God does not want you to have any lack or poverty in your life. In this series, Ashley and Carlie share some down-to-earth, real-life practical ways that we can avoid lack and poverty in our lives.
Transcription
Announcer: Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life. Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley: Hello. Welcome to Abundant Life. My name is Ashley Terradez. So glad you’ve joined us today. My wife, Carlie, and we’ve got some great teachings for you today. We’re going to be looking at poverty and lack. It doesn’t sound very great, does it? But here’s the thing. God does not want you to have any lack or poverty in your life. That’s the gospel truth right there. He does not want you to have lack or poverty in your life.
And we’re going to look at some ways that we can avoid lack and poverty in our life. We can look at some practical things we can do and, praise God, to find out it’s God’s will to prosper is awesome. When you find out it’s God’s will to prosper, then-
Carlie: That’s good news.
Ashley: … it’s good news. It’s the gospel. It’s good news. It’s part of what Jesus died for. We’ve got a whole series on prosperity and why God wants you to prosper and things like that. But during this time, we’re going to look at if you’re experiencing lack, because here’s the deal. I’ll just be honest with you, is that okay?
Carlie: All of our secrets are about to come out now. You know that, right?
Ashley: I believe we are going to share… I’m going to share some things with you financially and stuff, but here’s the thing, I believe it’s God’s will for people to prosper. It’s part of the gospel. It’s part of the atonement. It’s the forgiveness of sins, healing of your body and prosperity and provision. But sometimes, let’s just be honest, we don’t always experience it.
Carlie: Right. And, I think everybody, at some point in their life, can relate to this. Everybody has, at some point, has been in a position where they haven’t had enough. They’ve had a lack of resources in some area, whether that’s just cash or whether that’s just… That could be food. That could be lack of resources in multiple different areas. But the fact is God wants us to prosper in every area of our life.
Ashley: Amen. Amen. So the scripture we’re going to look at first, this is 2 Corinthians, 9:8. II Corinthians 9:8 says this. It says, “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.”
Carlie: So that’s not having all sufficiency in some things. [crosstalk] That’s everything.
Ashley: This really is a big verse. When you start unpacking this, you realize, you know what? He’s talking about… First of all, God’s able… His grace, He’s going to give you the grace, the ability, the supernatural ability and favor to have these things. So it’s God’s grace, it’s God’s grace in us. And it says here that you always, that means always, you could word study this out, but that really does mean at all times, always-
Carlie: Is that no exceptions?
Ashley: … always having all sufficiency and all sufficiency means having enough. In fact, the Amplified puts it this way. The Amplified, if you read that same verse in the Amplified, 2 Corinthians 9:8 in the Amplified says, “And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient (possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation.)”
So, we could spend a whole program just on this one verse. We’re not going to, but just to unpack this a little bit. God’s talking about having all sufficiency in all things and have an abundance for every good work. So if you’ve heard me teach on finances before or prosperity before, you know that I always come at this from the angle, that the reason why, one of the main reasons to prosper is so that we can help others. And we can have something to give. And that’s exactly what this verse is saying. We’ll have an abundance for every good work.
But we used to… We’ve always loved giving, but when we used to give, do you remember, we used to give out of lack and it was sacrificial. In fact, one of the churches we went to, it was a bit weird, they brought it to the front of the church and they said, “Ashley and Carlie have…” what’s they call it? “They had the gift of sacrificial giving,” or something.
Carlie: I’m not sure I want that gift. [crosstalk] That doesn’t sound like fun.
Ashley: No, we went without ourselves, so we could help others, but you know what God’s best is is that you’ll have an abundance for every good work. You’ll have an abundance for your own needs. So you have all sufficiency, all your own needs met. You’ll have all sufficiency, but then you’ll have an abundance. You’ll have extra to be able to give and to be able to donate and to help people and to give, so that’s God’s best.
Carlie: I was just thinking about this, God doesn’t have lack as part of his character-
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: … right? He doesn’t have lack in His house, in His household and we’re his kids. What good parent would fail to provide for their children?
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And you know, how much better is God as our Father, than we are as earthly parents. He does not have a lack mentality. He does not have a shortage in heaven. There’s never going to be any famines in heaven. There’s never going to need to be any, whip rounds because someone’s got a problem and they need a lecture and we need to help them out. I’m telling you, there is no lack in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is only abundance.
Ashley: In fact, there’s such abundance, the streets are paved with gold. There’s mansions. So one friend of mine, he teaches this a lot. And he says, “if you’ve got a problem with God’s prosperity on earth, you’re going to have a problem with heaven, because heaven is going to be extravagant. And, there’s just no lack.” You’re right. There’s no lack or poverty in heaven. So we want what’s in heaven on earth, praise God. And we can help more people when we prosper. So God wants us to prosper.
But if you’re experiencing lack, I want you to know, no condemnation. There’s never any condemnation or you’re never meant to feel guilty or anything for experiencing lack. We still have lack in some areas. We just be honest with you. There’s some areas I haven’t reached this verse yet. I would love to get to this point where I have always have extra for every good work. Every time I see a good work. Every time I hear about a missionary, every time I hear about a new ministry or new church, I just want to be able to write the check and be able to fund it, and we’re not there, yet.
Carlie: I think everyone’s on a journey and we’re learning. We’re going to [inaudible] something, right?
Ashley: Amen. Yeah. What does Andrew Romex say? “I haven’t arrived, but I’ve left.” He says, “I haven’t arrived, but I’ve left.” So we’ve left in this area and we’ve just ourselves financially, personally. I only say this because we’re going to teach on finances a little bit. So I wouldn’t usually say this and wouldn’t usually share this, but I’m going to share this. We’re debt-free ourselves. We own our own house outright and we own our cars and everything. And we’ve been blessed to be able to give people. We’ve built houses in third world countries. We’ve built a bit of Bible school in a third world country. We’ve given cars away. We’ve never given a brand new car away.
Carlie: That would be nice.
Ashley: We’ve only given used cars away. We’ve given a bunch of cars away and things like that. We’re able to help people. So, and it’s good. And also, one of the things is being debt free.
And I don’t want to run ahead of myself here in this lesson, but being debt free and not having these obligations of debt and large overheads, means that we’re able to do our ministry and things. We’ll leave our full-time jobs and do this ministry without getting very much compensation. Is that the right word?
Carlie: Yep.
Ashley: Salary. We can live off very little. When you don’t have much debt, you can live off very little. So we’re completely debt-free and this stuff is working. We’ve used the word of God in the last 20 years. We’ve used the word of God and we’ve seen it work in our lives personally. And now I want to show you how you can overcome lacks. If you’re experiencing lack in any area of your life. If you think, “You know what, Ashley, there’s times when I don’t have enough.”
And I know because our audience is so wide, I know some of you out there, we’re talking about lacking, you don’t know how you’re going to pay the rent, or how are you going to buy food. That lack. And then there’s also some people that they just have lack in a certain area. It might just be in one particular area and comparison, well that person’s not really struggling, but anytime you have a lack, anytime you haven’t got enough to do what you feel God’s calling you to do, that’s lack. And God does not want that for you. God wants you to have an abundance for every good work.
Carlie: Amen. And, if you’re watching this thinking, “Well, it’s okay for Ashley and Carlie. They’ve paid their house off and they’re debt free and it’s okay for them to teach on this.” But that wasn’t always the case. We didn’t come from… We didn’t have inherited wealth from family connections and things like that. We’ve been through times of extreme poverty in our life.
Ashley: My friend puts it this way. Says, “You know what? I started out with nothing. And I’ve still got about 80% of it.”
We did start with nothing. And also let me put it this way, just because we don’t have a house payment, we don’t have car payments, we don’t have any debt, doesn’t mean we don’t have expenses. We have three teenagers at home. Let me tell you we have-
Carlie: They eat like locusts.
Ashley: … groceries, gas bills. I mean, everything’s expensive. Anyway, yeah, you’re right. We started, when we got married, in fact, I was a full-time youth pastor or youth leader, and you was working that coffee house.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Christian Coffee House.
Ashley: It was almost voluntarily, basically, a Christian coffee house. And we started with our first few years of marriage, we really… We didn’t have enough money to pay attention. We was-
Carlie: In fact we lived definitely miracle to miracle. I think going back then our income was like 600 pounds a month and our expenses were 800 pounds a month. And that was just bare bones of survival. So, we had a shortfall every month. But you know, one of the things that I remember we did, was we kept on giving. [crosstalk]
Ashley: We always gave, even we didn’t have, seemed like we didn’t have enough. And we made it.
Carlie: Every month.
Ashley: We went 2 years. We went two years of earning very, very little and we didn’t get into debt. And we went without sometimes. Sometimes we said no to things, but we had… I remember the house we had. So I asked Carlie to marry me.
Carlie: He was so romantic.
Ashley: Nineteen years old.
Carlie: We lived in a little shack in the woods.
Ashley: And yeah, it was.
Carlie: And, it was freezing.
Ashley: It was literally a shack in the woods.
Carlie: We had no central heating at all.
Ashley: I asked her daddy, if I could marry her. And I said, “Can I marry your daughter?” And he said, “How are you going to provide for her?” And I said, “Well, you know, I’m just a youth pastor. I own very little money,” I said, “but God’s going to provide.”
Carlie: He wasn’t impressed with that, was he?
Ashley: He said to me, “I know God’s going to provide, but how you’re going to provide, young man?” I was 19. But anyway, I phoned a friend of a friend, phone a friend, phoned a friend of a friend, and this is how he talked. He went, “Bro,” he goes, “I’ve got this little old house out in the woods, bro.” And actual fact, he was waiting to demolish it. He was going to demolish this house.
Carlie: Yeah. I think it had been condemned, actually, but you can live in it.
Ashley: “I have this little house out in the woods, bro,” he said, “but you can have it,” he goes. I think, was it 40 pounds a week? It was like 50 pounds, $50 a month. It was crazy low money. He said, “You can have it, bro,” he goes. Basically we just paid the taxes on it. “You can have it bro. You can rent that house from me.” So I said, yes. I had never even looked at it. I thought all I thought was, “It’s our own place,” rather than living with our parents. This is our own place. We got no money. I said yes, before even looking at it. So he gave us the keys. We moved into this place and it had no heat and there was literally squirrels-
Carlie: Yeah. They’d come down. We had open fires in the kitchen and the lounge and the squirrels would run down the chimney and all over my kitchen countertops. We’d wake up in the morning, these little tiny, paw prints everywhere. We had to stuff boxes up the-
Ashley: Chimney to stop the squirrels-
Carlie: … chimney to stop the squirrels coming through. [crosstalk].
Ashley: So the squirrels would run around the house, but the worst part of this house, there was no heating-
Carlie: It was so cold.
Ashley: … literally no heat other than the open fires. And it was single cavity walls in the woods.
Carlie: And, it is very damp in England. So like the wallpaper would go moldy.
Ashley: It was bad. So anyway, we had to make real fires, so we had this real fire going in the living room and you’d gone to bed. Someone bought us an electric blanket as a [crosstalk] wedding present.
Carlie: It was a gift from God. I’ll tell you. I just loved that blanket.
Ashley: So, at least the bed was warm, because we had that electric blanket, the heated blanket on. So you went to bed in the heated blanket. I was in the living room with a fire on and I was watching a film. I think we had a TV. Someone gave us a TV and I was watching a film and it come near the end and the coal run out, the wood run out on the fire. We run out of fuel for the fire. And we’d used all the wood we could find. I went out in the yard, no more word, no more coal, no more fuel and the fire was going out. And I was like, well, I haven’t even got money to buy coal or to buy firewood. I was like, this is bad. And I want to see the end of this film, before the house is going to get cold.
Carlie: Get your priorities right.
Ashley: So I went looking around for firewood and I’m in the pantry cupboard. And this pantry was a tall ceiling and this pantry had a shelf really up high.
Carlie: Yeah, I didn’t use that much.
Ashley: And Carly’s only five foot. She can’t even reach that shelf. She doesn’t need that shelf. So, I pulled the shelf right off the wall, put that in the fire. And I kept the fire going for another hour. That was something.
We used to walk down the hallway and breathe smoke. It was so cold.
Carlie: It was chilly.
Ashley: But anyway, we lived in that house and praise God, we didn’t get into debt. But, we experienced lack. We’d go to the supermarket, I went to the store once I remember, and all I had was like $5. And I remember thinking I’ve got enough to either buy coffee or cereal, but not both. And that was a big decision. That was like, I had to stand there, and I had to ask for a word from the Lord on that one, because it’s either hungry and tired or tired and hungry. What would you buy, a coffee or cereal? That’s a big-
Carlie: I think it was when we had our first child actually. So diapers were, or nappies, if you’re watching in England [crosstalk] We’re bilingual. We speak American and English.
Ashley: Diapers and nappies. Translate.
Carlie: Those things are expensive. And so, even having a child just changed our world, but just making that decision between coffee and cereal, it’s like, well, you know you’re going to buy the nappies, right? You know you’re going to buy the diapers, but you can live without coffee or cereal.
Ashley: It’s tough. You can, but it’s tough. Let me tell you, it’s tough.
Anyway, we experienced lack is what I’m telling you. And, maybe that’s you now, maybe you’re experiencing lacking in your life financially. Maybe there’s a point where, you know what, you just haven’t got enough to do what you want to do or what God’s calling you to do. And that’s a sad point to be in. And we’ve been there and we feel for you, but I’m telling you, God does not want you to experience that lack. And in fact, that’s why I want to call this teaching, “How to Attack Lack.” We’re talking about how to attack. We’re going to attack lack. Lack is not from God. And, we’re going to attack lack today. So in Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy 28, that whole chapter, Deuteronomy 28, is talking about the blessings and the cursings. And the first 14 verses, it’s talking about the blessings of obeying God’s voice.
And the way we can translate that today in the new covenant is basically the blessings of doing the word, the blessings of following what the word says. And the blessings were amazing. And we get all these blessings when we get born again.
Carlie: Yes, we do.
Ashley: It’s awesome. And the blessings include an abundance. They include a blessing in the field, a blessing in your storehouses, a blessing in your flocks. Everything you put your hands to is blessed, but then from 15 to, I think it’s 68. There’s a lot of verses, from verse 15 to verse 68 of Deuteronomy 28, it talks about the curses and poverty and lack is in there as a curse, a number of times, says you won’t have enough, you will have a lack. Your work will be cursed. So you won’t be able to bring… You’ll sow seeds in a field, but you won’t reap a harvest. You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t eat the fruit. It’s talking about lack and about the fact that, the curse of lack.
Carlie: And it’s, I think it’s worth mentioning. I think it’s Galatians 3:13 that says, “We have been redeemed from the curse of the law.” So in other words, when we look back in that chapter in Deuteronomy, all of the blessings now apply to us, but none of the curses do.
Ashley: That’s right. Amen. Yes, Galatians 3:13. He has redeemed us from the curse. Praise God. So we’re going to look at a few things here. Lack is… What I want to make sure you understand. Lack is not from God. Lack really… Every time lack and poverty is in the Bible, it’s in a negative connotation. It’s a little bit like healing, when we teach on healing. Healing is always a blessing. Disease and pain and unease is always a curse, described as a curse. And here again, it’s the same with poverty and abundance. Poverty is a curse, is always described as a curse. It’s always described as negative and abundance and blessings always described as a positive. Really you need religion to help you get this confused.
Carlie: Right. It does.
Ashley: Without religion and some churches, the way they teach, basically, it’s pretty simple.
In fact, some of the people I’ve seen born again, who have never had a religious upbringing and never been to some certain churches and things like that, they grasp this stuff pretty easy. Oh yes. God’s a good God. He wants you well. God’s a good God. He wants you to have enough to live off of. Whereas sometimes religion will say, “Well, no, sometimes God wants you to suffer. Sometimes God wants you to go without. Sometimes God wants the worst for you.” That is not a loving father. A loving father wants to provide for his children.
Carlie: Amen, He pays His child support.
Ashley: Amen, He does pay His child support. That’s a good way of putting it, but that’s true. God’s a loving Father. He only has good for us. And I’m telling you, He wants His children to have an abundance, not just enough, but an abundance for every good work, so we can help more people. So that’s God’s will for you. And I want you to know, God loves you and He’s got the best for you. And part of that is abundance. Part of that is having enough for your own needs and to help others. So, lack is not good. Poverty is a curse or is described as a curse. It’s evil. Prosperity is always looked at as positive and is good. So someone said, “Well, if you prosper and you start having extra money, you’re just going to, it’s just going to make you mean and evil.”
And I always tell people, you know what? This is what money does is it amplifies what’s already in your heart. And if you are a mean person, mean-spirited and you’re a holder and you don’t like giving and things like that. When you have more money, you’re going to do the same with that money. But when you’re a giver and you love people, you want to help people and you’re generous, more money is just going to make you more generous.
Carlie: Right.
Ashley: Money is amoral. Money is neither good nor bad, but it’s a tool and it’s whose hands it’s in makes a difference.
Carlie: It’s interesting you should say that because I think people with a lack mentality could have lots of money and still have a lack mentality or have no money and have a lack mentality. It’s how we view money, our relationship to money that’s the important thing.
Ashley: Yep. Amen. So our next verse is 2 Corinthians 8:9. So we just looked at 2 Corinthians 9:8. This is 2 Corinthians 8:9. So maybe it’s a… God set it up like that. Who knows. Actually there’s no chapters and verses, but anyway, it’s just, I think it’s funny how this is 2 Corinthians 8:9, and this is probably one of the most important verses on prosperity you can read. And this is Paul speaking here. He says, “for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich,” Jesus was rich in heaven, He came down for your sakes, “for our sakes,” for you watching, for our sakes, “He became poor that you through his poverty might become rich.” So again, this is the great exchange. This is Jesus became…
In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Jesus became sin on the cross so that we could take on His righteousness. We could receive His righteousness. He took our sin, we get His righteousness. He took our sickness, 1 Peter 2:24, He took our sickness, by His stripes we are healed. We take His healing and His health. It’s the same with finances. He became poor and He gave up riches and became poor, so that us through his poverty, might receive His riches, might receive His abundance, might receive His provision.
Carlie: I think this verse has been somewhat manipulated, because I was always taught that that meant it’s spiritually rich, not physical riches.
Ashley: Of course, it can mean spiritually rich, and of course, Jesus came to make us spiritually rich. And that is far more important than financially rich. In fact, the financial part of it is the least important thing. I tell people I like to teach on the least important thing in the kingdom, but you know, it’s the least important thing. Money is the least important thing, our spiritual wellbeing is much more important, but now a lot of people say that, but in context, if you read this verse in context, the whole of 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and the whole 2 Corinthians chapter 9, those two chapters are all talking about finances. They’re talking about money. They’re talking about stewardship of money. They’re talking about offerings. Paul is talking about money the whole time. So if you choose to take that verse in the middle of that chapter, out of context and use it just for spiritual things-
Carlie: Well, you left it as a con.
Ashley: … that’s not fair. If you take a text without a context, what are you left with? A con.
Carlie: That’s right. Then people can get conned out of their abundance of what God really has for them because people have manipulated the scriptures. So, we need to weigh the scriptures and look at them in context.
Ashley: Amen. So just like Jesus defeated sin on the cross, just like He defeated sickness on the cross, He defeated poverty on the cross. He took poverty and lack to the cross. And in exchange, if we’ll believe it, we can receive His provision and His prosperity. Praise God. That’s good news today. That’s the gospel that God wants you to receive this praise. Jesus paid the price for it. He gave up riches and became poor so that us, through his poverty, might become rich. It’s very clear in that verse. And it doesn’t matter how you study it out. It’s talking about financial blessings and it’s talking about financial prosperity, praise God. So that’s the truth.
So a couple of things I just want to share with you. What does lack do? Until we understand the danger, if you like, of lack or poverty, because here’s the other thing. Some people say, “Well, you know, actually I’m happy just to get by and I never quite make ends meet or I just about make ends meet-”
Carlie: “I just want to have enough.”
Ashley: … “and that’s that’s okay.” Or, “just enough for me and my four,” as they say, “and no more.” And really I want to show you, that’s a dangerous attitude, really. If you just want just enough to get by, or if you’re not quite making it, then you need to get to the point where you’re not happy with that. You’re not content with that alone. You want God’s best and you want to see God’s best.
Carlie: Right. And at the end of the day, God is not a just enough kind of God.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: But he’s an abundant God. I know John 10:10 says that, “It’s the enemy that comes to kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly.” He wants us to have an overflow of resources. Amen?
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: And so God is not a just enough God. He is a super excessive abundant kind of God.
Ashley: Amen. Isn’t that awesome? And, in Deuteronomy 30:19, this is Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. It says, “I’ve set before you life and death, blessings and curses.” And, you can actually study that out. Blessings talking about having an abundance, prosperity. It’s talking about wholeness. It’s talking about favor, all those things. In blessings and curses, it’s the opposite. It’s talking about not having enough. It’s about being scolded, not being favored, things like that. And not have lack and sickness and things like that. And God’s saying, in Deuteronomy 30:19, “Look, I’ve set them out for you. It’s your choice. It’s your choice.”
Carlie: Yeah, you get to pick.
Ashley: It’s our choice. And I love how He gives you the test. And then He gives you the answers. He says-
Carlie: It’s like a multiple choice, but they’re giving away the answer.
Ashley: He gives the answer. “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses, choose life.” You would want to choose life, choose life.
Carlie: It’s a much better option.
Ashley: Choose life. But it’s our choice. And that’s because God gave us free will. And some people say, “Well, how comes not everyone is receiving? If God’s will, is for everyone to be prosperous and prosperity has been paid for, how comes every Christian isn’t prosperous and hasn’t got an abundance for every good work?” And, it’s just the same with healing. “Why isn’t… it’s God’s will to heal every time, why isn’t everyone receiving their healing?” It’s because we have a free will. We have a choice to make and as well as a choice to make, there’s also other elements involved. There’s things that can hinder our healing. There’s things, and just the things that can hinder our healing, things can also hinder our prosperity and hinder us receiving financially.
Carlie: Right, and God’s will doesn’t just automatically come to pass. It was Jesus that says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” right? So God is a good God, but for His will to come to pass on the earth, it works through us. It works for us responding and participating. Just like we had to respond to the gift of salvation, everything that we have, every benefit that we have in the gospel, we can access, it’s there for us. Jesus paid for it, amen? But we need to respond to it through faith.
Ashley: Amen. And I know some of the viewers might be thinking, “Well, God’s sovereign. How can you say that not everything… God’s will doesn’t come to pass all the time.” So I’m asking you.
Carlie: Oh, sorry. It was a question. Well, that word sovereign is not actually, that’s a man’s kind of interpretation, but God is sovereign in the sense that He is all powerful, but that does not mean that He’s all controlling. And that’s where I think the manipulations come from.
Ashley: But I find it that, it makes God even more powerful in my mind, that He’s actually chosen. He chose to give over part of His authority to mankind. So God gave authority on the earth to Adam. He actually gave over part of His authority. And you know, God won’t go back on His word and He’s given mankind, men and women, free will. And, there’s various reasons why He did that, but He gave us free will. And therefore He’s almost limited himself in that area. God is all powerful. God is the alpha and omega. He’s the beginning and the end. He’s everything, He’s all sustaining, but He’s not all controlling. And I think if you believe that God’s all controlling, that’s one of the reasons why I think, “Well, I haven’t… I don’t really have enough, but you know, that must be God’s will for me.” [crosstalk].
Carlie: That abdicates us, doesn’t it, of any type of responsibility or response or anything and puts all of the blame back onto God. And so it’s kind of a convenient doctrine, too.
Ashley: It is. It’s an easier doctrine to live by sometimes because if you believe, “Well, it’s okay. The reason why I’m not making it financially, it’s not God’s will. God’s choosing for me to struggle in this area at the moment to teach me something.” The same with sickness. “Well, I haven’t received the healing in my body yet. Maybe it’s God’s will just for me to learn something through this sickness and stuff.” And here’s the amazing thing about God. Even though God never puts sickness and never puts lack on people, he can still use that. He can still use a bad situation, imagine like when our kids-
Carlie: It doesn’t mean he caused the bad situation.
Ashley: It doesn’t mean he caused it. So when our kids were little, if one of them was walking on top of a brick wall, say, and I said to him, “Get down. Get down from there. You might hurt yourself. Don’t walk on that. Don’t walk on that edge. You might hurt yourself. You might… Get down.” And I’m tending him to get down, but they disobey me and they fall off and they scrape their knee and they’re crying. I might go and comfort them and say, “You know what? You okay?” And everything else. Then I would say to him, “You know what? Does your knee hurt? That was because he was walking on that ledge. You shouldn’t have been walking on that wall. I told you not to walk on that wall. That’s why your knee’s hurting now.” No, I didn’t push him off the wall and cut their knee. But I use that bad situation to basically teach them. So God can use bad things to teach us, but God does not put bad things on us.
Carlie: Right. He’s not the author of them.
Ashley: And he said, “We’re going down a rabbit trail now, but I think it’s important to establish this.” And then I hear people say, “Ashley, what about surely God disciplines sometimes.” But God disciplines through His Word. God disciplines through His Holy Spirit. God doesn’t use bad things to discipline us. God’s a good Father.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: All good things come from the Father of light. You know, a good father doesn’t do… If you’re a parent or a grandparent, I’m pretty sure if you’re watching this show, hopefully you like to do good things for your kids and your grandkids. Why would you do something bad to them? Why would you put a disease on them? Why would you put lack on them? Why would you hinder them, and not let them prosper, not let them be healed. You wouldn’t do that. And if we… us compared to God are evil. The best parent in the world compared to God is evil, Jesus said, compared to…
That’s how good God is. So God is good. And you know what? He doesn’t do bad for us. So God’s will for you, is to prosper. God’s will for you is to not have lack in your life. God has overcome poverty. Jesus took poverty and lack to the grave. Praise God. And now, we have the right to actually receive his provision and his prosperity. Praise God. We have the right to believe God, to have an abundance for every good work. And you know what? We’re going to, in the next program, we’re going to look at some of the reasons why we want to get rid of lack in our life. And we’re going to start looking at some practical ways we can get rid of lack and get rid of poverty in our life, so we don’t have any lack in any area. Amen?
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Praise God. God’s a good God.
Carlie: He is a good God.
Ashley: So we’re nearly out of time, but we want to pray for you before we go. So praise God. Father God, I thank you for everyone watching today. I thank you for everyone listening to this show. And I thank you, Lord, that Your will is for us to prosper. Your will for us is only good things. You have plans for us to prosper and to have a long life. And I thank you, Lord. You’re a good Father. I thank you, Lord. You’re going to show us how we can prosper. You’re going to show us some practical things we can do to receive that prosperity, but I thank you it would ultimately Your will is for us to prosper. And I thank You, Jesus, You defeated poverty. You chose to become poor so that we could receive Your abundance. That’s amazing. Thank you, Jesus.
Carlie: Thank you, Lord.
Ashley: Thank you, Lord.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Isn’t He good?
Carlie: He is good.
Ashley: God is good.
Carlie: He is that good.
Ashley: God is good. Well, we’ll be back real soon and then finish up some of this series. But until next time, remember, don’t just live a normal life. Go out and live the abundant life. We’ll see you next time.
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Ashley: Hey, I want to thank the partners of Terradez Ministries. Thank you for your support. You know what? By your financial support, we’re able to go out and touch the world for Jesus. We’re seeing people’s lives turned around. We’ve seen people healed. We’ve seen people set free. We’ve seen people born again and your gifts are enabling us to do that. So we want to thank you and thank you on behalf of all the people we’re touching. Praise God. Thank you for your partnership. We appreciate you. We’re praying for you. We know you’re going to increase as you sow seed into this ministry. So we’re praying for you regularly. Thank you for your partnership. We love you all
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