Are you ACTING like your prayers have ALREADY been answered?

Hey folks, it's April Mason here and it's Monday morning and I am once again at my favorite place at the water, getting ready for my walk. And I wanted to drop a couple nuggets on you real quick. Ah, where do I start? You are where you are because you thought yourself there. Let's think about those who say they are believers in Christ but they have a hard time believing. Now I say that because we go to church, we shout, we scream, you know, we got going to do it. He going to work it out. He's going to fix it. But then we leave after Sunday morning service and go back into the same depression, the same worry, the same anxiety, which is interesting to me. We pray, but we don't believe that we already have received. Over in James 1:6 and 8, it talks about believe without doubt. Doubting, and even to the point where it says, you know, you might as well don't even come before God if you're gonna be wavering. He don't even want to see you if you're going to pray and not believe. When God created the heaven and the earth, he used his imagination to do it. He thought it up, he spoke it, and it was created. What are you thinking that's causing you to create the life that you desire? I can tell you what you're thinking. If you're going through the same things over and over and over, the same perpetual cycles over and over again, it's because you continue to— instead of using your mind to create what you do want in your life, you're replaying in your mind what happened in the past. Have you ever seemed to feel like you seem to attract the same kind of guys or the same kind of girls? It's because you constantly focus on what you don't want and the bad situations that happen, and you continue to get exactly what you don't want. So you're allowing the enemy to play mind games with you. He's, uh, he's continuing to, uh, use your emotions to cause you to recreate and think of all of these negative things in your life that have happened. And instead of creating the new life an abundant life that God says you can have, you continue to create your past. So you are creating, but you're creating your past over and over and over and over again. When are you going to get tired of going through the same foolishness? When are you going to get tired of always worrying about money? I remember, for those of you that know my story, I lived in the shelter with my 3 kids. So that was my lowest low. And I'll never forget, I would always get scared when rent time would come around when I did get my place because I thought that I was going to get evicted because I was afraid of being homeless again. And I was so afraid of being homeless and not having enough, I was actually living in lack and I would always get evicted and lose my car. Think about it. I held on to that instead of thinking, okay, I have more than enough and I'm going to use what's in my hand, my God-given ability to take care of my family. And I know that God has it. Once I start to— once I changed the way that I thought and I didn't think from a place of lack, but I thought from a place of abundance, everything in my life changed. I mean, it's the truth. The same way you can use your thoughts for negative, you can use them for the positive. So if you think about it, everything that you created in your mind right now is happening to you. So the stuff that you don't want, you don't think about. You think from a place of the end. You operate from the end. Believe and you shall receive. So if you believe that there's a business opportunity out there for you, but you say, God, I believe this opportunity is for me, I just don't have the money. What do you do? You act as though you already have the money and you're already a part of the business. You start writing out your marketing strategy. You start talking to people, different people, about what you're getting ready to do. You start operating and putting yourself in a position as though you were already in it, you get happy. You get excited because you see the potential of what's getting ready to happen in your life. You want a new home, you want a new car. How would you feel if you already had it? See, if you're praying about the same things over and over and over again, it's because you really don't believe that you have it, because there will be no reason for you to come back and say, April, you know, I prayed about it, but girl, you there's— you wouldn't talk that way. You would talk from a place of, honey, girl, I got my new car, God has blessed me, I'm so excited. You have to act that way before it happens. You can't pray about it and worry about it. Come on now, people, it doesn't work like that, darlings. It doesn't work like that. So my words of wisdom to you today is, whatever it is that you want, whether it's a relationship, whether— what would you do if you, you were married? How would you act? How would you feel if marriage is what you want? If you want a new home, how would you act and how would it feel to already have a new home, a new car, a new building for your church, or a new business opportunity? You know, if you want to have a baby, how would it feel if you already had the baby already? Act as though you have already received and you will receive. Control your doggone emotions. And, and stop wavering. That's what the scripture means about wavering over in first, uh, over in James 1:6 and 8. Wavering with the wind. God doesn't like— God can't answer that because you're random. Random begets random. You have to be very specific. And no matter what the circumstances or what the facts are in your situation, facts are only facts if you accept them. When you use your imagination to create the outcome and really believe in the outcome. And you really start thinking, you know, that God has given me the power over everything. You know that, you know, the scripture says that God made us a little lower than the angels. When you start thinking about the image that he made you in, you stop tripping. You start— stop allowing your emotions to run away with you. Yeah, women, ladies, I know we go through, you know, our our special time of the month and our emotions get all willy-nilly. That's not an excuse. Control that, because whatever you think about and whatever you, um, put your energy towards is what will happen. So I've learned to put my energy elsewhere. And I remember, well, last week I was— I had to preach at two churches last week, and I was telling the story of how I said, you know what, I would love some fish. I was getting ready to go get something to eat at Taco Bell. I was like, no, I'm gonna go get some fish. We have fish at the house, and I had this craving for some fish. I said, I'm gonna get some fish. But I said, no, I think I better grab something before I go because it's gonna take me a minute. Well, as soon as I walked in the door, I heard the Holy Spirit say, go to the microwave. I went to the microwave and my sister had came over and she made fish. The fish was cooked. That same day I had a taste for some pound cake. Y'all know I love pound cake. But I was like, no, I don't need no pound cake. But I was going to write on Facebook, um, which one of my ladies can make a sister a pound cake? And I said, you know what, I do want a pound cake. I want some pound cake. But I didn't write it. The very next day I went to get my hair done, and as soon as I walk in, another lady walks in and she says, "Do you want some pound cake?" I created exactly what I want. I pay attention to even the small things, and I want you to do that as well too. Expand your faith. Expand your thought process. The scripture tells us what the things that we're supposed to think of, things of, you know, that are of good report, things that are praiseworthy. If we think on the things that the scripture tells us to think on, we don't have time to continue to recreate our past issues. The reason why you continue to go through the same stuff is because you keep thinking about it and adding feeling to it in your mind. When I was married, I remember saying, 'Oh, I don't want a man like this,' and 'I don't want a man like that,' and all of this stuff about the man that I didn't want. And I ended up marrying exactly that because it wasn't him, I drew him. So I couldn't even blame him. You're drawing the very thing you say you don't want because you are unwilling to change in your thought process. You are unwilling to let go of your thought process. Let go and let God for real, and stop all of the— if you're gonna say the cliché, but at least believe it, because it's for real. You can do it. So whatever it is that you want— I ain't gonna preach to y'all because that means you're gonna have to send me an offering. So whatever it is that you want Go out there and change the way that you think. Stop putting faith in the people. To all my pastors out there, I deal with a lot of them with my marketing company, and they say, well, you know, I know God has called me to do this, but I don't know if the people are going to do it. Stop putting your faith in the people. If God gave you the vision, he's going to give you the provision to do it. People— he uses people to bless, but it doesn't mean he's going to use those people. So you're putting so much faith in people that you're not— you're operating from a place of what do you want to call it? You're not being 100% you. You're not being authentic. You're doing things to please the people instead of pleasing God, and you're wondering why things are not getting done the way you want them to get done because you're not trusting God 100%. You're not saying what he's told you to say. You're not, you're not doing the things that you want to do because you don't want to offend the people because you believe that their tithes and offering is going to be what builds it. And God may send somebody that says, you know what? You bless me. I'm not even a believer, but you bless me and I want to do something for you. Majority of my YouTube followers are atheists and it's interesting. They say, you know, April, I don't necessarily believe in your God, but I love the fact that you don't push your God down our throats. But they still follow me because I still have the message. I'm not stopping my message because I'm trying to not offend folk. But God is still blessing and they're still able to get something from me whether they believe in my Jesus or not. You gotta still be you and be authentically you and God is gonna provide and you never know how. He never asked you to worry about the how. All God asked you to do was believe, be solid in your thinking and not double-minded, have faith and take action. Faith without works is dead. So whatever it is that you want, I don't care if you got you don't have a— what they say— a pot to pee in or one to throw it out of, you act as though you do. You act as though you have the money for, for the business opportunity. You act as though you have, um, the degree for the job. You act as though you are a married man or a married woman already, if that's what your heart desires. You act as though that's what, that's what it is already. So I wanted to give you that. Like I said, I ain't gonna continue to preach. I got to get out here and go— you won't get