13.3 Living in Abundance
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We live and walk every moment of our lives, and have always done so, in the midst of overwhelming plenty and overflowing abundance in every direction, in every conceivable aspect of reality and in realities beyond what we can know.
Yet in the midst of all this glorious wealth, we have mindlessly lived by the story-line written all through our human consciousness, not enough, not enough, not enough. We have even made not-enough essential Christian doctrine – God curse me. And considered abundance to be of the evil one. And do not share the appearance of this age (of scarcity), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God might be proven through you (Romans 12:2 – modified from the Greek).
Changing the Code
God placed me under Joel Osteen for seven years, listening to his teaching every Sunday, similar lines, though always fresh and anointed, in order to remove from my thinking the wrong bits of “God curses me” code that ran automatically in my sub-conscious mind. It took five years, that means around 250 30-minute admonitions from Joel to get me to stop thinking curse and scarcity and another two years, around 100 more admonitions to make the change permanent.
Yet as God brought His overflowing abundance upon me the other night, against the remaining scarcity in my brain, I saw that He has a ways to go in transforming my mind. Changing our minds is a big deal, critical and serious.
The Abundance Text
Here is the text for living in abundance. But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
Read all of 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Yes, this is the “Oral Roberts” passage, the passage out from which many teach the abundant overflow of God, and against which many accuse. Of truth, the popular list of modern Christian “deceivers” includes those who live in and teach this abundance of grace.
A Godly Return
That you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Do you see how Paul defines “all sufficiency”, that is, “enough,” as something that exists for us as the “more than we need” part of God flows out in every good work.
Consider Bill Gates, the richest man on earth. Why does Bill Gates have so much money? Because Bill Gates has done good for more people on earth than any man alive. His wealth is the Godly return on his giving of great benefit to many, including you and me. Why is Joel Osteen a wealthy man? Because he sows bountifully, without strings attached, to the benefit of many.
The Demands of Envy
There is a cry of envy that comes out of “not enough, not enough, not enough,” that hates Christians like Joel Osteen. “If he really was a “godly” man, he would not have enough, like me.” This envy demands that everyone live in not enough.
(Now, there are certainly those who abuse this word of abundance, even as all other words God speaks, including loss, are manipulated for self-gain; I use Joel Osteen as an example because I know for myself that he does not.)
It is a “God” who “knows good and evil” who generates this cry of “not enough,” a “God” who says, “Obey,” one moment and then says, “But that’s not enough, prove it again,” the next. A “God” who can NEVER be pleased.
Fellowship Together
Now, our problem, our need to live in the acknowledgement of the abundance in which we exist is this: We think “not enough” far more than we realize and in more directions than we understand, a cry that prevents Father.
Father and I are always one in union, we are always two in communion, and we are always one in expression. Thus, inside our precious union, it is our fellowship together, Heart in heart, by which Father speaks His abundance through all the pathways of my mind. Thus I want to take myself, and you with me, into the erasing of all the scarcity of our thinking by the recording of all the abundance of our Father.
Every Good Work
Having more than enough money for every good work is certainly included in an all-the-way-around abundance. But as you can see, Father and I together are focused on every good work, to which the supply comes.
The overflow of Father is more than enough in our relationships, towards our children, especially when they are in trouble, in our work-place or business – in all aspects of our lives in this world. And the overflow of Father is for others – the hyper is for others. The enough is always for us, and that enough is always pressed down and shaken together. There is no lack in God; He knows no lack.
See Abundance
If God doesn’t know anything about “not enough,” how can we? I am seeing more and more how powerful God’s ignorance really is. We cannot know what God does not know.
I speak, “Father, You are more than enough” towards any and every situation or difficulty. Because I know that I am first filled with all the fullness of God, I see that God’s more-than-enough is, in fact more. I see abundance. I see abundance in every direction.
Your life is different than mine. Look around you at everything pertaining to you and speak all of Father as more than enough in everything.
Sow Bountifully
Here is something else I now see. Every time you give anything, whether money, or time, or kind words or prayer, whatever it is we might give, think in your mind – “This that I give is MORE than enough.” At times, speak it out loud. See every act of giving as God going out as more than enough.
That’s what Paul meant when he said, “Sow bountifully.” See and speak the lots-left-over of God upon every act of giving. As we sow bountifully, then, we reap bountifully, that is, the abundance of our Father in fellowship inside of us becomes more and more real and personal and deep.
An Extension of Speaking Good Grace
I see that this view of abundance fits on top of our giving thanks, that is, speaking good grace into every situation and person we meet or relate together with. When I first started speaking good grace, I saw that God was enough. But God enough is not enough.
You see, when I say to myself, “Father, You fill me with all that You are,” I am filled with comfort and strength. But when I forget, I slide back into, just a bit, “not-quite-enough.” Now, when I say to myself, “Father, You are more than enough” out from the base of being filled with all of God, when I forget, I slide back into filled with all of God.
No Stinginess
And so, when I speak good grace into any situation, working with my Father as He turns everything meant for evil towards goodness, I now see God as more than enough in that situation. I see more than enough angels, more than enough protection, more than enough provision, more than enough comfort, more than enough life and love and joy.
Think of that. The stingy son was as much of a problem to his father as the son who wasted abundance on the wrong things. Those who condemn the “preachers of abundance” are more in trouble with God for their stinginess, for their belief that a “God” who is never enough is “holiness” and correct theology.
We Direct the Flow
The balance between the two excesses is the purposes towards which we direct the overflow of God’s more than enough. And we are the directors of that overflow. We must never forget that. Our task in this arrangement is to direct the overflow of God’s more than enough.
And we direct that flow towards every good work. This is the work of God.
Too many Christian workers labor themselves in weariness out from a God who is never quite enough. These misrepresent God as much as the preachers who use other people’s giving to manipulate and control.
Overflowing Confidence
It is always the Spirit of God who is flowing out. It is always us who direct the overflow of Abundance by our confidence in God, by our confidence that the Holy Spirit is always more than enough.
You see, when we beg, “Heal me, heal me, heal me, Oh God,” we are whining out from our conviction that God is not and cannot be enough, that God is not, right now, abundant. We do NOT replace that whine with the asceticism of accepting being unwell. We replace it with the overflowing confidence that God’s healing of our bodies is right now way more than what our bodies need. And more-than-enough is not something for which we “wait.”
Looking Outwards
I have just rambled inside of this Abundance; let’s focus what, actually, is happening. We have turned around inside the Holy of Holies, that means we have accepted ALL of God filling us full and now flowing out from us. Having turned around, the thought of “going into” God or “receiving more” of God never enters our minds. God is – in us.
Now, bearing in our own hearts, the Heart of our Father, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are always looking outwards towards Father’s desire to be known, even while we rest at all times in the goodness of God towards us.
The Doorway of God
We know God’s deepest desire to be known by a creation who cannot know God.
Abundance, a God who is always more than enough in us and out from us in every direction, is a substantial teaching of the New Testament and an essential part of Paul’s gospel. Thus we learn abundance in all the thinking of our minds. As we do that, the gate going out, our confidence, is the very release God has waited so long to win, His doorway out into being known by all creation.
Now, this place where we live in the Holiest of All is inside of Covenant. Kingdom is God going forth to fulfill the DESIRE of His Heart to be seen and known by all.
The Doorkeepers of God
And God’s door through which He can run out into being known by all is you and me, our confidence, as we allow Father’s abundance to change our minds. Anytime you hear any kind of “not-enough” whine in any direction happening in your mind, just say to your Father filling you full, “Father, You are more than enough” – towards whatever the circumstance might be.
And God’s more-than-enough is always out from a lowly heart, through little acts of kindness, with no knowledge of evil, carrying each one inside Himself, and turning every action of evil towards the result of goodness. This is our task as the doorkeepers of God.