Rob shared…
I have something on my heart and thought maybe this might be for someone else as well. I woke up and God was impressing me about the finances of the church and the finances for each one of us. That we need to be contending for that. A little self-disclosure. This is an area I’ve struggled with a little bit because I love the Lord so much. In some ways I’ve kind of protected myself from sometimes pulling and contending as much because in my mind I thought, okay, if I ever got that kind of blessing, that maybe my heart would be drawn off the wrong way. So that’s kind of religious thinking. Anybody else struggled with that? You think, maybe I’m not ready for that because then when that comes I might be drawn off. I’m being really transparent. I’ve not always contended for what God has for us. For my life and maybe somebody else needs to hear this. We need to be because God’s got some things to do and He needs all of us. And it’s not wrong thinking to be expecting that and to be believing for that. It’s right thinking. It’s God thinking. God is a God of abundance. So that was what I getting first thing in the morning is contending like there are some things that are ready to explode in the church. And these big chunks, we need to not be thinking about the big chunks coming from somebody else. The big chunks… we should be thinking, God may want those big chunks come from us. So we need to be thinking God thoughts. God-without-limit thoughts. We may not be able to see that naturally how that’s going to happen, but God’s not limited by that. He’s got ways that are so far beyond our ways of thinking. We need to be open to that. “Okay, God, I trust You. When that comes, my heart is Yours. When You tell me to give to this need, to this ministry, to this church, You have my heart so therefore You have the money that’s flowing through me. And I trust You will protect my heart. You will give me that tenderness to seek you early in the morning. And if You say to give it all, it’s Yours, Lord. It’s not mine anyways. It’s yours.” He might choose to bless you in the process. He might allow you to use some of that money to be a blessing. But in the end, you’re all mature. And we have to trust that. “Lord, I’m open to whatever blessings You’ve got coming my way.” This was that contending I was getting. Then I was reading some devotions from the Copelands and the one this morning was titled, “Live Like a King.” So I said, “Okay, God, You’re speaking to me here.” I’m going to read this devotion this morning and let it minister to your heart.
The scripture was Romans 5:17 in the Amplified. “For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace and the free gift of righteousness reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”
We are reigning as kings. Well, kings don’t have a problem with money. They’re living as kings and they’re using that money to help their kingdom, right? It’s not because of something that we deserve that we’ve done, but it’s because of what Jesus did that we have that free gift. Gloria wrote this one.
Live Like a King
In Deuteronomy 28, God told the Israelites if they would hearken diligently to His voice and do what He said, He would set them high above all nations. He told them to be diligent about His Word. That’s because the curse also listed in Deuteronomy 28 is out there working 24 hours a day. The Devil is diligent in his destructive work so they had to be diligent about the things of God. If they obeyed God, He promised to bless them. Not just a little here and there, but in every area of their natural lives. He said they’d be blessed in the city and in the field. Their children would be blessed. Their crops and livestock would be blessed. Their baskets and storehouses would be blessed. He said they would be blessed when they came in and when they went out. Their enemies would flee before them in all directions. Their finances and everything they put their hand to would be blessed.
That was God just working in their lives. They had to be diligent to step out in that but God was just supernaturally gonna blessed them. The enemy doesn’t want that and he would like to keep us in an area. But we’ve got to contend for those blessings that are ours, because God wants us to be blessed. He wants us to be that light. She continued…
God didn’t leave anything out of that blessing. In spite of Satan’s authority over the world at that time, God made a way through His Word for His people to have the most wonderful life that anyone could imagine. The life of a king. He desired for His people to be so blessed that the whole world would know just by looking at them that they belong to God.
That’s us too! Yeah! All of our families, our neighbors, all those people should be looking at us and saying, I don’t know what’s going on with them but there is something happening. And I want to know. He wants to draw people to Himself. He wants to use you.
So think about that. When God’s people are blessed, He receives the respect He deserves from the rest of the world. Even the ungodly are forced to say, Hey those people serve a living, powerful God. They might start out at the bottom of the barrel, but their God always makes them rise to the top. Romans 5:17 clearly says that He wants us to live and reign like kings. And now because of the covenant of the blood of Jesus and the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can do it. Not just physically but spiritually too. He has done everything He can to get us to raise our expectations higher. He wants us to know that He is willing and able to do for us super abundantly, far and above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, thoughts, desires, hopes, and dreams, according to Ephesians 3:20. He wants us to believe His Word and act on it. He wants us to walk upright before Him. He wants us to fully take advantage of His covenant of blessing that we astonish the world. He wants us to be so assured of His blessing that we will stop being concerned about ourselves and start being a blessing to all the families of the earth. He wants us to live like kings.
Ron continued…
Yeah! So I for one am stopping that “stinkin’ thinkin’ and I’m opening myself up and I will not hinder that anymore. Lord, just be a blessing in my life. And each one of you need to be believing for that too. Pastor Mac is believing for chunks to come in. Well, that’s not just so that we can all have these things that we want. There are things that God wants to do right now in the church and He wants to use you and you and you and you and you through that. We can’t be afraid that we’re going to consume it on our own lusts or be dragged away by our own ways. We trust in God that He’s going to help us and develop us. And when the time is right, He says, Okay, I can use you. So we need to be saying, God I trust in You. You know my heart, that it’s pure before You. I trust You that You’re going to bless me and that I will be a tool for you. I will be alight for You. I will use those finances to be a blessing to others.
Prayed…
So, Lord, we give that to you. We say use us. Freely bless us, Lord. Not to consume it on our own lusts but to be used by You, to be a light in this world so that others would see the blessings that You’ve given to us. Thank You, Lord, that we are a light. Thank You for those chunks that are coming into this church, into this body for this time, Lord. It will be accomplished. There is nothing that will be hindered in the heavenlies. Thank You, Father. We just pray right now that anything that’s trying to hinder that, it’s gone. That hindrance is finished. It’s done. So we thank You right now, for the flow of finances. Thank You for that flow that’s coming through each of us. We desire to be used by You and we thank You for that. (praying in the spirit) release, release those finances right now… finances, come in… right now in Jesus’ name… we have need of you and we command you to come into this church right now… release, release…
Pastor Ray…
Rob, when you started praying, I heard, “liberality.” And it kept coming up. “We’re be known for our liberal giving, not maybe always for what we drive or where we live but we’ll be known as believers when we are liberal in giving.” Over the top and lifting others up.
Praying…
We crush poverty… crush lack… we come against it by the blood of the Lamb… that kind of thinking that it’s right to be under and not over, we crush that… we come against it… it’s religious in its operation… and the devil will use religion to hold the church back or down… but no, we have the authority …
This goes along with the message this morning. I’ll give you an example of the opposite of what we’re talking about, about being kings. In the 60s, I was so embarrassed by the nice car that I had because I had poverty mentality. I wasn’t saved at this time. Even though I had a nice car, the people that I was hanging around with, they looked down on it like, “Who do you think you are?” They thought I should drive a wreck. So I actually did! I drove into a car dealership and sold it and I lost money on it. But I was so happy, I thought. You talk about deception! I bought a car for $200 that had the transmission, the shifting was in the middle of the steering wheel. It was so tacky. But I thought it was right. That’s so opposite of kings, royalty, prosperity. Oh! Wow… So that was kind of a rabbit trail.
Yesterday, toward the end of prayer, I had this in my heart. We were talking about brother Hagin and that we would restudy all the things that he said by the spirit. The books. Annie said you can download so many of his meetings. She said she has it going on in her purse, wherever she goes. I came to my office and got a whole row of brother Hagin books. “Oh, I think I’ll pull one of these out.” By accident, instead of pulling out the Believer’s Authority, I pull out “The Authority of the Believer,” by John McMillian. Brother Hagin said that’s the book that got him going on the authority of the believer. At the beginning of this book, he’s talking about the authority of the believer but he said “as a result of my studies, I concluded that we as a church have authority on the earth that we’ve never yet realized. Authority that we’re not using. A few of us have barely gotten to the edge of that authority but before Jesus comes again, there is going to be a whole company of believers who will rise up with the authority that is ours. They will know what is theirs. They will do the work that God intended them to do.” That’s us!
In McMillian’s preface, it’s a prophecy or poem. It’s anonymous. It said, “When mountain walls confront the way, why sit and weep. Arise and say, be thou removed.” So poverty, lack, stinking thinking, we say be thou removed and “they shall be by the power of God cast into the sea. All power on earth, all power in heaven to Christ the Son of God is given. And from the throne, he will and do and hindrances will flee from you.” Lack and poverty are hindrances. It’s the enemy’s way of holding us down. We’re free! We’re in the land of more than enough. Hallelujah!
“Take from him power on earth to tread on serpent’s sting on dragon’s head. Wherever thou art, O mountain high, wherever thou art, in earth or sky, whenever thou art, truth is the same, be thou removed in Jesus’ name.” All wrong thinking, wrong ideas… be removed. Wrong thinking is “I can’t do that… I can’t give that.” That’s wrong thinking. We can do with the right kind of thinking. We can do all things.
“Be thou removed, faith bids thee start for yonder sea arise, depart. I may, I can, I must, I will, the purpose of my God fulfilled.” What’s His purpose? Bringing in the lost, those that are unsaved. Cindy shared with me that she was working as a waitress in 1995. Some people she was waiting on invited her to Living Word. They said, “Do you need a church? Would you like to visit a church? We’ve got a great church.” She said a year later she was thinking about it. She remembered those people that invited her to church. So she looked up where it was and the rest is history. All they did was invite her to church. It took months, a year, before she made a decision. That’s how the Word can work. Let’s be more bold and operate in greater courage. Let’s use what the Lord has given us. More for Him because there is more that is coming to us to do what He wants us to do.
Increase in finances… increase in health… in wisdom… increase in every area of our lives… spirit, soul, and body… we brush away every doubt and all lack… we call those chunks our way… the joy of the Lord is our strength… miracles, supernatural undeniable miracles… it’s not for someone else… I hear Him say it’s for us personally… and preparations have already been made… we dust off our expectation… we see things… we know things… hear things…speak things… and they’re coming to pass… so the favor of God is going before us… making a way… Jesus has already made a way…
Brother Dave, why don’t you take the mic. I feel like there is something… I don’t know if you’re supposed to pray it or say it about finances.
Dave…
I got this thing about the money thing. The think about the giving thing or Rob you were saying something about the mentality behind the blessing and provision of God. One of the hindrances to gaining prosperity is that. It’s not God withholding from you but it’s you’re not reaching out and apprehending. When God offers you a gift and hands it to you, you need to reach out and grab it. Even though God can stand there and hold that gift in front of you, but the way you think about your ability or worthiness… this has nothing to do with worthy. You being worthy of His blessing or you being elevated to a level of maturity or to a place where you’re now at a place where you can receive that gift… God knows you and He’ll never overload you greater than you can handle. But I think we tend to error in the area of not reaching out and taking that which He’s given us. The way we apprehend is by our faith. How we act toward that which He has provided of said through His Word. I know some people that are… like politics, for example. They say, I’m just not political. Christians! They don’t vote because “I’m just not political.” Yet, the country could be going to hell in a hand basket and they’re professing that they’re not political. If you’re on this country, it’s your civil right and duty and not only God given duty… if He put you in this country, it is your responsibility to do that. But you can be a person who looks at it from a different way and say, “I just don’t want to blah, blah, blah.” And some of the best leaders are those who do not want to lead. But they stand up and lead because they believe they’re called to lead. And it’s those people that are better qualified to lead… it’s because they’re not looking for the limelight. They’re not looking for something to be added to them. They’re looking at “This is my right. My duty and so I’m going to get up and help you.” You’ve fallen therefore I’m going to pick you up. Finances is like that. You can say, “I got a good job and money in the bank.” So you don’t really press. But it’s not about you. It’s about what God wants to do. So we got to get out of the mentality of us having “us four and no more” mentality. God put you on this planet to be a blessing to the planet. You’re here for that purpose. And you’re a far greater blessing when you’re able to help other people. When you’re able to cut a check and take care of whatever… send the missionaries out. The missionary appreciates your prayers. But you give him a check and watch his eyes. For me, I’ve been guilty of that. I don’t really care about junk. I’m not a collector of things. Wealthy people have five houses and they maybe once a year get to one of their houses. They got a staff that runs that house. If they show up once a year, yet they pay for all of that just for them to stay once a year. Just go to a hotel. We shouldn’t be offended by that. We should just know that’s the way the world does it. You don’t have to do it that way. Take the wealth that God has laid up for the just and then part it into the world to have a positive effect that will change the world as we know it. So the mindset should be not “I need a new car, house, whatever.” Lord, give me a vision of something you want to do that I could be part of. That’s where your focus should be. There should be a financial connection. I want your prayers but a check would help me get to the missions field quicker. That seems kind of low level thinking and it is. Us thinking just of ourselves is not a good thing. So ask the Lord what it is that He can connect you financially. We need to get a vision for something and then press and believe for that thing for God to increase you in that thing. See what I’m saying?
