Today on the broadcast, we're going to be talking about provision. How do I receive provision? The things that I need: food, clothing, shelter, transportation—those kinds of things.
Do you know that most Christians have been taught that the way to receive provision is through sowing and reaping? Do you know that Jesus Christ specifically tells us that sowing and reaping is not the way that we receive provision? To find out what Jesus actually does say, stay tuned to the broadcast.
Across the sands of time, God’s people have walked His ancient paths. Join us as we explore divine identity and purpose, unearth 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. It’s so good to be talking to you again! Do you know, in the last broadcast—which you can see on the internet at craighill.
org—we talked about five principles that Jan and I followed, and by using those principles, naturally, God did supernatural things that eliminated our debt in three years and eliminated our home mortgage so that we had no debt in three years. If you didn’t get a chance to see those five principles in that broadcast, I really encourage you to go to the broadcast right after this one. You can see it again on www.
craighill. org and make sure to catch what those five principles are. What we’re going to talk about today is: why is it that so many people have great plans to get themselves out of debt, to move forward financially, and yet most people find an inability to do what they know?
Their problem is not that they don't know what to do; many people know what to do. They’ve been through all kinds of financial programs, plans, and Bible studies. Their problem is they find an inability to do what they know.
That’s what I want to address today, and I alluded to the fact on the last broadcast that there’s a very, very powerful spirit that deceives people, hinders people, and that is the spirit of mammon. Let’s start today in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. And this is familiar to many of us.
Jesus said this: “No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. ” Now, some Bibles translate that as God and riches or God and wealth.
That’s actually, in my opinion, a mistranslation. It says there the word mammon. Now, many translators didn’t know what to do with that word mammon because it’s not a Greek word; you know it’s interesting, it’s not a Hebrew word either—neither Greek nor Hebrew, certainly not English.
What kind of a word is mammon and what does it mean? Do you know, for much of my Christian life, I just thought that mammon was another word for money. I thought, “Well, maybe mammon is an attitude; maybe it means greed.
” But what I discovered is, mammon isn't money. Mammon isn't greed. You know how I knew that?
First off, very simply: Jesus sets these two up as opposites. He says you cannot serve God and mammon. If you serve this one, you’re not serving that one; if you’re serving that one, you’re not serving this one.
These are opposites. If mammon means money, then what would be the obvious conclusion? If you want to serve God, you shouldn’t have any of it.
You shouldn’t have a bank account; you shouldn’t have any cash; you shouldn’t have anything to do with money, because whatever mammon is, it’s evil and it’s the opposite of God. So if mammon means money, you shouldn’t touch it; you shouldn’t have any of it. You should take a vow of poverty; that would be the correct thing to do.
I concluded very quickly: mammon doesn’t mean money. We’re not called to avoid money; we’re called to manage money. Do you know what religion always does?
Religion causes people to try to avoid things. Relationship with God doesn’t tell us to avoid things; it tells us to operate in the opposite spirit and manage that thing. So, for example, religion says just avoid money—be in poverty, have none of it.
Relationship says, “No, money is a tool. Don’t avoid it; press it into service to accomplish God’s kingdom purpose. ” But people say the problem is greed.
What’s the antidote to greed? Not avoiding money. The antidote to greed is generosity.
Do you know some people think, for example, that sexual impurity is a problem? And so what do we do? People say, “Well, I’ll just be celibate; have nothing to do with sexual relationship.
” Actually, if you’re not married, that’s the correct thing to do. But, you know, it’s not that we are called to be celibate, to have nothing to do with sexual relationship, to avoid impurity. No, that would be religion’s answer again.
God’s answer in relationship is to manage appropriately that thing. So it’s operating in the opposite spirit. The opposite spirit of impurity is purity.
So I manage sexual relationship with purity. Purity is the answer to impurity, just like generosity is the answer to greed. The answer to pride is not making no decisions and just submitting your will to another man; the answer to pride is humility.
The answer to debt is meekness. The answer is always an opposite—not an avoidance of money, or an avoidance of sexual relationship, or an avoidance of making decisions, or that sort of thing. That’s really a contrast between religion and relationship—a huge contrast.
I did a CD series on that once, which you can get on our website: Religion Versus Relationship, which goes into much more detail. On those things, so if money doesn’t mean money, and mammon doesn’t mean money, and mammon doesn’t mean greed, what does it mean? You know, I never knew until I heard a Bible teacher who had done a word study on the etymology, or the origin, of that word, mammon.
What he told me was this: It’s not a Greek word; it’s not a Hebrew word; it’s a Canaanite word. It doesn’t mean money; it doesn’t mean greed. Mammon is actually the proper name of a god that was worshipped by Canaanite people.
So it would be similar to the names Baal, Chemosh, Dagon, or Ashtaroth, or all the various idolatrous gods that were worshipped by Canaanite people in the days of Jesus. And so when Jesus says you cannot serve God and mammon, he wasn’t talking about money; he was talking about an idolatrous god. Now, do you realize that behind every one of those idolatrous gods were demonic spirits?
There was a spirit of mammon that hid behind that idolatrous god, mammon, that Canaanite people worshipped. By the way, it was the god of prosperity. So Canaanite people prayed to this god for financial prosperity.
When Jesus said you can’t serve God and mammon, he was talking about two spiritual entities: Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and mammon, the god of prosperity of the Philistines. These are two opposite spiritual entities. Now, the truth is mammon has no power; God has power.
But what does every demonic spirit want? Every demonic spirit wants your heart. Every demonic spirit wants worship.
Every demonic spirit wants you to give it your heart. Mammon is no different. So what does mammon want?
Your heart. Mammon wants your worship. How does it get that?
Do you know if mammon were to come here or come into your house today and say, "Hello, I’m the spirit of mammon; bow down before me and worship me," nobody would do it. So how does that spirit work? Through deception.
Do you know what it does? It hides behind something very, very simple. It hides behind this stuff called money.
Now, this is a piece of paper. Here in the United States, this is money. This has no inherent value; its value is whatever the market says it is.
If we wake up tomorrow and it’s half the value that it was today, then it’s half the value. Why? Because this is governed by markets.
What are markets? Just the collective opinions of people. So this has no value, and this has no power.
Here’s the first deceptive lie of that spirit of mammon: that spirit says this stuff is where the real power is. If you have lots of this stuff, you’re a powerful person. If you have very little of this stuff, you’re an impotent person.
That’s what that spirit says. Do you know that that is not the truth? You don’t need money; you know what you need?
A relationship with God. Do you know that provision comes from God? Provision doesn’t come from money.
Do you know that God can make provision for you absolutely without money? If you need a house, do you know God could give you a house? He doesn’t need to use money; He could use money or not use money, but provision comes from God, not from money.
The first lie of that spirit of mammon is this: This is where the power is; you need lots of this. Now here’s the truth: whatever you value in your heart, you will pursue. If you believe the power is in money, your heart will never be free from its pursuit.
Paul told us in First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10, that the root of all evil is what? The love of money. It’s not money; money’s not evil.
Money’s not good; money’s not evil. Money has no moral character to it at all; it’s amoral—not virtuous, not evil. What’s the problem?
The love of money. Why? Because that gives the allegiance of your heart to the spirit of mammon.
So mammon says pursue this. If you get lots of this stuff, you’ll be a powerful person; you’ll be a valuable person; you’ll be okay. The second lie from that spirit of mammon is this: if you don’t have enough of this stuff, you’ll perish.
If you don’t have enough money, you’re gonna die. Do you know that people lie awake at night worried about not having enough—not having enough money? People lie awake full of fear, thinking, “I’m not gonna have enough money.
” There’s an antidote to that right in these next verses in the Word of God, where Jesus tells us how provision actually does come. Before we go to break, I just want to pray for you. God is speaking to me that there are many, many people that have struggled with fear, and you might be one of those people that have even just recently, maybe last night, lain awake full of fear: Am I going to have enough?
What happens if I lose my job? What happens if my husband loses his job? What happens if the economy crashes?
What happens if my investment portfolio disappears? What about this? What about that?
That is a spirit that torments you, and I would like to pray for you, for God to bring your heart into peace. So, Father, I pray for each one that’s been tormented by that fear. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I rebuke that spirit of mammon.
You lift off my brother, lift off my sister right now in Jesus’ name, and you flee; you have no authority. Lord Jesus, I pray that you’d speak to each one within the sound of my voice right now. Lord, you said, “We’re your sheep; we can hear your voice.
” You to just listen to the voice of the Spirit of God. Father God, what do you say right now about my future? Would you just pray that prayer?
Lord, what do you say about my future? Now just listen, just listen, just listen. Can you hear Him speaking to you?
Lord, what do you say about my future? Oh, several people just heard the clear voice of God speaking to you about your future. Listen to that—what God said to you: You will not perish, you will not perish.
God said to many, "I will provide for you; I will be a source to you. " That's a powerful word. I want you to receive that word from the Lord; let it dwell richly in your heart.
Now I'm going to give you a couple of other scriptures in the next segment that you can meditate upon, that you can just dwell on, and let them grow strong in your heart; that you begin to believe the word of God above all other things, above all the other voices coming at you and that spirit of Mammon. And now we're going to talk about how you can break the spirit of Mammon right after this break. Listen to the announcer share with you how you can get resources that will go into much more depth than I can teach here on television, that will help you in this area.
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And now back to Craig. So we were talking about the fact that Mammon is not money; Mammon is not greed. Mammon is a spirit—a very powerful spirit that captures people's minds and hearts and lies to people and says, "This stuff has value.
" And when people believe that, they spend a lifetime pursuing it because your heart will pursue whatever you believe is valuable. Now the truth is, God has value; God has power. Mammon has power, too.
Either one can get you money, whichever one you choose to give heart allegiance to. And Jesus is saying in verse 24, "You cannot give heart allegiance to both the spirit of Mammon and the spirit of God. " To give allegiance to the spirit of Mammon and to pursue and chase money, if you do that, you are denying and renouncing the spirit of God.
Now, how does provision come then? We talked at the very beginning of this broadcast about provision. How does provision come?
And now we're going to look in verse 25. Jesus said in verse 25, "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life. " Do you know what most Christians are busy doing?
Worrying about their life. Do you know the King James Version says, "Take no care for your life"? You know the funniest thing?
I have people come up to me all the time and they say, "Take care. " I always tell them, "Jesus told me not to. " Why are you asking me to do that?
I'm not going to take care; I'll take joy, I'll take peace, I'll take blessing. Take care of yourself; I've got enough of my own! But for some reason, people always say that.
Well, that's just an aside. For this reason, I say, "Take no care for your life; do not worry for your life as to what you will eat, what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you'll put on. Is life not more than food and a body more than clothing?
" The answer is of course life is more than food and clothing. Now Jesus is going to talk to us about provision—things that we need: food, clothing; we need the shelter. All these kinds of things, where do these come from?
And as I said in the very beginning of the show, do you know that I was taught all my life that provision comes by sowing and reaping? But we're going to read in this next verse how provision actually comes according to Jesus. And this is the most amazing thing—it just totally broke the spirit of religion over my mind that always connected somehow my provision to my works.
And what we're going to see in this next verse is that Jesus totally disconnects provision from works. Jesus tells us there are two things that the birds do not do, and some versions say sparrows. What's interesting is Jesus's model of provision is birds—sparrows.
So He's saying, "I want you to be like these sparrows, and this is how they receive provision. " He says there are two things they do not do and one thing they do. So let's read what that is.
Jesus says in verse 26, "Look at the sparrows or the birds of the air. " And here's the first thing they don't do: they do not sow nor reap. Do you know most Christians are busy sowing and reaping, trying to receive provision?
Now I'm not saying that sowing and reaping is not a. . .
Correct provision? Pardon me, it is not a correct principle; it is a correct principle. It is in the Bible.
What I'm telling you is Jesus says its purpose is not for provision. Now we'll look at a subsequent broadcast: what is the purpose of sowing and reaping? But what we're seeing here in this verse is, it’s for sure not for your provision.
So, provision doesn't come by sowing and reaping. The birds don't sow or reap, nor do they gather in barns, so they're not storing up a lot of money or a lot of food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Jesus says, "Are you not of much more value than they?
" Now, isn't that an amazing thing? What Jesus just did in that verse is He totally disconnected your provision from your works. There is nothing you can do to earn God's provision.
Now, we understand that about salvation; most people understand that about healing. What do you need to do to be healed? The answer is, receive by grace.
What do you need to do to be saved? Receive by grace. So when your faith reaches out and receives God's grace, that's how you get saved; that's how you get healed.
And then, somehow, when it comes to this area of financial provision, something all of a sudden shifts: "Oh, I got to do something. " No! That's wrong, wrong, wrong!
The truth is provision comes to you by God's grace. There's one reason and one reason only that provision comes to you, and that is your Father in heaven loves you more than birds. How many sparrows have you seen recently having an anxiety attack?
Have you seen sparrows running around, "Oh, oh, oh, I'm gonna die! Oh, I gotta find food! "?
No, the sparrows are at peace; their soul is at rest. Why? They walk in God's ancient paths.
Do you know that the sparrows have a revelation? My Father in heaven loves me, and that's why I'm going to be provided for—period! Full stop.
End of sentence. Nothing more than that. Do you know what I believe?
Most of us, as believers, need to get at least as much faith as the birds. We need to get a revelation; I call it "sparrow faith. " We need to get at least as much faith as sparrows to believe my Father loves me more than He loves sparrows.
You know what I've told a lot of people? Next time that tormenting fear hits you: "I'm not going to be taken care of. I'm going to lose my house.
I'm going to lose my job. " You know what you ought to do? Just open up the window outside; just have a look outside.
If the birds are still there, be at peace, because Jesus said right here, He loves you far more than those birds. Now, the day you look outside and there are absolutely no birds anywhere—they're all dead—you can start to worry that day. But until that day comes, don't worry about it.
Jesus said He loves you more than the birds. Now, let me give you one more picture. How about a little child?
Maybe you have a small child or grandchild at home. How much time and energy does your little five-year-old child or grandchild spend thinking about provision? Does that little five-year-old lie awake at night, "Oh, I wonder if I'm gonna have food tomorrow"?
Probably not. Do you know why? Because on the naughtiest day of that child's life, they still received provision.
How did it come? Through dad and mom. Why?
Because the child deserved it? No! One reason and one reason only: dad or mom loves that child and provides every single day.
That child doesn't have any idea where food or clothing comes from, perhaps. Do you know all they know? "Mommy loves me, and that's why I have food.
Daddy loves me, and that's why I have food. " And it happens every day. They don't spend ten seconds a day worrying about that.
Why? They got a revelation of love; they have a revelation of grace. How offensive would it be for a little child to come up at lunch and say to his mommy, "Mommy, if I give away half my peanut butter sandwich at lunch, could I please have dinner?
" And the mom would say, "Honey, that's a wonderful thing and a good, good thing to do—to give away half of your sandwich, maybe to somebody that doesn't have any food. But that's not the reason why I'll give you dinner, honey. I will give you dinner whether you give away your food or not, for one reason and one reason only: I love you.
I'll provide for you every day. " Now, that is a revelation that we need to get. And I'll tell you what: if that revelation is not in your heart, the fear that replaces it will taint everything you do with finances.
Do you know that you will tithe to try to get God to provide for you? You will give offerings to try to get God to provide for you. You will sow and reap to try to get God to provide for you.
You will work to try to get God to provide for you. You will read your Bible; you will pray to get God to provide for you. Do you know that that is nothing more than works righteousness?
That is religion; that is demonic, and the enemy loves and revels in getting people to do that. The revelation that Jesus gives us here is your provision doesn't come by sowing and reaping; your provision comes because your Father in heaven loves you. Now I want to share a scripture with you that is powerful, and now this is from the amplified Bible.
It's in Hebrews chapter 13. I suggest you might want. .
. To put this on your mirror, where you brush your teeth every day, and I encourage you to memorize this and meditate on it. But listen to what this—uh, what God says in here.
The author of Hebrews tells us this in verses five and six. I'm reading from the Amplified: "Let your character or moral disposition be free from the love of money, including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions, and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have. For He, God Himself, has said, 'I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.
I will not; I will not; I will not relax my hold on you. ' Pardon me, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you, let you down, nor relax my hold on you—assuredly not. " So we take comfort or are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, "The Lord is my helper.
I will not be seized with alarm; I will not fear or dread or be terrified. What can man do to me? " I mean, is that incredible?
This is not your husband that said that; this is not your wife. This is not your father, and this is not your employer or your boss or your investment counselor. This is God Almighty, and God said, "I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.
I will not; I will not; I will not. " I mean, that is powerful. That word says God Himself says, "I love you more than birds, and I will support you.
" Now, that is a revelation that I want you to get burned in the depths of your heart, because if you get that on the inside, your heart will be at peace. You'll take Jesus's yoke upon you, and your burden will be easy, and your yoke will be easy, and your burden will be light, and you can walk in incredible, incredible peace. And so, provision doesn't come by your works; it doesn't come by tithing.
It doesn't come by sowing and reaping; it doesn't come by anything you do. Provision comes because your Father in heaven loves you more than He loves birds. And Jesus said if you would become like a little child and have an attitude of a five-year-old: "I have no idea how provision comes; I just believe that God, my Father, loves me; He's going to provide for me.
" Do you know that if that's in your heart, you can take risks with absolute confidence that your Father is walking with you, that your Father is going to provide for you? It will eradicate that fear of the spirit of mammon. And so, what that spirit of mammon does to get people to worship and serve it is create a lot of fear.
You're not going to have enough; I mean, basically fear in two areas: you're going to lose what you have of this stuff—if you have a bunch of it, you're going to lose it—that's the fear—or you're never going to have enough of it; you're never going to be provided for. That is the spirit of mammon right there, and now that is a fear. What gets rid of fear?
1 John chapter 4, verse 18 tells us: "Perfect love casts out fear. " So when perfect love gets in your heart, it drives that fear out. That's what breaks the power of the spirit of mammon.
So, provision comes from God. He may use money, or He doesn't have to use money, but I've found that there's one powerful thing that we need to get before provision can come. There's something we need to have on the inside—sparrow faith.
I just talked about it. But one other thing that's a prerequisite to provision, and it's actually in the word "provision. " In our next broadcast, I want to talk about what is the prerequisite to provision?
What is it that you need to get first? And if you get this particular quality functioning in your life, it automatically releases God's provision. That's what we're going to talk about in the next broadcast, so tune into that.
You'll find it on the web, craighill. org, and we'll talk about the prerequisite to provision. God bless you!
Again, be sure to get the Ancient Path to Wealth package, including Craig's book "Five Wealth Secrets Ninety-Six Percent of Us Don't Know," and his eight-part CD series "God's Power to Get Wealth. " Both resources are yours for a gift of just forty-five dollars or more. Call our product line now at 303-797-1139, or simply order online at craighill.
org. You know, I want to get in your hands a free teaching that I did called "Sparrow Faith. " You can either download it as an MP3 download, or we'll get a CD to you, and you can order that today by just going to my website, craighill.
org, and clicking on the button there to get your free CD of "Sparrow Faith. " You know, this is so important for people to get a revelation and an understanding: God will provide for me totally independent of my works. God will provide for me by His grace, simply because He loves me.
So please go to the website, craighill. org. I want to give that CD teaching away to you for free.
God bless you again! As Craig just mentioned, go to craighill. org right now to receive your free copy of "Sparrow Faith.
" And for those of you following Craig along this series, we've produced an exclusive web broadcast just for our Ancient Paths viewers, which further expands on today's essential teaching. This special program can be viewed at any time on our website, craighill. org.
We'll see you there, and be sure to tune in again next week right here! At this same time, on this same television network, for our next TV broadcast of "Ancient Paths" with Craig Hill.
