: I was gonna be cheated out of something because if I serve the Lord, he may make me be a missionary or whatever. And I and that’s a lie the enemy had sucked me into, and I really didn’t believe the words of Jesus where he taught us exactly how to be spiritual spiritually prosperous when in, Matthew 6, he said, don’t lay up treasures for yourself on earth because that’s where moth and rust destroys and thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven where moth and rust don’t destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. And then he says these words that are so I hate to use the word magical, but they’re they’re so transformational if you really believe them. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And for years, my treasure, my heart was on attaining physical wealth manifestations of physical wealth, physical health, prosperity for having a a healthy family, all these things.

And, sure, they’re great, but there is never enough. Whereas now, the lord has shifted to discipleship and and evangelism and teaching and and, you know, sharing the gospel. And along the lines, Jesus is saying he’s saying, hey. You know what? I I can and he, of course, he has he has also provided the physical stuff.

I’ll give you an example. When the Lord challenged me about 6 years ago, maybe it’s been 5 or 6 years ago now, to not take any more divorce practice in my law practice, which was 75% of my income, I fought against that for probably 2 years. I found other ways around it. Like, I hired another attorney, and she could do it, but then she left. You know?

Hired more staff. They could do it. No. Long and the short is when I finally said, okay. You know?

And the whole reason was I know the reason now was the the nature of of domestic law is it takes up each away your soul, basically. I mean, you’re working 60 hours a week because you’ve always got that phone call. No. You wouldn’t let me have my kids. You know?

And I loved helping my clients when I was supposed to be there. But to walk away from 75% of your income and and just cold turkey, Well, finally, I just threw my hands up and said, lord, you know what? This law practice is yours and walked away, I mean, cold. And, you know, it wasn’t like he sent a $1,000,000 case the next day. No.

I had a couple years of it was, are we gonna pay the the bills this month? But that was good for me. That was good, and I was experiencing people being saved in my office, experiencing That’s

John McLarty: great. That’s exciting. Yeah. I remember that Yeah. Thing in your life.

Kimberly Faith: And and so the lord just it was like he finally just let me flip that switch and see what life could be like. And but there was a large degree of faith that went into that, and and I had to follow my faith several times. And I kinda one of the big lessons I took away from that was, you know, god’s trying to make us spiritually prosperous, but we get all tangled up in the world’s definition of prosperity, which leads us into a harder path if we just pay attention the first time. Right. We all have areas that eat our eat away at our time.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to have that. You know, it could be your yard.

John McLarty: I had a big revelation this year about how to spend our time, and it involved prayer, involved intentional prayer. So I’ve always been more of a bible teacher and reading the bible for doctrine, and then I think I’ve shared this with you in in previous podcasts. I’ve been just spending more time in the word. Mhmm. But we were in Houston, this in a church that, your sister, our daughter Tanya, goes to.

And we were challenged, a visiting preacher, David Gibbs, about prayer. Because I’m always like, yes. I I need to pray more. Well, he got real specific. And he said, I think he said, do you have a prayer list?

A written prayer list. And he had everybody raise their hand that did. Well, I couldn’t raise mine.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Me either.

John McLarty: And I just thought, I have to do lists. I live off my to do list, and I transfer them one to another, and I cross things off. And it’s all about mow the yard, you know, do this, pay this bill, go do this there. And I went, how pathetic that I don’t have a prayer list. So I started one that day.

And now, I spend more time in prayer because it’s more directed. I might finish up my bible reading and we’re normally have to have a prayer that might last, you know, indeterminate, 2 or 3 minutes. Now I go through my prayer list. So it’s an intentional spending more time in prayer, but it’s a tool. Right.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a tool. And we’re talking

John McLarty: about some of those tools today. It’s, it’s exciting.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and I’m glad you brought that up because,

John McLarty: you know And I’ve been a Christian for over 45 years. It was just pathetic. Right. Here I am. And I just wanna point out, God didn’t just show me this 1 on 1 through his word.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: I was in a good church. Right. Even, you know, I was visiting a good church, and this preacher of the word of God challenged me. Right. And it’s changed my life for the better.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So You you bring up prayer as one of the tool. We’re gonna talk about some of the tools of prosperity, and prayer is definitely one of them. But, you know, I I was thinking when you were talking about this, how how crazy would it be? We’ll just use a physical example.

How crazy would it be if you were if you were trying to to, prevail in war. Right? And, you had a a unit on the ground, and and they weren’t they weren’t listening to their intelligence. They weren’t tuned in to the command.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: I mean, they would be willy nilly. Right? They wouldn’t know where the enemy was hiding. They wouldn’t know what what the next hill to take, just to use a World War 2 example. And without prayer as a tool, you know, your your your prosperity your your your, prosperity is limited.

Your spiritual prosperity just let’s just talk about spiritual prosperity. What is spiritual prosperity? Let’s just define that at this point so we aren’t talking esoterically to our, listeners.

John McLarty: I would say spiritual prosperity is the richness of our relationship with God. But we, Lynn and I were discussing this the other the other day. I think that manifests in 2 major ways that we can kind of measure. That’s winning souls to Christ. You know, the number 1.

Right. And then encouraging fellow Christians that are involved in that same mission. So that enriches that’s prosperity to me. If you’re involved in so basically, that’s the designing souls to Christ Right. 1 on 1 Right.

And discipleship Mhmm. So that others are encouraged to do the same thing, win souls to Christ. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: I think that’s a great commission.

John McLarty: That brings enrichment to our office. To me, it’s prosperity. And then but I have to add to that. So that’s winning souls to Christ, relationship with our brothers, our brethren, and then that richness of that hearing the voice of God. Mhmm.

Hearing God speak to us. Yeah. That’s good. Prosperity.

Kimberly Faith: That that and, you know, that’s manifested. The the way that we can measure that, I I and I totally agree with you, is that the when you when you see someone who is spiritually prosperous, they’re gonna manifest the fruits of prosperity, which are the fruit of the spirit, you know, and that fruit the along with the fruit of the spirit are going to be people. I mean, the the fruit of the spirit doesn’t mean much if there aren’t people to show those things to. Right? It’s not like you sit there and and and and, have enjoy a big, ray of fruit by yourself. You’ve got to share it.

John McLarty: Just in a cave Right. With joy and Right. Joy saying, and who who who are you going to love?

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Who are you gonna love or

John McLarty: Show that.

Kimberly Faith: Show peace. I mean That’s

John McLarty: a good point.

Kimberly Faith: The best thing about love is sharing it. It’s there’s no it’s impossible to love by yourself. You know, you can love God, but, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, I think God was brilliant designing love this way. We can only experience his love, which is selflessness, by being selfless. Well, to be selfless, you have to have somebody more than self to do it with.

Right? Right. And so and and and what’s interesting is that God is so generous is that the the what I think one of the greatest ways maybe the greatest way we manifest our love for him is by obeying him, which is multifaceted. It’s an example to other people. It’s part of the great commission.

Right? And so the proof that you’re a spiritually prosperous person is in the souls that you brought to Christ or even the seeds you planted to bring souls to Christ. Right? Discipleship and, and this relationship that you have that is it’s undeniable. I I heard, a pastor say one time, one of the best proofs of the scripture are the testimonies of a person’s life.

That’s the best proof that the truth is the truth, is the changed person. You can’t argue with somebody who says, I was a drug addict and God freed me from that. Right. You can’t argue with that. What are you gonna say?

Oh, that’s not true. Well, their life is proof that it is true.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know, and in in practice of law, the best arguments, and the best, the best testimony for to persuade somebody of a particular idea are examples, you know, like Jesus taught. Right?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: So, anyway, we  were did you wanna share a story?

John McLarty: Yes. There’s the idea that you that we’ve just been talking about of sharing our love toward others.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: Made me think of, and I just said, underline this verse to be ready for this. But it’s Philippians. It’s funny how so many of these verses are out of Philippians. But it says, in Philippians 2:3, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in the lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Mhmm.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be you in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. I really think about that. I I personalize that. Like, when we wake up in the morning, like, I have a a cousin, you know, cousin George Mhmm.

That just needs fellowship and encouragement. Right. And how often do I wake up thinking, what can I do for George today? Mhmm. We we don’t normally think.

That’s just not our normal thinking.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But that’s spiritual prosperity.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: It’s like, I need to

Kimberly Faith: You don’t wanna keep it to yourself.

John McLarty: I don’t wanna keep that to myself.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. That’s good. And I think, you know, another thing about spiritual prosperity, kind of as we’ve hashed this out, define this for the listeners is it’s not like physical prosperity and that it can’t be destroyed, can’t be taken from us. You know, if if, if, you know, that we had a country come and a communist country take over our our country today, You know, we lost all of our rights as citizens of the United States, and we lost they our all of our wealth was confiscated, and we were pretty much just left with the clothes on our back.

I mean, we would have a great sense of loss. Right? But Paul, like you said earlier, Paul said in prison. He hadn’t lost anything. He has learned to be content.

And I just I always go back to his prayer for the Ephesians that they would have more than they can ask for or imagine. Well, these 1st century Christians were not wealthy people by and large. They were working people. Right. I what we would call blue collar. Right?

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: And, and, you know, having our family having lived in both the blue collar circle and the more white collar circle circle, we kind of have seen both. And it the degree of prosperity has zero to do with your feeling of joy and satisfaction. Yes. But like you said, the spiritual prosperity produces this satisfaction of the soul that when it’s missing, it’s it’s devastating. It’s worse than a coup.

It’s worse than a hostile takeover of a nation because it’s your soul satisfaction. And that’s what we wanna kinda talk about today is some of the tools to attain that soul satisfaction, which is true biblical prosperity. So what do you what do you think, we we’ve talked about prayer a very important tool. And, what what do you what would you say are your most effective tools for growing your spiritual prosperity?

John McLarty: I think, being spending more time in the word and recognizing god’s voice, and we won’t go there, but I think it’s in John 10. It’s what Jesus says, my sheep know my voice.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And hearing that voice and then understanding this kind of fine tuning your soul. I can tell in the spirit when I’ve made a decision, maybe a selfish decision, like, oh, I’m gonna do my to do list today and not go visit brother George.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And I I actually feel this if it’s significant. I know we sin all the time.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But there’s there’s times when God wants me to do something, and if I resist, it’s like a dagger. It’s like I can’t, and I can’t It’s so uncomfortable. Then if I ignore it and say even go an entire day, I just set it aside, I still it’s a lingering bad thought. Like, oh, how could you have so it’s so uncomfortable at grieving the spirit. Right.

So I’ve learned more and more, and I like I said, I’ve been a Christian for over, you know, 45 years. Isn’t it? But in the last 5 years, I’m more attuned. So this is one of the tools Right. Is to grow accustomed to that. You call it the path of peace.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That we’re listening to God and we’re obeying God. We’re following him.

Kimberly Faith: The path of peace is my way of saying the holy spirit’s presence.

John McLarty: The holy spirit. Not drinking the spirit, but having the spirit. Yes. That’s what I consider one of the great, my, what would you call landmarks of Christian prosperity is to learn to recognize his voice.

Kimberly Faith: And isn’t it interesting how patient God is? I mean, you just said you went 45 years or 40 years without really understanding what that’s supposed to feel like.

John McLarty: That very one on one.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It was just more

John McLarty: of a bible teacher, doctrine, and

Kimberly Faith: Right. And think about think about, you know

John McLarty: Serve God in a lot of ways.

Kimberly Faith: Our own relationship with our children. You know, what if it was a very didactic relationship where you just kinda went to the mechanics, but there was never that connection of, gosh, I know mom’s not happy right now because I I know she wanted me to do this, but instead, I did that. Right? I know mom wanted to go shopping with me, but I didn’t wanna piddle around in Dillard’s, you know. I love shopping with mom because she I have to tell y’all, my mom actually taught me to shop and I love the way she shops because she when we shop together, it’s we tiptoe and look around.

If there’s nothing we see right away, we leave. But if if mom were the kind of shopper that piddling around all day, I would probably not wanna do that. But if I knew she wanted me to do that without her saying a word, but I did it anyway, that’s the kind of relationship that we wanna have with the Holy Spirit, which is an amazing tool for spiritual prosperity, because what it does is it opens up opportunities for to first to minister to people. I have gone. I was, I was getting gas the other day in a small town in Missouri, and and there was a man in a he’s kinda had longer hair.

He used to have his overalls on. He was bent over his pickup truck with his head on the bed while his gas was pumping. And he just looked sad.

John McLarty: Mhmm. And I’m

Kimberly Faith: just pumping my gas. I’m trying to get, you know, to get on the road. You know, you’re in a hurry. And, I mean, the holy spirit was knock, knock, knocking, and I’m like, you know, no. He’s this guy, he may you know, what if he’s a criminal?

What if you know, you have these justifications.

John McLarty: I know exactly what you’re doing.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And and so I I get in my car to go, and the Holy Spirit’s like, man, you have just you are just missing out. I mean, he’s just like now he starts lecturing me. Right? So I okay, fine.

So I get one of my tracks and I get out of the car, and I go over. He’s still got his head on his tailgate on the side of his truck bed, you know, and I put my hand on his shoulder, and I said, Excuse me, sir. Are you okay? And I could feel the Holy Spirit just start talking through me. And I’m not talking about, you know, I’m talking about English, okay?

And I said and he goes, do you raise his head? Okay, he looks at me, he just he was it’s almost like he was so surprised anyone even noticed that he was not he did not look okay. He goes, oh, yes, ma’am, and he had the kindest eyes. And so we got in this discussion. I said, well, you know, I said, the Lord sent me over here to to make sure you were okay, so so I’m gonna give you my story about how Jesus rescued me.

And he just looked at that, he goes, thank you so much. He said, bless you for even caring. And, we probably had a 32nd conversation, and I said, alright. Well, I just wanna make sure you’re okay, and I think the Lord wanted me to give this to you. And I walked away, and I was getting ready to get in my car, and he comes running over.

And he said, can I just give you a hug?

John McLarty: Oh.

Kimberly Faith: And I said, well, of course. And he’s and he just you could just tell it touched him so much. And I don’t know whatever became that, but it’s that seed. You know? I was told to go plant that seed.

I was trying to resist it and get down the road on my to do list, right, instead of paying attention. But those kinds of things, if we are spiritually aware because we understand, not because we’re trying to make ourselves prosperous, but because we know the the satisfaction, the soul satisfaction that comes from walking in the spirit.

John McLarty: I have to tell a similar story. Okay. So I was and I’ll try to be quick. Same thing happened to me. I was on Fayetteville Square, and I was doing errands, and I was in a hurry and needed to get to the post office.

And there was this guy on the square that was in a chair, and, you know, had a sign, you know, as the homeless. Mhmm. And he looked a little maybe he was yelling at people or glaring at people, and it made me a little nervous actually, you know. So I’d left. And as I drove off the square, a dagger, it’s like, John, you’re supposed to go give that guy a tract.

So I tried to talk myself out of it. Went all the way to the post office, and it was so I thought I can’t live I can’t go the rest of the day without going back there. Went and parked, and I was just praying out. And then at that point, I’m like, I hope he’s still there. I hope he’s still there.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And he was there, and he was he lit up like a light bulb Oh. That someone came over and talked to him, and he wanted to know all about our, you know, our life story track. Right. And I I I I thought I can’t just give him a track to not put, know, a little money in there. I gotta be like, here here’s, you know, I don’t children don’t have

Kimberly Faith: none of the keys

John McLarty: out of the so I gave him a little money, but I I sat and talked to him. And he just wanted to tell me his story and hear our story. And it was it was, and at this I’ve I’ve learned, like, because I’ve learned the other I’ve had the other experience where I didn’t Right. Do that.

Kimberly Faith: And then you wonder.

John McLarty: And, like, several days later, I’m still I’m still feeling like, oh, you missed Right. An opportunity. You know And you can’t just Satan wants to accuse you and make you feel bad forever, but I thought, no. That’s gonna be a lesson.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And you’re gonna pray.

John McLarty: When God prompts you Right. Do it. Don’t don’t walk away.

Kimberly Faith: It’s it’s funny. I I have a story about that. I know I know we’re getting on end of stories, but these are these are good stories. We were at a I was at a restaurant with, we it was one of these kind of sports bar restaurants where everybody’s kinda packed in, and we were sitting facing it was my daughter and I and, Grace and Claire and I, we were facing this couple, and so we got to know them kind of across the the little it was a little open thing at entryway. And, of course, Claire, you know, charms everybody.

Well, I I didn’t have a track with me. I wanted to give them a track when I was leaving, but I didn’t have one. And, Lord, you go out there to your car and you get one and you come back, and it was across a busy street and, you know, all this, and I was like, so I got out of the car and totally forgot about it until I started the car and was we were leaving, and the traffic was terrible. I was like, well, I’m just gonna start praying. You know?

Lord, it’s it’s obvious you wanted me to minister to these people, and I’m gonna start praying right now that you send somebody else to to intercede and to to give them the gospel. We drove down the road, and we were in another store, a leather shop, and we came out, and who was on the sidewalk? But these same people, and the Lord said, okay. Hello. Did you ever put another tract in your purse?

You know? And so my car was right there. So I said, oh my gosh. I said, I’m so glad that you’re here. I said, God was telling me to give you my story and I didn’t do it, and I prayed, and here you are, and they’re just looking at me like, who is this crazy woman?

And so I ran to the car and got one. I said, this is the story about how Jesus came into my heart, and course, you know, it has the picture of us on the teepee in the in the front and everything. And they were just so grateful. They’re like, we we enjoyed meeting you all so much, and thank you for taking the time to do that. And so we didn’t really have a big conversation, but it was the lord.

It it was a good lesson for me. You know, even when I fail, the Lord is gracious. Right?

John McLarty: That’s right.

Kimberly Faith: And so that so we’re we’re talking about tools, and you’ve mentioned prayer. And so we’ve used some examples of prayer and the Holy Spirit guiding us. Obviously, we, just to go through these our toolbox kind of we have prayer. We have the holy spirit. We have, we’ve talked about our own testimony, right, which is such a powerful tool in our toolbox.

And then, obviously, we have the word.

John McLarty: The word. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and none of this would happen without the word. Right? And so, you and I have had a lot of discussions about, you know, honing our skills in the word so that we can answer the hard questions for people. That’s been such a tool for for me.

Like, somebody says, well yeah. I get one of the the discipleship groups I teach the other day. One of the girls asked, well, how do you, how do you answer this question? In the book of Isaiah, it says that god created evil. And it does say that, you know?

And so, man, that made me study. I know there was an answer, but it was, you know, it was a whole discussion. And I and I saw you know what? Let’s talk about that, and next week, let’s make that our time. We’re gonna get off of our concept study and we’re gonna talk about this because this is a question that’s important.

And it was interesting because even with that, god brought us back to the concept study. But my my point is that the word, it is only, you know, Hebrews 412, the word of god is quick, powerful, sharper than any 2 edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of souls of flesh and blood or I decided I can’t even talk. The dividing asunder of soul and spirit

John McLarty: Mhmm. Soul and spirit.

Kimberly Faith: And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And it’s funny how when you start using God’s word as your own, you know, and talking with people, that you don’t even have to figure out what they’re thinking about because the spirit and the word come together, and they I get asked this all the time, how did you know to ask me that question? Or how did you know this is exactly what I need to hear? I said, well, I I didn’t, but the holy spirit in me did. And a matter of fact, I had a lady the other day just email me.

I get these emails all the time. How I feel like when you’re writing these devotionals, you’re looking at my window. And it’s real easy for me to say, no. God’s looking at my window because the word is a common application to all of us. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved.

You can still learn that you need to pray. Absolutely. So we’ve got the word prayer. We’ve got, our own testimony of salvation, the holy spirit, and what else? The brethren. Church. Church. Right? Yeah. Do you think people and sisters.

Do you think people downplay the church the role of the church today because of all the failures?

John McLarty: I do, but I I have realized how, important those relationships are. I think I’ve shared this with you. When Paul signed off in Colossians, he named 11 men who were like dearly beloved brothers to him.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And, you know, we’d pray for him and, you know, their fellow servants and just he was very, surrounded.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Brothers and sisters that ministered to him, and he ministered to them.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So that’s I thought of that in my life and how much of my spiritual growth has been, like, this, David Gibbs.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Attributable to the church.

John McLarty: Attributable to the church. I heard that message in church, and now I have a prayer list.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And I’m so excited about it. Well But I don’t think I would have just been in a cave, and the Lord just said, don’t need a prayer list.

Kimberly Faith: Well, in throughout scripture, God has used the institution of the, like, I mean, the Israelite, the nation of Israel, and the church of the New Testament. And even in just plain old, you know, humanistic elements like the an army or, you know, that sort of thing. We’re stronger together. There’s no question about that. And the church, of course, is to preserve the truth just like the Israel was the house of witness.

And you think about, the the typical the enemy’s complaint with the church is is is so lame, like, oh, well, this pastor failed me or this priest failed me or whatever. This person that was a deacon Didn’t

John McLarty: say hi.

Kimberly Faith: Didn’t yeah. Whatever. Trivial to the to the horrible. Okay? But the fact is we don’t we don’t not brush our teeth because our dentist doesn’t brush his teeth.

John McLarty: Correct.

Kimberly Faith: And the if God says this is what we’re supposed to do, we only don’t we only choose not to do that if we think we’re smarter than God.

John McLarty: And the this the church is this assembly of believers.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And then you you just cannot read the new testament and not get that Jesus said he’d build his church.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And then here’s the church all through acts and Paul’s ministry is not just spreading the gospel. He’s building Building the church. Empowering and Right. Ordaining elders in the church. Right.

He just you can’t honestly read the new testament

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And not

John McLarty: come up with, you know, forsake not the assembling of thyselves together Right. In the house of God.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And it’s and it’s you know, when when I have, people ask me, well, I can’t find a church that I fit into or a church that I like, my response to that is you are part are supposed to be part of a church, and your job isn’t to be, to to like it or to fit in. Your job is to make it better.

John McLarty: You go make it.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Should be. That’s right. You go minister just yes.

Kimberly Faith: In a true church, you’re gonna you’re going to just like an army unit. You don’t join the army to be fed, to be clothed, to be, you know, catered to, you join the army to go fight.

John McLarty: That’s a great, yes.

Kimberly Faith: And you join a church to be part of the We’re in a spiritual warfare, we’ve talked a lot about spiritual warfare, we have a video on spiritual warfare. We’re in a fight, and the church is not a hospital for sinners. There’s a hospital wing because we need a hospital wing, but that’s not the point of a church. It’s not a country club for for for Christians either. It’s a it’s a unit that’s supposed to be carrying out a battle, and we talk about spiritual prosperity.

Man, if our we’ve we’ve talked about what our purpose is according to God’s word. Our purpose is to glorify God. That’s the ultimate purpose. And he says, yeah, you’re gonna glorify me, and guess what? You get to prosper while you do that.

And your prosperity is the kind you can take with you. And, oh, yeah. And by the way, you can also really enjoy it here on earth. You know, we just spent we just spent a whole, you know, couple days as a family hanging out together and and, it’s it’s amazing the difference between a family that that is centered in in the life of Christ and a family that’s not. Because love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, those things are going to be your even playing games. I mean, you know, we are a very competitive family, and we played a a 2 hour game last night. It was pretty competitive. But there was no name calling, there was no, you know now there could have been, you know, but it’s because we’re so competitive.

John McLarty: Good fellowship.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Good fellowship. Yeah. And and so these tools we’re talking about are are great tools for, for basically carrying out the spiritual prosperity.

John McLarty: Just an area of this prosperity in the church that we’ve just experienced. And we go we some people just endure church. Mhmm. Lynn and I, we love church. Yeah.

We we just love our church. And I know there’s there’s churches where you just go and you need to minister and, you know, it’s not quite what you want it to be, but we we’re just blessed. So we’re in church the Christmas day service. And, you know, it’s it’s a family. You know the Hardens.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And so here’s, so you have Tom Harden and then you have Paul Harden. He’s married to Shelley. So it’s their 2 little kids, Ethan and Ellie. So it’s like a 7 year old boy and a 5 year old girl. They got up and do a special.

Oh. And he, she played the piano, and he’s away in a manger. Oh. She played the piano and he sang and it was just, you talk about enrich your life. And it wasn’t just some random 2 kids. Right. It was kids of kids of kids.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: You know? I mean, Tom Harden and us, we were, you know, kinda charter members. He was there a little bit before us. But

Kimberly Faith: It’s like seeing your own family do something like that.

John McLarty: Right. Because they’re not. Rich. Yes. It’s just we were just full of this the Holy Spirit. You know?

Kimberly Faith: That’s that’s a great example because, you know, the church, I think, is undervalued in our culture where there’s just I mean, you had all the the scandals in the Catholic church. Right? You had all these and you had the the whole, who was the preacher that ended up in jail? His wife had the makeup that ran down her face. You know what I’m talking about?

John McLarty: Oh, yeah. Jimmy Swaggart? Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Is it Jimmy Swaggart?

John McLarty: Baker. Bank Tammy Faith Baker. Right. James Jim Baker.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And and, you know, I’m not saying anything bad about these people. I’m just saying that it it you’ve had these scandals that have rocked the whole institution of a church. Right? But the fact is, the church is supposed to be family.

They’re your spiritual family. Yes. And and, you know, it’s perpetual. It’s I’ve used this example before. It’s like a trust.

Trust is something you put your assets in so that you when you die, it doesn’t go through probate because the trust is a living trust. Yeah. The church is a living church.

John McLarty: It’s supposed

Kimberly Faith: to be a carrier of the gospel.

John McLarty: Grant of Ephesians, for the perfecting of the saints.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. For the perfecting of the saints, for the glory of God.

John McLarty: Work of the ministry.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So, so anyway yeah. So the church is obviously an important tool. Well, okay. So we’re we’re we’re rocking right along here, dad, but we are at the end of this podcast time, and we’ve talked about our tools. But I think, what I wanna do is go ahead and do a part 2 on this podcast. Okay.

John McLarty: We need to.

Kimberly Faith: I think we should too, and, we’re gonna talk about next time how to use these assets to become prosperous and what that looks like. So, thank you for joining us. You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast, and we’ll look forward to joining you next time. Are you joining us next time? However you wanna look at it for part 2 of biblical prosperity.

Jacob Paul: You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts, Kimberly Faith and John Mack. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.