Joel Osteen - A Thousand Times More
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I want to talk to you today аbout: A Thousand Times More. God's dream for your life is much bigger than your own. The places he's going to take you, the doors that are going to open, the people you're going to meet are going to far exceed anything you've thought. You're listening today to my 1,000th message. I didn't think I could do one message, I didn't know this was in me. What God has for you is going to boggle your mind. The favor you're going to step into, the dreams you're going to accomplish, the giants you're going to defeat. Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 1:11, "May the Lord God of your fathers, make you a thousand times more than you are".
God has a thousand times more blessing for you, a thousand times more joy, thousand times more influence, thousand times more resources. That means you have plenty not only to pay off your house, but to pay off your family members houses. Thousand times more opportunity: you're not hoping to get a good break, you have to choose which opportunity is the best. Thousand times more energy: you're not dragging through the day tired and run down, you're full of vitality, supernatural strength. You run and don't get weary. Now, the whole key is you have to receive this thousand times blessing, you have to let it take root in your spirit, cause in your mind it'll say, "There's no way, this will never happen for me, Joel. I don't have the talent, I don't come from the right family, I've reached my limits". Tune all that out and get an agreement with God. One touch of his favor can make you a thousand times more. One idea, one contract, one divine connection can catapult you further than you've ever dreamed.
Imagine what the Israelites thought when they heard "A thousand times more". They were former slaves, they' been mistreated, taken advantage of, now they were wandering in the desert, no place to live. I'm sure they thought, "Moses, you have the wrong people. Maybe that happened for the Pharaoh, his family, or maybe the royalty in Ethiopia, they have influence, but we're stuck out here in the desert". God knew everything about them, he knew what they had been through, he knew what they didn't have, he knew how impossible it looked, yet he still told them "Get ready, I'm going to make you a thousand times more than you are. I'm going to give you houses that you didn't build. You're going to reap from vineyards that you didn't plant". There was scarcity out in the desert, just enough to survive, but they were coming into a land where it took two people to carry the cluster of grapes, a land of overflow, abundance, a thousand times more.
God is not limited by your resources, your position, your background. He's bringing you into a wide and spacious place. Now, don't talk yourself out of it, talk yourself into it, "Lord, I receive this thousand times blessing. Lord, thank you for a thousand times more influence, a thousand times more resources, a thousand times more creativity". "Well, Joel, that's kind of far out", yes, we serve a far out God. And today is not for ordinary people, this is for radical believers, this is for people that will take the limits off of God and believe for the exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond favor that God has in store.
I've seen this in my own life. I didn't think I could get up and minister, I told my father for 17 years that I wasn't a pastor. One Sunday he asked me to speak for him, just give him a break, and I said that I would. I sat down to write my first message, and it was so painful trying to think of what to say. I got through and thought, "Thank God that's over, I'll never have to do it again". And it's not that I didn't want to, I just didn't think I was able, didn't have the training, I wasn't dynamic like my father. But when he passed that next week, I knew I was supposed to step up and pastor the church. And I spoke my second message and walked off the platform, and thought said, "You're done. You have nothing to share next week. Your well is dry". And it seemed like the truth, but on that next Wednesday, when I sat down to write my message, much to my surprise something else came out.
I did message number three, then message 25, then 240, then 560, then 920. I can tell you today on my 1,000th message that we serve a God who can make you a thousand times more than you are. But if you would have told me back when I was behind the scenes, doing the television production that one day I would be a pastor, and I would have a thousand messages, and we would have church in a former basketball arena, I would have said, "You have the wrong person. There's no way that could happen". You don't know where God is taking you. Maybe you've only heard what you can't do, and how you don't measure up. Or even your own thoughts like with me, "You don't have what it takes. You're not as good as your father, Joel. Just accept where you are". Those are all lies to try to keep you from the greatness God put in you. Receive this into your spirit. Because you are obedient, the Lord God of your fathers is making you a thousand times more than you are. Thousand times more successful, thousand times more influence, a thousand times more wisdom. We hear that, our mind goes tilt-tilt-tilt, that's impossible. You have to turn your mind off and let this take root down in your spirit. This is what faith is all about.
First kings chapter 15, there was a famine in Israel, and the people were struggling to survive. God told the prophet Elijah to go to the city of Zarephath, for there was a widow that would take care of him. When he arrived, he asked the woman to make him something to eat. She said, "Sir, I'd love to, but all I have is enough flour and enough oil to make me and my son one last meal". She had already decided they were going to eat, then that'd be it, she was done. Elijah said, "I understand, but please do me a favor, and make me a meal first, and then you and your son can have what's left over". That seems so selfish, she could have said, "Who do you think you are? Not going to feed you, we're starving". But sometimes God will ask you to do things that don't make sense. It's a test. "Joel, will you speak that first message even though you don't feel qualified"? Or "Will you forgive that person that doesn't deserve it"? "Will you be good to that neighbor even when you need the funds"?
This woman had every right to turn him down, but she took that step of faith and cooked him a meal first. She noticed in those containers, even though she had used the flour and the oil, there was still some left. She thought, "That's strange", she made another meal. The next day there was still more flour, more oil. When you do things God asked you to do that don't make sense, when you obey when you don't understand, God will do things that don't make sense. The oil and the flour never ran out during the whole famine. It's significant that the famine was 3.5 years, that's over a thousand days. She went from only enough for one mill to having over a thousand meals. What happened? She came into the thousand times more blessing.
When you look at your circumstances, like this woman you may think, "I don't have enough. I don't have the talent, the strength, the finances". You're looking at it in the natural, but we serve a supernatural God. He knows how to multiply, how to sustain, how to open doors. He can part Red Seas, he can bring water out of a rock. He can take five loaves and feed a multitude. He can use a slingshot to bring down a giant. He hasn't brought you this far to leave you, he has supernatural provision, supernatural healing, supernatural breakthroughs.
If you're going to see this thousand times more blessing, it's important what voices you listen to. I got my nerve up and spoke my first sermon, my father was so proud, beaming with joy. I never dreamed that would be the last Sunday of his life. He had a heart attack, and went to be with the Lord. I started speaking on the weekends. I was very unsure of myself, nervous, intimidated. I knew everyone had come because of my father, now I was up there, and I didn't have the experience of the training. The third message I ever spoken, I was walking through the lobby that Sunday after the service, and there were two older ladies in front of me talking, and they didn't know I was behind them. One said, "He's not as good as his father". The other answered, "Yeah, I don't think the church is going to make it". That was the worst possible thing I could have heard. They might as well said, "He's a loser, he should quit right now". I was already insecure, wondering if I could do it.
The enemy is strategic. He knows how to plant doubt, discouragement, inferiority at just the right time. Often he'll use people. This was a critical moment, my destiny hung in the balance. I was tempted to believe then, "Man, I'm not good at this. Nobody's going to listen. It's going to go downhill". Right when I was about to agree with them, something rose up in me like a fire, like a holy anger. I thought to myself, "You don't determine my destiny. You didn't call me, you didn't anoint me. I am not who you say I am, I am who God says I am. I am favored, I am confident, people like me, I will become who I was created to be". That was a destiny moment. I could have shrunk back and believe what they said, I would have stopped at message number three. 997 messages would have laid dormant, never being spoken, because I listened to the wrong voices.
Tune out all the negative, and get an agreement with God. He said, "A thousand times more". He says, "You will lend and not borrow". He said, he's restoring health back into you. He said, "Your children are mighty in the land". He said, "Your latter days will be better than your former days". And don't let wrong voices talk you out of it. The enemy would love to keep you from your thousand times more. He'll use discouragement, sometimes people that try to push you down, "Man, you'll never get well, I saw the medical report. You can't break that addiction, you've had it for so so long. You can't lead your company, you don't have the talent". He wouldn't be talking to you if he didn't know a thousand times more is coming. God will give you grace for every season. Like with me, you'll feel that fire, that knowing that what's being said is not your destiny. That's when you have to rise up and say, "No, thanks, I am not who you say I am, I am who God says I am".
This is what my mother did when she was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, back in 1981, and given a few weeks to live. She was very sick, weighed 89 lbs. Medically speaking there was nothing more that could be done. Voices whispered in the night, "You can be buried in that new red dress". She could have been depressed, gone around defeated. All throughout the day I would hear my mother quoting scriptures, "I will live and not die. By his stripes I am healed. With long life God will satisfy me". It didn't happen overnight, but little by little my mother got better and better. Was 43 years ago. One report said, "A few weeks to live", but my mother came into that thousand times more blessing. 43 years is over 15,000 days. God has some of these thousand times more for you. The medical world may say, "Just a little while", but God has the final say. Why don't you believe for a thousand times more? Those ladies said I was done at message number three, but a thousand messages later I'm still going strong.
But often we look at the medical report, and what we don't have and "Man, these ladies are not for me", but when you come into that thousand times blessing supernatural things happen, things that you can't explain.
In the scripture Samson killed a thousand enemies with the jawbone of a donkey. Not a sword, not a rifle, not a slingshot, but with the jawbone. How could that be? He had the thousand times more blessing. With this blessing you will defeat giants that are much bigger, you will overcome the cancer, the addiction, the bad childhood. You'll accomplish dreams that seemed impossible. There's a divine empowerment on you to do things that seem far over your head. The scripture talks about different levels of favor and anointing. Elisha received a double portion of Elijah's anointing. Double is great, talks about when you sow a seed you can receive a 30-fold return, 60-fold, even hundredfold. 100 times is amazing, but when God says, "I'm going to make you a thousand times more than you are", he's talking about things that you can't imagine, things that you didn't see coming. If you're going to receive this thousand times more, there has to be an expectancy, a faith that says, "God, I believe believe that you have greater things for me".
God gave David an incredible promise that his family would always be on the throne, and that they would have a lasting dynasty. Was more than David could imagine. He said in 2 Samuel 7, "God, who am I that you would do this? I'm just a shepherd, I come from an ordinary family". He was so overwhelmed and so amazed, trying to take it all in. He could have stopped there and thought, "It seems impossible, I don't see how that could happen", but David understood that he had to get in agreement with God. The only promises that will come to pass in your life are the promises that you let take root. David said in verse 25, "Lord God of Israel, you have declared this over me, and I am bold enough to pray it. God do what you promised concerning my family". He was saying, "This seems far out, but God, since you said it, I'm in agreement: let it happen".
God is saying to you today, "I'm going to make you a thousand times more than you are. I'm going to open new doors. I'm going to bring new people. You're going to discover gifts you didn't know were in you. You're going to step into favor, leadership, influence that you've never imagined". Now you can discount this, "I don't see how, Joel, looks impossible. You don't know my background". David was a shepherd, the Israelites were former slaves, why don't you do like David and say, "God, let what you have spoken over my life come to pass. I'll receive the thousand times more blessing". You don't have to figure out how, the how is not up to you, all you have to do is believe. That's when the Creator of the universe goes to work.
Moses was in the desert one time, the Israelites started complaining about not having any meat to eat. They had manna every morning, something like bread, but they were tired of that. They said, "Moses why'd you bring us out here in the desert to die? We could have stayed in Egypt as slaves, but at least we'd had some good food". God was so fed up to with them, he told Moses, "Tell the people I'm going to give them meat for a whole month". They were out in the middle of the desert. Moses said, "God, that's not possible. Even if we butchered all of our flocks and all of our herds, we wouldn't have that much meat". I love the way God answered back. He said (numbers 11:23), "Moses, when did I become weak"? He was saying, "Have you forgotten who I am, the all powerful Creator of the universe"?
And sometimes we look at our situations, think, "A thousand times more? How could that be possible? Here's where I work, here's what I make, here's the family I come from". We're telling God all the reasons it can't happen. God is saying, "When did I become weak? I spoke worlds into existence. I shut the mouths of hungry lions. I gave Sarah a baby at 90 years old. I opened prison doors for Paul and Silas. I healed Joel's mother of terminal cancer. I changed a council member's mind and gave you the Compaq Center". When God says, "I'm going to make you a thousand times more", he's not scratching his head trying to figure out how. He's not checking with your bank account, your education, the family you came from. This is not dependent on what you have, it's dependent on what he has. All he needs from us is to obey and to take the limits off of him, "Lord, I'm in agreement with you, a thousand times more".
These two million people out in the desert, God shifted the winds and caused a huge flock of quail to fly into the camp. The scripture says, "No one gathered less than 50 bushels of quail". They had meat for over a month. What's interesting is quail normally wouldn't fly that far away from the water, they would stay close to the shore. But when the wind shifted, they were so strong that it blew them into the Israelites camp. One shift and you'll see a thousand times more, one shift and the quail will come looking for you. They didn't have to go find it, go hunt, God brought the provision to them. You don't have to make this happen, force doors to open, manipulate people. No, just keep honoring God, and he'll bring the thousand times more, he'll make things happen that you couldn't make happen.
Moses said the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are. This is implying a generational blessing. "The God of your fathers". There is favor you're going to see because of those that went before you in your family life. You may have never met them, but they honored God, they prayed, they served, they helped others, but they didn't see the fullness of what they should have. Some were overlooked, mistreated, not give what they deserved, but they didn't complain, they weren't bitter, they just kept doing the right thing. God is keeping the records, part of this thousand times more is payback for what should have been your family's. There are blessings that have been stored up because of their faithfulness. Your relatives paid the price for you to step into houses you didn't build, vineyards that you didn't plant.
As I speak my thousandth message today, I realized I didn't get here by myself. I can look back and see the faithfulness of those that went before me. My parents pastored here for 40 years, I'm reaping seeds that they've sown. My grandfather worked at a refinery in Baytown for decades, never missed a day of work. When he retired, he'd come down to the church and do repairs, I'd see him under the portable buildings fixing the plumbing. He was an orphan growing up, nobody wanted him, passed from house to house, but today his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, we're seeing favor because of him. God is releasing some of those stored up blessings.
As a little boy I'd travel with my family during the summer to these conferences where my father would speak. I would see him up there in front of a couple thousand people ministering. And everyone loved my dad, he was so strong and inspirational. I would watch as a little boy and think, "Look at my father. How can he do that? He's amazing", I'd beam with joy. In my mind he was so far above anything I could ever become. And I was fine with that, I love celebrating my father. Those 17 years that I work behind the scenes, my goal was to make him look good, help him to shine. But you don't know what God has put in you. I was in awe that he could speak to a couple thousand, when today through the media I speak to a thousand times more every day. I never dreamed I would be here.
To honor my father, today I wore his shoes. These are the shoes that Victoria and I bought him 37 years ago. He wore them for many years, and when he passed I wore in that first year that I ministered in 1999. Today a thousand messages later I can say, "The God of my fathers is a faithful God. He's taken me where I've never dreamed and brought things out of me I didn't know I had". Like that widow with the meal every week, these messages just keep coming. When my father wrote a book, it would sell about 10,000 copies. I never thought I could write a book, I barely passed English in high school. Victoria was always encouraged me to write one, but I thought, "Man, what would I say"? Eventually I wrote my first one, "Your Best Life Now". It sold 10 million copies, a thousand times more than my father's.
And I'm not here to brag on me, I'm bragging on the greatness of our God. I want to light a new fire in you to know that God has greater things. I can tell you firsthand, he has a thousand times more for you. Will you receive it? Will you start expecting, believing, praying bold prayers? I get up every morning and I still think, "How did this happen"? I didn't know this was in me. Who knows where God is taking you? It's not depending on your talent, your background, who you know. Keep your heart pure before God, walk humbly before him. Let go of things you know are holding your back, compromise, wrong people, lack of integrity. Your destiny is too important. God is looking for people he can trust with a thousand times more. Not perfect people, but people that have a heart to please him.
I haven't worn these shoes in 24 years. One thing I've noticed this time is they don't fit me anymore. Either the leather has shrunk up or my feet have grown, but they're not comfortable. What I've come to understand is they're not supposed to fit. What God has for you is greater than those that went before you. Honor them, show them respect, but don't settle where they were. God is a progressive God. He wants every generation to increase. Your parents, your family, they may have done well, but the God of your fathers is going to make you a thousand times more than you are. Get ready for something that you haven't seen, favor you didn't deserve, good breaks that find you, quail coming into the camp. God has some explosive blessings, blessings that will catapult you ahead.
Let me ask you: have you ever prayed this prayer, "God, make me a thousand times more than I am"? That's not being selfish, that's getting in agreement with God. Don't go through life with a little vision, thinking you've reached your limits. Try a different approach: every morning, "Father, thank you for a thousand times more", that's your faith being released, that's what allows God to exceed your expectations. And on my 1,000th message, I want to declare this over you, receive it into your spirit: may the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, a thousand times more influence, a thousand times more resources, a thousand times more strength, a thousand times more fulfillment for the glory of God to build his kingdom, in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen? I'll receive it as well!