You Have Today What You Said Yesterday: Speak Your Future

Sermon outline

Your words, your choices and your attitude chart your course, so stop rehearsing the problem, sow in your famine with thanksgiving, think big and say what God says until your circumstances change.

1. You have today what you said, and chose, yesterday

   You will have whatsoever you say, so use the Word as a sword and say 'I'm blessed' and 'I'm healed' before you see it. The early church spoke the Word boldly, not what they felt or faced, and there were no needy persons among them. If a believer is doing everything right and is still in need, he says, look back at the choices of the last five years and change the way you are living, rather than expecting handouts.

   Illustration: People sit in his office for advice, and while they talk he is praying in his heart for a word for them. They walk out, scoff at it and do what they want, and a year or two later come back in a worse mess asking for help.

   “Because you got today what you said yesterday.”

   • Exodus 14:15-28
   • 1 Timothy 2:8
   • Mark 11:23
   • Joel 3:10
   • Acts 4:31-35

2. When I want a financial breakthrough, I sow for it

   God does not rain banknotes from a cloud. He gives you hands, a brain, feet and seed to sow, and many people eat the seed: a lump sum arrives and they think of a new microwave or washing machine rather than the house of the Lord. When he needs money himself, he sows, and he gives whatever God tells him to give.

   Illustration: In a meeting where Pastor Chris was preaching, the Lord told him to sow the money in his wallet, and then the second wallet in his bag, about R4,000 to R5,000 set aside for a trip to Swaziland. There he stayed in a R50 mission room instead of the hotel and wrote a cheque for Prophet Kobus. At that time the church was negotiating for its building, and the owner turned down another man's offer of double the price because he had given his word.

   “So what do I do when I want a financial breakthrough? I sow for it.”

   • 2 Corinthians 9:10

3. Take stock: what are you not doing?

   God told Isaac to stay in the land and He would be with him and bless him, and blessing is God's trademark. If you are not seeing it, take stock. You may not be tithing; you may be tithing but poor-mouthing, not giving from a cheerful heart; you may be tithing without giving offerings; or you may be covetous, unable to be glad when someone else prospers. Without the right attitude, prayer will not bring results.

   Illustration: Someone gets a new car and the covetous person wonders aloud where they stole the money from. Can you not just say, 'I rejoice with you. I love your car and I'm so glad God has blessed you'?

   “If you're walking with the wrong attitude, you're not going to get results.”

   • Genesis 26:1-4
   • 2 Corinthians 9:7
   • Psalm 24:3-4

4. Start from zero with thanksgiving in your heart

   With nothing in your pocket, bank or hands, you still have Christ, the Holy Spirit and thanksgiving in your heart, so get up and call yourself a success. When a little money comes, bring a tithe and an offering first as seed. You have a covenant with God. His own morning prayer is simply to tell the Lord he loves Him and wants nothing, and when God prompts him to give he obeys, because only God, never the devil, tells you to give.

   Illustration: A mother whose child needs something for school does not snap that money does not grow on trees. She says, 'Don't worry, son. Mommy's prayed today. Things are going to change soon.' He also tells of a trip to Johannesburg when he was under pressure: the Lord told him to give the host pastor a cheque, and then to preach on a prophet's reward and take up an offering for that pastor.

   “What have you got in your heart? Thanksgiving to God.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:57
   • John 10:10

5. Change your mind and think big

   If you want unbeatable prosperity, change your attitude and your mind, because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Think poverty and you will have heaps of it; think prosperity and think big. God is not glorified when His children are hustling and battling.

   Illustration: About ten years earlier he heard a preacher say, 'I'm a millionaire', and found he could not get the word out. The Lord told him it was because he thought small and to keep on stretching, so he kept saying it until it became easy. He adds that more than a million in cash has since passed through his hands and that he paid off his bond in cash.

   “There's no law against thinking big.”

   • Proverbs 23:7

6. Sow in famine: unbeatable prosperity

   In a year of famine Isaac planted, reaped a hundredfold and grew until he was very wealthy, and this is Genesis, not even the New Testament. Prosperity is not for hoarding: you cannot give bread to the person at your door if you cannot feed yourself. When there is famine in your life you break it yourself by sowing, beginning with thanksgiving instead of moaning. And when people quarrel over your well, as they did with Isaac, do not camp at the disappointment: move on.

   Illustration: A church member's father had his shop burnt down when he was not insured, and God blessed him all over again. Another member's uninsured car was stolen; he never phoned the pastor to complain, and that night the pastor heard he had bought a new one.

   “In such an environment of famine, you need unbeatable prosperity. Prosperity that is not destroyed by circumstance.”

   • Genesis 26:12-14
   • Ephesians 1:3
   • Genesis 26:19-20
   • Ephesians 6:10

7. You are a worker of miracles: two hands and a mouth

   When the wine ran out at Cana, Jesus did not sit down and cry; He told them to fill the pots. God has given you power, which means ability, to effect change, so speak to your storm, and look at lack and say, 'Let there be abundance.' Praying in tongues for fifteen minutes without knowing what you prayed about is praying without a strategy: get a word on it, believe it is God's will and receive it by faith. He then demonstrates by praying for the sick.

   Illustration: When he was a major in the police, a very elderly Muslim man who liked to visit his office and bring him lunch told him, 'If God gives you two hands, you're a very rich man. What more do you want?' In the meeting he prays over a handkerchief for a woman's relative in hospital, tells her to lay it on the patient and command the anointing to go through her body, and ministers to others who come forward.

   “If God's given you two hands and a mouth, boy, you can charter your course.”

   • John 2:1-11
   • Genesis 1:3
   • Mark 11:23
   • Matthew 18:18
   • Psalm 68:1

8. Every word is prayer

   Prayer is not only what happens in a prayer meeting: every word you speak goes out with power, and God listens to it attentively. Even the thoughts of your heart are open before Him, so your motives must be clean. Words of fear, doubt and unbelief displease God and attract the wrong spirit, while words of faith attract His power. If you do not know what to say, take a psalm and prophesy it over your life.

   Illustration: You quote Psalm 23 to yourself in the morning, and during the day the phone rings: someone who owed you money for two years has a cheque ready, or the boss has changed his mind and you are shortlisted for a second interview.

   “Every word you utter out of your mouth is prayer.”

   • Hebrews 4:13
   • Romans 14:23
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • 1 Samuel 17:34-37
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • 2 Corinthians 3:17
   • Psalm 23:1-5