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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
An Anointing To Prosper | Chris Cody | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry. Well, Father, we've come for your plan. God, you said that you have set a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And so we come to the table tonight with an appetite. We come with an appetite for all that you have provided. We come with an appetite for victory. And God, we just so thank you, God. I just pray for myself that as Pastor Morgan said that the people's answer will be found in my mouth tonight. That God, that you'll give me utterance and that it will flow free and unhindered out of me. God, I know and I'm in faith on their side for them, the people that God, they're going to receive, they're going to pull because utterance is greatly affected by the hearer. And so we just throw off all the midweek tiredness or anything and we center up praise God and what you're doing right here in this moment to get it all. And at the end, God, we're believing that we will all be helped and even more importantly, that you will be glorified. We thank you for this in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said amen. Amen. Well, you could be seated tonight. Praise God. Good evening. You know, as you're sitting here, you could turn in your Bible as you're getting seated and comfortable to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. I just have to say what an honor for me. Wow. To stand where so many others stand and, and have stood. Honor and highlight of my 2019 right here and beyond that. So to be invited to minister to you is a high and holy thing. Pastor Morgan, Pastor Nancy Grant, Steve, everybody, thank you so much. I know my wife, if she's still awake, she's kind of an she like George Bush, she goes to bed early. But anyway, maybe she found enough energy to watch me. But praise God, going to jump right into it tonight. I have something rolling around on the inside of me and would love to have your help getting it out. Would that be all right? I used to be sort of a straight teacher and I got something to teach, so don't be intimidated by all these notes. I just believe in being over prepared. But over time the Lord has sort of expanded me and oftentimes I come to the pulpit With a direction, an inkling. But I'm really dependent on the Holy Ghost and the people to draw out of me what's needed. And I know I'm in a congregation with skill in that regard. So, so grateful. So let's just jump into it tonight, right? Luke, chapter four. I want to talk to us about prosperity. Pastor Nancy ministered to me when she was recently at our church by the Spirit and said that God, the Holy Ghost was going to bring me into a new room, room of revelation, of more light concerning prosperity. And thrilled about that. I wouldn't say that I'm in that room yet. The Holy Ghost said he's bringing me into there, so maybe I'll get in it tonight as I'm ministering to you. Excited about it. But the Lord has been dealing with me off and on about the subject of prosperity for a couple of years. In fact, in 2017, around October, I was here at the Bible school in my hotel praying and always love having the opportunity to come because God talks to me when I'm here in my hotel room. And I was praying in the spirit, and the Spirit of God just came on me. And I went to my computer and started typing what was flowing up out of my heart. And he said, we're going to read it in Luke 4. He said, the anointing to prosper has come upon you and your wife to abide. He said, there is an anointing to prosper. Because I went, hmm, you know, I'm around good teaching. I'm trying to think if I'd heard that before, there is an anointing to prosper. And he gave me Isaiah 10:27, that the anointing breaks the yoke. And unless you are rolling in money, if you've ever been through a season of need and stretch and press where you had more month than money. Anybody ever have more month than money? I've faced that before in my life too. Well, we know that lack and financial pressure becomes a yoke. You know, when I'm here, I review the causes of divorce with the students. When I teach on family, one third of divorces in the United States that will happen this year will happen because of financial pressure. It just breaks down when people don't know how to handle it. They don't know how to cast their cares, they don't know how to tap into supply. It just breaks down the mind. People can't take it and they throw off their bonds, they throw off their covenants reaching for something else. It's really sad. And so but if there is a yoke, if finances have ever, the lack of them has ever weighed you down, put pressure on you, became a yoke to you, a burden to you. Well, Isaiah 27 tells us that there must be anointing to break that off. Because the anointing breaks the yoke. The anointing removes burdens. And so the Spirit of God said to me, there is an anointing to prosper. Let's go ahead and read verse 18 so that you could see that for yourself. Very familiar verse of Scripture, verse 17 says, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Notice that's the anointing. The Holy Spirit, the anointing, the word power are all synonymous terms. Is that right? That's what we've been taught. That's what the Bible teaches. So the Spirit of the Lord is up on me because he has anointed me. Now notice the first thing. Maybe the Lord knows something about how common and pervasive financial bonds and burdens and pressures are. Because he said, the first thing I'm anointed to do is what y' all get to know me. I like talk back. So it's okay to talk back, Praise God, to preach or to proclaim good news to the poor. And of course, what would good news to the poor be? You don't have to be poor no more. Forgive me if my Kentucky comes out. Alright, you don't have to be poor no more. And so when the Lord said, the anointing to prosper has come upon you and your wife to abide. There is an anointing to prosper. Gave me these two scriptures. Then he said, here's how that anointing is going to work. Keep preaching it. Keep preaching it. Notice how this anointing on Jesus to get poverty off people worked on him. We know, right, that there are different types of anointing. There's an anointing to teach. There's a healing anointing right there. There's an anointing for, you know, many, many things. Well, we need to learn about this anointing to prosper. This anointing that removes lack and debt and pressure and not having enough and all that goes with that. Well, how did Jesus flow in the anointing to prosper? How did he get that over to people? He preached it. So much of what needs to be broken off of your life is going to happen as you sit under the preaching and the teaching of the Word. I love what I heard Pastor Nancy say recently just thrills me because sometimes, you know, with a teaching, gift is dominant in me. I. I'm all about the move of the Spirit. And God's taken me more out in that. We may have something tonight to minister to. I don't know yet. But, you know, sometimes I've got to the end of the preaching and teaching of the Word in my church, and I didn't have an unction to do anything else. And in our minds, we want to think maybe, well, that's a down service. No, listen, I heard her say, when you sit under the preaching and the teaching of the Word, you just experienced the works of Jesus because he went about the cities and villages teaching and preaching. And so two thirds of what he did was put the Word out. And that's what the Lord said to me. He said, chris, just keep putting the word out. Just keep preaching what you have on prosperity. Just keep preaching it. Because those that sit under it, those that get ahold of it, it'll break the yoke of lack. It'll break the yoke and the burden of poverty off those that sit under it. And so I'm here excited to have a few minutes on a Wednesday night or Tuesday night on a Tuesday night to put this out, to minister this as the Lord would help me. And if you will grab it, if you will take hold of it, if you'll just let the anointing that's on the Word minister to you, it could break something off of you. Hallelujah. You know, it hurts. It hurts come Christmas time when you can't buy what you want to buy for your children. It hurts when normally you take a vacation. This year you can't. It hurts when you go to a meeting and you want to get involved with a project to advance the kingdom and you just don't have it to give, right? It hurts. And there's an anointing to fix that hurt. There's an anointing to remove the root of that. You know, we're talking about the end time harvest, the end time revival, and the beginnings of what we're experiencing. If you read Joel talking about the latter rain, the early and the latter rain being poured out in that little book, it talks about a season of great financial prosperity and restoration of all that the canker worm, the Palmer worm, the consuming locust, has eaten with this outpouring is going to come. Come on, a restoration of finances, and we've got to have it Now God's got me in Paducah. I didn't know where Paducah was when it came up. I didn't know if I was going to have to take a ship. I didn't know if I was going to have to parachute in. I didn't know it was. It happened to be in the. I could drive there. And I'm so happy to be in Paducah. Right in my Little county of 80,000 people, I have 34 to 40 million dollars of buildings to build in my heart, should the Lord allow me to stay there just to get done king to business in that little tiny part of the world. If you gave me $34 million today, I got it spent. Come on. I got tithe going and I got offering going and I got it spent. Amen. And we're so thrilled with what God's done, having us build a campus. And some of you know, our story, it was a real fight of faith. And we're still building it. And we got about $2.2 million in it. We owe a whole lot less than that. But listen, God dealt with me about that. We bought the land in 2005. It's 2019. I don't have the building done yet. See, we've got to tap into. We've got to make advances. You need it for your family. You need it for what's in your heart. But this house needs it. This house needs it. This vision needs it. And I know you have a heart for it. So let's get into it. Amen. Praise God. Go to Deuteronomy, chapter number eight. Do you remember how Brother Hagin used to talk about that there are different sides to a scriptural mountain? And that if you were to go up, let's say, a literal mountain. I like hiking. If you were to go up the north face of something, you're going to get a particular viewpoint, Right? But if you were to climb back down, circle the mountain and go up the south side 180 degrees opposite. Is it the same mountain? Same mountain. Same mountain. Right. But your viewpoint could be totally different. So let me just point to something because I don't want to lose you. And I know you're well taught. I'm not going to lose you here because I'm going to give you the Word. But all that we just did is part of the truth of the ascendancy to prosperity. Worshiping God with our tithe, worshiping God with our giving, the giving, the actual release of those finances, the releasing of our faith. Then notice what we did. We. We gave thanks and we made a confession. Is that right? We made a confession of faith. My God shall meet all my needs. Right. And is that critically important? We've hiked that trail and we need to keep hiking it because it's a key to prospering. But if it were the only key, most of us would be multimillionaires. If all there was to prosperity was bringing our tithe, coming to church, bringing our tithe, giving generously making confessions, casting our cares, Right? Then we'd be there. We'd be there. And can we just be honest? We're not there. We're not there. And now that's not because we're on the wrong trail with tithing. You really want to hurt yourself? Stop doing that. You really want to undo it and get off trail and sabotage yourself? No. What I'm talking to us about tonight for the next few minutes is not. It doesn't have anything to do with saying that our approach to prosperity on this trail is wrong. It's vital, it's critical. But it's not the only view of the Prosperity mountain. Amen. And so I just want us to walk around to the other side of the mountain, start climbing up and let's see what we see that we might not be emphasizing or focusing on and maybe just flat overlooking because we're going to have to tweak something. I'm going to. I'm going to have to tweak something. Hallelujah. And I got a couple quotes here. Is that alright? Praise the Lord. I like what I heard, Pastor Nancy. Quote from the Nigerian pastor, there's a place for us at the top if we're interested. This is something I said. Yours truly, I believe the greatest wasted resource on planet Earth is human potential. Human potential. And then let's not forget what the spirit of God told. Dr. Dufresne in Lima, Peru. 98%, including you, preacher, 98% of my people live beneath. Right. See, I'm going to have to bring us to reality and then we'll bring us back up. Okay? From what you know, from what God's provided. And do you remember doctor asked dad asked God, what do you mean? What's the standard? How will I know when I got there? And he said, well, you know, you remember under the old Covenant with my Jewish people, when a young couple got married, they took an entire year off just to get to know one another. So he said, this is how. This is the standard the Lord gave Dad. Amen. That when you can take a Year off and it not hurt you financially. Now we know we're out of the 98%. Now, listen, don't get discouraged by that. Praise God. God said, you, too, preacher. And me too, preacher. But we just need to learn and press and keep believing. And I thank God. God's talking to us about more light, more light, more revelation. And the spirit of God said to me through Pastor Nancy, with this is going to come the utterance to communicate prosperity where the people can get ahold of it. That really excites me because I know I can get in my own way, much less your way, trying to preach and teach sometimes. So don't worry about the authors of these quotes here, okay? I just like the words because it's from a secular source. The source was, don't make excuses, make progress. I just like that. I just like that a lot. Right? And then this same lady said, don't get sidetracked by people who are off track. Get sidetracked by people who are off track. Here's another one. No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind. See, I dig this stuff out because it feeds me. Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes. All fortunes began with an idea. Facebook began with an idea. Microsoft was started in a man's garage. So was Apple, Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, Yahoo. I mean, praise God. How did all. Billions. Billions. Billions, Right. See? Make your confessions, but look for ideas. I think Pastor Morgan made that confession that God we're getting. Thank you for divine ideas. Divine ideas. The Bible talks about the knowledge of witty inventions. You know, you could go from nothing to mega billions. How are those people doing that? They don't even know God. They don't have a covenant with God. They don't have the life of God on the inside of them. I've been studying the millionaire mindset from a lady. She's no fool of Jesus. She's really not. But it's amazing to me. I'll read her book and she will. Well, this one just blew me out. I had to just throw my iPad down. I said, father. Well, she. Well, just gimme a few things that I found in her book. She said, when I'm doing a business deal and she's big into real estate and commercial developments in Australia and different things. And she would say, when I get stuck. When I get stuck and I don't know what to do, here's what I do. I get a blank pad of paper and a pen and I get off and I go sit in a peaceful place and I look to my subconscious until my subconscious gives me the answer and I go implement it and it does the deal. It makes me money. Listen, she's not even born again. She's not even born again. And she's getting ideas that we would call divine. I mean, well, I keep reading and she said, I found this out over the years, that when I give at least 10% of my profits to charity, my deals go bigger and better and are more profitable. That's when I threw my iPad away. Here we have an unbeliever. Someone who lives under the dominion of a dark lord Satan who has figured out tithing. And I tossed it and I said, father, you're going to have to talk to me. And he just talked right back to me. He said, chris, listen. Anyone, listen, pay attention to this. Anyone anywhere that bumps into or discovers a principle that I've laid out in my word. It's wisdom. It's wisdom, and if they do it, it'll work for them. No, I missed that. He said, it's wisdom and it is me speaking to them because wisdom speaks. And if they do it, it'll work for them, even if they're unbelievers. Now that's kind of stirs us, doesn't it? But shame on us. Not here to beat us up, not here to. Let's. We got to go to a different side of the mountain. Here we have unbelieving, unregenerate. They are not new creations. They are practicing laws that produce wealth. They are putting them into practice. They are discovering them without reading their Bible. They're putting them into practice and they're making millions. So see, we're behind. How much more should we. How much more should we who are filled with the spirit tap into divine life? So many of God's people bumping their head against the wall, trying this, trying that. You know, this same lady, she said, listen, if you've lived very long on this planet, don't blame anyone for your circumstances. You attracted it, you created it, you did it all by who you are on the inside. Well, listen, let's judge it. Let's judge it because we're not here to get excited about a secular millionaire. This is not one of those secular wealth creating seminars. That's not what this is about. But I'm hearing her talk and I'm thinking scriptures as a man thinketh. Proverbs 23:7. She couldn't quote you that scripture, but she's tapped into part of it. As a man thinks, as a man thinks in their heart, so are they My favorite translation of Proverbs 23:7 is the one that says, as a man thinks in his heart, so do they become. And one of the things that we need to work on is just beginning to get comfortable with the thought and the idea of being wealthy. Now, I've made a decision. I am going to be financially and materially wealthy. Now, I am wealthy. And you are, too. By the Bible, by redemption. For he who knew no poverty, Right. For he, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was so very rich, yet he became poor so that you and I might be made rich. Rich, Wealthy. I looked it up in the Greek. It means wealthy. Now, I want to put us all on a. On an equal playing field here, okay? Because I know the grace is on. I heard Dr. DeFrang say, and I agree with it, that doesn't mean we're all going to be multimillionaires. That doesn't mean. Right, but let's just define wealth. A whole lot more than what you need. Can we? That would put us all on an equal playing ground. To tap into it. To become wealthy, you're going to have a whole lot more than what you need. How about this church? A whole lot more than what we need. How about aviation? A whole lot more than what we need. Y' all are with me. Praise God. I didn't know if you were going to spend time looking at my ears, trying to figure me out, you know, see if you like my. Whatever. Let's read this. Deuteronomy, chapter 8. Deuteronomy, chapter 8. 8. And verse number 16. He's in the midst of talking. We'll just pick it up. Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers knew? Not that he might humble you, he might circle that. And that he might prove you to do you good at your latter end. Now he's talking about. They're about to go into the promised land. God's going to bring them in. He's telling them how wonderful it's going to be. Chapter 16 talks about how they're going to live in goodly cities that they did not build. Come on. They're going to live in houses they didn't build. They're going to pick fruit from vineyards they didn't plant. It's going to be awesome. And he's warning them, though. He said, you know, I had to bring you through the wilderness. I had to test you. I had to test you. Not with sin, not with anything like that, but God will. We have to pass money tests. That's one thing we need to start thinking about. It's not just our confession and we plunked money in a bucket and I'm done. We have to pass money tests, and there's all kinds of money tests. You're going to backslide every time a little financial pressure comes your way. You failed a money test. You're going to back off and stop tithing every time things get tight. You failed a money test, right? One Jewish author I read after, he said, there are two tests that come to every person. One is the test of poverty. Two is the test of wealth, and wealth is the greater test. Now, I don't know about you, but when things get desperate, when they've gotten desperate in my ministry and in my finances, my response, I got to go further to God. I got to press more in God. I. I'm praying more. I'm giving more. I got to have a breakthrough. I'm pressing because there's pressure on me, so it's easier for me to be praying and in the Word because I got that pressure. I'm letting that pressure drive me further because I want out of this. I want that need met. So that's not the hardest test of the two is the test of financial pressure. The more difficult test is, what will you do when you have everything, when there's no pressure? You got all you need. Will you be on your boat on Sunday instead at the lake instead of here? Will you become too good to usher because you're all that now? See, wealth is the greater test because there's no pressure. It's light. And it would be easy, knowing human nature, to throw off dependency on God and begin to trust in your abundance. So we have to get serious about passing money tests. Notice the first thing he said. I had to humble you. I had to show you you're not going to make it without me. And he's trying to tell them, don't you ever forget it. When you get over here and you got two houses and vineyards and things are nice, don't you ever forget you wouldn't have any of that without me. Yeah. And so I was painting my living room ceiling and listening to brother Stephen preach on humility. And just so bless me, I'm in there going, yeah, that's right. I'm not all that. Amen. Praise God. So we have that. Then notice I had to prove you. I had to prove you. That's the test part. He said, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you to give at inconvenient Times I'm gonna ask you to put. Put this nest egg thing that you had set up for whatever, your boat, your vacation, your whatever, and I'm gonna ask you to give it. Yeah, he would do all kinds of things to prove us in this. But notice the purpose of it, latter part of verse 16. To do the good. See, everything God is dealing with us about in this is to do us good in the end. To do us good in the end. I've had to stand for a year, for a solid year for a property to sell. And I have never needed God like this for this long. Have to bring in supernaturally money above and beyond my paycheck. And it wasn't fun. And part of it was opposition, part, you know, just opposition from the enemy. Part of it was probably just natural the dynamics of the real estate market where I live. But part of it is God saying, I'm just going to let you simmer in this pot for a while to where you can get over being distraught all the time because you don't know how this bill's going to get paid. You're going to have to learn the lesson about how to be sweet and be nice and be in faith and be in a good mood when you are under pressure. And so, yeah, part of it was the enemy. Part of it was natural, Part of it was business. Part of it's God. But see, it's to do me good. It's to do me good. And now that thing's in the process of breaking loose for me. But, you know, I've gotten into such a flow. God has so impressed me that I'm willing now eager to step into another plate, take a step of stretch to keep me in that place. Because I don't want to go back to only needing to being able to live within the constraints of my paycheck because it took me a lot of training to get here. I don't want to back up. And what that means is I'm in a different place, right? I'm in a different place. Here's where we're trying to get to. Verse 17, 18. He's warning them, lest you say in your heart when you get to this land, my power and my might by the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. Now we'll read verse 18, make more comment. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. You shall remember. Ought to do it every day, all the time. It is the Lord thy God. Now notice this. For it is he that giveth thee, it's he that Gives me. It's he that gives you the power to get wealth. Well, why would God have to instruct them and saying, be careful, remember, don't say my hand, by the might of my hand, I have gotten me this wealth. Why would he have to say that? Because it was through that divine ability God gave them to produce that wealth that they having it. And so it's through his grace and that divine ability, they do a deal, they make an investment, they get involved and it goes good and they start getting, yeah, look what I did. Look, look how smart I am. And he's saying, yeah, I used you. It came through your hand. Remember, you're just an instrument here. But here's the trail before we run out of time that I want to quickly kind of take a view of. Notice this verse says, this is old covenant people. This has to be our flow. It has to be. Because if it's their flow, if God will give an old covenant people who are not born again the divine ability to get wealth. And we're supposedly living in a new covenant based on better promises. This has to be our flow. So we're okay being over here in Deuteronomy on this thought, right? So notice this. He said, for it is the Lord thy God that gives you the power to get wealth. Now, for many years I think I read that and I may have read the word G E T get but in my mind I read it this way. God gives me the power to receive wealth. It does not say God gives us the power to receive it. Now wouldn't that you know. Now again, let me say something. Receiving miraculous increase is a real thing. It's just on a different trail of the mountain, looking at a different trail. I'm not coming against that. I'm wanting to look at this. See, it'd just be real easy to just say I receive it and expect multiple millions to show up in your account. But has that happened yet for you? Hadn't happened yet for me. Now, I have had supernatural things take place. You probably have too. But we're looking at this trail. So it says God gives us the power to get wealth. If you look it up, it's the Hebrew word asa. Asa. Let me turn my notes so I'll catch up with myself here. It's the Hebrew word for asa. And this is what it means. It means strength, Strength, power, ability to be able. This same Hebrew word is used when speaking of the strength of Samson in describing his hair. See, God can do weird things. It's called a wonder because it Makes you wonder how come he could do what he did because he had long hair. I don't know. But that's just. God can do what he. But the word strength, his strength was in his hair. That's that word. Okay? It's the same word in the Hebrew Daniel 1:4 that it says God strengthened Daniel mentally to be able to conduct his business for those administrations and to give his answer before the king. It's not that he had an inborn high iq, natural intellect. It's a strength. It's an ability that came from God that enabled him to thrive in that environment. That's that word, right? It's the same word, this word, strength, that when it says the prophet Elijah ate the angel's food and outran the king's chariot, it's the same word. See, the supernatural, something, something got on Samson, got in Daniel's thinking, and it got in Elijah's feet to enable him to do something he couldn't do without that strength. Now go back to this scripture, for God gives you. Everyone say me. He gives me strength. This divine strength. In this case, it's not to be mentally able to be quick on the fly with pressing questions or to outrun a king's chariot or to have supernatural strength physically. This is a supernatural ability, guys and gals, to make money. Now, if I lost you, I blew you out. Or you're with me. You okay? Check me out. So this word also means. This word, get it means to create. To create. Listen, the church needs more Christians on this trail of prosperity. We all love receiving wealth, but when we receive wealth, that means somebody had to tap into a flow to create what we received. And we need more people on the side of the creation part than just living on the receiving side. Thank God for the receiving flow, but we need to tap into this flow that God's given us, this divine ability, all of us. Now we have to hear from God because we're all different. I am not Brother Grant, and he's not me. Amen. I couldn't do it. You know, I'm doing good to do the. The color thing on the app where you just touch the button and what color it's supposed to be. I can't do what he does. But listen, every single one of us has an application of this verse in our life. Every single one of us. To do what? To create a whole lot more than what you need. We have a young man in our church, Precious. His name's Brandon. And Brandon has dealt with a very slight case of autism when I first started pastoring him, he wouldn't look at you, he wouldn't talk to you. And now he shakes hands and he talks, and he's bright and he's. He's just a wonderful, wonderful young man. But he has got. You put a pencil and a piece of paper, and he can draw anything to the most minute detail. I mean, landscapes, people. You just put it in front of him, he can draw it. And now they're in the process of putting some of that stuff on. Barnwood, Kentucky. Barnwood. Those original pencil drawings. He'll do custom stuff. See, here's a young man that in the natural has got a something to overcome, but he's got this unique gift from God that I don't have. And right there as he taps into that is the ability to have all more than what he needs. They got stuff they're working to put on coffee cup and T shirt. And I've got some of the Barnwood art in my office. It's just exquisite what he can do. And I couldn't do that. And he never went to school for it. He just sits down, does that. See, we're all different. All different. But while we're making our confessions, we ought to be looking also. It's not an or that's bad. Let's do this instead. No, no, no. We got to do it all. We got to do it all. That ability in you is not going to come unleashed the favor of God. The blessing of God's not going to open doors for that gift of find expression if you're a God robber. You know what I mean? Praise God. And I love what I've heard Pastor Nancy say. Our confessions are solely to show us what to do. You see, a lot of people have dreams, and when I hear them talk, I can see the hand of divinity on what they're saying. But a dream is nothing more than a fantasy until you translate that into a goal. What I'm talking about, I'm not talking about acting out of your mind. I'm not talking about positive thinking. I'm not talking about acting out of your flesh. I'm talking about having a dream that is from God. But you've got to take that and you've got to hear from the Holy Spirit about a divinely orchestrated step toward that thing. Do every. Do something every day to learn about that, to advance that, to put legs to that. You know, in 2004, God said to me in my office, I want. I was on my knees praying. And he said, chris, I want you to relocate your ministry. I want you to build from scratch. I want you to. He gave me all the criteria. It's got to have a regional feel, not a neighborhood feel. It's got to be on a major thoroughfare where all the people can come. I want you to relocate and get in position for last day. Move my spirit. I had no money. My ministry's in the hood. Ain't nothing wrong with being in the hood. But that's just where we were. We were in a very rundown part of town. We did have a building, but it wasn't worth it. It was an old grocery store they converted to a church. Thank God for it. Amen. This was before the financial crash. And. But so I just. I put before the people, let's pay this building off. We had about. I'm young pastor. My faith wasn't developed really like it is now, but I had it in my heart. Well, let's go ahead and wipe that out. And man, God did miracles for in one service. That little scared bunch and me, we raised over $25,000 in one service. Someone gave their house away. Now, it had to be a little bit house run down for. It's just 12. Five is what they got for it. But they gave it away and we paid that off. And then. Well, I. What am I supposed to. Well, I didn't just sit there making confessions. I called up a real estate broker. I didn't say now God told me, but I said, this is what I'm looking for. Well, you know, God got on that. He got on that little action. And this broker found another Christian whose property we're on today was not even for sale. Not even for sale. And he said, I was going to say this as an inheritance for my kids, but for a church, I'll do it. But he said, I have to have X amount. Well, it just so happened. I told my real estate broker, I can't spend any more than. And it was this amount. There's no negotiation. And God just did it. And y' all know this, right? But God, God, the ability to produce, to create is all about having something in you that you translate to an action, to a step. And listen, I just had. That's as far as we went. We bought the land. And I said, well, God, I don't want to spend the next 10 years paying off this land. What do I do? He said, sell your building. I didn't have loan. I didn't have design building prints yet. Sell my building. Well, I just said, okay. And I talked to the broker, I said, listen, I don't know that I'm ready for this. I'm still trying to get estimates on what I could borrow. And la, la, la, la, la. I said, listen, no books, no Internet, nothing like that. But you can put a sign out front in two weeks. We had a full price offer. That little step, he said, you better take that. This bill's not even worth half that. So. But now we're really out on the water. I have grass on 15 acres and no building. But this is just how this goes now. This is, for me. Life's an adventure. What adventure are you supposed to be on? Let me say something here, because time's really getting away from me. I'm starting to see prosperity a little bit different now. How many of you remember how Brother Hagin taught us about how to pray for finances? Right? Now, you rest easy. I'm not about to contradict him. Praise God. You remember the four steps. Claim what you need. Bind the devil, say to the angels, the ministering spirits, go and cause the money to come. And then take up a stance of praise and thanksgiving until it shows up. Well, we can all tap into that. We can all. That's. That's a flow. That's a trail of prosperity. And we all should. But, you know, of course, I'm a preacher and I'm around preachers all the time. And I just noticed. And there's a flow in my life as a minister where money comes to me in chunks. People will hand it to me, people will call me and say, God said this. It's a flow in my life. And I can get up and just talk about that. And if it can happen to all of us. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't walk into church going, who's going to be the one today? You know, I'm. My eyes are on the Lord. But if you go back to the Old Testament, we won't turn there. But remember, there's 12 tribes of Israel, Aaron's descendants, the Levites, let's call them the ministers. They were marked out and separated from the other 11 tribes. And they were not given a portion in the land. They were given cities and in other tribes territory. They were not permitted to enter the marketplace. They were not permitted to enter the marketplace. They were marked out by God and dedicated by God to the service of the ministry. God put special provisions in the covenant to see to it that his ministers were funded by the tithes and the giving and the increase of the other 11 tribes. So, see, there's a flow I often see in ministers lives that when they need extra finances it'll come through that channel of God said give this to you pastor, Here's a Pentecostal handshake. You know things like that will happen. It can happen to all of us. But let me just say it's a regular flow and a happening for me. Can I just ask you, I'm just curious, is it a regular flow and a happening for the non ministers, non full timer ministers, fivefold people here see, is God holding out on you? No. See you have a portion of inheritance given to you by God to enter into the marketplace. So see we as full time ministers, we talk about anointings that the laity doesn't have. But listen to me, you the laity, you have an anointing. You have an anointing on you that I am restricted. I will not have that anointing on me like you do. And we need you in this flow. We need you in this flow. Remember what Jesus told brother Hagin. He said be careful to a minister. He said be careful about money. For many upon whom I've placed my spirit have become money minded and lost the anointing. So now for me, Amber and I have explored some avenues of wealth creation that we have peace about doing. But they're only things that we, they don't take a lot of time. I can own a rental property and have someone manage it for me. And I'm not daily in that. I don't have to do anything with that. There's other avenues that we're looking at. Right? But I have to be very careful. You guys have to be very careful. So yet the vision. We are the Levites. God's ordained the wealth. We need to conduct our ordained service to come in through the tithes and the offerings of the people. So I don't know, you just need to get out into marketplace and kick some butt and take some names and rise to the top and become owners. And not ambitious, not covetous. See I told you I made a decision. I'm going to be what I am on the inside. I'm going to be materially and financially wealthy. What's the difference between an earnest godly desire to become the wealthy person God says we are in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9 and covetousness and greed. What would be the difference? Well the difference is M and M method and motive. The desire to tap into this God ordained thing that you should have is not sinful. There's nothing wrong about it your earnest desire for more for yourselves, for your families, for your children, for their futures is not wrong. How we cross over a threshold into covetousness and greed, which is very dangerous and self destructive. Pierce yourself through with many sorrows. We don't want to go there is simply a matter of motive and method. What's your motive for wanting more? And I know you're out there all you're so holy. You say, well, I want to pay the church building off. Good, good. But it's not wrong to say I want more for my family. Right here in this one verse, God gives us the why answer for wealth. And he only makes one statement. It's not like we have to have 25 scriptures. I have given you the ability to produce wealth, that my covenant would be established in the earth, that my covenant of blessing would be seen. Earth. There's another reason we need you wealthy, that God's covenant is shining out there in the earth. What covenant? The Abrahamic covenant with blessing. I will bless you. I'll make your name great. It is okay. Everyone say it's okay. It's okay for you to want more. Now, your motive needs to be a genuine desire to do more for your family, to bless the kingdom and to fund your pastor's vision. You got to make sure you're the only one that could answer the motive question. Well, then the other one is method. For me, I believe my motive's right. Okay, what about method? I am not going to be materially wealthy at the expense of my ministry. I'm not going to compromise my prayer time, my pastoral office, my anointing, my study time, my integrity to go try to produce wealth. See, I'm not going to. I'm not going to descend to a wrong method. I'm not going to sell medical marijuana. That's not my goal. You know what I mean? So when you're out there. Yeah, your method, how you going to do it? You're going to sell Budweiser on the street corner? No, that's the wrong method. So really, as long as your motive is right and your method is scriptural, Go get the wealth, please. Right. Go get it. Hallelujah. It's for you. Amen. It's for you. Praise God. You know, God moves through avenues and channels. Now we have one source and it's not that job. It's not your investments, it's God. But God blesses us through channels. And you don't have to have just one. Abraham had three. And if silver's down, gold's probably up. And if gold and silver are down, he's got the cows and everybody's got to eat. He had threefold wealth, spiritual man, but he's busy. I don't have time to take you there. You know, God's not anti business. I will show you this, and then I think we'll just be done. Praise God. Y' all getting anything? Okay, I brought too many papers up here. Let me find it. The reference is going to be Luke chapter eight, I believe. No, Luke 16 real quick. Hallelujah. How many of you have something stirring in your heart? You have had. I'm not talking about just, you know, since the beginning of the service, but I mean, you've had something in your heart. An idea, dream, a desire. Raise it up high. Okay, from the pulpit, from my pulpit, this pulpit. Tonight I'm going to pray for him. Release my faith with. See, you got to start putting faith in this verse. God's given me a supernatural something, something ability to produce, see, to create something that wasn't there before. And new jobs are created, wealth streams are created, funding streams are created. How's this ministry going to prosper? We could prosper a lot of different ways, but just the two primary ways are more people will come, and you have more of a stronger financial base by numbers. Or. And. Or the people in the seats tap into something. They're not walking in its fullness yet, but they begin one by one, family by family, to tap into this divine ability. And maybe the attendance is still stable, but the finances are going up, up, up, up, up. See, we don't have to wait for a big breakthrough in attendance. You're the ones that are here. This need. This ministry has a supply. Needs a supply. You're it, baby. Okay, Luke 16. Now, I have a couple of different possible translations. You're not. They're different translates. I have the amplified. Luke 16, verse 8. Jesus is talking about the unjust steward. Remember the unjust steward just heard by rumor he's about to be fired. He's not a real faithful person. He's about to be fired. And he hears that, and he goes about collecting, doing what he should have been doing all the time, collecting his master's undue unpaid bills. And the eighth verse, I'll read the amplified is Jesus summary here. And his master praised the dishonest, unjust manager for acting shrewdly and prudently. Now, this is what I got underlined. Focus on. For the sons of this age are shrewder and they are more prudent and they are wiser in relation to their own generation and own things than are the sons of light. This is Jesus pointing to people like the lady. I read her book, had to throw it down. Who's an unbeliever and doing better in the financial part of the covenant than believers are. Why they they know how to work their system better than we know how to work ours. That's what Jesus saying here. The BBE translation says for the sons of this world are wiser. The gw, the God's word translation says worldly minded people are more clever than spiritually minded people. See, we've got to be spiritual. But why are we throwing off all of the things like savings, investing, business, creation. Why are we throwing all that off? We've traded that just to plunk money in a bucket and make confessions. We got to do both. God is not anti business, he's pro business. The mace translation says for they who look to this world manage their affairs with more prudence. They're doing better than we are in money management. I am trying to close take heart. Remember Dr. Dufresne said by the spirit, 98%. This same lady in her book, she said 98% of the world's population is totally ignorant and illiterate when it comes to money. Same number, Same number, same number. 98%, Christians included. We're financially illiterate. I mean some of this is pretty basic, right? Balance a checkbook, rack up your credit cards. Yeah, I mean I'm all about stretching all that kind of stuff. Don't get all that's right too. But there is such a thing as stewardship and management. Some people need to do Proverbs 6. They need to go look over an ant hill for about 20 minutes. Said look at the ant O sluggard. You know, tithing is not going to overcome laziness. I had got my church financially behind. I'm going to get kicked out in the street. Well, how come? Lost my job two months ago. Really? Two months ago. It's the first time hearing about it. How many applications you been filling out? Oh, I hadn't filled out any. What? What, what have you been doing, Pastor? I'm a tither. That's what he said. I'm a tither. I've been proclaiming Philippians 4:19. I said, you're lazy, you're worse than an infidel and I'm not helping you. And he left my church. And I'm glad he left my church. We have to learn how to walk by faith and navigate day to day life. At the same time. Amen. Last one. The message translation of Luke 16:8 says, and I like it the best. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard, in money, in business. Okay. Did I hurt you or help you? Praise God. Well, there's an anointing. There's an anointing. Let's stand up tonight. Praise God. Hey, I make confessions every day. All the. All day. I'm doing it all. But I'm not going to neglect. It's like my teaching God gave me on honor. That's an open door. Well, I'm going to make sure I flow in that because that's an avenue. God can bless me. I'm just not going to throw any of it away. Amen. Father, I release my faith over this congregation right now. You said that anointing to prosper, to remove and break off and destroy yokes and remove heavy burdens in the financial area was on my wife and I to abide. And God, I just by faith release that anointing, commanded to do a work primarily through the hearing and the instruction and the feeding of the word that they heard that, God, that you will take it by your spirit, individualize it. Talk to us, each one, about your individual unique application of this truth to our life. God, I call this people blessed. Blessed, blessed, blessed. I thank you that God, this thing is getting stirred up on the inside of them about tapping into this God given ability to create wealth. God, for those that have something in their heart, thank you for perfect clarity. Thank you for the favor of God. Thank you for open doors. Thank you for divinely orchestrated steps that they could take that you'll get that will move that from a dream to a goal to a reality. And we thank you for it. In Jesus name, amen. Hey, thank you everyone for the awesome privilege. Thank you, Pastor. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrayministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Defray Ministries.