On this date last year, after a light dinner while watching the surfers, I composed an earlier version of this post on a poolside lounge chair as the sun went down in San José del Cabo, Mexico! A few seats away, my husband was on a 90-minute overseas call. This setting illustrated my belief: that I can combine enjoying my life with serving my mission. A year later, I am overflowing with gratitude about how much of what I was trusting God for in hope and faith has actually been unfolding with supernatural grace! So let me please share a process that’s worked for me as I journal, pray about, implement what comes to me in that Quiet Time, and then thank God as I see the outcomes.

All that’s standing between you and what you desire is belief. That the power of belief is key to the outcomes you experience is borne out by scripture and by the myriad stories of motivational speakers. Wise teachers contend that we mostly get what we believe although we may not realize exactly what our beliefs are. Proverbs 23:7 warns us that as you think in your heart, so shall you be. And Abraham Lincoln put it like this: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

After discerning God’s will and making sure what you want aligns with it, the first step in putting the power of belief to work is to identify what you want—but not necessarily in minute detail; the essence of your goal is best, leaving room for the Holy Spirit to surprise you. For example, to be healthy was probably the goal of the poor, untouchable, hemorrhaging women who believed about Jesus, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured” (Mark 5:28). Indeed, Jesus felt the power going out of him when she surreptitiously touched the hem of his garment; and he told her and the crowd that her faith was the basis of her healing. His words probably gave her respectability as well.

I recently read a 1998 book called So, Why Aren’t You Rich? The Prosperity Secret of the Rich by Darel Rutherford. It helped me see that my beliefs about hard work were not as positive as I’d imagined. Quite the opposite, as I realized after examining the Green Monster dream I discussed in “Honoring Your Dreams Through Creative Expression,” I believed that making money came at an exorbitant emotional cost. I started to do the work described below to change my mindset once I became aware of how that buried thought was holding me back. And now I can attest to this: Replacing a mindset of lack and hardship with a mindset of plenty and abundance is likely to beneficially spill over into many areas of life, including not just finances but also time and energy! 

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A simple project can illustrate how to go through a 7-Step Manifestation Process I’m grateful to have learned from my friend, Ericka Jackson James.

I invited anyone with a postponed organizational project to join a client, friends, and me on July 12^th, a day we set aside for tackling our individual organizational challenges “together across the miles,” making it fun, productive, and easy to be motivated by sharing virtually, as we’re each in our own places. (See my post, How to Join a Virtual Organize-for-Fun Day.)

Using that project as an example of the 7-Step Manifestation Process:

1. Want. The first step is to decide what you WANT—for example, to make organizational progress. Ask yourself: “Who would I need to be in order to meet my goal?” For the organizing project, I believe being prepared, realistic, and in a mindset of abundance will help most. It would help to state this in an affirming “I Am” statement. For example, “I am grateful for the abundance of my blessings and I’m willing to care for my things and share.”
2. Hope. The next step is HOPE, so engage in possibilities thinking.
3. Desire. After hope comes DESIRE, focusing on the essence of what you long for, such as certain piles to be eliminated and, by the end of the day, knowing where the stuff formerly in the piles now “lives” (whether in your home or off to charity or recycling).
4. Decide. With your want, hope, and desire clarified, you commit and determine the project to be done. To achieve success, I’ve urged setting a reasonable goal to achieve in the time participants have available that day. BELIEF is easier if the goals seem attainable from the outset. Alternatively, if you’re willing to trust God and stretch your faith, you might even select a goal that seems humanly impossible, while believing that nothing is impossible for God.
5. Believe. We’ll ground the BELIEF by engaging our imaginations about how the newly organized area will look or work and how we’ll feel about accomplishing the task. Selecting inspiring music, breaks, and rewards can enhance our success and make it all more fun. That’s why I had a Scavenger Hunt for participants the day of the Virtual Organizing-for-Fun Day, so we could engage our childlike spirits and make this work more like play.
6. Exercise Faith. Taking a “before” photo and planning to take an “after” photo as well, we combined belief + action into FAITH. At this point, try to embrace with 100% certainty that your goals will be fulfilled. As a person of spiritual faith, this step typically involves saying a prayer for persistence, guidance, wisdom, and blessing along the way.
7. Embody. Following through in faith with action, good systems, and/or spiritual guidance will allow you to organize in chunks and also practice good self-care by taking healthy breaks and nourishing yourself. You’ll see visual progress along the way, a reward in itself. You’ll be DOING what the person you described in the Step 1 “I Am” statement does! As you execute your plan, you’ll be embodying the MANIFESTATION of your belief: the results become visible. Congratulations will be well deserved!

Yes, adversity and challenges happen. Sometimes one person’s belief conflicts with someone else’s. We have lessons to learn and the journey has its twists, ups, and downs. But living with wisdom and belief is a shorter journey to realizing our goals and aligning with our sacred callings than letting life just happen to us.

I encourage you to put the power of belief to the test. Also please feel free to comment below or email me about areas where you find it most challenging to believe in positive outcomes.