Financial Breakthrough

Child of God, let me alert you to the fact that Satan is clearly waging a battle of containment against the Saints of God. He is not concerned nearly so much with driving you backwards as he is with containing you where you are, and keeping you from getting where God wants you to go. Can you identify with that?

In your prayer life, if you decide to pursue a closer walk with God, the devil will let you continue to pray at your current prayer level. As soon as you try to break into a new dimension of prayer, frequent distractions occur: people come to visit you, your hours change at work, or the phone rings. Anytime you start to move decisively forward, Satan increases his battle of containment.

You may have experienced this containment in the realm of holiness or sanctification. You achieve a certain walk, then you stop growing. You do not especially go backwards, but you just find it increasingly difficult to move forward. Please understand, that is the stark reality of Satan's battle of containment against you!

As you start to grow in the revelations I am bringing to you in this book, you'll quickly realize that at this very moment, the devil is waging a powerful battle of containment in your finances. He will tell you that you are getting along okay, so just don't rock the boat! He will even try to deceive you into thinking you're just reading another prosperity message, but do not be distracted!

Please recognize that you're reading the vital biblical message your spirit man has been hungering after, the message of deliverance from insufficiency! Do not let the devil continue to contain you in your present financial dilemma!

The Truth You Know

Many Christians believe the Bible says the truth will set you free. The Bible does not say the truth will set you free. The Bible says something very different. Read carefully what it actually says:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:32

Do you see it? It is the truth you know that has the divine power to set you free. Please hear me. The only truth that can set you free is the truth you personally know. You can walk around with the truth (the Bible) in your right hand, placed lovingly over your breast; you can walk around with that precious Bible right over your lungs, and still have a horrible cancer grow in those lungs that will eventually snuff out your very life.

Many Christians die prematurely in the presence of truth, with the Bible on their nightstand next to their death bed. Keep this thought in mind. The presence of truth cannot and does not heal! You see, it is not the presence of truth, but the knowledge of truth that has power and sets you free. Hear the Scripture:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:32

It is time to order our lives—line upon line, precept upon precept, concept upon biblical concept. We must build a foundation of truth so powerful that Satan cannot contain it.

Now hear me well. I want you to break out of the containment building that Satan has constructed around your finances. However, please be careful not to mistake a mere penetration of Satan's containment in your finances as a breakthrough. There is a vast difference between a penetration and a breakthrough, and I want nothing less for you than a total breakthrough!

Perhaps you have made an occasional penetration in the wall of containment Satan has placed around your finances. Maybe you have already gained enough bits and pieces of knowledge to understand that God does not intend for you to be poor, and He has a biblical plan of abundance for your life.

I want you to go beyond bits and pieces. It is time for you to start gathering great quantities of spiritual power. When this power is complete, it will bring about a total breakthrough in your finances, which will move you permanently beyond Satan's containment!

Remember, anytime you want to break through a spiritual barrier, it takes great spiritual energy; it takes the power of God working through you! The breakthrough comes only when you allow that energy, that input of biblical truth, to continue and continue to grow. It literally takes a violent effort, not casual daydreaming and wishing, to accomplish it.

The same energy that has brought you previous breakthroughs, the same level of effort that has swept you to the past victories, must now come forth for you to achieve a financial breakthrough. You must gather these biblical principles and apply them, not so that you can muster a little hole and peer through a small, rapidly closing penetration, but so that you can achieve nothing less than a total breakthrough!

Satan has contained you in your finances long enough! Jericho's walls must come down! As you understand the truth of this powerful revelation, as you know this truth by putting it into practical application in your life, you will experience a powerful new day in your finances.

If there is still any doubt that Satan is containing you in your finances, let me quickly prove to you that he is. Right now, you can think of several people who are not as smart nor qualified as you are who are making more money than you make. How can this be unless the devil has put an invisible wall around your financial potential? You see, the devil does not care how much money non-Christians make, because as long as they control it, their money will not be used to finance the preaching of the gospel.

The rock stars probably won't finance the gospel. The raunchy movie producers don't plan to give a dime for the next major evangelistic crusade. That's why the devil does not contain them as he does you and me!

You see, financing the end-time harvest is up to us as born-again Christians. If you do not have the financial breakthrough God wants you to have, His Church will never rise to the full level of the vision He has for it.

The only way to smash and destroy the wall of containment around your finances is through a violent, highly energetic act on your part.

I don't use the word violent at my choosing, but God's Word literally tells us to get violent and use our God-given force (spiritual energy).

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 11:12

If you want to make a breakthrough in your finances, determine right now that you are going to take whatever action is necessary to crush the devil's wall of containment around you, breaking through by force and violence into a new level of understanding and knowledge in the area of your finances.

Suddenly, you will realize that God's Word is concentrated so strongly in you that you have enough spiritual energy to come with violent spiritual force against the invisible wall that is resisting you and pushing against your finances. You will realize that you can blow that wall asunder!

You will charge forth into your newly discovered wealth and prosperity, receiving literally more than enough to help finance every worthwhile Christian ministry that God directs you to help.

I think you can now see that if you really want this financial breakthrough, it will take more than a penetration. Although you have hungered for this breakthrough, you probably never possessed enough of the spiritual power, the concentrated energy, to break out of those satanic walls of containment, into true financial success and freedom.

Child of God, you are at a critical point. Now is the time for your breakthrough! Read. Study. Absorb. Then take violent action! Begin to seize the financial power you have according to the Word of God!

Get Violent in God

"Why is violent action necessary?" you might ask. You see, those old teachings and traditions about being poor have made the Word of God about abundance ineffective for you. This verse is a good example:

But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth ...

Deuteronomy 8:18

When was the last time you heard anyone give a sermon on that scripture? You see, there are walls around that scripture containing the Church's financial advancement and expansion.

You may have grown up in a day when poverty was erroneously deemed by well-meaning preachers and teachers to be glorious and godly. Unfortunately, the "poverty is holy" doctrine still hangs around in the back of your mind today. You may still believe there is something wrong with a man who has a lot of money.

I used to think, "Oh, God, if I just had enough. Lord, just give me enough to provide for my wife, Pat, and our children."

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? Sure you have, but don't ever pray it again! It is impossible for you to be the Christian God intends for you to be with "just enough."

Think about the day you got saved. Your salvation was absolutely free. It did not cost you one penny to get saved. I remember walking into the first Baptist Church of Largo, Florida. They treated me like a king. There was not a charge for anything. My salvation did not cost me one cent.

However, when I came back as a born-again Christian the next Wednesday night, from that day on, I have been handing out money for the gospel everywhere I go!

Child of God, do you understand what I am talking about here? It costs money to bring in God's harvest, and the Church of our Lord and Savior will never have enough to do it if the saints have just enough. We can bring in the end-time harvest only if we learn how to have more than enough to supply the funds needed to do the great work God has put before us.

Let's begin generating some spiritual energy in the area of your finances. Let's begin right now by destroying one old concept that must go from your mind before you can move any further in your finances.

Let's establish this new thought in your mind: There is nothing wrong with my family and me living the good life! It is God's portion for me.

Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:18,19

The good life is your portion!

Most Christians get in their minds that there is great insufficiency in the world, and that we must live all of our lives in that insufficiency. Let me assure you, that is not God's way. He says, "There is more than enough." He says, "The good life is your portion!"

Do you see how Satan is waging a battle of containment in your mind? It is hard for many to grasp just having enough, let alone grasping that God intends for you to have more than enough.

Remember, it is the world's method to have its population operate in insufficiency, shortage, and want. They feel that's the way to keep prices up-through contrived, manipulated shortage!

Do not forget, we are not of this world, and our God and King declares that the basis of His Kingdom is abundance! He plainly says:

... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

You see, the lifestyle God has chosen for us is His abundance. This abundant lifestyle is the type of breakthrough you are heading for if you do not let the devil contain you through distractions, and keep you away from knowing the truth of God's Word that I am teaching you.

Oh, saint of God, press on, and you will stomp on the devil. God says the devil will soon be bruised under your feet:

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly....

Romans 16:20

Notice the last portion of Ecclesiastes 5:19 says that the good life is your portion, it is "the gift of God," and you have the power to eat your portion.

I can just hear someone saying, "Well, Brother John, if wealth and the good life are God's gift to me, then why don't I have them?"

If you know anything about God, you know that He does not hand out all of His gifts on a silver platter. A good illustration of God's nature is seen when He gave the Promised Land to Israel. It was a gift, but they had to fight violently to receive it. There was not one square foot that came easily, yet Scripture clearly states it was God's gift to them.

God has set aside a portion of the world's wealth for you. It is yours for the taking.

Taking control of that wealth involves your decision to fight violently and take it out of the control of God's enemies, just as Israel took the Promised Land from the enemies of God. (Please notice that this fight is in the spirit world. I am not advocating an armed conflict.)

Notice through this personal illustration how important it is to know the truth if you expect to be set free by that truth. In my early ministry, I was Dr. John Avanzini, pastor of a fundamental, denominational church. I had a very narrow view of Scripture and believed my denomination was right about every single doctrine. I was so narrow-minded, I could look through a key hole with both eyes!

In those early ministry years, when I walked into a hospital, it was as if the hospital was having a visit from the angel of death. When I prayed for people, sometimes they would get sicker, and even die.

I did not know the stripes Jesus received on my behalf and on the behalf of the world had given me power to lay hands on the sick so that they could recover. You see, you cannot walk in a truth you do not know.

Oh, I bought my study books in a bookstore where people knew that truth. I personally was around the truth every day. I earned a doctorate at a theological seminary, but I didn't know about the fullness of the Holy Ghost. You cannot have the full benefit of a truth unless you know it.

Finally, one day I had a breakthrough. I discovered that the Bible says, and means, I could, right now in this century, lay hands on the sick and they would recover!

...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Mark 16:18

After that discovery, pain just left people when I prayed for them. Symptoms vanished. Terminal cases were healed with a touch, one such case with just a word from the pulpit to a man diagnosed as terminal.

I experienced the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge, the difference between logos and rhema. Logos is the written Word, but rhema is the Word of God living in you!

Suddenly, a whole new flow began for me! Wisdom came to me. The Lord functioned through me. Once I really knew the truth, I could operate in it.

Right now, you may be powerless in the area of your finances. You may be the victim of your environment which taught you that poverty is godly, and brought about a poverty atmosphere around you. Begin right now to chisel at those old, false concepts. Start this minute to begin receiving more of your financial breakthrough by absorbing the rhema of this incredible Scripture:

But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee [that means you] power to get wealth ....

Deuteronomy 8:18

Read that Scripture out loud several times right now. You have very possibly never studied anything like it before. It goes against so much of what you have been taught. Yet there it is in your Bible, staring at you. Your breakthrough cannot come unless you cooperate by violently pressing against the restraints that make you question the validity of this Word from God. Read it again and again.

God Himself has given you the power to get wealth! Isn't that wonderful? You have the power to get wealth, and that power has been given to you by God. Say it out loud: "I have been given the power to get wealth by the God of heaven."

Say it ten times. Say it with confidence. Listen to yourself saying it. For the rest of your life, say this to yourself several times each day, "God has given me the power to get wealth."

First, receive the logos of this statement, the written Word; it is written in your Holy Bible (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Next, receive the rhema of this statement by beginning to operate that word in your life. To operate the rhema of this statement, you must understand the total context of the verse. This understanding is very important. Do not miss a word.

This revelation is more than the "Cadillac-faith prosperity" that has been taught in so many messages on finances. Although that message is based on a partial truth, it does not go far enough. God does not mind the saints driving Cadillacs, Mercedes, or Hondas. Yet if that's all the message you hear, then you've totally missed God! You have thrown away the pearl and kept the oyster shell.

Let me tell you a story about such a situation. There was a man who had been listening to the tapes of a certain prosperity preacher. He was very excited, thinking God would make him rich, quickly.

One day he drove up to the church in a big, beautiful, new, luxury car, and parked it right in front of the building in the most conspicuous parking space. The preacher, seeing him pull up, asked him, "Where did you get such a nice car?" The man replied, "Preacher, God gave me that car." The preacher congratulated the man, and agreed with him, saying, "That looks like the kind of car God would give."

As they both walked all around the car, the preacher noticed the man's special, personalized license plate. It read, "PRAYED4."

For the next ten to twelve months, everything seemed just great. Every Sunday, this seemingly prosperous fellow would drive up to the church in his big, beautiful, luxury car that was now affectionately being called "Old PRAYED4." His seeming success, caused some folks to feel envious, and even somewhat convicted that their faith for wealth was not at this man's level.

One Sunday, here came this same man, not in his luxury car, but this time in, of all things, an old Nash automobile. You remember how they looked. They resembled an upside-down bathtub with the windshield in the blunt end. Well, he slowly drove up in this old car and parked way in the back of the church parking lot in the most obscure parking space.

The preacher, seeing this obvious deviation from what had been his normal entrance, went over to the fellow, and asked, "Hey, where's 'Old PRAYED4'?" He said, "Pastor, they repossessed it, and everything else I own is in bankruptcy."

Can you imagine? They repossessed the car God had supposedly given him! Here we see the common end to the get-rich-for-your-own-benefit gospel: disappointment and loss of credibility of our witness for Christ.

The preacher of our story then put his arms around this fellow and lovingly told him, "Brother, listen to me carefully. I thank God for the teachers we have in our land, but you are obviously missing it. Come on into God's house today and start hearing what He really says about your finances, and how they relate to His purposes, and not how they relate to your purposes. Start learning the prosperity message in the proper context.

"If your motive for giving is right with God, and if you really know God's intentions for the prosperity you receive from Him, then if you still desire a nice car, God will give it to you. He does not mind your having a nice car if that is what you really want. However, when He gives it to you, it will be better than your last car, and you won't need some goofy license plate like 'PRAYED4' on it. With the car God gives, you can have a real license plate, one that says 'PAID4'."

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