Tag: money

Abundant Supply

Tonight was awesome!  Simply awesome!

Duncan Sherwin kicked off the conference with a powerful message on money. Some of his comments on trusting God and not money, and putting money into context (the word money is in the Bible more than the word faith) and showing us how to relate to money was brilliant.

Then for the second session of the night, John Maunder shared on how we are all WORTH IT!  Because of the death of Jesus for us, we are loved.  More people lose out on their financial increase because they don’t realize how loved they are, and how blessed they are and how adored they are.

It was a powerful evening and a great start to the conference.  Looking forward to tomorrow so much!

Walking in Wealth: God Loves You Having Money

On a forum I used to post on, a very good friend of mine posted this:

Ps 35V27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

This scripture tells us God has pleasure in the prosperity (well being) of the servant that favours his righteous cause.

Notice though what it doesn’t say, it doesn’t say that God takes pleasure in the poverty of his servant because he doesn’t… God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant…

Reading this has blessed me no end.  It is such a powerful thought: God is happy when you prosper financially. 

So many Christians still don’t or can’t believe this.  They have imbibed the nonsense of religion that God wants you poor, that poverty is next to godliness, that poverty is a blessing.

They don’t realize that God placed Adam in a garden paradise full of fruitfulness, abundance and even gold and precious stones (read Genesis 1 and 2 if you don’t believe that), that Jesus lived on this earth as a wealthy man until he became poor on the cross, and that Jesus became poor so we could be rich.

This Scripture tells us clearly: God has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.  Put this in modern language: God loves it when you succeed financially.  Every pay rise, every deal that favours you, every gift you receive, every stock you invest in that goes up, every debt you pay off, every time money comes to you – God is happy.  God loves it when you prosper.

James 1.5 says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and cannot receive from God.  That does not mean an indecisive person because an indecisive person can receive from God.  I can walk into the pulpit thinking should I preach sermon A or sermon B and be in two minds about what to do, and when I preach even if I make my mind up at the last minute, people will still be blessed – I will still have received from God!

A double minded person is someone who is trying to stand in faith in the Word but another part of their mind holds a thought that works against what they are believing for.  I had this myself years ago while trying to stand for my healing: part of my mind was believing that by His stripes I was healed whereas another part of my mind was going “you don’t deserve to be healed because of all you have done wrong.” 

No matter how many healing Scriptures I quoted or meditated on, no matter how many healing messages I heard, I could not be healed because of my double mindedness.  Praise the Lord, He showed me from His Word that He loved me and that we don’t receive from God based on merit.  I didn’t need a healing revelation to be healed, I needed a grace revelation.  Recently I went to pray for a person suffering from the symptoms of cancer and as I was teaching him the Word I realize that he needed not a healing revelation, but a grace revelation.

When it comes to prosperity, we preach a lot on the functionality of prosperity: sow a seed, reap a harvest; give and it shall be given to you; cast your bread on the waters and it will return to you.  Now that is all true, very very true.  But if you give let’s say £100 to a ministry following the leading of the Lord and your mind is stuffed full of how prosperity works that is not enough to prosper.  You are claiming a return on your gift, standing in faith but if another part of your mind is yelling at you: “God doesn’t want you rich, God loves the poor, you don’t deserve to be out of debt, you are not good enough, you are not on of the lucky few” then your double mindedness will stunt your prosperity.  So because it doesn’t work you listen to some more teaching tapes on the functionality of prosperity, but it doesn’t work because you haven’t dealt with the other part of your mind.

You need to realize and meditate on the relational aspect of prosperity.  You need to say out loud and think about this:  It makes God happy when you succeed financially, God loves it when I have money, the Lord is delighted with my prosperity.

Start to imagine you succeeding financially, and start to imagine God’s pleasure as you succeed.

Understanding the Tithe (Kenneth Copeland)

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:10-11).

This is God Himself speaking and He is saying, “Prove Me in this.” This is the only time in the Word where God instructs us to prove Him, and it is the one area where most people have withdrawn from proving God.

Tithing was instituted under the Old Covenant as a way for God to communicate His blessing to His people. The word tithe means “tenth or ten percent.” Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” Tithes are to be given from the first fruits, from the top— the gross, not the net. A person who does not tithe is robbing God and is operating under a curse (Malachi 3:8-9). The first fruits of our income is God’s; it is not ours to use to pay bills.

Tithing is different from seed-faith gifts and offerings. The tithe is your 10 percent that God commands us to give—gifts and offerings are above and beyond it. Some people want to give “as the Lord leads them” instead of tithing—but the Spirit would never lead you against His Word. The Word says to tithe.

Tithing is not only an Old Covenant command, but also a New Testament blessing and privilege. Hebrews 7:8 says, “Here men that die receive tithes. But there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.”

In the Old Covenant, God’s people would place their tithe—the first fruits of their increase—in a basket, present it to the high priest, and say to him, “I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us” (Deuteronomy 26:2-3). They spoke their redemption.

According to Colossians 1:13, we have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son. As believers, we are living in the kingdom of God. We have entered into our inheritance in Jesus Christ and possess it in His Name. Jesus is the High Priest of the New Covenant. When we take our tithes to our High Priest and speak our redemption, He receives them and then presents them to the Father (Hebrews 3:1, 7:8).

When we stand on our covenant with God and exercise our rights as tithers, we lay a foundation for success and abundance. Satan has no chance against us. Tithing the tithe rebukes the devourer! When we resist Satan in the Name of Jesus, God’s rebuke is in action. God told the Israelites their words were stout against Him. They were confessing lack and want. It is important to speak our redemption in order for the tithe to produce.

Where you place you tithe depends on where you are receiving your spiritual food. God says to bring the tithes into the storehouse. That is where the food is—where a pastor, an evangelist, an apostle or some other ministry is in operation. When you give, you are not giving to an individual, but for the furtherance of the gospel. Since your tithe is God’s money and since Jesus is the One who handles and receives it, you should always pray and let Him tell you where it should be put to work.

Help Needed For Wonderful News Crusade

In no particular order, we need the following things for our Wonderful News Healing Crusade from 11-14th August 2009.

1. A worship leader

As anyone who knows me knows, I cannot lead worship and have very little musical talent.  Due to the fact we are in a library we are not allowed any amplification equipment.  We can have an acoustic guitar and we have access to a piano on the last two nights, so if you know someone who can lead for us that would be wonderful.  We need someone who is an individual (a band would be too loud), can play three or four songs that are upbeat, Biblically based (not begging and whining songs!) and who is a person full of faith and the Holy Spirit.  Please believe God with us that we will find someone.

2. Ushers.

We have a couple already, but we ideally want 4.  Again, people full of faith and the Holy Spirit.   Willing to greet people, be positive, and take names and addresses of people who are saved and healed for follow up.  Someone who is willing and able to lead someone to the Lord, lead someone into the baptism in the Holy Spirit and lay hands on the sick would be a bonus.  In the church we are teaching on healing and ministering healing throughout July on Sunday afternoons, so we would expect our ushers to attend a couple of services in July at least.

3. We need people to attend.

People are drawn to crowds, so if you are reading this, then think about making your way to Essex in August and come and join with us.  You will hear some great preaching (if I do say so myself) and see some great miracles (because God honours His Word!) and will be blessed.  If you need accomodation, don’t worry, we will sort that for you.

4. A Banner.

I want a 3′ x 7′ banner to put up outside so people walking past will know about our meetings.  I am going to price some up in the next week.  If you know companies that make excellent banners at good value, then please let me know!

5. Tracts.  We are submitting our plans to the printers and designers next week.  Please pray for wisdom for them that they produce something truly eye catching and anointed.

6. Bibles.  Thankfully a charity looks like it is going to be donating us 20 Bibles.  Please pray this goes smoothly.

7. 4 sermons.  Please pray for wisdom and revelation for me so I preach the Word of God and not tradition, with boldness and with humility and grace.

8. People help hand out leaflets.  Door-to-door and in the streets of Ilford and Barkingside and possibly Romford and Barking too.  If you can help for a few hours one evening or on Saturday, please let us know.

9. Advertising.   My goal is to advertise in the local paper and on local radio.  I would also like to advertise on Premier radio.  Please pray that I will be able to get through to the decision makers easily and get eye catching adverts in all these places.  Also, some money to get these adverts out would be lovely!

10. A Follow Up Plan.  I want to be able to hand out Andrew Wommack literature to everyone who attends, and some clear teaching literature to everyone who is born again or healed or baptised in the Holy Spirit.  I want to have a clear plan for collecting addresses and details of people who have their lives changed.  I am not looking to steal sheep from other churches in the slighest, but when people come, are born again and have their lifes changed, I want to be able to pastor them and help feed them and help them renew their minds over time.

11. Boldness.  Please pray we will have boldness to keep faithful to the Lord and His plan throughout the entire event.

Thanks in advance for your prayers and so on.  If you are praying for us, add a comment to this post and let us know.  We need encouragement too!

Blessings,

Benjamin