The Exchange Personalized - Part 1

The Exchange Personalized

We’ve been looking at various aspects of the exchange that took place when Jesus died on the cross. The essential principle is stated in the words “the evil due to us came upon him that the good due to him might be made available to us.” It was a divinely ordained exchange.

We will just quickly review the aspects of the exchange that we’ve already looked at, then we’ll move on.

I spent five years of my life training teachers for African schools in Kenya. One of the principles that became very real to me is stated this way: nothing has been taught until something has been learned. I saw my student teachers go through all the procedure at the front of the class, writing things up on the chalkboard and all that, but as I walked around the back and looked at the pupils’ exercise books I realized that nothing had been learned. So just to go through the processes of teaching doesn’t necessarily teach. I’m going to do my best in every way I can to make sure that something has been learned.

So we’re going to review the three aspects of the exchange that we have already looked at. And rather than look at your outlines, for a moment I would like you just to try and do it by memory. It could be that you’ll have to correct me. We’ll do the left hand for the evil, the right hand for the good. We’ll do a short version.

Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven.

Jesus was wounded that we might be healed.

Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness

that we might be made righteous with his righteousness.

Now we’ll go on to the next which is that Jesus died our death that we might share his life. Although this is stated in Isaiah 53, it’s stated perhaps most clearly in Hebrews 2:9. We’ll start there in Hebrews 2:9. It says:

“But we see Jesus, [and the see is by revelation, it’s not with natural eyesight but it’s the revelation of scripture.] who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God might taste death for every one.”

Notice the word grace. We need to emphasize that word. I probably haven’t emphasized it enough. Everything that we’re talking about proceeds from the grace of God. Anything that comes by grace cannot be earned. If you can earn it, it isn’t grace.

Paul said in Ephesians 2:8:

“By grace you are saved through faith, and that’s not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any one should boast.”

So where it’s by grace it’s not of works. It cannot be earned. Grace is received only through faith. John 1:17 says:

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

So Jesus is the channel of grace, the cross is the basis of grace. It’s only on the basis of the cross that God offers grace. And it’s by faith that we receive grace. Let me say that again. Jesus is the channel of all grace. Only through Jesus is God’s grace made available. The cross is the basis of the offer of grace and we receive it by faith, not by works. Nobody can explain the grace of God. It’s unexplainable. Why did God permit Jesus to go through the terrible agonies of the cross on behalf of people like you and me? And the Bible never gives any explanation. So I would say don’t try to look for one. Just be willing to receive by faith the measureless grace of God. The unexplainable grace of God. The problem with most religious people is they try to earn grace but you can’t earn it. And as long as you’re trying to earn it by works, you don’t receive it. At some point you just have to stop trying to earn it and just receive it.

Paul said in Romans 4, “to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” If you want to receive grace, what’s the first thing you have to do? You have to stop working. We’re talking exclusively about things that come by the grace of God.

And the writer of Hebrews says here that by the grace of God Jesus tasted death for every one. He died in the place of everybody who was due to die. Because the wages of sin is what? Death. When Jesus was made sin it was inevitable that he had to die. That is the inevitable consequence of sin. Now it says he tasted death for every one.

There’s an interesting statement which is not in your outline but God directed my attention to it this morning. It’s in John 8:52. The Jews are criticizing Jesus for things he’d been saying.

“Then the Jews said to Jesus, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say if any one keeps my words he shall never taste death.”

I want to point out to you that Jesus didn’t say he shall never die. He said he shall never taste death. And Hebrews 2:9 says that Jesus by the grace of God tasted death for every one. It’s very obvious that believing Christians do die physically. But they don’t taste death. The bitterness, the darkness, the anguish and all the evil that goes with death, Jesus tasted all that for us. He endured our death.

The alternative is so obvious that everybody can say it. What is the opposite of death? Life.

Let’s say that then. “Jesus tasted death for us that we might share his life.” I prefer to say that. Let’s say it again. “Jesus tasted death for us that we might share his life.”

Then we come to Galatians 3:13–14. Here is a very clear, specific aspect of the exchange which has largely been ignored by the Christians that I have associated with. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anybody preach a message on this text except myself. But for me, over the last five years, it has become increasingly vivid and important. Through the insight that God has given me on this text and its application to the cross, I have seen, I think, more radical and dramatic transformations take place in peoples’ lives than through any other truth that God has given me. So we’ll look at it and then we’ll analyze it. Galatians 3:13–14.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”

Remember that the tree was the cross. Some people don’t understand that, but in some languages the word tree means a tree when it’s growing and a tree when it’s cut down. If you happen to be in East Africa, in the Swahili language the word ?umphti? means exactly the same. It’s a tree growing or a piece of wood cut down. When it says the tree, it’s talking about the cross. I’ll read that verse again. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”

In other words, when Jesus hung on the cross, every Jew who knew his Old Testament recognized that Jesus was made a curse.

Then we read the other side of the exchange in verse 14:

“That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Now, what are the two aspects of the exchange in that verse? What’s the evil? Curse. What’s the good? Blessing. It’s very clear, isn’t it? Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing. Let’s say it again. “Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing.” And you’ll notice there’s tremendous emphasis on curse in verse 13, the word occurs three times. Christ has redeemed us from the curse, having become a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.

In l979 Ruth and I were in a family conference in the State of Missouri. A young man whom I don’t know that I ever met before or since kind of interrupted the conference in a way with a prophecy which was one of the most significant in my life and ministry. The prophecy had two main themes. This is unrelated to what we were talking about at the conference. It will have something to do with what I’m going to deal with later on in this series. But the prophecy said in effect: “All that God has been doing against witchcraft up to the present time has been nothing but preliminary skirmishes. But from now on God is declaring total war on witchcraft.” That was l979. Then it said: “The reason is that witchcraft has millions of men bound whom God needs in his end-time army.” Then, as a kind of P.S. it said: “And you will come across people who are under a curse that comes from preceding generations. But you do not need to be afraid, you will be able to release them.”

Well, that was totally new to my thinking at that time. That was 1979, now l987, that’s how many years? Eight years, nearly eight years. I have seen that prophecy totally fulfilled many, many times over. God opened up a whole new area of truth to me concerning curses. And I have had the joyful experience of seeing hundreds of thousands of people released from curses. And the basis is this, there is no other basis for any provision of God. The basis is Galatians 3:13–14.

That Jesus was made a curse perhaps we need to confirm. If you keep your finger in Galatians 3 and turn to Deuteronomy 21:22–23. This is part of the Mosaic law.

“If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

So by the divine plan of God, Jesus died hung on a tree. And by that God signified to all who knew his word that Jesus had been made a curse. And that’s what Paul says in Galatians 3:13. Jesus was made a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse. To redeem means to be bought back. And that in place of the curse we might receive the blessing.

Now, if I got into the subject of curses we’d miss the real thrust of this teaching so I only want to take a little while. But if you want to know about curses, there is one chapter in the Old Testament which is the source chapter. How many of you know which it is? Deuteronomy 28, that’s right. And it has 68 verses. The first 14 verses deal with blessings. The remaining 54 verses enumerate curses. And if you want to know what a curse is, you need to read the last 54 verses of Deuteronomy 28. It could shock you to find out some of the things that are called curses.

This is my rough estimate. I think Ruth and I find that when we minister to people, particularly praying for the sick, at least one out of every four persons we minister to is under a curse. In most cases the person is not able to receive healing until the curse has been broken. We have seen some very dramatic examples of this.

I think I’ll give you just one which happened a long while ago in the great City of St. Louis. I would say it didn’t really register with me at the time, it just happened and I said to myself, “There’s something here but I don’t quite know what it is.” But I was conducting a service in the Presbyterian church and it was a deliverance service. It was one of those churches that felt deliverance should be conducted in the basement. So, that’s where we were. I was standing behind a little pulpit just like this one and I come to the end of my message and I was looking at the people sitting there and right on the front row, just about like where these people are here, there was a family: father, mother and teenage daughter. And I felt the Holy Spirit said to me, and I wasn’t anticipating it, “There’s a curse over that family. “ So I stepped up to the father and I said, “Sir, I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me that there’s a curse over your family. Would you like me to revoke it?” And he immediately said yes. Later on I got to know that he had been through a lot of things which made it easy for him to believe there was a curse. So I stepped back behind the pulpit and I prayed a very simple prayer just releasing that family from the curse in the name of Jesus. When I said in the name of Jesus there was a visible, physical reaction in each member of the family although I was not touching them. Then I saw that the daughter had her left leg in a cast from above the thigh to the bottom of the foot. So I stepped back and I said, “Would you like me to pray for the healing of your daughter’s leg?” And he said, “Yes, but you need to know she’s broken the same leg three times in eighteen months and her doctor said it will not heal.”

Now, if I heard that statement today I wouldn’t have any doubts that there was a curse because only a curse will cause a person to break the same leg three times in eighteen months. All I could do was just take the cast in my hands and hold it and pray a very simple prayer. I’ll cut the story short but the next time they went back to the clinic to have the leg X-rayed it was healed. And within a few weeks the cast was off. Apparently there was complete healing.

As I meditated on that I said this: Why did God show me the curse before he permitted me to pray for the healing of the leg? My conclusion was because if the curse had not been revoked, the leg would not have been healed. I have seen that confirmed scores of times in subsequent experience.

Let me give you just very briefly, and I think it’s on the back side of your sheet, seven common indications that there’s a curse over a person’s life. Now I want you to understand I’m not saying if one of these things is true necessarily there’s a curse. But if several of them are true, the diagnosis is pretty obvious. Also, you need to understand that curses by their very nature go on from generation to generation. That’s the special feature of both blessings and curses. And so we’re dealing not so much with individuals, although that could be true, but we’re dealing more with social groups like families or larger communities.

Now I’ll give you out of my personal observations seven things that I have found normally point to a curse. I never say to a person, “I know there’s a curse over your life.” That’s not my job. I simply say, “Well, in the light of what you tell me it seems to me that there probably is a curse. If you would like, we’ll pray together for release.” These are the seven things. It’s interesting you can compare them with Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and you’ll find basically they’re just saying in modern language what Moses said in Deuteronomy 28. But these are the seven things:

Number one. Mental and emotional breakdowns.

Number two. Repeated or chronic sicknesses—especially if they’re hereditary. The very word hereditary should alert you maybe there’s a curse coming from generation to generation.

Number three. Repeated miscarriages or related female problems. I think Ruth would agree with me that since we came to understand this we have seen scores and scores of women with problems like that released from them simply when they’re dealt with as a curse. If you care to read Deuteronomy 28 you’ll find that Moses viewed them the same way.

Number four. The breakdown of marriage and family alienation. Now one divorce in a family isn’t necessarily indicative but if a family’s whole history is divorces and the breakdown of family relationships and alienations, I personally would say you can be sure there’s a curse over that family.

Number five. Continuing financial insufficiency—especially where the income appears sufficient. Now if you happen to be short of money or poor for a time that’s not necessarily a curse. But if you’re always in that situation you need to be checking. Especially if according to the books your income should be sufficient.

Let me tell you this little story, it always amuses me. A certain lady in the States got hold of my teaching and wrote me and said, “I believe there’s a curse over my husband’s family.” I wrote back and said to her, “Tell me why you believe there’s a curse over your husband’s family.” She wrote back and said, “My husband’s estate runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. Our annual income is a million dollars and we never have enough money.” I said, “I’m convinced!” Actually, there were other indications when we got down to it besides that.

The next one is accident prone—which is statistically diagnosable. You’ll find that insurance companies will charge you a higher premium if they diagnose you as being accident prone. Again, it alone alerts me the moment I find out.

Finally, a history of suicides or unnatural deaths in a family.

So those are my observations on the manifestations of curses, how they affect people’s lives.

If ever there was good news, brothers and sisters, this is good news. On the cross Jesus was made a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse. I feel God wants me to pause a little while longer on this, I’m trying to work through. But another way of describing a curse is that there’s somehow a dark shadow over your life and it proceeds from somewhere in the past and you may not know where.

Or, to use another figure, there’s a long, evil hand that reaches out from time to time and just stops you when you’re about to succeed. You meet people who have all the qualifications for succeeding and get to the point of success time after time and it always eludes them. I would say perhaps in a way one of the key words is frustration. So, if I’m describing you to yourself, there’s an answer, there’s a way out, there’s a solution. I’m not interested in problems if I can’t find solutions. Just to preach problems, to me, is pretty well self-defeating.

Let me just give you another example. I try to get on and I feel the Lord won’t let me. I was talking about preaching in Zambia where I told the people about the storehouse, the storehouse keeper and the key. Well, I had those dear, blessed Africans, I think for six days, and I mean, Africans don’t measure time the way we do. If you preach three hours they say, “What’s the matter, why did you stop?” And they’re usually sitting on narrow wooden benches or on the earth, or whatever it may be.

So I was really able to give them everything. I’ll just tell you briefly what I did. It’s become my pattern, if I can do it I’ll do it. Sometimes I don’t have the time. Number one, we start where we are now, the exchange that took place at the cross. We lay that basis. When you lay that foundation you’ve got a basis on which to minister to people.

Then, I’ve lived eight years of my life in Africa. There are hardly any Africans that aren’t under a curse, and most Africans know they’re under a curse. So then I deal with release from the curse because I know that the curse is going to be the barrier to anything else I’m going to teach them. Now when we’ve got rid of the curse I prepare to face the demons. You see, if you teach deliverance to people under a curse, they’ll struggle but they won’t receive their deliverance. You might not like this, it might not suit your theology but we had 7,000 Africans there and for three hours I taught them on how to get rid of demons. First of all how to recognize demons and then how to get rid of them.

You don’t have to convince Africans demons are real. You just have to tell them how to get rid of them! So at the end of that time I said, “Now, if you feel you need deliverance I’m going to pray for you, I’m going to lead you in a prayer that you call upon the Lord. For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Then stop praying and I’m going to tell the demons to go. You let them go, your business is not to go on praying, it’s to let the demons go.” Well, I’ve had a lot of exciting times in my ministry but I don’t know if I’ve ever had anything more exciting than the next hour that followed that.

It was a sort of football field auditorium type but it sloped quite steeply down from the back to the front. There was one man who rolled all the way uphill about 200 yards from here to there but the demon was gone by the time he got to the top. African demons are a little bit cultural. I have an adopted African daughter, I love the African people but I just know the particular way things go with them.

You see, an African who wants to hunt an animal, if it’s an elephant or a boar or whatever, he wants the spirit of the animal in him, then he can hunt the animal. Well the trouble is his poor wife usually gets the spirit too. When the spirit comes out it behaves like the animal. So you’ll get people behaving like snakes and people behaving like boars and people behaving like elephants.

Now this didn’t happen in the meeting but one of the missionaries we worked with told us they had a lady teacher who came to them for deliverance. She was a respectable, educated, well-dressed woman, but her problem was that her husband was an elephant hunter. And when they commanded the spirit of the elephant to come out she dropped on her hands and knees, crawled through the door, went up against a tree, put her forehead against the tree and started to push the tree down. Now that’s exactly what an elephant would do. But normally a lady teacher wouldn’t do that.

Anyhow, having had this session, that was number three, I felt now I can help them receive the Holy Spirit. But when you got so many demons around you don’t know what’s going to manifest itself. So I taught them how to receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. I said, “Now I’m going to lead you in a prayer. When you’ve said the prayer I don’t want you to do any more speaking in your own language. I’m going to pray for you that you receive the Holy Spirit. The next thing I want you to do is speak in a new language.” When we got to that point there was about one minute of silence. Then one man over on my right started to speak in tongues. It was like pulling the bottom out of a barrel. In the next five minutes I think at least 4,000 people were speaking in tongues simultaneously.

See, that all came through building on the cross. When I can lay that foundation I’m totally confident of the results. But very often you hardly have time to do the job thoroughly.

Now we’re going to just rehearse our exchange. Galatians 3:13–14. Are you ready? “Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing.” Again. “Jesus was made a curse that we might receive the blessing.” Now we’ll make it personal. “Jesus was made a curse that I might receive the blessing.” All right, praise God.

We have time, I think, to deal with at least one more exchange. This is really part of deliverance from the curse. It’s so specific that I’ve kept it separate. We put together two scriptures, always remember these two scriptures and never separate them. 2Corinthians 8:9 and 2Corinthians 9:8. It’s not difficult, once you’ve got one you can remember the other. So 2Corinthians 8:9 says:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Now you don’t have to be a theologian to see the exchange, do you? Jesus became poor that we might become rich. It’s difficult for some religious people to say it but it’s there. “Jesus became poor that we might become rich.” Now I’m going to adjust that later, that’s just to start with.

Now, turn to 2Corinthians 9:8. Ruth, would you come up and stand beside me. The reason is that we have a number of scriptures that we confess regularly together because Jesus is the high priest of our confession. Did you know that? And this is one we say I would think, almost every day because we have a very large ministry which covers most of the globe by radio in six languages by cassettes and books. And the financial burden is extremely heavy. But praise God we don’t have to bear the burden. We have a burden bearer. This is our confession but we’ll read it the way it is here first. 2Corinthians 9:8:

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

That’s an amazing verse. In the Greek the word abound occurs twice and the word all occurs five times in one verse. There is no way that language could be more emphatic. Paul says God is able. Do we believe God is able, let’s make sure of that. You do believe God is able? You really believe God is able? God is able to make all grace. So we don’t earn it. All right? We receive it by faith. It’s not our monthly salary, it’s grace abound towards us that we always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. Every is the same as all in Greek so there are five alls.

Now Ruth and I make this a personal confession. Every time we think of the sum that we’re responsible for we just say this. Now we make it personal, you understand? Instead of you we say we. “God is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

Now let me point out to you there are two words there. There’s sufficiency and abundance. We need to understand the level of God’s provision. Let me give you a little example. You are a housewife and you need $50 worth of groceries. I don’t know how much $50 would buy these days but anyhow... So you go to the grocery store with $40, you’re shopping out of insufficiency. But you go with $50, you’re shopping out of sufficiency. But say you have $60 and you need $50 worth of groceries, you’re shopping out of abundance. That’s abundance. Abundance is connected with the word for a way. It means you have enough to watch over, for yourself and for others.

Let me take you back to Deuteronomy 28 for just a few moments and we’ll look at the Old Testament presentation of this. Remember what I said about Deuteronomy 28? It’s the chapter with all the curses? Well, right in the middle of it, verses 47–48, there’s what I call the poverty curse. Now I know that there are Christians who feel differently about this and I have to say I’m convinced out of scripture that poverty is a curse. If it’s not a curse, why do you work so hard to get rid of it? If poverty is a blessing, why not pursue it? There are some people who do—and I respect at least their motives. But I don’t believe it’s scriptural. This is the curse. Remember, this is in the list of curses.

“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things...”

That’s God’s will, that you serve him with joy and gladness for the abundance of all things. What’s the alternative?

“...therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness an in need [or want] of all things.”

That’s a curse. It’s hunger, thirst, nakedness, need of all things. How would you sum that up in one word? Poverty. It is absolute poverty. You cannot have greater poverty than being hungry, thirsty, naked and in want of everything. Is it a curse or is it a blessing? Are you sure, really sure that it’s a curse?

Now I want to share a revelation that God gave me. It happened a good many years ago in the land of New Zealand which is one of my favorite countries. My first wife and I had been invited there for ministry and they told us they would pay our fare both ways. But, when we got there they didn’t have the money. So they said, “We’re going to take up an offering for your fare.” They said you can preach. So I preached on offerings before, I got a list of scriptures and explained the Biblical principles. I was going through this and using my outline and quoting my scriptures. But at the same time something new came to me. In my mind’s eye, as I was preaching, the Holy Spirit was showing me Jesus on the cross. As I went through the list of the curses of poverty I saw every one applied to him. He was hungry, he hadn’t eaten for 24 hours. He was thirsty. One of his last utterances was “I’m thirsty.” He was naked. They’d taken all his clothes off. And he was in need of all things. He owned precisely nothing. He was buried in a borrowed robe and in a borrowed tomb. Hungry, thirsty, naked and in need of all things. Why? Because he exhausted the poverty curse. The total poverty curse was exhausted when Jesus died on the cross.

Why did he exhaust the poverty curse? That we might have abundance. I prefer to say abundance. You can say wealth, but abundance and wealth are not exactly the same. Abundance means you have enough for yourself and something to give to others. You see, Jesus said it’s more blessed to give than to receive. And because you’re a child of God, God doesn’t want you to live merely on the lower level of blessing; always receiving. So he provides abundance so you might have something to give and thus receive the greater blessing.

I don’t believe that the scripture of the New Testament indicates all Christians will drive Cadillacs. Or even Rolls Royces when it comes to that! I’m not sure all Christians should have large bank accounts. But I do believe that all Christians should enjoy abundance. Enough and something over, not for yourself, but for every good work. That, I believe, is the level of God’s provision for his people.

You see, a lot of people think Jesus was poor during his earthly ministry. I don’t. He didn’t have a lot of cash but he was never in need. Anybody who can feed 5,000 people in the wilderness is not exactly poor. And when he needed money for the taxes, he didn’t go to the bank, he went to the lake and got it out of a fish. I mean, what’s the difference whether you get it out of a fish or the bank! My little statement about Jesus in his earthly ministry is this: He didn’t carry a lot of cash, but he always used his Father’s credit card. And it was always honored. When he sent out his disciples he reminded them at the last supper, “When I sent you out without purse or bag or staff or anything, did you lack anything?” What did they say? “Nothing.”

I know missionaries that have a car, a salary and a house provided and lack a lot of things. So it isn’t a question exactly of how much you have in the bank. It’s a question of your relationship with the Lord.

Now, I think we have time to imprint this on ourselves. Let’s, first of all, do the left and the right. I’ll do it the first time because I want you to get the specific words. “Jesus endured our poverty that we might share his abundance.” Okay? Can you accept that? Is that a fair statement of what the Bible teaches? Now you’re going to do it with me. “Jesus endured our poverty that we might share his abundance. Jesus endured our poverty that we might share his abundance.”

Now, following the usual pattern we’ll do it more personal. This could change the whole course of your life. These next few words you say could have a permanent change in what you’re going to experience. Now we’re going to do it my and me. “Jesus endured my poverty that I might share his abundance.”

Now I think we just have time for us, Ruth and me, to teach you 2Corinthians 9:8. I just feel unfair for us to have it all, you know, why shouldn’t you? I’ll tell you something. With my ministry, at 65, I said, “I think probably I should begin to think of retiring.” I told the people that run the ministry, “From now on, I’m thinking of retiring.” When I remind them of that now they just laugh in my face because our ministry in the last year increased between 200 and 300 percent in its outreach. And as for activity, I’m more active now than at any time that I’ve been in my life.

Why I say that is because we have a tremendous financial responsibility. I don’t even want to tell you what it is. If you just look at us and think about us as people traveling around, you’d have no idea. I know the way to raise money. You travel around the state, you hold conferences, you present the needs of your ministry and you sell your material. I got a lot of material to sell. But God commissioned us primarily to go to the people who don’t have, to the needy. So I have made a little bargain with the Lord. I said, “Lord, if I do that, I’m going to rely on you supernaturally to provide the needs of the ministry without my going around and telling everybody how much we need.” And the basis of our provision is 2 Corinthians 9:8. So Ruth and I are going to say it once more and then we’re going to give you the privilege of saying it.

And I suggest you YWAM’ers, you need to learn it by heart. They used to say it, interpret it—they don’t do it anymore, YWAM, Youth Without Any Money! It’s not true, they own castles everywhere! If you want abundance, just join YWAM.

We’ll say it once and you’re going to do it with us. “God is able to make all grace abound toward us that we always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Now we’ll say it phrase by phrase and we invite you to say it after us. And don’t say it just at the back of the head of the person in front of you, you’re saying this to the unseen world. It’s your confession to angels, the Lord, demons and the whole works. Okay, are you ready? “God is able to make all grace abound toward us that we always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Now we got thirty seconds left, we’re going to let you say it with us this time. Are you ready? “God is able to make all grace abound towards us that we always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Praise the Lord.