Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers

I am currently doing a new programme of weightlifting designed by a fantastic top level body builder. One of his catchphrases is “Train With Purpose”. His idea is that you don’t just walk into a gym and do what you feel, but you plan everything with a purpose so that every exercise and every rep helps you fulfill your goals.

It’s a simple idea but a powerful one. I think it is something every Christian needs to take notice of. Because I see a lot of activity in the church today that has no purpose. It isn’t making us stronger, it isn’t extending the kingdom, it isn’t building up Christians or the body of Christ. It’s just activity without fruit.

Pastors – how many meetings do you have each week? Ask yourself what is the purpose for those meetings. Are they extending the kingdom? Are they building people – are they helping people’s hearts? At Tree of Life we have two meetings a week, one big and one small for people to attend. Because both have a purpose for helping and feeding people’s souls. I’ve seen churches with meetings every night – how can someone live a life of love and wisdom if they are never at home? That’s missing the purpose.

I’ve seen people who want to go and plant a church go to Bible Colleges where not one of the staff has ever planted a church. They leave the Tree of Life family which has planted six churches and is about to plant more and has loads of experience in planting new churches and go somewhere that has no church planting experience because it is called a college. These people have failed to understand purpose. If you want to go into ministry stop and think about what kind of ministry then find a place to train on purpose, there is no one size fits all solution.

I’ve been to churches where they have a particular order of service that to me doesn’t serve the people. I will ask the pastor why things are done in that order, and no one knows. It is a tradition, not on purpose. Things need to be thought through.

Often things that were originally initiated because of a strong sense of purpose have lost their purpose. They are now being done because of tradition and they are done mindlessly. Stop and think about why you do things, it will make you a more effective leader.

Mentorship is the single most powerful force in moving your entire life forward. That is a simple fact and is inviolable. George Hill says “The fastest way to get anywhere is to follow a man who has been there”. I say “What you hear from someone you respect, you will inevitably believe”.

So when you have found someone who has been where you want to go then you have to treat every moment with them as a moment to treasure. When I started Tree of Life Church, I asked God for three mentors: one to show me how to operate in authority and command things to happen, one to show me how to pray and meditate, and one to show me how to pastor. God brought all three of these men to me, and I have treasured the moments I have spent with all of them.

Let me give you some powerful wisdom most people don’t realize and very few ever live by: what you fail to honour and respect will eventually leave your life. It might be a miracle. It might be a pet dog. It might be money. You see life has a flow – things flow, and if you honour things they flow to you, if you dishonour them they flow away from you.

There was a man who disrespected divine healing. He wrote articles of hate against any Christian who prayed for the sick and who wanted the sick to be well. He mocked Christians who believed that God still answers prayer for healing and that God still heals today. He said Jesus did not want people well. He got cancer, and someone asked me to go pray for him. I refused as someone who has spent their life dishonoring healing cannot suddenly change. What I am talking about today is the fundamental principles that bind the universe today, this is vital for your success and well being.

When it is time for you to move forward, a mentor appears. When Israel was ready to enter the land of promises, Moses appeared. When they were ready to reject paganism and immorality, Elijah appeared. When the woman needed a financial miracle, Elijah turned up at her doorstep!

If you respect the people who bring financial freedom to others, they will move towards you. People often ask how Tree of Life gets so many good speakers – I believe that a massive part of the story is that we genuinely honour our speakers. When you honour those who come your way to bring you freedom financially, you will explode with prosperity.

Many people who have experienced horrific financial devastation, if you listen to their story, a mentor appeared but they failed to honour their mentor! You have to honour your mentor, you have to pursue your mentor. Some people have failed to be lifted by me because they cannot come and visit me. You visit your mentor! I visit Robert Maasbach, he does not come and visit me!

So believe that you will encounter a mentor who will give you wisdom to make better financial decisions. If you have made actions that lost you money, you can make actions that bring money in!

So chase wise counsel! Maybe your pastor, maybe it is your boss at work, maybe it is a financial planner. But whatever else you do today, take the time to listen to good advice. And let the advice come from whom it will. Don’t make snap judgments based on what they look like. The wisest man in Israel was John the Baptist, but he wore funny clothes and had a funny diet. Never let the package distract from the content.

 

Let me finish with this: the most successful people in life have the best mentors.

I’d love to hear your mentorship stories, please tell us as a comment about them!

One of the things that stops many people enjoying the abundance of life that Jesus Christ wants us to have is looking to the wrong source.  What many people fail to realize is that: your harvest comes through people, not from people.

Now it is easy for me to say “You need to depend on God, not men”, and it is equally easy for me to say teach your people to depend on God, not men, but how can you actually know if you are relying on men instead of God?

I will tell you right now how to know who you are depending on: by what makes you angry.  If you are furious at your boss for not giving you the promotion or raise, you are relying on him not God for increase. If you are angry at the bank for turning you down for the loan, you are depending on the bank not God. If you are annoyed at a loved one for not helping you more with money, then you are relying on them and not God.

This is why many, many Christians will never walk in abundant life – they are waiting for their blessing from men, when it comes from God.

I know it hurts when people fail to recognize your character, your hard work, your efforts, your everything goes by unacknowledged by people, but you have to get inside your heart and mind right now: promotion comes from the Lord (Psalm 75.6-7).

You must realize this to experience great overflow: God wants to be the source of your divine increase and God wants you to trust Him for increase. He doesn’t want you to trust Potiphar, He wants you to trust Him!

I was speaking to a travelling minister the other week and the church he went to took a love offering for him. The offering was larger than the church expected so the pastor decided to keep some back for the church’s use. The minister said that he didn’t want a penny from the church, and wouldn’t get into a fight with them over money.

What was going on there? The pastor didn’t see God as the source, but the travelling minister did. Let us always be the people who see God as our source, then we will not be in strife with people. I have over-given to people before because God is my source and I will not get into a dispute about finances.

You have one Jehovah-Jireh in your life and it isn’t your rich auntie, or your boss, or your church, or your friends. Harvest comes through people, but from God.

Ultimately harvest depends on your seed, sown in faith and joy. What you can give, you have mastered.

Quit looking for men to be your source, look only to Jesus. When you depend on God, you will see the greatest flow of harvests you have ever seen.

Last week I started a series on lies that steal the harvest, part 1 is found here.

You are a leader.  Your job as a leader has a number of different facets, but all good leaders must help the people who follow them to dream big dreams.  One of the areas in which we must give people the words that enable them to dream big dreams is in the area of finances, by the way we act, the way we talk and the way we lead.

For example, a few years ago I started talking to people in our church that many of the Israelites as they entered the promised land were multiple home owners.  They had houses.  I started telling people that it was fine to own multiple homes, fine to have a property portfolio.  At that time, no one in our church owned their own house.  Now several people have more than one house.

So many people (in churches especially) consider surviving success!  If they just make it through the month they have done great. They have no long term plans, they don’t dream for themselves or for anyone else. The idea of building an orphanage is not in their brain. The idea of buying a car for someone else will never enter their mind. The idea of houses will not be there. Our job is to put these ideas into people by speaking about them – our words paint pictures. Many people couldn’t even imagine saving to have a college fund for their children!

Life should not be “one day at a time, sweet Jesus”, it should be planned for. To live the special life, you have to dream special dreams.

You need to knock the apathy out of your people, you need to paint a picture of hungry people needing feed, of millions of believers in China who need Bible schools and churches, of the vision you have for the church. Give people dreams. Dreaming and prosperity are tied because indifference leads to mediocrity.

Oral Roberts said that the most dangerous days of your life are the days you don’t have a need. Self-sufficiency will stop dreaming and choke your prosperity. It will stop you pushing to use your faith to change the world.

A lack of dream always causes a lack of resources. A big dream always brings in the necessary resources. Please encourage your people to dream big, to see big, to see themselves as the head and not the tail and to dream accordingly.

And if the dream isn’t so big, it needs God – it’s not a God-given dream!

God wants you to grow and all the people around you to grow. Let’s not be the guy who buries his talent in the ground and fail to multiply.

Help your people dream so big, every ounce of faith inside them is woken up and needed to bring that dream to pass.

For the next few weeks, I want to talk to you candidly as leaders, especially those of you who are spiritual leaders. The truth is that God wants the church wealthy, and most of you reading this will believe that and preach that. But you all know people who are giving generously and radically but that are not receiving their harvests. It just isn’t working for them. They are sincere, faithful and generous people.

The problem is that there are mindsets and ideas that prevent seedtime and harvest time working. I want to share these with you because that will help you not just individually and with your ministry, but will help the precious people in your church who are giving generously and kindly and faithfully to prosper.

The truth is that poverty has never done any good to anyone. Right now people are starving to death on our planet. And the truth is that poverty is unnecessary because God is good and God works miracles still. God has promised to provide.

Prosperity is probably still the single most controversial subject to discuss and talk about in the body of Christ because there is still so much wide spread ignorance on the topic. People still have many strange ideas about prosperity and about the prosperity of the saints.  In the next few weeks, probably months, we will deal with some of these ideas.

You can prosper. Your ministry can prosper. Your people can prosper.

The first lie that stops harvest is the lie that God does not really care about your finances. I believe no one is more misunderstood than God. Some think He is just a force, others a supreme being who is distant from us. But the truth of the Word is that God is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4.15), and that God said to approach Him with boldness in every need we have (Hebrews 4.16).

God wants you to have the money necessary to look after your loved ones (1 Tim. 5.8). God wants you to have the money to give great, generous, uncommon gifts to your pastors (1 Tim. 5.17-18). God wants you to have the money to send preachers all over the nations preaching the gospel (Romans 10.15).  God wants you to have enough money to pay your taxes and your bills (Matthew 22.21).  God wants you to have enough money to tithe (Lev. 27.30). God wants you to have enough money to give gifts to your children (Matt. 7.11). God wants you to have enough money to help the poor (Pro. 19.17). God wants you to have enough money to face any problems that comes your way (Ecc. 10.19).

Elijah faced a financial crisis in a drought that affected an entire nation.  God firstly told Elijah exactly where to go to get provision (1 Kings 17.3-9). God will tell you where to go and what to do to bring finances into your life.

Everything God made was made to multiply.  Every tree, every animal, every fish, every bird was designed to multiply and increase. You are no exception.

Today settle in your heart that God’s will is for your financial increase. The more settled you are, the easier you will preach it, the easier you will impart that confidence and faith to people, and the better leader you will be. God gave people cities for looking after a few coins well – He is generous! You matter to Him! He delights in your prosperity (Ps. 35.27).

Now prosperity is so much more than gold and cash and diamonds and fancy things!  Prosperity is having the supply to fulfill your destiny. God wants you to be able to do what He has called you to do, He wants you to have the wisdom, the strength, the energy, the health and the provision. God is not poor and He doesn’t want you to be poor.

So now your finances are going to turn around. No one can do that for you. You need to get those things in your brain. You need to meditate on the Scriptures I have listed today and get them in your heart. You are not serving a God who doesn’t care, you are serving a God who does care. He wants to discuss your mortgage with you. He wants to discuss everything on your finances with you. He is a good God! He has plans to show you and reveal to you, and everyone you are leading.

Next week: the Dream-Prosperity Connection

 

What a week it has been in British politics.  The nation has voted in a referendum to exit the European Union.  The Prime Minister has resigned.  The leader of the opposition has lost his Shadow Cabinet and faces a vote of no confidence.  Never has a week been so packed with political news and changes.

There has been a lot of anger from a lot of people about a lot of things.  Some people are calling for a second referendum, presumably calling for a third or fourth if things do not go their way.  Some people are name calling, feeling sick, feeling scared, and so on and so forth.  It has genuinely shocked me the vitriol on both sides in the last few days.  It amazes me that many people do not seem to be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

Now I am no politician, I am a pastor.  My job isn’t to sort out the financial systems and the democratic systems of this nation or any nation.  My job is to help people get born again, filled with the Spirit and renew their minds.  My job is to build a community that is full of the Word, full of the Spirit, full of the nations and filled with love.

And although politics is important, and I believe Christians should be involved in politics both at the local level and national level.  I believe that good government can make it much easier to preach the gospel and build healthy churches.

But that is just a means to an end.  Let’s look at the referendum through the eyes of faith and the eyes of grace:

• No one got born again or filled with the Spirit based on the moment of referendum.  It didn’t increase the numbers of people in heaven or decrease the numbers of people in hell.  It hasn’t done anything for the kingdom of God one way or another.  So in terms of eternity, it is simply not that important.
• Our joy is not found in a political vote.  Not now and not ever.  Our joy is found in the presence of the Lord (Psalm 16.11).  This referendum is nothing to lose your joy over. No one voted Jesus off the throne, no one voted a single verse out of your Bible, no one voted some power away from God.  No one voted any insecurity into your future.
• The only thing that can stop you from enjoying your health and wealth that is provided through the redemptive work of Christ, from enjoying your success and destiny is this: broken focus.  Do not take your eyes of the cross.  Don’t stop praising God and rejoicing in God – don’t stop realizing God is your source.
• Realize the media is dishonest.  Every time I have been in the media, the media have lied.  I spoke to a police officer who has just retired, he told me in 30+ years of service, the media never got one story right about a case.  Never.  Not once.  So when you read that British people were googling “what is the EU” or that the pound is going to be worth the same as Zimbabwean dollars, you do not have to believe it.  In fact, this is a good time to stop reading the papers to be honest!

This is our year of great overflow.  Nothing the politicians have said or done can change that.  Jesus Christ is building His church.  Nothing that the nations are doing can change that.

Now for leaders, you need to let your people know this.  Don’t be partisan here – there are people in your churches who voted in for good reasons and people who voted out for good reasons.  Your ministry must embrace and make both feel welcome and secure.

5. Always always always be yourself.  I love that Christopher Alam hasn’t changed at all – he has a huge ministry, preached last Sunday night to 40,000 people (yes you read that right) and yet is easily the most low-maintenance preacher I know.  He would sleep in any hotel, never has a rider, and is so willing to fit in with our plans and purposes it is a joy to host him.  He has never forgot where he came from, and never forgot the grace that has brought him forward.

4. Don’t put up with nonsense.  Christopher Alam gets on with what God has told him to do.  His ministry is filled with loyal people and is remarkably free from drama.  He has cut nonsense out of his life.  I was describing a situation I am dealing with in the church and asked for wisdom and he said “if it is not fruitful pull it up and kill it Ben, you are too busy to waste your time on unfruitful things”.  Sage advice indeed!

3. The need for balance.  I don’t know anyone who preaches with more grace than Christopher Alam – you don’t see hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of people born again, healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit if you don’t know and preach grace.  But he also preaches on integrity, and tithing, and the gifts of the Spirit, and the return of Jesus.  That is a balanced ministry that builds healthy people.

2. A love for the local church.  I don’t know many evangelists who work so closely with local churches and do all they can to ensure the people saved find a good local church.  I don’t know many ministries in the UK at their conferences that help people find good local churches, to see it done in Africa so well is glorious!

1. The need to be Spirit led, not culture led.  Christopher Alam has resisted so much of the Americanisation of the gospel message.  What he brings is not wrapped in any cultural paper, but is a beautiful picture of the gospel.  That has cost him because people fail to recognize truth when it goes above and beyond their cultural insights.  But he brings the truth and it is powerful, plain and clear.

I had a prophetic word shortly before I started the Tree of Life family of churches, which basically said that one of the hardest jobs I will ever have in my future is to stop people trying to sew their cotton patches into your silk dream.  That word has certainly proved to be true!

You see when you have a dream, a vision, a way forward to help people and change the world, there will always be people who want to attach themselves to it, but at the cost of the purity of the dream.

• There are people who want the benefits of what you are building, who are not interested in your vision and way of doing things.
• There are people who have never done what you have done but they want to be your adviser, and if you don’t listen to their they claim you never listen to anyone.
• There will be people who want to change the culture because what you are doing moves them out of their comfort zone, so they want to change the culture to one they are comfortable with.
• There are people who want their voice to be heard, they think they have come to your church to speak not to listen.
• There are people who are never happy because they are unhappy with themselves, so rather than change themselves, they want to change their environment and that includes you
• There are people who want to take short cuts and don’t like the fact you will not compromise.

It is not just enough to build a healthy church culture, you must as a leader protect it.  You must fight for what you believe in and fight to be who you are corporately.  You have to reject any idea that will compromise your culture.

The cultural battle lines in the church may surprise you.  The main one is generally found in the worship – what songs are sung, how they are sung, the lyrics.  John Wesley said that he didn’t care who preached in a Methodist church as long as they sung the songs he and his brother wrote.  That might be a little hyperbole, but it is a vital part of the church.  Children’s and youth ministry is another battle ground, where people will want to do things their way.

In the next few weeks, I will show you how to keep that culture and make it work no matter who attacks it.  Just being aware you have to fight – that is a great start!

Sorry for the borrowed title, but I love the way Andrew Wommack teaches on this topic.  In fact I think it is one of the most important teachings you can ever get.

Other people express it differently.  Bob Proctor says You were born rich, Jim Richards says you are hardwired for success, Terri Savelle says everything you need to walk in your dreams is already inside you. 

So this revelation is spread far and wide with different titles.  But my favourite is still the way Andrew sees it and says it: you’ve already got it.

Everything you need for life and godliness you already have.  It is in your spirit and you need to believing to release it, but the truth is you need to believe to access it.  Believe it is inside you and it will flow out.

You have forgiveness, abundance, healing in you.  Now let it out!  There is no doubt you are already rhe possessor,…,it’s yours, all yours.

I have just had the privilege of being in a conference where one of the speakers was Duane Sheriff.  Duane pastors over 7000 people, and ministers grace with wisdom and humour. 

I also had the honour of recording a TV programme with Duane for Revelation TV, and having lunch with him and his wife, Sue today.

Here are some lessons I have learned from Duane this weekend:

5.  There is always true grace in humility.  Duane and I had communicated earlier in the year, but for no one’s fault our wires got crossed.

Duane was so gracious, willing to bend over backwards to accommodate us, never assumed negative things and was absolutely humble.  It was such a powerful example to me.

4.  Do everything not to be offended.  Duane gives away between 300k and 500k CDs free of charge a month.  Yes, you read that right.  His number one series is his teaching on offense.  Duane is passionate that offense is not just the flesh, but a strategic attack of the devil to destroy the kingdom.  Deal with offense!

3.  The importance of local church.  In a day when some grace people are not even going to church, Duane is building a powerful church through God’s grace.  I thought I was passionate about church until I spent time with Duane.  It really inspired me.

Duane said he doesn’t believe a Christian can grow without a local church.  I agree so much.

2.  How to handle when a friend is accused and persecuted.  When some Christians hear about the assault on my character, they gossip, they avoid me, they behave in strange ways.  Not many thankfully, but some.

When I told Duane today he looked me in the eye and said you didn’t have to tell me, I wouldn’t believe it, and it is never to be brought up again.  That showed me true genuine maturity.

1.  The love for people.  I met Duane and Sue in the venue today and we walked to the restaurant.  The whole journey we met people who recognized Duane from the conference.  He stopped and listened to each one, prayed with them and treated them like the most important person in the world.  That was me seeing Christ in the flesh watching him minister.