Episode Transcript
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Las Miss McDowell. Welcome episode,Sam said, everybody, Hello to love,
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Hello, Welcome to the Lucius McDowellLiving Right Podcast. I am your
host tonight, Zoey McDowell standing infor the Man of God. But I
am so excited to join you allhere on the podcast. Thank you for
taking I'm every Monday night at eighto'clock to hop on this call to listen
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and to tune in to what wehave to say because people believe that it's
something else the Lord wants to blessyou with. Since tonight we're going to
jump into the Word of God asit pertains to Living Right. We'll be
talking about the subject matter that isvitally important for rightful relationship with the Lord,
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and tonight's conversation will be about movinginto super natural increase. Super natural
increase. Of course, we knowthat all scripture is given by the inspiration
of God, and it is profitablefor doctrine, for proof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that theMan of God and women may be
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perfect thoroughly furnished into all good works. You can find that scripture in two
Timothy three Versus sixteen and seventeen.And of course we know that wisdom is
the principal thing, and so inall of our getting, we are supposed
to get all of our getting,which is to get understanding Proverbs four seven.
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And so here we are gathering ona Monday night via a podcast to
gather our ourselves together, to getourselves together to grow in the things of
God. And so I am superexcited to share about moving into these super
natural increase And so I'm just gonnatake a moment to pray before we get
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into our conversation tonight, and thenwe're gonna We're gonna do this thing.
And so God, Lord, Ijust thank you, because you are all
a father, God, holy Spirit. We thank you that you are in
and throughout this entire conversation. WhatI pray that you would be with me
as you craft words, as youbring things to my mind my spirit to
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share with people. Lord, Ipray that you have blessed all parties involved.
And I thank you that you aretruly believing in us. God,
that you have a vision and purposefor us. And so we thank you
that we get to hold on towhat your word says, we get to
rest in and what it talks aboutGod, and we get to have faith
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to see it come to fruition inJesus' name, and so I pray that
you will be with us tonight,be with us as we go into the
rest of our week. Well,I pray that this will be a beautiful
jump start to our week as we'rejust taking a moment to chime in and
get some good things from you.And so bless it, bless our time.
And in Jesus's mighty Mattress, nameme pray a man, Amen,
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Amen, and a man Well.Tonight's conversation is about moving into supernatural increase,
and of course Pacing make Out hasbeen talking about this conversation for some
weeks now, and there are beautifulthings that we get to look forward to
that we can really glean from thescriptures as it pertains to what the Lord
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says about us and that fact thathe wants to increase us. And so
I'll start with just the idea ofwhat supernatural increase is. Of course,
it is the Lord bringing things toyour life to enhance your your your life,
to enhance how you show up inthe world, to enhance you into
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better youth. And so I knowthat sometimes when we talk about supernatural increase.
Especially in today's uh time and age, people can get a little clammy
and get a little nervous because supernaturalincrease can be people jump to the extremes
of like is that prosperity gospel isthat's that weird thing that that you know,
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has a lot of eyebrows raised atit. But the truth of the
matter is that the Lord is asupernatural god and he does things supernaturally.
And also the truth of the matteris that the Lord wants to bless us,
the Lord wants to increase us,and so there is truth in the
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principle. And me and my momactually were having such a good conversation about
this, like a couple of weeksago, just because sometimes because people have
made the association that prosperity and increaseis a bad thing, they want to
throw the baby out with the bathwater, right. They want to throw
out the teachings, they want tothrow out the principles, the concepts.
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But the truth of the matter isthat the principle is the principle, and
law is law, and when youpractice the principle, there will be a
return on it. You will seethe investment of it produce a good thing.
But the thing that is required,and the thing that we always have
to check our hearts about, isour motive. The motive behind are asking,
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the motive behind what we are justdesiring from the Lord. And one
of the things that I believe thatGod has shared with me in this time
of preparation is that the Lord wantsto increase you. But it's not just
for you. The Lord wants toincrease us. But it is for that.
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It is so that we can bea glory carriers in the earth.
It is so that we can shinea light that is so bright that people
say, wow, what they haveI need And it is our responsibility to
point them back to God, topoint them back to Jesus Christ. And
so as we're as unpacking our timetonight, just I want us to remember
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that that is the truth, theessence of what we are called to do.
The Lord is calling us into supernaturalincrease, but not for ourselves,
for somebody else. It is sothat we can be a witness to people.
Our lives would bless somebody else.How we show up in the world,
how we show up in the room, will be a blessing to somebody
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else. And of course I wantto. I also just want to I
want to read a scripture from ourfavorite scripture that talks about how we are
prosperous in the Bible. Is Jeremiahis twenty nine to eleven. I'm sure
people can quote it backwards and forwards, and it says, for I know
the plans I have for you,declares the Lord plans to prosper you and
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not to harm you, plans togive you hope and a future. And
I think what is so cool aboutthis particular scripture is that is the context
by which it, you know,is embedded in scripture. The conversation that
Jeremiah is having with the Lord isit's the Lord is addressing the children of
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Israel and the fact that they haveactually been brought into exile by Babylon.
They have actually been overpowered by Babylon. And so the Lord is saying,
I see what Babylon is doing.I see the record and the heavoc and
the chaos and the destruction, andhow broken the people are and in the
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in their suffering, in their pain. This is what the Lord speaks.
And he said, is again,for I know the plans that I have
for you, So don't look atall the things that you're enduring, where
you're where you are, uh seeingyour your people suffer, and how you're
seeing them be subjected and oppressed.He says, I know the plans I
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have for you, declares the Lordplans to prosper you. He plans to
prosper us. God plans to prosperus. And sometimes in stricture, you
know, we can be just brieffor anything. But like yet that that
applies to me, You know thatapplies to me. But here we can
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say that that that actually does applyto me. That is a universal truth.
If you are a believer, ifyou are a child of God,
if you are someone who has placedtheir faith in Jesus Christ, then you
are one he wants to prosper.He doesn't want you to suffer, not
to harm you. He actually wantsto prosper you. He wants to give
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you a hope and a future.And I think, actually I'm going to
keep reading. In verse twelve,it says, then you will call on
me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me, and youwill find me, and uh and find
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me. And when you seek mewith all your heart, I will be
found with you, declares the Lord. So this is actually unpacking something so
beautiful. Right then you will callon me and come and pray to me.
So the the the trial, thepressure, the the the unfortunate situation
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that they're in is actually being usedas a catalyst for their faith. I'll
say that again. The trial thatthey're in is actually being used as a
catalyst for their faith. Right.It is the thing that is requiring for
them to go to God, tolisten, to lean into him, to
seek Him with all of their hearts. You know, when you're going through
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something and it's really really bad,it's really really raggedy. I mean,
everything is looking like Jesus in thewhat is happening? What is going on?
That is when we are called tolean into God. Don't pull away
from him, don't let the enemywhisper lies to you, and tell them
this is what you get and thisis how it's you know, this is
the be those so called plans thatGod has you don't listen to that trust
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and believe that God has plans toprosper you. But it is our responsibility
to lean into Him with our entirehearts. And as we lean and we
pray he will listen to us.How beautiful is that as we come to
God, he is turning his attentionto us, He is turning his his
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his focus, his gaze is onus. He wants to be so tendered
with us, he wants to beso attentive to us. And I am
so grateful that we have a Godwho is attentive. We have a God
who will listen to us as weseek him. He's like he is the
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definition of a good parent, right, the parent that sees you and hears
you and shows up on your behalf. This is what happens when we go
to him. But we have tobe diligent to go to him, right.
We can't. We can't hold onto the promise of prospering without going
to him. It is required,which is kind of what I was mentioning
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earlier. When it talks about themotive of the heart, it has Our
motive has to be God. Ourmotive has to be his will, not
ours. Our motive has to beHis kingdom, flourishing, people coming to
know him, people walking in thelight and in the love of Him,
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not ours. And I think that'swhere prosperity and increase kind of gets a
little wonky because sometimes people ask what'sthe wrong motive? We say, hey,
I want Lord, I believe thatyou our calling me to this.
But the truth of the matter iswe haven't even assessed our own hearts to
see what the root of that thingactually is. What is the root of
our question? What is the rootof our petition to God? Is it
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truly that God's kingdom would be seenin the earth and would be would be
flourishing, and that it would blesspeople and that God gets glory? Or
is the reason we ask for thething or ask for God to use us
in a certain way that we getto harbor some of that glory. It's
something that feedes us, it's somethingthat benefits us. That is that is
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the defining moment for us as todistinguish if we will be mature saints or
if we will be undeveloped and Idon't want to say childish, but you
know, just undeveloped saints. Ifwe can't discern what the motive is behind
our ass behind our pursuit, behindus asking the Lord and having faith for
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him to increase us supernaturally, ifwe don't have the wherewithal the clarity in
mind and in heart to see themotive and address it for what it is.
Then we are the ones who arein the wrong. We are the
ones who are tripping. It isour responsibility to ask for God to bless
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us, to have faith for thesupernatural increase, but not for our own
gain, not for our own gain, not for our own glory, but
for his. And so back toverse twelve, and it says, then
you will call on me and comeand pray to me, and I will
listen to you. You will seekme and find me. And when you
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seek me with all of your heart, all of your heart, you know
you can seek the Lord with halfof your heart. You can seek the
Lord with a quarter of your heart. You can seek the Lord with portions
of your heart. And I thinkthat is one of those things that also
helps us recognize are we truly beingmature saints? Are we really? Are
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we really going before God with everythingthat we have? And I think one
of the things that is so interesting, and I think I'm experiencing it in
my own walk with the Lord currently, is that as you walk through trial,
as you walk with through hardship,I think those things when we know
those things are they've brought about todevelop us to so that the perfect work
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we would have, the perfect workdeveloped in us. I think that's in
Romans fives. The character, thehope that comes after trial, and the
perfect work that comes in us actuallygives us a greater capacity to long for
the Lord. That's crazy to me. The trials, the hardships give us
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a greater capacity to long for theLord, to seek him with all of
our hearts. And so in aseason where I thought I was seeking the
Lord with all of my heart,maybe in twenty nineteen and in twenty twenty,
in twenty twenty four, I haveexperienced a new all of my heart.
I have experienced an expanded capacity forthe all of my heart. And
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I think that is where we findourselves going from glory to glory, when
we begin to mature as believers,and we see ourselves increasing in our walks
with the Lord. That sometimes thatcomes from the trial. Right, the
oppression of the Babylonians to the childrenof Israel, that was unfortunate, but
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it pushed them to the position andthe posture to trust the Lord and to
seek after him with all of theirall their hearts, and it was from
that position that God found them.It says in verse fourteen, I will
be found by you. I'm sorry, let me let me check that he
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finds He finds us, but it'sus that will find him. I will
be found by you. You willsee me. And I think that is
also a declaration of who God is. It says I will be found.
I will be found by you,declares the Lord, and will bring you
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back from captivity. I will befound by you. That's basically God saying,
Oh, you're gonna see me showup. You're going to see me
show up and show out. You'regonna see me move like never before on
your behalf. You're gonna see medo the things that you have been praying
for, the things that only youknow, above what we can ask,
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think or imagine. You're gonna seethose things because you leaned in with all
of your heart, all of yourheart, and I'm gonna be found by
you. I won't be seen inthe distance. There's a meme on social
media and it's a man looking withhis hand over his eyes and he's like,
that is that you? Is?That you? Guys all the way
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into Himalayans we're going to see himin the far off and in the nerr
we are going to see God.And it says that he's gonna bring you
back from captivity. In this situation, he's talking about the Babylonians that are
pressing the children of Israel, buthe's saying that He's essentially he's saying he's
going to restore them. He's goingto restore them. And so supernatural increase
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the things that we are asking Godfor. Let's back up, because supernatural
increase doesn't always mean money. Itdoes not always mean finances. And sometimes
I think people like I said,the younger crowd, the millennials of today,
who are losing their minds of aprosperity gospel and all the things throwing
out babies with bads water. Butprosperity is not just financial. It can
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be, but it is not solely. It is not. God wants to
prosper you in your health. Godwants to prosper you in your relationships.
God wants to prosper you and howyou seek him. God wants to prosper
you in your walk with the Lord. God wants to prosper you and your
influence in the earth and your influencewith your coworkers. God wants to prosper
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you as you as you engage thesedaily God wants to prosper your marriage.
God wants to prosper your friendships,in your relationships, in your family,
with the relationships with your brother,your sister. God wants to spur you.
He wants you to have the fullestof life. He wants you to
live life to the fullest. AndI think it is it is imperative that
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we remember that our increase the thingthat we're believing God for. It doesn't
have to be one thing, itdoesn't have to be one particular thing,
but it can be all it canbe all of the above. And when
He, when He acknowledge it,when we see it happen, We're gonna
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see the Lord restore us. We'regonna see the Lord restore our finances.
We're gonna see the Lord restore ourrelationships. We're gonna see the Lord bless
our influence and and and bring usinto new levels. And and the prayer
is that as we have been askingHim to show up on our behalf,
we're actually we're actually doing it withthe motive that is to bless God and
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to to to see the fruit ofthe Kingdom flourished in the earth. That
is our prayer. That should beour heart's posture, it should be our
motive. And so he is goingto bring us from captivity. He's going
to bring us into restoration, andwe are going to see the good of
God in the land as of livingAmen. And of course in Proverbs pen
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we have vers pity to it.It says the blessings of the Lord makes
it rich, and he adds nosorrow with it. Right, So we
know that the Lord wants to blessus. That is the desire of his
heart. And when we think aboutprospering, and the definition of prosper actually
means to become strong, it meansto flourish. It means to succeed or
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to thrive. And so prospering supernaturalincrease and prospering is God building you up
in your most holy faith ament,but building you up in all the areas
of your life. And it isour it is actually our responsibility as believers
in Him and upon Him to makerequests of Him in expectation. And so
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that is where that's where our faithcomes into play. And I know Pastor
McDowell has talked about that in ourtime over the past couple of weeks,
showing up with our faith and showingup with it well right, not being
weary and well doing, not waveringwhen things go crazy, but to have
faith to see God show up onyour behalf. And I think that's that's
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who he is, right. Godis a miracle working God. That is
that is I mean, it's it'sprevalent all throughout Scripture and the New testing
that Jesus is doing all kinds ofthings to bless people. Miracle here,
a miracle there, uh, healinghere, restoration there, and then and
then the most beautiful uh miracle isthe g of Him. Right, because
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He dies on the cross for oursins. We cannot do life perfectly.
We fail every single day. Imean immediately within the first five minutes of
the day. I'm sure I havedone something to offend the Lord, waking
up grumpy, probably offending God justin that small thing. But the beauty
of Christ being the perfect atonement forour sins right, and so we are
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we are just given the gift ofJesus. Like I'm saying, I was
saying, he's healing, He's doingall these things, but the biggest gift
is salvation. The biggest gift isHim dying and covering our sins. So
when I stand before God on judgmentDay, he doesn't see my sin.
He sees the blood of Jesus Christand says, you know what, You've
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been covered by my sons, evencovered by but I call it his holy
blood cells. It's redunctive blood thatcovers me. So there is uh,
there is prosperity even in that.There is increase even in that. And
that was one of the other areasthat I wanted to say as I was
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listening them out. You know,friendships and relationships, and you know your
job finances all the things, yourhealth. He also wants you to grow
in your spiritual walk, increase inthe spiritual walk. The Lord is always
asking us to increase in our spiritualwalk, walking into suffer natural increase.
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That should also be an expectation.It should be It's not just money,
it's not just what God can dofor me. But God, what have
you already done for me that I'mmissing? What are you already What have
you already done for me that Ihave not had the revelation of increase my
capacity to see you increase, mycapacity to grow in uh, in the
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in in the revelation and the realmilatory knowledge that blesses my spirit, because
what you did on the crost isthe biggest thing that I could receive on
this side of glory. Ever,no dollar sign, no UH, no
promotion, no relationship, no friendshipcould ever exceed what the Lord did for
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us. And so God, increase, move us into the supernatural increase of
revelation and being able to lean fromyour word and your scriptures, and being
able to be excited for what youwhat you pour out to us, being
excited for what you give us inthe knowledge of your word. Increase in
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intake, in supernatural increase. That'sone of my prayers actually in the ex
eason, Lords, supernaturally increase mydesire to intake your word, my desire
to be in your presence, mydesire to to to grow and to mature
in the things of You. Idon't want to be a weary faint.
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I don't want to be somebody whoexperiences a storm of life. And and
my faith is somewhere over in thecorner and I'm you know, and I'm
falling apart and somewhere else. Ineed to be one with my faith.
I need to be strengthened by myfaith. I need to be sustained by
my faith. I need to Ineed my faith to be my backbone and
I need it to be uh tobe sturdy. I needed to be bolted
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to something and so that the thingsthat we ask God to increase us in
supernatural increase. I pray that wewould see are our ask actually? I
think that might be interesting to acknowledgewhat are we asking God for? What
are we asking him for? Andour ask to God might show us where
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we sit in the on the spectrumof spiritual maturity. What do we constantly
find ourselves asking God to increase usin? Are we increasing only in the
material things? If we're only tryingto increase in the material then our I'm
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sorry to tell your friends, ourfaith is what is lop sighted? Our
faith is lopsided. If that's theonly thing we're asking God for, we
are not maturing well. And theholistic Uh, the holistic what's the word
I want to use this our wholethe holistic breadth of what it means to
be a believer, of what itmeans to be a saint, and so
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that's that's something to consider, that'ssomething to to be mindful of. And
I think, you know, justas we're talking about supernatural increase and how
the Lord wants to prosper us,I was thinking about I started thinking about
plants. I started to think aboutplants. And you know, I love
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green. That's my favorite color andone of mine. It's crazy. When
I was living in Nashville is oneof my best friends. She has the
green some Okay, she loves livingplants. He loves living things. And
I'm be like, I don't evenknow this. I don't know one thing
about you know, keeping a plantalive, what it requires. I mean,
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she's got all the tools to repot. She's like, oh, we
can propagate this and you can dothem. Like, girl, what give
me a fake plant and just letus sit in the corner so I can
see the green and be happy.But no, So I have gained a
whole new appreciation for live plants.And even my father he has plants everywhere,
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plants in our house, plants atthe church. And so there is
a you know, just a beautifulthing about plants. And so the Lord
brought that's the image of a plantto me, And how when somebody plants
a plant, When somebody plants theplant, they don't plant it with the
expectation that it dies. They don'tplant They don't put a plant in the
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ground and say, Okay, Iknow you're gonna this is gonna die.
Otherwise we wouldn't have planted it.Right. We plant things with the intention
that they will grow and that theywill flourish. And I think that's how
the Lord looks at us. Iyou know, we are We're his little
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plant. We're his beautiful garden,his spirits a garden. And as he
has brought us into this world tolive a life here on this side of
heaven, he wants us to grow. He wants us to he wants us
to grow, but he wants usto flourish. Right, And so it
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is. And I said what Isay earlier about prospering, the definition is
to become strong, it is toflourish. He wants us to succeed.
He wants us to thrive. Thatis God's that's his plan for our lives
to prospers. And so the thefact that you know, we get planted,
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and we we we get planted forpurpose. If that's for being honest,
you get planted for purpose because atthe end of the day, it's
not just it's not going to die, it's going to produce something. It
should live and produce something and whateverit is that they're supposed to produce.
Right, some plants are just reallypretty green living things, and I love
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them. I love them. They'reso pretty. Some of them have you
know, thick, glossy leaves,some of them have you know, leaves
with different color than them, andso I think it's beautiful. And then
some plants are you know, flowers, and they are here to bring color
to our lives and aromas and pollinateand all the things. And some some
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things. Some plants produce fruit.Some it produce fruit that is supposed to
be beautiful to the eye, yummyto eat, nutritious to our bodies.
And so the the idea is thatwe are to be planted to grow,
to flourish. And in thinking aboutand thinking about plants, it made me
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think about the parable of the sower, because I just there's a lot of
yummy, uh yummy, yell.Well, there's a lot of good nuggets
in here. And so if y'allwould turned with me to mark for And
I'm just gonna read through this andunpack it a little bit. And so
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it says again he began to teachbeside the sea, and a very large
crowd gathered about him. This isJesus they're talking about. So that he
got into a boat and sat onthe sea, and the cold crowd was
beside the sea, and he wasteaching them many things in terribles. And
he and in his teething he saidto them, listen, first three listen.
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Behold. A sewer went out tosew, and he sowed. Some
seed fell along the paths, andthe birds came and devoured it. Other
seeds fell on rocky ground where itdid not have much soil, and immediately
it splained up since there was nodepth of the soil, and when the
sun rose, it scorched. Itwas scorched, and since it had no
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root, it witted away. Otherseeds fell among the thorns, and the
thorns grew up, and they chokedit and yielded, and it yielded no
grain. And then in verse insaid and other seeds fell into good oil
and produced grain, growing up andincreasing it up. There goes a word.
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It goes in stinging beings and increasingand yielding thirty and sixty and one
hundred folds, and then it saysin verse nine, he says, he
who has tears, let him hear. So here we see that Jesus is
teaching to a crowd. It's aton of people, and he gets into
a boat and he starts to tellpeople about soil. He just he starts
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talking about dirt. He starts talkingabout dirt. And of course I'm sure
people in the interhipretic culture are likenot They're not foreign to the concept of
like, oh this is you know, grain and sowing seas. But then
it's like, you know, ifyou're the Messiah and we've got you're you
know, you're doing miracle times andwonders, and then you just decided to
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start talking about dirt, I wouldbe very you know, like there's not
other more important things talking about?Are there not more important things to talk
about? I mean? Or buthere this is what he just is he
talking about? He says, we'regonna talking about dirt, and I love
how he emphasizes the three different typesof soil. And then in verse we're
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gonna keep reading in verse ten,it says, and when he was alone,
those around him with the twelve askedhim about the parables. And so
the twelve, of course, arehis disciples. And he says to them,
to you who has been given thesecret of the Kingdom of God.
But for those outside, everything isimparables, so that they may indeed see
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but not perceive, and may indeedhear but not understand. Lets they should
turn and be forgiven. That's actuallytalking about our spiritual awareness, our hardness
of heart to be able to perceivewhat God is saying. Sometimes we have
to the Lord has to remove spiritualscale from our eyes and heal us of
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our spiritual deafness so that we canhear what he's actually saying. But this
is what the disciples were asking for. And he said, do you not
understand the parable? How then willyou understand all the parables? He's like,
y'all acting slow, I'm just kiddingwhat I need got to get this.
And so here is what is sobeautiful about this. He breaks it
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down what the parableb was about.And verse fourteen said, and the sower
so the word. The sower sothe word. And so if we look
back to the Scripture. It talksabout the seed that keeps getting sown,
the key, the seed that keepsgetting son. Jesus just tells us right
here, Claire, plain as day. The seed is the Word. The
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seed is the Word of God.The seed is the Scroll. The seed
is is Jesus incarnate. The seedis the Bible. The seed is.
What are we angering our faith?And what are we holding onto it should
be the word Verse fifteen, andit says, and these are the ones
along the path where the word issown. When they hear, Satan immediately
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comes up and takes away the wordthat is sown in them. And these
are the ones sewn on a rockyground, the ones who, when they
hear the word immediately they received itwith joy, and they have no root
in themselves, but endure for awhile. Then when tribulation or persecution arises
on the account of the word,immediately they fall away. And others are
(35:16):
the ones sown among thorns. Theyare those who hear the word. But
the cares of the world, andthe deceitfulness of riches, and the desires
of the things in the world chokeout the word, and it proves unfruitful.
But those that were sown on goodsoil are the ones who hear the
(35:39):
word and accept it and bear fruitthirty sixty and one hundredfold. Now,
there's so much to impact here.There's so much to impact here because we
(36:00):
can't have supernatural increase without faith,and you can't have faith without seed.
If there's no seed in your soil, then there's it's not going to produce
anything. And so I want usto just I want to talk. I
want to sit here and unpack thesethings just a little bit, because it
(36:25):
is required that we have faith andwe have expectation for what God is going
to bring us into the increase thatHe's going to bring us into. And
even if it even if it isthe material thing, even if it's the
spiritual thing, we have to havefaith to do that. We have to
have faith to watch God, tohave God move on our behalf. And
(36:45):
so in verse thirteen, he says, do you not understand the parable?
Actually, you know, I'm goingto skip down to fourteen and says the
so and so it's the word,and then these are the ones along the
path where the is sown. Whenthey hear it, Satan immediately comes up
and takes the word that is shownin them. How many of us are
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that are that person? How manyof us will sit in a service and
get said and get full of faithand then walk out of the doors and
immediately Satan snatches up what we have, what we just got, what we
just received before we go through youknow, something crazy and are It's like
(37:28):
our faith isn't even there. Thatis what Jesus is talking about in this
particular He's addressing this particular soil,and he said, these are the ones
that are sewn onto in verse sixteen, these are the ones that are sown
on rocky ground, the ones whowhen they hear the word immediately receive it
with joy, and they have noroot in it for themselves, but in
(37:51):
dure while. And then when tribulation, the tribulation or persecution rises on their
account, immediately they fall away.I don't know about you, guys,
but as I am trying to beone that is being prospered, as I'm
trying to be one that is andwe see that as we're talking about JEREMIAHS.
(38:12):
Freund eleven, that that actually comesout of trials, that that that
prayer comes out of trial, thatpromise comes out of trial. I do
not want to be the person whothrows away my faith in the midst of
trial. And I know it's easy, and I know it is uh,
it is. It's very human.Mm hmm. That's our humanity speaking when
(38:34):
we want to throw away our faithin the midst of what is very hard
and difficult. But we cannot.We cannot, we cannot. Okay,
it is our you know what.I'm gonna hold that, and we hold
that though. I'm gonna keep keepreading verse eighteen, and it says and
others are the ones thrown among thethorns, and those who hear the word,
(38:57):
But they're the cares of the world, and the deceiple of riches and
desires for other things choke the wordand proves it unfruitful. It proves it
unfruitful. The cares of the world, the things that are happening around them.
People who get caught up by distractions, people who are you know,
people people who are maybe they're they'rethey haven't really assessed well their spiritual motives,
(39:22):
and so they're they're you know,being caught up by I want this
and I need this, and Idid it up until we find ourselves,
you know, on the lower Ishould say I'm the lower, but on
one side of the spiritual tangent orthe spiritual But this is what am I
doing with my hand spectrum? Thereyou go where we find ourselves on one
(39:45):
side of the spiritual spectrum, andthey're concerned with the things of the world.
We're concerned with materials. We're concernedwith what's in front of us,
not realizing that that's that's improper soiltoo, that's improper soil for seed two.
And as soon as it gets sown, the thorns are going to come
and choke it out. But inthe verse nineteen it says I'm sorry verse
(40:08):
twenty. But those who are sownon good soil are the ones who hear
the words and accept it and thenbear fruit. So there's three things right.
We have to hear the word.We have to be diligent to find
ourselves taking in words right, whetherit's a sermon, whether it's you go
(40:31):
into church on Sundays and small groupson Wednesdays, whether it's a podcast and
what you're listening to right now,or you know, song worship music,
whatever it is, we are hearingword, we're taking it in and then
we accept it. Sometimes our beliefswon't let us accept things. Sometimes our
minds they'll let us accepting. Butthat's where the faith comes into play.
(40:54):
We have to accept it, wehave to trust it. We have to
hold on to what we believe thatthe Lord is saying and revealing to us
through his word, and then wewill bear fruit. We will bear the
fruit. We will see the manifestationsof the things that we're asking God for.
We will see it thirty sixty andone hundredfold. And so one of
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my dear mentors I love her somuch, was she sat me down with
this particular passage of scripture and shetold me, She said, Zoe,
you are one of these types ofsoil at all times, at all times,
you are one of these types ofsoils. And I was like,
h yikes, and made me question, like, am I am I always
(41:40):
good soil? I don't think I'malways good soil? What kind of soil
was I yesterday? What kind ofsoil was I last month? And so
I am constantly thinking about what kindof soil am I? What kind of
what kind of soil is Because thetruth of the matter is, if my
soil is not good and the seeddoesn't get in the ground. And if
(42:02):
the seed doesn't get in the ground, it doesn't have the proper environment and
nutrients it needs to germinate and toproduce what it's supposed to produce so that
we can flourish like God wants usto write. And so I know,
I'm taking a very, very,very long route to get us back to
the point of talking about prospering andseeing supernatural increase. But I believe that
(42:27):
it starts with our hearts. Itstarts with our heart postures. I'm walking
with the young lady and we alsotalked about this particular passage of scripture,
and I just told her, Isaid, hey, I'm gonna start We're
gonna start doing Soilo checks. We'rejust gonna start doing Soilo checks. And
so what I've done, I say, solo check. That means you got
to, you know, share withme where your heart is, what is
(42:49):
what is, what's going on withyou, what's happening internally. Give me
insight so that we can know whatto prey and how to remember what you
know, what the word says aboutwhat we're experiencing. And we have to
make sure that our hearts are theproper soil for the seed that's being sown.
And so it's been a beautiful thing. And so I'm saying that because
(43:12):
I want to encourage everyone of you, all people who are listening, to
do soil checks. Check your heart, check your your your spirit, check
your motives. Right, and aswe are doing the proper work of checking
our hearts and and being before theLord, we can we can just properly
(43:34):
assess well, really, we canproperly assess our soil. But we can
also I don't want to say predict, that's the strong word, but we
can, we can see, wecan we can we can see pattern.
If that makes any sense. Ifmy soil is not good, or if
my soil is hard and stony,or or or the sea can't even get
(43:55):
into it, how can I expectfor the Lord for there to be a
produce, or for there to bethings produced in my life that bring me
into an increase If my if mysoil is dry and needs some water,
they need some water, it needssome plant food, it needs something,
it needs to be any seed,the ground needs to be killed. If
(44:17):
I don't, if I'm not beingintentional to do the inner work of assessing
my heart and my soil. ThenI can never expect to see the increase
that God actually wants me to walkin. Because your prosperity starts with your
heart. Your prosperity starts with andI'm saying that because your prosperity comes from
(44:43):
your walk with the Lord. Ifthat is not together, if it is
not intact, if it is notif it is not strong, then you
won't see. You won't have thisthe faith to stand to see the thing
come to pass. You won't havethe faith to to to to crash the
You won't have the faith to bringsomething to the Lord in expectation. You
(45:04):
won't. You won't even think thatGod is that he wants to give you
good things. You won't think thatGod wants to give you good things.
And you know, I'm not sayingthat to to shame anybody. I've been
there before. I have been inthe seat where like I don't know what
I was thinking, but for whateverreason, I did not think that it
(45:28):
was I didn't think that I wasdeserving of the good things. I didn't
think I and so the concept,the principle of faith just felt like,
oh, like this is just somethingthat people say in church. But I'm
telling you, I am a livingtestimony in a living testament that said that
this thing is real and we havegot to do our part to engage it.
(45:50):
And so so many people will throwout, like I said, the
baby with the bath water. Butthe problem, the problem is they're not
even they're not working the principal.They're not working the principal, and they're
not seeing the fruit of the principles. So then they throw it away.
But the issue is that they're notusing the proper tools. They don't have
the proper they don't have the properassessment of their motives to even see if
(46:13):
what they're asking for is what Godwants to produce in their life. And
I'm saying all of that comes whenyou start doing soil checks, when we
start observing our hearts and gleaning thingsfrom scripture and seeing what God says about
us and claiming the identity that Christhas for us from scripture and saying no,
that's a price of zoe, Ohno, no, no, God
(46:35):
wants to prose for me. Youknow, I don't know about everybody else,
which then I say that joking me, because what I don't want us
to do is they have an elitismas we are expecting God to prosper us
and to bless us. But thetruth of the matter is, when you
are a child of God, it'sjust different. I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
I know, but it just is. It is different. And the
(46:58):
things of the world that would disqualifypeople from being blessed, you'll see,
you will see a distinct difference,a distinct contrast. But it starts with
the heart. It starts with themind, It starts with how you see
God. It starts with your relationshipand your walk. And so before we
would open our mouths to ask Godto bless me with this, and give
(47:19):
me this, and give me that, I would encourage us to ask for
the Lord to bless us with theright soil. Bless us God with the
right soil, so that the rightthing grows out of us. The right
thing grows out of us, thething that you can bless, the thing
that you can prosper, and thething that He can bless. And the
(47:43):
thing that he can prosper is hisword. It is him. My mom
says all the time, and Iknow that she's quoting scripture. I wish
I knew the address for it.But God honors his word over his name.
It is his words. And soeat the words, eat the scrolls,
(48:05):
eat it, eat it, eatit, internalize it. Let it
transform how you see yourself. Letit transform your spirit, your mind.
And as it does that, youwill find yourself standing in the place of
being prosperous. You will find yourselfuh gleaning and and and producing beautiful,
beautiful things. And people will lookat you and be like, yo,
(48:28):
something about her is different, somethingabout him is that, something about him
is dope or just something something isdifferent. And that's and I think I
need that. I think I needthat. I think I want that.
And once again, going back tomy point, prosperity and and I shouldn't
say prosperity, prospering and increase,supernatural increase. It's not for us,
(48:52):
it's not. It's not. It'snot. It's not we get to be
stewards of it. We get tobe we have it's a byproduct of us.
Right. If the Lord caused somebodyto go into business and start a
business, and you get to be, you get to gain the benefits of
being an entrepreneur. Yes, thatis a beautiful thing. But at the
(49:14):
end of the day. Your businessis to bring glory to God, it
is to edify the saints, itis to bring people into the Kingdom.
And so we have to continue tocheck our motives, to check our soils,
to make sure that our heart postureis correct, to make sure that
we are embodying those things well,so that when people are are drawn to
us, they're drawn to Christ,they're drawn to the Kingdom of God,
(49:37):
or they're drawn to Glory, notus. And so it is this really
weird cycle, I can say weird, but just this really intricate cycle to
just continue to remember that we areas we are pursuing God, and we
are we are making our identity whathe says it is, and we are
(49:59):
speaking blas seeing over our lives becausehe said that we can that we are
also being brought into the place andthe position and the posture that he he
wants to increase that he wants tobless and and he wants that to be
the evidence in the earth for people. He wants that to be the evidence
(50:21):
in the earth for the community aroundus, for those who would never step
foot in a church, never stepfoot in a church. I was at
I don't know if you guys know, but my favorite hobby is skating.
I am a skate I won't sayit. I'm a fanatic. So I
don't want to claim any addiction thatI shouldn't, but I love it.
(50:43):
It is the most fun thing.And I encounter so many people in the
skating rink that would probably never goto church. They just probably wouldn't.
But the way that I am becauseof the season, the hard season,
I have walked through, the fruitthat it has produced in my life,
(51:04):
the fact that I have leaned intoGod in such a crazy way. It
has elevated me. It has elevatedmy my, my, my heart posture,
the way I am going after him, the way I see of the
people and how he wants to bea part of their story. And so
I'm I have become bolder. Iam bold in this season. I'm like,
(51:24):
hey, do you mean to prayfor you? We can pray right
now in a grocery store. Ipray for one of my homeboys in the
grocery store a couple of months ago, or that was not it was like
a month ago, and invited himto church, like, hey, can
I pray for you? And Ipray for this young lady in the skating
rink, and she was so blessedby that, that uh, that encounter.
(51:46):
And so I'm I'm saying all thesethings to say that when we go
after God with all of our hearts, he will prosper us, He will
increase us, and it will probablybe in the spiritual first, and then
you'll see that things happen in thenatural. But I want for us to
(52:07):
make sure that whatever we're asking Godto do, that it is a very
healthily balanced palate of petition, ahealthily balanced palate of petition before God,
asking him not to just increase usfinancially and increase us, you know,
(52:30):
with with material things and uh,you know. And the thing this,
Ask God to increase you in yourwalk with the Lord. Ask him to
increase you in your diligence to seekhim. Ask him to increase you in
uh in in your intimate moments withhim, and watch how he shows up.
(52:52):
I'm telling you there's a different kindof annoying. There's a different kind
of type of kind of spiritual justmana the station that you will see come
into your life when you pursue Godfully. What did the scriptures say when
they went before the lover with allof their hearts, all of their hearts.
(53:14):
You're just I'm telling you, you'regonna see God difference. You're gonna
see him differently. It's gonna blessyou. It's gonna be an incredible experience
for your spirit man and for youphysically and for those that are around you.
And so I am coming up onour last few minutes, but I
(53:34):
just I pray that what I sharedblessed somebody's not you did bless me,
It blessed me. And so oh, you know what before I almost missed
one of those criptures that I wantedto read let me go, is that
that's that's mark mark four when wewere still there, if you skipped down
to verse twenty three, and it'ssays, if anyone has fears to hear,
(54:02):
let him hear talking about our spiritualears. And he said to them,
paying takeing to what you hear.With the measure you use it,
it will be measured to you,and still more will be added to you.
And so that is once again talkingabout the seed what's stwn into us.
(54:24):
The measure with which you use it, it will be measured to you.
And so we can get seed allday. But if we don't use
it, we're not gonna see nofruit we can, We're not gonna see
it. It's not gonna be addedto us. And so I'm I guess
in my closing, I want usto I want to challenge us to allow
(54:47):
for the seeds that's thone, thewords that we receive, the things that
we here hold on to it.Well, First, make sure your spoil
is good so that it gets inyour heart. First. Don't let it
just bounce off the you know,off the surface. Let the seeds get
deep in the root and the soilget deep that see, get deep in
(55:08):
the soil and water it keeps usingit. Give it oxygen, give it
sunlight in to it. When youwhen the Lord, when the Lord,
when you plan a plant, youhave to tend to it for us,
it will wither and die and sotin too. The word that is thrown
into you tim into the scripture thatthe Lord was so gracious to leave us
(55:30):
here on earth with uh that hewas, you know, so kind to
spell out for us how to dolife and how to not be you know,
subject to the bondage of the enemy, and all the things into it
and then use it, use it. Don't just be a hero of the
word. Do the word, dowhat it says right, and the measure
(55:54):
that you use it by will beadded back to you. That's where we
see the benefit. That's where wesee the produce. That's where we see
the overfold. That's where we seethe manifestations. That's where we see all
of the things that we are expecting. That's where we receive the increase.
Wow, look at that, Lookat that perfect sormation. That is where
(56:17):
we see the increase. Where Godincreases us, He's going to increase us.
And so it is my prayer thatthe Lord increase you, and that
he increases you as you walk steadilywith your heart open, with your heart
soft, with your hearts full oflife and oxygen and nutrient, so that
(56:39):
the seed gets in that nice heartsoil and produces something beautiful. And so
God, I just want to thankyou, Thank you God for this time.
I thank you for an amazing timeto be uh just stewarded important to
God. I thank you for simplereminders. I thank you for the simple
(56:59):
reminder that prosperity and increase is notjust money, and it's not just the
material things God, but it isalso the spiritual, and you want to
develop us spiritually. You want usto be the best children that are pursuing
you and going after you and embodyingour Father. God. I pray that
(57:21):
you you would make us recognizable.You would make us recognizable as I walk
outside and people can say, oh, that's Pastor Lucius's daughter because they have
the same face. God would justgive us the same face. I pray
that people would see us and say, oh, that's God's child. That
person must know the Lord Lord,give us the apparent identity that is just
(57:45):
so clear of who you are,of your character, of your love,
of your joy, of your peace. I pray that it would wash over
us and that it would make usthe best people God, the best in
its bearers that you have called usto be. And God, but I
thank you for the increase that youare going to bring into our lives.
(58:07):
God, every ask that is comingfrom a true heart, posture of worship
and righteousness. God, I praythat you would answer. You will blessed
in Jesus's name. What I thankyou right now and I praise your holy
name, and I'm worshiping you inadvance. I'm thanking you in advance for
how you were showing up for peoplein the most intricate way of God,
(58:30):
and that the supernatural increase that weexperience would be a blessing to everyone around
us. And so I thank youGod. I pray that you will bless
our week, encourage as you gofor the next seven days, God seven
days, and that I pray thatit would be a beautiful seven days that
we would see your magnificent glory overand over and over and over and over
(58:54):
again. God, continue to growus into the beautiful people that you want
us to be. And in Jesusis a mighty maculus, uh Saytan beating
up Hell is shaken? Name aman, amen amen Loo. I said
that Jesus was a he beat upSatan. He did because that's what it
(59:15):
was. Period. But I justthank you guys, thank you guys for
joining me for tonight. I likeI said, it is always a pleasure
to be able to share with youguys, and hopefully you guys will join
us again next week. Next weekhere on the podcast, we are excited
for what is to come. I'mtelling you don't want to miss it.
(59:37):
So time back in. But inthe meantime, be blessed and do do
what you need to do to liveright. Amen. Amen, have a
great night. Enough that game,get enough to stands near the rides.
(01:00:08):
It s the ride you all upback at getting up the standing It still
the rides. SI Ry
Las Miss McDowell. Welcome episode,Sam said, everybody, Hello to love,
(00:39):
Hello, Welcome to the Lucius McDowellLiving Right Podcast. I am your
host tonight, Zoey McDowell standing infor the Man of God. But I
am so excited to join you allhere on the podcast. Thank you for
taking I'm every Monday night at eighto'clock to hop on this call to listen
(01:04):
and to tune in to what wehave to say because people believe that it's
something else the Lord wants to blessyou with. Since tonight we're going to
jump into the Word of God asit pertains to Living Right. We'll be
talking about the subject matter that isvitally important for rightful relationship with the Lord,
(01:26):
and tonight's conversation will be about movinginto super natural increase. Super natural
increase. Of course, we knowthat all scripture is given by the inspiration
of God, and it is profitablefor doctrine, for proof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that theMan of God and women may be
(01:51):
perfect thoroughly furnished into all good works. You can find that scripture in two
Timothy three Versus sixteen and seventeen.And of course we know that wisdom is
the principal thing, and so inall of our getting, we are supposed
to get all of our getting,which is to get understanding Proverbs four seven.
(02:12):
And so here we are gathering ona Monday night via a podcast to
gather our ourselves together, to getourselves together to grow in the things of
God. And so I am superexcited to share about moving into these super
natural increase And so I'm just gonnatake a moment to pray before we get
(02:37):
into our conversation tonight, and thenwe're gonna We're gonna do this thing.
And so God, Lord, Ijust thank you, because you are all
a father, God, holy Spirit. We thank you that you are in
and throughout this entire conversation. WhatI pray that you would be with me
as you craft words, as youbring things to my mind my spirit to
(02:58):
share with people. Lord, Ipray that you have blessed all parties involved.
And I thank you that you aretruly believing in us. God,
that you have a vision and purposefor us. And so we thank you
that we get to hold on towhat your word says, we get to
rest in and what it talks aboutGod, and we get to have faith
(03:19):
to see it come to fruition inJesus' name, and so I pray that
you will be with us tonight,be with us as we go into the
rest of our week. Well,I pray that this will be a beautiful
jump start to our week as we'rejust taking a moment to chime in and
get some good things from you.And so bless it, bless our time.
And in Jesus's mighty Mattress, nameme pray a man, Amen,
(03:42):
Amen, and a man Well.Tonight's conversation is about moving into supernatural increase,
and of course Pacing make Out hasbeen talking about this conversation for some
weeks now, and there are beautifulthings that we get to look forward to
that we can really glean from thescriptures as it pertains to what the Lord
(04:05):
says about us and that fact thathe wants to increase us. And so
I'll start with just the idea ofwhat supernatural increase is. Of course,
it is the Lord bringing things toyour life to enhance your your your life,
to enhance how you show up inthe world, to enhance you into
(04:27):
better youth. And so I knowthat sometimes when we talk about supernatural increase.
Especially in today's uh time and age, people can get a little clammy
and get a little nervous because supernaturalincrease can be people jump to the extremes
of like is that prosperity gospel isthat's that weird thing that that you know,
(04:50):
has a lot of eyebrows raised atit. But the truth of the
matter is that the Lord is asupernatural god and he does things supernaturally.
And also the truth of the matteris that the Lord wants to bless us,
the Lord wants to increase us,and so there is truth in the
(05:10):
principle. And me and my momactually were having such a good conversation about
this, like a couple of weeksago, just because sometimes because people have
made the association that prosperity and increaseis a bad thing, they want to
throw the baby out with the bathwater, right. They want to throw
out the teachings, they want tothrow out the principles, the concepts.
(05:32):
But the truth of the matter isthat the principle is the principle, and
law is law, and when youpractice the principle, there will be a
return on it. You will seethe investment of it produce a good thing.
But the thing that is required,and the thing that we always have
to check our hearts about, isour motive. The motive behind are asking,
(05:55):
the motive behind what we are justdesiring from the Lord. And one
of the things that I believe thatGod has shared with me in this time
of preparation is that the Lord wantsto increase you. But it's not just
for you. The Lord wants toincrease us. But it is for that.
(06:15):
It is so that we can bea glory carriers in the earth.
It is so that we can shinea light that is so bright that people
say, wow, what they haveI need And it is our responsibility to
point them back to God, topoint them back to Jesus Christ. And
so as we're as unpacking our timetonight, just I want us to remember
(06:40):
that that is the truth, theessence of what we are called to do.
The Lord is calling us into supernaturalincrease, but not for ourselves,
for somebody else. It is sothat we can be a witness to people.
Our lives would bless somebody else.How we show up in the world,
how we show up in the room, will be a blessing to somebody
(07:01):
else. And of course I wantto. I also just want to I
want to read a scripture from ourfavorite scripture that talks about how we are
prosperous in the Bible. Is Jeremiahis twenty nine to eleven. I'm sure
people can quote it backwards and forwards, and it says, for I know
the plans I have for you,declares the Lord plans to prosper you and
(07:25):
not to harm you, plans togive you hope and a future. And
I think what is so cool aboutthis particular scripture is that is the context
by which it, you know,is embedded in scripture. The conversation that
Jeremiah is having with the Lord isit's the Lord is addressing the children of
(07:46):
Israel and the fact that they haveactually been brought into exile by Babylon.
They have actually been overpowered by Babylon. And so the Lord is saying,
I see what Babylon is doing.I see the record and the heavoc and
the chaos and the destruction, andhow broken the people are and in the
(08:07):
in their suffering, in their pain. This is what the Lord speaks.
And he said, is again,for I know the plans that I have
for you, So don't look atall the things that you're enduring, where
you're where you are, uh seeingyour your people suffer, and how you're
seeing them be subjected and oppressed.He says, I know the plans I
(08:28):
have for you, declares the Lordplans to prosper you. He plans to
prosper us. God plans to prosperus. And sometimes in stricture, you
know, we can be just brieffor anything. But like yet that that
applies to me, You know thatapplies to me. But here we can
(08:48):
say that that that actually does applyto me. That is a universal truth.
If you are a believer, ifyou are a child of God,
if you are someone who has placedtheir faith in Jesus Christ, then you
are one he wants to prosper.He doesn't want you to suffer, not
to harm you. He actually wantsto prosper you. He wants to give
(09:11):
you a hope and a future.And I think, actually I'm going to
keep reading. In verse twelve,it says, then you will call on
me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me, and youwill find me, and uh and find
(09:31):
me. And when you seek mewith all your heart, I will be
found with you, declares the Lord. So this is actually unpacking something so
beautiful. Right then you will callon me and come and pray to me.
So the the the trial, thepressure, the the the unfortunate situation
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that they're in is actually being usedas a catalyst for their faith. I'll
say that again. The trial thatthey're in is actually being used as a
catalyst for their faith. Right.It is the thing that is requiring for
them to go to God, tolisten, to lean into him, to
seek Him with all of their hearts. You know, when you're going through
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something and it's really really bad,it's really really raggedy. I mean,
everything is looking like Jesus in thewhat is happening? What is going on?
That is when we are called tolean into God. Don't pull away
from him, don't let the enemywhisper lies to you, and tell them
this is what you get and thisis how it's you know, this is
the be those so called plans thatGod has you don't listen to that trust
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and believe that God has plans toprosper you. But it is our responsibility
to lean into Him with our entirehearts. And as we lean and we
pray he will listen to us.How beautiful is that as we come to
God, he is turning his attentionto us, He is turning his his
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his focus, his gaze is onus. He wants to be so tendered
with us, he wants to beso attentive to us. And I am
so grateful that we have a Godwho is attentive. We have a God
who will listen to us as weseek him. He's like he is the
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definition of a good parent, right, the parent that sees you and hears
you and shows up on your behalf. This is what happens when we go
to him. But we have tobe diligent to go to him, right.
We can't. We can't hold onto the promise of prospering without going
to him. It is required,which is kind of what I was mentioning
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earlier. When it talks about themotive of the heart, it has Our
motive has to be God. Ourmotive has to be his will, not
ours. Our motive has to beHis kingdom, flourishing, people coming to
know him, people walking in thelight and in the love of Him,
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not ours. And I think that'swhere prosperity and increase kind of gets a
little wonky because sometimes people ask what'sthe wrong motive? We say, hey,
I want Lord, I believe thatyou our calling me to this.
But the truth of the matter iswe haven't even assessed our own hearts to
see what the root of that thingactually is. What is the root of
our question? What is the rootof our petition to God? Is it
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truly that God's kingdom would be seenin the earth and would be would be
flourishing, and that it would blesspeople and that God gets glory? Or
is the reason we ask for thething or ask for God to use us
in a certain way that we getto harbor some of that glory. It's
something that feedes us, it's somethingthat benefits us. That is that is
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the defining moment for us as todistinguish if we will be mature saints or
if we will be undeveloped and Idon't want to say childish, but you
know, just undeveloped saints. Ifwe can't discern what the motive is behind
our ass behind our pursuit, behindus asking the Lord and having faith for
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him to increase us supernaturally, ifwe don't have the wherewithal the clarity in
mind and in heart to see themotive and address it for what it is.
Then we are the ones who arein the wrong. We are the
ones who are tripping. It isour responsibility to ask for God to bless
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us, to have faith for thesupernatural increase, but not for our own
gain, not for our own gain, not for our own glory, but
for his. And so back toverse twelve, and it says, then
you will call on me and comeand pray to me, and I will
listen to you. You will seekme and find me. And when you
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seek me with all of your heart, all of your heart, you know
you can seek the Lord with halfof your heart. You can seek the
Lord with a quarter of your heart. You can seek the Lord with portions
of your heart. And I thinkthat is one of those things that also
helps us recognize are we truly beingmature saints? Are we really? Are
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we really going before God with everythingthat we have? And I think one
of the things that is so interesting, and I think I'm experiencing it in
my own walk with the Lord currently, is that as you walk through trial,
as you walk with through hardship,I think those things when we know
those things are they've brought about todevelop us to so that the perfect work
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we would have, the perfect workdeveloped in us. I think that's in
Romans fives. The character, thehope that comes after trial, and the
perfect work that comes in us actuallygives us a greater capacity to long for
the Lord. That's crazy to me. The trials, the hardships give us
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a greater capacity to long for theLord, to seek him with all of
our hearts. And so in aseason where I thought I was seeking the
Lord with all of my heart,maybe in twenty nineteen and in twenty twenty,
in twenty twenty four, I haveexperienced a new all of my heart.
I have experienced an expanded capacity forthe all of my heart. And
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I think that is where we findourselves going from glory to glory, when
we begin to mature as believers,and we see ourselves increasing in our walks
with the Lord. That sometimes thatcomes from the trial. Right, the
oppression of the Babylonians to the childrenof Israel, that was unfortunate, but
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it pushed them to the position andthe posture to trust the Lord and to
seek after him with all of theirall their hearts, and it was from
that position that God found them.It says in verse fourteen, I will
be found by you. I'm sorry, let me let me check that he
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finds He finds us, but it'sus that will find him. I will
be found by you. You willsee me. And I think that is
also a declaration of who God is. It says I will be found.
I will be found by you,declares the Lord, and will bring you
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back from captivity. I will befound by you. That's basically God saying,
Oh, you're gonna see me showup. You're going to see me
show up and show out. You'regonna see me move like never before on
your behalf. You're gonna see medo the things that you have been praying
for, the things that only youknow, above what we can ask,
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think or imagine. You're gonna seethose things because you leaned in with all
of your heart, all of yourheart, and I'm gonna be found by
you. I won't be seen inthe distance. There's a meme on social
media and it's a man looking withhis hand over his eyes and he's like,
that is that you? Is?That you? Guys all the way
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into Himalayans we're going to see himin the far off and in the nerr
we are going to see God.And it says that he's gonna bring you
back from captivity. In this situation, he's talking about the Babylonians that are
pressing the children of Israel, buthe's saying that He's essentially he's saying he's
going to restore them. He's goingto restore them. And so supernatural increase
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the things that we are asking Godfor. Let's back up, because supernatural
increase doesn't always mean money. Itdoes not always mean finances. And sometimes
I think people like I said,the younger crowd, the millennials of today,
who are losing their minds of aprosperity gospel and all the things throwing
out babies with bads water. Butprosperity is not just financial. It can
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be, but it is not solely. It is not. God wants to
prosper you in your health. Godwants to prosper you in your relationships.
God wants to prosper you and howyou seek him. God wants to prosper
you in your walk with the Lord. God wants to prosper you and your
influence in the earth and your influencewith your coworkers. God wants to prosper
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you as you as you engage thesedaily God wants to prosper your marriage.
God wants to prosper your friendships,in your relationships, in your family,
with the relationships with your brother,your sister. God wants to spur you.
He wants you to have the fullestof life. He wants you to
live life to the fullest. AndI think it is it is imperative that
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we remember that our increase the thingthat we're believing God for. It doesn't
have to be one thing, itdoesn't have to be one particular thing,
but it can be all it canbe all of the above. And when
He, when He acknowledge it,when we see it happen, We're gonna
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see the Lord restore us. We'regonna see the Lord restore our finances.
We're gonna see the Lord restore ourrelationships. We're gonna see the Lord bless
our influence and and and bring usinto new levels. And and the prayer
is that as we have been askingHim to show up on our behalf,
we're actually we're actually doing it withthe motive that is to bless God and
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to to to see the fruit ofthe Kingdom flourished in the earth. That
is our prayer. That should beour heart's posture, it should be our
motive. And so he is goingto bring us from captivity. He's going
to bring us into restoration, andwe are going to see the good of
God in the land as of livingAmen. And of course in Proverbs pen
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we have vers pity to it.It says the blessings of the Lord makes
it rich, and he adds nosorrow with it. Right, So we
know that the Lord wants to blessus. That is the desire of his
heart. And when we think aboutprospering, and the definition of prosper actually
means to become strong, it meansto flourish. It means to succeed or
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to thrive. And so prospering supernaturalincrease and prospering is God building you up
in your most holy faith ament,but building you up in all the areas
of your life. And it isour it is actually our responsibility as believers
in Him and upon Him to makerequests of Him in expectation. And so
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that is where that's where our faithcomes into play. And I know Pastor
McDowell has talked about that in ourtime over the past couple of weeks,
showing up with our faith and showingup with it well right, not being
weary and well doing, not waveringwhen things go crazy, but to have
faith to see God show up onyour behalf. And I think that's that's
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who he is, right. Godis a miracle working God. That is
that is I mean, it's it'sprevalent all throughout Scripture and the New testing
that Jesus is doing all kinds ofthings to bless people. Miracle here,
a miracle there, uh, healinghere, restoration there, and then and
then the most beautiful uh miracle isthe g of Him. Right, because
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He dies on the cross for oursins. We cannot do life perfectly.
We fail every single day. Imean immediately within the first five minutes of
the day. I'm sure I havedone something to offend the Lord, waking
up grumpy, probably offending God justin that small thing. But the beauty
of Christ being the perfect atonement forour sins right, and so we are
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we are just given the gift ofJesus. Like I'm saying, I was
saying, he's healing, He's doingall these things, but the biggest gift
is salvation. The biggest gift isHim dying and covering our sins. So
when I stand before God on judgmentDay, he doesn't see my sin.
He sees the blood of Jesus Christand says, you know what, You've
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been covered by my sons, evencovered by but I call it his holy
blood cells. It's redunctive blood thatcovers me. So there is uh,
there is prosperity even in that.There is increase even in that. And
that was one of the other areasthat I wanted to say as I was
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listening them out. You know,friendships and relationships, and you know your
job finances all the things, yourhealth. He also wants you to grow
in your spiritual walk, increase inthe spiritual walk. The Lord is always
asking us to increase in our spiritualwalk, walking into suffer natural increase.
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That should also be an expectation.It should be It's not just money,
it's not just what God can dofor me. But God, what have
you already done for me that I'mmissing? What are you already What have
you already done for me that Ihave not had the revelation of increase my
capacity to see you increase, mycapacity to grow in uh, in the
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in in the revelation and the realmilatory knowledge that blesses my spirit, because
what you did on the crost isthe biggest thing that I could receive on
this side of glory. Ever,no dollar sign, no UH, no
promotion, no relationship, no friendshipcould ever exceed what the Lord did for
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us. And so God, increase, move us into the supernatural increase of
revelation and being able to lean fromyour word and your scriptures, and being
able to be excited for what youwhat you pour out to us, being
excited for what you give us inthe knowledge of your word. Increase in
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intake, in supernatural increase. That'sone of my prayers actually in the ex
eason, Lords, supernaturally increase mydesire to intake your word, my desire
to be in your presence, mydesire to to to grow and to mature
in the things of You. Idon't want to be a weary faint.
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I don't want to be somebody whoexperiences a storm of life. And and
my faith is somewhere over in thecorner and I'm you know, and I'm
falling apart and somewhere else. Ineed to be one with my faith.
I need to be strengthened by myfaith. I need to be sustained by
my faith. I need to Ineed my faith to be my backbone and
I need it to be uh tobe sturdy. I needed to be bolted
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to something and so that the thingsthat we ask God to increase us in
supernatural increase. I pray that wewould see are our ask actually? I
think that might be interesting to acknowledgewhat are we asking God for? What
are we asking him for? Andour ask to God might show us where
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we sit in the on the spectrumof spiritual maturity. What do we constantly
find ourselves asking God to increase usin? Are we increasing only in the
material things? If we're only tryingto increase in the material then our I'm
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sorry to tell your friends, ourfaith is what is lop sighted? Our
faith is lopsided. If that's theonly thing we're asking God for, we
are not maturing well. And theholistic Uh, the holistic what's the word
I want to use this our wholethe holistic breadth of what it means to
be a believer, of what itmeans to be a saint, and so
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that's that's something to consider, that'ssomething to to be mindful of. And
I think, you know, justas we're talking about supernatural increase and how
the Lord wants to prosper us,I was thinking about I started thinking about
plants. I started to think aboutplants. And you know, I love
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green. That's my favorite color andone of mine. It's crazy. When
I was living in Nashville is oneof my best friends. She has the
green some Okay, she loves livingplants. He loves living things. And
I'm be like, I don't evenknow this. I don't know one thing
about you know, keeping a plantalive, what it requires. I mean,
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she's got all the tools to repot. She's like, oh, we
can propagate this and you can dothem. Like, girl, what give
me a fake plant and just letus sit in the corner so I can
see the green and be happy.But no, So I have gained a
whole new appreciation for live plants.And even my father he has plants everywhere,
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plants in our house, plants atthe church. And so there is
a you know, just a beautifulthing about plants. And so the Lord
brought that's the image of a plantto me, And how when somebody plants
a plant, When somebody plants theplant, they don't plant it with the
expectation that it dies. They don'tplant They don't put a plant in the
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ground and say, Okay, Iknow you're gonna this is gonna die.
Otherwise we wouldn't have planted it.Right. We plant things with the intention
that they will grow and that theywill flourish. And I think that's how
the Lord looks at us. Iyou know, we are We're his little
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plant. We're his beautiful garden,his spirits a garden. And as he
has brought us into this world tolive a life here on this side of
heaven, he wants us to grow. He wants us to he wants us
to grow, but he wants usto flourish. Right, And so it
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is. And I said what Isay earlier about prospering, the definition is
to become strong, it is toflourish. He wants us to succeed.
He wants us to thrive. Thatis God's that's his plan for our lives
to prospers. And so the thefact that you know, we get planted,
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and we we we get planted forpurpose. If that's for being honest,
you get planted for purpose because atthe end of the day, it's
not just it's not going to die, it's going to produce something. It
should live and produce something and whateverit is that they're supposed to produce.
Right, some plants are just reallypretty green living things, and I love
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them. I love them. They'reso pretty. Some of them have you
know, thick, glossy leaves,some of them have you know, leaves
with different color than them, andso I think it's beautiful. And then
some plants are you know, flowers, and they are here to bring color
to our lives and aromas and pollinateand all the things. And some some
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things. Some plants produce fruit.Some it produce fruit that is supposed to
be beautiful to the eye, yummyto eat, nutritious to our bodies.
And so the the idea is thatwe are to be planted to grow,
to flourish. And in thinking aboutand thinking about plants, it made me
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think about the parable of the sower, because I just there's a lot of
yummy, uh yummy, yell.Well, there's a lot of good nuggets
in here. And so if y'allwould turned with me to mark for And
I'm just gonna read through this andunpack it a little bit. And so
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it says again he began to teachbeside the sea, and a very large
crowd gathered about him. This isJesus they're talking about. So that he
got into a boat and sat onthe sea, and the cold crowd was
beside the sea, and he wasteaching them many things in terribles. And
he and in his teething he saidto them, listen, first three listen.
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Behold. A sewer went out tosew, and he sowed. Some
seed fell along the paths, andthe birds came and devoured it. Other
seeds fell on rocky ground where itdid not have much soil, and immediately
it splained up since there was nodepth of the soil, and when the
sun rose, it scorched. Itwas scorched, and since it had no
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root, it witted away. Otherseeds fell among the thorns, and the
thorns grew up, and they chokedit and yielded, and it yielded no
grain. And then in verse insaid and other seeds fell into good oil
and produced grain, growing up andincreasing it up. There goes a word.
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It goes in stinging beings and increasingand yielding thirty and sixty and one
hundred folds, and then it saysin verse nine, he says, he
who has tears, let him hear. So here we see that Jesus is
teaching to a crowd. It's aton of people, and he gets into
a boat and he starts to tellpeople about soil. He just he starts
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talking about dirt. He starts talkingabout dirt. And of course I'm sure
people in the interhipretic culture are likenot They're not foreign to the concept of
like, oh this is you know, grain and sowing seas. But then
it's like, you know, ifyou're the Messiah and we've got you're you
know, you're doing miracle times andwonders, and then you just decided to
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start talking about dirt, I wouldbe very you know, like there's not
other more important things talking about?Are there not more important things to talk
about? I mean? Or buthere this is what he just is he
talking about? He says, we'regonna talking about dirt, and I love
how he emphasizes the three different typesof soil. And then in verse we're
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gonna keep reading in verse ten,it says, and when he was alone,
those around him with the twelve askedhim about the parables. And so
the twelve, of course, arehis disciples. And he says to them,
to you who has been given thesecret of the Kingdom of God.
But for those outside, everything isimparables, so that they may indeed see
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but not perceive, and may indeedhear but not understand. Lets they should
turn and be forgiven. That's actuallytalking about our spiritual awareness, our hardness
of heart to be able to perceivewhat God is saying. Sometimes we have
to the Lord has to remove spiritualscale from our eyes and heal us of
(33:44):
our spiritual deafness so that we canhear what he's actually saying. But this
is what the disciples were asking for. And he said, do you not
understand the parable? How then willyou understand all the parables? He's like,
y'all acting slow, I'm just kiddingwhat I need got to get this.
And so here is what is sobeautiful about this. He breaks it
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down what the parableb was about.And verse fourteen said, and the sower
so the word. The sower sothe word. And so if we look
back to the Scripture. It talksabout the seed that keeps getting sown,
the key, the seed that keepsgetting son. Jesus just tells us right
here, Claire, plain as day. The seed is the Word. The
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seed is the Word of God.The seed is the Scroll. The seed
is is Jesus incarnate. The seedis the Bible. The seed is.
What are we angering our faith?And what are we holding onto it should
be the word Verse fifteen, andit says, and these are the ones
along the path where the word issown. When they hear, Satan immediately
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comes up and takes away the wordthat is sown in them. And these
are the ones sewn on a rockyground, the ones who, when they
hear the word immediately they received itwith joy, and they have no root
in themselves, but endure for awhile. Then when tribulation or persecution arises
on the account of the word,immediately they fall away. And others are
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the ones sown among thorns. Theyare those who hear the word. But
the cares of the world, andthe deceitfulness of riches, and the desires
of the things in the world chokeout the word, and it proves unfruitful.
But those that were sown on goodsoil are the ones who hear the
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word and accept it and bear fruitthirty sixty and one hundredfold. Now,
there's so much to impact here.There's so much to impact here because we
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can't have supernatural increase without faith,and you can't have faith without seed.
If there's no seed in your soil, then there's it's not going to produce
anything. And so I want usto just I want to talk. I
want to sit here and unpack thesethings just a little bit, because it
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is required that we have faith andwe have expectation for what God is going
to bring us into the increase thatHe's going to bring us into. And
even if it even if it isthe material thing, even if it's the
spiritual thing, we have to havefaith to do that. We have to
have faith to watch God, tohave God move on our behalf. And
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so in verse thirteen, he says, do you not understand the parable?
Actually, you know, I'm goingto skip down to fourteen and says the
so and so it's the word,and then these are the ones along the
path where the is sown. Whenthey hear it, Satan immediately comes up
and takes the word that is shownin them. How many of us are
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that are that person? How manyof us will sit in a service and
get said and get full of faithand then walk out of the doors and
immediately Satan snatches up what we have, what we just got, what we
just received before we go through youknow, something crazy and are It's like
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our faith isn't even there. Thatis what Jesus is talking about in this
particular He's addressing this particular soil,and he said, these are the ones
that are sewn onto in verse sixteen, these are the ones that are sown
on rocky ground, the ones whowhen they hear the word immediately receive it
with joy, and they have noroot in it for themselves, but in
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dure while. And then when tribulation, the tribulation or persecution rises on their
account, immediately they fall away.I don't know about you, guys,
but as I am trying to beone that is being prospered, as I'm
trying to be one that is andwe see that as we're talking about JEREMIAHS.
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Freund eleven, that that actually comesout of trials, that that that
prayer comes out of trial, thatpromise comes out of trial. I do
not want to be the person whothrows away my faith in the midst of
trial. And I know it's easy, and I know it is uh,
it is. It's very human.Mm hmm. That's our humanity speaking when
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we want to throw away our faithin the midst of what is very hard
and difficult. But we cannot.We cannot, we cannot. Okay,
it is our you know what.I'm gonna hold that, and we hold
that though. I'm gonna keep keepreading verse eighteen, and it says and
others are the ones thrown among thethorns, and those who hear the word,
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But they're the cares of the world, and the deceiple of riches and
desires for other things choke the wordand proves it unfruitful. It proves it
unfruitful. The cares of the world, the things that are happening around them.
People who get caught up by distractions, people who are you know,
people people who are maybe they're they'rethey haven't really assessed well their spiritual motives,
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and so they're they're you know,being caught up by I want this
and I need this, and Idid it up until we find ourselves,
you know, on the lower Ishould say I'm the lower, but on
one side of the spiritual tangent orthe spiritual But this is what am I
doing with my hand spectrum? Thereyou go where we find ourselves on one
(39:45):
side of the spiritual spectrum, andthey're concerned with the things of the world.
We're concerned with materials. We're concernedwith what's in front of us,
not realizing that that's that's improper soiltoo, that's improper soil for seed two.
And as soon as it gets sown, the thorns are going to come
and choke it out. But inthe verse nineteen it says I'm sorry verse
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twenty. But those who are sownon good soil are the ones who hear
the words and accept it and thenbear fruit. So there's three things right.
We have to hear the word.We have to be diligent to find
ourselves taking in words right, whetherit's a sermon, whether it's you go
(40:31):
into church on Sundays and small groupson Wednesdays, whether it's a podcast and
what you're listening to right now,or you know, song worship music,
whatever it is, we are hearingword, we're taking it in and then
we accept it. Sometimes our beliefswon't let us accept things. Sometimes our
minds they'll let us accepting. Butthat's where the faith comes into play.
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We have to accept it, wehave to trust it. We have to
hold on to what we believe thatthe Lord is saying and revealing to us
through his word, and then wewill bear fruit. We will bear the
fruit. We will see the manifestationsof the things that we're asking God for.
We will see it thirty sixty andone hundredfold. And so one of
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my dear mentors I love her somuch, was she sat me down with
this particular passage of scripture and shetold me, She said, Zoe,
you are one of these types ofsoil at all times, at all times,
you are one of these types ofsoils. And I was like,
h yikes, and made me question, like, am I am I always
(41:40):
good soil? I don't think I'malways good soil? What kind of soil
was I yesterday? What kind ofsoil was I last month? And so
I am constantly thinking about what kindof soil am I? What kind of
what kind of soil is Because thetruth of the matter is, if my
soil is not good and the seeddoesn't get in the ground. And if
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the seed doesn't get in the ground, it doesn't have the proper environment and
nutrients it needs to germinate and toproduce what it's supposed to produce so that
we can flourish like God wants usto write. And so I know,
I'm taking a very, very,very long route to get us back to
the point of talking about prospering andseeing supernatural increase. But I believe that
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it starts with our hearts. Itstarts with our heart postures. I'm walking
with the young lady and we alsotalked about this particular passage of scripture,
and I just told her, Isaid, hey, I'm gonna start We're
gonna start doing Soilo checks. We'rejust gonna start doing Soilo checks. And
so what I've done, I say, solo check. That means you got
to, you know, share withme where your heart is, what is
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what is, what's going on withyou, what's happening internally. Give me
insight so that we can know whatto prey and how to remember what you
know, what the word says aboutwhat we're experiencing. And we have to
make sure that our hearts are theproper soil for the seed that's being sown.
And so it's been a beautiful thing. And so I'm saying that because
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I want to encourage everyone of you, all people who are listening, to
do soil checks. Check your heart, check your your your spirit, check
your motives. Right, and aswe are doing the proper work of checking
our hearts and and being before theLord, we can we can just properly
(43:34):
assess well, really, we canproperly assess our soil. But we can
also I don't want to say predict, that's the strong word, but we
can, we can see, wecan we can we can see pattern.
If that makes any sense. Ifmy soil is not good, or if
my soil is hard and stony,or or or the sea can't even get
(43:55):
into it, how can I expectfor the Lord for there to be a
produce, or for there to bethings produced in my life that bring me
into an increase If my if mysoil is dry and needs some water,
they need some water, it needssome plant food, it needs something,
it needs to be any seed,the ground needs to be killed. If
(44:17):
I don't, if I'm not beingintentional to do the inner work of assessing
my heart and my soil. ThenI can never expect to see the increase
that God actually wants me to walkin. Because your prosperity starts with your
heart. Your prosperity starts with andI'm saying that because your prosperity comes from
(44:43):
your walk with the Lord. Ifthat is not together, if it is
not intact, if it is notif it is not strong, then you
won't see. You won't have thisthe faith to stand to see the thing
come to pass. You won't havethe faith to to to to crash the
You won't have the faith to bringsomething to the Lord in expectation. You
(45:04):
won't. You won't even think thatGod is that he wants to give you
good things. You won't think thatGod wants to give you good things.
And you know, I'm not sayingthat to to shame anybody. I've been
there before. I have been inthe seat where like I don't know what
I was thinking, but for whateverreason, I did not think that it
(45:28):
was I didn't think that I wasdeserving of the good things. I didn't
think I and so the concept,the principle of faith just felt like,
oh, like this is just somethingthat people say in church. But I'm
telling you, I am a livingtestimony in a living testament that said that
this thing is real and we havegot to do our part to engage it.
(45:50):
And so so many people will throwout, like I said, the
baby with the bath water. Butthe problem, the problem is they're not
even they're not working the principal.They're not working the principal, and they're
not seeing the fruit of the principles. So then they throw it away.
But the issue is that they're notusing the proper tools. They don't have
the proper they don't have the properassessment of their motives to even see if
(46:13):
what they're asking for is what Godwants to produce in their life. And
I'm saying all of that comes whenyou start doing soil checks, when we
start observing our hearts and gleaning thingsfrom scripture and seeing what God says about
us and claiming the identity that Christhas for us from scripture and saying no,
that's a price of zoe, Ohno, no, no, God
(46:35):
wants to prose for me. Youknow, I don't know about everybody else,
which then I say that joking me, because what I don't want us
to do is they have an elitismas we are expecting God to prosper us
and to bless us. But thetruth of the matter is, when you
are a child of God, it'sjust different. I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
I know, but it just is. It is different. And the
(46:58):
things of the world that would disqualifypeople from being blessed, you'll see,
you will see a distinct difference,a distinct contrast. But it starts with
the heart. It starts with themind, It starts with how you see
God. It starts with your relationshipand your walk. And so before we
would open our mouths to ask Godto bless me with this, and give
(47:19):
me this, and give me that, I would encourage us to ask for
the Lord to bless us with theright soil. Bless us God with the
right soil, so that the rightthing grows out of us. The right
thing grows out of us, thething that you can bless, the thing
that you can prosper, and thething that He can bless. And the
(47:43):
thing that he can prosper is hisword. It is him. My mom
says all the time, and Iknow that she's quoting scripture. I wish
I knew the address for it.But God honors his word over his name.
It is his words. And soeat the words, eat the scrolls,
(48:05):
eat it, eat it, eatit, internalize it. Let it
transform how you see yourself. Letit transform your spirit, your mind.
And as it does that, youwill find yourself standing in the place of
being prosperous. You will find yourselfuh gleaning and and and producing beautiful,
beautiful things. And people will lookat you and be like, yo,
(48:28):
something about her is different, somethingabout him is that, something about him
is dope or just something something isdifferent. And that's and I think I
need that. I think I needthat. I think I want that.
And once again, going back tomy point, prosperity and and I shouldn't
say prosperity, prospering and increase,supernatural increase. It's not for us,
(48:52):
it's not. It's not. It'snot. It's not we get to be
stewards of it. We get tobe we have it's a byproduct of us.
Right. If the Lord caused somebodyto go into business and start a
business, and you get to be, you get to gain the benefits of
being an entrepreneur. Yes, thatis a beautiful thing. But at the
(49:14):
end of the day. Your businessis to bring glory to God, it
is to edify the saints, itis to bring people into the Kingdom.
And so we have to continue tocheck our motives, to check our soils,
to make sure that our heart postureis correct, to make sure that
we are embodying those things well,so that when people are are drawn to
us, they're drawn to Christ,they're drawn to the Kingdom of God,
(49:37):
or they're drawn to Glory, notus. And so it is this really
weird cycle, I can say weird, but just this really intricate cycle to
just continue to remember that we areas we are pursuing God, and we
are we are making our identity whathe says it is, and we are
(49:59):
speaking blas seeing over our lives becausehe said that we can that we are
also being brought into the place andthe position and the posture that he he
wants to increase that he wants tobless and and he wants that to be
the evidence in the earth for people. He wants that to be the evidence
(50:21):
in the earth for the community aroundus, for those who would never step
foot in a church, never stepfoot in a church. I was at
I don't know if you guys know, but my favorite hobby is skating.
I am a skate I won't sayit. I'm a fanatic. So I
don't want to claim any addiction thatI shouldn't, but I love it.
(50:43):
It is the most fun thing.And I encounter so many people in the
skating rink that would probably never goto church. They just probably wouldn't.
But the way that I am becauseof the season, the hard season,
I have walked through, the fruitthat it has produced in my life,
(51:04):
the fact that I have leaned intoGod in such a crazy way. It
has elevated me. It has elevatedmy my, my, my heart posture,
the way I am going after him, the way I see of the
people and how he wants to bea part of their story. And so
I'm I have become bolder. Iam bold in this season. I'm like,
(51:24):
hey, do you mean to prayfor you? We can pray right
now in a grocery store. Ipray for one of my homeboys in the
grocery store a couple of months ago, or that was not it was like
a month ago, and invited himto church, like, hey, can
I pray for you? And Ipray for this young lady in the skating
rink, and she was so blessedby that, that uh, that encounter.
(51:46):
And so I'm I'm saying all thesethings to say that when we go
after God with all of our hearts, he will prosper us, He will
increase us, and it will probablybe in the spiritual first, and then
you'll see that things happen in thenatural. But I want for us to
(52:07):
make sure that whatever we're asking Godto do, that it is a very
healthily balanced palate of petition, ahealthily balanced palate of petition before God,
asking him not to just increase usfinancially and increase us, you know,
(52:30):
with with material things and uh,you know. And the thing this,
Ask God to increase you in yourwalk with the Lord. Ask him to
increase you in your diligence to seekhim. Ask him to increase you in
uh in in your intimate moments withhim, and watch how he shows up.
(52:52):
I'm telling you there's a different kindof annoying. There's a different kind
of type of kind of spiritual justmana the station that you will see come
into your life when you pursue Godfully. What did the scriptures say when
they went before the lover with allof their hearts, all of their hearts.
(53:14):
You're just I'm telling you, you'regonna see God difference. You're gonna
see him differently. It's gonna blessyou. It's gonna be an incredible experience
for your spirit man and for youphysically and for those that are around you.
And so I am coming up onour last few minutes, but I
(53:34):
just I pray that what I sharedblessed somebody's not you did bless me,
It blessed me. And so oh, you know what before I almost missed
one of those criptures that I wantedto read let me go, is that
that's that's mark mark four when wewere still there, if you skipped down
to verse twenty three, and it'ssays, if anyone has fears to hear,
(54:02):
let him hear talking about our spiritualears. And he said to them,
paying takeing to what you hear.With the measure you use it,
it will be measured to you,and still more will be added to you.
And so that is once again talkingabout the seed what's stwn into us.
(54:24):
The measure with which you use it, it will be measured to you.
And so we can get seed allday. But if we don't use
it, we're not gonna see nofruit we can, We're not gonna see
it. It's not gonna be addedto us. And so I'm I guess
in my closing, I want usto I want to challenge us to allow
(54:47):
for the seeds that's thone, thewords that we receive, the things that
we here hold on to it.Well, First, make sure your spoil
is good so that it gets inyour heart. First. Don't let it
just bounce off the you know,off the surface. Let the seeds get
deep in the root and the soilget deep that see, get deep in
(55:08):
the soil and water it keeps usingit. Give it oxygen, give it
sunlight in to it. When youwhen the Lord, when the Lord,
when you plan a plant, youhave to tend to it for us,
it will wither and die and sotin too. The word that is thrown
into you tim into the scripture thatthe Lord was so gracious to leave us
(55:30):
here on earth with uh that hewas, you know, so kind to
spell out for us how to dolife and how to not be you know,
subject to the bondage of the enemy, and all the things into it
and then use it, use it. Don't just be a hero of the
word. Do the word, dowhat it says right, and the measure
(55:54):
that you use it by will beadded back to you. That's where we
see the benefit. That's where wesee the produce. That's where we see
the overfold. That's where we seethe manifestations. That's where we see all
of the things that we are expecting. That's where we receive the increase.
Wow, look at that, Lookat that perfect sormation. That is where
(56:17):
we see the increase. Where Godincreases us, He's going to increase us.
And so it is my prayer thatthe Lord increase you, and that
he increases you as you walk steadilywith your heart open, with your heart
soft, with your hearts full oflife and oxygen and nutrient, so that
(56:39):
the seed gets in that nice heartsoil and produces something beautiful. And so
God, I just want to thankyou, Thank you God for this time.
I thank you for an amazing timeto be uh just stewarded important to
God. I thank you for simplereminders. I thank you for the simple
(56:59):
reminder that prosperity and increase is notjust money, and it's not just the
material things God, but it isalso the spiritual, and you want to
develop us spiritually. You want usto be the best children that are pursuing
you and going after you and embodyingour Father. God. I pray that
(57:21):
you you would make us recognizable.You would make us recognizable as I walk
outside and people can say, oh, that's Pastor Lucius's daughter because they have
the same face. God would justgive us the same face. I pray
that people would see us and say, oh, that's God's child. That
person must know the Lord Lord,give us the apparent identity that is just
(57:45):
so clear of who you are,of your character, of your love,
of your joy, of your peace. I pray that it would wash over
us and that it would make usthe best people God, the best in
its bearers that you have called usto be. And God, but I
thank you for the increase that youare going to bring into our lives.
(58:07):
God, every ask that is comingfrom a true heart, posture of worship
and righteousness. God, I praythat you would answer. You will blessed
in Jesus's name. What I thankyou right now and I praise your holy
name, and I'm worshiping you inadvance. I'm thanking you in advance for
how you were showing up for peoplein the most intricate way of God,
(58:30):
and that the supernatural increase that weexperience would be a blessing to everyone around
us. And so I thank youGod. I pray that you will bless
our week, encourage as you gofor the next seven days, God seven
days, and that I pray thatit would be a beautiful seven days that
we would see your magnificent glory overand over and over and over and over
(58:54):
again. God, continue to growus into the beautiful people that you want
us to be. And in Jesusis a mighty maculus, uh Saytan beating
up Hell is shaken? Name aman, amen amen Loo. I said
that Jesus was a he beat upSatan. He did because that's what it
(59:15):
was. Period. But I justthank you guys, thank you guys for
joining me for tonight. I likeI said, it is always a pleasure
to be able to share with youguys, and hopefully you guys will join
us again next week. Next weekhere on the podcast, we are excited
for what is to come. I'mtelling you don't want to miss it.
(59:37):
So time back in. But inthe meantime, be blessed and do do
what you need to do to liveright. Amen. Amen, have a
great night. Enough that game,get enough to stands near the rides.
(01:00:08):
It s the ride you all upback at getting up the standing It still
the rides. SI Ry
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