John Bevere - Multiply Your Impact
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You know, I just got that dad heart. Now I just don’t—there’s no other way to describe it—and I just want to see the very best for every single one of you. Lisa and I really believe that God is moving us into this season; we just want to cheer you on, help you, and equip you to get where your destiny is. Because when we do that, when we’re all involved in working towards what God has given us to do, that’s when the whole body is working, and that’s when we will fulfill the commission, which is to make disciples of all nations. The last ten years of my life have probably been the funnest years of my life, and that is because, ten years ago in May, the Holy Spirit told me, «Son, you’ve been faithful with the English-speaking community; I want you to get your resources into the hands of every pastor in the world.» I want to share some of this story tonight; I really feel released to do it.
I do want to say this: a year and a half ago, I gathered our team together and said, «Guys, listen, I believe we’re about to come out of a wilderness. I believe the church has been in a wilderness for a few decades.» You have to understand, when I started in church back in the early '80s, I mean, we were watching blind people walk out whole. We had walls filled with crutches, canes, and wheelchairs. We literally had Jesus appear in a service with 4,000 people in the building; when He did, He left an imprint of His face on the wall, ten feet tall and eight feet wide.
I mean, I remember ambulances pulling up to our church in front of 4,000 people, and people who had less than 24 hours left to live. The paramedics wheeled him down, and the guy got healed so powerfully that he pushed his gurney out while the paramedics stood there with their jaws dropped, and the people were going crazy, screaming the roof down. I thought, you know, I’m a young baby Christian; I think this is church. But God showed me something way back in the early '80s; He said, «Son, I gave my church a thimble full of My power to see how she would handle it, to see if she would market it, make money off of it, and use it to draw people to herself instead of using it to point people to Me.» Well, we didn’t handle it very well, and God spoke to me in the mid-'80s and said, «I’m going to bring My church into a wilderness, and in that wilderness, I will refine her character. But when she comes out of it, she’ll walk in the measure of My Spirit the world has never seen before.»
So a year and a half ago, I called our team in and said, «Hey, we are about to come out of the wilderness. We’re going to do something we’ve never done before: we’re going to actually write and publish a book in four months.» And we did; it was called «God, Where Are You? Finding Strength and Purpose in Your Wilderness.» I said the reason we’ve got to do this is that at the very end of the wilderness, the greatest attack comes against us. If you look at David, he’s in the desert for 12 years, but at the very end, that’s when his wives and children get kidnapped, and that’s when the last 600 men who believed in him wanted to stone him. If you look at Jesus, He’s being tempted by the devil in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, but it’s at the very end—the last couple of days—when the notable three are recorded. It’s at the very end of the wilderness that the greatest attack comes. That’s why we needed to strengthen the body of Christ, and hopefully, you had ears to hear and were strengthened. And clearly, you have! Look at you here tonight, right?
But then just at the end of last year, I really felt my heart strongly to write a book on multiplication. You know, we’re amidst this craziness right now, and I’m praying. A few weeks ago, I was like, «God, this book launches November 17th,» and the Lord said, «Son, this is the message for the next season; this is the message for coming out of the wilderness.» See, let me tell you something right now: with all that’s going on—division, sickness, news reports, mainstream media, social media, and the prophets speaking doom—the tendency is, come on, let’s just be honest, let’s get it out in the open: we want to withdraw, and we want to protect. But can I tell you what the prophet said? The Son of God, the King of Kings, said, «Occupy until I come.» In other words, I gave you a commission, and you don’t stop it; you don’t go into protection mode. Yes, we may go through some trials, tribulations, and persecutions, but the church in the book of Acts surely didn’t just multiply; they exploded and had good success. That’s what I’m looking for.
I was on the beach praying a few weeks ago when the Holy Spirit said to me, «Son, the people who really walk with Me will thrive in this next season.» I thought, «I need a word,» and I have read Malachi 3 and 4 for years. I have studied those two chapters probably more than any other two chapters in the Old Testament, and He showed me something on that beach. Without my Bible in hand, I knew it was God, but He said, «You know He talks all about the refining that’s going to go on in Malachi 3, right? He’s going to come as a refiner’s fire.» Then you’ve got these so-called Christians who complain, «What good is it that we’ve served God? We’re going through all this junk; it’s not working for us; the wicked are prospering.» But then you’ve got those who fear the Lord; they come to the Victory Conference to hear the word; they talk to one another about the word. But then, you know what He says? «The day will come when the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.» He said, «To you who fear My name"—those are the ones who came to the Victory Conference—"you will grow fat.»
Now, I went «fat»? You know, fat in Scripture is either really bad or really good; this is really good. «And you’ll go out like stall-fed calves, and you will trample the wicked; there will be ashes under your feet.» Now come on, you ranchers of Oklahoma, you know what I’m talking about. «So tell the righteous it will be well for them.» I’m telling you, for those who fear God, it will be well for you. He came as the suffering Lamb; He’s coming back as the warring conquering King, and His church is going to be victorious! Amen.
So, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come before You as a group tonight, people who fear Your name—people who love You with all of our heart, mind, soul, body, and strength. Holy Spirit of God, I’m asking—You’re already here, You’re here in such a magnificent way; I sense Your presence, I sense Your pleasure. I’m asking You to do something extraordinary in here tonight, not just something, but many extraordinary things in here tonight. I’m asking that not one person will leave this place the same as they came. I’m asking that we would have an encounter with the living God in this place tonight that will change some of us forever. I’m asking that You will empower and equip Your people tonight in a way like we have never been empowered and equipped before. And I’m asking that You would manifest Your glory in our midst tonight because, Lord, we revere You as God, and we fear You as God, and we love You as Daddy. So we are asking, glorify Your Son, Jesus Christ, in this place tonight, and may we never be the same.
For this, we give You all the power, all the praise, all the glory, all the thanksgiving, and it’s in Jesus' mighty, wonderful, powerful, majestic, holy, awesome name we pray. And everybody that agrees shouts, «Come on, give Him praise! Give Him praise!» Yes, you can be seated! I’m so excited; I just threw down my hallelujah! Sharon, what an honor it is to be in the same building as you. You know, Sharon is like a mother to Lisa and me, even though she’s only a year or two older than us. My wife used to watch Pastor Sharon and Pastor Billy Joe every day when we were at the church in our twenties, and she so admired Pastor Sharon. So we just love you, and we respect you so much. Thank you for being such a great mother!
I have just loved watching what God is doing with Pastor Paul and Pastor Ashley. I’m so proud of you guys; your leadership is growing and growing. I saw it, I said it five years ago. I’m not bragging; I’m just saying I believe God spoke, but man, you are— I mean, you’re not the young man I used to know; you’re a mighty man of God, and I so respect you! I so honor you!
Alright, I’m going to open tonight with a scripture everybody in this place knows. If you’ve been saved for over two weeks, alright: Ephesians 4, «It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.» Stop right there. It’s true; other than John 3:16, this is probably the most quoted Scripture among born-again believers. We know this teaches us that our salvation is by grace and only by grace. You cannot earn a place or a position with God in His kingdom or in His family by your own good works, right?
What I don’t understand is why so many stop right there, because if you look at verse 10, it has the word «for.» As an author, I understand the word «for.» «For» is a conjunction; it means the thought is not finished. The word «for» means because of this. So you cannot quote 8-9 and leave out 10. You are cutting the sentence off, and you’re doing what mainstream media does: you’re giving half the truth. Yeah, I said it! «For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ to do"—everybody shout «to do!"—"shout it again! Shout it again!» Good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Verse 8-9 shows that it is by the grace of God that you were created to be a child of God. But verse 10 shows it is by that very same grace that you are empowered to do something.
So tonight, I want to talk about the verse 10 aspect. I want to talk about that work that God has prepared for you to do in advance. To really establish what I want to say, I’m going to go through a boatload of Scriptures in the beginning, but I will complete it with the second half of my speech, filled with stories that will illustrate the Scriptures I’ve given you. So basically, if you want to put this in your notes, you were not just saved by grace to be somebody; you were empowered by that same grace to do something. That should come out of your mouth as quickly as who you are in Christ Jesus. What you are called to do should come out just as strong. Jesus made the statement, «My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.» He said, «As the Father sent Me, I’m sending you.» So, «meat» is what strengthens us, and I find a lot of people backslide. A lot of people do not fulfill what God has put them on this earth for, or excuse me, a lot of people do not live a successful Christian life because they’re not engaged in what they’re called to do. Amen? You guys don’t get quiet on me tonight!
To open this up, I’m going to highlight three very important words quickly at the beginning of this message. I’m going to open with Romans 12:6, which says this: «Having then gifts"—everybody shout «gifts!"—"shout it! Shout it like you mean it! Say 'gifts! ' That’s good! That’s the first word I’ll talk about in a minute—"differing according to the grace"—everybody shout «grace!"—"that is given to us; let us use them.» Now let’s talk; the first word I want to identify is grace, and I want to get us all on the same page. Most of you at Victory here know that the grace of God is not just salvation. Although I shouldn’t even say «not just"—thank God for salvation! But it’s not only salvation; it’s not just a free gift; it’s not only forgiveness of sins.
Grace is God’s empowerment. The sad thing is you’ve heard me say this for years: back in—I think it was 2009—a survey was done all over the United States, and over 5,000 Christians were polled; they were asked to give definitions of the grace of God. Only 2% of those polled—two percent—said that grace was God’s empowerment. Yet this is the way God defines His grace. The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, says, «My grace is sufficient for you, for My power"—God identifies grace as His power—"My power works best in your weakness.» Your weaknesses, your human inability. Peter says, «Grace be multiplied to you.» This is 2 Peter 1; look it up later: «Grace be multiplied to you as His divine power has given us everything we need to live a godly life.» Grace is God’s empowerment. Are you seeing this? His divine empowerment.
If you look at the definition of the Greek word «charis"—grace, the Greek word is charis (C-H-A-R-I-S)—it is defined as gift, favorable benefit, all those things. But if you look at what Strong’s defines it as, he says it is the divine influence upon the heart with its reflection in the life. There is an outward empowerment—outward reflection of what is done in the heart. That’s why in Acts 11, it says that Barnabas went to the church in Antioch; he saw the grace of God on the people. He didn’t hear it; he saw it. In the modern-day American church, however, you have to hear it many times before you see it. You still with me? Why is that? Because you can’t have anything from God—nothing from God works unless you believe. You can’t believe what you don’t know.
So, if only two percent of the Christians in America know that grace is God’s empowerment, that means 98 percent of the Christians in America are trying to live godly and are striving to live their Christian life in their own ability. You fail if you do that. You walk in the grace of God; you walk on water. If you don’t walk in the power of the grace of God, you sink, even though you love Jesus. Good preaching, John; thank you! I really appreciate it. Thanks for the encouragement. I need you to speak to me. Okay, I grew up in a quiet church, and I don’t do well with quiet, so I know you’re listening really well.
So, grace—grace is God’s… here’s my definition of grace: grace is God’s empowerment that gives us the ability to go beyond our natural ability. Write that down, okay? That is after years and years of study. Now, the second word I want to look at is the word «gifts.» Take the Greek word 'charis, ' add 'mna' to it, and you get 'charisma.' What are gifts? That is a specific gift of grace that empowers an individual to fulfill what they’ve been created to do. Most of you know this; I’ll go through it quickly. Some of you don’t, but my worst subjects in high school were English, creative writing, and foreign language.
So, in 1991, I’m out praying—it’s early in the morning; I was at a construction site—it’s like 5:30 in the morning, and the Holy Spirit spoke and said, «Son, I want you to write.» I laughed and said, «Lord, you’ve got so many of us kids; now you’re mixing us up with one another. I can’t write!» It used to take me like an hour to write a page in English; I’d go through like 10 to 12 sheets before I even got through a paragraph. I’d rip them out. You know, we didn’t have laptops. I mean, my English teachers used to pass me just so they wouldn’t have to look at me the next year. I scored a 370 on the SAT in English, and in all my travels, I’ve only met one person who scored lower than me on the SAT in English. So, I said, «God, you don’t want me to write. Talk to my English teachers!»
So, I did nothing. Ten months later, two women came to me within two months of each other, one from two different states. Excuse me, I’m going to say this again: two women came up to me within two weeks of each other from two different states, and they both said the same words: «John Bevere, if you don’t write what God’s giving you to write, He’ll give the message to somebody else, and one day, you’ll be judged for it.» Now, when the second woman said it from Texas, after the first woman said it from Florida, the fear of God hit me.
Now, let this be amazing: this was an unconscious leading. I got a notebook piece of paper because it’s 1991; we have no iPads. I wrote on the top of the paper «Contract,» and I said, «God, I think you’re making a huge mistake. I don’t know how to write, so I need grace.» Isn’t this funny? This is before I really even understood what it was, and I signed the contract.
Now the books today are well over 20 to 30 million. They’re in over a hundred—and, uh, the last I saw was 129 languages in 226 nations of the world. There are only 241 nations, and you know what I always tell people? My name’s on that book because I was the first guy to get to read it. I know it’s the grace of God. Another charisma in my life is preaching. Do you know the first time Lisa heard me preach after we got married? She was sitting in the front row, and I started preaching, and five minutes into my message, she was sound asleep and slept through my whole message. Her best friend, sitting next to her, Amy Store, a blonde girl who’s a pastor’s wife in San Diego, was also in such deep sleep that I watched drool come out of the side of her mouth.
Now, I don’t put people to sleep anymore, and that’s a whole other story about how that happened. I remember when we were doing a garage cleanup, and I found the master tape—Google it later—it was the master CD tape that you would use with slaves to make other…yeah, yeah, we had things called slaves you made all these cassette tapes on, right? And I said, «Oh my gosh, that’s the one that put Lisa to sleep,» and I went to throw it away. You know we were doing spring cleaning, and the Holy Spirit said, «Son, don’t throw it away.»
I said, «God, nobody should ever hear that message ever! I’m throwing it away.» He said, «Because I always want you to know how bad you are without me.» I went, «Okay,» so it’s hidden away where you will never find it. Okay, so one of the charismas of my life is not singing; I could never have done what Paul did up here. You all would have left when I sing. The people in my household say, «John, go sing by yourself.» When I was in, no kidding, when I was in college and we were in the showers in the gym, I’d sing one time, and they threw soap bottles at me, okay? It’s not a gift. Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m not gifted to pull tumors out of people’s bodies; I don’t have the hands that steady.
Okay, so there are a variety of gifts, and let me say this: happy is the man or woman who knows their gifts and operates in them. Miserable is the man or woman who tries to operate in somebody else’s gift. Amen? Good preaching! Okay, now look at this. I want to go over to 1 Corinthians chapter four. Paul makes this statement: «Let a man so consider us the servants of Christ and stewards.» This is the third word I want to identify. Everybody say «stewards.» Now, we don’t really understand stewards today in America; we really don’t have a good grasp on it. A steward is somebody who manages someone else’s property or other affairs. A steward is not—now listen, you’ve got to get this; please listen! A steward is not micromanaged.
Okay, here’s the best biblical example I can give you of the steward: Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house, but Potiphar promoted him and made him steward of his household. The Bible says Potiphar didn’t even know what was going on financially in his household except what he was eating at his table. He didn’t care. «I gave the stewardship to Joseph; I’m not going to look over his shoulder.» Paul said, «Let a man consider us the servants of Christ and stewards.» God is not sitting there looking over your shoulder micromanaging you. But the big question is if we’re servants of Christ and stewards, what are we stewards of? Charisma.
See, my ability to speak is not my ability; it’s actually His ability. Am I going to use it to push my agenda, or am I going to preach His word? Am I going to use it because I want to become more popular, or because I want men’s and women’s hearts burning for Christ? I’m not going to be micromanaged. I’ll never forget I’m preaching at a conference, right? People have traveled from all over; you know usually, God let…I just, He doesn’t specifically tell me what to preach, right? But on this particular conference, the morning I woke up, the Holy Spirit said, «I want you to speak on the 'Bait of Satan.'»
Now, the problem was I was writing like my fifth book after «Bait of Satan,» and «Bait of Satan» is already a national bestseller. All these people had traveled; I know they have read «Bait of Satan.» Oh, they’re going to hear me preach a message I’ve preached before, but I was so sure I heard Him say it. So, I get to the conference that night; the pastor is like, «Man, people have traveled from all over the place; it’s so exciting. You can just feel it’s electric!» I walk out; it’s electric, right? I get up on the platform; what do I preach? The new revelations I’m writing in the new book. Oh my gosh! It was electric; people were standing like this, you know? I make these statements, right? Powerful!
Oh man, service is over; everybody’s happy in the green room. God moved; it was wonderful. I thought, «Okay, I’m not heard from God.» The next morning, I woke up; I felt like I was going to die. I’m not kidding; I felt like I was going to die! I didn’t get out of bed. I rolled out, straight to my knees. I said, «God, I disobeyed you last night; please forgive me! Cleanse me of my sins.» Then I get on—I was in the Midwest—and I get on a plane. I have to fly to the West Coast; flight’s delayed. The whole time I feel like I’m dying, like, «God, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!»
I get on the plane; the whole time I feel like I’m dying. You know, it’s like an hour seems like a day. Finally, we’re starting to circle the city of San Diego, and that heaviness, that grieving lifts off me just like that. I ask God, «Why have you let me carry the weight of my disobedience like this all day? I asked you to forgive me when I got out of bed; I got on my knees; I repented. Why have you let me carry this heaviness and this grieving?» He said, «Son, because there was a pastor in that service last night who needed to hear what I gave you on offenses, and because you didn’t obey me, he didn’t get what he needed.» I went, «Oh my God!»
He said, «This is a new city; now obey me.» See, I’m a steward. If you give me your car, and I’m watching your car, and I’m a steward of your car, it’s going to run, even if I’m not using it for what you wanted me to use it for. You track with me? We all have gifts because look—look what Peter says. I’m going to go because Peter talks about all of them. Let’s go, let’s go to Peter. 1 Peter 4:10, because he brings us all together. All three words are in this one statement: as each one—everybody says «each one.» No, no, no; say it loud: «as each one.»
Okay, now notice it doesn’t say «as each minister.» It doesn’t say «as each pastor.» It doesn’t say «as each worship leader.» Each one, if you’re born again, if you’re filled with the Spirit, you have a gift. What is that gift? It is actually a God ability that supersedes natural ability that has been entrusted to you. As each one has received a gift, minister it. Notice the same thing. Remember Paul said, «Having gifts differing according to grace, let us use them.» Peter says, «Minister them.» That means use it.
See, let me say this to you. Look up at me. You can do one of three things with your gift as a steward. One of three things: You can use it to build yourself, and it’ll work. You can use it to build your agenda, and it’ll work. It’ll work; I mean, Whitney Houston had a gift. I was literally captivated by her gift, but I personally believe that gift was given for her to lead millions into the presence of God. I know if you’re a Whitney fan you’ll get upset with me; I’m not judging. I’m just saying I think that’s what it was for. Did she use it? How did she use it?
Because you can use your gift for yourself, or you can use it to build the kingdom, or you can sit on it and not use it at all. Those are the only three things you can do with the gift that God entrusted to you: build yourself, build the kingdom, or don’t use it at all. There is nothing else you can do with a gift other than one of those three things. So, ask yourself, «Am I using the gift of my life to build the kingdom? Am I using it to build myself, or am I not using it at all?» Because my Bible says each one. «Oh, I don’t have any gifts.» My Bible says each one! I’m going to believe my Bible, not you.
What is this gift? This gift gives you. Some gifts are clearly supernatural, clearly supernatural; other gifts look like natural abilities, but they’re above mainstream natural ability. Still a supernatural gift. Minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Manifold just means many sides; there are many different gifts. And you know what’s amazing to me? This is what’s amazing to me: my Bible says the parts of the body that are seen are not as valuable as the parts of the body that are not seen.
See, if you look at my body—Paul says the body of Christ is like a human being’s body; I got many different members. In other words, my fingers have abilities that my eyes don’t have; my eyes have abilities that my mouth doesn’t have; my mouth has ability my knee doesn’t have; my knee has an ability my liver doesn’t have; my liver has an ability that my elbow doesn’t have. I can go on and on and on. Happy! I’m going to say it again: happy is the man or woman who knows their gift and operates in it. Miserable is the person who tries to operate in somebody else’s gift.
Let me give you an example. Wouldn’t it be amazing if when I woke up this morning, my thumb said, «I’m going to speak at the Victory Conference tonight»? Matt, you’ve been doing this for way too long; it’s my turn; step aside. It has not the ability to do that! Now, isn’t this amazing? Paul says the parts that are not seen are more valuable. Legs get attention. Oh, she’s got a great set of legs, right? But you can live without a leg; but I’ve never seen somebody walk up to a woman and say, «Oh my gosh, what a liver you’ve got! That is gorgeous!»
Yet that liver is more important than her leg! Sure is quiet here; you still with me? See, why is it—let’s just do a little litmus test here—why is it if somebody says, «Oh, he’s got a call in his life,» what do you think? You think, «Oh, he’s called to be a preacher; he’s called to be in ministry; he’s called to be a missionary.» No! He may be called to be a businessman; he may be called to be a doctor; he may be called to be in education, a superintendent, or an entrepreneur in the marketplace. We’re all called, and with the calling come the gifts to accomplish the calling! Still with me?
I was playing golf, and this guy—everybody knows John Bevere likes golf—so I go all these places, and they call me; partners will call me and go, «Do you want to play?» This happened at Riviera. I was preaching at Dream Center. One of our partners called and said, «John, would you like to play Riviera?» I said, «Is the sky blue? Does the ocean have salt? Yes, I want to play Riviera!» So I flew in a day early; we played Riviera; it was a great round, and we were driving back to the hotel. Our ministry partner said, «John, I got a question for you.» I said, «Sure, what’s the question?»
He said, «I’ve worked so hard, long hours, to build my business up to nine million dollars. I’m turning 50. My wife’s cared for; she’s set for life; my children are set for life. He said, 'Why should I spend the decade of my 50s working hard to build the business up to 35 million? '» And I looked inside, and I said, «Holy Spirit, what do I say to him?» He gave me an answer. I said, «Okay, Scott. Now, this is about seven years ago.»
I said, «Scott, you know, I suppose I could say to you, 'Scott, I’ve been traveling all over the world, standing on platforms, preaching in languages, having translators preaching weird languages, eating strange food, fighting jet lag. I’ve written, you know…at that time, it was 17 books; now it’s 22.' I said, 'You know what? My wife’s set; she’s cared for for life. My children are cared for for life. Why should I write any more books? Why should I get any more planes and fight these cultures and these different nations? '» He laughs. He’s laughing at me; he said, «I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when you face Jesus.»
I said, «Scott, you just said the same thing!» His smirk went off his face, and a look of horror hit him. He actually took his eyes off a downtown L.A. freeway and looked at me and said, «What are you saying?» I said, «Scott, my gifts are to write, preach; yours is entrepreneurship and giving. I’ve connected the dots; you haven’t! I’m using my gifts to build the kingdom; you obviously are only using it to build your family.» Six months later, he calls me. I said, «Hey Scott, how’s it going?» He goes, «You want the truth?» I said, «Yeah.»
He said, «I’ve been haunted; I’ve been haunted every day by the words you spoke to me six months ago—in a good way, I’ve been haunted.» I said, «What are you doing about it?» He said, «I’m busting my butt to build my business up to 35 million so I can give more to the kingdom of God.» I said, «Good, Scott!»
Alright, now let’s go back to what Paul says here in Corinthians. Remember, he says, «Let a man so consider us the servants of Christ and stewards.» Right? Look at the very next verse. He says, «Moreover, it is required…» Everybody say «required.» By the way, I’m going to take a little—we’re going to take a little rabbit trail here. Let’s do verse one again. I’m going to have to quote it because I don’t have it. Paul said, «Let a man consider us the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.» What was Paul’s gift? He was stewarding the mystery of the grace of God.
Do you know what Paul said in another book? «If I don’t use that gift, woe is me!» Do you know whenever a person writes «woe is me» or «woe is anybody,» do you know what that means? Utter horror and doom and destruction. That is what the word «woe» means, because I have mishandled my stewardship. Something—see, my gift is not for me; it’s for you. So if I don’t exercise my gift, guess who gets denied? You! God doesn’t like that very much when His kids withhold what He gave them; His other kids withhold it.
You ever see their kids go, «No, no, that’s my toy»? Does that make your parents happy? No! You can’t touch it; that’s mine! You’re too serious for me right now; are you still with me? Okay, are you just listening really well? Is that what you’re doing? Okay? Are you getting something out of this? Give me a little encouragement.
Okay? Okay, alright! Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found…what? Say it! Shout it! Shout it! Okay, so I’m not going to take the time to do this; I have asked leadership groups all over the world—not just ministry leadership groups, I’ve asked business leadership groups; I’ve asked sports groups. Give me the definition of faithful. Yeah, you’ve heard me preach it; you’ve heard me, but you know this is the common response I’ve heard in every single group. I’ll give you a list: steadfast, dependable, reliable, loyal, true, trustworthy, devoted, truthful. That’s the number—these are all the top definitions.
Now, unless somebody’s heard me preach on this, I’ve never once—over the years I’ve been talking about this—I’ve never once heard somebody say «multiplication.» Yet this is one of the primary definitions of the word «faithful.» You say, «What? Multiplication?» No, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes, yes! You guys remember the parable of the talents? Right? Okay, Jesus tells this parable in Matthew 25. Matthew 25 is an important chapter because you only have three stories in this chapter that He tells: one of the wise and foolish virgins, the one of the talents, and then one of the sheep and the goats. Correct?
The parable of talents: He said the kingdom of heaven is like this: a man gathers his servants together and gives them talents. Now, a talent is a measure of weight, and normally it was a measure of either gold or silver. Okay, in this particular parable, I actually believe it was addressing silver, and there are reasons for it, and I write about it in the book. But one talent is approximately 75 pounds. 75 pounds of silver is worth roughly $18,000—no, what am I saying? Am I right? Yeah, I think it’s $18,000. Anyway, it’s a big amount!
So, in other words, what’s being implied here is each bag of silver is worth a lot, which means every gift that God gives His children is very valuable and should not be underestimated, like Timothy did. He underestimated the value of the gift that was in him. That’s one of the definitions of, «Do not neglect the gift that is in you.» He underestimated its worth. Well, I mean, I heard a statement that broke my heart. A very good medical doctor takes a week off of his practice to help his pastor with the big conference that his pastor is a good friend of mine. My good friend was walking through the auditorium—a big auditorium like this—and he saw the medical doctor, who he knew in his church, and he’s putting the pamphlets for all the delegates because it’s a leadership conference.
He said my pastor friend ran over and said, «Doc, Doc, no, we got interns; we got volunteers; we’ll do this.» «Ah, you don’t need to be doing this.» My friend said, «I got royally rebuked by that doctor.» He said, «Pastor, this is my one week a year I get to serve God. Please don’t take this from me!» My heart broke! I thought, so, one week a year, he gets to serve God; he doesn’t realize he is a gifted doctor that God is using to help save lives for 51 other weeks of the year! See, he hadn’t connected the dots.
He’s like the other guy in the car after the golf round. He underestimated the value of his gift. So, he calls these servants together, right? And he delivers his goods to them. Again, your ability is God’s ability in you. When He gave five to another, He gave two to another, and He gave one to each according to his own ability. So, let’s personalize this so it really makes sense. Alright, we’re going to say Ashley gets five bags of silver, David gets two talents, and Larry gets one. If your name is Larry, I’m not picking on you!
So, what does Ashley do? Ashley, who had received the five talents, went and traded. In other words, she goes into action; she doesn’t hide. She doesn’t go to the hills waiting for the rapture because in Luke’s account, He says, «Occupy until I come.» She goes into action, and what does she do? She makes her five into ten. Dave makes his two into four, right? But Larry, he buries his; he doesn’t use his talent.
So, let’s just make sure we all understand this. Ashley has five; she multiplies; she has ten. Dave has two; he multiplies; he ends up with four. Larry maintains; everybody say «maintains.» Now, look at this. After a long time, the lord of these servants came and settled accounts with them. So, Ashley, who had received the five talents, came and brought five other talents, saying, «Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I’ve gained five more talents beside them.»
Watch what the master says to her. «Well done, good and faithful servant.» Everybody say «faithful.» Now, look at this: «You were faithful.» He now—listen, He directly identifies faithful with multiplication. There’s nothing else in this parable about what she did. It doesn’t say she was sweet, she was kind; she was trustworthy; she was devoted; she showed up at service on time. Didn’t say any of that! Is all that faithful? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
But what Jesus is pointing out—one of the primary definitions of faithful is to multiply. «You were faithful over a few things; I’ll make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.» Then Dave comes along; he says the same thing. Right? Look what the Lord says to him: «Well done, good and faithful.» Wow!
Then, and you know what’s amazing? If you go to those two verses word for word, they’re identical! Dave doesn’t get a smaller reward than Ashley. Oh, I hope you got what I just said! Oh, Billy Graham’s going to stand in the front lines of heaven; he probably will! But I know a lot of great moms that are going to stand there with him because they were faithful with the three kids entrusted to them.
Alright, let’s move on. Alright, so Larry, who had received the one talent, came and said, «Lord, I knew you’d be a hard man.» Number one problem here: He doesn’t know the character of his master! Okay? «Reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered seed.» And I was afraid—oh, just like Timothy! Timothy was what? Intimidated, afraid; and the gift of God in his life is dormant.
Now, there’s a difference between Timothy and this guy, okay? And I don’t want to go into it, and I talk about this extensively in the book that’s coming out in November. But the second thing that caused him not to multiply was the fear of failure or the fear of something else, or the fear of what his master would think. Fear is a terrible taskmaster! If you want to be delivered from the fear of God, it’s very simple: lay your life down for Jesus, because Jesus said, «No greater love is this than a man lays down his life for his friend.» Your very best friend should be Jesus! Lay your life down for Him, and the Bible says, «Perfect love casts out fear.»
There it goes! Never forget, I was in San Diego, and I was there, and I heard—I heard a voice, I heard a voice: «So-and-so is a great minister; his kid was electrocuted.» «So-and-so was a great minister; his kid died in a car wreck.» «So-and-so was a great minister; his kid drowned.» «So-and-so is a great minister; he lost three of his children.» I mean, I was gripped. Here I’ve got these beautiful boys, and I was gripped. I remember I said, «God, God, I want this happening with my boys.» And the Lord spoke something to me; I’ll never forget. He said, «Son, any area of your life that you have fear in is an area you still own; you haven’t given it to me.»
You haven’t put it under the cross! Remember Jesus said, «Take up your cross»? I jumped up; I only had one shoe off; I didn’t care! I jumped up and screamed, «Addison’s name! I said, 'Addison! ' He’s not mine!» Then I said, «Austin, he’s not mine!» I said, «They’re yours, God! I’m only a steward of who belongs to you. You can do whatever you want. You want to take them halfway around the world; take them halfway around the world! They’re yours! You want to take them home; you take them home! You do whatever you want!» I said, «Devil, you’re not touching them.» You know what? I think Addison was about eight years old.
I have never—not even for three seconds—had fear for my children, and they’re not my children! I call them «God’s kids that I’m a steward of.» I’ve never had fear for him since! Still with me? Okay, so He says, «Hey, look here! Here’s what’s yours; it’s yours; I’m giving it back to you. I didn’t steal it.» But his lord answered and said, «You wicked and lazy servant!» So, what is Jesus saying in this parable in regard to our labor? Everybody say «labor.» We’re talking labor here; we’re not talking about salvation; we’re talking about labor. In regard to our labor, God views those who multiply as faithful and good.
Those who maintain are wicked and lazy. You still with me? I mean, that’s a different paradigm! So, look what happens in this parable! This is amazing! So, take the talent from Larry and give it to Ashley, who is ten talents. So, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. Larry ends up with zero; Ashley ends up with 11. You tracking with me?
So now, look up at me; I want everybody to look up. Look up at me, please! Look up at me! I’m in prayer; I hadn’t read this parable in probably months. One more hour in prayer—not one more hour; one more hour! —and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, «Son, you know how God says, 'My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts? '» He said, «Son, I am not socialistic in the way I think; I am actually more capitalistic in the way I think.»
Hold it, hold it, hold it! I said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I can’t preach that! I don’t even comprehend that!» Now remember, I’m not reading this parable like you are, right? And the Holy Spirit said, «Go read the parable of the talents,» and so I’m going through it carefully, and I realize, «My gosh! Ashley ends up with 11; Larry ends up with zero.» Right? At that time, I didn’t give them names; I’m doing that just for you!
So, can I show you what the socialistic thinking God would do? Okay, they would all get three. The millennial socialistic thinking God, right? Okay, everybody gets three; everybody wins. Let me be a dad here for a minute, okay? Know that I love you; know that I’m not putting you down. I’m trying to help you think like God thinks! Okay?
Alright, so they all end up with three! Excuse me, they all begin with three. After all, we cannot give one guy five and one guy one, so we have two faithful and we have a wicked servant. Remember, these guys are servants; they’re not heathen or outsiders! They are in the kingdom.
So, you’re going to have to deal with this statement. The guy called wicked and lazy is in the kingdom! He has been given the gift; he is called a servant! So, the two faithful servants, they multiply. So, what do they do? They end up with six, and the guy who’s wicked and lazy, what does he do? He keeps three.
So, this is what the socialistic thinking God does: he will take one from Ashley, one from Dave, and give it to Larry! So they all end up with five! Something happened to me when I turned 60! It’s just really fun! I just got this, like… I love people so much, I don’t care anymore what they think about me! Now I’m going to tell you this: it’s actually going to get worse, so I want to prepare you, okay? It’s actually going to get a little worse here!
Look at the next verse: «For to everyone who has [who's the people that have?] the ones who multiply, more will be given to them, and he or she will have an abundance!» Abundance? No, that’s no, no, no! We’re all supposed to be like communistic or, you know, living in communes, and everybody has equal and everything? Really? Really? Don’t take a couple scriptures out of the book of Acts and totally take them out of context in a time of persecution and a time when there was a need!
You know, I’ll be honest with you; I tell people all the time, «My home is your home!» I tell my friends, «My home is your home, or you can… this is your… there’s a mentality of, 'Hey, we’re one family, ' but when it comes to…I’m going to just really say it here; I’m good! Okay.
If you look at our old model missions, we just created dependency on us. The way we gave is the most valuable thing you can give to a person: revelation knowledge, because that develops faith. I mean, I just read it in the book of Psalms this morning. I’d rather have the wisdom of God than all the riches in the world! Why? Because the wisdom of God will get me whatever I need to be effective!
The riches of the world can be lost, just like that! You can build—you can spend a couple hundred thousand dollars to build a building for somebody in a city—in a village somewhere, and does that leader now have the faith to maintain it, or is he going to still be dependent on the American missionary? See, Alexander Graham Bell—Alexander Graham Bell was worth $75 billion in today’s currency! If he would have been alive today, can you imagine what he would have been worth? His net worth was $75 billion.
Do you know what he did? He is one of my heroes. He gave most of that fortune to building libraries! He built almost 3,000 libraries! He built 1,701 of those libraries in all but three states between 1886 and 1918. When did America become the nation—the great nation—she became, as far as the powerful nation she became? Between 1885 and 1920! Why? The public was given knowledge!
God says in Isaiah 5:13, „My people go into captivity because of lack of knowledge.“ Why does God say the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? Because why? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God! What is most needed? And I can say this because we have ten years of experience that I’m talking about right now in these nations!
It’s revelation knowledge that builds faith in people’s hearts so that they don’t look to America, but they look to heaven! Right? God’s first command to us when He put us on the earth was „be fruitful and multiply.“ He wasn’t saying just have babies! He was saying whatever I give you, return it back to be multiplied! What did God give Messenger International? What did God place on Lisa and John Bevere’s life?
Let me use Lisa and I as a quick example, and I’m going to close. What revelation knowledge? The „Bait of Satan,“ „Under Cover,“ all the fear of the Lord, all these messages—they’re not my messages! They’re really God’s message! I am stewarding something that came from Him. My—listen! I flunked the tests on reading comprehension! Forget writing: what was even worse was reading comprehension! And you know what God was saying to me when He said, „Son, keep that cassette tape“?
He was saying, „Son, you do understand anything you have that’s valuable is a gift from me, but it’s not for you; it’s for the people that I send you to.“ Any gift that you have in your life is not for you; it’s really for others! So, ten years ago, I come back from playing a round of golf. Lisa’s in England speaking for Charlotte Scandrick. I’m in my basement reading the book of Daniel. The Spirit of God comes on me and says, „Son, you’ve been faithful with the English-speaking community; I want you to get your books into the hands of every pastor in the world that can’t afford them.“
I’m like, „What? What?!“ Now let’s take it back a few years! God tells me to write, right? I spent a whole year writing that book because you’ve got to grow in the grace of God. Okay? It took a whole year. This book I just wrote took less than four months. It took a whole year!
There’s a lot … I could tell you story after story. I mean, oh, it was a nightmare! I finally get it done. I send it to two very well-known publishers; they both reject it! „It’s too preachy,“ that’s what one said. The other one never even responded to me! So, you know what I did? God said, „Give me another book.“ He said, „Write another book.“
So, because I self-published, I self-published that book—the first book that took me a year called „Victory in the Wilderness.“ So, little 80-member churches where I was going to preach, no bookstores carrying them; no publisher wants them! Then God says, „Write this book called 'Voice of One Crying.'“ So I spent another nine, ten months writing that one, and nobody wants it. Matter of fact, my second-year Bible school student—my Bible, excuse me, my Bible school teacher—I sent it to her, and she hated it! She didn’t like it! That was another blow!
Anyway, no publisher wants it; self-publish it! Third book, a friend calls me one day and says, „I want you to go on lunch with a friend of mine.“ I said, „Okay.“ I didn’t know that this guy—I didn’t know—he told me beforehand—guy’s a publisher of the one who rejected my first manuscript! Said it was too preachy; he’s the new publisher; he’s the head of the whole publishing company! He’s very well-known publishing company! He says, „What are you preaching?“ I started talking about offenses. He says, „You know, we can’t publish this! We only publish well-known authors!“
I said, „You didn’t ask me to give you a message for a book! You asked me what I’m preaching! This is just what I’m preaching!“ He said, „Oh my gosh! Yeah, sorry.“ Ten minutes later, he goes, „Can you give me a manuscript?“ I said, „For what?“ He said, „You said you couldn’t publish my book!“ He said, „No! I want to publish this one!“ And that was „Bait of Satan.“
Okay, so then I’m frustrated because I’m preaching in churches and I can preach one chapter out of 15 or 16 chapters, and I’m so frustrated! I’m like, „God! You’ve got to give me an idea how to get this message into people!“ Because a lot of people don’t buy books! God gave me the idea to do a curriculum, right? I do the whole curriculum, right? 12 lessons, go through the chapter, right? Do workbook. We hired a company, and now over 25,000 churches in America are using the curriculum!
And that’s when I went into my basement; God says you’ve been faithful, and this is where this whole message came from! The word He used was „faithful,“ because it went from just self-publishing books when nobody wanted books to staying obedient to all of a sudden now a publisher publishes it, and it becomes a national bestseller. Then all of a sudden making these curriculums, and all of a sudden—my people telling me „That’s a crazy idea! Nobody wants curriculums!“ But yeah, I know them! I said to my board, „I know God’s put this in my heart.“ They said, „Do what’s in your heart.“
And then 25,000 churches are using them! Like, I mean, crazy amounts of people using them! And then God says you’ve been faithful. What does He mean? You’ve multiplied what I gave you! Now I want you to go to the next level; I want you to get your books in the hands of every pastor in the world! So, I go into a meeting six months later, and I said, „How many books did we give to pastors overseas last year?“ I opened up, you know, a vision meeting.
We gave away 33,000! And the person who said it to me was all excited. I said, „That’s pathetic! This year we’re going to give away 250,000 books!“ My wife said she tasted throw-up in her mouth. He argued with me for 20 minutes, but I finally slammed my fist on the table. I said, „Hey, we’re gonna give 250,000 books away this year!“ That year, we gave 271,700 books! Right? 46 countries!
So then I’m in Beirut, Lebanon, that year, ministering pastors from all over the Middle East! This guy from Iraq looks at me and says, „You’ve been a dad to me! I’ve read everything I can get my hands on of yours! He said, 'I’ve even used my credit card to download your messages! ' I checked out—I went up to my room, and I’ll never forget in Beirut at 11, and I screamed! I said, „God, you’ve got to show me how to get these messages into people’s hands!“
And God said, „Put a DVD-ROM in the back of your book and put on hundreds of dollars worth of resources! Give them the curriculum; give them the videos; give them the audios in Farsi, in Arabic, in Urdu, in simplified Chinese!“ And all right—like, oh my gosh! One month later, a guy flies from Texas up to Colorado Springs. He doesn’t even know; he doesn’t really know what we’re doing; he’s got a little—he’s heard a little snippet of it, and he’s crying!
He passes over a check to me for $750,000! I’m like, oh my—he says, „I know what you’re doing for pastors overseas! This is for that,“ right? I’m like, „Oh my gosh!“ Right? The next year after 271,000 the first year we gave, next year was 1.3 million! Next year it was 2.7 million! Next year it was 3.6 million! Now we’ve been able to give away over 37 million resources to pastors and leaders—pastors and leaders in 226 nations! We’re only 14 nations short of the whole world!
Why? Because Jesus said, „Go and make disciples of all nations!“ And you know what’s happening? Exactly what I believed! They’re getting the faith. They’re reading these messages; it’s stirring faith in their heart, and now they’re doing things like they never would have done before! They’re flourishing in their ministries and their businesses and things like they’ve never flourished before. This is what we’re called to do! We’re called to be multipliers!
But if I went out right now and I said, „Oh, I want to be like the billion-dollar businessman I had lunch with last year,“ who was floundering in business, floundering, and one day he’s sitting in church and he thought, „I’m just as called as my pastor; he depends on the Holy Spirit; why don’t I depend on the Holy Spirit? I’m doing it the way every other businessman in the world does it!“
So, he said, „John, I started with a pad of paper! Every morning I had a meeting—a business meeting with the Holy Spirit! He said, „I’d do exactly what He told me!“ He said, „Some of the crazy—I now own like 20 hospitals in Vietnam! I own the second largest bank in the world! I’m a multi-billionaire,“ and he was flying around the United States doing his God tour where he goes to ministers that he wants to talk to, and he asks us to speak into his life.
Okay, what’s he doing? He’s multiplying! Some of you, your parents told you you couldn’t do this! Some of you, your teachers told you you couldn’t! Your coaches told you you couldn’t! The people in church say, „Who do you think you are?“ You’re called to multiply! God is the one that says, „You are called to multiply!“ You are called to impact multiple people’s lives!
Now, you try to do what I do; if I try to be like that businessman, I’d flop! I’d fall right on my face! Why? Because the gift in me is not entrepreneur business! The gift to me is writing and preaching! You try to do what I do; you try to do what Pastor Paul does; you may flop! You probably will! But you’ve got a gift, and if you tap into that gift and you cry out to God and you don’t—listen, I could have—I could have been here for three more hours, and I won’t be because I respect the time; I respect your time—we’ve got to be here early in the morning!
But hey, all the times I felt like a failure! I remember laying on the carpet, looking at the ceiling at one little spot for 30 minutes because one of my dear friends told me my book had too many scriptures! On the first month of its release, „Victory in the Wilderness,“ I thought, „I’ve wasted all this time writing something I don’t even like doing"—at that time, I love doing it now! But I was obedient!
I will teach you, God says to prophets. Some of you need to listen a little more! Instead of going in and praying in tongues non-stop, you need to listen a little more! Don’t get me wrong; sometimes I’m praying in tongues, and the ideas bubble up! I’m not saying that! But I’m saying you need to listen! You do what that billionaire businessman did! I need you to multiply! You need me to multiply because then we will get this job done!
Did you get something out of this tonight? If you’re in here tonight, you’d say, «You know what? I’m not multiplying.» Let me tell you, you’ve got to first multiply in that which belongs to another! Jesus said if you’re not faithful in that which is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? Some of you aren’t multiplying because you weren’t favorable with what would belong to somebody else—in other words, you weren’t multiplying as a youth pastor to your senior pastor! Ooh! That one hurt! There are reasons, but many of you, you have been faithful in the sense of you’ve been dependable; you’ve been reliable! You’ve been very good with what’s been entrusted to you!
You’ve worked hard; you’ve worked for other people, other business owners, as if it was your own business! But now you’re in your own, and you’re struggling and saying, «John, I’m not multiplying!» Guess what? I believe the grace of God is here tonight to impart into your life to multiply! When the world is saying shut down, when the world is saying conserve, when the world is saying hoard, when the world is saying, «You better store up,» you’re going to go forth, and you’re going to grow fat like stall-fed calves and it’s going to be well for you!
Tell the righteous it will be well for them! That’s the word of the Lord for you! So if you’re in here tonight and you say, «Man, I’m maintaining,» I mean, as you preached this whole message, I can see I have had a coasting maintenance attitude! I have done just enough to live comfortably for me and my family, and I realize I’m not multiplying! And you know what? I’m ready to multiply for the glory of God! If that’s you, just stand up! I want to pray for you tonight! Just stand up! Beautiful, beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!
If you’re in here and you’d say, «I don’t even know what my gift is! Would you please pray for me that God would show me what my gift is?» You stand up! You’ve got to know what you’re gifted to do before you can start multiplying, right? I’m looking at about 80 percent of people standing right now! Did you get something out of this? I may have been a little strong, a little brash, but I hope you know it’s because I love you!
I really want the best for you! I want you to go farther than I’ve gone! Than Lisa’s gone! I know Sharon’s sitting over there saying the same thing. She wants you to go farther than she’s gone! She’s proven it with her own son and daughter-in-law, along with her other two daughters! She’s proven that! I want you to go farther! I want you to see more! I want you to impact more! I want you to disciple the nations!
Lift your hands up! Heavenly Father, I pray for these men and women. First of all, I want you to say this out loud; we’re in the presence of God right now. Say, «Father, forgive me that I have not had a multiplying mentality! Forgive me for undervaluing and underestimating the giftings that you’ve placed in my life! Forgive me for not searching and seeking for you to know the gifts in my life! But from this moment forward, I repent, and I thank you for the cleansing blood of Jesus!
From this moment forward, I’m asking you to make it clear to me. Give me obvious signs. Show me in my heart; let others confirm it to me what the gifts are on my life! And then, Father, I’m asking you for the wisdom—for the strategic heavenly ideas to multiply! I ask it in Jesus' mighty name!» Now lift your hands up; let me pray for you: Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for every person that has their hands lifted up.
Some are gifted in giving. Some are gifted in surgical procedures. Some are gifted in education! Some are gifted, Lord God, in media; there are so many gifts! There are so many parts of the body; it would take me an hour or two or three to list them all! I believe there are even more parts, more functions in your body! Each is unique, and each is important in building your house! I’m asking you, Holy Spirit—yes, right now you’re even here, your presence—I can sense you upon the people now!
I see like a blanket of His presence coming on you right now as you’re standing and your hands are lifted up! Some of your hands are even tingling; some of your lips are numb! It’s right now; the spirit of the living God is touching and anointing you! The anointing is what enhances our gifts; it’s what makes them set apart, sacred and holy, fit for the Master’s use! So, Father, this is the people that have walked before you blamelessly, followed you hard, followed you with all of their heart! Now may your giftings be revealed, and may the wisdom be given for them to multiply!
There’s His presence right there, right there, right there! That’s the Spirit of the living God; He’s here now! Lord, I thank you that our lives will never be the same again! In Jesus' mighty name!