By Pat Hodges

For this blog article, it would be helpful if the reader would take a moment and read Romans 8:1-7

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

What does Paul mean when He states, “I have been ‘crucified’ with Christ”? I would submit that by in large the Christian world doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s actually referencing to in this passage. The term crucifixion, or crucified isn’t a term we like to commonly talk about nor think about . . . oh we’re fine with the thought that Jesus was crucified for our sin and that through that selfless act we can experience the joy of eternal life . . . but when we look at that term and how it relates to us personally as in living a “crucified” life . . . well, we just kind of give mental ascent to it without really looking into how it applies to our daily lives.

Taking a look at a practical example, have you ever been in a situation where you were actually wronged, wrongly accused or wrongly judged? Maybe someone jumped to the wrong conclusions about something they heard about you . . . also known as gossip (gossip runs amok in many churches by the way)! Very real wounds result from this, wounds that run deep and all too often won’t heal without some serious intervention. What do I mean by intervention? Taking deliberate steps to get healed!

There’s only one who can truly heal the deep wounds, and His name is Jesus Christ…

Ever hear the saying, “time heals all wounds”? That my friend is the farthest from the case, and it certainly isn’t based in any reality. There’s only one who can truly heal the deep wounds, and His name is Jesus Christ. The kind of healing that I’m referring to can only come one way, and that is by the crucifixion. Actually, there are 2 crucifixions that apply to this level of healing. The first being the crucifixion that Jesus accomplished 2,000 years ago, but also the process of being crucified with Him.

In the case of offence, being crucified with Christ requires at we willingly lay down our rights . . . the right to be offended and walk in that offence . . . the right to walk in rejection, the right to be resentful . . . or how about this . . . the right to be right! Now there’s a tough one . . . giving up the right to be right. Laying down our rights doesn’t mean that we ignore what happened, but what it does mean that we take our hands off, quit holding onto the offence and allow the Lord himself to bring the healing that is so desperately needed within us. Only then can we experience and actually live in the power of His resurrection.

Numerous times in my life I’ve had the opportunity to apply this very principle I’m referring to here. To be honest, early on, I knew about the principle but didn’t quite understand how to apply it practically in my own life in a real-life situation. Nothing will teach us like real life. Oh, I’d would say to myself, “Yes, I forgive that person”. I might even pray for them . . . but I would still feel the anger, the resentment or even the sting of bitterness. As long as I was feeling these things, I had not forgiven, nor was I healed in my heart.

I learned early on that If I was to be healed, I had to actively seek out the Lord my Healer, spend time in His presence and soak in the balm of Gilead as He ministered to me and restored my soul. Deep wounds don’t usually heal “overnight”. It takes time, and in order to have time, we must make time.

How did I know when I was truly healed? Very simple . . . when I would remember the person or what occurred that wounded me . . . but there was no corresponding emotion with it! When we experience the feeling like it was another lifetime, then we know we are truly healed.

by Pat Hodges

What’s a Comfort Zone?

Have you ever noticed some people seem to stay stuck in a certain place in their lives, maybe even making the same exact mistakes over and over again without seeming to being able to learn from them, or maybe you’ve seen people stuck in a mentality they can’t seem to change. More often than not this is a type of a “comfort zone”. Take the proverbial bachelor (male or female) who repeatedly chooses the wrong type of person to get romantically involved with. We often see this with repeated abusive relationships; the person gets out of one abusive relationship, just to eventually find themselves in another abusive relationship. Why does this phenomenon happen over and over? It can often be a “comfort zone”.

Several years ago I met Jennifer (names have been changed to protect true identities). She had been in a extremely bad relationship previously, in-fact she’d had a whole string of bad relationships. But then one day she met David and they fell in love and eventually got married. In the early stages of their marriage Jennifer would purposefully go out of her way to try to start arguments and fights with David. David, being the type of person he was, would refuse to argue or fight. This would only infuriate Jennifer even more and she would do and say even more outrageous things to try and initiate a fight. All the while David would find himself retreating emotionally from the one he loved. This further provoked even more outbursts from Jennifer. The day came when David was at his wits end, and he brought up the subject concerning his wife.

After going into frustrated detail concerning his wife’s behavior I asked him point blank if he knew any details about his wife’s home life as she was growing up. He stated that from what she told him, her home was in an uproar most of the time, chaos and conflict were the norm and she never knew when her father was going to fly off the handle over the smallest of issues. Suddenly the realization of what was underlying her outbursts hit me. She was accustomed to and quite comfortable with ongoing conflict in her relationships as that was all she’d known in her home as a child. To her, conflict was a part of a “normal” relationship and on going conflict was her comfort zone. With the absence of strife she felt totally out of her element and very uncomfortable.

Comfort zones can play a huge part in finances also. Ask yourself this, “what account balance am I comfortable with keeping in the bank? $2000, $1000 maybe $500 or less? How about almost $0? Maybe you’ve never even thought of it. I can tell you this, if you analyze your average monthly balance over 6 months to a year, that average amount is right where your comfort zone is. If you’re averaging $2000 that’s your comfort zone, if you’re averaging $500 that’s your comfort zone . . . believe it or not, for many it’s almost $0. For many, their comfort zone is barely making it from paycheck to paycheck. As soon as they perceive they have over and above whatever amount that is their comfort zone, they’re out spending the “surplus” as fast as they can. I’ve seen this same pattern in my own finances, once I stepped back and really took a look at it. I was shocked! My personal comfort zone at one time in my life had been “up to my eyeballs” in debt and with hardly any money in the bank come payday.

Change Your Comfort Zone

If you aren’t happy with where your financial comfort zone is, you can change it! Yes, I said YOU can change it. It isn’t up to your spouse, your best friend, your parents or your banker. It isn’t even up to God! The power is with you! For us to really change our comfort zones, it requires discipline . . . and not necessarily the kind of discipline one might expect. Of course the spending habits have to change, but a change must come before even that. There must be a change in the mindset about your financial condition and position.

Start daydreaming . . . start picturing yourself with more money in the bank than what you’re presently comfortable with. I’m not referring to suddenly thinking about millions in the bank. How about starting with $100 to $150 if you’ve been living too close to the edge of $0. If you’re accustomed to keeping $1000 to $1500, step it up a notch and start daydreaming about there being a consistent balance of several thousand dollars. when you daydream about it, try and get a sense of how it would feel to live life everyday without the nagging thought in the back of your mind, “If I spend this amount of money, I’m going to be almost bankrupt until payday.” Start imagining yourself with more than enough finances to get you through to the next payday. In fact, start seeing yourself in your minds eye with money left over in your account when your next paycheck arrives. It could be $50, $100, $200, $500 or even several thousand!

Be realistic, but make sure that amount, whatever it may be, is beyond your current comfort zone.

Every comfort zone we have begins in our core beliefs. Every decision we make in life and our finances begins in our core beliefs; what we believe concerning our world round us, our present circumstances, our future and what we believe concerning ourselves . . . all of it originates from our core beliefs. Whether right or wrong the core beliefs we hold to affect every decision we make and how we live day to day.

If we want permanent changes in our finances, it requires that we change on the inside, not just in what we do or don’t do.

Stop The Impulse Buying

Much has been already written on this subject by others, so I won’t deliberate on it a whole lot except to say that impulse buying is nothing more than emotional buying. Maybe you’re having a rough day and need an emotional “pick me up”. You go down to the corner store and grab a Snickers and a Coke, or maybe you go to a clothing store and buy a new outfit . . . ahhh . . . that feels better, you tell yourself. But your wallet and budget suffer for it. Mix the credit card into the situation so that the bank account doesn’t immediately suffer and without realizing it you’re potentially digging a bigger hole yourself.

I realize the Snickers and Coke won’t do the harm immediately, but habitual impulse buying sure will! Keep it regulated and under control.

By Pat Hodges

What Controls Our Money Habits

The subject of money habits can be a very lengthy and involved subject, however in this post we aren’t even going to attempt an exhaustive write up on the subject. We will go over some key factors when it comes to our money habits.

First up, many of us get the basic foundations of our money habits from our parents or other authority figures in our lives. If our parents tend to have expensive tastes, more than likely we will too. If our parents were tight with their spending habits, more than likely we will have the same tenancies. If our parents found it difficult to live within an established budget, we will too. If overspending was an issue with our parent’s more than likely we will struggle with the same thing.

The good news is even though we may find ourselves following in our parents footsteps, we can change! Some of the key how to’s in bringing changes will be addressed later.

Circumstances are another defining factor that can dictate our money habits. If we grow up in an insecure environment, with numerous geographical moves or unsteady employment in the family or maybe the vocation of the breadwinner in the household had a feast or famine dynamic to it. There may have been the issue where our parent’s struggled with correctly prioritizing where the money needed to be spent. They might have put discretionary spending over bills, such as going out to eat and going to movies rather than paying the electric bill or even making the car payment.  All of these factors affect money habits. Our experience with money forms not only our money habits, but invariably form our financial attitudes as well. Our attitudes about money stem from our thoughts about money, both conscious and unconscious thoughts.

What’s Your Mindset?

Proverbs 23:7(a) says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .” in other words if a person thinks of themselves as being poor (regardless of how much money they have or don’t have) they will act poor with their money. They have what I call a poverty mindset. I’ve even seen the wealthy with poverty mindsets.

A poverty mindset can manifest any number of different ways. Years ago, I used to work in the field of personal protection for those who had considerable wealth. Some were famous, others were not famous. The interesting thing I noticed was with certain people, it didn’t matter how much money they had they were always thinking they didn’t have enough. I worked for millionaires and billionaires that had that mindset! The poverty mindset says, “I’ve never had this therefore I deserve it, regardless of the cost or amount of debt it’s going to put me in”. This is how “overnight” millionaires wind up dead broke in a matter of a few years. We’ve all heard stories about how people have won the lottery and in a matter of years they’re right back where they were financially before they won the lottery. How does this type of thing occur? It doesn’t just happen. There are mindsets and attitudes about money involved that bring about wrong actions, wrong decisions and wrong ways of handling money.

On the opposite end of the spectrum I’ve seen those who had limited funds that didn’t have a poverty mentality at all. Even though their funds were limited, they never walked around wringing their hands, sitting up all night worrying about how they were going to make their bills, but lived comfortably within an established budget, not buying or going into debt up to their eyeballs because they were trying to keep up with the Jones’ or buying vehicles they could not afford to maintain, or buying real estate they could not afford to pay the property taxes on. Instead, these individuals exercised great wisdom with the handling of their finances and as a result, they visibly were enjoying life more that some of the ones who had boatloads of money.

So, here’s the question. What is your mindset and attitude? Are you one who worries over your lack or even over your prosperity? Do you lay awake at night fretting over what you’ve spent, or how you’re going to pay that next bill because of your misappropriation of your money. Or are you the person who lives within a realistic budget regardless of your prosperity or lack of it, and has learned how to use wisdom in the handling of your finances?

In the next blog installment, we’ll be addressing comfort zones and how to go about changing that poverty attitude and mentality that you may be living with.

By Pat Hodges

Friends, it’s time we came out of the dark ages on the subject of finances. God wants to bless you, but it comes with the responsibility of being able to handle your finances, exercising responsibility with purchases in the store, not buying everything your eyes want, not abusing credit and being disciplined to live on a budget.

I hear it all the time and you have too and maybe you’ve even said it multiple times, “If I only had more money”. I’ve even said it in the past. In most cases having more money is not the issue. The real issue is how we handle the money we do have? How we handle $100 is how we will handle $1000. If we’re irresponsible with $100, we’ll be irresponsible with $1000. If we’re responsible with the $100 we’ll be responsible with the $1000.

Analyze your money habits

Often we’ve heard people say, “If I had a million dollars I’d do this or that with it, I’d give to this charity or that ministry”. The truth is, if we aren’t doing it now, we very likely wouldn’t do it if we did have a financial windfall. If we aren’t investing now the chances are slim to none that we would invest later. People dream all the time of winning the lottery, but if we have a poverty mentality now, we will have a poverty mentality even if we did win the lottery or suddenly came into money through an inheritance. Bad money habits and a poverty mentality won’t just fix themselves and they certainly aren’t fixed with more money. Neither will we wake up one day to suddenly realize that they have magically vanished.

Here’s the shocker . . . God doesn’t trust everybody!

For those of you who say, “Aww . . . money isn’t important” (I used to say it myself), I have a question. If it isn’t important, then why are you praying for it all the time (as I did)? Our attitude towards finances will dictate how much or how little He trusts us in the area of financial blessing and our attitude always dictates our financial habits.

Take the time to educate your self in the area of money

One of the leading causes of ongoing financial hardship is the lack of understanding when it comes to money. How can we expect to successfully manage what we do not understand? Financial literacy is a huge deficit in this country. They sure don’t teach it in grade school nor in most colleges or universities. Therefore it’s up to the individual to seek out those who do teach in the realm of finance and they are out there, but you do have to hunt them down. Dave Ramsey is an excellent resource in this area. He not only has published a number of excellent practical books, but can be heard on radio through his regular radio broadcast.

Remember “Your financial attitude dictates your financial altitude.”

By Pat Hodges

It’s been quite some time since anything has been posted on the Omega Ministries website. We know it hasn’t gone unnoticed. We have been contacted by some, concerned about how we’re doing, some have asked if we’ totally walked away from public ministry, etc.

The answer to these questions are yes, we’re okay and no we haven’t waked totally away from public ministry. Yes, I laid it down, but have not totally turned my back on it . . . there is a difference! We have laid down public ministry for the last 8 years, and I for the most part laid down any type of ministry for much of that time except for private ministry. For personal reasons I came to the place that that’s what I felt that was what was required. Without boring you with all the drama, I abruptly found myself in a place that I could not soldier on in public ministry without taking some time out.

There is no shame in this. We’ve all seen those who have tried to press on when they should have taken some time off . . . they didn’t and it didn’t end well. I did not want to be one of those statistics! Wisdom had to prevail.

The Lord has made it abundantly clear that this season is over. Through a series of dreams, and even situational setups which He orchestrated as well as numerous prophetic words, He has made it very clear that it’s time to re-engage. To that end I will be obedient.

So, with that being the case, the first and easiest and maybe obvious place to re-engage is on this website and with the videos. As the Lord opens doors for public ministry I will walk through them . . . the night is over and a new day has dawned for this ministry.

For those of you who have faithfully prayed for us during this time, a big heartfelt thank you goes out to you. To you who have lovingly ministered to us during this season, thank you. May the Lord reward you all richly!

By Pat Hodges

Very recently Misty and I were ministering in a leadership conference here in the Dallas area with Judy Brooks (some of you may know who she is) of Empowering International Ministries. The name of the conference was “Eagles Arising Stronger”. During the conference the Lord addressed that He wants more that just the eagles to arise, He wants them released!

The release of the eagles marks a shift in the prophetic season we’re in. Some have been “sidelined” by the Lord for a prophetic “refitting” of equipment, while others are being released for the first time. Some have gone through a season in the “cave” as Elijah experienced in 1 Kings 19, others have been patiently waiting to get their feathers for their first flight.

I want to address those of you who’ve been in your cave. Some of you thought it was circumstances that took you into your cave season, others it seemed as though you just grew too tired and needed a rest. You’ve probably have been feeling like you failed God and the ministry. After all, why would you feel like you’ve been walking in such dark places, with little or no vision at all if it weren’t for “failure”? But the word of the Lord to you is, He brought you to that cave you’ve been in! He brought you to this place to restore your soul and to rebuild the broken places in your life so you can progress in your walk with Him (not just in your ministry).

Others of you have been in the cave for a refitting, you’ve been there for a repurposing. Promotion time is on the horizon although it may feel like it’s been a season of demotion. God has been stripping away the old to refit you with the new. When this happens our ministries change, grow and progress. The anointing He has put in you strengthens. The sphere of influence often times grows. With this greater authority comes greater responsibility.

Much of the time we equate inactivity in ministry with wasted time, when in fact that may not be the case at all. A very well know minister by the name of Bob Jones told me once, “When God gives you a vacation, you’d better take it, ’cause you’re going to need it for the next season”. It’s in these seasons of activity that God can bring transformation in our lives and ministries. Many of you have been and are going through these transformations.

Be encouraged, you aren’t “doomed” to inactivity forever.