Kingdom Prosperity

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Episode Transcript

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New Wine Tape of the Month numberTM seven for April nineteen seventy eight.
As a service of New Wine Magazine, The New Wine Tape of the Month
is designed to bring you timely andvital topics that concern Christians today. It
is our hope that they will encourageand inform you, just as New Wine
Magazine has for years. This month'smessage is by Don Basham and entitled Kingdom

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Prosperity. You'll forgive me if I'mfeeling a little rebegger this morning about something
I think we need to be remindedthat there are many phases the Kingdom life,
and for weeks and months, andreally for the last few years,

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we've been giving primary attention to thestructure of the Kingdom of God, which
we call relationship, getting people properlyrelated to one another. When I've taught
on this, I've often used theillustration that the basic symbol of the Christian
life is the cross, which containsa vertical and a horizontal member. The
vertical member represents our vertical relationship tothe Lord, and the horizontal member represents

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our relationships to one another. Andthere's no doubt but what God has been
emphasizing the necessity for us to beproperly related to one another. And we
have been in our and will beunder the dealings of God. But I
think we also need to be remindedstill that there's the vertical and that the

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Kingdom of God not only consists ofrelationships, but the Kingdom of God also
consists of God's provision for us.And I want to talk today not about
relationship, but about kingdom prosperity.I want to talk today about the goodness
of God and the abundant life,and I want to talk about the wealth
and the prosperity that God has promisedus, and to remind us of how

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we can put ourselves in a positionto get our share of it. Any
of your year really believe that God'skingdom includes abundance. Raise your hand all
right, hallelujah. Yet we tendto think at times when we get under
it that and we do have teststo meet, and we do have things
that we have to work out.But when we get into under the heavy

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dealings of God, we forget thatGod is a God who wants to prosperous
people, and we get so preoccupiedwe're trying to work things out between us
that we somehow forget how to beopen to the things that God wants to
do with us and to do forus. So I want to talk this
morning about Kingdom prosperity and to remindus of some things scripturally, to share

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a little personal experience, and thento share what I believe is important for
us to understand about how the Kingdomprinciples of prosperity link in or link up
with the Kingdom principles of relationships,because I think it's important for us to
see the head. We need tobe reminded that Jesus knew what he was

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talking about in John ten ten whenhe called the devil a thief, and
he said about the devil, thethief cometh not but far to steal and
to kill and to destroy. ButI am come that you may have life,
and have that life more abundantly.That's what we want to talk about
today. Turn with me to Deuteronomychapter eight. We're going to read a

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portion of scripture in which there isa description from God to the children of
Israel about what the promised land thatthey're going to enter into his life.
And I don't think we're spiritualizing whenwe say that we are the spiritual Israel
and that we are to come intoa kingdom, that God's final goal for

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us is the Kingdom of God,the equivalent of the Israelites Canaan, the
promised land which He promised them.And I think it's proper for us to
consider our equivalent in our time inthe Kingdom of God, that our kingdom
is as good as that one better, and that we can read as we
read about what God promised the childrenof Israel when they came into their inheritance,

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and Canaan applies to what God intendsfor us to him. So this
is an admonition that Moses is givingto the children of Israel as they come
into the prepare to go into thePromised Land. Beginning with the first of
Chapter eight, all the commandments whichI command thee this day, which shall
shall he observe to do, thatshe may live and multiply and go in

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and possess the land which the Lordswear unto your father's I remember the reason
that God was giving him this landwas because he promised Abraham. He made
a covenant with Abraham that this landwould be theirs. Forever. And it's
in the keeping of that covenant thatGod is promising, that the covenants that
God made with Abraham, that Godis promising the children of Israel that they're

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going to be brought into that notbecause they're wise, or because they're holy,
or because they're good, but becauseof covenant, because this is their
inheritance. This is what God promisedAbraham, or Abraham is our father as
well. And so what we're cominginto in the way of kingdom, what
God wants to bring us into andour own Canaan and our own kingdom of
God, is not because merely becausewe're good or wise, or holy or

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are any better than any of theother of God's people. But it has
to do with the original covenant Godmade with Abraham to bless his people.
Thou shalt remember all the way whichthe Lord thy God led thee these forty
years in the wilderness, to humblethee and to prove thee and to know
what was in thine heart. Incidentally, that's why we have tests, that's
why we go through difficult times,because God is out to prove something to

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us. That's not the end thewilderness experience for the children of Israel was
not their inheritance. It was thediscipline and the training that they went through
to prepare them for their inheritance.The forty years in the wilderness was to
humble thee and to prove THEE toknow what was in thine heart, whether
thou would keep his commandments or no. And he humble thee and suffered thee
to hunger, and fed thee withmanner which thou knewest. Not neither did

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thy fathers know that he might makeTHEE know that man doth not live by
bread only, but by every mouth, by every word that precedeth out the
mouth of the Lord. Doth manlive thy raim at wax not old upon
thee. Neither did thy foot swellthese forty years. Thou shalt also consider
in thine heart that is a manchasingth his son. So the Lord thy
God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shaltkeep the commandments of the Lord thy God,

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to walk in his ways and tofear him. Now that's all a
part of the admonition of preparation.Now let's read the description of that land,
and bearing in mind that we're readingit with the idea that we're to
appropriate that description for kingdom prosperity whichGod intends for us today in our time
under the New Covenant. For theLord thy God bringeth THEE into a good

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land, a land of brooks ofwater, of fountains and depths that spring
out of valleys and hills, Aland of wheat and barley, and vines
and fig trees and palm granates,a land of olive oil and honey,
A land wherein thou shalt eat breadwithout scarcy, thou shalt not lack anything

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in it, A land whose stonesare iron, and out of whose hills
thou mayest dig brass. And whenthou ist eaten and art full, then
thou shalt bless the Lord thy Godfor the good land which he hath given
thee. And here comes another admonition. Beware that thou forget not the Lord
thy God in not keeping his commandmentsand his judgments and his statutes. When
it shay command thee this day,Lest when thou hast eaten and art full,

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and hast built goodly houses and dwelttherein, and when thy herds and
thy flocks multiply, and thy silverand thy gold is multiplied, and all
that thy thou hast is multiplied.You see what God's intention is for his
people, that not only we besatisfied with a minimum, but but were
to build good houses, our herdsand are flocks. To multiply our silver

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and our gold is to be multiplied. Everything about our material well being in
the Kingdom of God is to bemultiplied. That God's inheritance for his people.
But the warning is lest when thosethings happen, Moses says, then
thine heart be lifted up, andthou forget the Lord, thy God,
which brought THEE out of the landof Egypt from the house of bondage,

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who led thee through the great andterrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and
scorpions and drought, and there wasno water. Who brought thee forth water
out of the rock of plans,who fed thee in the wilderness with manner
which thy fathers knew, not thathe might humble THEE and prove THEE to
do THEE good. At thy latterend, and thou say, in thine
heart, my power and mind andthe mind of mine hand hath gotten me

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this wealth verse eighteen. But thoushalt remember the Lord thy God, for
it is he that giveth thee powerto get wealth, that he may establish
his covenant, which he swear untothy fathers, as it is this day.
So we need to remember that inthe mind of God, our inheritance
includes the ability, by God's graceto accumulate wealth and prosperity and abundance.

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And that will of God is basedin the covenant that He made with Abraham
our father, that when if Abrahamwould be faithful, that through him all
of the nations of the earth wouldbe blessed, and that he would come
into his inheritance and all of hisseed forever would be blessed. And that
blessing doesn't merely include peace of mindand proper relationship with one another and the

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knowledge that God loves us. Blessingin the scripture time and time and time
again is proved to have to dowith material abundance. It's not just spiritual
blessing. We'll probably say something aboutthat a little later, Okay. So
the first thing we want to rememberis that God's will for us is good,
and that our inheritance, our goalthat God has for us is Canaan.

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The Kingdom of God is Canaan,and that's the land that's flowing with
milk and honey. That's the landof abundance, that's the land of wealth,
that's the land of prosperity, aland where God wants us not to
want for anything at all, whereevery need will be supplied, where every
desire will be fulfilled. God isnot a stingy God. God is not

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a pique you in God. God'snot standing around waiting to slap our hands
when we reach for something that's goodor that we like. The Kingdom of
God, the prosperity of God isa part of our inheritance as the children
of God. So God's will forus is good our inheritance. Our goal
is Canaan, and Canaan is aland flowing with milk and honey. And
don't let the devil or anybody elsetell you anything else, all right.

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Second point to help us understand whatwe're what's available to us, is that
we need to be reinforced in ourunderstanding and our experience of God's ability and
desire to provide for us. Weall need first hand experience in terms of

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answered prayer and God's provision for uscoming to us in a way that we
know it's coming from the hand ofGod. I know people who are willing
to pray for world peace, butwho don't have enough faith or daring to
pray that the money will come into pay the light bill. Now,
what's the sense in praying for worldpeace if you can't generate enough power to

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heal a head cold or to getthe money to pay your light bills.
So what I'm talking about is thatwe need not only the theory that God's
promises are true, but we needthe experience of it. And I want
to You'll forgive me for sharing alittle personal experience here, but I think
that helped add some weight to thething that I'm saying. It's been a
little over ten years now since ourfamily left Pennsylvania. I left the pastorate

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to move down here to Florida andto begin the teaching ministry that I've been
in these years, or to beginto live what we call the life of
faith. Somebody has rightly described thelife of faith this way, is that
living by faith is like living inthe midst of a miracle on the edge
of disasters. That is, ifGod doesn't come through, you go under.

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And we went through our own wilderness, experience our own times of testing
and trial, and we had tohave experienced through the years, especially more
in those early years, God's miraculousprovision time and again. And I want
to give just a couple of illustrationsof it because I think it's important to
help buttress our faith. I've gotother things to say beyond this, but
it's important that we see this kindof of truth that in those chrisis situations,

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that God is able to provide supernaturallyor in a supernatural in a totally
unexpected way. First easter that wewere we moved down in January, and
the first Easter that we were inPafado in Florida, all of the invitations
to speak that I had material thatI had envisioned sort of dwindled away,
and a little bit of money wehad when we came to Florida soon disappeared,
and pretty soon we were right downto rock bottom. I mean,

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when you've got and when you've onlygot change in your pocket and you've got
a wife and five children to support, I'll tell you one thing, It'll
make you begin to pray and earnit. I mean, you'll put some
backbone into your prayers. This time. I was going to tell you about
about Easter time, and we didn't. God had always he always did provide.
We never missed the meet you.Alice put on a few funny looking
menuons on the table and those times, but we never missed a meet.

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I also discovered that God didn't gettoo upset at the second notice about a
utility bill, but we never hadany utilities cut off. I didn't notice
that they came in different colored envelopesthe second time around. Why are you
laughing? It would be that you'vehad the same experience, all right.

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So this was Easter time and wewere sitting around the lunch table and the
girls who were much smaller than thanthey are now. Of course, it's
been about nearly ten years ago.And I believe it was Sherry Beth Sherry
Gunlock now who said to Alice.Sherry I think it was in junior high
school, and she said, mother, the other girls are getting new dresses
for Eastern We need some new clothesfor Easter. And Alice said, very

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wisely and truthfully, well, Jerry, we don't have the money right now,
have you prayed about it, andJerry, is a typical adolescent,
said something to eat old mother,don't be spiritual, or something like that.
You know. She reacted a littlenegatively as kids would, and then
Alice insisted, she said, no, I mean it. If the need
is real, God will meet it. Now, you know, we're living

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by faith and we're trusting God,and God brings in what we need is
we need it. And so wetalked a little about it there at the
lunch table, and I wish Icould be real spiritual and say we all
stopped and prayed, but we didn't. We just sat there and talked about
it. And before we left thelunch table, there came a knock at
the door, and send our oldestwent to the door, and it was
a delivery man with a package,a little gift, all neatly wrapped.

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She brought in gave it to Alice. It's all wrapped in white paper and
tied with gold ribbon. After shetook it out of the bag or the
out of rapping, and she begunto she took the tissue off in the
ribbon and opened up in his littlewhite box and a lot of tissue of
paper inside and she began fumbling around. It didn't seem to be anything in
it, and Lisa no Sing beginto tear up. She says, Mommy,
somebody's playing a joke on us.It's nothing in the box. And

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Alice kept fumbled around, and finallyin the bottom of the box there was
a little card and she looked atit and tears came in her eyes,
and she handed it over to me, and it was a gift certificate made
out from a local women's clothing storein the amount of one hundred dollars,
and all the girls begin to jumpup down. He said, can you

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mean we can have a hundred dollarsworth the clothes for free? Of course,
ten years ago one hundred dollars isworth more than it is now be
worth nearly two hundred. Now youmean we can have a hundred dollars worth
the clothes were free? And Isaid, that's what the card says.
I told him what it was,and Glenn our son was sitting there,
who had remained sagely silent through allthat discussion of women's clothes, said,

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very practically, Daddy, who's itfrom, Because you know, gift certificate
usually has something sign on it,and I look down where the space for
the signature. Instead of a signature, it said from someone who loves you,
Laura, and piped up and said, that's God, all right.
But we had experience after experience likethat in which God just very lovingly demonstrated

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his ability to provide. Like onetime when I was praying over two bills
we didn't have the money for,and they totaled about ninety three dollars and
forty some odd cents something like that, and I went into my bedroom.
The devil got on my back andwas telling you, fool, your family's
gonna starve. God won't meet yourneeds. And I spent some time in
there and praying and believing God andagonize him before the Lord and got peace
about it. And the very nextday in the mail arrived two checks from

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a brother up in Pennsylvania with acovering letter, and the checks had been
made out to him, and hehad endorsed them over to us. He's
a medical doctor who was making hada good practice and was making good money,
but he was also a Christian andhe'd casionally speak its meetings and they'd
give him honorarian And he simply wroteme this letter, he said. Donnie
said, I know he'd know we'dknown him in Pennsylvania, and he said,

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I want you to know that.He said, I don't need this
money because I make more money asa doctor than I need. And I
realize that you're in the Lord's workfull time, he said, So I
just want you to accept these checksas if they were honorariums for your own
ministry, and he'd endorse them overto me. And I've been praying about
bills at total ninety three dollars insomething, and the two checks total ninety

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five dollars. Now, God's alittle sparing with the miracles, that is
the outright kind of miracles. AndI think you can understand why. In
other words, God does not expectus simply to sit down before a table
each morning and pray and for thefood to miraculously appear. Now there are
cases and men's ministries like George Mullerand others who when they did that over

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the Bristol Orphanage century so ago,and they didn't have the food. They
sat down in the morning and prayed, and while they prayed, the trucks
were driving up outside with bread tofeed the children. But buying large.
What we have is in God isa combination of living naturally by faith with
the occasional supernatural blessing of God tosee to it that our needs are looked

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after. So we don't want tobe overly spiritual and say, well,
I'm not going to take anything fromanybody. I'm just going to pray and
God will just have the food appearmiraculously on the table. God uses people
to bless people, So if wehad too many miracles, if we could
just pray and have the food appear, then we'd get independent, we'd get
prideful, and we wouldn't need oneanother. So God's a little sparing with
that kind of dramatic answer. Butif we had too many miracles, we'd

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get lazy and prideful. But ifwe didn't it didn't have any we'd all
be goneers. None of us wouldmake it. Because a part of God's
provision for us is is supernatural abundance. So these miracles and these answered prayers
offer sufficient evidence to us of God'swatch care over us to see that our
needs are meant all right, we'retalking about God's ability to provide. Let's

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talk now about some of the barriersthat stand in the way of God's abundance.
One of them is this, toomany people have an unscriptural view of
what blessing means. We've already touchedon it. We'll just mention it again.
There's always a tendency of people whoread the scriptures to spiritualize everything.
They can spiritualize themselves off of thehoof. They can spiritualisize themselves away from

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believing that God's going to do anythingdefinite, you know, so you can
pray those great big prayers like prayingfor world peace and praying for understanding and
all those things where your prayers arekind of anonymous and nobody ever knows whether
your prayers are answered or not becausethey're in the multitude of millions of other
prayers. And there's that tendency totalk about the blessings of God is always

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in a super spiritual way, thatGod will give peace, and God will
give understanding, and God will givepatience. And I know lots and lots
of Christians will pray all those praythose kind of prayers who won't pray that
God will give money or that Godwill give health in a situation, So
there is that unscriptural view of blessing. And we said it earlier that especially
in the Old Testament, it's revealedas well as in the New blessing means

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material benefits. The blessings of Godaren't just ethereal, fuzzy, foggy things
out in the in the mental orthe spiritual realm. The blessings of God
have to do with God's material abundance. A second point, remember we're talking
about barriers to God's abundle. Thesecond one is a very subtle thing.

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It's a kind of pride which weall tend to fall into, and that
is that you're going to be holy, you got to be poor or rural.
Roberts say one time his dad wasa Pentecostal minister and little poor section
Oklahoma. He said the church board, the favorite prayers of the elders of
his dad's church board was Lord,we keep him poor, you keep him
mumble. And there are churches likethat who feel like they're going to keep

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their their preacher humble. They're gonnahave to keep him poor. And there
are those who feel and it's allacross our Christian faith in life even today.
The idea is that somehow to dowithout means you're gonna be you gotta
be poor, got to get alongwith just a little bit. I agree
with Brother Derek Prince who said hebelieves that poverties occurred, and that Jesus
died on the cross as much forour lack of and our poverties he did

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for our sickness, or for ourpains, or for our sins. And
certainly from all the promises of scriptureabout the nature of the kingdom and about
God's willing to bless us, thepromises about material abundance are are all through
the scripture. And if poverty,our lack, our need, or just
barely getting by was a part ofthe blessing of God, then all of

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those other scriptures would be talking abouttaking away God's blessing. But there are
people who believe that somehow you gotto if you're poor, you're a little
holier than anybody else. I thinkthat's a cop out. I think that's
false kind of teaching. I thinkit's a false kind of price. And
we run into it in our relationshipswith some other charismatic group. We have
a lot of relationship, a lotof good brothers and sisters in the lord

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of other traditions and other backgrounds,who are also doing their part in kingdom
building, that is, they're buildingcommunities and getting people together in covenant relationship
and so and quite a few ofthem don't have the understanding that I'm trying
to help you with right now.Some of them very subtly feel that it
is somehow better to be poor,and as if God can afford to bless

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that if God were to give them, somebody, I mean somebody else would
would be deprived. How many ofyou really believe that if God were to
shire an abundance on you, itmeans you'd have to take it away from
somebody else. Is the kingdom soulbereft of bounty and of abundance, that
as we spread kingdom blessings around thatwe have to spread them real fin because
God's poor and he just doesn't barelyhas enough just to get by with a

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minimum. So if you get alittle more than you've been getting out means
some other brothers going to do withoutaltogether. Nonsense. God's the God of
abundance. God, the Kingdom ofHeaven is without limitation, everything that we
could ever possibly need, that everybodywould ever possibly need is there, but
we tend to become poverty oriented andthink that somehow to be poorer spiritual.

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I remember a brother one time inone of those communities told me, and
I think he's changed some sense.It's been several years ago, but he
sort of bragged to me in privateconversation, and they in a community with
several hundred people. He said,we've discovered that by careful planning, we
can feed each member of our communityon four dollars and thirty seven cents a
week. I've been there at thatcommunity, Charles and I have, and

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others of We slept in the basementof a house on a mattress on the
floor and we ate skim milk andcorn flakes for breakfast. Well, it's
an evidence of community, but Ican't quite call that kingdom. And this
brother has since I think changed hisattitude somewhat too. But the idea is

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that you don't have to just scrimand just have to do without in order
to see that everybody's treated all thesame. It's not just community God wants,
it's kingdom that he wants. Bythe time I could tell you a
lot, take time to tell youthe story we were in some meetings up
in that part of the country withsome of those brothers and living in that
kind of situation, and then cameout that after two or three days.

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And we loved those brothers and they'rewonderful people, but they don't have the
understanding of kingdom abundance that I thinkGod wants us to have. So when
we were there, we lived attheir level of subsistence, which was very,
very meager. Now they're sweet peopleand devoted, but out of their
tradition. Their tradition is that somehowthe poorer you are, the holier you
are. And we were up therewith Derek and I and Charles and Bob

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and some of the other men,and we were flying back down to Florida
after the meetings were over, andwe were in the airplane, the twin
engine plane that Charles is good GulfCoast Fellowship had for a while, and
we were late getting away from upnorth and it was snowing. We flew
back down. We had to stopat Jacksonville to refuel, and it was
about supper time, and so wedecided to go into a hotel to have

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a meal together, and we caughta van from the from the airport into
this particular hotel. It wasn't veryfar away, and walked in and first
started to go into the coffee shop, and then I think it was Derek
said, when now there's a diningroom up on the top floor. Here
was as signed by the elevator.He said, why don't we go up
there? But anyway, something happenedto us as we started up in that

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elevator. It's like there was abouttwelve of us and the presence of God
got in the elevator with and I. When we were singing hymns as were
a chorus. The as we weregoing into the van, we were just
sort of light in the spirit anyway, partly coming out from under the strain
and the drudgery and of the daysthat we just finished. The meetings had
been hard. They were private meetingsin which we were discussing things, and

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we'd suffered, you know, thisminimum of material care while we were there.
And anyway, we went up tothe top floor in this hotel and
the doors opened and here was thisbeautiful dining room and which the first thing
I've noticed there was a lovely ladyin an evening gown, blonde hair,
if you playing the harp, howoften are you ever going to dining where

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somebody's playing a harp? And themusic that she was playing on that harp
was almost ethereal and there was somethingit was like there was almost a smoke
in the room, like we wereviewing the thing almost through some sort of
haze. And right directly across fromthe elevator, across the dining room here
was a large table set with abeautiful tablecloth and crystal china and candle it

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and it had twelve chairs, andthere were twelve of us, and there
were waiters with red jackets and towelsover their arms waiting there. And we
just walked right across to that tablelike it had been spread there far,
and sat down and picked up themenus and the food. Of course,
the prices were rather steep. ButBrother Derek's, bless his heart, said,

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I feel that God would have mehave all you brothers be my guest
for this evening. He wouldn't haveit any other way, And we were
delighted with his But all I cansay is that it wasn't just a twelve
us. Somehow, the Lord wasat that table and we had the finest
kind of servant, finest kind ofmeals, and something a hush fell over

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that table, and even the waiterssensed it, and they folk in whispers,
and that whole part of the restaurantI grew quiet, And it's like
we were at a love feast withthe Lord himself. I never have sat
through a meal just with a groupof men like that where I had tears
in my eyes the whole meal,and it was difficult to eat, and
all of us felt it, andwe our conviction about it was that God

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was showing us the difference between simplecommunity and kingdom. We'd come out of
those days which really didn't hurt uswhere we sort of did without We've had
a hard time and so forth.But it's like, in a very supernatural
way, God was saying, Iwant to show you what kingdom blessing really
is. And I've never had ameal. I've been at times when we've

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had the Lord's upper when the presenceof God was surreal that you could cut
it with a knife. And I'vebeen in times of prayer and in times
of ministry when the presence of Godjust hovered over a room and you've all
felt have been in situations. Iwant to testify to you this morning,
and I have never felt the presenceof God more strongly and more beautifully than
I did in that hotel dining roomthat night, when the twelve of us

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sat there and had the absolute bestof everything in the way of service,
in the way of china, andthe way of food, and the way
of atmosphere, and the way ofmusic, and that whole end of the
dining room came under a holy hush, and we all drank a toast to
the Lord Jesus Christ, who wefelt was our host that night. Now,

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I want to tell you something thatis kingdom. That is a demonstration
of where God wants us to go. That doesn't mean that there won't be
the tests and all the rest.But all right, we were talking about
the barriers to God's abundance, andone of them is, I think the
mistaken idea of prideful idea that somehowto be poor is to be holy.

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You know what, I equate thatwith this people to say, well,
to be poor's holy. I equatethat with the same kind of people who
say to be sick is to bespiritual. You never heard that people say
well, you know, God putson sickness to make us holy and spiritual.
Thank God, most of us haveleft that behind years ago because we
know God's will for us is healing, and nobody's going to talk us out

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of that and say, well,you can't tell me God put that sickness
on just to make me spiritual.That's the devil is the one who comes
to kill and steal into destroy.Well, this is the way I put
this business about. To be pooris to be holy, and I think
it's a lie of the devil,and it's never intended for God's people to
fall into that trap. Another reason, another barrier to abundance can be actually

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demonic resistance and interference. They don'thave time to tell all the stories I'd
like to tell, But back inPampina one time some years ago, we
were in the Deliverance Ministry in aprayer meeting one night, and a lot
of other people have gotten a lotof help. And those were in the
early years when we were still havinga difficult time financially or walking through the
dealings of God and the tests offaith and so forth. And at times

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I'd really get panicky out of fearthe fear isn't from God. The tests
from God would be real, butthe panicky feeling that I would go under
and then somehow, sooner or later, we just wouldn't be able to make
it anymore. And I'd ministered deliverancewith considerable success that night, and the
meeting was over, and people werehaving refreshments in the kitchen and so forth,
and I went over and sat downin a chair, and all at

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once a real kind of heaviness settledover me, just like something like some
sort of enveloping cloud. And Iknew it was some sort of demonic something
after me. So I went intothe bathroom by myself to pray and to
take authority over in commanded to turnloose. And as I commanded that thing
to go in the name of Jesus, it revealed its identitated to me,

(30:48):
just like flaming letters right across mymind. As I didn't even bother to
ask what it was, I said, you, spirit, that's harassing me.
I command you in Jesus name togo, and in flaming letters right
across my mind, big planning lettersthat said poverty. And I got delivered
from that. And my wife willtestify to you here today that my attitude
about God's ability to provide changed afterthat. And not only that, that

(31:11):
was the time when we begin tomove into God's abundance. You know,
I went through a lot of thatsort of thing, that the sort of
things that many of us go through, and that is when you're trying to
walk things out in faith and barelygetting by, you don't have the proper
perspective of God's abundance that you need. When we left the pastorate ten years
ago, I was fully prepared becauseof what I thought the life of faith

(31:33):
was to be about. I wasfully prepared to pray our food in on
the table more or less. Idid just to live hand to mouth day
by day. And I think that'sa part of what God has us go
through from time to time. That'sa part of the testing experience. That's
a part of the wilderness experience.But then after we'd done that for two
or three years and walked faithfully inthe Lord. But then after we'd done

(31:59):
that for or three years and walkfaithfully in the Lord, I understand now
it's Kingdom principle for it to workthat way. But God began to honor
that faithfulness and he began to blessus, and we begin to make more
money, and we begin to havea greater abundance of things. And I
began to wonder about what's gone wronghere. I was prepared, you know,
just to do without and to barelyget by. And God began to

(32:21):
pour the blessing off. What doyou do when you take everything that you
have and you give it to God, willing just to trust God for the
rest of your life, and thenGod begins to give it back, not
just to give it back, butto give it back many times over.
Well, it's a wonderful predicament tobe in, let me tell you.
And I came to see that itwas God's intention. Never God's intention for

(32:42):
us just barely to get by.It's God's intention to bless his people and
to bless them repeatedly and continually.Okay, So I got delivered from that
demonic harassment to change something in meabout my attitude about God's ability to provide.
That can be one of the hindrances. That they're our poverty spirit,
gloomy spirit, spirits of lack andneed, and one who harass us and

(33:06):
tell us you're never really gonna makeit in jobs, you're never really gonna
have enough of what you need.So for us, and that again is
a part of the devil's life,another barrier to God's abundant simple lack of
faith. Scriptures may let me recommendDerek's book on faith, the one That's
Living by Faith, That Faith toLive by, that was published just a
few months ago, because he expressedus so beautifully in detail, how if

(33:30):
you don't have faith you can cometo get it. Scripture says all things
are possible to him that believe,and with God all things are possible.
We know what God can do allthose things. But then the burdens put
on us that we're to believe thatwith God all things are possible. All
things are possible to us if webelieve. Over in the sixth chapter of

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the eleventh chapter of Hebrews sixth version. Don't have to turn to it,
but it just says that without faithit is impossible to please God. For
he who would believe in God,he would come into God, must believe
that He is and that He isa rewarder of those who diligently sees him.
And this is what the devil wouldtalk us out of all, you're
going to serve God the rest ofyour life. Brother, You're gonna have

(34:13):
to do without. You're gonna haveit hard. It's going to be difficult.
Not according to what the scriptures saythat if we have the faith to
believe the promises of God, thenthere are the promise of God's abundance.
Okay, let's look now at somesteps to prosperity and abundance, or to
move through these pretty rapidly. Ithink one thing that helps is for us

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to realize that if we just rememberthat we're steward and not owner, it
helps me in this sense if Iif I can realize that I'm a steward
in the sense that everything that comesto me is not really mine, it's
God, it makes it somehow alittle easier for me. I don't it's
not so easy for me to methat God will bless me for me,
you see, just to give itto me to use for my little things

(34:59):
and so forth. But if God, if I can see it that God
is in trusting me with a portionof his abundance and a portion of his
wealth and a portion of his riches, and expects me then to use it
wisely not only for my needs andmy family's needs, but for others needs
are well. I see myself inthe position of a steward, and I
don't have to feel selfish or Idon't have to feel guilty that I'm being

(35:20):
blessed, that abundant blessing is comingmy way, because I realize that it's
a responsibility under God, and thescriptures make it plain that stewards are required
to be faithful. So one ofthe steps to prosperities get over the idea
that you own anything, but torealize that everything belongs to God and that
you are a steward of that portionthat He gives to you. A second

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point we've mentioned before, but weneed to say it again. Turn with
me Philippians chapter four. We needto understand that there will be tests,
and there will be times of difficulty, and there will be times of strength,
but this doesn't change God's basic willfor us. Paul was a man
who knew what it was to haveit both ways, and I just want
to read these two verses out ofPhilippians chapter four, Verses twelve and thirteen.

(36:09):
Paul says, I know both howto be abased and I know how
to abound in everywhere and in allthings. I'm instructed both to be full
and to be hungry, both toabound and to suffer need. I can
do all things through Christ, whichstrengthen its needs. The reason I'm pointing
this scripture out is I think mostof us, at least in our community

(36:30):
and Good News Schellarship and many ofthe people that are been going through what
we've been going through in terms oftests and trials and the dealings of God.
We many of us feel like we'vebeen going through a time when basically
we've seen more abasement than we have, blessings than we've seen bounties. And
we need to understand that's a partof God's discipline in our lives that we
are to go through trials, weare to go through difficult time, but

(36:52):
life itself is not to be thatway. The rest of life. God's
promise is that those things are temporary. And Paul is saying, I know
how to be abased. I knowhow to put up with it when it's
hard. The Lord can see methrough those times. But I also know
how to abound. Will praise Godthis morning. I'm telling you I'm in
favor of abounding for a while.I don't mind the tests, and there'll

(37:14):
be more. But I want totell you God is a bounding us.
God. God is the one whowants to bless and to provide for what
we need. And we have aGod in whom there's no lack and in
whom there's no short supply. Okay, another point steps toward prosperity, to
be able to switch from an eyeto a wee mentality. We live in

(37:36):
a time, as we said,when God is bringing us into proper relationship
with one another and making us awareof our horizontal responsibilities. And it is
true that it's not sufficient anymore forus to pray that prayer. God bless
me and my wife, my sonJohn, his wife us four no more
Acts two four. The promises ofGod in the scripture are nearly always given

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to the plural. They're not evento I. They're given to weed.
They're not given to you or tome. They're given to us. And
as we begin to develop an understandingof our responsibility for one another and then
our prayers, we begin to pray. Well, look when Jesus disciples came
to Jesus, said Lord Teach,us how to pray. He said,
Okay, I'll tell you how todo it. This is the way you
start. My father, no,our father. And there's a world of

(38:23):
insight into those two little words.God wants to bless his people, but
he wants to bless his people corporately, not only individually. And it's my
conviction that there are many things thatwill never come to us, either individually
or as families, until we takethe larger view that God holds us responsible
for the family of God, thepart of God's family that we are part

(38:45):
of. And the blessings aren't justbless me, Lord, it's look after
us, it's provide for us.So we need to switch from the eye
to the we mentality that it's notonly in terms of God does want to
bless us, but to bless usnot just individually, but to bless us
corporately. So we need to makethat switch between the eye, from the
eye to the weed. Turn withme to Matthew chapter seven. Another step

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to getting into God's abundance. Weneed to expose ourselves to the bounty of
God. By exposing our mean todevelop a sense of expectancy that's partly just
a mental discipline we've been when we'vebeen under it for long periods of time
and joining through hardship and difficulty,we kind of get our side slow and

(39:37):
we kind of hunker our shoulders downbecause of the blows that have been coming
our way in the tests and soforth, and we lose part of our
vision. Well, I want toencourage you today is to lift your head
up and lift your eyes up andlook towards Heaven and begin to remember that
you're a child of God and thatyou're entitled to the blessings that God has.
Let's read those now. It's outof the Sermon on the Mount.

(39:57):
Ask and it'll be given. Youseek, and ye shall find no,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and
he that seeketh find us. Andto him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Or what man is there of you? His son asked bread, will
he give him a stone? Orif he asked offish, will he give
him a serfance? If ye,then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children,how much more shall your Father, which

(40:21):
is in heaven, give good thingsto them that ask him? So what
I'm wanting to encourage us to dois just remember that we still have a
God who hears in ancients prayer,and that one of the dangers that we
fall into under the discipline and thetests and the trials that we go through
is that we begin to fail topray and simply to ask. You're an

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awful lot of things that we don'tget simply because we haven't asked that God
stands ready to give, but theway he set things up, you're going
to have to ask for it toget it. And there are things that
he wants to bless us with needsthat he wants to meet. And very
simple truth is, at times wejust forget to pray, and there it
is for us because God loved itand ready to give it to us,
and he's just waiting for us toask. To realize that it's in his

(41:05):
hand and he's willing to extend itif we ask for it. Another point,
we need to understand that not everythingthat comes to us is for us.
That God gives us not only whatwe need, but he'll also give
us that with which he wants usto bless other people. So what I'm

(41:29):
saying is that not everything you getto go from God is for you,
but it's meant for you to bea steward ought to help other people.
And I go back in my ownexperience and give illustrations this one time back
number of years ago, I guessabout nineteen sixty nine. I'd been in
Florida too long. And it wasin those times when we were in times

(41:49):
of financial stress and walking it outby faith and God doing the miracles and
so forth. Brother Derek and Iwere ministering together out in Ohio at a
little conference and not too many people, and we were there for couple of
days, and there wasn't a lotof big offerings taken this or thing.
But anyway, after the thing wasover, they paid me my plane fare
and they gave me a check forone hundred and fifty dollars, which was

(42:10):
wasn't large, but it was fairlymodest, but it wasn't too unusual in
those days for that size group andso forth. So I came home with
one hundred and fifty dollars and hadn'tleft the family with much, and I
was grateful to have the money.And I got home and had the check
in my pocket, and I wasthinking about going to the bank to deposit

(42:32):
it. And as I took itout and started to make out deposits that
the Lord said, give it away. I mean, I just got that
very strong impression. And my firstreaction was I rebuke you devil, you
know, and I can't be usednow. Sometimes the devil can trip you
up like that. But I foundthis one thing is that if the impression

(42:52):
stays, if it's strong, ifit's gentle, but it's strong and persistent,
it's gone. So I and itstayed, I just give it away.
The word kipt in. And Ididn't want to. I'd worked for
it was mine, so forth andso, and I was resisting what was
really God and so I didn't haveenough a faith to give it away.

(43:14):
But I didn't have enough guts todeposit it either. I didn't have enough
nerve to going against what God wassaying. And so I was kind of
caught in that dilemma. And Ijust carried the check around in my pocket
for a couple of days. Ifyou ever carried a hot coal around in
your pocket, that's sort of thewifel. I can't remember two days that
I was ever more mindful of mybillfold than I was those two days,

(43:34):
and finally I relented. I realizedI wasn't going to be able to hold
out on God. So we wereto some little ministry meeting up there and
some brothers traveling through, and soI took the checkout and indorsed it over
and gave it to them and immediatelyhad teace. But what happened was not
only did those brothers need the blessing, but that opened the way for God
to do things in my own life. You see, Whereas I think if

(43:57):
I had held onto that, thenI would have prevented God from doing something
that he wanted to do. Butyou have to be willing to realize that
some of what comes to you Godintends to bless somebody else with. It's
not just what It's not just foryou, but it's for others. So
what I'm saying is to help releaseGod's abundance in your life. Kick the

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bottom out of the bucket and letit be a channel. Let the money
come through. Don't feel like thateverything's coming is going to be yours.
I know too many people who,when they were having a hard time financially,
choked down on their givings that theycouldn't afford to give. That's the
wrong way to approach it. Ifyou're having a hard time in making mensie
ends meat, then give more away. Yeah, the answer isn't, Derek
says. The answer isn't to starteating your seed wheat. You see,

(44:42):
you know, if you're going tosew, it's the law of sowing and
reaping whatsoever man sows that chili alsoreaf you so sparingly you reap sparingly.
You so bountifully, you reap bountifully. So if you're reaping is kind of
sparing. Now, the answer isn'tto eat your seed wheat. The answer
is to sow more than you've beensewing. Because God is faithful, and
as you begin to soul that willcome back to you. That which comes

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back to you will be the abundanceof God. You can't out give God.
Turn with me to Mark chapter ten. I want to read just another
scripture passage about really has to dowith what I was saying earlier about when
God begin to bless us after we'vebeen prepared to live all our lives just
sort of by hand to mouth prayingthe stuff in. I want to read
you a promise of God that's akind of a good news and bad news,

(45:29):
but it's a good promise of God. Chapter ten, verses twenty nine
and thirty. Jesus answered and said, verily, I say unto you,
there is no man that hath lefthouse, our brethren, or sisters,
or father or mother or wife,or children, our lands. That's possessions
for my sake and the gospels.But he shall receive a hundredfold now in

(45:51):
this time, not just heaven.You'll receive a hundredfold now in this time
houses and brothers and sisters and mothersand children and d and then those two
little nasty words with persecution, andthen the world to come eternal lot.
Now about the kingdom of God,the land of king and the land that
flows with milk and honeys. Itis all of that that we read back

(46:13):
in Deuteronomy, and that's what Godhas for. But we need to bear
in mind that it's also a landfull of giants and of walled cities,
where there are things that you haveto endure, things you have to conquer,
things you have to work out,things you have to put up with.
And it's to what Jesus is indicatinghere. You get all of that
abundance back. But just bear inmind you're gonna have trouble handling it.
There's going to be persecutions, There'llbe misunderstandings, or be tests, or

(46:35):
be jealousies. There will be problemswith it. It's not going to all
be easy. Nevertheless, God's willfor us, Jesus says, is that
for everything you give away to theLord for the Gospel, say, God
intends to bless you with it ahundred times over. Okay, I want
to mention one other thing, andwe'll come to the conclusion. I think
it may help you to understand thatthere are basically three kinds of provision that

(46:58):
God has for us. This revertsback to the Old Testament teaching of God's
dealings with the children of Israel.God's dealings with them is like God's dealings
but us. When God took thechildren of Israel as they were in Egypt,
in the land of Goshen, butthat's not worth where they were to
be permanently. God's will for themwas to get them out of Egypt,

(47:20):
to get them out of Goshen throughthe wilderness into Canaan, into the promised
land that we read about earliest andthere's a sense in which each of those
place places Goshen and Wilderness and Canaanrepresent the way God deals with us,
represents the way we are looked after, are are provided for. There's a

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Goshen provision, there's a Wilderness provision, and there's a Canaan provision. I'll
not even take time to read allthe scriptures because it takes time too long
to lift up for us to liftthem up. Which you remember that that
Goshen at the time was God's provisionfor Israel. Goshen was the best of
the land of Egypt. And Josephwent down there and became the number two
men to Pharaoh and then eventually invitedPharaoh had even invited his father and his

(48:05):
brothers down. That was God's provisionto keep the nation of Israel alive during
the time of Fanas family. Andthey came down with Joseph to Egypt.
And because Joseph was in favor withthe Pharaoh, Pharaoh says, put them
into you can give them the landof Goshen, which the scripture says was
the best part of Egypt, andthey found favor with God and with Pharaoh
because of Joseph's leadership, but theland. But Egypt was not the Promised

(48:30):
land. It was an intermediary period, a period of time when God made
a special kind of provision for thechildren of Israel to keep them alive.
But then inevitably a time came afterJoseph died. The scripture says there was
a pharaoh came to office who knewnot Joseph, and the children of Israel
lost their favor and they became slavesand under hard taskmasters and so forth.

(48:51):
So what's the characteristic of the provisionwe have in Goshen. It is security,
but it's the security where you workedfor the other fellow and you're in
bondage to him and his will.And that's where an awful lot of people
are in their Christian experience. I'vehad people all across America tell me,
oh, bless God when I'm workingfor General Motors now, but when I

(49:12):
retire, I'm going to serve Godnow. And in a sense, that's
a kind of Goshen provision. It'sa security, but you're working for the
other fellow, and you're under hisdirection and under his will, and at
times that will prevent you from beingfaithful in your service to God. Now,
don't go out here and say I'mtelling everybody who works for general motors
to quit. That's not what I'mtalking about. I'm just giving an illustration
of one kind of provisions. Andthere was a period when Goshen was God's

(49:37):
best for the children of Israel,but it wasn't to be permanent. And
the way God had of getting himout of that was to let him fall
on hard time and let him getunder a difficult situation. And because God's
ultimate for the children of Issue andhis provision for them was not Goshen and
not wilderness, but Canaan. Sothings got tough enough and God sent a
savior in the form of Moses,and Moses gathered the children of Israel up

(49:59):
and with a lot of supernatural help, got them set free from Egypt and
out they went into their wilderness journey. Now there's another characteristic about wilderness provision.
Wilderness provision is miraculous provision, supernatural. For forty years, their clothes
didn't wear out, and their shoesdidn't wear out. For forty years.
They were led by a pillar offire, by pillar of cloud, by

(50:22):
day that would shelter them from thedesert sun, and it was a pillar
of fire by night that would givethem lighting heat from the desert coast.
And the God provided quail supernaturally,provided rock, water out of the rock
supernaturally, and most especially every dayfor forty years, he provided manner on
a day by day basis. Allof that was miraculous. God was looking

(50:45):
after two and a half million peoplein the children of Israel. But the
passage we read from Deuteronomy told usthat those wilderness experiences were hard and difficult,
and there was stress and strained therebecause it was a time of testing.
It was a time of growth,It was a time of discipline.
It was the time of training,a time of being prepared to come in
to Canaan. But let me sayagain about wilderness provision, that while it

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is miraculous, it was never meantto be permanent. And the children of
Issior grew tired of the manna,even though it's prepared day by day.
They could bake it, that,they could bought it, they could friday
eat however they wanted to tasted likecoriander seed and honey and oil. Taste
it all right, but they grewtired of it. Was miraculous, supernatural
day. They even yearned for theflesh pots and the garlats and the onions

(51:30):
and leaks of Egypt back when theywere in Ghostens, and they'd complain to
Moses and say, what'd you bringus out in the wilderness to deny?
And they'd long for what they hadback there in the security that they'd known
in Ghoshen. But Goshen was notGod's best for them. Neither was the
wilderness God's best for him. Andthis is one of the things that I
failed to see when we stepped outof our own particular Goshen into the wilderness,

(51:52):
experience a life of faith, andbegan to receive the miracle help from
God. And I thought at thosetimes that basically that's why do the rest
of my life. But you see, I missed it. I didn't understand
that God had something better in mind. God has Canaan in mind for all
of us, no matter how longwe may be in Goshen, no no
matter how long it may take usto get through the wilderness. Our ultimate

(52:13):
goal is the Kingdom of God,which is kingdom provision, which is Canaan,
the land flowing with milk and honey, where all of those good things
are that we read about in Deuteronomychapter eight. Now, after forty years
of wilderness wandering, once more,by a miracle, God introduced the children
of Visual into Canaan. The watersof the Jordan River rolled back, stood
up in a heap, and theywalked across the Jordan the same way they'd

(52:34):
walked across the Red Sea and enteredinto the land of Canaan, which was
their inheritance and their promise. Butthe significant thing is from the moment,
or within days after they entered intoCanaan, the manner ceased, and they
ate from the corn and the fruitof the land. And that land which
was going to be a blessing,and it was so abundant where it take
the greats grew so prolifically, tooktwo men carrying them, one bunch on

(52:57):
a stick to carry him. Andit was as the author, as Moses
said, and good armies. Aland where you can dig the iron and
the medals out of the land,where there are flowing streams, where there's
gold and multiplied gold and abundance.All of that is Canaan, which was
God's provision. But it wasn't tobe miraculous. So the point I want
to make is, in spite ofall I've said about building on all I've

(53:19):
said about God's ability to provide inGod's kingdom provision the miracles of God,
like I could give testimony to aboutall of these answers to prayer and how
the check had come just in timeto pay the bill, and I could
tell you how God supernaturally provided usa new car every year for five years
for free, and many other testimoniessimilar to that. The point I want

(53:42):
to make is that that is God'sprovision for us for a season and for
a time through a time of wilderness. But God's highest for us is canaan
provision where we eat from the fruitof our labor and where what we have
is shared because we're living in thekingdom of God. Now I think this
may be new to some of you, but let me explain it this way.

(54:06):
Which is the highest kind of provisionhealing our divine health. You know
why healing is necessary. It's becausewe're not living in divine health, and
so because things are abnormal, andbecause we get sick, then there is
God's provision for healing to get usfrom an abnormal to a normal situation.

(54:30):
But what's God's higher provision. God'shighest provision is that we would live in
a way where we would experience dayby day divine health. It would better
be better to be well all thetime by God's grace, and to get
sick and have to have a miracleof healing, and then get sick and
have to have another miracle of healing. Now that's not to knock the healing
miracles. All I'm saying is thereis a higher provision than healing, and

(54:52):
that is divine health. I wantto say there is a higher provision than
the miracles of supply, and thatis the Kingdom of God, where there
is the abundance that God talks aboutand it is properly distributed to everyone,
where we can begin to eat fromthe fruit of our labors, where God
will begin to bless and a justicein a situation where as he promised through

(55:13):
the children of Israel in the landof Canaan, where there is an abundance.
Where there is an abundance, youdon't have to have a miracle of
supply. The abundance is they're tiedto the fact that you're in your inheritance,
that you're properly placed, that you'rerelated to the right people, and
that you're doing the right job.And all of those things flowing together then
creates the kind of Canaan existence whereGod is free to bless everyone abundantly and

(55:36):
nobody lacks, and nobody has anyneed, and everybody prospers in the high
sense of the word. Now,we're not there yet, and they'll take
years, I suppose, and sothere's always going to be those moments of
miracles for which we're grateful. Butyou need to understand this. The need
for miracle stems from an abnormal situation. You only need a miracle where things

(55:57):
are abnormal, and it's the mirrorthen that creates something that's normal or meets
a need or supply something that's lacking. And in the description of Canaan,
the Promised Land, God said backthere in Deuteronomy chapter eight, that Canaan
is a land flowing with milk andhoney. For there's going to be wealth
and prosperity and everything else that everybodyneeds. But it has to do with
us being properly situated. In thatkingdom, each tribe had one section of

(56:21):
Canadam that they were to occupy todrive the enemies off of it. It
was a lifetime proposition. Even atthe end of Joseph's life, they had
not owned they had not yet conqueredall the land. But let me give
you just an example and closing aboutthe difference between needs being met one way
and kingdom provision. And I canillustrate it out of something that happened in

(56:43):
my own ministry. I've been travelingin ministry for about ten years, and
basically honorariums have been part of thesupply, which is which has supported my
family and the sale of books andtapes things like that. But one of
the major sources has been honorariums whenyou go and travel. And one of
the reasons why God has had fromtime to time to answer to provide for

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our needs supernaturally is because in movingin that teaching minutes the offening times,
we're in an abnormal situation where peopledon't understand Christian principles, and where I've
been taking advantage off now. Nottoo long ago, I was traveling with
some young brothers who were also inministry, and they were teaching. They
were doing some of the sharing inthe teaching, and I was the main
speaker, and I was responsible forthem, and we were on the road

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for a number of days, andit was my intention and their expectation that
we would share the offerings together,which was proper. I mean I would
have to get the larger portion sinceI was the main speaker, but we
were roughly dividing what we would receive, with me taking approximately half, and
I was wanting to bless the otherbrothers the other half. And wasn't that

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we were naturally expecting to and lookingfor good offerings to have that happened.
Well, we'd been away several daysministering and it wasn't looking too good financially,
and we went into one place fora couple of days, and I've
been there once before, some yearsago with some of these same brothers,
and the people got a little upsetbecause they didn't like the idea of paying
for more than one speakers. Sothey said to one of the men that

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was with me was making arrange,Me said, well, now we're not
going to pay anybody's hotel bill,but basham because we want to be able
to give him a real big offering, a good blessing and good honorary and
this time, well, I thought, when I sounds find in churching because
I can share with these brothers andthey get it. Well, it was
all taught because after a couple ofdays of ministry and we left there,
they gave me one hundred and fiftydollars. Well, that's the kind of

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situation that happens where people don't understandkingdom principle or understand fatherhood of what it
is to honor ministry. But I'llshow you the difference between that and keenan
provision. It's where you live fromthe fruit of your labor. We went
from there to another situation where itwas Covenant brothers and sisters, where I
was going to have just one meetingspeak one time. And it was a

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celebration of a group of people comingtogether for an all day picnic and this
sort of thing in the church.And there was about seven hundred people there,
but there were all people who werewalking in relationship. And the minister
stood up when there came time totake the offering, he said, we
want to take up an offering forbrother dom and for his ministry, he

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said, and then he said,how many of you here have ever been
blessed by any of his books arein his taste and gratifying. I saw
hundreds of hands ago up, andthen this brother, who who I'm not
appreciated, he said, he wastaken a larnging, he said, He
said, Now we want to receivethis offering for a brother, but not
just because he's here today to speak, but because of what he's meant to
the body of Christ and for whathis ministry has meant to all of us

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here. We really want to laya blessing on this brother. Now.
Just two days before, in anothersituation with a crowd about the same size,
where I had ministered two days,I got one hundred and fifty dollars
in this one session. Among peoplewho were related in the Lord and who
understood the principle of kingdom blessing,they took up an offering over fifteen hundred
dollars. Now that enabled me then, in turn, of course, to

(01:00:00):
share generously with the brothers who administeredwith me those three days. But you
know what the difference is. Thisone hundred and fifty dollars represented a kind
of wilderness experience where God has tomake up the difference miraculously. The fifteen
hundred dollars love offering represented a Canaanexperience where I was being blessed by the

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fruit of my labor. And Iuse the personal illustration with apologies, but
it just illustrates what I'm talking about. The highest kind of provision God has
is when we are in the Kingdomof God in Canaan, where God can
bless abundantly and there's enough for everybodyto be shared and the habit passed around.
You understand people that the real problemin the earth is not lack of

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supply, it's distribution. God hasmade enough of everything, money, wealth,
minerals, energy, everything else.That's not the problem. The problem
is that it's been improper distribution,and so miracles of God takes care of
that improper distribution. But in Canaanand the Kingdom of God, where everything
flows right and people are properly related, there's going to be that proper distribution

(01:01:06):
where there will be nothing but blessingand provision and all needs met all across
the line because there is no shortagein the Kingdom of God and God's will
for us is that kind of experience, that kind of blessing. Okay,
let me just close with this simpleobservation. They've been working on Federal Highway
out there practically ever since we've beenin Fort Lauderdale or Pompinos. Something's always

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going on out all over Fort Lauda. They're building streets and putting down base
and gravelings over then laying asphalt onit, and all over the place they're
building houses and condominiums and all thatout of CBS construction, cinder block covered
with stuckole. Those are the standardbuilding materials in southern Florida. And concrete

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and asphalt on the streets. Andthat's all right in this Earth's provision.
But let me tell you something aboutthe Kingdom of God. The eventual revelation
of the Kingdom of God is thenew Jerusalem that's going to come down out
of heaven, and John the Revelatorgot a picture of what it was like.
You know what the building materials areup there. The walls of the

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buildings were built out of jasper andstudded with precious stones. You know what
the paving material is in the heavenlyJerusalem. It's gold. They don't use
asphalt, they don't use concrete,it's gold. Twelve gates, three geese,
in each side of the heavenly City. Every gate not made out of
wood and binded by iron, madeout of pure pearl, inlaid pearl,

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all twelve gates. What I'm tellingyou about is there is no short supply
in heaven. Everything in Heaven isthe greatest kind of wealth and the greatest
kind of abundance. That's the kindof God we have. God's not glorified
in poverty. God's not glorified inlack or need. What God is glorified
in is the abundance, which representshis glory and represents his provision. And
it's his heavenly provision that he wantsto give to us. And when we

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come into Kingdom, when we comeinto the Promised Land, there's going to
be nobody lacking, nobody needing,nobody doing without. There's going to be
more than any of us or allof us could ever water desire, because
it's God's will for us to experienceKingdom provisions. Amen. This concludes this
new Wine Tape of the month.If you are interested in receiving this service

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