Jentezen Franklin - Right People, Right Place, Right Plan
I want to talk to you about "The right people, the right place, the right plan", and I want you to receive, because I do believe that I have faith for what I'm preaching, that there can be impartation. More than a service, more than a sermon, there can be impartation into your life today. That's really what I feel, so I'm going to share what's on my heart. It is so critical to get the right voices in your life, because if you don't get the right voices, you will not make the right choices.
If you don't understand and make the right connections in life, you will not reach the right destinations. And, everything is connected. You've got to have the right people if you're going to have God's blessing upon your life, because God uses people. Nobody has ever received a check signed Jehovah Jireh. He used somebody. I know God's your source, but he used somebody, God's not running car businesses, he's not running banks and loaning money, he's not, you know, he's not having employment agencies. God has people who are doing that and those people can have a major impact and influence on your life.
All great things flow through relationships. We need to pray for those power relationships in our life. A power relationship is God blessing you for transition. When God wants to transition you from one place to another place, he will put into your life what I call kingdom connections, or power relationships, people many times who have done what you're trying to do, already been through what you're going through, and they have the ability to reach back, and grab you, and pull you through, and expedite your journey in amazing ways, and it's all about who you get around. Something else about the right people, they can unlock the potential that is inside of you.
If you get around the right people, they can unlock the potential that God has put in you. Some people, you know, have the opposite effect. They kill your dream. They will cause you to abort the purpose, and the plan, and the thing that God has put in your heart to do. But there are other people, like when Mary got around Elizabeth, the Bible said that John the Baptist, the baby, was in her womb, and he started leaping.
There are some people that will cause you to abort the baby you're supposed to give birth to, spiritually speaking, and there's other people, if you get around the right people, they'll make that baby leap. They'll make that dream say, yes, I can do it because God's told me, and they're feeding that part of you. And so, that's why it's so critical to get the right people in your life. Somebody is already on the level that you're trying to get to, and one kingdom connection, one power relationship, can change everything.
That's why I think it's so important that every day of our life, we get up and we pray for 20/20 discernment in the spirit, that we understand that when God wants to bless you, he will send a person, and when the devil wants to curse you, he will send a person. But either way, it's going to be a person, and that's why you need that 20/20 discernment, to tell and discern the people who are supposed to be in your life. The apostle Paul said, in Romans 8, he said, "Know no man after the flesh, but after the spirit, and they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit, and they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh", meaning this.
Flesh people feed your fear, but spirit people feed your faith. Flesh people tear you down, but faith people build you up. Flesh people drain your energy. They waste your time. They make you go around the mountain one more time. But, spirit people make your baby leap, your dream leap. They speak to something inside of you that releases your potential and causes you to have great purpose and great calling on your life. I call these people Kingdom Connections, power relationships.
For example, when Saul of Tarsus needed a life change, God put into his life a man by the name of Ananias. Ananias was the right man, in the right place, at the right time, and God said, go lay your hands on that man, he's a chosen vessel. I know he doesn't look like it, but you are going to be the power relationship in his life that turns his life around. And Ananias went and laid hands on Paul, and your Bible said that the scales fell off of his eyes.
All of us need somebody in our life that, when they pray and talk to us, we see things right. We start seeing things in the way that we ought to see them, not just like we're stubbornly seeing them. You're blessed when God brings into your life someone who can help you see right. The scales fell off of his eyes, and Saul of Tarsus became, by the power of God, the great apostle Paul, who would go and do so many amazing things. When he wanted to start preaching, the Bible said that nobody in the church would allow him, would give him a chance to preach, because they were terrified. He had persecuted Christians and killed them.
And so, the Bible said, there was a man by the name of Barnabas, again a kingdom connection, a power relationship, the right man in the right place at the right time. And Barnabas had something in him. Watch now. He says to the churches, I want you to have him on my behalf. I am setting up, and I'm telling you, I stand behind him, and I want you to trust me. He has no clout. I do. He has no influence. I do, and I'm using my influence, my clout, and my credibility. I'm telling you, this man has something to say. And he opened the door like a bridge - became the opportunity that Paul got to go where he could have never gone by himself, because he had a power relationship, a kingdom connection, a man in his life who said, I'm going to open doors for you that you cannot open for yourself.
Let me tell you, when you get blessed is when you start believing and seeing that God has people who can knock the scales off of your eyes, and God has people who can bridge you into circumstances and places that you could never get yourself! Your name is not known there. Nobody's ever heard of you. Nobody knew that Paul could preach like he could preach. But, here comes this man and he says, I'll be a power relationship, a kingdom connection. And later, the apostle Paul got so discouraged, after going through tremendous warfare and trials, that he said in 2 Corinthians 7, listen to this, "I had fightings on the outside, and I had fear on the inside".
Have you ever had a day like that? Fightings on the outside - there's so much stuff going on out here, on my job, in the family. There's fightings on the outside, and even worse than that is fear on the inside - doubting my own ability, doubting my own faith, doubting my own mind, doubting my own talent. Do I have what it takes? That's a bad day when the enemy's not just fighting you externally, but internally. Fighting on the outside, fear on the inside, but listen to what God did to get him through this rough season where he was about to quit. He said, "Nevertheless, God sent Titus to me, and he encouraged me in the work of the Lord".
Isn't that amazing, that God would use a little nobody, nothing guy that nobody's ever heard of? But, Paul said, I want to tell you about Titus. He encouraged me. When I was about to give up, when I was about to quit, when I was about to throw in the towel, God gave me a power relationship of encouragement, and he encouraged me in the Lord. I'm telling you today that God has the right people. If you're discouraged, you just start looking. God'll start sending people. If you don't know which direction to go, God can send somebody to knock the scales off and it was there all the time, you just couldn't see it.
And if you are in a situation and you can't get your foot in the door, you can't get in, it seems like you're blocked out and the doors are shut, God says, I've got for you those right people like Barnabas who can bridge you over and open doors that you cannot open for yourself. How many of you would like to have some kingdom connections, some power relationships in your life? I think about Ruth. Ruth was lonely. She was a widow. She was single. Does God care about the divorced? Does God care about the single person? Does God care about the widower? Does God care about people who are lonely? You better believe he cares.
The same God who said it's not good for man to be alone saw Ruth in her loneliest hour. And God said, I'm going to give her a man. And I'm not scraping him off the bottom of the barrel. I'm going to get him off of the top. She found a guy by the name of Boaz - or actually, he found her. She was out in the field, and Boaz was watching her. She had no idea he was watching her. Just look around you. Somebody's probably watching you. And God said, I know what you need. I know the right person. I know the right plan. I know the right place. I know how - I've got a dating, match-making service like you wouldn't believe. And if you'd just trust me. If you'd just quit bringing the wrong people in. As long as you got the wrong people, the right people are shut out.
So wait on the Lord, and put him first. And Boaz is watching her. And suddenly he falls in love with her. And the Bible said that they ended up getting married. God had a plan for her life because he cares. If you're lonely, he cares. If you're single, he cares. If you are a widow, he cares. And he knows when things are right, and God knows how to bring the right person into your life.
I wish I could shake the young people sometimes and say, you're forcing it, honey. You're forcing it. You're forcing it. Don't force it. Wait on the Lord. When it's right, it'll be right. When it's right, it'll be joy. When it's right, it'll be peace. When it's right, it'll be love. When it's right, they'll be full of the Holy Spirit. They'll love God just as much as you do. It won't be a struggle all the time. There will be the witness of two or three witnesses. You gotta wait on the Lord, and wait on his call, and wait on his purpose.
The right people... Everybody say, the right people. Secondly, it's about the right place. God said to the prophet Elijah, a famine is coming. Go to the River Cherith. I've commanded the ravens to feed you there. Notice it's a specific place. If he'd have gone anywhere else, the ravens would not have fed him. If he'd have gone anywhere else, he would have starved to death. God said, my blessing is connected to a place, and I'm telling you, Elijah, I'm going to provide for you, but you've got to go there, where the blessing is.
Well, I can just go anywhere I want to and everything's going to work out. You're absolutely wrong! Had he gone anywhere else, the bird, the Bible said, brought in one claw meat and in the other claw, bread, every morning and every evening. Can you imagine? But if you're over here, and God said the blessing is going to be over there, then the blessing will go over there and you'll sit here in tremendous need. But over there, if you go where... God has a there for you. A there is a place of provision.
When you get in that place, God will provide. He'll use dirty birds. Don't think everybody who's going to bless you is going to be a Christian. The raven was an unclean bird, but God said, I'll use that little dirty bird and he'll... Do you know why he was a dirty bird? Because I believe he was picking the bread. They're in a famine. Where's he getting meat and bread from, every morning and every night? The only one rich enough to eat bread and meat is Ahab and Jezebel. They would put it on the table and the dirty bird would rip it up, and take it and feed the prophet.
You get in the right place, and God'll make the devil bless you! He'll make dirty birds bless you! He'll make evil businesspeople, who thought they were going to cut you, bless you! Oh, hallelujah! You can't curse what God has blessed, and when a man is in the place where he's supposed to be, the enemy cannot stop the blessing. And boy, I'll tell you, he just sits back, and every morning and every evening, the raven, just like ups, just drops it off right there into the frying pan. He says, thank you very much, Lord, I'll give you the praise, and he eats his steak, and he eats his bread, and he eats his steak, and he's getting fatter and fatter. Everybody else is getting thinner and thinner, but he's just eating and eating, because he's in the right place.
But then, the Bible said... And I could just see it in my mind, just when he thinks, I have really got this down. I've got my frying pan out. I've got the fire built. And, I'm just going to have to teach the body of Christ how this is done, how to get the birds to feed you and the river to flow in the middle of the famine. That's going to be my number one New York times bestseller, and I'm going to put out a brand new teaching series on it. And just about the time that he thinks he's got it down, the Bible said the brook dried up, and the bird quit flying. God was saying to him, when the brook grows dry, it's time to go back to your source.
Your source is not the brook. Your source is not the bird. Your source is God, and if you're in relation... Don't go to God for a miracle. Go to God for a relationship. If you have a relationship with him, then I've got news for you. You'll have a miracle every day of your life. It's all connected to him! I'm talking about places of blessings, places of blessings. Zarephath, Cherith - places of blessings.
The Lord spoke to me in this and he said, notice in the story of Elijah and Elisha, Elisha said, I want a double portion. Elijah said to him, if you're with me in the right place, at the right time, with the right person, when I go up, the mantle will fall and you'll get double portion. But, it's dependent upon you being in the right place with the right people, and I'm the right person. I'm a power relationship, Elisha, in your life. And you can get offended at me. You can get mad at me. You can get hurt at me and leave, but you won't get where you're going. Five years from now, you'll still be sitting outside your destiny, because you'd better learn to respect the power relationships that God puts in your life.
And, the scripture said that as soon as he said, you want it? Be with me in the place where I am when I'm taken up, you'll get it. And the Bible said, I love this text, the Bible said, "And Elisha broke the plow". Did it on purpose. That plow was how his family, for generations, had provided. But sometimes, when God's going to do something magnificent in your life, it will require of you to break the plow. It'll say, I know this is your form of security. This is your form of self-blessing. This is what you've depended on. This is how God's always done it. But there is a double portion that is available when God tells you to break the plow.
So, he follows him and the first place they go... Real quick, I want to go through this and I'll close. The right place. He follows him to bethel. Bethel is where God gave Jacob a vision of the house of God, and he saw angels ascending and descending. If you want a double portion, if you want the right place, you've got to have the right appreciation for the house of God, and it tells me this. Bethel means house of God. God showed him angels, ascending, descending. It tells me... And then Jacob made a powerful statement. He said, "I have found the gate of heaven".
Do you understand that your church is the gate of heaven for your life? Do you understand that God will do for you - in a place and setting like this, the heavens are open, and angels are descending while we're preaching, and ascending, and they're taking needs up and sending blessings down, and it doesn't happen with you doing your own thing. When God assigns you to a house, it's a place of blessing. It is the gate of heaven, and you don't need to treat it casually. You don't put other things ahead of it. It's the gate of heaven for your life! Angels notice if you're in church! Got proof of that! Read your Bible. Read the story of Jacob.
Secondly, he's got an appreciation for the house of God now. Then he goes to a place called Gilgal. Gilgal was where Israel had to be re-circumcised. Have you ever thought of circumcision and got a happy feeling about it? Notice that sometimes the place of blessing is a place of pain, that when God is going to do something, we don't always think that the place of blessing is a fun place, is an enjoyable place. Sometimes it will hurt to be in the place of blessing. You'll get your feelings hurt, you'll get your emotions hurt, you'll get your mind hurt.
You'll want to give up and quit, but stay where God tells you, and get ahold of your flesh and say, you know what? You're not going to talk me out of what I'm supposed to do. And God is getting you ready, see? He gets you in love with his house. He gets you dealing, putting away of the flesh, dealing with the flesh - that anger, that bitterness, that gossip. You start, little by little, dying to that stuff. Then he takes him to Jericho, and Jericho is where he saw a vision, Joshua did, for the city. God gives you vision as you're in the right place. You get in the right place, and God will begin to give you vision for your life! The right place. He was in the right place, the right people.
Give me two minutes and I'll finish this sermon. The right plan. It's so critical to understand that one plan from God, one idea from God, can change your life. God is an entrepreneur that wants to bless you. He can give you one idea. One idea from God is better than 10.000 philosophies of man. One idea can change your world! And, anytime God is going to move, he will give you a plan. When you need a miracle, God will give you a plan, and it's going to be scriptural, so that when you look at that plan, you know you have the divine right to it, because it's in the Word of God.
When he gives you that plan, if it's not in line with the word, it's not from him. And secondly, with that plan will come a set of instructions. God said to Joshua, you're the right man in the right place, now here's the plan. March seven times, and on the seventh day, seven times, and blow trumpets and shout, and the walls will fall down. But, it wouldn't have happened, not just the right place, not just the right people - the right plan. God's plan for the family is one man with one woman. One dollar out of ten. I said, one dollar out of ten is God's plan. One day out of seven is God's plan. Follow the plan, and you'll get the miracles.
Wedding of Cana, bring the pots, pour the water. I'll turn the water into wine, but here's a set of instructions. Here's a plan. Do you need a miracle? God has a plan! And I close with this thought, but Malachi 3 said, prove me. "For if you want to know I'm up here, throw me a seed and I'll throw you back a harvest. If you want to know if I'm real, I dare you, believer or unbeliever. Begin to honor me with the tithe and the offering, and see if I will not", listen to this, "See if I will not open up the windows of heaven", which means you're either living under an open heaven or a closed heaven. Imagine every day.
I want to ask you a question. Do you this week want to live under a closed heaven? Heaven is shut up, closed. Or it's open, and the Bible said it happens according to how you obey the instructions concerning your giving. I don't want to go all week long with a closed heaven. I want an open heaven, because it's not just money. I get peace. I get joy. I get instructions. I get kingdom connections. I get blessing people. I get power relationships. I get all that God has for me when I'm under an open heaven!
How many of you need a kingdom connection? How many of you need a power relationship? How many of you are lonely, and you're ready for God's will? How many of you today need somebody to put you in where you've tried to get in, and you can't get in? How many of you feel like God's saying, break the plow? How many of you feel like the creek has dried up, and God needs to give you a new set of instructions? You're in the right church today! I feel, with great authority to tell you, the right people are coming. God's going to put you in the right place. It's going to astound you, and he's going to give you a specific plan and set of instructions. If you follow it, he will bring his will to pass for this season in your life, speedily.