Like Yeast in Dough: The Anointing for Expansion and Increase

Sermon outline

The anointing for expansion that once rested on the anointed cherub came with Jesus and now rests on every born-again believer, so increase is your portion: believe it, stay glad and act on what God tells you.

1. We are not positive preachers, we are preachers of God's Word

   Positive thinking is good, and most inspirational books trace back to the Bible without naming the source, but he is not appealing to the human intellect. Man is spirit, soul and body: the mind is the doorway, the Word renews it and then feeds the reborn spirit, and a Christian dominates life from there. Academic knowledge alone will not lift you in life, so you must be born again, and the only way is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord.

   Illustration: People who teach economics, mathematics and the sciences yet barely make it and cannot balance a chequebook, compared with a man of limited schooling who uses what he has, has faith and becomes a millionaire.

   “We are word-based thinkers and talkers.”

   • Joshua 1:8
   • John 3:3
   • John 14:6
   • John 10:9

2. Not prosperity preachers either: the whole gospel is good news

   He says he is not a prosperity preacher and not a poverty preacher: prosperity, health and a satisfied life are part and package of the gospel, because Jesus came to give life to the overflow. When the church is asked to sow, it is an opportunity to operate in the kingdom, since money is seed and creates a harvest, and that harvest is more than money: it may be a child saved from a calamity, long life, or walking free of disease.

   Illustration: Imagine coming to church and hearing, 'today's subject is 10 steps to get poor'. You would just leave. He is no baker, he says, but a little yeast placed in dough makes it rise, and the Word of God placed in your heart works the same way.

   “A wealthy man, a millionaire with a disease that's incurable, is a poor man.”

   • John 10:10
   • Psalm 91:16

3. The anointed cherub and the word 'mimshak'

   He reads Ezekiel 28, which he takes as a description of Satan before his fall: perfect in his ways until iniquity, which he names as pride, was found in him. God says, 'thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so', so the position was God's doing. The word for anointed there, he teaches, is 'mimshak', meaning expansion and growth: outspread, with outstretched wings, an anointing for importance, distinction and ability.

   Illustration: He holds up a book and sets it down: 'I have taken this book and I have set it so. That's what God did to Satan.' He then gives dictionary meanings: expansion is increase and development in all your activities and in every dimension; outspread is stretched out and diffused widely, so that whichever way you look you cannot see the end of it; outstretch is to extend beyond.

   “It's an anointing of expansion.”

   • Ezekiel 28:12-15

4. That anointing is now on you

   The anointing was removed from Satan when he fell. Jesus arrived with it, saying 'I am anointed', and because believers are in Christ it is now in them and on them. The result should be as automatic as yeast in dough. Some have not been rising because they have been speaking the wrong words and did not understand what is inside them. It reaches your family too.

   Illustration: People look at you and say, 'he was not there last year, how did he get here?', and try to work it out with the human mind.

   “It's an anointing for expansion and growth and increase on every side.”

   • Luke 4:18

5. God's presence does not come and go

   In a long aside he corrects what he calls an erroneous belief: that praise, worship or prayer bring God's presence down. That gives the glory to us and makes us think we control God. Believers died, were buried and were raised with Christ and are seated with Him, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in them, so they pray and worship from that position. Anointings vary in degree as you yield more of yourself, but God's presence does not. He adds that he is not against prayer, prophecy, visions, dreams, tongues or worship, and that the Word must govern your experiences, not the other way round.

   Illustration: He calls a row of people and the singers to the front with catchers and tells the church to watch: with no music and without praying, shouting or worshipping, the people fall under the anointing as he walks past them. 'Wherever the suit of clothes go, God's presence goes.'

   “Anointings may vary in degrees and levels, but not God's presence.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 5:17
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Colossians 2:9-10
   • John 14:10
   • 2 Corinthians 6:16

6. Five of you shall chase a hundred

   From Leviticus 26 he shows expansion in the promise of rain, increase, peace and victory. If five can chase a hundred, five in agreement can call in a hundred, and a hundred can call in ten thousand. He applies it to business turnover, to giants and competitors facing your business, to students' marks and to the church itself. It is not by struggling: all things are yours, and it is by God's Spirit. Too long some have sat in Lodebar, the land of not enough.

   Illustration: Five thousand rand in your business becomes a hundred thousand, and a hundred thousand becomes a million. A competitor down the road can offer the customer a better deal, but the customer's heart will be turned towards you. A student writing an exam finds everything coming back and gives the examiner more than was asked.

   “Five of you can chase a hundred, then five of you can call a hundred.”

   • Leviticus 26:4-8
   • 1 Samuel 17:49
   • 1 Corinthians 3:21
   • Zechariah 4:6
   • John 11:43
   • 2 Samuel 9:4
   • 1 Samuel 2:8

7. The blessings of God don't go to sad people

   God is looking for glad people, and when you are glad and liberated the blessings come to you. If you are living in defeat or sadness, change locations. Your worst enemy is not your boss, your wife or your friend but you, asking 'can it be so?' and 'me?'. Stop fighting what God has put inside you and rest in it.

   Illustration: A post box that is locked can receive nothing, so the angels carrying blessings pass the closed face and go to the open one. If you live in Defeated Lane or Sad Lane, get a furniture removal truck, pack up and move to Prosperity Avenue.

   “Your worst enemy is you.”

8. A spirit of enablement: act on what God gives you

   When the mimshak anointing comes on you, what you could not do yesterday you will do today, as when the Spirit of the Lord came on Elijah and he outran the king's chariot. Age is no barrier. God gives witty inventions and business ideas, but when His people will not run with them He gives them to someone else. So do not talk your idea over with doubters, and do not wait for the money: take the first step and it will come, as it did for Elijah at Zarephath.

   Illustration: The Christian who says, 'five years ago I had that idea', when someone else has built it. The cousins who 'had too much ice cream and dessert last night' and burp doubt and unbelief over your idea. Mary telling the servants at Cana to do whatever He says, and the water turning into wine.

   “You don't have to retire. You just refire.”

   • 1 Kings 18:46
   • Proverbs 8:12
   • 1 Kings 17:9
   • Philippians 4:13
   • John 2:5

9. God will promote you, whoever you are

   He prophesies unexpected income, financial miracles, reconciliation and promotion in the coming week. Joseph was a foreigner in Egypt and God made him prime minister in Pharaoh's land. Speaking to talk at work that certain people can no longer be promoted, he says that is the world's system: promotion does not depend on race or gender but on being a born-again child of God. Do not take coffee with fear, doubt and unbelief. He ends on the goodness of God, who has put you in the palm of His hand.

   Illustration: He once pictured God as a big man with a beard holding a stick, waiting to knock him on the head if he did something wrong. After reading the Bible he realised God loves him so much that every time God looks at His hands He sees him, and asks, 'how can I bless him?'

   “Your family name will not make you rich. It's the name of Jesus Christ.”

   • 2 Corinthians 4:13
   • Romans 8:31
   • Romans 8:37
   • Genesis 41:41
   • Psalm 75:6-7
   • Isaiah 49:16