Clothing the Next Generation - Night 1 - Pastor Philip Steele - October 7th, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith First.

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Closing the Next Generation conference.

And uh I understand that very often that can be uh in the context of uh you know a younger generation or whatever the case may be, and that's certainly part of it.

But it's every person that has something to do for God needs to be clothed with God's purpose and God's plan.

And uh you know, the Lord said something to me.

He said, the men ministering in this conference are treasure chests.

They have treasure to share.

And I I prayed about who to have at this conference, and of course, uh my pastor um was on my mind, and then Prophet Ford.

Amen.

And uh let's go to Genesis 18.

And we're gonna hit some things fairly quickly so that we can get into the meat of this.

Genesis 18 and verse 17.

I want to center up tonight on the plan of God for your individual life, the plan of God that God has for you as an individual.

Uh because throughout Scripture we see the emphasis of this, and we see the emphasis that God places on passing on truth to the coming generation.

Hallelujah.

In Genesis 18, verse 17, God speaking about Abraham, he says, And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a mighty nation, and all nations of the earth will be blessed in him, for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and all nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

Genesis 18:17

One translation says, I've made a special agreement with him, and he said, I did this so that he would command his children and his descendants to live the way the Lord wants them to.

I did this so they would live right and be fair, then I, the Lord, can give him what I promised.

Hallelujah.

The generation coming will only know and walk in what we pass on to them.

Alright?

The generation coming will only know and walk in what we pass on to them.

And I will look at some verses that we'll go to fairly quickly.

Deuteronomy 6.

Um I want to uh read this from the easy to read version.

It says, always remember these commands that I give you today.

Be sure to teach them to your children.

Talk about these commands when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road.

Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up.

Tie them on your hands and wear them on your foreheads to help you remember my teachings.

Write them on the doorpost of your houses and on your gates.

So notice he says, be sure to teach them to the generation that's coming.

Tell them what God's done.

Tell them what you've seen God do.

Tell them what you've seen, right?

Tell them how you've seen God move.

I made the reference to this.

I taught on some of this uh back a few Sunday nights ago.

I can remember my parents were ministers, and we always had ministers in our home.

And I can remember we would have these ministers over, and they would just be sitting talking about the things of God.

And I wasn't doing anything overtly spiritual.

I might be playing in the corner or playing with a truck or a coloring book or whatever, but I would hear them talk about the things of God, and something in me would start reaching out and saying, There's something that I'm supposed to do for God.

I didn't know what it was.

I had no idea.

I'm seven, six years of age.

But I would hear them talking about miracles, and I would hear them talking about people getting saved and people getting healed.

I would hear them talking about, because my dad was an evangelist, and all of his friends were evangelists.

And he would talk about all the meetings that they were going to and the blind eyes that were opening and the wheelchairs that people were getting out of.

And I just grew up understanding that there was nothing too hard for God.

That if I got God involved in any situation that I was in, it was to my advantage.

Oh, hallelujah.

But I had I heard people talking about it, I heard people speaking about it.

Amen.

So he said, transmit truth when you're sitting at home, when you're driving down the road in the morning and at night.

Teaching, as my pastor says, is a repetition of truth.

So I'm just consistently repeating that truth.

Now, some of the things that we're gonna look at, because you remember all through the book of Psalms, in Psalm 78, verse 4.

Psalms 78:4

And then we'll read verse 6.

I want to read it to you from the NIV.

These things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us, we will not hide them from their descendants.

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders that he has done.

Then verse 6 says, here's why.

So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

There are so many things about the plan of God that the generation that we're in do not understand.

They don't understand the safety that's in the plan of God.

They don't understand the ability of advancement that's in the plan of God.

Amen.

Now, I'm not saying your children or your those that are part of the generation in your family.

I'm saying by and large, people live for their plan.

They live for their desires, they live for the way they think it needs to be done.

And they don't understand that the only safety is in the plan of God.

They don't understand that the only advancement is in the plan of God.

And he says, what's he say?

He says, we've got to tell this to the generation that's coming.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Joel 1, verse 2 and 3 says, Hear this, you leaders of the people.

Joel 1:2

All who live in the land in all your history, has anything like this happened before?

Tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children.

Pass the story down from generation to generation.

Hallelujah.

If we pass on the things of God to the coming generation, even the children yet to be born will be told if we pass it on.

Hallelujah.

Psalm 71, 18, David said, Now that I'm old and gray-headed, he said, Help me to show your strength to my generation.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

See, your your age is not an inhibiting factor.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

None of us that have the plan of God in our life.

We're not looking for a way to get off the plan.

We're looking for a way to maximize the plan.

Am I helping you?

Psalm 102, 18 says, the people which shall be created will praise the Lord.

The people that shall be created will praise the Lord.

Hallelujah.

So tonight we're going to take time to tell you some things.

Because he said, I need you to pass this on.

And we're going to center up on the plan of God.

The single most important thing in your life is the plan of God.

The single most important thing in your life is the plan of God.

The city that you're in must involve the plan of God.

The job you have has to involve the plan of God.

Where you live has to involve the plan of God.

It's the single most important thing in your life.

And there are a number of reasons, but some of them are number one, God funds the plan.

Whatever God asks of you, God funds it.

Hallelujah.

I remember when we moved into a house one time.

I was thanking the Lord for it, and he said, Listen, you did what I told you to do.

I'll always take care of you here.

Because you did what I asked you to do.

God funds the plan.

God supports the plan.

How many want God's support in your life?

God supports the plan.

God meets the plan.

God meets the plan.

God meets you at the point of the plan.

When you get in the plan of God, that's where you'll find God.

That's where you'll find his provision.

Oh, hallelujah.

Your obedience to the plan of God literally determines how far God can take you and how much he can bring you.

It literally determines how far God can take you and how much he can bring you.

God cannot take you farther than the plan you're walking in.

Hallelujah.

That's why I get concerned when people say, Well, God told me to do this, and then four months later, God told me to do this, and then two months later, God told me to do this.

And they're always switching plans.

That's not how God works.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Almost 30 years ago, God said, I want you to go, and I want you to build people's faith, and I want you to frame their world by the word of God.

Well, it was over 30 years ago that He said that.

We've been doing that full-time pastoring for the last 28 years.

I've never thought about going somewhere else and doing something else because that's the plan of God that He's placed in our life.

Oh, hallelujah.

When you talk to your children, when you talk to your spouse, you need to talk much about the plan of God.

Talk to them about how the plan of God is their safe place.

Talk to them about how the most important thing in their life is finding and walking in the plan of God.

Because even your mistakes will prosper when you're in the plan of God.

You can fail in the plan of God, and God will turn it around and cause it to prosper for your good.

Why?

Because I'm in the plan of God.

My pastor always said, I would rather step out and fail than sit still and do nothing for God and miss God.

The plan of God is constantly progressing and moving you forward and changing the circumstances of your life.

If you're facing a challenge, look and see, am I in the plan of God?

And if you're in the plan of God, go to God and say, I'm in the plan of God.

I'm doing what you told me to do.

Now, if there's something I need to change, tell me.

But if there's nothing I need to change, I'm gonna keep on the path I'm on, and I'm gonna see you turn this thing around.

Glory to God.

Tell your neighbor, I'm in the plan of God.

Do you see this?

Oh, hallelujah.

Our obedience to the plan impacts the next generation.

My obedience to the plan impacts the next generation.

The decisions that I'm making where the plan of God is concerned is going to affect my children and my grandchildren.

Because everything that God wants to set up to bring them into is involved in my life right now.

Oh, hallelujah.

Do you see this?

See, well, I don't want to get ahead of myself.

But I'll say this the vehicle that we call the plan of God, the vehicle that you call your life, if you have children at home, they're in that vehicle with you, whether they want to be or not.

And the direction I steer that vehicle is going to affect them.

If I'm walking in the plan of God, things are going to go well in their life.

Amen.

Because it blesses, it blesses me and it blesses them.

You know, my parents didn't know a whole lot about what we talk about the word of faith and and they, you know, all these things, uh, especially in the beginning.

But they they they knew something that they put in me.

That once you find the plan of God for your life, you're good for nothing else from that moment on.

You're ruined.

Once you know what God wants you to do, that's all you're good for for the rest of your life.

Oh, hallelujah.

And so everything that that has to do with the plan of God, it's that vehicle that's taking me to success.

It's that vehicle that's taking me to the victory that God wants to be in my life.

Oh, hallelujah.

And see, I have to be careful here because I know how people think, but you know, I'll hear people say, you need to tell your children they can do anything they want.

No, I won't lie to them.

Because they cannot do anything they want.

They need to find the plan of God and go after that.

That's where success is found.

Amen.

When I learned that somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 to 90 percent of college graduates do not go into the field that they got a degree in, it made me start thinking, how many people are going to school and spending all that money that they could be using on the plan of God for something they're not even going to walk in after they graduate?

Now, I'm not saying college is wrong and higher education is incorrect, it's not what I'm saying.

But what if that person took that same initiative and that same determination and went after the plan of God?

Hallelujah.

Look at uh 2 Timothy 1.

It's it's the safe place.

The single most important thing in your life is the plan of God.

2 Timothy 1.

Because I'm gonna show you something.

We're gonna get into some things.

I've I've I've discovered something from the word of God that that that very often what happens is is God calls you.

Jesus said this.

I taught on this uh Sunday morning, I think it was.

I'm trying to remember, Sunday morning or Sunday night one.

But Jesus said in the book of John, you remember?

He said, uh, I called you to reap where you have bestowed no labor.

I called you to enter into other man's labors.

They have labored and you're gonna reap the harvest.

Praise God.

Amen.

See, we're entering into this time where just my thing and and and what I want to do, God's done with that.

And he's saying, there are things that have been laid down, there are things that have been put down.

I need you to enter into it, and I need you to pick it up, and I need you to go, and I need you to reap the harvest off of a seed that somebody else sowed.

If God calls you to a ministry to help that ministry, God's got a blessing in mind for you there.

God's got advancement in mind for you there.

If you're always running looking for your own thing, my own ministry, my own this, my own that, and you don't come to a ministry and own it and make it your ministry and make it the plan of God for your life, God will have a hard time moving you forward.

Hallelujah.

Because what you do for somebody else, God can do for you.

You know, I've told the Lord this I don't know how many times over the years.

I would make a great number two man.

I'm serious.

I would make a great assistant.

Why?

I love to help.

Just tell me what to do.

Point me in the direction, and I'll go get it done.

Right?

I love that.

Just tell me what you need done.

If you would tell me what you needed done, I promise you, you would never have to check on it, you would never have to follow up because it would be done right the first time every time.

Why?

Because I'm I'm a great.

Amen.

Every year they send out emails.

You want to coach basketball this year?

And and we've had the same basketball coach, and I help him.

Man, I'm a great number two guy.

I'll bring Gatorade, I'll help you with the the lineup.

You want me to take the lineup and go write everybody's name down?

Why?

He's got other things he needs to be working on.

He don't he don't need right?

He doesn't need to be doing that stuff that I can do.

Why should the head coach be doing that and the assistant sitting over there twiddling his thumbs, acting like he's the man?

Right?

What if when God calls you to a ministry, you step into it as this is the plan of God for my life?

This is not just a church I go to, it's not just a ministry that I help.

This is the plan of God for my life.

And you're not gonna pull me away from it, you're not gonna pry me out of it, you're not gonna turn me around from it, because this is where God placed me.

Amen.

Do you see this?

There are people that God brings to ministries.

God brings them there because that's the plan of God for their life, that's the voice they need to be hearing, that's the place they need to be.

And if they don't maximize that, if they do not place the proper importance on that ministry as they should, they miss out on what God wants for them.

Hallelujah.

And here's what generally happens they they generally end up walking away from the plan of God, and they might even get involved in something that they think is better, and it always leads to shipwreck.

I've never seen anybody walk away from the plan of God for their life and do better.

I've never seen it.

I'm not talking about my church or me as the pastor, I'm saying the plan of God in general.

I had a man one time that was coming to our Bible school, and his pastors were friends of mine.

And he asked, Could he talk to me one night on a break?

I said, Yeah.

And and and so we went in the office and I was talking to him, and he sat down and he said, Well, I got a problem.

I said, Well, what's the problem?

And he said, Well, my pastor.

I said, Stop right there.

Stop.

You just said that your pastor.

Are you really gonna sit here and try to talk to me about them?

You said God called you to that ministry.

If God called you to that ministry, why are you talking about them?

You're violating the plan of God for your life.

Are you following me?

Am I helping you tonight?

See, when when when when the next generation learns that, find the plan of God and stick with it.

Because God calls people to the ministry, but here's the thing God calls people to people.

You understand?

There are people that I'm called to help.

I'm called to help my pastor.

I know how do I know that?

Because God told me.

He told me one time.

He said, the main reason you're in Little Rock, Arkansas is to help your pastor.

He said, your church will thrive and prosper, but the main reason you're here is to help him.

You're called to him.

Well, if he's here and I'm called to him, I gotta be where he's at.

That doesn't minimize the church.

It doesn't minimize my responsibility here.

But understand that nobody's there are no Lone Rangers in the kingdom.

Of God.

God's got a plan for everybody.

The local church is the hope of the world.

The plan of God runs through the local church.

The plan of God runs through the ministries that God has connected to the local church.

Don't so lightly abandon the people God calls you to.

Oh, this is important.

And boy, I could preach right there for a minute.

And they'll abandon the plan of God and then they'll be on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook.

All the pictures of how happy they are because they abandoned the plan of God.

That thing's going to end up in shipwreck.

Am I helping you tonight?

I'm going to move on.

I'm going to quit meddling in a minute.

I just need you to see this.

It cannot be the will of God today, and then something goes the way I don't want or I don't like, and now it's not the will of God.

If it was the will of God six months ago, it's still the will of God today.

God is not shifty.

Let me move on.

2 Timothy 1.

2 Timothy 1, verse 3.

2 Timothy 1:3

Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, I thank God who I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I may I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I might be filled with joy.

When he did what?

I called to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you.

So I'm seeing something in you, Timothy, but I saw it somewhere else first.

Right?

It also dwelt in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.

And I'm persuaded in you also.

So notice his grandmother, his mother, and him.

Now we know from the word of God, Timothy's father wasn't a believer.

He was a Grecian.

Now I don't know if he got saved, but at least at that time he wasn't.

And notice what it says: it said, I saw that faith in your grandmother.

And I saw that faith in your mother.

How'd it get from grandma to mother?

Grandmother told him about it.

And then what happened?

Then it impacted Timothy.

And Timothy became what?

Son in the in the Lord to the greatest man of God beside Jesus Christ that the world has ever known.

More revelation.

We're still preaching his revelation.

Over a thousand years after his death, we're still preaching his revelation.

Are you following me?

When you follow Paul's ministry, you see him encouraging Timothy.

Be strong, be courageous.

God's not giving you the spirit of fear.

Right?

But you never see him saying, Timothy has forsaken me.

Because Paul was the plan of God for Timothy's life.

Others connected to him.

Demas connected to him.

In the book of Colossians, Paul said, and Demas greets you.

But then in 2 Timothy, Paul said, Demas has forsaken me because he loved this present world more than the kingdom.

I preached a message one time called My Name's Not Demas.

My name is Nemas.

Amen.

When you connect with me and I connect with you, when trouble comes, you don't have to look for me.

You don't have to worry where I'm at.

I'm right there with you.

I'm shoulder to shoulder.

Why?

Because the plan of God for your life is greater than what you're facing.

Am I helping you?

Look at 2nd, yeah, look at 2 Timothy 2 and verse 1.

I feel like I'm fire hosing you, but.

Hallelujah.

2 Timothy 2, verse 1.

2 Timothy 2:1

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the things you've heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

So we have these different generations.

We have Paul teaching Timothy, Timothy teaching faithful men, and faithful men teaching others.

That's the plan of God.

That's how the plan of God moves forward.

So we're teaching the generation coming.

The generation coming is going to teach the generation that comes in their time.

And that generation will turn around and teach the other generation.

What?

The same things that they heard from us.

You don't have to change the message.

You don't have to change it up.

Go find something new.

Just keep teaching what you're teaching.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

I I am.

Look at Joshua 11.

Now these are some important things.

Folks, I don't know everything.

I've made mistakes in my life.

I've failed in certain areas.

But here's what I know.

I know that if I hold on to the plan of God, God can turn things around.

If I'll stay hooked to what God said, oh, hallelujah.

Tell your neighbor, say, stay hooked to what God said.

Just stay hooked to what and and the generation coming has to know that.

They have to understand.

If we'll just stay hooked to what God said, when you're facing challenges, that's not the time to unhook from the plan of God.

Oh, hallelujah.

Because God will always come through when you stay connected to the plan of God.

Thank you, Lord.

Joshua 11 and verse 15.

Notice this.

As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua.

He left nothing undone of all the Lord commanded Moses.

The Bible says that Joshua was Moses' servant.

Nowadays we call him his armor-bearer, his assistant.

Isn't it interesting that when Moses went up on the mountain and was there for 40 days and 40 nights, that somebody was there with him on the mountain?

Joshua.

He was there too.

I don't know if he was fasting, but he was there.

He was there.

When they heard all the noise in the camp, it was Joshua that said there's a sound of war in the camp.

And Moses said, No, it's not war.

They're getting off the plan.

They're getting out of the plan.

And we got to go down and correct this.

Amen.

Joshua stood in front of the whole congregation.

And Moses laid hands on him and imparted his honor unto Joshua.

But notice what it says about Joshua.

He did all God commanded Moses.

What if God, what if the plan of God for your life is to help somebody else finish their plan well?

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Every ministry, every, every, if I could say it this way, every pastor, every man of God, they need somebody that they're passing on those vital truths to that's going to not only teach and preach it, but take that ministry to another place.

Amen.

You know, I've reached that point and I've listened I've got more years behind me than I got ahead of me.

That's just the reality of it.

I I get, I don't want to live to be 120.

If I wanted to live to be 120, I could live 60 more years.

I don't want to live to be 120.

The heaven sounding sweeter every day.

But here's, I'm not in a hurry, but understand, it's home.

And you would like to go back home.

But here's the point.

Here's my point.

So I'm in that position of how many people can I pour into to get this plan into them so that when I exit this earth, it's not a used to be, it's a still is.

Is that right?

Because the Lord said to me, and I'm saying this in this conference, the Lord said this to me.

He said, He said, he talked to me about the first phase of ministry and the second phase of ministry that we entered into.

And then he said to me, I was sitting in my in my chair writing this down, and he said, You are about to enter the third and final phase of your ministry, and it will be the most powerful yet.

That doesn't mean it's going to be over quick.

It's decades in length.

But but we're entering into it.

So I've said this for years now.

I've got more to give now than I've ever had before.

There's more anointing, there's more impartation now than ever before.

Hallelujah.

But he said he did all that God called Joshua to do.

He did all that God called Joshua to do.

One of the saddest things that I see at times is ministers that give their heart and their soul and their blood and their sweat and their tears and their energy and their time into a ministry, and nobody wants to pick it up and take it on.

Hallelujah.

See, that's why it's got to be the plan of God.

Amen.

I remember standing, and I've told this story before, but standing in in the office, and our pastor was telling us he was he was there ministering at the Kansas location, and he was telling us that he was about to uh uh transition the church over uh to Pastor Scott Stewart and that he was he was gonna be traveling.

And my wife asked the question, and she asked it out of her spirit.

She said, Well, who's gonna help you?

And he said, Well, I don't have anybody to help me.

And the Lord spoke to both of us then and said, That's your job.

That was back 2012, 2013.

That's never changed.

That's my job.

It's my job.

See, that's the plan.

Remember what the book of Proverbs says?

It says, He that keepeth the fig tree, right, will be safe, and he that waits on his master will be honored.

God will honor that person.

When you find the plan of God and you stick with it no matter what, God honors you for that.

I say, God honors you.

It's not who comes into the plan and leaves, it's that you don't abandon the plan.

You stay with the plan of God, and whoever comes and leaves, they'll come and go.

People come and people go, but you stay with the plan of God.

Oh, hallelujah.

Look at 1 Kings 8.

Am I helping you?

And here's what happens: when you find the plan of God and the place that is the plan of God for you, it it accelerates the anointing, it amplifies the giftings in your life.

You will never function in the anointings and the callings in your life the way that you can, where the plan of God is.

Hallelujah.

And so very often people are looking for a powerful ministry and an opportunity to minister powerfully, and they don't understand.

The most awesome opportunity to minister powerfully is where God called you.

Where God placed you.

Oh, hallelujah.

I say, oh, hallelujah.

So when I when I find an opportunity to get involved, and I find a place to put my hand to in a ministry, and I find the plan of God, then what's happening is more anointing is coming.

You might not think that while you're working a camera, but you're there where the plan of God is, and while you're working the camera, God's downloading anointings, God's downloading callings, God's downloading ability in you that you didn't know you had.

And you'll look back one day and say, that came on me while I was running the camera.

Oh, hallelujah.

Do you see that?

Oh, hallelujah.

And then there are people in here you helping Prophet Ford's ministry.

While you're running the camera at the reality of the gospel ministries, God's downloading something in you.

While you're running the prophet's camera, you're getting the prophet's reward.

You gotta understand that.

Anything that you do for a man or a woman of God, God says you're doing it for them.

And you're doing it for excuse me, you're doing it for him.

Oh, glory to God.

1 Kings 8 and 17.

Solomon says, It was in the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel.

Solomon said, It was in the heart of my father.

Now we all know David, David wanted to build God a house.

He called the prophet Nathan and said, It isn't right that I'm sitting here in a cedar house and God's the ark's in a tent.

And Nathan said, Do all that's in your heart, man.

Right?

And he walked out, and God said, No, no, no, go tell David.

I don't want him to build me a house.

I don't need him to I don't want him to do it.

And he said, Why?

He shed so much blood.

But notice what he said.

You read that whole chapter.

He said, but you tell him because he wanted to get involved in the plan of God.

I'm paraphrasing, I'm gonna build him a house.

I'm gonna take care of him.

Why?

Because he wanted to get involved in the plan of God.

Hallelujah.

You know, very often, I believe, I believe personally, David gets a bad rap.

Uh people talk about David and talk about this and talk about that.

When you read the Bible, it says that when it was talking about Josiah, the king Josiah, it says there was no king like Josiah that pleased God so much except David, and then it says, except in the issue of Uriah the Hittite.

All the other stuff that people preach about and talk about, God didn't even mention it.

He said, the only blemish that I see on his record is the issue of Uriah the Hittite.

And what did David do?

If he made a mistake, he got on his knees and he got back in the plan of God.

He got back into the lane that God wanted him to be in.

And he loved God so much he said, I want to build you a house.

It didn't write that I'm living in this palace and your presence is in a tent.

So Solomon said, It was in his heart.

Hallelujah.

Your heart has to be in the plan.

I would say young people, but I'm saying to everybody, your heart has to be in the plan.

God will over.

I say overlook, and you understand what I mean by that.

God will overlook mistakes.

God will forgive mistakes.

God will wipe mistakes out and render the effect useless against you when your heart is for the plan of God.

My heart is for it.

Dad Hagin used to say, you were wrong in your head, but you were right in your heart.

Hallelujah.

I want the plan of God.

I want the plan of God.

I want to look at my children and my grandchildren in my last days and tell them I may not have done everything right, but I knew how to stay with the plan of God.

I knew how to go after God.

I knew how to get on my knees.

I knew how to pray.

I knew how to fast.

I knew how to seek God.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

I know the children and the young people that come to our church, and I know you're putting a good foundation in them because I know you as parents.

I know you're doing the godly thing.

They have to understand this plan of God trumps everything.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah.

I remember being 18 years of age.

18.

And, you know, at 18, you're an adult legally, but you really don't know that much.

You're only 18.

I didn't say you're you're dumb, I said you just don't know that much.

You haven't lived very long.

And so I'm trying to decide.

Am I going to go into the Marine Corps?

Or am I going to follow the call of God for my life?

I knew I had a call of God on my life.

And my youth pastor used to be a uh a uh sergeant in the Marine Corps.

And so he brought me a long playing record about Paris Island.

And man, I listen to that all the time.

That's how long ago that was, a record.

But you know, now now understand what I'm saying here.

I listened to that and I thought something about myself.

You gotta understand how I am.

My wife will amen this.

If I start doing something, I'm doing it.

I'm not gonna quit.

That's gonna be the path I'm on.

If I'd have gone into the Marine Corps, that's where I'd have stayed.

I wouldn't have I wouldn't have backslid and ran away from God.

I'd have stayed safe, but I that the military would have been my life.

The military was not the plan of God for my life.

It would have been a successful plan because of me, because of my discipline.

But how many people would not have been?

There are people sitting in this room tonight that God has healed you in this ministry.

And that wouldn't have happened in this ministry if I had not been in the plan of God for my life.

I'm not taking the credit, I'm just saying that's that's the reality of it.

There are people that are saved tonight because of what God called us to do.

Even at that age, I just knew something.

I thought, no, God's got something for me to do with my life.

Amen.

And that's when I first began to hear about Brother Hagin and Jerry Savell and all these men.

I got turned on to the word of faith and it changed my life.

He said, You put it in my father's heart.

Now, 1 Kings 9 and 1, it came to pass when Solomon.

Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord.

He put it in David's heart and Solomon finished it.

David financed it and Solomon finished it.

Do you see this?

You gotta recognize that.

God will put you in positions to finish what somebody else started.

And you just gotta be willing to walk it out.

Amen.

And here's the thing: while you're finishing what that person started, you're getting downloads from that person.

You're getting access to wisdom and knowledge that nobody else is getting access to.

Why?

Because by and large, people don't want to come and finish something that somebody else started.

See, it got quiet in Zion.

This is important.

I've said, and I'm gonna read this verse.

I've said this for years.

When the three kings were together, and they said, God called us here to die, remember, in the desert?

And Jehoshaphat, the godly king, he said, Is there a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire at his hand by?

And they said, Well, there is Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who poured water over Elijah's hands.

What if all they said about you was you served your pastor?

Or you got involved with somebody else's ministry and helped them.

Now what else happened to we we see we see in the Bible there's a record of Elisha doubling the miracles of Elijah.

And so so we talk about the double portion.

I'm not disagreeing with that, but here's what I'm saying.

He did double the miracles, and what they're pointing out about him is that he served Elijah.

Notice, Elisha wasn't out looking for his own.

He says, God called me to you.

And Elijah said, I'm going here, you stay here.

He said, I'm not staying.

I'm called to you.

This is important.

Why?

Because he remembered the day that he was there on the family farm, which was a prosperous farm.

He was a prosperous man, and he remembered the day.

That the man of God came and put his mantle on him and then just walked off.

And he said, Hang on, let me go, let me go tell my family by.

In other words, I'm all in.

Let me go tell my family by.

He said, What I do to you?

I'm not putting any pressure on you.

People that you're called to will very rarely put pressure on you to hook up and get in the plan of God.

When somebody knows that you're called to that ministry, they will sit and let you figure out that you're called to that place.

See, because you got to want it.

You got to want it.

When people come and ministers come and young ministers come to the church and and ministers come, I promise no preaching time.

I've told people for years, I'm a good preacher.

I can preach three, four, five, six times a week.

I don't need people to help me preach.

I need people to help me do what else we got to do in this church.

I need people to help me form departments.

I need people to help me train people.

I need people to run discipleship classes.

I need people to do outreach.

Why?

Because that's what we're called to do.

It's not a knock against anybody's anointing.

It doesn't mean that they're not qualified, but here's what it means: this is what I'm called to do.

You're called to help me do it.

And God will use your ministry.

God will use your anointing.

If you're a prophet, God will use you in this church.

If you're an evangelist, God will use you in this church.

And it will be easier for you.

Amen.

I've told Brother Jim this for years.

How long have we been together now?

18 years?

Yeah, something like that.

Amen.

Ask Carrie, she knows.

Okay, all right.

18 years.

But I I've told him this.

I said, people, ministers in the church, in the local church, they'll get up behind our pulpit from our church and they'll say, Oh, it's so easy to preach here.

I've been plowing the ground for 28 years.

It better be easy to preach.

Well, we're doing something wrong.

When I go to Prophet Ford's ministry, it's easy to preach there because that anointing is there every time they're there.

Breaking bonds, breaking walls, and there's no walls to break down when you go there.

You have your freedom and your liberty.

Am I helping you?

It was in David's heart, but Solomon finished what was in David's heart.

Look at 1 Kings 19.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

And you can just go down the line of every seat in here.

You can go down the line right here, these young people, people over here.

You can go down the line.

The plan of God is great.

The plan of God is great.

The plan of God is great.

We may not know what it all is.

And you like books, right?

You like to write books, right?

You enjoy books.

I like books too.

I think the book was better myself.

Amen.

What if that's the plan of God for your life?

Then it doesn't matter what the first book looks like.

It doesn't matter if it was great.

It doesn't matter if anybody liked it.

It was out of your heart and put it on paper.

What's the plan of God for your life?

Whatever it is, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks about it.

What matters is that you take it and you cultivate it and you hold it close and you call it precious and you treat it like it's valuable and you treat it like it's the most important thing in your life.

You treasure the call to preach.

You treasure the call to do something for God.

God could have asked anybody else to do what he asked you to do, but he asked you.

Amen.

Whoo, glory to God.

1 Kings 19 and 15.

15 and 16.

And the Lord said to him, Elijah, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.

And when you come, anoint Haziel to be king over Syria.

And Jehu the son of Nimshe anoint to be king over Israel.

And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahalah, shall you anoint to be prophet in your room.

Now notice, this is what he told Elijah to do.

You go and you anoint Jehu the son of Nimshe to be king.

But notice something, 2 Kings 9.

And verse 1, and Elisha, not Elijah, Elisha the prophet, called one of the children of the prophets, and said, Gird up your loins, take this box of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead, and when you come thither, look out there Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshe, and go in and make him rise from among his brother and carry him to an inner chamber.

Take the box of oil, pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I've anointed you king over Israel.

God told Elijah to do that.

But we see Elisha doing it.

Why?

Because his job was to be prophet in Elijah's room.

Remember, he said, You go and you anoint Elisha to be prophet in your room.

King James says, Stead, room.

In your room.

You know, there are people that have left the earth that we have great respect for.

That people are not stepping up and walking in their rooms, and there's things that God birthed through them into the earth that if somebody doesn't step up and start walking in, it's going to be lost.

Somebody's got to step into that room.

I remember in 2013, uh Charles Capps passed away.

And I heard, excuse me, uh, yeah.

And then I heard uh Ed Dufresne, Dr.

Dufresne pass away.

And I pulled up to where we were living, and I stopped the car, and I just leaned over on the steering wheel and was just it it I knew both of those men.

It just it it there was a loss.

And the Lord said to me, He said, Rooms are being vacated.

Rooms are being vacated.

And he said, Those anointings never leave the earth.

Somebody's got to pick them up.

Somebody's got to pick them up.

The Lord spoke to my wife, and she said this.

He said this to her.

He said, I want you to take the teachings of Kenneth Hagin and Charles Caps and teach them to the Hispanic people of Little Rock.

The body of Christ.

That's our assignment.

That's one of our assignments.

That's the plan of God.

Somebody's got to step into that room and operate that way.

You go anoint him.

He never did anoint him.

He never did it.

But Elisha did.

See, Elisha was not above taking up where somebody left off.

Oh, hallelujah.

I look at people like our good friend Susan Allen in uh Russellville, Russellville Christian Center.

I was there with Tom Underhill.

I was at a women's conference with Michelle.

And uh Tom and I went to eat and built a good relationship.

And at that point, he was talking to me about how he was transitioning the church over to his daughter.

And he was teaching her what needed to be done.

You know, she never took it and said, I want to take this thing and do something totally different.

She heard the vision for that church for all those years, and when he passed away, she just picked up where he left off and kept pushing forward.

And now that ministry is stronger, farther reaching, and better prepared than it was when Tom was alive.

I mean, he's still alive, but on the earth.

Why?

Because somebody said, I don't need this to be Susan Allen's ministry.

I need this to be the plan that God put on it.

Am I helping you?

It's an honor to be asked to complete my father's assignment.

It's an honor to be asked to get involved with what God's doing in somebody else's life.

It's an honor.

Because he could have asked anybody else, but he trusted you.

Ever what it is.

You know, if you're doing something in church, yes, somebody asked you to do it, but God honored you by asking you.

Hallelujah.

You know, when the man or woman of God comes up to you and they say, I would like, can you do this in the church?

Don't ever look and think that's just a person asking you.

That's God asking you.

I didn't say the man or woman was God.

I said that's God speaking through them to ask you to help.

Amen.

You know, Brother Jim, pastors helps us pastor that church.

But I remember the night he came in, he was kind of a lackadaisical usher.

I could say it this way, the reluctant usher, right?

Because you know, before, and I can't tell on you, because before Pastor Jim got saved, you know, he would come to church and he would leave his wallet in the car.

And then that way he wouldn't have to lie by saying he didn't have any money to give in the offering.

And one night I was preaching and he was holding his daughter Gracie, who now has children of her own, right?

On his lap, and I said, You know, there are guys in here, I said, You want a good marriage, but then you just want to go home and sit in your recliner and smoke cigarettes and drink beer all night.

And Gracie looked at him and said, But I remember the Sunday night, I remember the song we were singing.

I was playing the guitar, and the worship team was singing that hill song song.

It says, Because I know that you're alive, you came to heal my broken life.

And so I sing and magnify, right?

And I saw Jim.

He got up, you can't miss him.

6'7, he got up in the back.

No, not that 6'7, 6 feet 7, all right?

Anyway, you knew it was coming, right?

You knew it was coming.

But anyway, the the the point is he got up and he came and I watched him.

He came up, he knelt down at the altar, tears streaming down his face, and it was from that moment forward, what do you want me to do?

How can I help?

Right?

So he put a blue shirt on him with a tag that said, Jim.

In case he forgot who he was.

I'm Jim Usher, right?

And I I remember the night that the the head usher didn't show up, and there was a lot involved in that.

And we had a guest speaker, a man that's very important to us in our life.

He, a guest speaker, and and I was in the office trying to figure out everything that we were gonna do.

And I heard and and and I heard my wife out in the hallway, Brother Jim, yes, ma'am.

I need you to do this, and I need you to do that, and I need you, right?

From that night, he became the head usher.

That night he became the head man.

And a few weeks after that, he can tell you exactly how long.

He was praying, asking the Lord about the plan for his life, and here's what the Lord said help your pastor.

That's the plan for your life.

Help your pastor.

And he has said over and over again to me, that's what guides my decisions.

And the Lord said something to me.

He said, I chose them to help you because to them it was never about them, it was about helping you.

See, it's not about us, it's about getting the plan of God completed.

Hallelujah.

Now, you know, this is conference week, so we may go a little over our hour of power.

Thank you.

Not a lot, not a lot over, but am I helping you?

And so when you find the plan of God and you get connected to it, wherever it's at, that's where the abundance begins to flow.

That's where those downloads begin to happen.

Hallelujah.

You know, people want downloads from God, and they're never around the people that God placed in their life to give those downloads through.

Mark Hankins made a statement one time.

He said, if there's a revelation that God wants you to get from another person, you'll have to get it from them.

God's not going to give it to you outside of them.

It's so important.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

You can miss what you're called to do because you're looking for your own.

Everybody needs to hear this, but the generation coming needs to hear it especially.

Because that's, you know, 2 Kings 3.11, he said he poured water on the hands of Elijah.

What if that's all people remember about us?

You know, I've been Michelle Steele's husband for so long.

You know what I mean by that?

Everywhere we go, people will see her and they'll say, Oh, and this is Michelle's husband.

Oh yeah.

I went to an event, pastor invited me to.

And I'm there, and and this lady looked over at me and she's like, Michelle Steele's husband.

What is your name?

Michelle's husband.

Right?

That's an honor.

Right?

What what what if they say, yeah, that's you're that guy that helps Prophet Ford.

What's his name?

I don't know his name.

He helps Prophet Ford.

Oh.

Now see, if it bothers you that they don't know your name, you have not yet tapped into the fact that the plan of God for your life is to help.

Oh, hallelujah.

Jerry Seville, who I love dearly, talked about the time that he was working for Brother Copeland.

I'm almost done.

We gotta pray.

But he said, I was working for Brother Copeland, and he said, uh, Kenneth Hagin had so impacted my life.

And he said, we would see Brother Hagin from time to time, be in meetings with him, and Brother Copeland be talking to him, and I was standing right there.

And he said, for whatever reason, he never introduced me.

He said, and I never tugged on Brother Copeland's coattail and said, Make sure I get to meet Brother Hagen.

Tell him I'm your right-hand man.

He said, I just kept doing what I was called to do.

What had God told him?

In Shreveport, Louisiana, God had prophesied through Brother Copeland and said, You and I will be a team and we'll travel the world together for the rest of our lives.

Preach in the word of faith.

And to Brother, I've heard him say it publicly and personally.

To him, his first allegiance was to Kenneth Copeland and what God called Brother Copeland to do.

That was his first commitment.

And he would pay his way to every conference.

And but here's here's something I want you to see.

So they are now they're starting the Believers' Conventions.

They had the West Coast Believers Convention, and the speakers for the first one were Kenneth and Gloria and Jerry Savel and uh uh Charles Caps and Brother Hagin and I think Till Osborne.

But anyway, Brother Copeland was introducing Brother Jerry, and he said, When I first met this man, he he didn't have the anointing of a duck.

And he preached, Brother Jerry preached, and the Holy Spirit was moving.

And he said, Well, my time's up, I need to turn it to Brother Hagin.

Brother Hagin said, Son, I know when the Spirit's moving, you keep going.

And he kept going.

After the service, he came up to Brother Hagin, stepped up to the podium.

He said, Well, that duck sure can quack.

But here's the thing, he had never met Brother Hagin before that night.

Two weeks later, he got a call from Ken Jr.

And he said, Daddy wants you to come and be one of our main speakers at camp meeting this year.

And he said, out of his own mouth, I heard him say it, he said, that exposed my ministry to more people at one time than any other thing.

Now, now think about this.

Where did that opportunity come from?

Staying with the plan.

The plan is for you and I to minister the word of God, the word of faith, around the world for the rest of our life.

I was with him in his last meeting with Brother Copeland.

Still a team, still partners, still and when and when he passed away, Brother Copeland just came in and took up the the slack.

Because that's the plan.

Hallelujah.

Our children, this generation, my decisions affect them because they're in the same vehicle.

And my decisions affect them.

Now, now it's 8 12, so give me just five minutes.

I dealt with a man one time.

They came to the church.

It was a Sunday night, I'll never forget it.

And they came in, they sat down, uh, blonde hair, his wife had blonde hair, he was a kind of a bigger guy, and and black dark hair with the crew cut, flat top.

And uh they had uh one little girl with them.

And they came in set about halfway back.

And while I was ministering, I looked back and I saw a, you know, Brother Hagin would say a mini-vision, M-I-N-I, M-I-N-I vision, mini-vision.

Well, it was like I saw a mini-vision.

And I saw that couple sitting in front of their TV in their living room watching CBN, and I saw them watching a program about adoption of children from China.

And I saw them turn to each other and say, I would like to get involved with that, I just don't know if we should.

And the Lord said, You go back there and tell them what you saw, and then tell them, I want you them to get involved with that, and they're going to change the children's life that they adopt.

Well, I went back and told them they'd never met me, I'd never met them, I didn't know them from anybody.

They did eventually end up adopting three little girls from China and did change their life.

Hallelujah.

Went to our Bible school, got involved in the worked in the church.

He was on the board, ministered in the children's ministry.

She helped in the children's ministry.

Hallelujah.

But I began to notice something.

I begin to notice there be there began to be a separation.

And it was no more, this is what God wants me to do.

It was more, I need to tell you what you need to do.

And finally, one day I had to meet with him and tell him that that's not how this is gonna work.

You can't you can't tell me what to do.

I mean, you can you can give me a you can talk to me, you can give me your opinion.

A certain amount of pushback, I'm good with.

Right?

But here's the thing we gotta do what God told us to do.

Hallelujah.

Well, one Sunday he came to church and and I was talking to him in in the back.

He was I thought he was gonna go teach his class, and he left.

Just left.

And I contacted him to find out what was what was up.

Well, I don't remember all the ins and outs, but here what I do remember is the crux of the matter is that he's upset because he don't like the way I'm directing this.

Now, just six months prior to that, I was in Dallas at a conference that me and a group of men went to, and there were two, three, three men, and this man was one of them.

And we had left the conference, and I remember the only thing open to get anything to eat at was Perkins.

And so we went to Perkins, and we were sitting there in Perkins, and all these men began to talk to me because they talked about spiritual fathers that night.

And all these men begin to talk to me, and tears come down their face, and they begin to say, You're my spiritual father, and God called me, and this man was one of them.

God called me to you, God called, God changed my family through this, and and God this.

I watched this man who he had had knee surgery.

His knees were so bad he could barely barely get around.

And he had had knee surgery and it was not going right.

He had had the surgery and and it was not thick.

We're not working right.

He was standing in the back of the church, and we started singing this song, and the Holy Spirit began to move.

And I saw the power of God hit him, and he was barely able to get around.

The power of God hit him and he started running around the church, walking around the church, picking that knee up.

God corrected what was going wrong and healed his knee.

God put his marriage back together.

Amen.

And he gets upset and he abandons the plan.

It's not me.

Understand that it's not that your life will fail if you go to another church, but you'll have trouble if you leave where you know God told you to be and you go somewhere else.

Are you following me?

He called me.

I'll never forget.

Day before Thanksgiving.

And I was I was out.

I was at Starbucks, to tell you the truth.

And I was in the line at Starbucks.

And I'd went to meet a man about the prison ministry.

And I picked up the I answered my phone.

Back then we had flip phones, you know, so I flipped my phone.

And he said, Can do you have a moment to meet with me?

Well, I usually don't go into the office the day before Thanksgiving.

That that those days I usually take completely off.

But I felt like I should, so I said, Yeah, I'll meet you.

And so we met at the office.

I walked in the office, he came in the office, he sat down, I shut the door, he looked at me, he said, My God, Pastor, I'm losing my marriage.

I just looked at him, I said, Well, tell me about it.

So he started talking to me about it.

He pulled his family out of church.

His wife started going to karaoke.

In the process of going to karaoke, she met her high school sweetheart.

They struck up a relationship.

Now they're in an affair.

I don't know what to do.

Now I'm very kind-hearted, but I looked at him and I said, Your wife did not learn to commit adultery from the women at church.

She learned to commit adultery when you pulled her away from the plan of God.

You pulled your family out of church and away from God's plan.

And that's where this occurred.

Now he wanted to read a book or something to fix it.

I said, you can't fix it if you don't get your family back in the plan of God.

You gotta get them back in the plan of God.

Well, you know, here's the thing.

They tried, but there's a repair process.

You can't just abandon God's plan for your life and then just come back and not have to expect repair.

Now, this is not the ending that anybody wants.

They ended up divorced, family ended up fractured.

Why?

Moved out of the plan of God for their life.

Oh, hallelujah.

But I've watched that that's just one story, but I've watched countless others on the brink of destruction come and find the plan of God for their life.

And their marriage is better today, their lives are better today.

There are people that are alive today because they found the plan of God for their life.

The single most important thing that we can teach the generation coming is the plan of God.

What's the plan of God for my life?

God will talk to you, God will tell you, God will speak to you, He'll reveal His plan to you.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah.

Glory to God.

We're gonna pray in just a moment.