Across the sands of time, God's people have walked His ancient paths. Join us as we explore divine identity and purpose on earth, God's word on wealth, discover the blessing passed between family generations, and find life filled with empowering relationships. You will soar like never before!
Welcome to Ancient Paths with Craig Hill. This is the very first television broadcast we're going to be doing in a series called Ancient Paths. You know, for almost twenty years, my wife, Janna, and I have been teaching weekend seminars.
Are there really experiences called Ancient Paths? We’re now in 48 different nations around the world. Many, many people have gone through Ancient Paths seminars or Ancient Paths experiences, and they've proven to be life-changing for a lot of people.
As I've traveled around the world in the last 20 years, many people have said, “You know, this ought to be on television. How come you don't have a program about this? How come I never heard of this before?
” You know, the timing hasn't been right, but we have just felt recently that now is the right time to go ahead and put this on television. So, we're beginning a series today called The Ancient Paths. We have done the Ancient Paths seminars for years under the ministry organization Family Foundations International, so you might have heard of that, and you might have attended an Ancient Paths seminar.
If you haven't, I would encourage you to do that. But though we're going to give you a lot of information on what the Ancient Paths are in this series, so buckle up and hold on! We're going to be looking in the Bible to see what the Bible says about ancient paths.
Now, why are we talking about the Bible? I first want to just mention something about the Bible. A lot of times, people think this is a religious book, or they think it's a rule book, or a book about perhaps stories or something like that.
This isn't a history book. It's not a storybook. It's not a religious book.
It's not a rule book. You know what this really is? This is a book that contains principles.
It's like an owner's manual for life. And so, the reason we're going to look at this is every one of us are alive; every one of us need to learn how to run our lives, and we find in the Bible there are basic life principles. I actually call these principles ancient paths.
What are they? Ancient paths are basically universal life principles that cause life to function in the physical realm. An ancient path would be like gravity.
Do you know that gravity is just universal? It affects everybody. It doesn't matter whether you're old or young; it doesn't matter whether you're male or female; where you live, gravity affects every person exactly the same.
Nobody can jump off a cliff and say, “Well, gravity won't affect me. ” I find even some Christians think that they can somehow nullify basic life principles because they're Christians. You can't step off a cliff and say, “Well, I'm a Christian; gravity won't affect me.
” No, God is not going to turn off gravity that day because you decided not to obey it. And so, what I find, actually, is the Bible is a book that's primarily descriptive, not directive. What do I mean by that?
I mean this isn't a book that tells us, “You should do this; you should do that. ” It's not a bunch of rules that direct us to do things. It really is descriptive.
It's like an owner's manual. So, God wrote in His word in the Bible, “Hey folks, I created you. I created planet Earth.
I created the entire universe. I know exactly how it functions, and let me describe to you how life functions in various areas. ” Because if you understand these principles and go with them, your life will be pleasant; you'll have a good experience in life.
On the other hand, if you violate these principles, you're going to have a very unpleasant experience in life. So, let's look at the foundational scripture where ancient paths comes from. It's mentioned several times in the Bible, but we're going to start here in Jeremiah chapter 6.
I'm going to start in verse 13, and it says, “From the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. ” Here's an amazing thing: This was written several thousand years ago, but that could be from the newspaper today—people using a position, a religious position, or a political position to enrich themselves for personal gain. That's what Jeremiah says was going on in his day.
Verse 14: “They have healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace. ” You know, for many, many years, I was a pastor, and I discovered that we would many times just heal people superficially. What do I mean by that?
We would pray for people's pain to go away. How many know that we're a pain-avoidance oriented society? People just want their pain to go away.
So, people would come to me and say, “Pastor, there's pain in my marriage; could you make it go away? There's pain with my children; could you make it go away? There's pain in my body; could you make it go away?
” The problem is, many times we’d pray for people, and do you know that God, in His mercy, would heal people and the pain would be eliminated? But the problem was, if they were violating a basic life principle, how many know the pain would come back because of the violation of that principle? Let me just give you a real simple example.
Suppose that somebody came here today and they had a broken leg. And they were in pain. Suppose I prayed for them, and there was a miracle that took place.
Right here, we could all see it: that person was physically healed. Their broken leg was healed; they were no longer in pain. They came into the house today on crutches with a broken leg, and they went out of the house leaping and dancing and praising God because of their physical healing.
And we would be excited; we'd say, "Wow, that's a miracle! That's supernatural! That's wonderful!
" which is true. But suppose we then discovered the reason that man had a broken leg is that, as an adult, he really honestly doesn't understand the principle of gravity, and as a result of that, he regularly steps off tall buildings and cliffs. How many know he's going to have to come back to be prayed for again?
Next time, maybe it won't be a broken leg; maybe next time it will be a broken back, a broken neck, or maybe we're going to have to raise him from the dead. The question is, have we really solved his problem? The answer’s no.
We have healed him superficially; we got his leg healed, we took away the pain, but we didn't deal with the root of a violation of the principle of gravity that was causing that pain to recur over and over. Do you know I honestly found that that is happening in many, many families? That’s happening in many, many areas of life!
People simply don't understand many of the basic principles that are right here in the Bible. Anybody could read them, anybody could understand them, anybody can walk in them. Most people don't, and as a result of that, people are creating a lot of pain in their life.
People are creating a lot of pain in their family and for other people. So we're going to look at these ancient paths; many, many ancient paths. Well, as we carry on in the scripture, it says that they healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying "Peace, peace!
" but there is no peace, meaning we're not really getting at the root of the problem. Were they ashamed because of the abominations they've done? They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush.
Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. At the time I punish them, they shall be cast down, says the Lord. Verse 16 is the verse that really caught my attention: thus says the Lord: "Stand by the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
" Now, here is the most amazing response to that scripture: Israel, when they received this word from the prophet Jeremiah, the last line of verse 16 says, "But they said, 'We will not walk in it. '" Can you imagine receiving a prophetic word that says "Stand by the way, see, and ask for the ancient paths," and people’s response is, "No, no, we're not going to do it. " My prayer for you today is that that will not be your response; that as we talk about ancient paths, we look in the Word of God to discover ancient paths, that you will say, "Yes, I want to know what they are!
I want to restore the ancient paths of my life! I want to walk in those ancient paths! " Now, the thing that really caught my attention here is "stand by the way and see, and ask for the ancient paths.
" I just did a little word study right away. I looked up that word "ancient. " It's the Hebrew word Olam (Olam), and it doesn't mean old or old-fashioned.
It does mean old, but they're not just old, not just ancient. Do you know that word Olam? It means some things like this: universal, timeless, eternal, perpetual, from before time.
This one really grabbed me: "out of eternity. " We're talking here about ways of God that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit walked in before man was even put on this earth. And do you know that God programmed these ancient paths into man when He created man on the earth?
Here's an amazing fact: do you know that men lived 900 years? Even after sin entered the world, even after the fall of Adam and Eve, men still lived 900 years. I believe that's because they walked in God's ancient paths.
Here's what's happened: as time has gone on through history, humanity has departed farther and farther away from God's ancient paths. Do you know the result of that? Lifespan has gotten shorter and shorter and shorter; whereas today, if somebody lives 90 years, that's a good long lifespan.
Do you know that’s only 10% of the lifespan men used to have when they walked completely in God's ancient paths? So when I read this scripture, "stand by the way, see, and ask for the ancient paths," I said, "God, I'm asking! I don't know anything about this; I don't know what your ancient paths are.
I want to know! I want to understand this. " And here's what I discovered: ancient paths are basic life principles that govern every single area of life.
Do you know that there are ancient paths that are written about in the Bible that talk about the relationship between a husband and wife, about marriage? There are ancient paths that govern your finances; there are ancient paths that govern nutrition and your physical health; there are ancient paths that govern how to raise children. There are ancient paths that govern absolutely every area of life, and as we have departed farther and farther from these ancient paths, what happens is life becomes more and more and more complicated, more and more difficult.
Do you know that you've got to read 10 books just to raise your children? Probably not 10; probably 20. Do you know, even as recently as 100 years ago, people didn't read ten books just to raise their children?
There were natural principles that they walked in that caused a family to function properly. People didn't have to read ten different books on what kind of food to eat, what kind of water to drink, or what kind of air to breathe. As we depart from ancient paths, life becomes more and more complicated and difficult.
My goal on this broadcast is to help you understand what our God's ancient paths are so that you can return right back to these basic life principles. As you understand what they are from the Bible, you begin to walk in them—in your marriage, or if you're not married, in your single life, in your relationships, in your family, with your finances, in every single area of life. What you're going to discover is that your whole life is going to be transformed.
Why? Because we're not just dealing with the superficial anymore; now we're actually dealing with root issues, letting God change those things deep on the inside of you. As that happens, the externals begin to change—externals in your finances, in your family, in your marriage, in your relationships, in your physical health—all kinds of areas that we will cover step by step as we're talking about ancient paths.
Now, the very first ancient path that we're going to talk about is going to have to do with finances. We're going to begin to look at one ancient path. There are actually several principles that are ancient paths that have to do with financial management, and I want you to listen now as our announcer gives you some information about a particular package that we want to make available: a book I've written and a CD series that I think is critical to understand these ancient paths about finances.
So, let's go ahead and have our announcer now share what's available. Have you seen decline or even devastation instead of abundance in your finances? Do you want to walk down the path where your financial life works like never before?
Then you need the new package, "God's Ancient Path to Wealth," from Craig Hill. This offer includes Craig's book, "5 Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don't Know," and his 8-part CD series titled "God's Power to Get Wealth. " Craig Hill's practical experience and biblical insight will guide you through God's master plan for handling finances: the power behind money, 5 biblical uses of money, the truth behind sowing and reaping, and much more.
Order these indispensable financial roadmaps, "God's Ancient Path to Wealth," today for a gift of just $45 or more. Call our product line now at 303-797-1139 or simply order online at CraigHill. org and get your financial future placed on God's ancient path to wealth.
Again, the number to call is 303-797-1139. And now back to Craig. We're going to continue talking about the ancient paths from Jeremiah 6:16.
These are basic life principles, and the very first one we're going to talk about is financial management. The reason I chose that one first is because people struggle so much with finances these days. I get letters, phone calls, and emails all the time from people saying, "We're drowning in debt," "We're struggling," "Our children are struggling," "We don't know what to do," "We don't know how to manage the finances.
" Others who have plenty of finances are saying, "What should I invest in? " "Where should I put my money? " "What should I do?
" Do you know that we live in extremely volatile times, and many things are changing all the time? That's really why I wrote this book, "5 Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don't Know," and I encourage you to get hold of that book because these five wealth secrets are basically things that people would say, "Well, of course," when they hear them. They sort of say, "Well, I knew that, but I didn't know that, and I wasn't doing that.
" So, you know what motivated me to write that book? Really, I heard Robert Kiyosaki say something many, many years ago. He said if we were to give 100 people $10,000 today and tell them to do whatever they wanted to with it, and then we would come back a year later and see what they had done, statistically this is what would happen: 80 of the 100 would have zero left, 16 would have $10,300 to $10,500—maybe about the amount that you would get if you put the money in the bank at interest, and of course, interest is probably even lower today than that—and then 4 out of those 100 people would have multiplied that money between two times and a hundred times.
They would have between $20,000 and $1 million that they generated from the $10,000 they were given. Now the question is, what do that 4% know that the 96% don't know? Are they really any smarter?
The answer is no. Do they have any more time? No, everybody gets 24 hours a day; nobody has more time than anybody else.
Do you know the answer is that they think about money totally differently than the other 96%, and that's really what we want to talk about. The 4% understand five basic ancient paths from the Bible, and they function in these ancient paths many times without even realizing that they're biblical principles; they just naturally function in them. them, and it causes wealth to grow for them.
So we want to talk about what these basic principles are—these five wealth secrets, as it were—that caused people to be able to multiply. Really, if you look at what's the difference between the 80%, the 16%, and the 4%, it just boils down to arithmetic functions. Eighty percent of the people are really good at subtraction, meaning that when they get money, they're good at spending it.
Sixteen percent learn a little bit about addition; only four percent have actually learned about multiplication. That's what we want to talk about: what are some of the principles that the 4% know? Now, before I talk about those specifics, one of the critical things I have learned about these four percent—these ones that have learned to multiply and understand these secrets—is that they don't focus on trying to make money.
They don't focus on trying to get more money. Do you know what they actually focus on? They focus on wisdom.
Now, here's an interesting scripture we find in 2 Chronicles 1:7. It says, "In that night, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, 'Ask what I shall give you. '" So God Almighty says to Solomon, "Ask anything, and I'll give you whatever you ask.
" What would you say if God said that to you: "Ask whatever you want, and I will give it to you"? Well, here's what Solomon said. In verse 8, Solomon said to God, "You have dealt with my father David with great loving-kindness and have made me king in his place.
Now, O Lord God, your promise to my father David is fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can rule this great people of yours? " And God said to Solomon, "Because you had this in mind and did not ask for riches, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for a long life but have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge, that you may rule my people over whom I’ve made you king, wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you.
And I will give you riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings who were before you possessed, nor those who will come after you. " So what did Solomon ask when God said, "You can ask for anything you want? " Solomon said, "I want wisdom; I want knowledge.
" Is that the cry of your heart? I want wisdom. See, if the cry of your heart is, "I need money," you will probably not receive wisdom or money.
It just doesn't work that way. People who chase money very rarely find it. People who find wisdom receive from God.
Do you know one friend of mine told me this story? A Ukrainian friend of mine said a very wealthy American accompanied him to talk to some businessmen in the eastern part of Russia. These businessmen were very keen to talk to this very wealthy American, and do you know what was in most of their minds?
"If I could just get this American to invest money in my business, my business would take off, and everything would be good. " So one by one, they each had an appointment with the wealthy American businessman, presented their plan, proposed their ideas, and asked for funding—except one. One of these young businessmen came to the wealthy American businessman and said, "You know, sir, I don't need an investment of your money; I need an investment of your wisdom.
If you would spend time telling me what you know, helping me to change my thinking, I know my business would grow. " Who do you think that American businessman spent his time with? He spent his time and energy with the one who requested wisdom.
And you know what? He never gave that man $1. But what happened is that man's business began to grow and grow and grow and grow.
Do you know that the other people are still, I believe to this day, sitting in Russia waiting for somebody to come and give them money? My point is, don't seek after money; seek after wisdom. Now, here's a very interesting thing that we find; that's a basic life principle.
I believe it's in an ancient path, and that is this: the 4%—people who have learned how to multiply—do you know that they're not focusing on trying to make more money? That's a very interesting thing. Their focus is not, "How can I make more money?
" Let's look over in Luke 16:10. Here Jesus has a really interesting scripture. He says, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
" Here's the principle: Do you know it doesn't matter how much you start out with? You can start out with this much, or you can start out with this much. It really doesn't matter, because this is the principle that Jesus said: if you will learn wisdom—how to manage appropriately what you have—it will multiply.
In other words, God increases what you have when you learn to appropriately manage what you have. So here's the very first thing that I noticed: the 4% people who have learned to multiply never put their money all in one jar. Do you know what most people do?
Most people take any money they receive from their salary, from investments—whatever it is—and they just put it basically in one account. Would call it one jar, so to speak. Then, do you know what they do?
They spend and pay their bills out of that jar first. So here's what most people do: most people spend first, and then they try to give, tithe, save, and invest. Do you know what happens if you spend first and then try to give, save, and invest?
There's almost always nothing left to give, save, and invest if you spend first. Do you know what the 4% do? They think entirely differently.
Here's what they do: they voluntarily limit their spending to only a percentage of the available income. They put their money in different jars, and I'm using that word "jars. " When we had little children, we literally used physical jars and put the money in separate jars.
You know, this is for the tithe; this is for offerings; this is for spending; this is for investment; this is for saving. Like that. What the 4% do is they divide their money into different jars and limit their spending.
Here's what they do: they tithe and give first, then they save, then they invest, and they spend what's left. That's an entirely different strategy. And do you know what the 4% are thinking?
They're not trying to just get more money. What they're thinking is, "I want to learn how to utilize the money that I have to multiply it. I want to learn about God's principle of multiplication.
" Now turn with me to Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. This is a scripture that I think, over the last number of years, I've heard over and over again. Many people have shared this.
It actually has two parts. It says, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous," or some versions say, "The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. " Now, I have heard people over and over again get excited about that.
There's a wealth transfer coming. I do believe that. I believe there is a huge wealth transfer coming, and in a later broadcast, we'll cover exactly why that is, how it will happen, the mechanism of the transfer.
But here's what I want to say: people get excited because they focus on this thing: "The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. " And most Christians believe, "I'm the righteous. " Why?
Because I'm born again. Because the Bible tells me that in Christ Jesus, I am righteous. Now, that is absolutely true about salvation, and it's true that you have received righteousness from Jesus Christ.
Your relationship with God does not depend upon your righteousness; it depends upon His righteousness. In Him, you are righteous. But I don't believe that's what this scripture is talking about.
It's not talking about your righteous standing before God; it's talking about who manages money righteously and who manages money wickedly. This scripture is talking about money, about a transfer of wealth. And so it says the wealth is going to transfer from people who have managed money in a righteous way—pardon me—it's going to transfer from people who have managed money in a wicked way to people who have managed money in a righteous way.
So what does it mean regarding finances? What does it mean regarding money? Who exactly is the wicked?
Who exactly is the righteous? I wanted to know that, so I plugged those two words into my computer Bible concordance to find out who, according to the Bible, are the ones that handle money in righteousness and who handles money in wickedness. I was shocked because it was totally different than anything I'd ever heard anybody else teach—totally different than what I had ever thought.
And the most amazing thing is, it's very clear in Scripture: money will transfer from people who manage money this way to people who manage money that way. In our next broadcast, I want to share with you exactly what the Bible says: who are the righteous, who are the wicked, to make sure you're on the correct side of that wealth transfer equation. Now, our next broadcast is going to be online only.
You can find it at CraigHill. org. Please go there to discover whether you're on the receiving side of the wealth transfer or the losing side of the wealth transfer.
God bless you! Be sure to get the Ancient Path to Wealth package, including Craig's book "5 Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don’t Know," and his 8-part CD series "God's Power to Get Wealth. " Both resources are yours for a gift of just $45 or more.
Call our product line now at 303-797-1139, or simply order online at CraigHill. org. I don't want you to miss out on today's television offer: "5 Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don’t Know" and the 8 CD series "God's Power to Get Wealth.
" There are principles contained in this book and in this CD series that I find most people don't know. People ask me questions about the things that are answered in these two products, and I don't want you to miss out. These will really benefit your life!
And for sure, don't miss out on the second broadcast, which is online only at CraigHill. org. You can find out who are the righteous and who are the wicked because wealth will transfer from the wicked to the righteous.
Make sure you're on the righteous side of that equation. Once again, go to CraigHill. org or call to receive the Ancient Path to Wealth package for your gift of just $45 or more.
And again, for those of you following Craig along this Ancient Path to Wealth series, the next broadcast is. . .
Available for viewing online at CraigHill. org. Join us there, and thank you for watching today's episode of Ancient Paths, Craig Field.
