Keys to Gods Abundance.docx

7/27/2019 Keys to Gods Abundance.docx

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Keys to Gods Abundance

In this series, Derek Prince works through The Promises, The Conditions and The Purposes ofGod's abundance. The messages were originally given in 1978, so some of the Dollar prices are

out of date, but the principles are enduring.

The Promises

Introduction

Five Principles:

Principle 1- God's Provision is in His Promises

Principle 2- The Promises are our Inheritance

Principle 3- The Promises are an Expression of God's Will

Principle 4- All of God's Promises are Available to us throughChrist

Principle 5- The fulfillment of God's Promises does not dependupon our circumstances, but upon our meeting God's conditions

Promises, Conditions and "No" is an Answer

Is Abundance Absolutely Good?

The Source of Abundance

Obedience to God Brings Abundance

The Conditions

Introduction to the Conditions

The Divine Exchange

Jesus Exhausted the Povery Curse

Five Conditions:

1st Condition- Our Motives and Attitudes Must be Right

2nd Condition- Faith is Essential

3rd Condition- Giving is a Scriptural Way to Show Honour4th Condition- Right Thinking, Speaking, Acting

5th Condition- Let God Add in His Way and His Time
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The Purposes

Purpose 1- To Provide a Dwelling Place for God

Purpose 1 continued- Solomon's Temple

Purpose 2- God's Provision for His Dwelling Place in Our Day

Introduction to The Promises

In beginning this morning I just want to put before you some of the basic words or conceptsthat are used in this connection. Theyre not all synonymous, they have different shades ofmeaning. Ill deal with the positive and then Ill deal with the negative. There are about fourmain groups of words on the positive side. Rich and riches; wealth and wealthy; prosper,prosperous, prosperity: thats a verb, an adjective and a noun. And again, abound, abundant,abundance. Just let me repeat those once so that you can absorb them. Rich and riches. Wealthand wealthy. Prosper, prosperous, prosperity. Abound, abundant, abundance.

Now, theres an important distinction. When we use the words rich and riches, wealth andwealthy, we speak about somebody who has considerable financial and material assets. But whenwe speak about prosper and the related words and abound and the related words it does notnecessarily imply that the person who does that has a lot of money in the bank or owns greatmaterial possessions. So, theres a difference. Actually, Gods promise is more specificallyabundance than it is wealth. I think in a little whilemaybe we should deal with that now.

Abundance really means that you have all that you need and something to spare to give to others.Thats the essence of abundance. Ill say it again. It means that you have all that you need, thereis no need in your life, no lack; and you have more than you need to give to others.

The word prosper, especially as its used in the Bible, has a connotation of success. It doesntnecessarily mean tremendous material wealth or possessions. One of the most interestingexampleswell, let me put two scriptures together.

In 3 John 1:2. John says:Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health as thy soul

prospereth.

I think thats a beautiful statement of the will of God for the committed believer. Gaius, to whomthat epistle was written, was a model believer. If you study the epistle, he was walking in all thetruth that God had made available. The apostle John writing, I believe, as the mouthpiece of theHoly Spirit said to him, Beloved, I wish above all things [or I pray above all things] that thoumayest prosper, be in health as thy soul prospereth.Those are the three realms: the spiritual,the physical, the material. The will of God is good in every one of them.
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The word thats translated prosper there means literally to have a prosperous or successfuljourney. In Romans 1 Paul says, hes praying that he may have a prosperous journey by the willof God to the Christians at Rome. Its the same word. I believe Godanswered that prayer andyou can find the answer described in Acts 27 and 28. But Paul did not travel first class, he

traveled as a prisoner in chains. He went through a tremendous storm, it seemed as if the wholeship and all who were on it would be lost. They survived the storm, no one on the ship was lost,they arrived in the islands and had what you would call a spiritual revival and when they left, theislanders loaded them with all that they needed for the rest of their journey. He had a prosperousjourney but it wasnt exactly a comfortable journey and he didnt travel first class.

So, I want you to see that when we use the words prosper and abound were not necessarilytalking about people whom the world would classify as being very wealthy or very rich. So, justquickly again, to lay the basis, lets take those four different concepts and I think now you cansee a certain difference. Rich and riches. Wealth and wealthy. Those are basically synonymous.Prosper, prosperous, prosperity relates to doing the thing successfully. The opposite, in a sense,

is failure. Abound, abundant, abundance means that you are not living in want or lack orfrustration. You may not have much, you may not have anything in the bank. I always say aboutJesus, he didnt have a big bank account though they did have a bag in which they took theoffering. But, my description of the way Jesus lived was he used his Fathers credit card and itwas always honored!

Actually, very wealthy men really dont need a lot of cash. I was with a wealthy man in oneplace once and he went into a restaurant and gave me a beautiful meal and he didnt evenproduce a credit card, he just signed his name on the bill. That was enough, they knew it wouldbe taken care of. So, lets not just focus onthe idea of having a lot of money in the bank, thatsnot essentially what were talking about.

Lets look at the opposite words which are pretty obvious, I think. The ones Ive listed are asfollows. Poor and poverty. Want, need, lack. Fail and failure. I think its pretty obvious how theyrelate to the other words that weve spoken about. Ill just go through them again. Poor andpoverty. Want, need, lack. Fail and failure.

Principle 1

Im going to state five basic principles. The first principle is that Gods provision is in hispromises. Id like you to turn to 2 Peter 1, well just read verses 24:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our

Lord.

Without pausing to dwell on that, notice that the Chris tian life is a life of multiplication. Its notstatic, its not just holding on to what youve got, its not even merely addition. Itsmultiplication. Its all through the knowledge of God and of Jesus. Everything that we ever needis all channeled to us through God and through Jesus. We dont need any other ultimate source of


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supply but God and Jesus.

Then verse 3 comes out with a most amazing statement.

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness

. . .

Stop there and note the tense. Its the perfect tense. Its very, very emphatic in the Greeklanguage. God has already given to us all that we are ever going to need for time and eternityFor every area of our lives, for life and godliness. God has already given it to us. I want toemphasize that. Many, many times we pray on the basis of a misunderstanding. Were askingGod to give us something he has already given us. Its not easy for God to answer those prayersbecause in answering them he would support the misunderstanding. Sometimes we have to adjustour thinking in order to pray the kind of prayer that God is able to answer.

Now, the second half of verse 3 says:

. . . through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue.

Notice again its all included in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Greek says called us to hisown glory and virtue. Not our glory, its his. Its not our virtue, its his. So, God has alreadygiven us everything were ever going to need and its allin the knowledge of Jesus. The Greekword can be translated acknowledging. It means both knowledge and acknowledging. Its notmerely that we intellectually know about Jesus, it means that we effectively acknowledge him inour lives.

Verse 4 contains the next vital part of this revelation.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises . . .

Heres the key. God has already given us everything were going to need. Where is it? Its in Hispromises. In the promises of His word. The way I present this is Gods provision is in Hispromises. I think if you can grasp that and hold onto it it could have a tremendous effect on yourChristian life. Id like you to say that with me. Gods provision is in his promises. Lets say itagain. Gods provision is in his promises.

Now, looking at the end of verse 4 we come to another breathtaking statement. It says:

. . . by these [thats the promises] ye might be partakers of the divine nature . . .

I just wonder whether contemporary Americans understand that language. I dont know how tosay it any better. It means that we become partakers of Gods own nature. We receive the actualnature of God. We become divine. You might say thats a risky thing to say, and it is. But Jesussaid when he was challenged about being the Son of God, he quoted one of the psalms and hesaid, If ye called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot bebroken.Thats quoted from a psalm which says, I said ye are gods.God actually spoke to


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man and said, I said you are gods. Jesus gives us the divine commentary. What was the basis?Its because the word of God came to them. If ye call them gods unto whom the word of Godcame, and the scripture cannot be broken.

So, because the word of God comes to us through the promises of God, we can become partakers

of Gods nature. We can become divine. I realize that statement can be taken and misused but Ibelieve it is actually, in the way that Ive presented it, an accurate representationof what thescripture teaches.

Then the final part of that revelation is:

. . . having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

In proportion as we become partakers of the divine nature we are delivered from the corruptionthat is in this world. The divine nature and corruption are incompatible. The divine nature isincorruptible but everything in this world is corruptible. As we become partakers of the nature of

God, we are delivered from the corruptible. Id like to go through that again and I invite you tomeditate on it because the scope of that revelation is such you cannot absorb it in just a fewminutes. It demands that you expose your whole mind and being to that truth and really live in it.

Going back to verse 3. Gods divine power has already given unto us everything were evergoing to need for time and eternity. Its all included in knowing or acknowledging Jesus. Theprovision of God is in his promises. As we appropriate the promises we become partakers ofGods nature. And as we become partakers of Gods nature we are delivered from the corruptionthat is in this world. I think Im going to say that again. It may not come out exactly the same butIll do my best. Why dont we say it together? Or rather, you say it after me. God has alreadygiven us everything were ever going to need for time and eternity. Its all included in knowingJesus. Gods provision is in his promises. As we appropriate his promises we become partakersof his nature. And as we become partakers of his nature we escape the corruption of this world.All right. After that I think the only thing you can say is praise the Lord!

Principle number one, Gods provision is in his promises.

Principle 2

Principle number two, the promises are our inheritance. Thats what God is bringing us into.Theres a very simple parallel between the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament

under a leader named Joshua, God brought his people into the Promised Land. In the NewTestament under a leader named Jesuswhich in Hebrew is the same word as JoshuaGodbrings his people into a land of promises. Old Covenant, a Promised Land. New Covenant, a landof promises. Turn for a moment to Joshua 1 and just see the basic conditions which God gave toJoshua. Joshua 1, beginning at verse 2. The Lord is speaking toMoses. He says:

Moses my servant is dead . . .


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I think thats very significant. I think before we come into something new there always has to bea death of something old. I think the spiritual life, in a certain sense, is like the seasons of theyear. There is a continuing, ongoing cycle of seasons. We have spring, summer with itsabundance. Then we have the fall, a time of withering. Winters a time of death. And then spring,

the time of renewal and resurrection again. I find this is a principle that goes through our lives.God only blesses that which has died and been resurrected. When I was reasoning with the Lordabout that because it didnt fit in with my own personal wish and desire at that particularmoment, I said, Lord, why is it that you can only bless that which you resurrect? I felt I gotthis answer. Because when God resurrects something, he only resurrects what he wants. We havegiven it to him and given him the right only to resurrect that which he wants. So, there had to bea death of Moses and of that whole generation, in a sense, before the new purpose of God couldbe unfolded through Joshua.

Moses my servant is dead . . .

Somebody said once God buries his servants and carries on his work. And God gave greatattention to burying Moses, thats a significant thing. I mean, he did it in person. Thatsremarkable. Also, God is really an understanding person. He didnt ask the children of Israel toact as though they didnt care about Moses, he gave them 30 days to mourn for Moses and get itout of their system. Then he said, Now, get ready, were going to move on.

I find that thats true. I find people who dont know how to express grief and just bottle it up andit comes up later. Itsvery unhealthy to adopt this spartan attitude, I really dont care. Youknow, somebody has died but Well carry on. It doesnt work. Its much better to say, I docare. Its painful but Ill get over it.

Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people . ..

And as I was reading that verse this morning I noticed something Id never seen before, that Godwasnt going to leave any of the people behind. We would be very content in most circles todayif we could get 90 percent of the people over. God said everyones got to go. I really believethats how God views our situation today. Everybodys got to go.

. . . thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of

Israel.

Notice the tenses. God says there, I give them the land.Its present tense. At this moment I amgiving them the land.

Then he says in verse 3:Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto

Moses.

Once God gave it, it was given. But from then on it was in the past tense. Now Ive given it


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unto you. And from that moment onwards, as I understand it, the land legally belonged to thechildren of Israel.

We have to distinguish between the legal and the experiential. Many times when you talk aboutbeing baptized in the Holy Spirit or receiving some further provision of God, you talk to

somebody from a fundamentalist background and they might say, I got it all when I was saved,theres nothing more to get. One way to answer that is, If you got it all, where is it all?Nevertheless, I do believe that, in a sense, its correct. Legally when you came to Christ youbecame an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. The whole inheritance is legally yours.

Theres a great difference between the legal and the experiential. My little quip about this is ifJoshua and the children of Israel had been fundamentalists, at that point they would have linedup on the east bank of the River Jordan, folded their arms, looked across the river and said,Weve got it all. Legally correct, experientially incorrect. If they had been Pentecostalsthis

is just a sort of, you know, a parablethey would have crossed the River Jordan, lined up on thewest bank, folded their arms and said, Weve got it all. But theyd just gone one stage further,thats all.

The interesting thing about the children of Israel taking the Promised Land is that God broughtthem in by a miracle. He gave them their first victory over Jericho by a miracle. After that, theyhad to fight for ever other thing they got. Dont expect to get your inheritance without conflict.The way that they were to get it was every place that you put the sole of your foot upon shall beyours.So, legally its all yours. Experientially youve got to move in and assert your claim towhat God has given you. Put your foot on it. I think thats a very vivid picture for asserting,God has promised this to me and I know lay claim to my promise. So,

The second principle is the promises are our inheritance.

Principle 3

The third principle is the promises are the expression of Gods will. God never promisessomething that was not his will. Its very important to understand that. Suppose I have a youngson and I say to him, Now,if you sweep the garage out and put everything in order there and do

a good job, Ill give you a dollar. So my son goes in, sweeps the garage out, does a good joband everythings beautiful. He comes back and says, Dad, I wantmy dollar. What would youthink of me if I said, I never meant to give you the dollar. It wasnt my will. I mean, youdwrite me off as a failure as a father, as an unreliable and undependable person. So it is with thepromises of God. We never can come to God at any time having met the conditions and expectGod to say, I didnt really mean to give it to you. I was just leading you on. Its obvious thatwhen we look at it, God doesnt act that way. The promises that God gives are the expression ofwhat he wants to do.


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When we know Gods will we pray with confidence. Turn to 1 John 5:1415:

This is the confidence that we have in Him . . .

Thats in God. The word translated confidence there means freedom of speech. It was a veryimportant word in the political background of the Greek people. One of the things that theyfought for in democracy was freedom of speech which is, of course, very familiar to Americandemocracy. This word means basically freedom of speech. This is the absolute freedom we haveto say what we believe about God. This is the confidence that we have in him. I point that outbecause I think that confidence needs to be expressed in what you say. If you dont say it, youdont have it.

This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, heheareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have thepetitions that we desired of him.

Notice once we know were asking for something according to the will of God,we know wehave it. Not were going to have it but we have it. Mark 11:24, Jesus says:

Therefore I say unto you whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receivethem . . .

When? I didnt hear you. When we pray.

. . . and ye shallhave them.

One thing is present, another is future. The receiving is present, the actual experiential workingout of what we have received is often future. But if we dont receive now we wont have then.One of the great keys to successful petitioning is receiving when we pray. Therefore I say untoyou whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray . . . The King James says believe that youreceive but the Greek says believe that ye receive them and it shall be given unto you.

And here John says if we ask anything according to his will we know that he hears us. And if weknow he hears, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.One of the devils favorite tactics is to get us to put off to some future moment the thing that weought to appropriate now.

In my book Faith to Live By I illustrate this with a story thats always been very vivid to me. Asa young man about 20, a student at Cambridge University, the university gave me a grant to go toGreece because I was studying Greek philosophy and culture to look at the monuments and thestatues and all those things. I went with another friend of mine who is the son of the vicechancellor of Cambridge University, a close friend of mine. We stayed in a hotel in Athens.After about three days I got tired of ruins, antiquities an all the rest and decided Id seen enoughof them. So, we had a good time in Greece!


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Every day when we walked out of our hotel there was a little group of shoe blacks on hesidewalk waiting to polish our shoes. If youve never been in the Middle East or theMediterranean countries you wont understand this. But in those countries shoe blacks aredetermined. I mean, they are going to polish your shoes whether you want it or not. Its evenworse in Cairo. So, theyd say, Shine your shoes? or Polish your shoes? or whatever it is.

We would say in Greek no, "ookh!". When you say no in Greek you say "ookh!" and you throwyour head back at the same time. They polished our shoes anyhow. So this wasnt working.

One morning my friend thought up a scheme and when we got out of the hotel door and the shoeblacks approached us and said, Polish your shoes? he said "aurion". How many of you canguess what "aurion" is? Tomorrow, thats right. And that took themoff their guard. We got bythe without having our shoes polished because they didnt quite know, do we or dont we?

I think many, many times when youre on your way to appropriate Gods blessings the devil says"aurion", tomorrow. You just hesitate for a moment and you dont appropriate. The scripture

says what is the accepted time? Now. People say today is the accepted time. It doesnt say that. Itsays now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. God lives in eternal now. When youneed God its never yesterday and never tomorrow, he never says I was and he never says Iwill be, he always says I am.

The third principle is Gods promises are the expression of his will.

Principle 4

The fourth principle, all Gods promises are now available to us through Christ. Turn to 2Corinthians 1:20. There are many different ways of translating this verse and differenttranslations follow different ways. Personally, I still think the King James says it about as clearlyand emphatically as is possible to say it. I dont want to go into the various possible ways ofrearranging the words. 2 Corinthians 1:20 is a key verse, especially when youre dealing withdispensationalists, people who say this was for yesterday and thats for tomorrow andmeanwhile, lets live on crumbs.

For all the promises of God in him [Jesus] are yea and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by

us.

I looked at it in the Greek this morning, you could translate it something like this. God gave allthe promises to be yea and he fulfilled all the promises to be amen in Jesus. I mean, its justanother way but whatever way you look at it or whatever translation you follow, there are certainkey words that dont change. First of all, all the promises. Not some but all. Secondly, are.Not were, not will be. And then, in him. There is only one channel through which God makeshis promises available to us. Only one. Its Jesus. And then it says to the glory of God. Everypromise that we appropriate in the will of God glorifies God. God has so arranged his promises
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that when we appropriate them the result is he is glorified.

See, Romans 3:23 says:All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There are different ways of translating that. But in essence I understand it to mean by our sin wehave robbed God of his glory. How do we repay it? Romans 4 says about Abraham Not beingweak in faith he gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised he wasable to perform. How do we give back to God the glory that our sin has robbed him of? Theanswer is by believing his promises. When Abraham believed Gods promise he gave glory toGod. So, all the promises that God has given us are now available to us in Christ and they are forGods glory.

Then, what I like about the King James is the two little words that come last. By us. Its not bythe apostles, its not by the early church, its not by special Christians, evangelists ormissionaries. But us means you and me. So, all Gods promises are now available to you and me

through faith in Christ. So all Gods promises are now available to you and me through faith inChrist.

You dont need all Gods promises right now. You couldnt claim all Gods promises just in onemoment but any promise that you need and that fits your situation is available to you right now.The way I sum this up is this: Every promise that fits our situation and meets our need is for usnow. Id like you to say that after me. Everypromise that fits our situation and meets our need isfor us now. Lets say that once more. After me, not with me. Every promise that fits our situationand meets our need is for us now. Thats

The fourth principle, all Gods promises are now available to us.

Principle 5

The fifth principle is the fulfillment of Gods promises does not depend upon ourcircumstances but upon our meeting Gods conditions. Thats very important. When Godgives a promise it is not limited to a particular set of circumstances. It doesnt have to be easy forGod to do what he promises to do. And one of the big snares is when were confronted with apromise of God we say, Yes, I see that but in this particular situation it would be too much. So

our faith wavers. The truth of the matter is Gods promises do not depend upon thecircumstances in which we find ourselves. They make no difference. You can be 100 years old,your wife can be 90 years old but if God says youre going to have a son, youre going to have ason. It doesnt not depend on anything around about you or in you, its nothing physical, nothingtemporal, nothing in this space-time world can change the eternal promises of God. Thats thelesson, thats why God so often allowed the men of faith to get into totally impossible situations.He wanted to make it absolutely clear that in no case were his promises dependent upon afavorable set of circumstances. So, usually hed let the circumstances get just about as


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unfavorable as they could be.

Like, you know, Elijah wants the fire to come down so he douses the sacrifice in water threetimes and lets the water run around and be in the ditch and says, Now lets see what God cando. And when the fire came it burned up the water, it burned up the dust, it burned up the wood,

it burned up the sacrifice. Gods fire has got no more problem with a ditch full of water than adry ditch, it doesnt make any difference.

Perhaps the most remarkable example of this fact is the provision of God for Israel in thewilderness. For 40 years he fed, clothed, provided for, guided something like three millionpeople: men, women, old people, infants, cattle, everything in a totally barren desert where therewasnt water, there wasnt food, there was just nothing. God went out of his way to say, Make itdifficult and let me show you what I can do. In fact, he made it difficult. He was the one whoarranged the situation. Its most important to understand that you must not let your focus movefrom the promise to the situation because thats when you begin to sink.

The Fifth principle is that the fulfillment of Gods promises does not depend upon our

circumstances but upon our meeting Godsconditions.

Im going to read through those five principles just to fix them in your mind and then weregoing to go on. The five principles are,

1. First, Gods provision is in his promises.2.

Second, the promises are our inheritance.3. Third, Gods promises are the expression of his will.

4. Fourth, all Gods promises are now available to us through Christ.5. And fifth, the fulfillment of Gods promises does not depend upon our circumstances but

upon our meeting Gods conditions.

TWO Promises, Their Conditions and "No"

is an Answer

Now I want to consider two specific promises of God which are basic to everything weregoing to talk about. Theyre both found in the psalms. The first is Psalm 34:910. Ill read theKing James Version. Basically theres no significant difference in any of the versions.

O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do

lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Then a similar promise in Psalm 84:11. Keep your finger in Psalm 34 because Im going to give


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you a little test on it in a minute.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he

withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Notice the clear statement at the end of Psalm 34:10, They that seek the Lord shall not want anygood thing.At the end of Psalm 84:11, No good thing will God withhold from them that walkuprightly.Before we plunge into claiming the promises lets do this logical thing and examinethe conditions. Heres where many people go astray. They say, Ooh, thats a beautiful promise,I want that, but they dont pause to examine the conditions. Most of Gods promises areconditional. He says, If you do this I will do that.

There are some unconditional promises of God, Acts 2:17:I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.

I understand that to be an unconditional promise of God at a certain time. His promises of the

restoration of Israel is unconditional. Thank God it is because if either the church or Israel everhad to qualify, it would never happen. There are some things that God says Ill dounconditionally when it suits me. But most of them are conditional.

Now, just a little exercise in analysis. I find in those three verses, Psalm 34:910 and Psalm84:11, I find three conditions. Those promises are only for people that meet three conditions, thathave three qualifications. Id like you to look for a moment and see if you can pick out the threesimple conditions. We must fear the Lord, seek the Lord and walk uprightly. Lets say that again.We must fear the Lord, seek the Lord and walk uprightly.

Provided we meet those three conditions then the scripture says God will withhold no good thingfrom us. Isnt that exciting?

One more thing that you have to see and here you have to use your best logical mind. Theresstill one further point. As you know, I was a logician before I was a preacher and I find itsometimes useful. I better not say any more about that! When we say God will withhold no goodthing weve got to consider the full implications of the word good. I suggest that before wejump in and say this is for me or why didnt God do it, we need to ask two questions. First of all,is the thing good in itself? Or, in a philosophic phrase, absolutely good? Okay? Thats invariable.A thing thats absolutely good is always good.

The second thing that we have to ask is is the thing good for us in our particular situation? Thatsthe variable. A thing that is absolutely good in itself may not always be good for us in ourparticular situation. You will find if you havent already discovered that when God deals with ushe doesnt just hand out the absolutely good, he determines if its good for us in our particularsituation. Sometimes he withholds the absolutely good because it wouldnt be good for us in ourparticular situation. How many of you have ever discovered that?

You take the father of a young boy growing up whos just got to the age where he can qualify forhis driving license. The father would like to give him a beautiful sports car. That in itself, lets


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say, is a good thing. But the boy is undisciplined and hes presumptuous and he doesnt giveheed. The father knows that if he gave the boy the car at that particular point in his life he mightkill himself. So he doesnt give him the car. Thats a very crude example but over and over againyoull find that we are in a situation where we ask God for something thats good, God doesntsay it isnt good but he says its not good for you just now in the light of your character, your

situation, your weaknesses, your problems, your misunderstandings.

You know, looking back over a walk with the Lord that has lasted 37 years, I thank God for theprayers hes answered but I also thank God with all my heart for the prayers he didnt answer.Do you know that? Oh, when I see where I could have been if God had answered some of myprayers I just say, God, thank you that you were wise enough not to give me what I asked for.Not because God withholds the goods, He never withholds the goods in the sense if its good forus. But much that is absolutely good may not be good for us in our particular situation. I think ifyou see that it solves a lot of the problems of unanswered prayer.

It isnt really unanswered prayer, just God answered a different way from what you expected! A

lot of people say some people dont even realize no is an answer.

Are Riches Absolutely Good?

Now, the next thing we need to do is ask ourselves about the subject that we are dealing with.Riches, wealth, prosperity, abundanceis it good? Is it absolutely good? I think its mostimportant to ask ourselves this question because I think theres a kind of religious tradition thatsvery prevalentmaybe more in Europe than in America. But certainly in Europe, that anythingnice is sure to be bad. You know, put it this way, the worse the medicine tastes the more good itdoes. I went through a tremendous personal struggle when the Lord saved me and baptized me in

the Holy Spirit to get out of a background that Id grown up with which, in essence, was ifyoure going to be a Christian, prepare to be miserable. I remember hearing Pat Boone giving histestimony once in which he said that as a young boy growing up in high school he came to theconclusion if he were to become a committed Christian it would mean 70 years of misery andheaven at the end. He wasnt sure that heaven was worth 70 years of misery.

Well, you can laugh at that and it may not be so true of all American Christians but it really is thebasic attitude of east European Christians. Thats one reason why there arent many EuropeanChristians. I mean, I say that. Less than 5 percent of the people of West Germany attend any kindof church. I think less than 3 percent in Britain. Thats partly cause and effect. Who wants to goto a place to be made miserable? I mean, theres enough misery without running after it.

I dont want in any way to be sarcastic or negative but this past year, almost a year ago, some ofus were in a tour in Italy and we went to Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis. Ive always had adeep admiration for St. Francis but frankly, at the end of that tour I had to take exception withsome of the things that he had said. Yet, I think that St. Francis as much as anybody hasinfluenced tremendous numbers of Christians. Ill just give you an example of some of the thingsthat I could not accept. One thing, he called his body the ass. He, in a sense, I would say,deliberately abused it. Well, I find that the Bible calls my body the temple of the Holy Spirit.


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Thats a very different concept.

Then he called death his sister. I find the Bible calls death the last enemy. I dont want death as amember of my family. I mean, Im not being sarcastic or cynical. And then, he wanted to bemarried to poverty. I want to ask this morning is poverty good or bad? Are riches good or bad? I

dont want an emotional answer, I want a clear, logical, scriptural answer. I dont want to bemarried to something bad. In fact, I want to get disassociated from anything thats bad.

My thesis is that riches or wealth are essentially good, absolutely good. All right? Ill say thatagain. My thesis is that according to scripture riches or wealth are essentially good. There aremultitudes of scriptures we could look at but I want to content myself with very few. The first isin Revelation 5:12. This is the voice of the angels and the living creatures and the redeemed andthe saints in glory. What they are saying is surely right. I mean, it doesnt need to be edited oramended. Theyre saying with a loud voice:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain [thats Jesus Christ] to receive . . .

And they list seven things. Seven, I believe, is the number of perfection.

. . . power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory, and blessing.

My conviction is every one of those seven things is essentially good. They belong by eternalright to the Lord Jesus Christ. The second one mentioned there is riches.

Lets look at the others.Power, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, blessing. That puts riches in verygood company, doesnt it? I mean, all of them are excellent things. On the other hand, nearly allof them can be misused and abused. Obviously, power can be misused and abused. Strength,richeswisdom can be misused and abused. I believe Solomon is an example of a manwho had tremendous wisdom and misused it. He ended up in idolatry. So the fact that a thing isabsolutely good in itself does not mean that it cannot be abused or misused.

But, we would be very foolish to refuse the thing because it can be abused. This is one of Satansfrequent traps. For instance, I was with a Pentecostal missionary organization in East Africa for 5years. And after about a year my wife and I realized that they practically never exercised anygifts of the Spirit. We said, Why dont we have any gifts of the Spirit? They said, Oh, inCanada theyve been misused. Well, you know, thats not logical. So, theyve been misused,does that mean were not to use them? If thats the way the devil can stop us using good thingsthen therell be nothing good left because the devil can always find people to misuse any goodthing.

Youll find multitudes of Christians are influenced to that point where they no longer appropriatewhat is good and what is theirs by right because somebody has misused it. I dont care if thewhole world misuses riches. If its good, I want it. Or wisdom, or power, or strength, or glory, orblessing.

Lets read that verse. Verse 12.Not saying with a loud voice, lets just say the rest. Im sure it


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cant be different in any of the translations.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and

honor, and glory, and blessing.

After Ive said those words out loud I feel wonderful. I mean, I dont think theres anything evilin any of those things in essence.

The Source of Riches

Now, lets look at another fact. Turn to 1 Chronicles 29:12. David is praying to the Lord andhe says very simply:

Both riches and honor come from thee . . .

Theres another basic principle. What is the ultimate source of riches and honor? The answer,God himself. God is the ultimate source of riches and honor. Say that after me. God is theultimate source of riches and honor. There are many other passages in the book of Chronicleswhich confirm that but we wont look at them.

Now turn to Deuteronomy 8:18:

But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, tha t

he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers . . .

Who gives us power to get wealth? God, thats right. Many men misuse that power but it comes

from God. Why does God give it to his people? Its very interesting. That he may establishhiscovenant. Its part of his covenant commitment to his people. God is the one who gives us powerto get wealth.

When I see the people that get wealthy I see it does not depend on education. Did you know that?A lot of educated men cant cut it and a lot of men who cant even spell their name right get verywealthy. There was a man in Britain some years back, he was interviewed in the newspaper. Thisis just a little illustration. He couldnt read or write. He applied for a job as a janitor and theysaid, Youre very suitable. And then they said, Sign your name on this application form. Hesaid, I cant sign my name. They said, We cant give you the job. Having been turned downas a janitor, he started to sell cigars. And, he became a millionaire. So, a man interviewed him

and said, Isnt that remarkable! You cant even sign your own name and youve become amillionaire! Think what you would be if you could sign your name. He said, Id be a janitor!

I mean, if you think about the people you know, youll find that it doesnt go with education. Themost unlikely people get rich, really. If it happens anywhere it happens in America. Im notsaying there arent basic principles, I think you can pick them out. The principles, actually, weregoing to be looking at. But nevertheless, that ability is not to be explained purely in naturalterms.


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Obedience to God Brings Abundance

The next thing I want to sayand were still in the book of Deuteronomy, well turn tochapter 28is that obedience to God brings prosperity and abundance. Why dont we say thatwhile were looking for it. Obedience to God brings prosperity and abundance. Just look whatGod says in Deuteronomy 28. This chapter, as many of you know, is divided into two portions.The first, which is shorter, is the blessings that follow obedience. The second, which is muchlonger, is the curses which follow disobedience to God. Well look, for a moment, at some of theblessings, looking at them very quickly.

It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God . . .

I want to point out to you that in that verse is really the basic requirement to belong to Godspeople. Its if you will listen very carefully to Gods voice. I think if you go through scriptureyoull find the basic simple requirement for being one of Gods people is that youll hearken tothe voice of the Lord.

Turn to Jeremiah 7:2223 for a moment. God is speaking to Israel about redemption out ofEgypt. He says:

For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of

the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices . . .

God did not deliver Israel from Egypt on the basis of their giving him burnt offerings or

sacrifices. Thats a historical fact and an interesting one.

. . . but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God . . .

I think thats the shortest way in which you can sum up Gods requirements to be one of hispeople.

Obey my voice, and I will be your God.

And in John 10:28 exactly the same principle is carried on into the New Testament. Jesus says:

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

Thats all you need, basically, to belong to Jesus Christ, to be one of his sheep. You hear hisvoice and you follow him. I want you to realize that because a principle that runs all throughscripture, the key is hearing and obeying Gods voice. Lots of fundamentalists interpret that as ifJesus said, My sheep read the Bible and they follow me. But he didnt. He said, My sheephear my voice.
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Do you know its possible to read the Bible without hearing the Lords voice? Its also possibleat times to hear the Lords voice without reading the Bible. What is the one basic requirement?To hear the Lords voice. Particularly if you study the conditions for healingand I studied themwhen I was sick in hospital. I discovered almost every promise of healing related to how youhear.

Lets go back to Deuteronomy 28:

It shall come to pass, ifthou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the lord thy God . . .

The Hebrew says if you will listen listening. Do you know what that means? Listen with bothears. God showed me all this when I laid sick in the hospital and I was seeking healing. I said,What does it mean to listen listening? He said, Youve got a right ear and a left ear. To listenlistening means to listen to me with your right ear and your left. Then I saw how many peoplelisten to God with the right ear and the devil with the left. What do they end up with? Confusion,because theyve got two different things coming from two different sources and meeting inside

them.

Then God says in verse 2:All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee . . .

You know, its beautiful to be overtaken by the blessings of the Lord, isnt it? Some people runafter them but I like to live the kind of life where the blessings run after me. Ill point out to youlater thats really one of the keys.

Verse 3:Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and in the field.

Verse 4:Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the

increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

Every trip to the supermarket will be a blessing.

Verse 8:The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy barns, and in all that thou settest thine

hand unto . . .

Youll never do anything that isnt blessed. Verse 11:The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy

cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground . . . [verse 12] The Lord shall open unto thee his good

treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thinehand . . .

You just read through those carefully. There is no area of our lives that is omitted from theblessing of God.


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And then just further confirmation. If you look in Deuteronomy 29but dont lose 28, weregoing back there. Deuteronomy 29:9. Some statements in scripture are so simple.

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

Prosper in all that we do. Well, that leaves no room for failure, for frustration, for defeat, foranything but success. Now, look very briefly at the opposite, the curses for disobedience.Deuteronomy 28 again, verse 29. Please note this is following on verse 15. We ought to readverse 15 because its so exactly the opposite.

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God . . .

Theres the basic point of departure from God, its not listening. Again, I venture to suggest toyou if you trace the history of men or tribes or nations that have got away from God, it alwaysbegins there. If you cease to listen. Its very subtle. We can still maintain outward conformity to

Gods requirements for a long while after weve really ceased to listen. But the problems beginwhen we do not any longer listen to God.

Verse 15, the latter part:. . . all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

The list of curses is very lengthy, you might do well to read it for yourself. I think you couldfind, as Ive said to people before, that youre enduring a curse instead of enjoying a blessing.Youre in the wrong list.

Lets look at verse 29. This is just part of the curses.And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper .. .

Whats that? Curse or blessing? Curse. Not prospering is a curse. Would you say that? Notprospering is a curse.

Only one more and were going to stop for this morning. I havent got as far as I intended to butIve got as far as you can take. Deuteronomy 28:4748, bearing in mind this is still under thecurses.

Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for theabundance of all things . . .

Please note thats the will of God. What is the will of God? That we serve the Lord withjoyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. Whats the alternative?Thats painful.

. . . therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee . . .


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Let me point out to you that if the Lord sends your enemies against you, you have no option, youare going to serve them. When Judah transgressed, God said to them, Youre going to put yournecks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. You dont have an option. They said, We wont.God said, You will. I have seen believers whove transgressed and rebelled against God. Godhas turned their enemies loose against them and they have had to serve them. Theres just no

alternative. If God says youll do it, youll do it.

. . . therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger,

and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things . . .

Look at that list for a moment. Hunger, thirst, nakedness, want of all things. Picture it. No food,no drink, no clothes, nothing. Sum that up in one word. Poverty. I would say absolute poverty.Which is it? Curse or blessing? Curse.

Lets say that. Absolute poverty is a curse. Lets say it again. Absolute poverty is a curse. Thatsall were going to do this morning.

The Conditions - Introduction

I just want to go back over what I said yesterday by way of introduction. The theme of whatwere studying together is Gods Abundance. We took certain key words and phrases, positiveand negative. The positive ones were rich and riches; wealth and wealthy; prosper, prosperous,prosperity; abound, abundant, abundance. We pointed out that the last two sets of words do notnecessarily indicate ownership of large amounts of money or material possession. Rather, the

key thought about abundance is we have enough for ourselves and something over to give toothers. An example of abundance that I used in my book, I believe, in Faith to Live Bysomething comes to me while Im saying that. I really deeply appreciate our Catholic brothers inthe Charismatic movement and its a great honor to me that the Catholic Charismatic movementpublished the book simultaneously co-published it with Christian Growth Ministries. I thinkthats historic. Really, its one of the honours I feel God has conferred upon mebecause thetheme of the book is the just shall live by faith. That was the very text that started thereformation. When Catholics and Protestants can publish a book together on that theme we havecome a long way! But what I want to say I want to say tactfully and carefully.

When I submitted the original draft of the book to my Catholic brothersbecause they wouldnt

publish something that was out of line with what they believedthe thing they questioned wasthe teaching of abundance. Its rather remarkable. I made some adjustments in the material whichI feel has improved the book so Im grateful for the questions that they asked. We need to knowthat for some sections of the Christian church the concept of abundance is almost offensive. Itsremarkable but true. I really was able to make it acceptable to them by pointing out thatabundance does not necessarily mean great sums of money in the bank or great materialpossession. It means that we have more than enough for our own needs.
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Theres one or twoclear reasons why God wants us to have abundance. One is that its moreblessed to give than to receive. So, if we only have enough to receive, we would only have thelesser blessing. But God wants us to have the greater blessing so he gives us enough not merelyfor our own needs but over an above that we may have the blessing of giving as well as ofreceiving. God, I believe, has promised to his people abundance. As I understand it, abundance is

the level of Gods provision for his people.

So weve spoken about the positive words. Lets look at the negative words for a moment andcontinue the review. The negative words were poor and poverty; want, need, lack and failure. Iintroduced failure because in many ways failure is the opposite of the scriptural concept ofprosperity. Prosperity, again, doesnt necessarily mean the ownership of vast resources, it meansyou get the job done successfully.

When Jesus sent forth his first disciples he told them, Dont take anything spare. Dont take twocoats, dont take two shoes . . . At the end of his ministry he reminded them of this and said,When I sent you out like that, did you lack anything? They said what? Nothing. So, they didnt

have a great entourage, they didnt have a lot of unnecessary equipment but they had everythingthey needed. Ive been a missionary in two fields. Ive seen missionaries with cars and housesand salaries who lacked a lot of things. I just need to make these concepts clear. The key conceptreally, are abundance and prosperity.

Now I want to give you five basic principles without dwelling on them that we looked throughyesterday.

1. Principle number one, Gods provision is in his promises. If we fail to claim Godspromises we cannot expect to receive his provision.

2. Principle number two, the promises are our inheritance. In the Old Testament it was aPromised Land. In the New Testament its a land of promises.

3. Principle number three, Gods promises are the expression of his will. When we knowGods will we pray with confidence.

4. Principle number four, all Gods promises are now available to us through Christ. Everypromise that fits our situation and meets our need is for us now.

5. Principle number five, the fulfillment of Gods promises does not depend upon ourcircumstances but upon our meeting Gods conditions. The outstanding example of this, Iwould say, is Israels 40 years in the wilderness when God fed something like threemillion people without any natural resources whatever.

We looked at two specific promises of God, the first in Psalm 34:910:

O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do

lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

And Psalm 84:11:For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will hewithhold from them that walk uprightly.


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We pointed out that there are three conditions implied for receiving those promises.

First, we must fear the Lord. Second, we must seek the Lord.

Third, we must walk uprightly. On the basis of meeting those conditions then Godassures us that nothing that is good will be withheld from us.

We need to understand that we have to consider what is good in two aspects. The first is is thething good in itself, is it essentially good? Thats a philosophic term. Thats invariable. Thesecond question is is the thing good for us in our particular situation? Thats variable because athing may be good essentially and yet, in our particular condition, with our character weaknessesor our special problems, it might not be good for us. God in his wisdom overrules. He does notalways give us that which is essentially good if it is not good for us in our particular situation.Thats one reason why we pray for things that apparently the word of God assures us we willhave and we dont necessarily get them. Im the only person here today that has that problem, I

know! Just be sympathetic with me because Ive had that problem. You never have but youcould have. And when it happens just bear in mind exactly what Eric was saying, Do not doubtthe goodness of God. He always has your good as his ultimate objective no matter whathappens.

Then we began to examine the question what are we to say about riches or wealth or prosperity?Are they essentially good? My answer is absolutely yes. In Revelation 5:12, riches belong byright to Christ and theyre associated with power, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing.Those are seven things that are absolutely good that belong by right to Jesus Christ and to thepeople of God.

In 1 Chronicles 29:12 we saw David told us riches and honor come from God. God is theultimate source of riches and honor.

Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses reminded Israel dont forgetits God who gives you power to getwealth. He does it that he may fulfill his covenant with your fathers.

And then we looked in Deuteronomy 28 and 29. Deuteronomy 28 lists, first of all, all theblessings for obedience to God and then all the curses for disobedience to God. This is a veryimportant chapter that every one of us needs to be acquainted with. We need to know thedifference between a curse and a blessing because many of us at times are enduring curses whenwe should be enjoying blessings. We saw that prosperity and abundance are listed under theblessings, not under the curses. Likewise, we saw that poverty is a curse. I think we could look atthat scripture and move on from there. Deuteronomy 28:4748. This is part of the long list ofcurses that come for disobedience.

Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the

abundance of all things . . .

Note, thats what God wants us to do. To serve him with joyfulness and gladness for the


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abundance of all things. We have more than enough of everything. Thats fantastic. But whatsthe alternative if were unbelieving and disobedient? Remember, the root problem of Israel thatkept them out of their inheritance was not fornication or idolatry or murmuring. What was it?Unbelief. Because of unbelief they could not enter in. In the chapter that Eric read we werewarned the same thing can keep us out of our inheritance: Unbelief. Whats the alternative to

receiving Gods blessing in this connection? Verse 48 says:

Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and

in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things.

You take those four things and put them together: hunger, thirst, nakedness, want of all thingswithout food, without drink, without clothing, without anything. I suggest to you the correctdescription of that is absolute poverty. You could not have more poverty than that. Please note,its a curse.

Id like you to say that because its kind of liberating. Poverty is a curse. Poverty is a curse.

Okay, now youve got it. Its a simple message but its profound.

The Divine Exchange

My purpose tonight is to show you that the curse was dealt with by the death of Christ on thecross.

Consequently, we are released from the curse. The key scripture thereand its a very importantoneis Galatians 3:1314:

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the

Gentiles through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith

One of the great basic truths of revelation is that on the cross there was divinely ordainedexchange. I believe this is central to the entire gospel message. If we do not understand thismuch about what took place when Jesus died on the cross we really have no anchor for our faith,no stability, no solidity. On the cross by the fore ordained purpose of God there was anexchange, very, very simple in its basic nature. Jesus the sinless, obedient Son of God took uponhim all the evil that was due by divine justice to all our rebellion and disobedience that in returnthrough faith we might receive all the good that was due to the perfect obedience of Jesus. More

simply, Jesus took all the evil that was due to us that we might receive all the good that was dueto him. This was the exchange. You can work this out in every aspect of what took place on thecross.

Itsnot my purpose to do that tonight but here is one main aspect of the exchange. Jesus wasmade a cursewhats the opposite of a curse? Blessing. that we might receive the blessing.Theres the exchange. The curse was due to our disobedience but Jesus asour representative andour substitute took the curse upon him that we might have what? The blessing. Jesus took the


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curse that we might receive the blessing. Say that. Jesus took the curse that we might receive theblessing. The evidence that Jesus was made a curse was that he hung upon the cross.

Now, in Hebrewand it just so happens its true also in the Swahili language used in EastAfricathe word tree is used for a beam or a trunk whether its growing or whether its cut

down. Thats not easy for some English speaking people to understand. It speaks about Jesushanging on the tree, it was a cut down tree but it was still a tree. And the Old Covenant saidcursed is every one who hangs on a tree. So when Jesus hung on the tree, that is the cross, thiswas Gods visible demonstration to the universe that Jesus had been made a curse. He hung therea curserejected by man and forsaken by God, neither on earth nor in heaven. Totally alienated,cut off, rejected, forsaken, all summed up in one evil, ugly word a curse.

Why did Jesus become a curse? That we might receive the alternative, the blessing. One of thethemes of Galatians is that through faith we becomeno matter what race we may be fromthechildren of Abraham by faith. So as the children of Abraham we are entitled to the blessing ofAbraham because Jesus bore the curse and through faith in him we become children of Abraham

we are entitled to the blessing of Abraham. Thats very clear.

I want to read it again because I want you to absorb it.Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law [thats the curse of the broken law,

Deuteronomy 28 which is the whole list of the curses for breaking the law], being made a cursefor us. For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that he blessing of Abraham

might come on the Gentiles [thats most of us here tonight] through Jesus Christ: that we might

receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

What was the blessing of Abraham? We dont need to speculate about that because its revealedin scripture. I suggest you keep your finger in Galatians 3 and turn to Genesis 24:1.

Abraham was old and well stricken in age . . .

I object to that translation because it gives you the impression he was hobbling around with acane. All it says is he was well advanced in years. I think its pretty obvious he was not hobblingaround with a cane because quite a number of years later he made a long journey to MountMoriah and came back again. It says:

. . . the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

What is the blessing of Abraham? What does it cover? All things. Are you sure? What does theblessing of Abraham cover? All things.

Now, in this connection Paul says that we must receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.Were back inGalatians 3:14. What I believe that means is that its only through receiving theHoly Spirit that we can receive the blessing. The Holy Spirit is the administrator of all theinheritance. If you look in that same chapter that we looked at, Genesis 24, youll find thattheres a beautiful parable. I didnt intend to get into this because when I get into it its hard toget out of it. But now Ive got into it, I might as well stay there.


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If you read Genesis 24 its the story about how Abraham obtained a bride for his son Isaac. Its avery, very simple but beautiful parable in which there are four main characters. Some of youhave heard me teach this before. Abraham the father represents God the Father. Isaac the onlybegotten son represents Jesus Christ the Son. Rebekah the bride represents the church, the bride

of Christ. Theres one other, in a sense, the main character. The servant, the nameless servantwho represents who? The Holy Spirit. Read the chapter with that in mind one day and it willopen up almost limitless truths to you. Notice that it says at the beginning of the chapter everything that Abraham owned was under the control of the servant. The servant was theadministrator of the entire estate of Abraham the father and Isaac the son.

Thatstrue of the Holy Spirit. He is the administrator of the entire wealth of the godhead. We areheirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. But the administrator of our inheritance is theHoly Spirit. So apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot receive or enjoy our inheritance. When itspeaks about our inheritance as the children of Abraham, it speaks specifically about receivingthe promise of the Spirit because its only the Spirit that brings us into all the blessings which are

our inheritance. The blessing of Abraham is in all things. But the administrator of the blessing isthe Holy Spirit. Thats why it speaks specifically about receiving the promise of the Spirit.

I dont usually speak about things like this because I have reservations about very finickyinterpretations of names and numbers. But, there is, I think, a very beautiful thought here thatbefore either Abraham or Sarah could receive their inheritance, each of them had to have a namechange. Theres no question this is significant. Abrahams name originally was Abram. It had tobe changed to Abraham. Sarahs name originally was Sarai. It had to be changed to Sarah. I donot question that its extremely significant that in each case a particular letter had to be insertedin their name In each case it was the same letter, the Hebrew letter H which is the breath letter.You cannot say H without breathing. Thats what makes it somewhat difficult for peoplewhove grown up in English immediately to get the correct pronunciation. I believe this isjust avery particular way of showing us that neither Abraham nor Sarah could receive their inheritanceapart from the Holy Spirit, the breath of the Almighty.

This is likewise true of us. Its only through the Holy Spirit that we can understand and receiveand enter into our inheritance. In a certain sense, every one of us has to receive the breath of theAlmighty before we qualify for the inheritance.

Jesus Exhausted the Poverty CurseNow, viewing again the fact that Jesus was made the curse that we might receive the blessing,

and seeing that the blessing of Abraham comprehended all things. I want to focus tonight uponone specific aspect of curse and blessing. I want to tell you tonight that Jesus on the crossexhausted the poverty curse.

When I saw that exactly 10 years ago by revelation while I was preaching in a meeting I would
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have to say it had a profound influence on my subsequent Christian experience. Thats why I wasso quickened when Eric read the words I will reveal to them the abundance, because I do notbelieve we can really perceive this abundance unless God reveals it to us. Its clearly stated inscripture but it takes a revelation.

We remember that the curse was you will serve your enemies in hunger, and in thirst, and innakedness, and in want of all things. Thats the poverty curse: hunger, thirst, nakedness, andwant of all things.

I was in the city of Auckland in New Zealand in l968 or 69, I forget which. I was preaching in aseries of meetings and Id announced that my theme would be Gods Financial Provision.Wed also arranged to take up a special offering for the expenses of the speaker, et cetera, at theend of that meeting. I was preaching what I believed about Gods will for abundance andprosperity and as I was preaching I saw in my minds eye the figure of Jesus on the cross. I sawhim hanging there as he undoubtedly did hang there stripped of all his clothing. Though I waspreaching all the time, my mind was viewing Jesus on the cross. As I saw him there mentally I

saw by revelation that he totally exhausted the poverty curse. The Holy Spirit went over the fouraspects of the curse for me. He was hungry, he hadnt eaten for nearly 24 hours. He was thirsty,one of his last utterances was I thirst. He was naked, the soldiers had stripped him of all hisclothing and shared it amongst them. They cast lots for the extra garment, the seamless robe.And he was in want of all things. He didnt have a burial robe, he didnt have a tomb, he hadnothing. He was buried in a borrowed robe and in a borrowed tomb. He was totally in want of allthings. Why? Because in the divine purpose of God he exhausted on our behalf the povertycurse. Hungry, thirsty, naked, and in want of all things.

Though that didnt register with me exactly as a life changing truth at that time, I would have tosay, that revelation has changed the course of my life. Its given me a kind of basis for my faithfor prosperity. Ive seen the absolute finality of the exchange that Jesus took the poverty cursethat we might receive the blessing of Abraham, that we might receive our inheritanceadministered by the Holy Spirit.

I do not say this without a solid basis in scripture. Id like you to turn, if you will for a moment to2 Corinthians 8 and 9. There are two verses in these two chapters that go beautifully together.First of all, let me point out that 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 together contain 39 verses. They dealexclusively with one subject which is what? Money, thats right. Some people would say,Brother Prince, why are you talking so much about money? Love is what really matters. Italways amuses me because in 1 Corinthians Paul has one chapter on love and it takes 13 verses.In 2 Corinthians he has two chapters on money and it takes 39 verses. Exactly three times asmany verses! Does that mean that money is three times more important than love? No. But itmeans that without rightly acting in matters of money were talking empty talk about love. Lookthen at these two verses that balance one another in 2 Corinthians 8:9 and 9:8. Start with 8:9:

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .

I want to say two things about grace. Its most important. Few people really understand thenature of grace. First of all, grace can never be earned. Anything that can be earned is not grace.


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That excludes most religious people from the grace of God because they think they can earn it.Consequently, they never receive it. Now, there are things we can earn but grace is not one ofthem. Bear that in mind. If theres anything you can earn, it is not grace, its works.

Secondly, theres only one channel of grace. John 1:17:

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Any form of grace that ever comes to us comes to us through Jesus Christ. All right? Going backto 2 Corinthians 8:9:

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he

became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

You know, I used to quote that verse might become rich. The Holy Spirit said, "Take anotherlook." It says be rich. You can become rich and become poor again. But when youre being

rich youre being rich. Its permanent.

Whats the exchange? What are the two simple words that are set against one another? Jesus tookthe bad which was poverty that we might have the good which was riches. Jesus took our povertythat we might have his wealth. Now, when did Jesus become poor? Its important, I think, thatwe see this. Some people believe that he was poor all through his earthly ministry. I would sayhe wasnt wealthy, he didnt have riches but he sure had abundance. Any man that can feed acrowd of 12,000 is not exactly broke! There never was a single situation in the whole earthlyministry of Jesus where he lacked anything. Not one, I challenge you to find it.

Even when he sent his disciples out they didnt lack anything. He had unorthodox ways of doingthings! I mean, when he wanted the tax money instead of going to the bank and cashing a checkhe sent Peter to the sea and got a fish. But the result was the same.

I want you to review that because its important. He was not wealthy but he had abundance. Hewas never worried, he was never perplexed, he was never under pressure, he never panicked; hewas calmly and completely in control of every situation and he never doubted, as Eric said, thatthis Fathers goodness would come up with everything he needed. The Father never failed himonce. Thats not poverty. Whats poverty? Weve defined it. Hungry, thirsty, naked, and in want.

When did Jesus become poor? He began to become poor the moment he was identified with oursins. From that moment onwards he went deeper and deeper into poverty until on the cross herepresented absolute poverty. Why did he become poor? That we might be rich.

Lets face the fact his poverty was not spiritual. Is that agreed? He was really poor. Therefore, byall the laws of logic, our wealth cannot be spiritual either. Its not talking about spiritualblessings. Thank God theyre there but this is talking about the nitty-gritty, practical, materialworld. All right? He became poor very really poor, absolutely poor in the physical, materialsense that we might be rich not in the spiritual sense. Thats provided for by other provisions ofGod. But that we might be rich in the sense of having every need met and having something over


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for other people.

Thank God I dont need to argue that because its stated in scripture. Look on to 2 Corinthians9;8.

And God is able . . .

Lets pause there. Do you believe God is able? Its important that you do. I do. I mean, to me itwould be illogical to speak of God the way we speak of him and to say hes unable to do this.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you . . .

What is it? Its grace. Dont imagine you can earn it. This is one of the big problems of Christianpeople. I believe in being industrious, I believe in working hard and faithfully, I believe in properstewardship and management. But all that doesnt earn what were talking about. How is gracereceived, through what?

Through Jesus Christ by faith. Thatsright. Thats why some Christians lead good, honest,moral, hard-working lives but they know nothing of Gods abundance, because theyre trying toget it by earning it.

Dont misunderstand me. I believe its altogether wrong for a Christian to be lazy or dishonest orirresponsible. I can give you scriptures for all that but I wont do it. But when youre not lazyand not irresponsible and not dishonest, youre still not earning Gods grace. We are talkingexclusively tonight about grace.

Interestingly enough, in these two chapters that deal with money the key word is grace. It occursseven times in chapter 8 and twice in chapter 9. Were talking about grace that operates in therealm of money. Some people couldnt believe that grace and money could everget related.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you . . .

God is not stingy with his grace. He doesnt give you just enough, he gives you enough andmore. Its abundant, its overflowing.

. . . that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to all good works.

Ive changed it at the end because in the Greek language every word is from the same root.Youll find that in that verse there are two abounds and five alls in one short verse. Id liketo read it that way and Ill use my right hand for the alls and my left hand for the abounds. Areyou with me?

God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all

things, may abound to all good works.

I dont know how language can say more than that. Its almost incredible you can get so much


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into such a short sentence. What does it describe? It describes Gods grace. His grace in thefinancial and material area. The exchange: Jesus became poor with our poverty that we might berich with his wealth or enjoy his abundance.

Now, I believe weve established that clearly on scripture. For my part, when I can establish

something on the basis of the cross, for me its settled. As far as Im concerned, whatever wasdone at the cross, its final. It can never be undone. Satan cannot change it, unbelief cannotchange it; its settled. We may not appreciate it or appropriate it but it cannot be undone.

1st Condition

Ive said we cannot earn Gods abundance but I want to add we need to meet the conditionsfor receiving it. Do you see the difference? Were not talking about earning it but we are talkingabout the conditions upon which God makes his abundance available to us. I want to go throughthese now rather quickly because time is running out. I want to outline five conditions. First of

all, our motives and our attitudes must be right. When we come to this realm of money theres along of wrong motives. Thats why, I think, some people are afraid of it because theyre afraid oftheir own motives. We all do well to examine our motives very carefully when we come to thequestion of money because its a big source of temptation for wrong motives.

Then I want to say certain things that are specifically wrong and I have a whole list of scripturesfor every one of these things. Im not going to give you the full list. A, it is wrong to makewealth our God. In Colossians 3 Paul says that covetousness is idolatry. In other words, when webecome greedy and grasping for money we are making money our god and that is idolatry. Ithink its very clear that the United States of America is full of that kind of idolatry where peopleare greedy for money and money, in effect, becomes their god.

Also, in 1 Timothy 6:10 Paul says:

The love of money is a root of all evil.

The King James says the root of all evil but thats somewhat overdone. What the Greekactually says is the love of money is a root of all evil. So when we love money, out of that evillove of money, that covetousness, all evils can spring forth in our life. So qualification numberone, it is wrong to make wealth our god.

Number two, it is wrong to seek wealth by wrong means. There are many scriptures, Ill read

Proverbs 28:8. I dont even remember what it says but Ive got it underlined. Incidentally, thebook of Proverbs is full of all these principles. It says this and its very interesting.

He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance [or his wealth], he shall gather it for

him that will pity the poor.

Thats really significant, isnt it? A man may go out to get a lot of money for himself by crookedmeans, but ultimately it will come to the man who will pity the poor. You see, I want you to


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understand this. There are laws that govern the behavior of money just as certain as the laws thatgovern the crops we plant in the earth. In Jeremiah 17:11 it says:

As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatches them not, so he that getteth money and not by right,shall leave it in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

Were not talking about crooked ways to get rich. See, it is wrong to trust in wealth. Proverbs11:28:

He that trusteth in his riches shall fall.

Ive seen that happen to many people in my lifetime who trusted in riches and fell. Jeremiah9:2324:Let not the mighty man trust glory in his might, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let notthe rich man glory in his riches: but he that glorieth, let him glory in this, that he knoweth me

that I am the Lord who loves justice and mercy.

Were not to boast or glory in wisdom, strength or riches. Theyre all good things but none ofthem should be the thing in which we glory. Paul said, God forbid that I should glory inanything but the cross. Because, thats where all my problems were forever resolved. Letsnever forget it. And, it is wrong to use wealth selfishly. Proverbs 11:24. I hope I stir up some ofyou a desire to spend more time in the book of Proverbs because this is the book that promiseswisdom to a young man. Any of you young men who want to become wise, you should spendtime in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 11:24 is a beautiful scripture.

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; there is that withholdeth more than his meet [or

right], but it tendeth to poverty.

There are some generous people who are always giving and always getting riches. And there aresome stingy people who never give and yet get poorer. So its always wrong to use wealthselfishly.

In Luke 12 Jesus told the parable about the man who built the bigger barns and filled them withhis produce. The Lord said, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul shall be required of thee. Andthen he said, So is he that is not rich towards God. The first direction in which we need to berich is toward God.

Those are wrong attitudes or motives. Also we have to be very careful in our attitude toward thepoor. The whole Bible consistently warns us against oppressing or exploiting the poor. There aremultitudinous scriptures, Ill just take a series of scriptures in Proverbs. Proverbs 21:13:

Who stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

Thats a very, very solemn warning, isnt it? If we dont listen to the cry of the poor, one daywell cry and we wontbe heard.


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Then Proverbs 22:16:

He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely

come to want.

One final scripture on that in Proverbs 29:7:

The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but thewicked regardeth not to know it.

That really places a tremendous responsibility upon us not just to be indifferent but to have aconcern for the needs of the poor. One mark of righteousness is that we consider the cause of thepoor.

One thing Ive noticed in the generation that is now growing upI dont know where to beginor end with thatbut I have noticed especially in my own black daughter Joska, a real sense ofsocial responsibility. Sometimes it gets a little awkward, she doesnt want to eatbecause there

are people starving somewhere else. And things like that, but I do believe that the generationnow growing upwell, you know, the people that are anywhere from 15 to 30, lets saytheyhave a much greater sense of social responsibility than my generation did. I have to say this,frankly thats true. I think thats from God because the righteous consider it the cause of the poorbut the wicked regardeth not to know it. Hes indifferent. He says, So what? No skin off mynose. and goes his way.

The next thing, going further, is all believers are required to show mercy to the poor. Again,well go to the book of Proverbs. Youre beginning to be able to find the book of Proverbs.Proverbs 14:21:

He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth: but hethat hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.

Proverbs 19:17:

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay

him again.

When you give to the poor youre lending to the Lord. I want to tell you from experience whenthe Lord pays you back he doesnt forget the interest!

Proverbs 28:27. Sometimes I try to find reasons for Gods goodness to me and its reallycontrary to what Im telling you this evening because Im amazed at Gods goodness to me. Ireally am overwhelmed.

What Eric said about me is really true. I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God. Its not areligious act, it

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