I’m going to preempt something. How come it happened to us (theft of church’s cameras and other technology) who are always declaring this, always pleading the blood of Jesus for safety? The Bible doesn’t say that weapons won’t be formed against you, but they’re not going to prosper, so this weapon is to try and get us to talk against the Word of God. It wants us to talk like, “God doesn’t really protect us.” Sorry, too late, I know He does. He’s not going to change my declaration, he’s not going to change what I believe.
The essence of faith is that no matter what happens around you, you still have faith. You see, logic says if something happens around you, you must solve it with a logic pattern, but faith is not about logic. Faith is what you believe in God.
So they’ve taken our equipment. I think God’s about to turn this to our certain good because I think we’re going to get new equipment.
I recognize that the enemy over the years has tried to frustrate the work of God with Jesus and with the apostles. Everywhere there’s a significant truth being preached, the enemy would try and frustrate it, get people to question it, so that it doesn’t have the integrity that it should have. But we are not those people. In fact, we see it as a badge of honor if we are persecuted for the Word’s sake.
Matthew 6:33 (KJV) says, 33 seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you. 2 Corinthians 9:10 (KJV) says, 10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. That word righteousness means of character, justification. In a broad sense the state of him who is as he ought to be. Righteousness. The condition acceptable to God
Integrity is oneness. A person of integrity is someone whose thinking, their meditation, their words and their actions are integrated. The Hebrew word for God is Echad – meaning oneness. So, oneness and integrity is equal to holiness because holiness is what you think and what you speak and what you live, is the same. When the Scripture says that He will increase the fruit of your righteousness, that means He’s going to increase the abundance of what you think, what you speak and how you behave. This is important.
If the Bible says, “Be ye holy even as I am holy.” He’s saying, “You can be integrated with Me, you can be integrated by thinking, speaking and behaving the way Jesus does, the way God the Father does.” How do you do that? You find it in the Bible.
Jesus spoke in parables because He needed to speak the truth. But the parable hid the truth from those who couldn’t understand it. He explained it to the disciples afterwards so that they could understand it, because they were prepared to pay a price to get the truth. God is not going to give truth to those who won’t pay a price to get it.
That’s the same with the story of the parable. People hear the parable of the sower from Jesus. The disciples ask Him afterwards about the meaning of the parable. Here’s the thing, the sower is one who sows the Word and it gets into your heart and then the devil comes and steals it. Jesus is giving them understanding of the way the whole world works through seed. But the truth of that was hidden from those that were not really wanting to find out, they were just after the numbers. The disciples were after the meaning of life.
So, that happens in the church. People that want to come to church and they just want to hear a good message and feel good, well, they’ll get that. But we as a ministry are not after the numbers of the church. We go to the CEO, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and we say, “Hey, we want to know the business. We want to know what Your biggest business plan is. How can we do business with You and how do You want to do business with us?” Meaning the business of life, the business of the church, the business of all things.
That’s where we are. We are pressing in for righteousness. We’re seeking Him first and His way of doing things. So we understand His thinking. We understand His speaking and doing. And so, I understood years ago, that I can use faith and my walk with God to bring change to my world. I don’t quit on faith because my faith doesn’t work perfectly every time. Because if I quit on faith, then I’ve got nothing else to faith for.
Do you remember I said the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom? Which means all the stuff that you need to know about God, understand about God will cause you to fear God. Not in the sense that, “I’m afraid He’s going to beat me,” but in the sense of, “All of true life is in Him, and to the measure I’m not living in Him, I fear that I am going to make a mess of it.”
If you ever think that anything I say is pressuring you to give, keep your money in the bank. My commitment to you, and you all have been around me for many years, you know that’s the one thing I’m very careful to do is to preach about money accurately and not pressurize anybody. But money is such a big part of our world that if we don’t bring the truth about it then we’re only going to have one set of information that comes to us and that’s not from the Bible, it’s going to come from economists and accountants and people who want to dominate the earth with money. And they don’t care if they take all your money, they want to dominate the earth with money. The church is the only legitimate organization that knows how to manage money properly.
So, don’t give based on pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”[c] 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. (2 Corinthians 9:6-11 NLT).
So, two good things will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry they will give glory to God for your generosity to them and will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ and they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given you.
Isn’t it interesting that in Matthew chapter 6 the whole Scripture is about what you’re going to eat, to drink and wear. Which master are you going to serve – the world system or God’s system? If you choose to serve God’s system, Scripture says you will never have a need for anything because God provides seed for the sower and He provides bread for the eating and He will generously take care of you and your righteous way, the way that you ought to be, generous.
So, here the Apostle Paul is exactly talking about what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 6. The difference is that Paul says, “Hey you people who sow seed. If you sow seed sparingly, you’re going to reap sparingly.” I mean this is not rocket science. If you just throw a few seeds you’re going to get a small harvest. You sow big seeds, you’re going to get a big harvest.”.
When it comes to living my life, I’m integrated and where I’m not integrated my heart is, “Lord, I need to do better.” And sometimes He gets deep inside here with His Word and He just starts to cut. “Lord, what are You cutting?” “I’m cutting the soul pattern, this habit that you have. I’m cutting it out of your life. My Word is bringing life. I’ve got to cut this malignant habit, this cancerous way of living, I’ve got to cut it out of your life, otherwise, you’re going to eventually die from it.” “But Lord, it feels so painful, it’s so sore. Please stop.” No, don’t stop, because I really want to think like Him, I really want to talk like Him. I really want to keep living like Him at the highest possible level that I can go. And if He’s a real good Father then He’ll keep going at it. “You’re My son, I want you to do better. I want you to think like Me, talk like Me and act like Me because I want to get more stuff to you. Hey, this is our crossover. This is our crossover from thinking like the systems want us to think, to the way God wants us to think.
In the life of the spirit, God’s got answers. Information is one thing, understanding is another thing. Wisdom is when they all work together you get good momentum and you get good go forward. And God can do things in your business in three months that you couldn’t do in 30 years. He can do things quickly because as you sow God has got something that He can work with. Because you say, “I’m seeking Him, I’m seeking Him.”
This is a word that the Holy Spirit is urging me to speak out of my spirit right now. That thing, those things that you are hanging on to that you’re reluctant to let go of, God has already been speaking to some people that there are things that you have to let go of so that you can be free to move into the next thing that God has for you. While you’re holding on to those things, you will not get free. All you’ll be hearing is information. You will not move into understanding and you will not move into wisdom, while you’re holding on to the things that God is saying, “Let go of those things.”
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