Let's dive right into the word right now.
I am so excited about what God has for you!
And I know that God will always take care of his people and provide for his people,
even in the times of famine.
Why I'm saying this is because the days of famine is imminent.
Amen.
Financial famine especially, and we see it in front of us.
I'm not saying that, in a way to discourage you.
I'm doing what prophet Agabus did in the early church.
In the book of Acts.
If you look at the book of Acts, in Acts 11.
It says here, that: “One of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there
was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the
days of Claudia Caesar.”
A few months ago, and I literally mean about two months ago, I actually sat down with my
pastors even before all these really broke out in such a widespread way in Singapore.
And I told them what the Lord has been showing me about a famine that's coming.
Now, during that time, the conditions of the crisis was not severe yet.
Okay?
We are just at the beginning stage of it.
But I saw a famine coming and I knew that this crisis is going be a bit protracted.
Even though we are praying for a quick end, and I'm still praying for a quick end to this
crisis.
Amen?
But there will be a famine.
Not only that, when I saw the famine coming during those weeks and was sharing with my
pastors, there was also a sudden outbreak of locusts.
It was an outbreak of locusts never seen before decades!
That's what it was said.
And I was sharing with the pastors before this, prior to this about the locusts and
all that, which will cause a shortage, a food shortage.
And this will cause, again, a financial crisis.
I felt the Lord telling me to look up the name of Agabus.
And guess what?
I've never thought to look up the name of Agabus before although I know that names in
the Bible have meanings.
Lo and behold, when I looked up the word Agabus, I saw that the name “Agabus” in the Greek
means “locust”.
Okay?
Locust.
And during that time, locusts were ravaging Africa like never before.
It's like, it's unprecedented.
It is said that they have not seen locusts like this in decades and they are on the rise
more and more.
There are more outbreaks of locusts, even during this time as I speak.
The name “Agabus” means locust.
Wow.
What a word!
What a NOW word in season for us.
That's what I'm saying right now.
The Spirit of God can tell you what's going to happen.
Now, of course, back then, we couldn't see the financial famine yet, but I'm saying like
what Agabus is saying, a famine is coming.
“And in that day of Agabus, it came in during the days of Claudius Caesar, a famine throughout
all the world.”
And I also told my pastors to pay attention to this phrase “throughout all the world”.
It's not just a localized famine in Africa or in Europe.
It is going to be throughout all the world.
But the encouragement I have is from the passage, from the following verse: “The disciples,
each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in
Judea.
This they also did, and sent to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”
Notice in verse 29 that God's people, the disciples, had more than enough to be able
to give to the poor brothers.
To the poor brethren, obviously those were in Christ.
Amen?
They could give to the fellow believers that were in Judea.
Alright?
God will always make sure that his people have enough to help his fellow brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Amen?
And then they would be able to help the world as well.
Amen.
This was what happened in the early church because the disciples back then had the ability
to do so because they had more.
They had enough to be able to bless the other poor brethren.
So we all saw, you know, we'll have more than enough during this time.
Praise the name of Jesus.
I know in the natural, we are seeing all the different channels of provisions being shut
down, one after another, you know, in the natural.
Amen.
But we don't operate in the natural.
We are in this world, but we are not of the world.
Amen?
Praise the Lord.
And God promised us this: “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches
in glory, not according to Wall Street, not according to the stock market.”
Right?
“According to His riches in glory.”
Amen.
Look at the word: “According”.
Again, “according to His riches”.
It is not out of it.
If it was out of it, it is already good enough.
If the Scriptures used the word “out of” it means a portion of the riches.
But using the word “according to” means God laid it out from start to finish.
(And no one can number it from start to finish) Yet, I'm just using that analogy as a human
expression so that we can understand that God is supplying according to the riches of
His glory.
You see it time and time again that God is always providing.
Look at Abraham!
He was provided for when he came out of Egypt.
The Bible used the phrase: “Abraham was very rich”.
He wasn’t just rich.
Abraham was “very rich in gold and silver and in cattle”.
Okay?
So there's no way we can spiritualize that.
Abraham came out with physical silver and gold.
Amen?
Whenever you go back to the land of Canaan, the land that God promised you, you always
come up.
But when you go to Egypt, you always go down.
Okay?
So Abraham came out of Egypt with silver, gold and much cattle, and the Lord blessed
him in the time of famine.
There was a famine at that time.
And only that.
Isaac, Abraham’s son, Isaac.
The Bible says that Isaac planted in the year of famine and what happened to him?
He reaped a hundred fold in the same year!
He reaped a hundred fold!
Even for Joseph, it was a time of famine for him as well.
It was a total of seven years of famine.
There was seven years of plenty that proceeded that, but nevertheless he also experienced
seven years of famine.
And yet, God gave Joseph the wisdom to provide for literally the known world then.
Amen.
Through God’s wisdom given to Joseph, Egypt became the bread basket of the world.
Amen.
And even Joseph’s family had to come from Canaan to buy from Egypt because of the wisdom
of Jacob's son, Joseph.
Amen.
So, God always provides for his family.
Amen.
So rest easy, my brother.
The supply is forthcoming in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Sometimes there is a shaking in certain things, especially in the financial realm and also
in our lives.
And we don't like it because we like what is visible and what is present and what is
tangible.
But you know, God shakes the false trust that we have.
All the false trust in our lives.
It is something good so that our trust can be in something unshakeable.
Amen.
Praise the name of Jesus.
Hallelujah.
God loves you.
And Jesus says: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”
God wants to provide for us in every area of our lives.
My friend, He wants to provide for you financially as well.
Amen?
Then Jesus says: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor
spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into
the oven, will He not much more clothe you?”
And all Jesus wants you to do is?
Jesus says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
His righteousness is a gift.
Amen?
Jesus came to give us the gift of righteousness.
On that cross, Jesus bore our sins.
He who knew no sin, He did no sin.
In Him is no sin.
But He became sin with our sin so that we, who are not righteous in the natural, can
receive His righteousness.
Amen?
And God says: “ Today, seek that righteousness.
Follow after righteousness.
Learn all you can about this gift of righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”
Hallelujah!
Amen.
You know, Paul wrote by the spirit to Timothy about the days to come and he wrote about
how to lay a good foundation for the day to come.
An evil day that is.
A day of lack.
This is what Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:18-19: “Let them do good, that they be rich in
good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation
for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
Storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come.
Storing up for themselves.
Notice the phrases: “when you are ready to give, when you are willing to share.”
It means you are a generous person!
God is saying that when you do this, you are actually storing up for yourselves a good
foundation for the time to come.
You are sowing seeds for your future harvest.
Amen?
You might be living off your past harvest, but are you sowing for your future harvest?
Amen.
God says, as long as the earth remains, there will be seed time and harvest.
Say: “seed time and harvest”.
That will not cease.
Every time there's seed time, there'll be a harvest as long as this Earth remains.
The last time I checked, the Earth still remains so the seed time and harvest principle has
not changed.
Praise the Lord.
Whatever you sow, you will reap.
When you sow generosity, God will make sure that a lavish supply comes your way.
Praise the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul says: “He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly.
And he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully.”
There is no way, brother, sister, there's no way you can take that and say it is spiritual.
Because the whole context there is about giving finances to the poor saints in Jerusalem.
Read the entire context!
And then the chapter before that says: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor.
That you through His poverty might be rich.”
There's no way you can say, oh, he became spiritually poor.
He was never spiritually poor.
Amen.
And if being poor spiritually is good for you, then we should be poor spiritually.
Why did his poverty cost us to have riches?
Amen?
It is so that we, through His poverty, might be made rich.
The whole context is talking about finances and giving.
So He became poor for us!
Where?
At the cross!
At the cross, He looked down and one of the last sights He saw was the soldiers gambling
over his garments.
Oh man, I don't even believe that they even gave him the courtesy of covering any part
of His body.
He became poor.
Amen?
He came under the curse so that we can be abundantly supplied.
The Spirit of God says that you through His poverty, might be rich.
So in other words, every sin debt has been settled.
Jesus settled it.
He took my shame, He was my guilt offering on the cross.
He restored what he did not take away.
He took my place.
He paid a debt He did not owe.
I owed a debt I could not pay.
So Jesus took my place at the cross as my substitute so that I can be blessed.
He was cursed so that I might be blessed.
He was rejected so that I might be accepted.
And friend, we can have God’s abundant provision because of what He did at the cross.
Even the supply of finances!
The Bible says: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich.”
Amen.
Our God, who flung the universe and the stars in place, was rich.
Amen.
But for your sakes, He became poor.
“That you, through His poverty, might be rich.”
Amen.
It's up to you, whichever part of the atoning work of Jesus, the redemptive work of Jesus
you want to receive.
Amen.
It’s your choice on whether you want to receive it.
Nobody's forcing it on you.
Amen.
But as for me and my house, we'll take whatever Jesus did at the cross to give us.
Amen?
We will receive it in Jesus name.