Jentezen Franklin - God Will Provide For You
Today, I want to speak to you about how God wants to provide for you. Specifically, I want to use the Old Testament pattern of how God dealt with the children of Israel. There were four ways that He provided for them that He will provide for you in this time that I'm speaking in your life. The first way that God provides for His people, number one, is through the hand of man.
In Genesis 45, we're told the story of Joseph and his brothers come from a foreign land. They are in a famine. And Joseph says to them, "Don't be afraid. God sent me before you into this land so that I could with my own hands take care of you and give you food in your famine. I'll feed you with my hands," Joseph said to those brothers who had done him so wrong.
The first way that God provides is through the hand of man. And don't be fussy about how God does it. Don't say who He can use and who He can't use. God used Pharaoh to provide for Joseph. And Joseph was used to provide for his family. And God, when He's going to bless you, will use the hand of man. That's why Luke 6:38 is so powerful. "Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give into your bosom".
Notice that men, it'll come from the hands of men. They'll give into your bosom. But the first part is on you. When He said give. As long as you give, God will make sure that there are men who give into your bosom. I've told the story many times of how God will use the hand of man, and I love this old story. My daddy used to tell it. That's how old it is. And I knew the punch line and I'd still enjoy it. But he said that there was a widow woman and she didn't have much, an elderly woman. And she was living in her home and she didn't have anything but peanut butter and jelly. And she got to praying, "O God, I'm hungry. Would You send me a loaf of bread"? And she got to praying fervently and prayed out loud. "O God, would You send me a loaf of bread"?
And she said that she kept praying and her neighbor happened to hear her through the window as she was crying out to God. And he was an atheist. He didn't believe in God. And he got tired of hearing her pray to a God that wasn't real and he climbed up on the roof and he dropped a loaf of bread down her chimney. And oh, when the bread came right down the chimney, she started shouting, "Hallelujah. God has given me a loaf of bread for my peanut butter and jelly".
And then he went over to rain on her party. He knocked on the door. And when she opened the door, he said, "Why are you making so much noise"? And she said, "God just gave me a loaf of bread". He said, "Lady, God did not give you that loaf of bread. I heard you praying. I climbed up on the ceiling and I dropped the loaf of bread through your chimney. God didn't have anything to do with it". Then she really started shouting. And he said, "I don't understand. What is your problem"? She said, "God gave me a loaf of bread and He used the devil to deliver it".
It's still funny, isn't it? God will provide through the hand of man. And don't you ever forget it. And don't say it has to be this kind of man or that kind of man. God can use anybody, anywhere, anytime to bless you and to meet your needs. Now, here's the big point with this. God will not let you depend on any one individual too long. Be careful if you start depending on one individual too long because God wants you to understand that that person is being used. God calls them to give into your bosom and your seed calls them to give, but they are not your source. God is your source.
The second way that God will provide for you is not only through the hand of men, but secondly, through the hand of God. Supernatural blessings from His own hand. You see, after Joseph had provided for 70 years for his family, the Bible said there arose another pharaoh who knew not Joseph nor his God and he cut all the food off. And suddenly, the hand of man that they had been looking to feed them, God severed it. God broke the link and now they had to believe for God to send the resources. And the Bible said in Numbers that God rained down manna from heaven and began to feed the children of Israel. He supernaturally, like the dew coming down every morning, there was just enough food for one day's supply of every household. And God, by His own hand, fed them.
I want you to understand that God broke the link and He said, "You've been depending on that man's hand, but now I want to show you that sometimes I'll supply your need, not by man's hand. As a matter of fact, I'll even sever", and if you have been depending on somebody's hand that has been blessing you, maybe even an employer's hand, and that relationship has been severed, don't you become afraid and fearful because that man's hand is not your source. God's hand is your source. And God will break your link with any hand other than His hand.
Jesus said in John 15, "Without Me, you can do nothing. I am the vine and you are the branches, and without Me, unless you're connected to Me, you will not produce fruit". Paul put it like this, "My dependency is upon Thee". This is called forced dependency. And to be honest, my ego hates it. My ego hates depending on God. I love to be so blessed that I can pray light prayers and I don't have to really need anything from God. But God is not an American and He's not into you being independent. Americans are independent and all that. But God is not into that. He's into dependency. And He's into you always needing Him more and more and more.
And so all along, He'll come along and He will put you in a place of transition. He will turn your life around. He'll rock your boat. And I want a system that I'm going to pray lightly and it'll always come in. And God sometimes will break that link. But when He does, get ready that you're moving from man's hand to God's hand. The brook that fed Elijah during the famine was the system, but God was the source. The raven, for a while, was the system, but God was the source. And the system may change, but God is your source.
And so the way that God provides is through His own hand. And when He does it, according to Exodus 16:14, they said, "What is this"? When He sent the manna, they said, "What is this"? It takes a while to know God's ways. It takes a while to figure out. Some of you want to be instant successes, but the truth is sometimes God has to reposition you and you're used to getting it from one way, from one source, and then God comes and says, "I'm about to reposition you and if you'll trust Me and if you'll obey Me in these transitions, I'll bless you even more".
See, we always want it one way and if we lose our job or something happens, we freak out and we don't trust God like we ought to trust God. And the truth is, when He sent the manna, the Bible said, if you read it, it's an interesting text. It said that if you had a household of two, that He would send, basically, if you study it out, it's two quarts of manna every morning, enough to feed per person, so that would be four quarts of manna for a man and his wife. But maybe the house next door had six people. Well, God would increase the manna for that house. So it wasn't equal what He gave each house. It was according to how many people were in their house, that God provided exactly what they needed. They couldn't store it up.
The next day, which, by the way, when the cloud moved, it wasn't that they were so spiritual. They understood, "If we don't stay under the cloud, we don't have any food tomorrow".
Now, here's the point. God says, "I'm about to give you bread from heaven, but I don't give the same amount to everybody. I'll give and I'll prosper you according to the size of your assignment". If your assignment is two people, He'll give you enough for two people. If your assignment is six people, He'll give you enough for six people. If the assignment of this church was 100 people at one time and God gave enough for 100 people. And then we grew to 300 people and God gave enough for 300 people. Then we grew to thousands of people and God says, "I give you My provision according to the size of your assignment. And if you're faithful with what I give you when I give it to you, I'll increase you more and more and more," by the hand of God.
I want to remind somebody today that if man's hand is no longer blessing you, that you have the hand of God also that will bless you. Philippians 4:19. We are so used to quoting that, "But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus," but wait a minute. Stop the train. You need to back up and go all the way up to who he was talking to. And he said, "You Philippians became my partners in giving time and again". Then he says, "Therefore, my God will supply all your needs". So He promises, God promises that if you are a giver, if you are a generous person to the kingdom and the work of God, "I will supply. By My hand, I will supply all your needs according to My riches in glory".
The third way that God provides... Everybody say, "God'll provide by the hand of man, the hand of God," and now the hand that is your very own, your own hand. You see, Joshua 5 said, "And the manna ceased," 5:12 I think it is, said, "And the manna ceased". Oh, my God. It's time to panic. After 40 years of every day the manna, and then it ceased. What is God going to do now? God said, "I'm changing you. I'm repositioning you again. I'm getting ready to bless you again. And you like for everything to stay the same. You would have never left that other job that you were so I know what I'm doing in your life and if you'll trust Me and honor Me with your tithe and give unto Me and make Me first in your life in every area, I'll lead you from glory unto glory, faith unto faith, victory unto victory. I'll bless you more and more. I'll increase you more and more.
And now I'm about to move you from the hand of man and the hand of God, miracle after miracle after miracle. But at some point, you need to stop living off miracles". And then He says, "I'll bless you from your own hand". The manna ceased and God said, "I'm about to transition you". And I want you to look at Deuteronomy 11:9. He said, "I'm taking you into a land that is flowing with milk and honey". And the next verse says this, He says, "But the land that you're about to go into is not like the land of Egypt that you have come from where you sowed your seed," and a strange little phrase right here, "and watered by foot, as a vegetable garden".
That is a direct reference to the foot pumps that they had to set up in Egypt just to get a tiny little harvest, just to get some little plant to come out of the ground. They had to irrigate from the Nile River and they used foot pumps and they would get just, eek out just enough water to grow just enough food to barely get by and eek by. And God said, "Where I'm taking you, I'm moving you off the foot pump and into a land that is flowing. I don't want you just scratching by, I don't want you just scraping by, I don't want you just eking by. I want you off the foot pump and I want to take you to a land, a place, a position in life where the blessings are flowing like milk and honey. I'm taking you to a land that flows. You're coming off the pump and into the flow".
The goodness of the Lord is about to flow into your life, whether you're on the valley or whether you're on the mountain. He even said at the beginning of the year to the end of the year, "I'm going to take care of you". He told 'em that in Deuteronomy. Read it. Deuteronomy 11. When you have an Egyptian mentality, you're always praying SOS prayers financially. "O God, help us. O God, help us. We need a miracle. We need a miracle. We need a miracle. We need the money". You're always praying 911 prayers. You're always in a crisis, going from a crisis into a crisis. But God says, "I want you to begin to walk into the divine flow of My blessings. I'm tired of you being on the foot pump. I want you to have a land that is flowing with milk and honey".
And listen, if you're not there yet, there's no shame in that. That's why you're in church. You're getting faith, even by the word coming into your life, that there's a better land coming in your life. You may be on the foot pump right now, but God's ultimate will is that you be in a land that's flowing with milk and honey. Somebody give God a shout if you believe that He will bless you. He's no respecter of persons. None. But God says, "This part", The manna has ceased. This is going to require you to sow. Did you read it?
"This is going to require you to work the field. This is going to require you to do something. It's going to involve you. Up to this point, you've been living off of man, the hand of man; you've been living off the hand of God. But now I'm ready to bless your gifts. I'm ready to bless your abilities. I'm ready for you to begin to excel with things that I have equipped you to do and your gift will make room for you and you're going to begin to flow in the gift that I've given you, the set of strategies and abilities that I've given you and I'm going to bless you. I'm going to involve you".
God wants something better for you than praying emergency financial prayers all the time. It begins to flow into your life. If you can do it, God won't do it for you. The manna ceased and God said, "I'm not sending any more. If you want a harvest, start sowing and using your own hands and working". Isn't that something? "Grow up. I'll meet your needs. But you need to find your purpose in the kingdom. You need to find your gifts and put 'em to work. You need to get off your blessed assurance and do something and work. And if you will do it, I'll begin to bless you by your own hands and you'll begin to move beyond crisis all the time".
Now God's involving you. You're not going to be one step away from the creditors all the time. But you have skill sets, you have strengths that you don't even know. You have things in you that you're not even aware of. When God called me to preach, if you would have told me that I could write books, I would have laughed at you; that one day I would write books and people would actually read those books and buy those books. My English teacher would have told you, "You are crazy". But I had stuff in me that I didn't know I had in me.
When I was learning to play that little saxophone in the 12th grade, I remember my first recital. I played "Go Tell It On The Mountain". And it would squeak. And I never dreamed that that horn would make me money. Oh come on, somebody. You don't understand the strengths and assets that you have that God has put in you. And when you give Him everything, He says, "Uh-oh. I'm going to bless that set of gifts and abilities and skillsets that I've given you". And by your own hand, you're gonna begin to flow in the blessings of God.
But here's the last one: God will provide for you by the hand of your enemy. "Now Pastor, are you serious"? Serious as a heart attack. I'm very serious. Twelve went into the promised land, ten came back saying the giants are too big. But two came back and they said, "Our God is able". And somebody brought up the giants, and in Numbers, it said, they spoke up and they said, "Those giants are bread for us". Isn't that amazing? God'll provide for you through your enemies. God said, "They're bread for you". What does that mean? God will feed you through the hand of your enemy. You'll get to the place that you feed off of the attacks that the enemy throws at you. And instead of discouraging you, it makes you even more steadfast and determined to do the will of God. You begin to feed off the attacks.
You almost get an attitude of "bring it on. Is that all you've got? Is that the best you can do"? I'm not groaning. I'm growing in God. Satanic attack is actually a sign that you have become a high value target in the kingdom. And when the enemy targets you and your family, it's a sign you're a high value target, an HVT. Osama Bin Laden was an HVT. They watched him. They found out he was in Pakistan and they watched the carriers going in there. They had, I read a thing the other day. They had 3.000 people watching that compound because he was a high value target.
And I want you to know devils and demons have noticed you and your family. They've noticed these families that stood on this platform and the curse is broken and the blood of Jesus and the blessing of God is upon their life. You're a high value target now, so don't expect the devil to celebrate your freedom. It means that you have something worth attacking. When the enemy levels his attack against you, it means two things. Number one, it means you're valuable to God in your assignment. And number two, it means the level of your blessing waiting for you when you get through this attack is beyond anything you can imagine. And that's why the enemy's trying to stop you now.
And in 2 Corinthians 9:10, it says this, "Now He who supplies the seed to the sower, and bread and food and supply, will multiply the seed you have sown". He'll give you and supply a seed, and you can eat the seed or you can hold the seed or you can sow the seed. And He only multiplies the seed that you sow. And what will happen? He "increases the fruits of your righteousness. And while you are enriched". Now, this is so important. "In everything", that's not just spiritual stuff. When you sow, God says, "I'm going to take care of everything with all liberality". God says, "I'm going to really, really, really take care of you". "Which will cause thanksgiving through us to God". But watch this. It doesn't end there. "And by the administration of this service not only supply the needs of you liberally that causes thanksgiving in you," but watch this, "but also will abound through many thanksgiving to God".
That's the power of the exchange. I take what I have in my hand and I release it to God and God multiplies the seed that I sow and it causes me to be so liberally blessed that I have thanksgiving in my heart. And if that wasn't enough, then as I sow, God multiplies the seed sown and it not only provides for me tremendous, but it takes care of others and causes them to be free and them to be blessed and them to be fed for a season until God can get them into the land that's flowing. And they have thanksgiving in their heart to God because of what you did. That is a beautiful exchange, that I can be a part of something so great.