Some people wish for something; others get it. Some people are always fasting and praying for a miracle; others are always on their feet living their dreams. In which of these two categories do you belong? Are you Healthy, Happy and Wealthy (the two Hs and one W)? If not, why?

Do you know that everything you need is there waiting for you to get it? Think about the thing that is giving you sleepless nights and you will discover that it already exists though you do not have it. The land you wish to buy is lying somewhere under someone else’s title. The money you need to pay school fees is already printed and circulating. The job you pray for exists; somewhere. The materials for the house you wish to build are all available.  But then why are you struggling daily to have these things?

It is said that if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you always get similar results; and only a mad person does the same thing every day and expects different results. So to get what you need in your life calls for radical change – a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is a complete U-turn. You are going to have to change your belief systems, how you pray and how you see the world to change the way things are in your life at the moment.

What needs to change is not in the outside. It is you who needs to change. You first need to know who you are in order to change. You are not Chris or Jane – that is just your name. And you are not your body. The first step towards achieving the two H and one W is to KNOW THYSELF. It is to know that you are not your parents; you are not your degrees or lack of them; and you are not your job title or lack of it.

The moment you discover that you are a spiritual being living in a physical body, then you almost immediately become like a miracle worker. You know the powers that spirits – good and evil – have. This month Christians will be commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit to earth. You are a spirit. God’s very image! You are a co-creator with God.

So, to move from where you are to where you want to be, you must first stop seeing yourself as your body. The body is limited. It can only work with the physical materials it can see and touch. It works with the environment it finds itself in; operates with the cash at hand, and so on. If you do not know who you are, you will tend to constrain yourself to the limits of your body, telling yourself that ‘this is what I am, I cannot do better than this’.

But the spirit is unlimited. Knowing that everything anyone could ever need already exists means the spirit attracts what it wants. Those who do not know who they are and what they are capable of always ‘wish’ and ‘think’ of the conditions they see in others. Those who know they are spiritual beings ‘believe’ and ‘attract’ the conditions they want.

Have you heard people say that the rich continue to get richer while the poor get poorer? This is true. And it is not because the rich steal from your tax money, as most people believe.

There are tens of millionaires in Kenya who have never worked in government or with government and so do not know where your tax money is kept. They attracted their wealth. They also believed they could live in a better environment and attracted it, so they moved to residential areas where the rich live. They were not born there.

Today I will teach you how the rich make money while they work and sleep. They start what are called MSIs (Multiple Sources of Income). Whereas those unaware keep jumping from one low paying job to another low paying job, the rich and those who are on their way there create multiple sources of income. The rich do farming, importation, exportation, wholesale, manufacturing, stock market, treasury bills, publishing etc. They do not depend on one source of income like many people do. This is what you must do to have the two H and W.

Stop complaining that your salary is peanuts. Buy peanut seeds and start a small garden. If you rent your house and have no land, talk to your landlord so you keep 15 layers behind or in front of your house.  Feed them on kitchen wastes and a kilo of layers mash and they will give you 15 eggs every day. The second day you have a tray and your neighbours or shopkeeper make a ready market. I did the maths and found that in one month these chickens can give you Ksh25, 600 and spare a tray for your family every week.

Do you more examples? Can you bake cakes? Can you sell mandazis to neighbours before you report to work (you only need to wake up at 5am), can you make special cards, and can you knit? Can you write business proposals or articles and sell to media houses (imagine I will be paid for telling you these things)? Can you take pictures on weddings or birthday parties? Can you stop plaiting your neighbours’ hair for free and make it a business (you don’t need a salon for this)? My neighbour sells airtime from her house and all tenants in our building go to her.

Do you begin to see the possibilities that surround you? Do you see how you can be happy, healthy and wealthy without robbing a bank? If you can have only five small businesses giving you Sh5000 a month each, that is Sh25, 000 a month. The idea is to know that you are God’s image and not a body that just falls sick, suffers stress for being broke, and sleeps hungry while surrounded by plenty.

When you start seeing yourself as a powerful and creative spiritual being, you will understand such sayings of Jesus as: “The Kingdom of God is right within you.” “Whatever you ask my father in my name you shall receive it.” “Ask and it shall be given you,” and many others in the New and Old Testament. God is simply telling you that everything you want is within reach. If you can think about it, if you can believe that you can achieve it, then you can achieve it.

Stop believing in magic like you do when you trust that sending your pastor all your salary will bring you wealth. That is akin to worshipping idols. Most of those “pastors” you see on TV asking you to send ‘first fruit’, ‘plant seed’ etc., are only using you as one of their MSIs. Imagine a thousand people sending Sh1000 every Sunday? That is an easy one million shillings! That is why they are driving huge cars and living in big mansions while you walk to work because you gave them all your money. How foolish?

Spiritual beings do not expect others to do the magic. They attract what they want because their spirit is like that of God. Many people give offerings to God, but not like many foolish people do, especially those who are desperate to receive a miracle. Instead of sending that TV pastor your Sh1000 via M-Pesa so that he can pray for you to get a job, buy a 2kg packet of flour, oil, salt and charcoal and start cooking chapatis at the gate of your home. I promise you that in three weeks you will be cooking three packets going to five. You will also soon be hired to cook in parties and other occasions.

Isn’t that a more realistic revelation than the one your TV pastor promises? No wonder you are told to Think, and Grow Rich. Note that I am not telling you to stop giving to God’s work, but don’t be swindled by false prophets, many of whom “will come in ‘My’ (Jesus) name.”

May the Holy Spirit come into your life and reawaken your creative spirit, which is your true self. If this happens, you will achieve results hitherto undreamed of, and rewards hardly to be expressed in words. God bless you!

By Christopher Maina

Published in June 2012