← Promise of Life Church Podcasts
Promise of Life Church Podcasts
"Extravagant Asking" - Pastor Nancy Dufresne - May 26. 2024 AM
01:05:02
"Extravagant Asking" - Pastor Nancy Dufresne - Ma…
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Well, this morning, let's see how. What direction we go. How about that? I want to talk about something I'm not going to. I don't want you to think I'm going to talk about money yet. I'm going to refer to money much. The message is not about money. The message is about right thinking toward the provision of God in your life. It's about our thinking. I want to read something. Smith Wigglesworth, or Smigglesworth was in, was at Angelus Temple. He was in California. And now Angelus Temple is the church that Amy Semple McPherson built. She started it in 1921. She finished it in 1923 and paid cash for it. Get online and look at that building. It's an amazing building. It still looms large as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. And it's an amazing thing that God did with her in building that building. And Smith Wigglesworth was preaching there August 11, 1927. He said it was the most anointed sermon he had ever preached in that building. He was under the greatest anointing, he said, in that building, which tells you that there was quite a. That God filled the room in a particular way in her ministry. But he said this. This was, as I said, in 1927, which is what, almost 100 years ago. And he was talking about the last days. He's talking about our days almost 100 years ago. He said the last days are a time for the true people of God to engage in extravagant asking. Extravagant asking. Surely you people that have been asking great things from God for a long time would be amazed if you entered into that asking with a clear knowledge of the mightiness of the power of the Father, of your joint union with him, that nothing is impossible of you to ask. Surely it is He Only who could say, hitherto you have asked nothing. So what's it saying compared to what God offers us? Our asking is as nothing to Him. It's so minimal that on the scale of what he wants to do and can do. Have you ever gone to or seen a carnival or cartoon and a guy comes up with a big hammer and there is a thing, he hits it to measure his strength and he hits this. This big lever and then a thing goes up and you know, he hits it with all of his might. God is saying, this is what Smith Wigglesworth was saying by the spirit. It's like if we're hitting that, we not even moving the needle based on the limit, the unlimitedness of God's offer to Us. And we're asking small. Now, why do we ask small? One thing. Small thinking. Small thinking, you say. Well, it's because of faith. Yes, but faith comes, Is expressed through how you think. In the sense of. We see a picture of our faith when we listen to how we're talking, how we're thinking. And so we can. You can sit and feed the word in. Feed the word in, feed the word in. But if this doesn't change up here, all the word that you're pouring in will be completely inactive, you know. So it's about enlarging our extravagant asking has to be preceded by extravagant thinking. So he said this. He said, surely it is he only who could say, hitherto, you have asked nothing. So God means me to press you. This is Wigglesworth. God means me to press you to another step forward. Begin to believe on extravagant asking. Believing that God is pleased when you ask large. When you ask large. Why, when we just ask small, we're accusing him of. That's all he can do for us. Exactly. Amen. So let's ask in a way that complements his largeness, his greatness. His greatness. Amen. Amen. Now I want to read to you something of Brother Jesse Duplantis. God has had me the last several years to bring in some of these men who are. If I could say this in front of us, who are they? They're generals in the body of Christ. Generals are in front of the troops, you know. And he makes this statement. I want to say, I believe he made these statements that when I was at his visionary conference last year. He says. He said several things here I want to read to you. He said, money is the most disappointing thing when that's what you're living for. You have to be superior to money, not driven by it. See, you got to get into these men's thinking who have asked large, been extravagant, not wasteful. Extravagance and wasteful are not the same thing. We need examples of extravagant asking so that we will be invited to something higher. God needs examples of higher flows. So he says, money is the most disappointing thing when that's what you're living for. You have to be superior to money, not driven by it. You have to be superior to power, not driven by it. I don't make money, I generate it. And God gives it. Our life is a branch life. The fruit comes out of the branch, not the trunk. What's that mean? We're asking God to produce something, and it's the branch that produces it. The Trunk empowers the branch. Yes. And the fruit grows on the branch. And people are asking for God to produce something when what he does, he produces ability to the branch. And we're asking God to produce something, and he's given the branch the ability to produce it, yet we're looking for the trunk to do it and pick it off the trunk. That's not where it grows. So what's that mean? For you to receive something from God, it's got to come through you. Not apart from you, through you. What's that mean? That's going to have to come through your thinking, through your speaking, through your actions. It's got to show up in you. It's got to show up in you. Too many times people are just wanting God to sit, God to drop it, and he's waiting for you to manifest it. Because the power to manifest it comes from the trunk. And too many times we're looking at our branch and saying, can I produce it? No. Look at the trunk. Look at the trunk. Amen. So he said, this is Brother Jesse. He said, God doesn't ask us to do the best we can. He asks us to do the best he can. You see the mindset. I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about mindset. And if you think I'm just talking about money, you're going to miss the whole thing because all you'll hear is a money message. And I'm telling you, it has to change. Up here in the thought life, he says, everything I touch prospers. I've been around him. It's true. It's true. The best thing, a man of God that God is using as he is using different generals in the body of Christ. The best thing they could give us is not money. The best thing they could give us is the way they think. That's true. Amen. The way they think. I was watching an interview probably 20, 25 years ago when long before, and I'm not being political at all in this, so don't go there. When Donald Trump, before he ever entered the political arena and in the 90s, I believe it was in the 90s, he basically lost everything. Lost everything. Those millionaires and billionaires lose it over and over and get it back over and over. Because it's not a money issue. Can I. I want to tell you. Have you ever heard of Elon Musk? All right. I love something he said. Now pay attention to why I love what he said. He went to his mother and he was talking to her and he Says, I've got several things, companies I want to start. Number one was Tesla. Number two was, what was it? SpaceX. Rockets. Rockets. An individual building rockets, not looking for government grants. An individual. And then the third thing was a solar system company. He was producing solar things, panels and things. And his mother said to him, pick one, do it well. So he picked all three, because people counsel you based on their mentality. So he was at 16, what was it? Was it PayPal? He started? Is it PayPal? He started at 16. He sold it. He sold PayPal. And that's where he got the money that he started these companies with. At 16, he. When he went to start a company, I don't know which one he started first. He kind of did them all at the same time type thing. He would not. He sold his house. Now he had millions. He sold his house, put it all in. He went and lived with people. Because I'm not spending any money for a house. I've got something big I'm doing. He put everything toward what was his projects. Think of that. He would not. Now he owns multiple homes, you know, but it's a mentality, it's a thinking. Then he got these up and going. An interviewer said to him, they were talking about SpaceX, the rockets that he was building. And somebody, in discussing this, I don't know how they arrived at this part of the conversation, but somebody said to Elon Musk, do you realize that with this SpaceX project you can lose everything? A rocket just has crash and you're done. Listen to his reply. Now. You got to hear me. He said, I expect to lose everything, meaning this. It's not money. It's not money. He said, I'm trying to make progress. I'm not trying to make money. He's talking life on Mars. He says, I'm trying to bring advancement to mankind. It's not about money with him. He doesn't care whether he has it or loses it because it's a mentality he's dealing with. This is why Christians have so little, because they're dealing with money, money, money, money, trying to get money, trying to get this, trying to get that. And they're missing the big picture. The big picture, that's right. And I love it. He said, I expect to lose it all. What's that mean? When you don't care, you're all in. You're all in because you're not making decisions based on will I have enough money? Right, right, right. Excellent. I go, that man thinks right about those kinds of things. That's why. What number one or two wealthiest man in the world, you know, And I'm not trying to say yay or nay. Amen to what he. I'm just talking about a mindset. Should we not that Jesus is the trunk of this whole thing. Should we not be trunk minded? Yes, because the branch depends totally on the trunk. And what we have done is we've been atmosphere minded as a branch. As a branch. Oh, there's a bird that landed on my branch. Well, who cares? Yeah. Amen. That's right. That's right. Oh, there's a bird. Oh no. Oh, he's gonna take my fruit. Oh, there's opposition. Oh, it's gonna take. Who cares? So good. So good. So good. You're stuck to the trunk. What's your big problem? What is your problem? There's a spider on my branch. Who? The spider cannot kill the trunk. And it's all about the trunk. It's not about the branch, it's about what the branch is connected to the trunk. The trunk is the life of this thing. So when we make decisions, we don't make decisions based on the branch. We make decisions based on the trunk. You understand? So much of the time we're living just branch minded. Us minded. What I can generate what grows on me instead of what you're grafted into. It's trunk mindedness. Trunk mindedness that we have to have. Branch mindedness means it's all about self. I'm just thinking about my income. I'm thinking about what they're wanting me to pay. I'm thinking about the risk. I'm thinking about and you'll never produce all the capabilities of the trunk when all you think about is the branch. So limited. Amen. What's that mean? Most of us live with just us in view. And it's all about the trunk. It's all about the trunk. It's all about the trunk. Yet the trunk can't feed anybody without the branch. The trunk needs the branch to bless. So the best way that heaven has to turn us into a blessing is connect us to the trunk and let the trunk produce through the branch. The branch does not generate its own SAP. It receives the SAP from the trunk. The branch is not watered through the branch. When you go to water a tree in your yard, have you ever taken a water hose and squirted the branches, you water the trunk. Why? Because everything the branch expand experiences comes from the trunk. It's all about the trunk. If that trunk is well and our trunk is A no risk trunk. No risk. Our trunk is not susceptible to disease, not susceptible to famine, not susceptible to drought. No. Why? Because it's divine. It's divine, it's eternal, it's unchanging. And then we're just hooked up. Just hooked up. We win. Now, what keeps different branches? Because each person is a branch. What makes some branches thrive and others wither? Based on how you think. Based on how you think. It's not based on who you're connected to. We're all connected to the same trunk. You have the exact same resources available to you that I do. That's awesome. And we had the exact same resources available to us that these men of God who have had these great conquests, these heroes of faith, they didn't have anything more available to them than we do to us. Same trunk. It's just all about how the branch thinks about the trunk. If we think that the branch is all about the branch, we missed the whole thing. It's all about the trunk. It's all about the trunk. What's it mean? God minded. God minded. Not you minded. God minded. Praise the Lord. So when God tells us to do something, then it's the trunk's responsibility to perform it. It's the trunks perform it through the branch. So the branch draws its life and capabilities to perform from the trunk. The branch doesn't draw it from the branch. The branch draws it from the trunk. So if God did not want us to produce great things, he shouldn't have connected us to such a trunk. That's so true. That's right. Amen. Amen. My, my, amen. The branch is not fruit minded. It's not laboring. I'm gonna grow that apple. I think I see an apple growing. It just does what it does. It receives its life, its nourishment, its SAP, everything from the trunk and just lets it flow through. I was talking to someone recently who had, and this is a credible person. So don't get online and start searching these things out. Don't let the Internet be your pastor. Don't take counsel from the Internet. But this person has a credible account of something that happened. They went to heaven twice. They said something that I have never heard said before and said, in heaven, there is a place called being a blessing. And you go there to learn how to be a blessing. And they said, it's not about giving a blessing. We're not called to give a blessing. We're called to be a blessing. And said, in that place, you learn it's not you as the source giving something, it's you being the conduit for him to flow through you so that you are being a blessing. Not giving a blessing, giving a blessing, not just taking of your resources and touching someone. You're drawing on him, he flows through, he's looking for channels and he turns you into a blessing. See the mindset change, totally different. So when God tells you to give something, it's not. He's not drawing on you, he's drawing on him to do it. There is this one testimony of a woman that she was a single mom. I don't know if she'd gone through a divorce or what years ago. This was in the, I heard this testimony in the 90s. But she being a single mom, she was very limited in her resources. And she had gone to her church for a service and they had invited a guest minister to come in. And so he, he preached to the congregation. The pastor was receiving an offering for him at the end. And the spirit of God spoke to her and said, I want you to give $1,000. Now that's big for a single mom to even consider something like that. And you're talking the early 90s. This could have happened in the 80s. I heard it in the 90s. So she said, God, I don't have $1,000. So she wrote down on an envelope a pledge and what was in her heart within 30 days, I will send this minister $1,000. And she wrote it down. And when she went home that night, now see what she did, it was God who generated that. He just needed a channel to be that through someone. It's God being that through us. And we take on those traits and characteristics because we have the same nature as him. So his nature flows through our nature. And it can because we have a God nature. Does that make sense? So she went home and she asked the right thing. She said, God, I don't have the money. So evidently it must be on its way. Now you have to learn this. If God is requesting or commanding you to do something that you don't have within your own resources, it's because he intends to bring that to you. But he has to put you in the position of needing that, that before you'll believe. For that my God shall supply all your needs. When you need something, the supply is already prepared. The problem with most Christians is they're living need minded instead of supply minded. There is already prepared a supply for every need. So when you're faced with a need, don't talk about the need, talk about the Supply. God led me. If God tells you to buy that house, it's because he has a supply for a house. But you're going to have to show up with a need for a house. You have to have enough faith to sign the contract. Follow his leading. Follow his leading. You don't do these things apart from the trunk. And so she went home and she said, God, I don't have it, so it must be available to me. So I ask you, what do I need to do to receive that? See, she realizes a branch. I have a role. I have a role. And so God reminded her that at Christmas time, she had. Because she did not have much of her own resources, she had made some. Gotten some barrettes, and she had gotten some ornaments, ornamental things, and she decorated them and she made these for her friends and for family members. And this is what she gave them for Christmas. And she remembered how they all weren't. They all said how special those were to them. So she was reminded of that. So she called a friend of hers and. And this lady owned a boutique there in town. And she said to her friend, she said, if I make some barrettes, could I set up a table in your boutique this weekend and sell those? And her friend said, absolutely. So she bought what she. And it was minimal in her cost. She bought the barrettes, bought the ornamental pieces, she worked on them, created them. And she came that Saturday and set up a table in the boutique. And she had about 30 or 40 different designs she made. So the. She's just standing behind that table and, you know, customers are coming into the store on that weekend. And a woman walks up to the table. There were several that had looked at. Had looked at them. And a woman walked up and she picked it up. And she just went down the row. And she didn't just look at them, she was inspecting them. She was being very thorough in her, you know, in her observation of them. And she went down the whole row of them, and she thought, well, that's kind of interesting. And the woman then said to this little mama said, did you make these? And she said, yes, ma', am, I made these. She said, take 50,000. She was a buyer for Nordstrom's. 50,000. 50,000. God was not trying to get the woman $1,000. He was trying to get her a future. He was giving her a business. Yes, he was. Yes. Yes, he was. Now, if she would have thought wrong and said, God's trying to get $1000 out of me. God wasn't trying to get $1000 out of her. He was trying to get a business, a future into her. If we think wrong when God commands us of something. Yes, you know, there have been a few times. God will. I'll have a witness. Fast a few days. Fast a few days. And I'm not. Listen, if we're going to talk about this, all this, it gonna take more than a few days. Well, I'm not talking about a weight loss program. That's what I mean, I'm not. If we're going to talk about weight loss, we're going to have to do a few more days. But the mind will recoil. I don't want to fast. No, no, no. Wait a minute. God's offering a chance for there to be a communion. He wants to talk to you. And he knows that if you'll pull back from the natural, you'll be more effective in the spiritual. You'll be more keen in the spiritual. So if he tells you to do that, he's not trying to take food out of your mouth for the next several days. He's trying to be heard. He's offering you a chance to. You see what I'm talking about? Wrong thinking takes a wrong view. I'm not just talking about money. Everything you hear, if he tells you to serve in this department, you're officer. I don't like that department. He's not trying to afflict you, he's trying to elevate. He's trying to position you for something more. So this little gal, she not only now had $1,000, but now she had a business. Business. And she had a huge start, a divine start to her business. That's the trunk flowing through. But what if she said, I don't have $1,000, my baby needs it, my baby needs it. And then they sit back, then you miss your future. You miss it. You see? Wrong thinking. Wrong thinking. God doesn't. He's not trying to get something out of you because he's the trunk. The only thing the branch has is what the trunk put in them. The branch does not supply the trunk. God doesn't need your money, so he's funded. It doesn't go from the branch backwards and downwards to the trunk. It comes from the root up into the branch. Anything God commands of your life, it's because he's trying to get greater trunk flowing into the branch. And the branch is limiting what the trunk will. The branch is limiting the receiving of what the trunk is trying to get into that branch. So when God commands something of us, he's trying to enlarge the branch. He's not trying to get the trunk bigger. I can't believe God wants me to give this to the church. He's not trying to get the trunk bigger. He's trying to get the branch enlarged. Amen. So let's go back to Brother Jesse. He made this statement. The fruit comes out of the branch, not the trunk. God doesn't ask us to do the best we can. He asks us to do the best he can. Meaning take the limits off the trunk. The branch should not be the limiter to the trunk. It should be the expression of the trunk. It should be able to be the representative representing the trunk properly. Then Brother Jesse said, everything I touch prospers. Yes, I have faith, but that's only part of it. We are in the world, but we are not of it. Brother Jesse says, I create my world, then I walk in it. Do you hear larger thinking? You hear something right? It's not about money. And so many people attack these ministers because they're just money minded. They miss the whole point. They're trying to help your branch get as large as theirs. And you like that little twig you got? You think that twig is all the glory that there's available. He said, I create my world, then I walk in it because I create my world. I decide what I will or will not have. When bringing my vision before the Lord for the new year. I will never present God with something possible, For he is the God of the impossible. What is prophecy? It is history spoken in advance. Did you get that one? Speak what you want. How much money does it cost to fly my jet? He said, I don't know. God didn't ask me to pay for it. He asked me to believe for it. Now I've learned this. The more you think about money, the harder it is to come. The less you think about it, the easier it comes. Learn that the more you think about money, the harder, the more you'll struggle financially. The less you think about money, the easier it will come. Well then what am I supposed to think about? The plan of God? What has God told you to do? Just do that. Meaning this. For example, I know that I'm supposed to be at certain meetings every year to receive. I just go to receive. I don't go into my financial department and say, do we have enough money for me to go to this meeting? Because I have to fly there. I have to have hotel, I have to have food, I have to have a rental car and I have to take traveling companions and I have to pay for them and they don't diet. Amen. It's amazing how hungry we are when you're not paying for it. I don't walk in and say to my financial office, can I do it? I walk in and I say, book it and I expect the money to get there. I don't walk, I've never walked in and say, how much money do I have in this account before I book it? I book it and the money has to get there. That's called being plan minded. Why? Because I know in the plan of God I'm supposed to be there. Be plan minded, not money minded. You will struggle your whole life if you're money minded. But if you're plan minded, the plan is already funded. The plan is already funded. I didn't say you already have the money. I said the plan is already funded and by faith you receive the funding that's already supplied. Does that make sense? So brother Jesse said, how much money does it cost to fly my jet? I don't know. God didn't ask me to pay for it. He asked me to believe for it. So what's he saying? I'd say, father, thank you for all the money comes for the jet. That's what you do. I thank you that it's already fully supplied. I thank you that it comes. You don't sit and nickel and dime God because you don't buy jets to save money. It does not save money. It costs multiple times what it would cost commercial. Because you're not saving money with that. You're saving time, which is far more valuable than money. And as you get older, your time becomes more costly. People say. And people who attack ministers and say they shouldn't have this and they shouldn't have that. That's because they're money minded. And these ministers are plan minded. My job is accomplish the plan. Okay, so let me tell you how important it is to have resources. I love something Brother Copeland said. All the people that don't like it when preachers have airplanes because they're being extravagant. They're just living lives of luxury. Brother Copeland will say to them, why don't you take the city bus to work? Why don't you take the city bus? He said, I'm going to tell you why as a citizen, you don't take the city bus to work because the bus isn't going where you're going. You walk out of your house, the bus isn't there. You have to go somewhere for the bus to pick you up. The bus takes you Somewhere that is not your work, and then you have to get there. He said the reason you don't take a city bus is because the bus is not going where you're going. That's right. He said, the reason I don't fly commercial is because the airplane is not going where I'm going. Same thing. So why do you get to have a car that takes you to where you're going, but I don't get to have a bus to take me to where I'm going? That's so good. Amen. Amen. See, it's thinking. It's thinking. It's because yours costs so much. Then get the cheapest little pedal bicycle and get yourself to work. If it's all about the cheapest, Right? Right. Because that's far cheaper than a car. Far cheaper to have a bicycle. Yes, it is. And you don't have a. I guarantee you none of you in Canadian winter are out riding a bicycle to work. Right. You're being extravagant because a bite could get you there. Who cares? It'll take three hours. It could get you there. See, we don't think that way toward us, but toward largeness of God's thinking. And just because a man thinks larger than me doesn't mean he has to be dumbed down to my level. Come on. That's right. Why am I saying all this? Because God's going to take this church to larger places. Don't let what the income of your household is determine and dictate what this house should have. Amen. You don't do that. If you ever had to have brain surgery, if you ever had to have brain surgery, you don't walk in and say, give me the stupidest doctor in the building. Let's just dumb this thing down. Let's dumb it down. Do you. You want the best doctor that's been trained, that is the most skillful, has a good success record. Right. You want the best, but when it comes to God's stuff, we're dumbing it down. Dumbing it down. Well, anyway, How much money does it cost to fly my jet? I don't know. God didn't ask me to pay for it. He asked me to believe for it. I love this statement. He said, you can't break me. You can't break me. Now, see, if you're just thinking that the branch is holding up the trunk, you're thinking, I could get broke, I could run out of money. But if you realize that the branch is only there because of the trunk, the trunk will never have A deficit. Therefore, the branch will never have a deficit. He said, you can't break me. Listen to this. He said, I've got too much seed in the ground and harvest all over the place. These people who criticize the giving of these ministers have no idea what they give. I've been around, just in a minimal measure, around some of these ministers going into. Brother Jesse one time went into a restaurant. The waitress is waiting on him, and God says, pay for her college. How many of y' all have done that? It's a mindset. He said, okay. So he pulls the little gall over. He says, you going to college? She said, well, I'm trying to, but she said, I just went through a divorce. I've got a baby. I want to go to college as a waitress. I'm trying to earn money. And he says, I'm paying for it. She starts crying. She calls her dad and says, this man just told me he's going to pay for my college. Who is it? Jesse Duplantis. She, you know, got introduced to him. Jesse Duplantis. He says, I've been his partner for 25 years. You have no idea the divine thread. And he would have no idea who her daddy was and that her daddy had been a blessing to him. When God says something to you, it doesn't need your inspection before it's performed. It just needs obedience. People have no idea what these men who have such large flows in their life, how what they went through to be expanded to that. Brother Jesse said, you can't break me. I've got too much seed in the ground and harvest all over the place. How much do you want? If you don't know how much you want, you won't know when you get there. If you don't run God's business like a business, you're awaiting bankruptcy no matter how anointed you are. Then he said this. My job is to bankrupt the devil. How do you bankrupt the devil? Not financially. Souls. Souls. The devil's not interested in money. He's interested in people. How do you bankrupt the devil? You go after souls. You know what that is? That's expensive. Costs a lot of money. Costs a lot of money. Trying to think of what Brother Copeland said years ago. I read it, and he said, it might not. Because people will say, you know, money's not that important in this life. Well, he said, money's not important. Might not be important to you because you're already saved. But to the person who hasn't been reached with the gospel, money's Everything. Because you can't reach them without it. What's this mean? As a branch, we have to not let wrong thinking limit the trunk. So in these last days, as Wigglesworth said, it's about extravagant asking. Why? So that the trunk can produce to the grandness of the trunk and not just the grandness of the branch. The branch needs to reflect the trunk instead of making the. Making the trunk be limited by the branch. Amen. Thinking, man, thinking. Now. When Jesus told the disciples to feed the multitude, remember he's preaching to them. They've been out for several days with him. Before he sends them home, he says, feed them. The disciples go immediately. Of course too. There's no stores out here. There's no place where you can buy resources. Not only that, we don't have the money to feed all this. You know, you could have all the money, but what you gonna buy out there? So he asks the disciples, there were times that you'll find in the word. Jesus asked the disciples questions. It's not so that he could find out something that he didn't know. It's so they could have revealed to them what they need to know. When God asks you a question, it's not because he doesn't know. It's because he's trying to get you to know something more than you know. So he said, what should. What shall we do to feed this multitude? And was it Philip or Andrew, tell me that answered it? I don't remember. One of the disciples, Andrew, one of them said, there's a little boy here who has loaves and fish. What was that? A divine. The divine answer came up. The divine answer came up. Then the reasoning kicked in and said, there's a little boy here. But what is that among so many? So what happens? Many times up from our hearts have come the divine answer. And then the mind evaluated it and dismissed it as not enough, not big enough. What was that? He hit upon the divine answer. And then he diminished the divine answer. Jesus said, bring it to me. He didn't say, why are you making such a lame suggestion? Couple loaves and fish. What you thinking? The disciple treated it that way. He diminished it. Jesus said, bring it to me. Lift it up before God. He was not afraid to bring what wasn't enough to God to let God bless it. Because when God blesses it, it becomes something it wasn't. That's what happened there. It became something it wasn't. Jesus, it says he looked up to heaven and blessed it. He didn't curse it. When you say I never have enough money for these bills. You're cursing the amount you have when you say, this house is not what I want. You're cursing what you have when you say, I can't, I don't like my job. You're cursing what you have. This car's a piece of junk. You're cursing what you have. You're diminishing it. If you have access to it, do what Jesus did with what wasn't enough, he said. Celebrated it. He did not talk diminishing about it. He did not talk disparagingly about it. How you talk about what you do have determines what God can do with it. Because it's your mindset that's talking. Can I tell you this? Your mindset is always talking. You can listen to your talk and know your mindset well. I just don't think they need to spend that much money on that part, that thing for the church. Opinions are something we're delivered from. Can I tell you what the opinion. What's an opinion? It is the voice of someone without authority. Because if you had authority, it'd be a decision, not an opinion. Opinions are a low way to live. Very low. Because it's you touching into what's not your business. We're all redeemed from opinions. Jesus celebrated that and was grateful for it. You have to take what isn't enough and celebrate it. Celebrate it and watch God breathe on it. Transform it into something it wasn't before. When Jesus lifted that, it says he looked up. He lifted it up before God. He looked up to heaven and blessed it. And then he handed it to the disciples. And it did not multiply in Jesus hands because he could not hold enough to feed 5,000. And it wasn't. It was 5,000 men. So you're looking at least 20,000, 30, 40,000 people, 50,000 at least. There. It's not holdable in his hands, naturally. So it multiplies as his disciples had enough faith in the trunk to just. As a branch, just hand it out. Just hand it out. And it multiplies in the handing out, meaning this. You don't have to have it all before you start handing it out. And if you wait to have it all, you'll never have it all. Hand out what you have. Hand out what you have. If God tells you to give $10, give it. Don't wait until you have 100. Just hand out what you have. One minister was doing an outreach. He was doing an outreach in a, you know, a Third World country. And it was at Christmas Time. And he had boxed up bundles, multiple items. I don't know if they were on in a sack or a box, but they were already pre bundled. And multitudes showed up that he did not ever anticipate. And he had a table in front of him and thousands of children lined up Christmas to get the only Christmas, Christmas present they're going to get. And he realizes I didn't bring near enough. But how do you tell a kid that's standing in line waiting, you know, sorry, Santa doesn't love you. He had these in boxes stacked behind him. He realizes he does not have enough easy to calculate that I love what he did. He said I would not look in the box. I put my hand behind me without looking and kept taking. And he said, I kept taking and I kept taking, he said. And I never ran out. Why? He wasn't looking at the branch, he was looking at the trunk. This is the problem. Calculating will rob you. Now. Am I saying you should be mindless? I'm saying this. Have a budget, not a limit. I don't like the word budget because of what it denotes. With most people. A budget means a limit in most people's thinking. Know what your expenses are. Know your expense. In fact, I. When, when we receive offerings at our crusades, I do not call it a budget offering. I call it an expense offering. Because in the most people's minds, a budget has a stopping point. It has a limit on it. I'm receiving an expense offering and the expenses keep growing throughout that week. You can calculate expenses. They keep growing. So if I call an expense offering, I expect God to cover all the expenses. Not the calculated expenses, all the expenses. A budget is what you calculate. An expense is what shows up. So I just. I have never. Because I just follow who I'm bringing in. I brought in on one meeting. Brother Copeland, Richard Roberts, Jesse Duplantis, David Ellis, Cindy Black. Yes, that's right. I spend a minimum. Minimum. A base of $50,000 just for musicians. Minimum. Amen. Why? Because music affects the anointing. And I want you healed. It's worth it. It's worth it to set the atmosphere for the anointing so people can receive their healing. I pay for that. For people. I calculate that in. It's an expense that's needed. I'm not trying to save money. I'm trying to get people healed. Plan minded, not money minded. Plan minded. Plan minded. But then you're calling. You're bringing in Kenneth Copeland. You can't tip them. No, they brought their airplanes. Those Airplanes from just theirs are larger, but let's say an average airplane, not even theirs are larger. An average airplane. Texas to California, round trip, 25,000 period, easy just to open the door of the plane. And two of those ministers have their own. And they. Big brother Jesse, his plane that he brought two stops anywhere in the world. You can go anywhere, only has to stop two times. If he went around the world completely, he'd only have to stop two times, get gas. He now has an airplane, one stop, he can go completely around the world, and he'll have to stop one time to refuel. Brother, that's a big belly. And so about a day before, I said to my financial office, send me over what's in these certain accounts, because I'll pull whatever I need to pull. Because I always add to it. I never just give what the people give. I'm not going to let them get in and get on the giving and me not get in on it as a ministry. And so I looked at what I had and I go, well, if we're going to even it up, I can give this one that, this one that, and this one that. And before I'm looking at, my heart starts to beat hard and the breathing. And God spoke to me and he said, you haven't operated this way before. Why are you doing it now? And I go, then we ain't operating that way. And I'm not looking, just not looking. And I set it down. We go to the first meeting the next night, Brother Copeland. And God said, this is the amount I want you to give. It was all of it. It was all of it. And I got Brother Jesse and I got Brother Richard, and I got musicians that think they play good. They're playing hard for that offering, you know. And God says, give it all right there. Not my problem. All I am is the branch. All I am is the branch. I'm not the generator of the branch, not the generator for the branch. I'm just the branch. And lo and behold, God did it. Isn't that amazing? Lo and behold, God did it. Why? Because I refuse to live by budget. The more you think about money, the more you'll struggle with money, the less you think about it. Just obey. Just obey what's in your spirit. Don't go beyond what your spirit can believe. Don't go beyond it. You don't do something because someone else is doing it. You have to go by what your spirit. Because the Holy Spirit within you will guide you based on your measure of faith. If the spirit of God tells you to do it. It's because he knows you have the faith for that. And sometimes you don't think you had the faith for that. And he. He knows what you have the faith for and he will put the stretch on you. He'll never keep you living back here. If I could say this, if this whole altar area represented your faith, the Holy Ghost will never speak to you and guide you based on you standing way back the backside of your faith. He's going to get you on the front edge of your faith, the very front edge. Why? Because then he's going to cause you to stretch over that stretch over what you think is your limit. He'll get you stretching over, don't get off the ground of your faith, but he'll have you at the very front edge stretching into the next level. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. What is this? We're plan minded? What does God say? Just do what God tells you to do in this life. And know this. The branch is supported by the trunk. Amen. When new branches grow on a tree, the trunk doesn't go, oh shoot, I grew too many. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to grow you because I don't have enough for you. No, it doesn't. Amen. God didn't give you a project go. Oh, sorry, I left out a few calculations. Hope you got enough. No, it's. You're fully supplied. Fully supplied. So we'll close and I guess we'll pick up tonight. I don't know what we'll do. I didn't know what I was going to do this morning. The last days are a time for the true people of God to engage in extravagant asking. Not struggling, not calculating. Asking. Asking. What we ask of God is how we think about Him. It's what we think he's capable of, is what we ask of Him. Let's not insult him through our asking. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Father, we thank you. Today we're growing, we're changing, we're enlarging. Why is that? Because there's so much more offered us and we're taking it. We refuse to be cheated out of what the trunk offers us. And so today we embrace. And Father, we're going to listen over and over to what we've heard today. Because can I tell you this, Let me tell you this. Full faith never comes with one hearing. You didn't get it all. You didn't get it all. You say no, I heard everything you said. No, no, no. I'm saying your insides your insides have to enlarge. Have to enlarge. Full faith never comes with one hearing. The more you hear, the more you hear, the more your heart will grab these things. And until your heart grabs them, you can't spend them. You can't spend what I talked about this morning till your heart grabs it. Amen. Father, we thank you. We thank you for not leaving us like you found us. But we move with you into more. And everybody said, amen. Thank you, Pastor.