Be a Thermostat, Not a Thermometer: Three Laws of Increase

Sermon outline

God wants to multiply you as He multiplied Isaac in a famine, but He cannot transfer great prosperity to you until your thinking goes to another level, so expand your mind, change your words and choose the people around you.

1. Isaac in the famine: go for the blessing, not the prosperity

   In a famine the Lord appeared to Isaac, told him not to go down to Egypt and promised to bless and multiply him. The blessing is an empowerment to prosper, so once the blessing is on you prosperity is a must. Some are living on the level of addition, and he calls them to shift to multiplication. The Word is living and cuts away what is not working, but God cannot transfer great prosperity to you until your thinking is right.

   Illustration: He says preaching the gospel is not a performance for him but an extension of his personal life: the Word is reality to him.

   “Don't go for the prosperity, go for the blessing.”

   • Hosea 4:6
   • Genesis 26:1-4
   • Hebrews 4:12
   • Proverbs 23:7

2. You are going to wax great: faith walks void of the senses

   Isaac sowed in that land and received a hundredfold in the same year, and the man waxed great until he became very great. He applies it to the people and to the church: this is only the beginning of your greatness and enlargement. Do not go by what you see now, because if you walk by the senses you will soon say what you see. Call the things that be not, walk towards them and embrace them.

   Illustration: You may have two vehicles in your company now, but the problem you will have in future is not enough parking space. He sees a day when there is a queue for an hour to get into the church. When thunder sounds during the service he says even the clouds are agreeing.

   “Faith is walking void of the senses.”

   • Genesis 26:12-14
   • Romans 4:17
   • 2 Corinthians 5:7

3. When you fail once, keep on digging: the covenant is a contract

   The Philistines stopped Abraham's wells and strove over two more, but Isaac kept digging until the Lord made room for him. When someone says no, do not agree with it: prophesy favour in your prayer time. The same night the Lord told Isaac not to fear, and those who envied him came to ask for a covenant because they saw the Lord was with him. He tells the people to read 'covenant' as 'contract': God has a contract with you to bless and multiply you, and it is good that things look bad now, because people must see what the Lord has done.

   Illustration: If God can speak through the mouth of a donkey, He can give an unsaved Philistine a dream to bless you, or bring your name up in a boardroom where they are thinking of firing you and turn it to 'promote the man'. When people who saw you in an old jalopy see you in a new car they say, 'Surely the Lord is with this man.'

   “When you fail once, just keep on digging. Don't get cemented in your setback.”

   • Genesis 26:15-30
   • Numbers 22:28
   • Hebrews 3:1

4. Three things from Sunday: an objective, a plan and resistant forces

   To bring a dream to pass you need, number one, a clear-cut objective; number two, a plan, written down and pictured, for five, ten, fifteen and twenty years; and number three, to recognise that resistant forces will try to stop you. Christians trip up here, reading opposition as proof that the devil is winning and God has left. God will never leave you, however you feel. That is experiential faith, a victory already under your belt. Pressure comes to change your confession, so talk back to the devil.

   Illustration: He went to hospital to pray again for a church member whose condition had turned serious. The Lord stopped him: going back into the ward would be doubt and unbelief. So he held hands with the family on the pavement, thanked God that the man was already healed, and drove off. The next morning the man was awake and speaking, and on the day of this service he was being discharged.

   “Irrespective of how you feel, whether you feel good or feel absolutely rotten, God's still with you.”

   • Hebrews 13:5
   • Romans 8:37

5. Put your big dreams into big thinking

   Two things frustrate Christians: failing to recognise resistant forces, and thinking too small. The brain is like a muscle, so exercise it and stretch it. The real problem is trying to fit big dreams into small thinking, so expand your mind by reading and gaining knowledge until it is bigger than your dreams. Do not be satisfied with the status quo: satisfaction is a mark of mediocrity and a place to camp, and God is always moving.

   Illustration: A preacher he heard: if you can believe God for ten thousand, why not a million? It is only a few more zeros and the same believing. John Maxwell: 'We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are.' A pastor said he was happy with his small church; when he took the platform himself he said he did not agree, and that he is not satisfied with the size of his own church or its impact.

   “We try to take our big dreams and we fit it in our small thinking.”

   • Proverbs 23:7

6. Your life can change in just one day

   Repeating what he said on Sunday, he says one promotion, one person you meet or one good thing can take you to the next level. David's life changed in one day, Joseph's changed in one day, and so did the fishermen's when Jesus told them where to cast the net. When you have done all you can do, God takes over.

   Illustration: The fishermen who had caught nothing had a net-breaking experience, and as soon as they brought in the fish they decided to follow Jesus.

   “Miracles begin when natural power stops.”

   • Luke 5:4-11

7. Create an environment for increase

   Everything works in an environment of increase, and you create it with your words. You cannot go home saying you do not know how the bills will be paid or that the cupboards are empty, and you cannot sit in your old car and curse it, because your state will not change. He has the people stand and congratulate one another that increase is on its way, then points out that they changed the atmosphere themselves. You do not drag increase in; you create a magnet that draws it.

   Illustration: People say they never curse their furniture, but they always call it old and shabby. Why not call it designer furniture?

   “You're using the same energy to curse yourself. Why don't you use the same energy to bless yourself?”

8. Begin with your mind: you are the factory manager

   People usually begin with their problems; he wants them to begin with their minds. What you feed and meditate on all day frames your thinking. The mind produces thoughts all the time, and from today you are the manager who decides which thoughts come in and which stay out. A preconditioned mind will determine your material world.

   Illustration: Keep letting in 'the people don't love me' and by evening you will want to drop down. Start with 'God loves me, the birds love me', and soon everyone will like you.

   “Your mind is a thought factory.”

9. Law number one: poverty and riches are both the offspring of a person's thinking

   What shows on the outside is a direct result of your thinking, which has been shaped by conditioning, environment, circumstances, parents and past experiences. Being born again does not change that automatically; you have to think prosperity, healing and success thoughts, and it takes three weeks, twenty-one days, to form a good habit. Wrong thinking engraved in the mind pulls you to the land of not enough, so change the footpath by confessing and meditating on the Word. Hear the doctor's report and take the medicine, but do not accept the report or stay there.

   Illustration: On a mountain hike there is always a track through the green grass where people have walked, and the same thoughts running through your mind wear furrows in it. Under financial pressure the old track says 'I've got to get a bailout'; the new one says God will provide. He also warns about the drinking buddy who says times are bad, and the believer who answers under pressure, 'Yeah, I'm hustling too.'

   “Both poverty and riches are the offspring of a person's thinking.”

   • Genesis 22:14

10. Law number two: change the way you think and you change the way you live

    Performance is tied to your thinking and expectation: when your thinking changes, your performance changes. He contrasts the time barrier with the mind barrier, and says that to make real strides with time you first have to break the mind barrier.

    “If you can change the way you think, it will change the way you live.”

11. Law number three: the level you think on and live on is a matter of choice

    If you declare that you want to stay on level one, God will not bring you to level ten. Blessing and cursing, life and death are set before you, so choose life. He chooses who speaks into his life: people on the same level or higher, who pull him up, and when no such person is near he buys a good book and feasts on it. Do not report the conditions around you; change them by your confession.

    Illustration: A thermometer reports the condition of the environment; a thermostat changes it. If nobody likes you at work, go in smiling and say, 'Everybody loves me.'

    “A thermostat changes conditions. So don't become a thermometer.”

    • Deuteronomy 30:19

12. Buy a BMW: a behaviour modification workshop

    For the next ninety days, instead of getting spiritual about it, do certain things that will take you to the next level. First, take an inventory of your five to ten closest friends and ask whether each one adds to your life or subtracts from it, then work on your inner circle and be around positive people. Move from mediocrity to excellence and get sharp. Second, recognise that your mind thinks in pictures and images, as Abraham did and as Jesus taught when He said to look on the fields, and make sure your pictures are right.

    Illustration: Birds of a feather flock together, but the whole flock flies to the same place. People who have told the same jokes for thirty years, and ministers with the same prayer at every funeral and dedication. 'Dump the turkeys', or at least slide them to the outer circle, like Mary who phones every morning about the weather, the recession and the fuel price.

    “Are these people adding to my life or subtracting from my life?”

    • Psalm 23:1-2
    • John 4:35

13. Your problem is not your problem

    God owns you, so your problem is His problem. The furniture you want, the job you do not have and the business you desire are His to bring to pass, but you have to cast the care onto Him. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; cast down, but not destroyed.

    “Your problem is not your problem.”

    • 1 Peter 5:7
    • 2 Corinthians 4:8-9