Unleashing the God of Abundance

I'm a big believer about our God being a God of prosperity.

And you're thinking, oh, is he going to preach about prosperity?

Yes, I am, because it is extremely biblical about our God being prosperous.

And we have a God who is full of abundance.

And we need to recognize that and believe that.

And I'm really of the belief that if a church doesn't believe in the prosperity

teachings, then they've got it wrong because it's biblical.

And I'm going to go into that this morning with you guys. So title of my message

is the God of abundance. And I'm going to read from two Kings.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, I touched on it, but now I'm going to

preach on it. Two Kings three verses nine to 19 says this.

So the King of Israel went with the King of Judah and the King of Edom,

and they marched on that roundabout route seven days. and there was no water

for the army nor for the animals that followed them.

And the king of Israel said, Alas, for the Lord has called these three kings

together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.

There you go, blaming God, blaming God.

But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him?

So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said,

Elisha, the son of Shaphat, is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

And Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him.

So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, what have I to do with you?

Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.

But the king of Israel said to him, no, for the Lord has called these three

kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.

And Elisha said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand,

surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah,

I would not look at you nor see you, but now bring me a musician.

Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon

him, and he said, Thus says the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches.

For thus says the Lord, You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain,

yet that the valley shall be filled with water, so that you,

your cattle, and your animals may drink. And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord.

He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.

Also, you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city and shall

cut down every good tree and stop up every spring of water and ruin every good

piece of land with stones.

Our God is a God of abundance. okay through

these three kings not to mention their armies their

families their animals found themselves in a desperate situation they'd gone

seven days in the wilderness and they had no water now that is a dilemma having

no water who who knows that water is life-giving that's our water is a necessity of life.

It's not an extra or a luxury. It's a necessity to sustain life.

Put simply, without water, you die.

You die. The king of Israel, as we spoke about, starts blaming God for their dilemma.

If it hadn't been for King Jehoshaphat, who knew the power of a word from God,

they all would have died in the wilderness in the very short term.

He asked the question, is there not a prophet here that we may inquire of the Lord?

Because Jehoshaphat knew that one word from God can change everything.

Amen. One word from God can change everything.

We need to seek the word of God in all of our situations because one word from

God will change everything.

Now, I know I've preached on this subject before. In fact, I've preached on

this valley of ditches and water, but I'm getting some more lights on the subject

that I wanted to, and I feel the Holy Spirit wants us to know this morning. Okay.

Now, the prophet, God said through the prophet Elisha, make this valley full of ditches.

Now have a think about that for a second, this dry, barren valley.

Now, just go back a couple of verses where it says, the three kings,

their armies, their families, their animals had been wandering around this area

for seven days and were thirsty.

And God says, dig some ditches, dig some ditches. Last thing you want to do, isn't it?

Last thing you want to do after wandering the wilderness, of getting pictures

of people crawling through deserts on their last legs, you know,

needing a drink. and God comes down and says, dig some ditches.

Not exactly the word you want to hear when you're in the middle of a desert,

dying of thirst, dig some ditches.

Make this valley, not just dig some ditches, make this valley full of ditches,

God said through the prophet.

If ever you have dug, who's ever dug a ditch before? Who's ever dug a hole,

a post hole? It's not easy, is it? It's not easy.

It's hard work. And it's especially difficult when the ground is hard and dry and clay.

Dig a ditch in clay and you know what you're doing.

Here in the wilderness Here they

were in the wilderness A dry desert place A low

place And in this place This low

dry desert place The word of the Lord

says to them Dig some ditches Dig some ditches It was And they did It was slow

It was difficult It was hard work No doubt their backs were sore And their arms

were aching Their shoulders were aching And to top it all Top it all off they were still thirsty.

They still needed a drink.

It was hard. It was unbearable for them. And you're getting the picture. It was unbearable.

Maybe that describes perhaps where some of us are at the moment.

Maybe that describes what you're feeling right now as well.

In a hard place, in a difficult place, in a dry place, you need something.

You need a drink. you need some sustenance.

Perhaps you have to force yourself to praise the Lord, to praise God.

Perhaps you have to force yourself to pray.

Perhaps it's that difficult time, you got to force yourself to read your Bible.

Perhaps you have to force yourself to even go to church.

Good to see you here, by the way. Glad you came. I'm glad you came.

And if I think we're honest about it, we've all experienced times like that, haven't we?

At one time or another. But the important thing to understand is this,

it's not supposed to be a permanent condition. Okay?

Yes, we may pass through the wilderness, but it's supposed to be temporary.

It's temporary, it's an inconvenience, but it's not a lifetime condition.

We need to keep our eyes focused on that.

Even David said, though, I walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

He didn't say he was going to build his house there or that he would retire there.

He said, no, I'm going through the shadow of the valley of death.

That's what we need to look at in our lives.

But not only, but the only way to get through these dry times,

these difficult times is to keep on moving, keep on moving keep on digging keep

on praying keep on praising keep on sowing and keep on coming to church keep on coming to church.

Now, what do you do when you're going through a fire? Who's ever seen fire walkers?

They don't stop, do they?

They keep walking. If ever you're walking through fire, keep walking, keep moving.

What do you do when you're going through the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is

closing in behind you and the waves are pulled there, the sea's pulled to either side?

You don't stop. You keep walking.

You keep walking. What do you do when you find yourself in the valley of the

shadow of death? You keep walking.

So these three kings, these three kings this day got a word from God.

But what is so amazing to me is that when God gave them that word,

he actually gave them extra.

He gave them extra. Why?

Because our God is the God of abundance.

Okay, let's have a look at that.

They just wanted water that day. They just wanted a drink. They were thirsty.

They were fearful for their lives and they thought they were going to die.

They didn't come to a prophet with great faith, expecting great miracles.

They just wanted a drink.

Their greatest hope or expectation was that somehow and some way God could get

enough water to them to survive and crawl their way out of the desert. That's all they wanted.

I just want a drink, just enough to get me through this. You know what?

We deal with this same thing today as well.

So many in churches, so many in the body of Christ have come out of their Egypt

of never enough, and they've got stuck in the wilderness of just enough.

You've come out of bondage. You've come out of slavery where you didn't have anything.

You never had enough. And then you got

out of there And you walked into the wilderness And

you lived with just enough A lot of churches are like that these days And the

sad thing Is that many of God's children are satisfied To remain in the wilderness

of just enough When the Spirit of God is beckoning them To push through to the land of more than enough,

More than enough More than enough.

When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, where were they heading?

To a land full, abounding with, flowing with milk and honey.

Abundance. They were moving to a place of abundance. But I'm hearing when these three kings,

when these three kings, they're like, many of us today are like these three

kings and all their people just wanted and were just looking for was a drink of water.

If I could just get a drink of water, that would tide me over, okay?

But I'm hearing the Lord say no to that.

I'm hearing the Lord say no.

And they would think, what are you talking about, Lord? What are you saying

no for? I need a drink of water. The Lord's saying no.

You mean you're not even going to give me a drink? Give me a little bit of a

break? Give me a drink of water?

Do you mean to say, Lord, that you're going to let me sink here and die?

You're just going to let me die in the desert?

Then the Lord said, no. He said no to them.

Well, which is it? No to a drink or no to letting me die in the desert?

And I hear the Lord saying, no to both.

No to both. I hear him saying, you're not going to die in the desert and I'm

not going to give you a drink of water so you can just survive. life.

Here's what God wants us to understand. Here's what I want you to get out of this this morning.

That's entirely against the nature of God, to give just enough, okay?

He's not a God of just enough. He's a God of too much.

He's a God of abundance. Who's with me? He's a God of abundance.

Some of you have been telling God, Lord, if you'll just get me out of this jam.

And Lord, if you'll just get me over this hump and Lord, if you just get me

out or through this fire or Lord, will you just get me, get this thing off my back?

Lord, if you just break this habit for me and this addiction off me,

Lord, if I could just get a drink of water, I'd be satisfied.

But I hear the Lord saying, that's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna do that.

Now, hold on. You've got to listen to what I'm saying here, okay?

I'm not saying that healing or deliverance or breakthrough isn't coming,

and I'm not saying that you're not going to get out of debt,

and I'm not saying God is not going to deliver you,

but I hear the Lord saying, I can't do just that.

It's not in my nature to just do that. I hear the Lord saying, I can't stop there.

Once the well is open, it has to flow. He's a God of extra.

He's a God of too much. He's the God of more than usual and more than expected.

That's our God. Our God reigns.

Ephesians 3.20. What does that say? Who can quote Ephesians 3.20 to me?

As soon as I start saying it. Go on.

To do abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

Now to him, our abundant God, our God reigns.

Now to him who was able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.

That's our God. He's a God of abundance.

The problem is we live in such a stingy world, a stingy world that it's almost

impossible for us to process the excessive generosity of our God.

Who's with me there? Yeah.

So when we're confronted with the extravagant, when we're confronted with the

excessive, the abundant, the generosity of God, we almost go into meltdown.

That's what we do. And this excessive, abundant,

extravagant generosity is so unnatural to this world that some Christians rather

than accept it and embrace it,

they start attacking it like it's evil.

Yeah? It's like something evil, like prosperity and abundance are the devil's secret weapons.

Are you with me? Do you hear me, Ang? Yep. Do you want some more scripture?

3 John 1 verse 2. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be

3 John 1:2

in health just as your soul prospers.

Psalm 35 27. Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of

his servant. That's our God.

To boil it down, what God is saying to you and me today is this,

stop limiting me. Stop limiting me.

You're thinking too small. Your faith is too small. Your believing and your asking is too small.

I'm the God of overflow. I'm the God of abundance.

I'm the God of the extravagant. And it pains me to try and restrict the flow

of my goodness and my grace and my mercy to you. Don't limit God.

Don't limit God. Do you see what I'm saying? Take the limits off God.

Turn God loose in your life. The Bible says the children of Israel limited God.

And God was just not disappointed. He actually was angry because he was being limited.

Psalm 78 verses 40 to 41 says, how often they provoked him in the wilderness

Psalms 78:40–41

and grieved him in the desert.

Yes, again and again, they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They limited God.

Who knows that the story of the prodigal son is a parable of our salvation? Who knows that?

Who knows the parable of the, it's all about our salvation.

When the prodigal son returned home, he really only had one expectation or hope. Okay.

And that was to be accepted by his father. He didn't expect to be given any

special treatment, but instead he was welcomed by his father running to him to start with,

which is very unusual for an Israeli, an Israelite father.

They don't run, but his father ran to him, fell to him, gave him the ring representing

fellowship and authority, the robe representing acceptance, and the shoes representing

his right to walk as a son.

Further to that, when he got home, he was greeted with a feast.

I say all this to say that. I say all of that to say this.

The prodigal son was hoping just to be allowed to stay in his father's house.

But the extravagant, excessive, overflowing, abundant heart of the father couldn't stop there.

It couldn't stop there. He didn't just take him back.

He demonstrated his acceptance, and then he restored him to a relationship as

his son and authority in his house.

More than just accepted him, dragged him in and gave him everything,

gave him the keys to the house.

God is a big God and he wants us to believe him for big things.

When Jesus fed the 5,000 people, not including the women and the children,

the Bible says they ate till they were filled.

And then they gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. Why?

Why? Because that's who God is. That's who God is. He's the God of abundance.

He's the God of overflow. That's our God.

Listen, you can't ask too big for God to do it. You can't ask for too big.

You can't think or imagine beyond his ability or willingness to bless you,

to heal you, to deliver you and to use you.

You can't over ask of God. If you turn God loose You know he's going to blow

your mind He's going to blow you If you turn God loose.

He will not only give you a drink He will give you rivers of living water Flowing

out of your innermost being That's our abundant God,

If you turn God loose, he will bless you so much, you won't be able to handle it.

He will bless you so much, you will have to call for people to come and take it off your hands.

He will open the windows of heaven and pour out to you such a blessing that you won't contain it.

That's our God. That's who he is. He won't just heal you.

He will give you a testimony that will make the devil shudder.

If you turn God loose, he'll open doors that no man can open.

If you turn God loose, he'll anoint your life and make you a blessing to the

generations to follow you.

If you turn God loose, he will make you a blessing.

I'm trying to tell you that sometimes we think way too small.

Your faith is too small. You're expecting too small.

God is into abundance, overflow. God is into the extravagant. God is into the extra.

He's all about generosity and overflow.

And that's just who he is. What does John 10, 10 say?

Anyone quote John 10, 10? The thief comes to kill, except to steal and to kill and destroy and.

Exactly. I have come, God said. I have come that they may live and that they

may have it more abundantly.

It's the Bible. That's what it says. No wonder the devil has fought you so hard.

No wonder he's tried to kill you in the wilderness. He's afraid that you will

tap into the goodness and to the abundant nature of God.

You see, the devil knows how abundant and extravagant and generous and the abundant nature of God.

He just doesn't want us to know about it. That's how the devil works.

I know some of you probably aren't quite ready for this, but I've got to expose

you to the truth about God.

He has a hard time just meeting a need.

He has a hard time. Let me say that again. God has a hard time just meeting a need.

He's absolutely full of goodness and mercy and grace and healing and joy and peace and prosperity.

And he's always looking for a place to pour it out, to pour it out.

A lot of people can't handle that, but I want us to.

I want us to handle it. I'm going to prophesy this, and this is going to be

an open prophecy, which means anybody who has faith can grab this prophecy, okay?

Here we go. Okay, let's get ready for this. Come on.

God is getting ready. God is getting ready to bless you in such a ridiculous

way that if I told you right now,

it would sound so crazy and so outrageous and so unbelievable to you that you

would probably fall out onto the floor laughing.

But I have to believe at least a few of you can, can actually believe that our God is bigger than that.

Amen. I'm telling you that your God can bless you in such a ridiculous manner

that you'll be crying and laughing at the same time.

Who would want to experience that?

Yeah. Can you handle that? Where are you at with that at the moment?

I need to make some noise. I need you to make some noise.

I need you to make some noise if you believe that God can bless you more than what you need.

Come on. We need to make some noise about that. There are blessings,

and then there are great blessings, and then there are ridiculous blessings. That's where our God is.

Yeah? I just wonder, is there anyone listening to me right now who's ready for a ridiculous blessing?

Come on. Ridiculous blessings.

I'm prophesying. God wants to bless you with a ridiculous blessing this morning,

that will make it obvious to everyone around you that God's favor is on you.

In fact, I prophesy that God is going to bless you in such a ridiculous way

that people you don't even like will advertise your blessings.

They will be telling other people how God has blessed you.

That's biblical too. Do you want to hear this? This was a light bulb moment

for me when I read this scripture.

It's Bible. Let me read it to you. Psalm 126 verses 1 and 2.

Psalms 126:1

Have a listen. When the Lord brought back

the captivity of Zion We were like

those who dream Then our mouth was filled

with laughter And our tongue was filled And

our tongue was singing Then they said among the

nations The nations said That the Lord has done great things for them Another

version says heathen Put that back up for me Josh Says then they said among

the nations It says in another version,

then they said among the heathens,

the non-Christians, that the Lord has done great things for you or for them.

It's one thing when your Christian brothers and sisters are celebrating your

blessings, but it's another thing altogether when the heathen are celebrating

your blessings as well. Who wants a bit of that?

That's awesome. Come on up for me, Josh.

Let's get back to the story about our valley of ditches.

Yes, God sent the water, and yes, God met their need.

But let's find out why God sent the water. It's not just because they were thirsty.

It's not just because they were dry, and it wasn't just because they were in trouble.

God wanted to give them more. God loves you.

And yes, he wants to meet your need this morning, but he has bigger things in sight.

Yes, he provided them with water that day and it flowed into that valley,

but there was more to that. They then defeated the enemy.

And if you read what it says in the Bible that we read earlier,

they went on to defeat over and over again.

And all they wanted was a drink of water, but God gave them so much more.

God loves you and He wants to meet your need. He has bigger things in sight for us.

God doesn't just wanna meet your need and rescue you and to deliver you.

God doesn't just wanna do that.

He wants you to be filled up and so fired up and so powered up that you'll stand

up and speak up and make the devil that sorry that he's ever even bothered you before.

He wants to bless you so ridiculously that he will humiliate the devil.

The Bible says that when the righteous are blessed, it grieves the wicked.

God said, I'm gonna give you water. Yes, I'm gonna quench your thirst and I'm

gonna meet your need and I'm gonna deliver you, but that's just the beginning.

Everyone say, that's just the beginning. That's just the beginning.

Oh yes, you're going to get your drink of water and you're not gonna die of

thirst, but that's just the beginning.

That's not even the real blessing. I'm just getting warmed up here,

okay? I'm telling you, God is into the extra.

He's into the extravagant and even the ridiculous.

But you have to turn him loose. You have to stand back and say, okay, God, just do it.

Come on, God, do it. You have to let your faith loose.

You've got to let your faith soar into the heavens.

It's the season for invading the enemy's camp and taking back what he's stolen from you.

It's time for restoration.

Come on, let's stand up, everyone. Come on.

Let's stand to our feet because our God reigns. Our God reigns,

the God of abundance, the God of prosperity.

What I want you to do is I want you to just lift your hands like this with me.

And I want you to repeat after me, okay? Okay, Lord, you can be generous to me.

Lord, I'm ready for abundance. I'm ready.

Enlarge my capacity to receive the extra today in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've asked for it. Now get out of the way and let God bless you this morning.

Come on, let's pray. Thank you, Father.

We thank you, Lord, that, Lord, you gaze down on us.

And I just picture you, Lord, looking down on us, perhaps getting a little frustrated

now and then because you want to do so much for us.

You don't just want to help us get by. You want us to get by in extravagance,

in fullness, in abundance.

Lord, you want to pour out so many blessings on us that we cannot contain them.

Lord, there are blessings stored up in heaven that you're waiting to distribute

to us if we would just believe, if we would just receive, and if we would not

limit you in what you can do for us.

So, Lord, we might be praying for healing this morning, but we ask for more.

We pray for healing in Jesus' name, but Lord, we pray that you go beyond that

and you make us a testimony of your goodness in Jesus' name.

Lord, we may be asking for the ability to pay those few bills and Lord,

you will provide that, but you will provide so much more if we would just be

prepared to have a faith that believes that and ask for it and receive it.

So Lord, we thank you for that this morning. Lord, I pray for every person here

this morning that they would be touched by the extravagance of God.

It frustrates you, God, when people don't expect it.

But Lord, what we choose to do this morning is to expect and believe and receive,

to hold those hands out and catch the blessings from God who He wants to give to you.

He's a God of extravagance. He's a God of abundance. He's a God of overflow. He's a God of too much.

He's a God of extra. And we need to believe that and receive that in our lives

this morning. And we thank you for that, God.

We thank you, Lord, for parables, Lord.

We thank you for Bible references, Lord, to the things of the past that we can

take hold of and believe for our lives as well.

And we can start with our salvation Not only do you wanna bring us back into

your house, Lord God, but you wanna sit us at your right hand with Jesus.

You wanna bestow on us, Lord, such extravagance, such importance in our lives.

Lord, you wanna make us priests, Lord God.

You wanna make us, you know, Lord, you wanna make us believers.

You wanna make us representatives of your kingdom, Lord God.

Not just accept us back, but to use us in mighty ways.

And Lord, we believe, Lord, this morning after hearing this word,

Lord, that the nations will look at us and say, look how blessed they are,

the children of God, so blessed.

So Lord, bless us this morning because we bless you.

We thank you, Lord. We believe you. We honour you, Lord.

We respect you. We fear you, Lord God, because you are a God of abundance.

So fall on us afresh this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.