Creflo Dollar - The Debt That Delivers From All Debt - Part 2
Acts 21:16, Deuteronomy 24:7 make the act of stealing and selling another human being as properly punishable by death. Slave traders, according to the Word of God, were to die for their action. I don't really understand preachers that get up and say, "Oh well, it's fine because in the New Testament it says, 'Servants, be obedient to your masters, obey your masters and give honor unto your...and masters give unto your servants what is equal and just.'" That's found in the New Testament and it was also used to, you know, deceive Black people who were in slavery to say, "Y'all believe in the Bible, so this is what this means". No. No. "Well, you know, the Bible said", well, you remember a guy in Philemon, the book of Philemon.
There was a slave by the name of Onesimus, and he ran away from Philemon and was found with Paul and Paul fell in love with him. And Paul sent a letter to Philemon and said, "I'm just letting you know that Onesimus is with me. He is my son, I have a heart for him, I have loved him, but I don't want to do something that you don't know. So, I'm sending him back to you. Not as a slave, but receive him as a brother". So, even if you say Paul said that, Paul had to grow from that point to develop, to understand, this is wrong. All right, now. Where does that fit then? Why is it in The New Testament? Well, normally that terminology was used to define the boss, employee relationship. And, additionally, just like today it's not unusual for a man to work hard and still find it difficult to make ends meet.
Now, listen to this. For example, at the end of a poor year, if you... say you're farming, at the end of a poor year on the farm, a man might make a deal with a wealthy neighbor who's also a farmer, who has land, to work his field in order to have enough to feed his family through the winter. Now, when a man willingly places himself under the control, the contractual control of another, it is known as indentured service. I'm not being forced into this. I'm making a deal. There's an agreement and a contract, and I'm going to serve or be submitted to you or... indentured slavery is what it was called, be submitted to you until all is paid off. And when it's paid off, I go about my business, you go about your business. It is this voluntary servant, master relationship that existed in the New Testament. So it's today, when he talks about, you know, servants do this and do this, today we become a slave by using our Mastercard.
Alright, now you see where I'm going? Now, you might not see that, but you've entered into an indentured contract. The promise of liberty, somehow you think you have a promise of liberty with a Visa card and it turns into a bondage of a monthly payment. Can I get a witness? If you have indentured yourself voluntarily in a contract, then as a servant, you are to be obedient to your master, whether a man or the bank. You say you're a Christian now? The service you owe to another will prevent you from serving God fully. Yeah, it has. And that's why you can't stand nobody talking about money in the church because you already enslaved.
So, you see giving as a part of that enslavement that you entered into an indentured contract with and now you can't fully serve God. The money you must pay out to bills will prevent you from giving to the work of the Lord because you are a slave to debt in bondage. There were certain things Taffi and I could not do when we first got married because we were a slave to debt. We were a slave to the car note, we were a slave to the house note. We were a slave to the credit cards. We were a slave, and when we first started, to the washing machine and the dryer and the TV, because you know that was a... you remember layaway? We were slaves. So, we were limited in how we could worship God with our finances because if God spoke to give something, fear came up because wait a minute, I have entered into an indentured contract with the Mastercard and I got to pay that or they gonna penalize me and keep penalizing me.
And if I keep ignoring them like I ain't in that contract, I could be picked up by the popo on the way to work one day because I am a voluntary slave to financial debt. And can't nobody do nothing in the ministry 'cause the church can't afford it because everybody in debt. Everybody is under a contract of debt that's called bondage. And so, we took a card, now, watch what happens here. Please remember what I'm saying. Because we love God and we wanted to do for God, we knew we had to get out of this debt. So, we took a card and we put debt free on it and we took one of them big old shopping bags and put the card at the bottom of it. And then we took all of our bills and put it on top of it.
Immediately, God showed up and gave us wisdom on how to do it. He said, "First thing I want you to do is start with the little ones. Pay all the little ones off and then take the money that you was using on the little ones and then take it over there and pay all your credit cards off. And then take the money you use with the little one and the credit cards and use it to pay a car note off, and then use the car note, the money, and the little bit of money and put... in doing the next car note and then take the car note, the car note, and the credit card, and the little bit of money and use it to pay off the house". And we looked up one day and I had my last payment on my house and I wasn't gonna mail that in. I had to walk that in. I had to walk that in. And I walk that in and I walk through the door and I say, "Hello, I am here to pay my house off. Who do I need to see"?
And I thought that was all that was to it, that this whole Romans 13 was about that day of going in and say, "I paid off my final bill". I didn't see that there was a debt that I would never be able to say I paid off. And I wanted to know why. How is it that we are a slave in financial debt and now you saying we got a debt that we ain't never gonna pay off? I looked at this, I wondered about this, I just what the... how many you know one word from God'll change the whole thing, right? Alright, so check this out. The only debt we are to acquire is the love debt. And so, I said, "But wait a minute. I see all of this supernatural debt cancellation in the Bible. I see anointing showing up getting people out of that debt".
And I just prayed over it for a couple of days, looked at it, talked to some folks about it, hear what they had to say to... And I sit in my closet, I believe our closet is anointed. We spend most of our time in our closet. In fact, I have to put two chairs back there. That's where we are most of the time, in our closet. Here's what I heard. The infinite debt of love will release an anointing to cancel the temporary debts of life. Oh my God. The infinite debt of love will release an anointing to cancel the temporary debt of life.
Now, I'm gonna show you three illustrations, and in each of these illustrations, love was being paid and then an anointing was released. Let's start with this one. I'mma read out of NLT in 2 Kings chapter 6. 2 Kings chapter 6, you might wanna see this one. Put it up on the screen. 2 Kings chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. Ooh, Jesus. Everybody on the bus with me now? Because I declare and decree that you are not going to be a slave, financially, in this financial realm. Whatever is getting ready to happen, you will not be a slave to it. God is getting ready to remove and cancel your debt through an anointing that you are going to release by your commitment to pay off this debt of love.
Watch this. Alright, verse 1. "One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, 'As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. So let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.' 'All right,' he told them, 'go ahead.'" And they said, "'Please come with us,' someone suggested. 'I will,' he said. So he went with them. When they arrived at Jordan, they began cutting down trees. But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell in the water".
Now, I can imagine why he was using that ax to cut down tree. I can imagine he was pretending like that was his ax. You know, like we do. We drive a car that we just borrow the money on and we driving it like we own it. And then it fell into the river, and notice what he said, "'Oh, sir!' he cried. 'It was a borrowed ax!'" What was he saying? "Oh my God, this is a borrowed ax. I am now gonna have to be a slave to the guy that owns this ax until I can restore it back to him. I owe him a ax".
Now, watch this. Verse 6, "'Where did it fall?'" Look at this love. Love was there. "'Where did it fall?' And the man of God asked. When he showed him the place," watch this love. "'Where did it fall?' Elisha cut a stick, threw it into the water at that spot". Watch this. "Then the ax head floated to the surface". Then he said, "'Grab it,' and the man reached out and grabbed it," and he was saved from the bondage of servitude. What happened here? There was a man of God here that was concerned and caring and loving and said, "Where did it fall"? Said, "It fell over in the water". He took a stick, threw it where it fell.
Anointing was released because in the natural iron can't swim. So, supernatural was released because there was one prophet here paying a debt of love to a guy who lost the ax. And when he was paying the debt of love to the guy that lost the ax, there was an anointing that was released to take care of this natural situation. Oh, you didn't get that? Let me show you another one 'cause I don't know if you understand how big of a miracle is for iron to swim. That don't happen in the natural. Go home and take some iron and throw it in a pond somewhere near your house and see if it swim.
Why do you think the boats have some of that like that so they can put it out? 'Cause iron don't swim. And there's a lot of things that the world will tell you won't happen, but when this debt of love is being paid, there will be a supernatural anointing that will be released to call things that's not supposed to happen, it's not supposed to happen in the natural. But when this, Lord, calm me down, Lord. Calm me down. Calm me down, Jesus. Oh, Lord have mercy. Let's go to the next one. 2 Kings chapter 4. 'Cause while everybody else trying all these natural ways to try to get out, you getting ready to enter into supernatural ways to get out. Hey, because Galatians 4 refers to you as children of Sarah, or children of the supernatural. And because you are children of the supernatural, it is now time for the children of the supernatural to start walking in the supernatural.
All right, come on. 2 Kings 4, 2 Kings 4, alright. So here's another situation. Verse 1, "One day the widow of a member of the group of the prophets came to Elisha and cried out, 'My husband who served you is dead,'" and he died and he left his family in debt. "'And you know how he feared the Lord. But the creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slave,'" 'cause the debt he left got to be paid. So, if you ain't got no money, you got to agree to enter into indentured servanthood until these debts get taken care of. Next verse. "'What can I do to help you?'" Here's love getting ready to be released. "'What can I do to help you?' Elisha asked". Tell me what to do. Tell me what to do here.
And here he says, "'Tell me, what do you have in the house?'" That's what love does. I wanna help, what you got in your house? Watch this. She said, "'Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil.'" Now, it was a flask of oil. Seems like that would be limited. Elisha said, "All right, here what I want you to do. Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors". Said, "Wait a minute, I'm already in debt, now you send me out to", yeh-heh-heh, "'Then go into your house with your sons, shut the door behind you. Take that flask, pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.' So she did as she was told". Thank God. "Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every container was full to the brim"! She said, "'Bring me another jar,' she said that to one of her sons. He said, 'There aren't any more!'"
They done borrowed every jar in the village, and we weren't told how big the jars were. He told her, "There ain't no more". "And then the olive oil stopped flowing". See, y'all need to get what happened here. There was just a flask of oil. There was just a flask of oil. She got to pouring that oil, and that oil just kept flowing and it kept flowing and it kept flowing until every jar they had borrowed was filled, not halfway, she didn't have to squeeze it out to see if it was coming. When every jar was filled, then the oil stopped flowing. Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo.
Somebody say, "Supernatural". And some of y'all need some supernatural. Some of y'all debt is so big, you need some supernatural. You listen to all the financial expert. That ain't working for you, you need some supernatural. I mean, when you messed up, you really messed up. But I'm telling you, God is getting ready to do something in these last days. He's getting ready to tell, he gonna show your neighbors how good he is to you. Hallelujah. God's getting ready to show out. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready". Alright, now watch this. That's not the end of the story 'cause now she in debt double. And we don't know how much debt her husband left.
But now watch this. "When she told the man of God what had happened," see, the man of God wasn't out there bloating, talking about, "See, now you need to do something for me, 'cause if it wasn't for me", the man of God, he wasn't doing that. Love moved him, not Mammon. Love moved him. Not bragging about how anointed you are, love moved him 'cause no man can do this. "When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, 'Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts.'" That woman didn't sit there and say, "Well, who am I gonna I sell it to? How I know they gonna buy it"? You know how we do. "What to sell it for"?
"Well, the market said that that won't work". "Dow Jones said, you know, ain't nobody buying no oil these days". Honey, when God tell you to sell something, he know how to put it in the hearts of everybody that wanna buy it. You don't need to worry about the market, God knows about the market. God can change the market around in one day. Hey, glory to God. Hey. And all of a sudden, everybody gonna want some oil. He said, "'Now sell the olive oil, pay your debts,'" now, watch this, "'and you and your sons can live on what is left over.'" I don't think y'all understand. I don't think you understand. She made enough money, not only to pay her debts off, but for her and her son to live the rest of their lives.