Discover how God supplies your needs in part 7 of The Keys to Living Happy. You’ll explore Philippians 4:19 in its context with Ashley and Carlie.
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, and welcome to Abundant Life program. We’re so glad you joined us today. We’ve got a great program for you today, and we’re here in the lounge. My name is Ashley Terradez, this is my wife, Carlie, and we’re so glad you joined us, praise God.
We’ve got a great program. We’re going to be talking about how God supplies your needs, this is from Philippians 4:19. Over the last few programs, we’ve been looking at Philippians and basically tips on how to live the abundant life. Paul laid out some great things in Philippians, it’s a great book, praise God. One of my favorites, and today we’re in Philippians four, and we’re looking particularly at Philippians 4:19. This is a verse that gets bantered around a lot, “My God will supply all your needs.” We’re going to look at it today and look at what that really means for you practically.
What does that look like? How does God actually supply your needs? How do you receive that? And what does it look like on a day-to-day basis? Praise God. So we’re excited you’re here, and if you want to contact us, you can go to our website. It’s Terradezministries.com, and you can contact us right there. Terradezministries.com, but let’s get right into the lesson today. Carlie, what have we got?
Carlie: Yeah, absolutely. This scripture in Philippians, I remember really standing on this scripture when we went to Bible college. It was like God told us to go to Bible college, and you know what it’s like. God tells you to do something and you’ve got 101 reasons why it’s not really convenient. And that’s exactly where we were at, wasn’t it?
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: We had lots of reasons in the natural, it was a terrible time to move up and change jobs and go somewhere, and go to Bible college. Ashley had just gotten a really good job, we had just moved house, we got our kids into great schools. Everything in our world was like, “This is a bad time to move,” but God said… And besides that, we had some debt as well that we were well into our overdraft and different things. We didn’t have much savings.
And so I had lots of really good reasons why this was a bad time to move, but God said… He spoke to me really clearly, Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory.” I’m like, “Okay, based on that, I’m going to get me the application form.” And I remember filling out that Bible college application form and putting aside all of those preconceived reasons why this wasn’t going to work, and just trusted in that word.
And then we went to Bible college and of course, we figured we weren’t going to work at Bible college because we were going to be spiritual.
Ashley: This was back in 2006.
Carlie: Yes.
Ashley: So it’s quite a while ago, 2006. But I had the thing, “You know what? If I’m going to Bible school, I’m going to be a full-time minister.”
Carlie: Yeah. [crosstalk]
Ashley: Yeah, “I’m going to live off the gospel, and I can’t possibly do any of this secular haven work anymore.”
Carlie: Oh my goodness.
Ashley: So I had the wrong idea right there.
Carlie: we kind of took a word from God and made a whole paragraph out of it.
Ashley: Yep.
Carlie: So without working and at the same time racking up a lot of debt from tuition and different things, even though we were following the will of God, we found ourselves, we’d kind of taken that word and made a whole doctrine out of it. We’d gone a little bit beyond the word of God that had given us, and we’d found ourselves after a couple of months of living up there, that we couldn’t pay the rent, that we were the end of our natural resources.
And I remember really clearly just vacuuming the house one day, and all of a sudden, I’m thinking as if, “God, this was your idea to come to Bible college. Remember, this was your idea. Remember this scripture, Philippians 4:19. You told me you were going to supply our needs. Well, let me just remind you Lord, that we have some needs, right? We have some real needs. The rent is due, the tuition is due. We’re at the end of our resources. We got ourselves into more debt, and we’re following your will. What’s the deal?”
And clear as anything, the Lord said to me, “I’ve already provided for you, it’s in your house, it’s in your hand.” And I started to get excited, and here’s what I want people to hear. Even though we didn’t follow the will of God perfectly, God’s grace was sufficient for us.
Ashley: Yeah.
Carlie: We’re never going to follow the will of God perfectly, but God’s bigger than our mistakes. And putting the word of God above the circumstances, the word works.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: And so I said, “Lord, you said that you were going to provide our needs. We have some needs. Show me where it’s at?” And he said, “I’ve already provided for you.” So I started to get excited. I phoned Ashley while still vacuuming. I phoned Ashley, I’m like, “He’s already provided for us. It’s in our house. It’s in our hand. Where is it?”
And I started going around vacuuming, and I hit the base board by the front door in our porch, in our entryway there. And from inside the wall cavity popped this envelope. And I was like, “Wow, where did that come from?” Well, I didn’t realize that the wind had blown this envelope. It was a check in an envelope. It came in through the mailbox slot in our front door, and it slid right up inside the wall cavity.
And when I hit it with the vacuum cleaner, the whole envelope popped out from inside the wall cavity, and the date on the envelope had been there two months sitting there inside the wall cavity, but it was a check for two months rent, and it was provided almost to the day we moved into that house. And God was saying to me, “You know what? I have already provided for you. I have already covered your needs.”
But even though we didn’t follow the will of God perfectly, it didn’t change the word of God that he gave us in the first place.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Because in every word from God, is everything we need to fulfill it.
Ashley: Amen. That’s good.
Carlie: Philippians 4:9.
Ashley: Amen. It’s a good verse. We don’t want to get off balance on this though either. We don’t want to say, “You know what? We can do whatever we want and God’s just going to provide our needs.” I’ve heard people use this verse, Philippians 4:19, and say, “Well, it doesn’t matter. God’s going to provide all my needs.” We have a part to play and you can sabotage the word of God in your life if you don’t play your part.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: You can actually get to the point where it’s… I know people that God’s provided their needs and they just spent all the money completely on things they don’t need. I know people that won’t work and they say, “Well, God’s going to provide all my needs,” and I was here. I was there for a few months. I was like, “I’m not going to work.” And God’s saying, “I’ve provided for all your needs.”
Well, that was one way he provided through the check that came in through the front door, but there was other things. And then he led me to start working again and I started my own business, and I ran a business in where we lived, why I was at Bible college.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: I ran a small business for two years while I was there, but I had a part to play. God, provided our needs, it was awesome. We gave, and we lived better than we’ve ever… We gave more than we’ve ever given before per year, up until that point. And we were able to live better, but because I actually put my hand to something and we actually started to do things.
Carlie: Yep.
Ashley: So don’t use this verse. I’ve heard people just use this verse and say, “Oh, God’s going to supply all my needs. It doesn’t matter what I do.” [crosstalk].
Carlie: God provided for us supernaturally, and part of that was naturally.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: He puts his super to our natural.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: But we have to put our hand to something.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: But even though we didn’t understand everything the Lord was showing to us and do it perfectly, God’s grace was sufficient for us in that moment. And he took us on a journey. We started to realize that the error of our ways basically, and started putting our hands to the plow. And then he blessed what we put our hand to.
Ashley: Amen. So we can go back and look at lots of times where God provided supernaturally for people. I’m thinking of John Two, where he changed the water into wine. There was a need and Jesus provided supernaturally to that need, but there was still a part that people had to play in John two. They still had to get the water pots, fill them up with water. They had to follow instructions.
Another one is the feeding of the 5,000. [crosstalk] I think you’ve got that here, the feeding of the 5,000.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: It’s a great story of supernatural provision.
Carlie: So this is in… I like the version’s good in Mark six verse 35. It says, “Now when the day was fast spent, His disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, because they have nothing to eat.’ But he answered and said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.'”
This must have struck some fear into them, there, hey? Suddenly, they’ve got a part to play in this. “And he said to Him, ‘Shall we go and buy 200 denari worth of bread and give them something to eat?’ But he said, this is Jesus, ‘How many loaves do you have? Go and see.’ And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” This is really interesting because the Lord started with what they had.
He put the responsibility back on the disciples. “I’ve been doing show and tell all this time, but now you feed them.”
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: So He didn’t ask them to go outside of what they had in the natural, but He did expect them to start where they were at.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: To not despise small beginnings. And then the rest of the story, you’re probably familiar, but it says in verse 41, “And when He’d taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave it to His disciples to set before them, and the two fish He divided among them all, and they all ate and were filled.”
So the thing I love about this is He starts with the little that they have.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And Jesus then takes that little and He blesses it.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: How often do we look at our lack or our little and think, “That’s not enough?”
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: We can’t make it, and we almost… we curse seed.
Ashley: Right. So this is like comparison. There was 5,000 men, could have been up to 15,000 people if you include the women and children that were there. But even though it was just 5,000 men, this is like having $20 and having a $200,000 bill to pay.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: This is the type of scour this is. This is like a big need, and these loaves and fish that were provided to Jesus, they were so small. Most of us would have looked at that. If we had a $20 bill and a $200,000 debt to pay, we’d look at that and we’d say, “This isn’t enough,” and we would curse the seed. We would curse that very thing we have, that natural thing. “This isn’t enough.” If we were there when they had the water pots, and we filled them water pots with water, we would have said, “This isn’t going to work. This isn’t wine. This is only water,” and we would start cursing that natural seed.
Let me tell you, God wants to use what’s in your hand. God wants to use what’s in your house. And it’s amazing, God can put his super to your natural. And you may only have a few loaves and a few fish, and you may have this big need, but you know what? In God’s hands, He can multiply it supernaturally. And like Carlie said, Jesus took them loaves and fish. And rather than cursing them and saying, “Well, this isn’t enough, what’s this? This isn’t going to feed enough people.” No, He blessed them. He looked up to heaven. He blessed those loaves and those fishes. He thanked God for them. He said, “Thank you Lord.”
You know what? We need to thank God for what we have right now. We need to thank God for what He’s put in our hands, instead of cursing it. I know somebody who says, “Well, I’ve got this little part-time job, but it only pays this amount. It’s not enough.” And they start cursing it. In fact, I’ve got a friend who is thinking about quitting his job because they don’t pay enough. “Well, they don’t pay enough, I’m going to quit.”
They said, “Have you got another job yet?” They said, “No.” That’s not good. You know what? Start blessing the things you’ve got in your hand already. Start blessing your workplace. Start saying, “God, I thank you that you can provide my needs for this workplace. Maybe get a promotion, maybe get a pay rise. Maybe get other opportunities come along.” Who knows?
But start blessing what God’s put in your hands and stop cursing your seed because that’s how seeds multiply when you bless them. If you curse them, it’s like they’re dying right then and there. If you bless them and sow them, praise God. Jesus blessed it and then he sowed it.
Here’s one thing that we don’t think about. The disciples and Jesus had been out all day teaching. They hadn’t eaten, they were hungry too. Them loaves and fish come to them, they could have actually used them themselves and eaten them rather than sowing them, but they sowed them. They gave those loaves of fish. They gave them, they could have had one quick meal themselves, but instead they sowed them, they gave them.
Everyone ate, the 15,000, however many were there, at least 5,000. And they had 12 baskets of leftovers. So they had 12 baskets, big baskets full of leftover food as well. So they had more than enough. They had an absolute multiple abundance of provision. It wasn’t just enough, it was more than enough, praise God.
God’s not after just providing your needs. He wants to give you more than enough so you can give as well, praise God, to meet your needs. You can give off that as well. So I’m telling you, don’t curse your seed. Start thanking God for your seed, however small it is, start thanking God for it. And sow it, and watch what can happen, praise God.
Carlie: Amen. The other thing you can look at in both those stories there, the turning the water into wine and the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, is another miracle didn’t happen in Jesus’s hands. It happened in the hands of the believers, right? They were the ones that had to take those loads and those fishes or those water parts. They knew full well that they were just full of water at the time, and actually go to the master of ceremonies and pour it out for it to become wine. Or they had to break those loaves and those fishes and take those baskets out to the people to feed them.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: They could have just looked at the little bit there and thought, “This isn’t going to work, this isn’t going to work,” but instead, they had to take it by faith before they saw the manifestation of it.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And I think sometimes, you’re right, we look at the little lack. We curse our seed. We’re not thankful for what we have, and we think through all of the reasons why this isn’t going to work.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And it’s not just financial stuff. We do this with the word of God in general, don’t we?
Ashley: Yeah.
Carlie: Or healing, that’s another one. “Well, I’ve spoken the word over my body, but it’s a little bit better, but I still got a bit of pain.” Our mind, I think our natural mind naturally gravitates to the glass half empty rather than the glass half full.
Ashley: Right. I say, “You know what? Rather than looking at the glass half empty or the glass half full, how about you start seeing the glass overflowing?”
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: That’s how God wants you to see your glass. He wants you to see your glass overflowing, the abundant life, not just half full or half empty. It’s better to see it half full than half empty.
Carlie: Right.
Ashley: But why have it half at all? Why not have your glass overflowing? God’s best for you is for your glass to be overflying, so you have to give it out to other people.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: Isn’t that powerful?
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: Praise God. Sorry, I interrupted you. Carry on.
Carlie: I forgot where I was going now.
Ashley: We do this sometimes, if I interrupt. You were talking about the glass half empty, looking at the negative.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: Gravitating towards the negative.
Carlie: That’s right. Romans 8:6, it says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Man, if we start to see our situations as God sees our situations, and start to see our challenges rather than as obstacles and roadblocks in our path, as in the way that God sees them as saying, “Do you know what? Those things are there to overcome.”
Ashley: Opportunities.
Carlie: There are opportunities to overcome. We will start to rejoice in the middle of the test, knowing that one day it’s going to be a testimony.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Man, next time we see a test, praise Jesus for the test. No, he didn’t send the test, but you know what? It’s an opportunity to overcome.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: It’s an opportunity. We’ll start thanking God in the middle of the test for the testimony.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Man, that’s a whole different way of thinking.
Ashley: [inaudible] What the devil meant for bad, God can turn around and use for good.
Carlie: That’s right.
Ashley: Amen. God doesn’t do these things. God doesn’t allow these things. I know somebody will say, “God allows these tests in your life.” No, God doesn’t do these things. He doesn’t allow these things, but even what comes against us, what the devil meant for bad, God can turn it around and turn it for good, praise God. He can actually make that into a testimony, praise God.
So all things work together for the good of those who love Him, according to the power that’s working within them. Amen.
Carlie: Amen. But there is a part, in all of these parables that we’ve talked about, where we do have to participate.
Ashley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie: Just like when we were at Bible college, there was a supernatural part to God’s provision, but also, there was a very natural part to it.
Ashley: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie: God showed us actually through that season of life that we’re in, that we want to just throw away the plow that got us to Bible college in the first place.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: But we were to put our hand to the plow and do the things that he’d shown us to do, because in those skills, that was one of the ways that he would provide for us.
Ashley: Amen. So He’ll ask you, “What’s in your house, what’s in your hand?” Another great example of this is the story of the widow woman in Second Kings, chapter four.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: So Second Kings, chapter four, we won’t go there, but Second Kings, chapter four is a great story with Elijah, and you know what? He says, “What’s in your hand? What have you got in your house?” And he said, “Well, I’ve got a little bit of oil.” He says, “Great. You know what? God can use that. In God’s hands, that oil can be multiplied.” And he gave her specific instructions and she went and followed those instructions.
And you know the story, the oil was multiplied supernaturally, praise God. And there was so much oil, she was able to sell it and pay off all our debt. You know what? And keep her son from going to prison. So I’m thinking it’s powerful when you start giving God your natural things, and it might be your natural abilities. Maybe it’s a job you’ve already got. Maybe it’s some talents, some skills or trade that you know. Maybe it’s contacts, maybe it’s past experience. Maybe it’s something you’ve got physically in your house.
Maybe it’s, like I said, some sort of past work experience you’ve got. Maybe it’s some skill. Maybe it’s a passion. Maybe it’s a hobby, something you’ve got to give God to work with. God always uses something natural to bring about the supernatural. So there was an axe head, fell to the riverbed in Kings. And they said, “Oh, no, that axe head was borrowed. I’m in a lot of trouble now.”
Where they got a stick and they threw that stick in, and the axe head floated. Axe heads don’t float whether there’s a stick or not a stick. We know God uses something natural to out there. The feeding the 5,000, you know what? There was loaves and fish. God used them natural things and put His supernatural to them. The water into wine, that was natural water pots that got turned into wine, praise God.
God will use natural things, what’s in your hand, given to Him. Moses had his staff, gave it to God. It became the rod of God. Now it became supernatural and it parted the Red Sea and water came out of a rock, praise God. So what have you got that you can give God? You know what? Don’t just think about the big things coming down. Often, we get caught up in the spectacular.
We confuse the spectacular with the supernatural, and say, “God’s going to supply all my needs.” All of a sudden, I’m going to get a $1,000,000 check, or a $100,000 check. In fact, I read this article…
Carlie: It doesn’t usually happen that way.
Ashley: I read this article the other day. You know what? Scammers actually target evangelical Christians because they are the biggest people group for falling for scams. And the reason is probably, I think it’s because most evangelical Bible believing faith Christians are believing for God to give them an abundance in, “Lord, I’m believing for a $1,000,000, so I can give more and all this.”
So when your long lost uncle in Nigeria, who you never heard of before, says, “There’s an inheritance for you. You have $20,000,000. All you’ve got to do is send him $500 for the paperwork.” We fall for those things.
Carlie: Or your bank details and your social security number.
Ashley: Yeah. We fall for those things, I’m telling you. You know what? God doesn’t usually do things like that. In fact, I don’t believe in get rich quick. If you’re going to get rich quick, you’re going to get poor quick. So I don’t believe in that. I believe it’s layer upon layer, precept upon precept. And what happens is, is God will use what’s in your hands, praise God. And he will put his super to your natural, and he’ll expand those things.
Sometimes it happens in a way, we almost can miss it. We’ve had situations happen to us where it’s like we look back and go, “Wow, look at what God did there. We went from nothing to this quickly. Look what happened. These deal has happened, this happened, that happened, praise God, and it happened quickly.” But the main thing is, you know what? Trust in the word of God. God wants to supply your needs, praise God, and then listen to him, listen to his voice. And you do what you can do in the natural, praise God, and God will direct you to do some things.
I remember one guy, he wanted to get ahead. And he said, “You know what? I’ve been out of work, I’m falling behind.” I said, “Why don’t you just get a job?” He said, “Oh no.” He said, “There’re no jobs around here.” I said, “Well, I just came through town, and I saw that Subway was hiring. They said, ‘Now hiring.'”
Well, he looked at me like I’d run over his dog. He looked me up and down and he said, “Subway?” He said, “You want me to work in Subway?” He said, “I used to be a CEO of this company.” And I said, “No, you could work in Subway.”
Carlie: “They’d take you.”
Ashley: He said, “I’ve got two degrees.” I said, “They’ll let you make a sandwich with two degrees.” I said, “It’ll be okay.” He said, “You can’t be serious. They pay $9 an hour.” I said, “How much have you been making recently? Zero an hour.” I said, “Look, if you go and do something like Subway, as unto the Lord, Colossians 3:17 says, ‘Whatever you do, whether it word or deed, do it as unto the Lord.’ If you do that unto the Lord, let me tell you what’s going to happen.”
I said, “Very quickly, you’re going to get promoted. The owner’s going to want you to be a part owner with his franchise, or you’re going to be making sandwiches and someone’s going to come in and start saying, ‘We need this skill set in our new start up business,’ and you’ll be like, ‘I can do that.’ Or whatever it is, God will get you where you need to go. But I’m saying, you do something natural like working in Subway, as unto the Lord, God can promote you. You sit around and do nothing and just wait on the Lord, you know what? That’s not a good position to be in, praise God.”
You need to give God something to work with. Give God something to work with. A hundred fold of zero is zero. So give God something to work with, however small that is. “Do not despise small beginnings.” I think that’s Zachariah, Zachariah is it?
Carlie: It is, Zachariah 4:10.
Ashley: Zachariah 4:10 says, “Do not despise the small beginning of a thing.” So you know what? Don’t despise a small beginning. Don’t think, “Well, that’s not enough.” With God’s super to your natural, it can become enough, praise God. There’s so many times in our lives where we start to do something, it started off very small. And then before we know it, praise God, it comes into this bigger thing, praise God, and pays off.
Carlie: Scripture says that, “Whatever we put our hand to will prosper.”
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: We have to put our hand to something.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: We have to start with what we have. We have to agree to participate rather than just waiting for it to drop in our laps.
Ashley: Amen. That’s so true. Deuteronomy 8:18 talks about, “He’s given us the power to get wealth.” Deuteronomy 8:18, “He’s given us the power to get wealth so we can establish his covenant this day, that he swore us to our father.” So you know what? He’s given us the power. He doesn’t just give us work, but he gives us the power to get wealth. So God will show you what to do, praise God. You do that in faith, praise God, as unto the Lord, and he could put his super to your natural, and see great things happen. Amen.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: So I love that verse, Philippians 4:19. Now remember this about Philippians 4:19, let’s just go back there and let me just tell you something about Philippians 4:19, that most people don’t like to hear, but I’m just going to tell you anyway, because that’s what we do here, right?
Carlie: That’s what we do, right? You’re going to kill some sacred cows.
Ashley: So this is Philippians 4:19. If you back up a little bit in Philippians 4:19. First Philippians four, we all know Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” You back up a little bit more, and it talks about how he learned how to be content in any situation. But a whole of Philippians, Philippians four, is talking to givers.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: These people were partners with Paul. They were givers and they were partners with Paul. Again, I’m telling you, this promise was given to people who are partners and who are supporting him, praise God. It says here in Philippians, there’s a number of places, but Philippians 4:14, just a few verses before, it says, “Nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress.” It says, “Now, you Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared.” He’s talking about giving. You look at that word, share, he’s talking about giving.
“No church gave with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only.” These church gave to Paul beyond. When he left Philippi, they still gave to him and they shared with him, and they gave to him financially, praise God. And you can see that throughout Philippians four. And you know what? And then it says here in Philippians 4:17, he says, “Not that I seek the gift.” Paul said, “I’m not just seeking the offering you were giving me, but I seek the fruit that abounded your account.”
Paul knew the power of giving and receiving. He knew, as these Philippians sowed into his ministry, as these Philippians gave into his ministry, shared in his ministry. They were going to receive, praise God, the blessings back. They were going to receive the abundance back, praise God.
And it talks about here how it says, and then in verse 18, “Indeed, I have all and abound. I’m full, having received from Epaphroditus.” How do you pronounce that?
Carlie: Just say it quickly with confidence [crosstalk]
Ashley: “And the things sent to you, a sweet-smelling aroma, and acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.” You know what? Paul is thanking them for the offering they sent for this man of God, and he’s thanking him. He says, “Thank you for sending these offerings.” They were partners with Paul. Philippians four is talking to partners, Paul’s partners in the gospel, praise God.
And then he says, “My God is going to supply all your needs.” You know what? Without giving, you are not giving God permission to provide for your needs financially. Now, we can apply this to other areas as well. And some people say, “You know what? Actually, you’re saying this so you can get offerings.” Listen, if you think that, don’t worry about giving to our ministry. You give to any ministry you want, but you need to start giving, you need to start being givers because when you give, you are giving God permission into your finances.
I heard people say, “Malachi three, they talk about, “If you don’t give, you’re robbing God.” We know if you don’t give, you’re robbing God of blessing you [crosstalk] Amen. You have to give God permission to bless you. And when you give you’re saying, “God, I’m trusting you with my finances. God, I’m giving you permission into my finances,” praise God. And he can take that natural seed you give financially as a natural seed, and he can multiply that and bless that back to you, praise God.
And I’m telling you, it’s powerful. He could put his super to your natural gift and you can see great things happen. I can tell you, if there’s one thing that we’ve done when it comes to prospering God’s way, financially, and I tell people this, we haven’t arrived, but we’ve left. We’re debt-free, we own our own house. We own our own vehicles. Our ministry is debt-free, we’re personally debt free. We don’t own any credit cards, debts. We don’t owe anyone anything at all, praise God.
And we’re able to give to lots of missionaries. We’re able to give to churches. We’re able to give to ministries. So we’ve done something financially. And let me tell you, one of the biggest things, the biggest breakthrough, if you like, there’s lots of things, but the biggest thing for us is giving.
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: When we’ve given, praise God, we’ve seen God bless us back. Now, we don’t give in order to get. We’re not giving out, “We’re going to give this.” We made that mistake. Let me tell you, I’ve made that mistake.
Carlie: That didn’t work out too good.
Ashley: No, “I’m going to give this much. God’s got to give back to me.”
Carlie: Right.
Ashley: That’s called manipulation, that’s not good, okay? But we give because we want to give, praise God, and we want to give, and I’m telling you, we’ve had so many breakthroughs when we’ve given, praise God. We could tell you so many testimonies about how God has given back to us when we’ve given. And like I said, not that we’ve given to get. We’ve given because we’ve wanted to give, but God won’t be out given. He gives back, praise God. So give God some natural seed to work with.
Carlie: I like this. This is in Second Corinthians nine verse seven and eight here. It says, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver,” right?
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: But people forget the next word. It says, “And God is able.” This is really important, so when we give, then the very next verses, “And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” See, when we give, we enable God to bless us.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: I think sometimes we miss that. It’s like we are not giving because of obedience or out of necessity, or it’s not even necessarily about giving with a good attitude. When we give, it enables God to bless us.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: It’s almost like if we don’t give, it’s like we kind of handcuff God a little bit.
Ashley: Yeah. We’re basically saying, you know what? We’re saying, “I’ve got this God, I don’t need your help with this. And I’ve got this God.” So anyway, we’re nearly out of time, but I just want to tell you, you know what? Give God something to work with, and we’ve given you lots of examples here, whatever that is.
It could be something in your life at the moment, something in your house, or it could just be as simple as a financial seed, but give God something to work with, praise God. And He will put his super with your natural, praise God. And He will provide all your needs, praise God, according to his riches, praise God.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: According to his economy [crosstalk] Amen. He can provide your needs better than you can provide your needs, praise God. So trust God and watch Him provide your needs. That’s our testimony. He provided our needs better than we could have provided our needs, so praise God.
I want to tell you real quick on that note, about a course we have out called Buy, Sell, Repeat. This course actually talks about putting your hand to something. This is a practical course. It talks about how you can put your hand to things. Maybe you’ve got things in your house, furniture, a car you don’t use, who knows? Things in your house that you can sell. And then it also teaches you how to buy things with a specific purpose to sell them.
So this will teach you how to buy and sell things and make extra money. I tell people it’s not going to make you a millionaire overnight, it’s not get rich quick. There’s still work involved, but this is 20 video lessons. Step-by-step, there’s a curriculum, there’s cheat sheets, and it will show you how to make extra money God’s way, that you’ll really enjoy this course.
We had fun making it, it’s available on our website, Terradezministries.com. And this is called Buy, Sell, Repeat, praise God. You can make some extra money with this course.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Amen. We have a lot of testimonies about that.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: So let’s pray for the people before we go.
Carlie: Yeah.
Ashley: Father God, I thank you for everyone listening and watching this show. I thank you Lord, you desire to provide their needs. And I thank you Lord, we can hear your voice clearly and when to give things to you and when to hand things over to you, and when to let you in on certain areas. And I thank you Lord, you’re providing our needs better than we could provide our needs.
I thank you Lord, you want us to have an abundance. You want to bless us so that we can be a blessing, and we receive that blessing right now, in Jesus name. We receive it. Thank you Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Isn’t that powerful?
Carlie: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley: Praise God. Well, thanks for watching. We’ll see you real soon next time. But until next time, why just live a normal life, when you can live the abundant life? We’ll see you next time.
Announcer: To order your copy of this teaching, visit our website, Terradezministries.com.
Carlie: So I’ve got something really fun to show you. This is our confession card and actually, God downloaded this whole confession card to me after I had an argument with my husband, which I’m sure you’d never do because you’re way more spiritual than I am.
But basically, I got to moaning and complaining, whine and griping, having my own little pity party. And the Lord said, “Get out of notepad because I want to tell you how I feel about you.” And so in those few moments, he downloaded to me how he thought about me, every good thing that he’d put on the inside of me. And as I started to write those down, I realized, “Hang on a second. Every one of these truths is a scripture.”
So I wrote them down and I put them in this confession card. And we’ve just made this available for you today. If you would like one, you can get your very own copy, just visit Terradezministries.com and put in your details, and we’ll send you one completely free today. So get your copy. Don’t miss out. I know it’s really going to bless you.