Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] What's up, friends?
[00:00:22] Hey, this is Shane Estrange Williams, and you are listening to Grace and Grit Mindset podcast.
[00:00:29] And today we are talking about one of my most favorite topics and probably one of the most difficult topics that I have ever had to walk through experiences in my life. And it has to do with the mindset shift of abundance over lack. So I think that you either fall into one category.
[00:00:56] You are a person who is super positive, and you're. You're a glasses, you know, half full type of person, man. You don't really see the challenge as much as you see the opportunity or the possibility. Or you could be like, I was in my natural state before God got a hold of my mind and be a person who is like, all you ever see is the challenge, the difficulty, the lack of resources or whatever it might be that you think that you need. You see that instead of seeing the possibility, or better yet, you see that instead of seeing God in the middle of that as the solution and that he's already there helping you in ways that you can't see it.
[00:01:43] And so this has been a struggle of my life, you know, seriously.
[00:01:50] And it's taken me so long to really understand this, and there are moments even now where I feel like if I don't really keep my face set toward God, keep my heart right, walk in step with the spirit, I will start falling back into this negative mindset about lack.
[00:02:11] You're living as a person who doesn't have what they need all the time, which is a complete contradiction to the word of God and to what scripture says about us. By the way, it's not. It's not biblical or scriptural to live in a place of lack and think that that's God's will for you. Okay, It's. Your mindset has to shift.
[00:02:35] You have to totally, totally let go of this and surrender this to him so that he can show you how he feels about this, how his kingdom works. And, you know, because really these mindset shifts that we're talking about every week we've talked about. I think this is the fourth one. Maybe 1, 2, 3, 4. This is the fifth one. Yeah. So we're just barreling through these things. These are things God's taught me, and really what they are, he's been teaching me about his kingdom because the thing is, his kingdom is not like the world system.
[00:03:10] And because we live in the world, we're brainwashed by the world. Let me say that again. Because we live in this world, we are brainwashed by it.
[00:03:20] So a lot of times what's happening is we are filtering our circumstances, what we're going through the world system as opposed to the way the kingdom works.
[00:03:33] And God wants us to change our minds about that. He wants us to really focus on, understand that we live in his kingdom, his realm, I think is another way to say it. Because sometimes when you think about kingdom, like I wouldn't say it's a vague word, but can kind of get lost.
[00:03:52] But what we're under his rulership, we're under his law, we're under his realm. He is the king over his people.
[00:04:00] And right now we live in a world system that hasn't fully been redeemed yet, right? Because Satan is called the prince of the power of the air.
[00:04:10] And because he has usurped authority from humanity, Jesus has defeated him. He has defeated sin, he's defeated death, hell on the grave. And we are redeemed unto God if we're believers.
[00:04:24] But what we're seeing and what we're going to see if we're still here when this whole thing plays out and we get to the end of the age is we're going to see Jesus come back and rule and reign here, here physically on this earth.
[00:04:37] So what we're seeing right now, we're not seeing the full rulership or reign of God. You might see it in certain areas, you might see it in some governmental things. You might see it of course, hopefully in your church, you see it hopefully in your family, right? But it's a situation where he has to be invited in, right? Invited into the place, the atmosphere or whatever it is.
[00:05:02] And so a lot of governments, a lot of nations, a lot of people groups do not want him there. And because he's not there, guess what? Something else is ruling that place.
[00:05:12] Some other demonic principality is in control.
[00:05:16] It's even controlling the way that people think and the systems that that group of people use. I truly believe, and this is prophetic what I'm going into right now, but I truly believe we're in a transition.
[00:05:29] God pulling his people out of a world system of debt, D, E, B, T into a system of kingdom abundance. But we have to go there in our mind first. Sorry, that's my dog.
[00:05:46] She's super noisy today.
[00:05:48] Her name is Lex. Lex, and she is a handful. But to get back into this kingdom shift that we have to make in our mindset that we are people of abundance and not lack. And what's interesting to me, because I mentioned debt a minute ago, debt, is that I actually work in the mortgage space. I'm a mortgage broker by trade.
[00:06:12] It's not something I honestly wanted to do with my life. I had other plans. I wanted to go into music and then I wanted to go into speaking and writing, which I do some of that still, but it does not support me full time, of course. So mortgage, mortgage broker brokering is where my bread and butter is, you know, And I don't hate it or anything like that. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it's not like something that was in my heart when I was a kid, you know, But I do enjoy, help, enjoy helping people get the home that God has for them or if they're moving. And maybe it's a situation where they thought they would never be able to get this house that they feel like is in their heart.
[00:06:57] I'm able to help them sometimes people that maybe couldn't get the loan anywhere else, sometimes I can help them.
[00:07:03] So that's a great feeling. But it's so weird to me because I'm like, okay, Lord, you're teaching me that we are supposed to be people of abundance, that that's where you want to take us. We're getting out of this world system where everything is, you owe money, you borrow money you don't have, and you have this debt load on you that makes you, you know, bonded. You're in bondage to this world system and the debt load that you have. And so I'm out here selling mortgages basically, you know, selling debt to people. And I'm thinking, I don't like that, you know, but the truth is most people don't have 250,000, $300,000 laying around to get a house, right? So I think there are some times where it's acceptable. But that doesn't mean that at some point God doesn't want you to be debt free.
[00:07:56] I really do believe that he's put them in my spirit. The last few weeks, I really. My husband and I have been praying that God would.
[00:08:03] Would help us become debt free. However he wants to do that. Because it's not about. It's not about earning it, it's not about deserving it. See, that's the world system. The world system is you must earn this, you must deserve it.
[00:08:19] But the kingdom is not that way. If it was, none of us would be saved.
[00:08:23] I'm not saying God doesn't want you to work. I'm not saying God doesn't value that, but was never supposed to be the measuring stick that God would use for us.
[00:08:33] Just look at the picture that we have of the Israelites trying to get to God, trying to have sacrifices. They do all these things, and they can never be good enough because only Jesus could be good enough. And then when Jesus comes, us believers now know that he basically exchanged his life for our life.
[00:08:52] So because of that, now we have access to the heavenly realm. We have access to the resources and the riches of heaven. And that is really the mindset shift that needs to happen for you if you're a person who feels like you're always in lack, like you always struggle.
[00:09:11] So that might be your reality. And to be honest with you, that's been a reality of mine for the last few years. But what has shifted in my mind is I don't. I don't wait on my bank account. I don't look at it to decide whether or not I have money.
[00:09:26] I don't. I don't say, oh, I'm broke. I don't have anything, even if I don't have a lot in my bank account. Because why? Because my bank account's in heaven.
[00:09:35] Like, my banker is my father, and if I need something, he gives it to me. And I have lived this out over and over and over again, y'. All. I cannot even describe to you how many situations and times I have found myself in this place of needing a miracle from God financially to get through.
[00:09:59] And there's never been a time when he didn't provide it, some kind of solution. And a lot of times it wasn't in a way that I expected. It was just crazy stuff, crazy stuff. And I'm so grateful that we have a God who really, what he wants for us to do is let go of that orphan spirit. Because I believe what's behind a false mindset of lack is an orphan spirit.
[00:10:26] Because. Why? Well, because you don't believe that he's gonna take care of you, which kind of implies, like, fatherlessness, like, oh, he's not. He's not gonna take care of me. I have to go out and work really hard. I have to do this, I have to do that. I have to take care of myself. I have to be independent.
[00:10:46] God's not gonna. Excuse me. God's not gonna reward someone who's lazy, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. So I get it. I get it. And I'm not saying that God doesn't want us to work. So here, don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but here's my own personal life example of this. And let me put it in perspective for you a little bit. And then I'm going to jump into Luke chapter 12 a little bit. But last year, if any of you are listening to the other podcast that my husband and I have called the Marriage Altar, I will drop that link in the show notes below. If you want to go check out our podcast that just released. I think we have two episodes out now.
[00:11:27] So just long story short, if you want more information about that, go listen to those episodes. But last September is when I found out on my husband's birthday that he had been having affairs, that he had been talking to other women.
[00:11:43] I found out in the worst possible way. I found out because a woman, actually two women, reached out to me.
[00:11:50] One of them sent me screenshots of their text messages. And so that it couldn't be disputed, there was proof from that situation.
[00:12:01] He decided to try and take his own life. So we went through a pretty awful ordeal with the local police department. He was in a standoff for about three and a half hours with the local police trying to talk him down from he had the gun, he was at a cemetery and I was there, but I couldn't get to him.
[00:12:27] And this was all because he was so tired of this addiction that he had that he had hidden from me. I did not know about that started when he was younger just because of his childhood and the trauma. And then also here is the big reason was because he is a combat veteran and he had severe PTSD and didn't know that it was so escalated. And I didn't know he hadn't dealt with it. I thought he was okay. I knew he had anxiety, but I didn't realize it was that bad.
[00:13:01] So of course when that happens, our whole world is flipped upside down.
[00:13:07] So not only am I dealing with the trauma of finding out he had had affairs, but I'm also dealing with the trauma of him trying to kill himself.
[00:13:17] Then I'm dealing with the aftermath of what is my life now. But I'm also the sole support financially.
[00:13:27] So no longer do we have his stable income because he went into a mental institution or mental hospital for about a week and was just unable to work for several months and still is not back in that that career field. We have decided and after much prayer that that's just not where he needs to be. So we're being led by the spirit. So you can imagine going from being a nurse who has very stable income. He did. And I'm in mortgage lending, which I'm sure a lot of you know Mortgage lending is like probably one of the worst places to be right now. That and being a realtor, it's hard. It's hard right now, what we're all going through. And the stats are terrible. If you look at new, you know, new mortgage loans or people buying houses, the stats are so low, they're, they're worse than they were like in 2008, you know, some of those stats. And because the rates, because the Fed will not lower the rates, they continue to hold them way too high. And it's just kind of destroying all of our livelihoods.
[00:14:35] So here I am as a mortgage broker and I had gotten my license two years prior.
[00:14:43] Before that I had just been like an assistant to mortgage loan officers.
[00:14:47] And the Lord started dealing with me to get my own license. And so I step out and I'm doing this and I go from being like a salaried person to a sales commission only position.
[00:14:59] So if I don't close loans, I don't eat, I don't get paid, I don't get salaried for anything. I can work on a loan 80 hours and for whatever reason, the person back out and I get nothing. And that happens to me frequently. You know, I hate to say it and it's so frustrating and I have been like, lord, okay, I hear I'm in a position of, my husband has lost his mind, he tried to kill himself. I'm trying to deal with the trauma of that. And then I have to, on top of all that, support myself financially.
[00:15:30] So I almost, myself, almost had a nervous breakdown.
[00:15:35] But I just, I just let the Lord carry me. And I felt him say to me, because I had been doing all these money making activities, what I would call them, it's what they call them in the business where you, you, you go out as a salesperson. It's, it's a different kind of hustle. You have to go out every day or you have to make phone calls, or you have to go take people to lunch or dinner, coffee, or go buy realtor offices and do presentations and buy them food and be a part of the community and be involved in 14 different, you know, different organizations in the community and like the chamber of Commerce and then the realtor organizations and pay all these fees and dues and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's exhausting.
[00:16:22] And what's really frustrating about it is you'll do all that stuff and you may get like two loans out of it.
[00:16:30] And so I was, I had been doing that pretty consistently for a couple years, but When I hit that moment in September of 24, and my life fell apart and I didn't know what I was going to do. Here I am being a salesperson, scared, not sure how I'm going to do this, because I need to be out beating the bushes, so to speak, to get loans. And I felt the Lord speak to me, and I felt like he said, I'm gonna take care of you.
[00:16:59] And I'm like, how are you gonna do that, Lord? Like, I.
[00:17:03] I don't get loans. They don't just fall out of the sky. You know, I have to be making relationships with people. I have to be seen in the community. I have to do all of these things, you know, not to mention spend thousands of dollars in marketing and all the stuff that goes along with it. And I just cannot even describe to you guys the pressure and the stress that I felt, which is a lot of the reasons I wasn't doing the podcast anymore. I couldn't. I mean, I was falling apart. You know, I'm just being so super real with you guys because I want you to know that you're not alone, you know, in these types of seasons of your life.
[00:17:41] So I felt like he said, just, you know, I'm going to take care of you. Just trust me. And, you know, I just stopped doing all that stuff on the side. I stopped trying to have meetings with people or spending tons of money on dues and being at the chamber all the time and just all the things I was doing, I stopped. And I just, like, trusted him. And so if he tells me to do something, I'll do it. You know, I'm not saying I don't do anything. I'm just saying I listen to him. I post occasionally on social media.
[00:18:15] I. I do still keep up those relationships with some of my realtor partners. I still send them things to maybe as a resource for them to help them grow their business as well. I answer questions for people all the time. I don't get a dime for it. People call me all the time, and I know that they're using me, and that's fine because I know that God is my supply. And so there's so many times I help people and don't get anything out of it.
[00:18:39] But through all of that, God is. He has taken care of me. And if anything, I have doubled my income in the last seven or eight, nine months. I have doubled it partially because I left where I was one of the.
[00:18:56] The mortgage lender I was with. I left them and went to a different place. That just had a better commission split.
[00:19:02] And so that's a lot of it. But a lot of it's just.
[00:19:05] I mean, God has just sent me people. And I felt like he said, just trust me, I will send you who needs to come to you. Like, the people that are for you, I'm gonna send them to you. And that's what's been happening.
[00:19:17] I'm not saying this season will always be like this. There might be a season coming soon where God says, okay, you need to get back out. You need to start, you know, doing some of these things. But the point is, the trust wasn't there.
[00:19:31] The trust that God would help or God would provide was not there. What was there was a scarcity mindset, a lack, a poverty spirit, an orphan spirit. You know, feeling scared, feeling alone feeling.
[00:19:51] And I can't even tell you where that came from because I didn't grow up in a home where I was scared that I wasn't going to be taken care of. That did not happen to me. I had a great, wonderful parents who took care of me. I don't know where it came from, and I guess it doesn't really matter. Like I said earlier, we live in a world where we are brainwashed.
[00:20:13] And it's all about how hard you work, and then you're rewarded based on how hard you work. And I'm not saying there's not a reward for working hard.
[00:20:23] There can be. But if God is not in it, if God is not telling you that's what he wants you to do, and you are doing it out of your own strength, then it probably won't work. And you're going to be scared, you're going to be anxious, you're going to be full of fear.
[00:20:40] So I love what Jesus says in Luke, chapter 12. I'm going to read this a little bit, and I'm going to teach a little bit. So this is Luke 12:12, verse 13.
[00:20:51] Someone from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Now, I've never seen this before when I started reading this, and I'm like, I've never noticed that.
[00:21:02] He says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me, friend. He said to him, who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you. He then told them, watch out and be on guard against all greed because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions. And then he goes on to tell the story. And you've heard this story. This is the parable of the rich fool.
[00:21:26] Then he told them this parable as a rich man's land was very productive. He thought to himself, what should I do, since I don't have anyone or anywhere to store my crops, so he has so much. I will do this, he said, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. Then I'll say to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years.
[00:21:48] Take it easy. Eat, drink and enjoy yourself.
[00:21:51] But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
[00:22:00] That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Let me read that again. That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
[00:22:16] And then he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, you know this.
[00:22:20] Don't worry about your life, what you will eat, or about the body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They don't sow or reap. They don't have a storeroom or a barn, yet God feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than the birds? Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? If then you're not able to even do a little thing, why worry about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers grow. They don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.
[00:23:01] If that's how God clothes the grass which is in the field today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he do for you, you of little faith, don't strive for what you should eat and what you should drink. And don't be anxious for the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
[00:23:24] But seek his kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.
[00:23:31] Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom.
[00:23:37] So I love this.
[00:23:39] I love this scripture, and I love that part where it says, that's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And that's really the whole premise of this entire story and what Jesus is trying to say, say. And I think I would. I would summarize it like this.
[00:24:03] Riches of the world and not having God is nothing.
[00:24:09] But having God and not necessarily having the riches of the world, that's everything.
[00:24:15] Because if you have God, you have everything. And if you focus on getting more, more wealth, getting more money to put in bank, getting more relationships established so you can grow your business, getting more of this, more of that, more success, more college, more of this. It just never ends, does it? Because you get more. And then you're like, oh, my gosh, that's still not enough. I think I need to get some more. And you become a slave to it.
[00:24:44] You become a slave to the money system all around you. Because if you're looking at the money you're realizing has an ending, there's only so much of it, right?
[00:24:59] When it's gone, it's gone. Or you have to get more. But with God, he never ends.
[00:25:05] He never ends. And we have this availability to him because of Jesus. So whatever we have need of, he will supply. Jesus says it right here. He's like, I mean, God's taking care of the ravens, y'. All. Ravens are not even like, they're. They're like gross birds. They're like, eat dead things. You know, God's taking care of them, but he's also taking care of the flowers. And those aren't. Those don't have souls. They don't mean anything. But how much more would he take care of us? And he knows that we need these things. And he knows that the world system, the way the world works, is you go out, you earn it, and that's the only way you're going to get it. But he's trying to say, no, no, seek me first.
[00:25:49] Seek me. Seek my presence.
[00:25:52] Seek my kingdom, my realm, my rule, the way that I do things.
[00:25:59] And all these other things are going to be taken care of. And that is such a hard lesson to learn if you have been raised in a situation where it's not necessarily bad. But the American Dream is really clouding a lot of our understanding because we're getting the American dream confused with the Kingdom of God. The American dream is work really hard, go out, make it happen.
[00:26:24] That is not the way the kingdom works.
[00:26:28] Because you can try all you want, you can work really hard. And if it's not God's will for your life, he's probably gonna block it. Eventually. He might let you have it just to see that you didn't want it, that it wasn't the right. Anyway, I've had that before.
[00:26:40] That's why I know his thing. His. His kingdom, his will is seeking him more than you're seeking other things.
[00:26:53] Like, there can be no other competition with that. There can be no other God before him. And this has become so real to me over the past few years, like I said, the last eight or nine months, so much that even this morning, my husband and I, and I think a lot of people would think this is being irresponsible. And I struggle with that religious thought sometimes. But we will spend an hour or two in the morning just sitting in the presence of God, drinking our coffee. He and I talk a little bit, we read our Bible, we pray, we have some devotionals we do together.
[00:27:26] We set our timer for a certain number of minutes and we just like meditate on the Lord, see if he's going to show us anything. We don't get in a hurry.
[00:27:35] And a lot of people might have a problem with that. And they may say that's laziness.
[00:27:40] You need to be out doing something. But you know what? I'm reading this scripture and Jesus is saying, seek his kingdom.
[00:27:50] Seek his kingdom. Ask him what he wants you to do that day, Right? Because if you just go willy nilly all out running the roads, doing all the things you're desperate, you're trying to get, you know, the stuff that you need, and I got to make this happen, do you really think that that's God's will for you to live that way? Do you really think he wants you to live like that? That's anxiety.
[00:28:12] That is not how we live as believers. We are not desperate because we, we already have Him.
[00:28:20] We're not desperate for a solution. We're not desperate for him to save us. He's already saved us.
[00:28:26] He's already making things new. He already has a solution for us.
[00:28:30] We just need to spend time with him and put him in front of that problem and stop running and trying to fix the problem ourselves. I mean, this could apply to anything going out, constantly trying to fix everything that's wrong that you see, instead of just like, okay, you know what? I'm going to seek first the kingdom, and then I'm going to let God handle the rest of the. And if he needs me to do something, he'll tell me. But if he doesn't, then I'm not.
[00:28:57] So, yeah.
[00:28:59] That, friends, is how you get from a mindset of lack to a mindset of abundance, is you shift and you start thinking in kingdom terms, you start seeking him, you start waiting on him, you put him before the need. That seems so pressing, it seems so urgent, you know, I know, I get it. It's Wednesday and you've got $3,000 worth of bills due on Friday. I have been there multiple times and had no idea how I was going to make it. All I knew is if I did what he said, if I seek first the kingdom and my richness toward him.
[00:29:42] So, you know, this, this thought of not storing up treasure for myself, but actually going after God and that richness of having a relationship with him is what Jesus is saying. He's like, you care more about your barns and your storehouses and getting more stuff than you do about your relationship with God. You're spending more time trying to get more riches than you are with God. Spending time with him and doing what he wants you to do and seeking Him.
[00:30:11] Ah, that's a lot.
[00:30:14] That's a lot. So I don't know how that hit you today.
[00:30:18] Hopefully it hits you okay. Sometimes, you know, we gotta have our toes stepped on a little bit. I was at church Sunday and man, oh man, that's one of the most toe stomping sermons I've, I've heard in a long time. But I was grateful. I was grateful for someone who was like, I'm gonna tell you what the word of God says and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. And because, because, you know, it's like the scripture says that when we look into the word of God, it's like looking into a mirror. And sometimes you look bad, sometimes you need to fix your hair. You know what I'm saying? You need to change your clothes. And that's what it's like when we really look into the word of God.
[00:30:55] So, hey, I'm going to wrap this up. It's been about 30 minutes that I've been preaching or whatever you want to call this. I hope that today helps in some way. Helps you know how loved you are and that you're not an orphan, that you belong to him. You're his child.
[00:31:10] Hey, keep in touch with me. Also check out my website, shannastrange.net, you'll find blogs and articles and you can even get links to my music. And go listen to that. Maybe it would encourage you. And until next time, I pray that you guys are blessed. And remember, you're abundant. You don't live in lack, you live in abundance.
[00:31:39] Ey, here he comes again.
[00:31:48] I know the cloudy shifting he's bringing.
