Bill Johnson - How Revival and Discipling Nations is Connected to Stewardship
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Wow, wow! I have something very important to read to you just while the bags are being passed. You know, we’ve got to kill some time, and what better way? This is actually supposedly a true story. It’s been a while since I read it. In Mount Vernon, Texas, Drummond’s Bar began construction on an expansion of their building to increase their business. In response, the local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from expanding with petitions and prayers.
Work progressed right up until the week before the grand reopening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. After the bar burned to the ground from the lightning strike, the church folks were rather smug in their outlook, bragging about the power of prayer—that is, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect means. In its reply to the court, the church denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise. The judge read through the plaintiff’s complaint and the defendant’s reply, and at the opening hearing, he commented, «I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that now does not.» Stranger than fiction!
There is an event that has been going on for the last couple of years in Europe that has had the most profound effect of any event that I’ve seen in my lifetime—the awakening that took place a couple of years ago in Germany, and then last year in Stockholm, correct? The impact on Europe is absolutely astonishing. Something is happening where the Lord is awakening a continent with the power of the gospel. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been going there for decades, and what we’re seeing right now is absolutely off the charts. Ben Fitzgerald, one of the young men from this house, is helping to champion this particular cause, and the Lord has really given him the heart and the vision for this year in Prague, in the Czech Republic, from June 29 through July 2.
It is going to be one of the most profound events in all of Europe, and it’s right in the heart of that need. Prague is known for having the largest gathering of atheists per capita in that part of the world. The largest church in that area has 500 people, while the largest gathering on record of believers in that area is 7,000 people. They have strategically chosen, I believe the Lord has chosen, a place to display His grace. I want you to stand with me because we’re going to pray. We’re going to pray that something profound happens. We have it right up here, so you’re able to check things out online, and if you’re interested in going, tickets are available there. But I want us to pray. Europe is that direction, so I want you to extend a hand that way, and I want you to pray that the fire of God would fall so powerfully on that part of the world.
I want you as warriors to lift up your voices and declare the spirit of breakthrough over Prague, over this particular gathering—standing room only, standing room only—as a nation is impacted with the power of the gospel, that miracles, signs, and wonders would take place on the streets of this great nation. This place was the inspiration, the beginning place—the seedbed of the Moravian movement. We call that forth now once again so that a prayer movement, a missionary movement, a signs-and-wonders movement would come forth from this nation and that tens of thousands of believers would gather at this event.
We pray for a great demonstration of your presence, Lord—great demonstration—more than enough provision, more than adequate, more than is needed for the stadiums they’ve rented, that you would fill to capacity with people hungry, desperate, crying out for an encounter with God. We prophesy this, that the power of the Lord would be demonstrated in this city and this nation for the glory of God. We declare this in Jesus' name. Just declare, «Prague! We bless you in the name of the Lord! We bless you in the name of the Lord! We declare over you, we declare over a mighty outpouring of the Spirit, a mighty beginning of revival that would shake the continent of Europe in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen, amen, amen, amen! Beautiful, beautiful!
I just wanted to partner with our friends who are taking a stand. They’re actually renting two stadiums—18,000 people each—for this particular event. We’re just believing that the Lord will move. I’ll tell you what happened in Germany a couple of years ago; I had never heard of anything like it in my lifetime—an awakening that literally shook a city. Paul was there, so many of our folks were there. It was just an incredible visitation of the Lord that is continuing as a result of what happened there. So I want to encourage you to pray over this; if you can go, that would be really cool, and let’s just watch and see what Jesus does.
All right? Are you all ready to go? Say yes! Don’t lie to me; if you have to, just tell me you’re ready! Okay! What we’re going to do today is, I started three weeks ago with a series on the Kingdom of Abundance, and it is in my heart for us to approach this subject and learn the heart of God regarding our resources, regarding finances, regarding money, possessions— all of that in general. We’ve done three weeks already—two weeks; this will be the third week, and I’m going to try to cram two more weeks into one, so if you leave confused, just thank me later! That’s all I can say—thank me later!
I want to talk to you about different aspects of finances, and here’s why: I believe that the Lord is positioning the church to do what He commissioned on day one, and that was to disciple nations. I don’t believe it’s possible to disciple nations effectively and adequately until we have the issues of finances, money, resources, income, and status in life held firmly in place, because we are supposed to model, illustrate, and welcome people into the blessing of a perfect Father. I don’t like the exaggeration or the extreme in this area that equates spirituality with wealth. I don’t like that. I don’t like materialism being the ultimate illustration of spirituality. I don’t like that. I think it’s a horrible counterfeit, but I also don’t like poverty being held up as a standard of spirituality. Both are deceptions. Eric uses a phrase, „staying in your lane“, that I have been using as well of late. It basically means you have a place and a role in life, and when we compare ourselves with people in other places of life, we either feel superior in a wrong way or inferior in a wrong way. The Lord is not into comparison; He’s into bringing us into true faithfulness and true fulfillment of divine assignment in where He’s placed us.
For example, what does that look like? If you are Joseph in prison, the abundance of the blessing of the Lord is not in a palace; it’s not in the finest chariot. It is the fact that he is chief among all prisoners, that the Lord promoted him into a place of abundance so that everybody around him benefited—that’s the purpose of favor. Favor always equips me to be a blessing, to supply favor to those that are under my influence. In the Old Testament, there’s no question that the blessing of the Lord was identified through wealth. You’ll see it in Abraham’s life; you see it in David, in Solomon. You see it in so many of the great leaders of the people of God in the Old Testament. The favor of God was measured by wealth. The Lord would work on people in an external way, supplying for them extremely, hoping to change and transform their hearts. The external blessing was to lead them to the favor of a Father that would complete them and make them whole, filled with purpose in their lives.
In the New Testament, Jesus takes the opposite approach. He looks for the bounty of the heart, wanting the bounty of the heart actually to affect the external. So it’s the opposite. In the Old Testament, it’s external blessing hoping to touch and change and help the people of God to draw near with thankfulness and devotion, but in the New Testament, Jesus is after the prosperity of the soul. Third John, verse two: „That you would prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers.“
What does it look like to have a prosperous soul? It means that you are emotionally healthy; you are not vulnerable to someone who doesn’t like you, causing you to go into depression. That doesn’t take place when you’re healthy in your soul. It doesn’t mean you enjoy every moment, but you are able to navigate adverse winds and make advancement in life. Much like a sailor in a sailboat will adjust the sail and the rudder, to sail against adverse winds, the Lord is building a strength in the hearts of His people to actually be prosperous in soul. It means you are emotionally healthy; it means that anybody could walk into the room from your past, and there would be no regret, no shame—none of that crippling stuff that sometimes takes days to crawl out of. But because we know what forgiveness is, we know what a healthy soul looks like, we can be confronted with any part of our past and come out with the blessing and the bounty and the favor of the Lord.
What does it look like to have bounty in our souls? In our intellect, it means that instead of anxiety and resentment taking root, we actually remain a creative expression of God in the earth. As soon as I become anxious over details of my life, as soon as I become worried and fearful over situations, as soon as I begin to entertain resentment, I lose my creative edge. The enemy fears an accurate expression of who our God is as a creator through His people that are free to think from a place of abundance and divine health. The Lord would express His nature into culture, into society through people that are healed in their hearts and healed in their minds—whole in those places of the soul.
Now, from God’s perspective in the New Testament, He wants us bountiful here, but then He says, „May you prosper and be in good health.“ In other words, what’s going on inside of you? Let it shape your physical health. Let it shape your emotional, your mental health, but also let it shape your finances, your financial world. The theme that we’ve had for this series has been found in 2 Corinthians 9, and I’ll just read it to you: „And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.“
Several weeks ago, we were presented with a need. Michael and Chandler represented a need to us from one of our missionary families that is in a part of the world we aren’t able to discuss. Their vehicle was blown up—destroyed, seriously damaged—through a terrorist bomb. When that need was presented, you guys responded very powerfully. We got $34,000 very quickly to help them get another car. It’s wonderful, but I also know that in situations like that, I’ve been faced with them through the years as you have. Some of you, I know, were not able to do anything to help. What this is talking about—it’s abundance in life for every good work. In other words, if you find yourself in a place where maybe there’s a demand on just your emotional energy to pour into somebody, but there’s such bounty there, you’re able to serve with health. Maybe it’s a need, as was mentioned a few weeks ago, for a missionary whose car was blown up, and you want to be able to do something—it’s being able to write the check, being able to make the deposit. Why? Because the abundance of the Lord has made it possible for us to be involved in every good work that He has assigned to us. In other words, we would never fall short. Why? Because of abundance. Abundance is the nature of the kingdom; there is no lack there.
When we pray, „On earth as it is in heaven,“ it’s as real for our financial life as it is for our health, as it is for ministry, being able to bring healing to people that are afflicted and tormented. Every area of life comes under the influence of His world invading this one. It’s the backbone of our prayer, and if we carry with us illegal ways of thinking regarding money and resources, then we actually never are able to fulfill our purpose in life because our purpose in life is to be measured with abundance for the lane that He’s put us in.
So that there’s always sufficiency not only for ourselves but also for every good work. When I look at the area of finances, I’ve got two ambitions in this particular series. The one obvious is the most obvious: I want everyone in here to just be blessed—be blessed ridiculously! I want everyone—I’ve told you before I want everyone to be able to own their own home outright. I want us to use the resources that God supplies for us to shape the course of history! That’s what I like; that’s what I do with my money.
Benny and I have never given as low as 20% of our income; we always have given far more. In fact, my grandpa was funny—we would go out to eat, and he was a salt lover, so he would salt his food. I learned from him, so all you medical people, forgive me for a moment. He would take the salt shaker and pour salt on his meal. If it just didn’t give much flavor, he would shake and shake and shake and put it down frustrated. I remember as a little kid watching him do this, and he would put it down frustrated and say, „Oh, it’s a tither.“ So I asked him one day at dinner, „Grandpa, what do you mean it’s a tither?“ He said, „Oh, it only gives what it has to.“
So we were raised in an environment where the tithe is paying your rent for living on His planet, breathing His air, and that was our approach. I believe that very strongly. The tithe was not from the law; the tithe was from the father of faith, Abraham, ratified by the law later and ratified by Jesus. The early church fathers dealt with that last week.
This week, I want to talk to you about the role we have of being blessed. Number one, you owe the world around you an example of being blessed, but number two, here’s where my heart really—not heavy; that would be the wrong word—but very sensitive, very much alert because I can sense the growing weightiness of the call of God upon the church to disciple nations. To be really honest with you, if the average church’s culture were transferred to a political office, or to IBM, or Apple Computer, or to the local school system, Apple would go bankrupt within a few months.
I mean, they wouldn’t be able to maintain through the culture that exists and defines life in most churches—not because it doesn’t work in the church, but just because it’s not kingdom. When it is truly kingdom culture, it’s His reality affecting how we think, what we value, the decisions we make, the relational parameters that we live by. When it’s kingdom, it is transferable to every part of society. You can take it from church life and put it in a political office; that political office will thrive. You put it into a business; the business will thrive because it’s kingdom. Everyone wants a king like Jesus. The scripture says that Jesus is the desire of the nations.
Let’s rephrase it: Jesus, the King of all kings, is the desire of the nations. Everybody longs for a king like Jesus. Why? Because we all long to live under the supervision, the rule, the reign of such a gracious Father—a wonderful Father—and that is the passion of the Lord. So we have a responsibility. There are two great commissions that we see in the gospels: one is to make disciples out of individuals and nations, but the other is to actually disciple a nation, and we cannot disciple a nation without getting our act together in our approach to money. Amen?
All right, so there are four things that stand out to me about money that we need to understand and have down. The first one has to do with generosity; the second one is contentment; the third one is excellence in purchasing; and the fourth one is investment for the purpose of increase. Those are worthy of four different weeks that we’re not going to do, but I’m going to try to touch on each one briefly.
Generosity has three main focuses that I see in Scripture and have found in my own life. Number one, generosity is for the advancement of the ministry of the gospel. We sow—whether it be the tithe, offerings, missions. It’s my passion that everyone who calls Bethel home supports world missions every month. I don’t care if it’s a dollar a month. Consistency is what I’m after because you’ll pray for what you give to. If you can’t go, then send—that’s the way the kingdom works.
So we’re involved with people from whom we don’t benefit immediately. In other words, there’s not a gift that we somehow benefit because there’s a pastor on staff that can comfort us and take care of us. It’s for another people group—world missions is a huge part; it’s been a huge part of my life as long as I can remember.
The second area of generosity—the first is to expand the ministry of the gospel to support the ministry of the gospel; the second is to meet human need. Most often, you’ll see Jesus talk to someone, „Sell what you have and give to the poor.“ It’s taking care of people who cannot help themselves. Don’t get into the political spirit regarding those who are in need because it will make you want to punish people who are in lack, and punishment doesn’t fix the problem.
We have some things going on in our city right now that are really stunning. I forget the numbers now, but several hundred people who have been homeless are now working and holding down jobs in their own homes and apartments. It’s a discipling process that one of the ministries in town is doing: so successful, so profound. You cannot fix poverty; you can’t fix poverty or homelessness by throwing money at the problem. You also can’t fix the problem without throwing money at it. It takes more than that. It actually takes friendship; it takes discipling, loving, nurturing care to help fix this issue.
So let’s get back to the issue here. In the area of generosity, we have three categories: one is the expansion of the ministry of the gospel, number one; number two is to meet human need—it may be caring for the poor; it could also be a donation for cancer research—it could be what Bill Gates is doing to try to eradicate malaria from Africa: stunning, stunning use of his resources. I love hearing these stories. By the way, have you ever seen a need and wished some wealthy person would take care of it? Has anybody else done that besides me? Be honest with me now! Yeah, so become the wealthy person and fix it. That felt good to say right there! I feel a whole lot better now.
All right, so we’ve got generosity, expansion of the Kingdom, human need. The third one is the rarest, and it is the gift to give honor. Do you remember when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon and to hear of his wisdom? She brought an extraordinary gift to him. How many of you know Solomon was not hurting? He wasn’t sending out a mission support letter for his next expansion of the kingdom. What she did is she brought him something that represented who she was, acknowledging who he was. It’s the rarest kind of giving there is. It says of Solomon, when the Queen of Sheba left to go back to her place, he gave her an extraordinary gift. Here’s the phrase: he gave to her according to his royal generosity. In other words, because he was a king, his gift needed to represent who he was, and the gift needed to identify who the gift was for. Does that make sense to you? It had to come from who he was.
There’s a story of Alexander the Great who gave a gift to a poor man at the gate of a city, and he gave him, I forget, three or five gold coins. His assistant said, „You could have met his need with five copper coins.“ And he basically said, „Yeah, but it’s five gold coins that speak of who I am.“ In other words, I’m giving out of my identity.
The point I’m trying to make is that in generosity, when it comes to honor, royal generosity is the heart of it. Let me rephrase it: the more we understand who we are as kings and priests, the more natural it will be to give out of honor. Now, I cannot benefit from what I just said, so don’t you dare bring anything to me because I will reject it. I’m serious. I’m very serious. I have to have the liberty to exhort and encourage in the context of honor.
I travel almost half the year, and I’m with my dear friend Randy Clark. I feel like I owe him my life in many ways, and I’m with him at eight different events every year. Whenever there’s an offering, I give—not to meet human need, although I’m sure it helps; I give a generous offering. I don’t think I ever miss a service with an offering—20 plus a year sowing into out of completely out of honor because of how the Lord used that man to release something into this church.
He came here in 1997; we were having miracles weekly since he came here. It’s been miracles daily. Something was released that we had never seen before. I’ve never even talked to him about it; I’ve never written him a note saying, „Look at what I’m doing.“ I just give in the offering. That’s what I do, but there’s that sense of honor. I have the incredible privilege, out of the royalty that God has called each of us to, to give out of that—to bring honor where it’s due. This is a huge part of life for us; it’s a huge part of life in the kingdom—to give out of honor.
Now let me get back to the four areas. You still confused? Everybody say yes. Good! All right, so the first one is generosity. The second one is contentment. Paul said, „I’ve learned how to be content. I’ve learned how to thrive in lack and in abundance.“ It’s in Philippians 4:11 and 12; he says, „I’ve learned the secret of being content in lack and thriving in abundance. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.“
Here’s the deal: if I do not rely on the strength of the Lord when I have more than enough, then I have most likely tasted the most I can handle. If my dependence lessens when my resources increase, then I’ve chosen where to level off. Paul said, „I’ve learned in lack and in abundance—in both those realms, it’s His strength who strengthens me.“ All of us know we need help when we’re in lack, but rarely do people realize they need just as much help, if not more, when there’s abundance. It’s the dependency on the Lord for increase.
By the way, we have to shed the lottery mentality that some incredible thing will happen so that we can now be blessed for the rest of our life, instead of realizing the process that He uses to bring increase. Wisdom is gained through process.
So we’ve got these four areas: we’ve got generosity, contentment. We have the third area which was excellence in purchasing. I was raised to always— we didn’t have tons of money growing up, but I was always raised that you always bought well. But I remember when I was on my own after Benny and I got married, I would buy some things that were just really cheap because I thought that was humility. But when you buy cheap, you usually have to buy again and again and again. Stupid wins: stupid wins when you buy cheap.
How many of you know what I’m talking about here? I would try to save. Every time I did that, it would backfire on me. It was like the Lord was reminding me of how I was raised and what was important to Him. What I don’t want to do is make this about materialism, but I do want to say, what would it be like for your neighbors to witness your stewardship of your car? The fact that you take care of it, your yard? It’s how you talk, it’s your language, it’s the way you present yourself.
It’s the fact that we are stewards of another world through all these expressions of life, and none of them are to be cheap. I understand economic standards are different. I’m not talking about everybody driving a Mercedes or something; that’s not the point. The point is that we care enough to think through the procedure: what is my lane? What is the best I’m capable of doing to represent what kind of Father I have? Because here’s the deal: when my kids were young, if I came dressed nicely, wearing my suit or whatever, and God forbid, if I came wearing my suit and my wife was in rags, my children in rags, you would have reason to question my spirituality. You have reason to question it. Why? Because my taking care of myself doesn’t reflect my heart; it’s how I take care of them that reflects my heart.
We actually represent the Lord through how we do work. How is the excellence of our labor? The scripture says, „He who does excellent work will stand before kings.“ In other words, the quality of what you are responsible for—the better you do with what God’s given you responsibility for, the more likely He will cause you to have influence outside of your natural circle of influence. He longs to put us in that place of ever-increasing influence because of the value of excellence.
Excellence isn’t just in waxing a car; it’s just the way we do life in general. It’s the fact that we are always trying to increase our abilities. Some of you—there are some people in this room, for example, you have such a natural musical gift that you don’t have to work at it, you’ll always be better than everybody around you. But we’ll never know what you could have been because there’s been no work.
So good! See, if the goal is comparison, then many will always stay better than their friends, but we’ll never know what could have happened through the effort to increase the expression of excellence in that area of gifting. It includes money, but it is personal talents, insights, revelation, friendships, family—it’s how we do life with people. It’s the fact that we steward relationships well; that we consider ourselves to be ones who can inspire and encourage and strengthen people around us.
That we can help to bring out greatness in them; that we give ourselves to not only living excellently, but believing in the excellence, the potential of the people around us, and giving ourselves. It includes money, but it’s never been about money. It’s always been about this prosperity of soul that is safe enough, happy in our skin enough to serve somebody else.
The scripture says that when Jesus, knowing He was conscious of where He had come from—He had come from the Father and was about to return, and He was aware that everything that existed had been handed to Him as an inheritance. When He realized this moment is when He served: stooped and washed the disciples' feet. The point is, when you know who you are, there is no position too low. It’s when you don’t know who you are that you fight for status, applause, and recognition. It’s a sign of insecurity. When you need the applause of another group of people who usually seek it, they are looking for identity and are trying to find it in the opinions of others.
I think the applause from people when you’ve done something well is wonderful, but it supplements; it’s not the meal. The meal is what the Father says about you. Wow, so good!
So we’ve got these four areas: generosity, contentment. The fact that you don’t have to have what your neighbor has to feel happy with life—delight in life—just because you’re forgiven. What happens is the Lord expands our capacity to rule. Interestingly, the word proverb, Brian Simmons does this in his introduction to the book of Proverbs in the Passion Translation—the word proverb means to rule or to reign. Wisdom, by nature, is to equip the people of God to reign in life—not to reign over people, but to reign in life.
In other words, money doesn’t rule you: you rule money. Relationships don’t control you. If somebody has a bad opinion about you, you’re not depressed for days. That doesn’t happen. Why? Because you’re reigning in life. You’re managing relationships for the glory of God, for the strength of the people around you, using the favor God has given you so that everybody around you gets to benefit from who you are. This is the abundance of the Christian life that God has called us into.
So we’ve got this fourth area, and it’s an area I don’t have expertise in. I know a lot about generosity and some of the other things, but this one is the whole point: it is investment for the purpose of increase. There are 38 parables in the Bible; 16 of them, Jesus talked in these parables about money or possessions. It was on His mind! When He sat in the temple, He watched the gifts that people were giving—He was moved by the widow’s might. In fact, you see Jesus moved by three occasions especially in the Bible: a widow who gave all she had compared to the religious leaders pouring in great amounts of money; we also see Him rocked by a wealthy woman who took a year’s worth of wages in ointment and poured it over Him as an act of worship. And the third time He was rocked was by the faith of a centurion—a Roman soldier that didn’t even need Jesus to come to his house. He said, „You just say the word; I know my servant will be healed.“
He was so moved by these situations, and two of them were generosity situations—not measured by amounts, but measured by heart. It is the fact that what was given moved the person; if what I give doesn’t move me, it won’t move Him. Wow!
In two of the parables—the parable of the miners and the parable of the talents—both were sums of money, and the landowner would give these sums of money to his servants, and they were to invest and to work with that money to bring Him increase. God is the landowner, and He’s constantly looking for increase.
The person you don’t want to be in the story is the guy who didn’t bring increase. He just protected what he was given and returned it to the master. That’s the guy you don’t want to be—the guy who sets up his life to live without risk, without positioning himself for advancement, is the person you don’t want to be, because God is interested in advancement, increase.
This has to become more ingrained in us in how we think, how we live, how we pray, how we act. He’s always looking for increase! And of the increase of His government, there will be no end. He takes us from glory to glory. He is a God of constant progression, of forward motion.
The armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6 has no armor on the person’s back. The armor is on the head, on the chest, on the legs, on the feet—the sword. It’s always about forward motion. It doesn’t mean we don’t ever have seasons where we stand firm and we’re just doing everything we can just to stand, but the point is I’m facing the right direction. I’m facing the right direction, and I’m positioning myself for the increase, for the forward motion.
I believe that not only is everyone here to be able to own a home and have it paid for, but I believe the Lord would give us wisdom for advancement of resources. Why? So that we have an abundance for every good work. I mean, we just did this thing to help our police department. We just gave $500,000 as a ministry to help our local police. They were having to lay off some policemen over the next few years, and we just gave $500,000. But they needed $1.2 million—something like that! That’s nice. We could do the five, but I’d rather have done the 1.2, do you get what I’m saying? It’s like there are other needs. How about having an abundance for every good work?
So good! See, I believe you get to benefit from the abundance. I think the proper stewardship of possessions is important. I think it illustrates our value as stewards of what He owns. I think it’s important, but I think positioning ourselves for increase to where there are multiple streams of income for every household is the heart of the Lord. I do—I don’t like the message that equates materialism with spirituality. I don’t like that because it’s not true, but I don’t like the reaction to it either. I like the thought of you being able to walk by the guy at Safeway that needs a meal or a home and being able to make a difference.
Our interaction with crisis and need doesn’t mean that I or you are always the answer to everything—the cure-all to everything—but it does mean that God is positioning us as royalty. Royalty serves with the heart of a king and rules with the heart of a servant: the capacity to draw on the resources of our almighty God, the Father of all, to serve effectively and bring about change and transformation in people’s lives. This is who we are. This is the purpose of resource.
Psalm 67 is a prayer for blessing, and it says, „God bless me, cause your face to shine upon me"—that face of favor—that your way would be known in the earth and your salvation to the nations. Think through the prayer: God bless me, cause me to abound in every way. David prayed this prayer: he said, «Deal with your servant bountifully that I can live and keep your word.» In other words, I will not be able to fulfill my purpose in life if you don’t pour bounty on me.
It’s a very legitimate prayer to come before the Father and say, «God, you’ve put way too much in my heart for me to be happy with the way things are. You’ve got to bring increase! You’ve got to give me the wisdom I need to be married to the divine process for increase!» I’ll drink to that!
I started to quote a verse I forgot which one I was quoting. Oh! Psalm 67, thank you! So here’s this prayer: God bless me, cause your face to shine upon me, because I want them to know what you’re like and I want evangelism. I want the power of revival. I want an awakening to shake the cities and nations around me because of the blessing of the Lord upon the people of God. It’s you reigning in life that is your greatest witness to your neighbor or the person you work with.
Now the scripture says in Deuteronomy 8:18 that God has given us the power to create wealth. Think about the phrase: God has given us power—divine enablement to create wealth. That’s not lottery; that’s through labor that He breathes on investment; that He breathes on—we’re able to cause a process to take place where there’s increase for every household. He says, «I gave you the power to make wealth.»
And here’s the next phrase, «To confirm my covenant with you.» What does that mean? It means the way you handle resource and are able to bring increase—to benefit everybody around you—but the very grace of God on our lives to bring that increase actually shouts to the people around us, the cities and the nations, that we are covenant people together and with God, and He is one who keeps promises and enables us to be a gift and a blessing to the people around us.
I want you to stand; I’m going to close with one passage. I was going to have us read this earlier, but I just got to talking. One of the most moving chapters for me in the Bible is Isaiah chapter 60 where He says, «Arise, shine, for your light has come; the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.» That verse is a New Testament prophecy. It’s a prophecy for right now. How do we know? Because He says, «Your light has come.»
John chapter 1 gives us the fulfillment of that word, saying Jesus is the light that has come into the world to enlighten every person that comes into the world—there’s not another light coming. Yes, Jesus is the light that is being prophesied. So when He says, «Arise, shine, for your light has come; and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you,» He moves on: deep darkness covers the earth, deep darkness the people, but His light and glory will be seen upon you.
Then He gets more deeply into this word. He said, «Nations will come to your light» —you who are supposed to disciple nations will come to your light—and kings to the brightness of your rising. Then He moves into this: «You will see the sons and daughters coming"—the harvest, the conversion of the masses. «You will see, be radiant; your heart will tremble and be enlarged because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, and the wealth of the Gentiles or the wealth of the nations will be turned to you.»
It’s an unusual prophetic passage that’s not to give us permission to build personal empires; it’s because He trusts us because we think differently. We think to use who we are and what we have for the betterment of the cities and the nations around us. With that favor, we use favor so that others can prosper and be blessed.
So I want you to put your hands in front of you. I want to just pray for you. I feel like we’re supposed to seal this with a prayer of blessing, and then we’ll wrap this up.
So Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your promise. I thank you that you are the God of more than enough. I thank you that you have purposed to reveal your nature in how we live, how we think, how we talk, how we act. I do pray Psalm 67 over this house once again—that you would bless us, cause your face to shine upon us—that Reading, Shasta County, California, the United States, the nations of the world would see what you’re like and salvation would truly come to the nations because of your bounty, your blessing.
Lord, I do pray for the word that you gave us years ago of a benevolence movement coming out of California. God, I pray that Reading would be in the thick of that benevolence movement to impact the course of history for cities and nations around the world.
We look to you for what we cannot do for ourselves, but I do pray for an unusual wisdom as it comes to finances, an unusual wisdom, an unusually large heart in this area I pray in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen, amen!