How to Prosper in Everything We Do

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we read in your word that you feed the birds every day. We believe that you will feed us also every day because you love us more, Lord Jesus.

You never died for the birds. Thank you for your love. Help us to sense your presence in our midst as we come together.

More than the presence of any man, the best of men will disappoint us, but you will never disappoint us. So help us to live our life looking unto Jesus, who will always give us what we need. Thank you, Father, such a wonderful Savior.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay.

If God were to give you a promise like this, whatever you do, you will prosper spiritually, materially, physically in our body. Whatever you do, you will prosper. But there are some conditions.

Will you fulfill those conditions? I don't think there's a man on the earth who will say no. But when they hear those conditions, they're not difficult. They don't fulfill it because they become lazy, because they allow their mind to wander on to other things, and many other things become more important.

You see, our life is a choice of priorities. Every day, we have some priorities. We have to do it.

We teach our children, brush your teeth every day. So as we grow up, that is a priority for us. We never forget.

I want to tell you about some other priorities. Turn with me to the first psalm, Psalm 1. I'm sure you've read these verses many times, but I want to emphasize them. My job is not to teach anything new, but truths that have been preached by many godly people for 2,000 years.

I only want to remind you of them. I want to emphasize some important truths. Okay, Psalm 1. Now, I'm reading just the first three verses.

Now, why do I read these first three verses? Because at the end of the third verse, it says, this man, whatever he does will prosper. Read that first. The last part of verse three, whatever he does, he will prosper.

I read that many, many years ago as a young man, and I was gripped by it. I said, Lord, I want to prosper spiritually. I'm not interested in prospering materially.

I just want to have enough money to survive on this earth. I don't want plenty which invites robbers and thieves to come. I want enough to meet my needs and to be able to help other people and to be able to serve you without depending on other people for money, without depending on a single soul on earth for money.

I just need you to provide me so that I can serve you independent of men. But I want to prosper spiritually. Whatever I do, every message I speak must bring spiritual prosperity to others if they receive it.

And I've sought the Lord earnestly for that, and I've seen through the years amazingly God answer, providing me and my children and my family again and again, all that we need. Whatever you do will prosper. So I'm speaking from 66 years of experience, not just something I experienced in the last six months or something.

From 66 years of experience, I'm telling you, here is the way you can have spiritual prosperity and the provision of all your earthly needs as well. That's a bonus that you will get that which the worldly people fight and strive and long for. God says, I'll give it to you without your fighting and striving and longing and pushing other people down.

Nothing of that. Here is the way to do it. Oh, the first verse says, be careful of the advice of wicked people and don't stand in the path of sinners.

That's why I don't stand in a line for people who are buying movie tickets. That's a line of sinners. I'm not interested in standing in that line.

That's why I don't want, when I want to know which way to walk, I don't seek advice from a godless man. The advice of the wicked, of blessed is a man who does not walk in the advice of wicked people or stand in the path of sinners. But that's just the negative.

The positive part is his delight is in the law of the Lord. Now, there's a lot of difference between delighting in God's law and reading God's word out of a sense of, oh, I have to do it because God says I must read his word. It's not, this promise is not for that type of person who, oh, I have to brush my teeth.

I must read God's word. No, his delight is in the law of the Lord. It's such a tremendous joy to go to God's word.

If you haven't got that delight in the law of the Lord, I'm sorry to say, listen, whatever you do will not prosper. You can be sure of that. And maybe that is why there has been so much confusion in many areas of your past life.

I'm nearly 86 years old now, and I'm a very, very happy man because God taught me when I was 19 and a half after I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord to read his word regularly, meditate on it, study it. I didn't waste my time going to a Bible school and be led astray by people who don't know God. I went to the Holy Spirit.

You know, the passage I helped me was, the passage that helped me was, you know, you know that passage on the, when Jesus rose up from the dead, he walked with two disciples to Emmaus. You know that story? You read it in Luke 24 when you get time. That was a distance of about seven miles, I think, from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And a leisurely walk would have taken them about three hours, three hours. You read in Luke 24 that Jesus opened up the Bible to them from Genesis to Revelation, not Revelation, sorry, Genesis to Malachi. That is the full Bible.

I had only those 39 books in those days, the Old Testament. And he opened it up and in all those scriptures, he showed them things concerning himself. They didn't have a printed Bible like we have.

We got a luxury to have a printed Bible. Those people didn't have it. They had to go to the synagogue and hear the word being read and try to remember it.

And that also just Old Testament. Today we have the New Testament as well. So what I said to the Lord was, Lord, as you walked with those people and opened up the scriptures to them, please walk with me.

You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Please walk with me and open up the scriptures to me. And I tell you, he has opened up the scriptures to me and I found amazing things in God's word.

Almost all the things that I've understood and shared are not so much things I read somewhere, but what Jesus taught me as I studied his word and meditated on it and sought to apply it to my life. And let me tell you something, to the best of my knowledge, I never studied the word to produce a sermon. That was not my goal.

I remember when I was in the Navy, every morning I had a room to myself because I was an officer and I would get up in the morning, kneel down beside my bed for 15 minutes or so, and then pray and then get up and sit at my table and open the Bible and have a notebook with me to write down notes. And I said, Lord, speak to me. I looked for commentaries and I found that the commentaries were all academic, going to the head.

I threw them all away because I hardly found any commentary of the Bible that spoke to the heart. I said, I want something that speaks to my heart, not that speaks to my head. I don't want to be clever.

I want to be spiritual. And you don't become spiritual by filling your head with knowledge. You become spiritual if you allow your heart to respond to God's word.

So I said, Lord, I'll come to you instead of going to the advice of men. And as I went to him day by day by day, it's the most amazing things that God began to show me over a period of years. And how do I know it was amazing? Because it changed my life.

It changed my attitude to money. I no longer grasped for money. I had an open palm.

I could give to God. I could help poor people. Some results came out of meditating on God's word.

And very soon, God gave me the anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach his word. It's absolutely amazing. I was a very, very shy person in school.

And I've never took part in any public speaking competition in my life. I was scared to stand in public. But when God anointed me within two years, less than three years after I was baptized, I was preaching in a conference to 5,000 people God's word in one of the premier conferences in India.

That was not my cleverness. Because I was determined to say, Lord, I will give myself to the study of God's word. And I will seek you with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Two things. Study your word, anointing of the Holy Spirit. And God is a rewarder of all who seek him.

I want to tell you, I would have missed God's plan for my life if I had not sought God like that when I was 21 years old. And it's possible that some of you have not taken God's word seriously. There's so much God could have done through you from your younger days, from the time you accepted Christ.

It's been wasted. It's gone. You can't get those years back again.

I thank God I didn't waste my life. So I'm not telling all this to you to make you feel condemned. I say, forget the past, at least from today, at least from today.

Say, Lord, I want my life to prosper spiritually. I don't want to waste my life. I have only one life.

One of the main meditations in my life was one day when I stand before Jesus and my whole earthly life is reviewed by a videotape being played on a screen there at the judgment seat of Christ. I believe that will happen for each of us, that when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, the Lord will play a videotape of my life from the time I was born till the end of my life, because it's all stored in my memory. God doesn't have to dig it out from some book anywhere.

Everything that happened in your life is stored in your memory. Because our memories are poor, we can't remember all that. But when Christ comes again and our memories become perfect, every single thing will come to our mind, because we'll be perfect.

There will be no sin then. And the Lord has to just rewind this memory of ours to the zero and play it back on a screen for the whole world to see what type of life I lived. And let me tell you, it's true, it will be true of you also, every sin that you have sincerely confessed and set right will be blank on that screen.

There'll be no record at the judgment seat of Christ of all the wrong things I did in my life, because I repented and confessed it to the Lord, cleansed in the blood of Jesus, blotted out forever. But all the good things I did for the Lord will all be there. But if I wasted my time in so many years of my life, it'll be a lot of blank empty spaces, nothing good, nothing evil, just a big waste of time, many years wasted.

For example, if your main pursuit in life was money, money, money, money, you never cheated anybody, you did everything righteously, but those are all blank spaces, nothing evil, but living like the rest of the world, living for earthly things. Now is the time to think about it. Not in that day.

My job is very often is to warn people, when Christ comes back, dear brothers and sisters, everything you did in your life will be played out there and I want to warn you, make sure that you will have joy in that day. Of course, we'll have a lot of regret of the years that are wasted. Okay, many of you may have wasted many years.

Maybe you did not start at the age of 21 like I started. Okay. Maybe you started when you were 40 or 50.

But at least now, can you say, Lord, I wasted many precious years, but now onwards, I don't want to waste anymore. Look at the people in the world, how they pursue after money. I used to live in Bangalore in India, where there were shopkeepers who would keep their shop open in the busy streets till late at night, because people were coming and going and they were out to make money.

They had no time to even think of their dinner. They opened the shop because I can make some more money, some customer will come. I said, boy, what a lot of sacrifice these guys and next morning, they'll be back in the store to make money.

And I said, Lord Jesus, don't let those people put me to shame that they serve for money more seriously than I serve my Lord. Never. I want to beat them.

Beat them means not beat them means I want to do better than them in my pursuit of things that are eternal as they pursue the things that are material. I want to give myself to your word. It says in Psalm 1 verse 2, his delight is in the law of the Lord.

In his law, he meditates day and night. It doesn't mean read the Bible day and night, but he reads something in the morning and it stays in his mind and it rolls around in his mind. And he thinks about what he heard and what he read.

And somewhere when he's doing something else in the middle of what he's doing, some word that he read in the morning comes to his mind and he thinks about it. That's what it means by meditating on it day and night. That means his mind is always open to God speaking to him.

He's very busy, maybe working eight hours a day and concentrating on something. But in the middle of that, when he has a spare moment, the Holy Spirit suddenly reminds him of something he read in the morning. Oh, I've had some wonderful times like that.

And in a time of need, when I'm facing some pressure, I've faced many, many difficult situations in my life. As a servant of the Lord, situations are plenty that the devil has tried to do in my life. But I found God brings into my mind some word that I heard or read somewhere that I kept in my memory.

God brings it back. That's how Jesus lived. You know, you read in Matthew 4 how the devil tempted Jesus, turned these stones into bread.

And Jesus immediately replied. He didn't argue with the devil. You know, sometimes people argue, say, no, no, no, bread is not the main thing.

No, no, no. He never talked about that at all. He had only one answer, three words.

It is written. That's all. In other words, God's word says man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth.

End of discussion. The devil knows that's the end. He doesn't try to continue the discussion because he knows that this person lives only by God's word.

If he had any other argument other than God's word, he would have, the devil is a master at argument. He would have argued back with him. When you face a situation, if you find some human argument for it, the devil will find some other argument to beat you.

But if you know the word of God, that's appropriate for that situation, like Jesus knew. And then when the devil saw that Jesus was quoting God's word, for the next temptation, the devil himself quoted God's word. That's the other thing you've got to remember.

You know that story. He told the devil, Jesus told the devil, the devil told Jesus, jump off the roof of the temple because it is written. He heard Jesus say it is written man shall not live by bread alone.

So the devil says it is written. He will give his angels to take care of you. You know, can you imagine the devil quoting God's word to Jesus to lead him astray? Do you think if the devil quoted God's word to Jesus to lead him astray, he won't quote God's word to you to lead you astray? Of course he will.

I've met so many people in my life who've been led astray by a wrong scripture. The scripture that was not appropriate for that situation. There is a scripture that says in Psalm 91, he will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

I myself have claimed that scripture many, many times. But not to jump off the roof of a building. That's ridiculous.

So Jesus said, I know it is written like that. But Jesus said, Satan, it is also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. What do I learn from that? That when the devil quotes the scripture, the Holy Spirit remind you of another scripture which balances that out so you don't go astray.

And that's how you know that Jesus was so well versed in the scriptures, not because he came from heaven with all those scriptures in his mind, but because he regularly went from a very young age. He didn't have a printed Bible. We are so much more blessed than him in terms of having a printed Bible.

He had to go to the rabbi in the synagogue and say, Rabbi, sir, would you please read something from the book for me, the Old Testament? And the rabbi would be delighted that this seven-year-old boy is coming and asking him to read something, because even older people wouldn't come to him. During the week, and the rabbi reads something for him, and Jesus remembers it, and after rabbi has read some 10, 15 verses, Jesus will say, stop. Rabbi, please stop.

I can't remember more than that. I'll come back tomorrow. And he tries to remember those 10, 15 verses and goes home and meditates on those 10 or 15 verses the rabbi read to him.

Remember, he doesn't have a Bible to reread it. He listens carefully as the rabbi reads it. Can you picture this? Seven-year-old Jesus going to the synagogue, asking the rabbi to open the book, and as he reads it, he says, Rabbi, please read a little slowly, because I want to keep it in my mind.

Slowly, please. The rabbi reads it slowly, and maybe Jesus says, just read that sentence again. I didn't get it clearly.

He reads it again, and just 10 verses, and maybe it takes about 10, 15 minutes just for 10 verses. And then Jesus says, okay, rabbi, please stop. I can't remember more than that.

I'll come back tomorrow. He goes home, and in the midst of all his work, he helps his mother and does so many things. He has to play with his brothers and all that.

He meditates on these verses, comes back again tomorrow, the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and maybe from the age of five till the age of 12. Seven years, every day, going to the rabbi, learning, learning. Now you say, where's that written in the Bible? I'll tell you.

It says in Luke chapter 2 that when he went into the temple at the age of 12, he knew the Bible so well that he could even discuss it with the great scholars of that time. You know that passage. So how did he know it at the age of 12? He did not come from heaven with all that stacked in his mind.

He took trouble to go to the synagogue and meditate every day, trying to remember, remember, remember, remember. Oh, what diligence that must have been. When you read something like in Luke chapter 2 that Jesus confounded those priests with his knowledge of the Bible, don't just go to the next verse.

Stop there and ask yourself, how did this 12-year-old boy know the scriptures at the age of 12? He was born just like us, with a mind that was completely blank, without any knowledge of anything, just like any other baby. And by the age of 12, he knew it. So I assumed he started around the age of five, just my assumption, because you couldn't get all that knowledge in one year.

So you know what I did? When I was baptized at the age of 21, or when I was 19, I got converted. I said, Lord, I want to know the Bible in seven years. Also, if you could learn it in seven years as a kid without a printed Bible, why can't I know the Bible in seven years with a printed Bible? Sure.

So I began to study, study, study, study, study. And by the time seven years later, when I left the Navy to serve the Lord full time, I knew the scriptures, because that was my desire. And that knowledge of the scripture has protected me for the last nearly 60 years to not go in this direction, but to go in this direction, to marry this person and not that person, to quit my job in the Navy at a particular time.

Everything was through the scriptures. Sometimes even when I had to travel, the Lord told me which day to travel. It's absolutely amazing.

I'll give you one example of that. It was in the year 1967. It's one year after I left the Navy.

I was, I'd gone to speak at a graduate's fellowship in another part of India, central India. I was living in the South. I was living, I was not married those days, I was living with my parents.

And when I reached that place, I got a telegram from my father. We didn't have phones in all those days. I'm talking about 1967.

He sent a telegram through the postal service, which I got. I just come to take one week of a conference for graduates and believers in that place. That was one day's train journey away from my house or one and a half days.

And that my dad's telegram said, son, I've been diagnosed with cancer and I have to be operated immediately. Please rush back because I was the only son he had in India. And he wanted me there when he was being operated because it is a serious operation.

So, you know what I did? What I always do. I had the habit of reading the Bible chapter by chapter, one chapter a day. And nowadays, I read only a few verses, but those days I read one chapter a day and I look for guidance for that day's need from that chapter.

It was an elementary way. I mean, I never knew any better those days. Today, I'm a little more mature and I can understand God's will in a better way.

But when I was young and immature and not knowing much, what was I just 27 years old? I said, Lord, in today's passage, can you give me some guidance for today? And then tomorrow I'll get some guidance for tomorrow. So now what shall I do? I got a telegram. I got to rush home because my dad is sick.

So that day, this happened around the 26th of October of that year. And I had to stay there for about a week for these meetings. So on the 26th of October, my daily Bible reading was in Deuteronomy chapter one.

So I turned to Deuteronomy chapter one, my usual Bible reading, and I said, Lord, can you give me some guidance? What should I do? Shall I rush back because my dad is sick? I want you to guide me. So there I read. In Deuteronomy chapter one, verse three.

On the 40th year, in the first day of the 11th month. Aha. First day of the 11th month.

The Lord said, verse six, you have stayed long enough here. Turn and set your journey and go. It's almost a direct word to me.

I was in the 26th of October and it's the first day of the 11th month, means first day of November. You stay here till then and go. So I went to the train station and booked my ticket for the 1st of November.

It'd be reached home only by the 3rd of November. Trains took two days to get me there. And I sent a telegram back to my dad.

Sorry, dad, I can't come right now. I'll come one week later. Please postpone your operation until then.

Because I feel the Lord wants me to stay here and I'll start on the 1st. So dad said, okay. So I finally went one week afterwards.

And when I reached home, you know what my dad told me? Son, I'm glad you came one week later. Because if you had come immediately, I would have been operated. But because you said you cannot come and you're going to be one week late, I sent my medical report to another specialist.

And that cancer specialist said, you don't have cancer. This is the wrong diagnosis the other doctor has given you. You don't need to be operated.

So he said, thank you for coming late. Because of that, I didn't have to be operated. And he lived for another 15 years or so and never had to be operated at all.

He never got cancer in his life. I'll never forget that incident. Live by the word of God is amazing.

I can tell you many stories like that. How God guided me in my marriage, how God guided me to leave my job in the Navy. I'll tell you this book, my brothers and sisters is not an ordinary book.

It is the word of God. Respect it and value it. Blessed is the man, what did we read in Psalm 1, who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night.

Whatever he does will prosper. But it also goes on to say that when we read something in God's word, we must listen to it. And Psalm 1, verse 1, never walk according to the advice of sinners and never stand in the path that sinners are walking.

When you want advice, don't go to ungodly people. Don't go to even worldly pastors. How do you know whether a pastor or a preacher is worldly or not? I'll tell you one simple test.

Does he ask you for your money? Number one proof he's a worldly person. I don't need any other proof. I don't want to find out any other thing.

I don't know what to find out if he's divorced or how his children are grown up. Nothing more. One thing is enough.

This guy is a man who asks for money. And money is the opposite of God. Jesus said there are only two masters, Luke 16, 13, God and money.

This guy is serving money. He cannot give me any advice. I don't want to listen to him.

I won't even go and listen to such a pastor preaching in a church because he's serving money. A lot of the preachers and pastors, you know how they find a church? Just like when a company wants a CEO, they advertise our CEO is retired. We want a new CEO.

And they ask these companies who recruit people, send us a few CEOs, people who are experienced, and we select one of them to be our CEO. And like that, they interview a few people, and then they select a CEO for a prestigious company. And they want to know what salary you want and what salary that guy will agree to.

And then they appoint them. It is exactly like that, how some pastors get selected in a church. They advertise for pastors, and people apply for it, and they want to know what is the salary I'll get as a pastor.

And they interview many people. They make them preach a sermon every Sunday and test them out that way and find out, is that a good sermon or not? 100%, like they select worldly CEOs, they select pastors. I don't want to be a part of such a church.

And I don't want to go to such a man for any advice. He can tell me about money, but he can't tell me about God's ways. If you go to the scriptures or go to a godly man, otherwise you'll go astray.

I thank God that I learned that when I was very, very young. When I was very young, the Lord showed me, God and money are opposites. Don't ever live for money.

I was a naval officer. I was getting a huge salary compared to other people in India. And the Lord said, don't love it.

So I said, Lord, you tell me what to do with it, I'll do with it. Finally, when I left the Navy after eight years, I took my entire life savings from my naval career and gave it all away for God's work. And I stepped out of the Navy with zero in my bank account.

That was 60 years ago. And I decided I will never ask anybody in the world for money. I will never tell my earth financial needs to anybody in the world.

And God has preserved me for 60 years. I've never borrowed one cent in my life from anyone. I'm just telling you this for your encouragement, that whatever you do will prosper.

But that's not the greatest thing. I found that Jesus says, let me show you something in scripture and I'll tell you what you're missing if you're not faithful with money. In Matthew 16, Jesus says, sorry, not Matthew, Luke 16, Luke chapter 16.

And we read in verse 13, no servant can serve two masters. Either they will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one, despise the other. Two masters are God and money.

There are only two masters in the world. Many people think it's God and the devil. You go and ask the average Christian, go and ask the average Christian in any church, who are the two rulers in the world? They'd say God and the devil.

Jesus said, no, it's God and money, Luke 16, 13. The devil can't rule the world. The devil has very little access to believers, but money, you know, the number of believers who serve money, God or money, that's the choice.

And therefore, Jesus said, if you are faithful in the use of money, in verse 11, you will get the true riches. If you're unfaithful in the use of money, you won't get true riches. So what I learned from Luke 16, 11 is, if I'm faithful with money, God will give me the true riches.

And that means money is a false riches. All the people who made a lot of money and think they're rich, they're fooling themselves. It's false riches.

True riches are, I asked the Lord, what are true riches? I asked the Lord as a young man. Number one, likeness to Jesus Christ. I said, those are the true riches.

Not how much you have in the bank account, not how big your house is. Likeness to Jesus Christ and my character, that I learned to love people who hate me. That's the character of Christ.

Those are the true riches. That when people insult me, I keep quiet and forgive them. Those are the true riches.

Likeness to Christ. The second true riches, I thought of three true riches. The second true riches is the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

To serve God, what I need is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, not just Bible knowledge. Yeah, Bible knowledge is important. Jesus had tremendous knowledge of scripture, but yet we know that the Spirit of God, when he was baptized, he came out of the water and the Holy Spirit came upon him.

And then he went out to preach. Amazing. Even Jesus he did not dare to go out to preach without first being anointed with the Holy Spirit.

And look at the number of people today who think they can get up and preach God's word and go here and there serving the Lord and share so many things without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Absolutely amazing how arrogant they are. They think they can do it better than Jesus.

I'm so thankful I learned that as a young man. And I'll tell you what happened. I was in a assembly when I was 21 years old.

I got baptized, but they never spoke about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. There are many other things. They emphasize the study of God's word.

I'm very thankful for that, but they never spoke about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I said, this anointing that Jesus got, how can I get it? All the leaders in the brethren assembly never talk about it. So what will I do? Then somebody told me there's a group called Pentecostals.

I the ones who speak about it. So I said, okay, let me go and see. They will help me to get, and now you need the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Those are the true riches, second true riches. So I went, I traveled some distance and went with another brother to a Pentecostal pastor. I said, I want the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

He said, okay, kneel down here and pray. What should I do? You know what he told me? This is the honest truth. He said, keep saying hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Keep on saying it. And maybe after a long, long time, your tongue will trip and then you'll babble something you don't understand. That'll be the gift of tongues and you'd be anointed to the Holy Spirit.

I said, thank you, sir. Goodbye. That is not how the apostles got the Holy Spirit's anointing on the day of Pentecost.

And I'm not going to do what you say. And then I looked around at some of those Pentecostal pastors, how much they love money. I didn't know it then, but as I observed them, I see that much more in America.

All these people who talk about anointing and all that, such lovers of money. I said, something wrong there. Those are not the people I can learn anything from.

I can never learn anything spiritual from a man who loves money because he's completely wrong. So I left that and I said, I'll never go to a Pentecostal church again. I don't want that.

I went to my room and I said, Lord, can't you meet with me here? Do I have to go to some church and some pastor? And while I was seeking the Lord in my room, this is what the Lord spoke to me from the Bible. When was Jesus anointed? He was anointed when he submitted to John the Baptist, immersing him in the river Jordan, baptizing him, burying him in that water and pulling him out. And immediately after that, you see it in Matthew chapter three, the spirit of God came upon Jesus.

And what the Holy Spirit spoke to me then was, if you want my power to rest upon you, you have to go that way. You have to be willing to let other people submerge you, put you to death as it were inwardly. You have to die to yourself and submit to any insult, anything that people do to you.

Keep quiet. Don't retaliate. Submit to death to self.

That's what baptism means. Baptism is a testimony that I'm willing to submit to death to myself. And I believe that from that buried state, God will lift me up like God raised up Jesus from the dead.

Then I'll be anointed. So I saw that that day, the Lord opened my eyes to what is called the way of the cross, the way of death to self every day. You know, when I learned that, when I was 23 years old, 63 years ago, and the Lord showed it to me from the passage of Jesus baptism, it was a revelation.

I never heard anybody preach on it, that the way Jesus was submitted to death to self, the Spirit of God came on him. And this is what the Lord said to me that day. I still remember so vividly when I was 23 years old.

If you go this way, my power will rest upon you always. And I've experienced it for 63 years. And the Lord also said, the day you decide not to go this way, my power will depart from you.

So I've been scared of avoiding the way of the cross. If I do not choose the way of death to self, I know the anointing of God will go away from me, no matter how many years I may have preached. After that, I'll preach with my head knowledge without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

There are a lot of people who preach from head knowledge, or they listen to somebody else's sermon and get their points and preach it. There are thousands of people who listen to my sermons on YouTube and preach it. Somebody once asked me that question, Brother Zach, can I preach your sermons? I say, sure, on one condition, that you live it first.

You obey what I said, then you can preach it, because then it becomes your message. But if you merely preach for the sake of honor, you got some points from my sermon on YouTube, and then you get up and preach that, that is seeking your own honor. You think God will approve of that? Never.

It has to become your life first. So when you hear a word, obey it, then it becomes your message, then it'll come out of you. And then if you seek with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

So when it said here that those who are faithful with money will get true riches, first one is becoming like Christ in character. And the second was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I told you how that came to me.

And the third is revelation on God's word. So these are the three riches I found. Becoming like Christ, anointing of the Holy Spirit, and revelation on God's word.

Now revelation on God's word is different from understanding God's word. Understanding I just need a clever mind. Like people go to Bible college and they understand, understand, understand.

That's not revelation. You remember what when Simon Peter, the Lord asked, told people, who do people say I am? That's in Matthew 16. Who do people say that I am? And some said, oh, some say you're Elijah, and some say you're Jeremiah, come back from the dead.

This is Luke, Matthew 16, 14. And then he asked his disciples, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter said, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon, because, Matthew 16, 17, the Holy, my Father in heaven revealed this to you by the Holy Spirit.

You see that word reveal? Reveal comes from the word revelation. It doesn't come by explanation. Explanation is different from revelation.

What I'm telling you now is explanation. But if you get it from heaven, it'll become a revelation. So what you hear a man speaking to you can become revelation for you if you seek God for it.

Lord, what I heard from Brother Zach today, I believe he's a godly man who speaks the truth, but I've only got it in my head. I want it to come as revelation to my heart, otherwise my life will not change. Now, how do you know whether you've got information or revelation? I'll tell you.

Listen carefully. You're hearing me. Is it information or revelation? If it is information, you'll say, yeah, I understood it.

Or you'll say, ah, that's a good point for me to preach somewhere. Honor seeking. It'll never go well with you if that's your aim.

Revelation is, boy, that shows me how I must live. There's something I have to set right in my life when I heard this message. There's some change, there's been some change in my priorities.

I've got to have a different attitude to money now. That is, I'm taking some decisions based on what I heard. That is revelation.

But information is only up in the mind. Revelation is in the heart, which makes me change the direction of my life, makes me take decisions that affect my whole life. That is how God wants us to read his word.

Then let's turn back to Psalm 1. Then Psalm 1 will be fulfilled in our life. We meditated on God's word. And what happens? Then I no longer, verse 1, Psalm 1 1, I no longer stand in the path of sinners.

I don't sit in the seat of people who scoff at the Bible, but I delight in the law of the Lord and I meditate on it day and night. And what will happen? I'll be like a tree. Psalm 1, verse 3, firmly planted by the rivers of water.

When you see a tree full of fruit and green leaves, and you wonder how is that? Because underground, the tree has sent out some roots. And you know, the roots of a tree are always looking for water. If you could get into the mind of the roots of a tree, it's searching, searching.

The roots are stretching out water, water, water, and it goes to a river. There's a river nearby. God touches that and it draws from that river.

And the tree becomes fruitful. A tree planted by streams of water and its fruit comes out fresh and ripe in its season. And the leaves of this tree never wither because the river is flowing next to it.

But then you look at that other tree in the desert, no river anywhere. The roots are looking for water, water. It can't get any water and it's all dried up.

There's something in us that must look like the hidden, you know, the roots are the hidden part of a tree. You can't see it. What you see is on the outside.

You wonder how is this tree so fruitful? How are the leaves so green, always green 12 months of the year? And the secret is you got to dig underneath and you see the roots have gone searching, searching, searching for water and get water in the river and drawing the water continuously. That is the secret. So whenever you see a brother who's always fresh, who's got a word from heaven all the time, who never stops loving, no matter how people treat him, who will always walk in humility, never try to push other people down, but goes underneath other people to lift them up.

Whenever you see a brother who manifests the spirit and the life of Christ consistently, not occasionally, but day after day after day after day after day, just like that tree is always fresh, always green. And you wonder what is the secret? I'll tell you. You get into his heart and you'll find inside his heart.

He's been searching, searching for the power of the Holy Spirit. Just like that, the roots of the tree, searching for water. So that's how you must be, my brothers.

I've been, I've experienced this for so many years that even today, there's not a single day that goes by in my life without my praying, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. When I get up in the morning, my first words are, Dad, so happy to talk to you this morning. Fill me with the Holy Spirit.

More than health. Health is secondary to me. I want to be healthy because I don't want to be a burden to anybody.

I don't want to be a burden to my wife. I don't want to be a burden to anybody else. And I want to be able to serve the Lord.

That's why I want health. I don't want health for any other reason, but I want the anointing of the Holy Spirit every day because I never know who I'll meet that day who will need a word from heaven. And if I'm in touch with the Lord, I'd have a word for that person.

If I'm not in touch with the Lord, I may not be help. A needy person comes by my path and I'm not able to help him. What a life this can be.

Whatever he does will prosper. Prosper means not financially. Spiritually, this man will be a millionaire, spiritual millionaire.

That's different from monetary millionaire. Then he's spiritual. He's just such a tremendous blessing to every person he meets.

He's a blessing. Every word he speaks goes and blesses some heart. He doesn't bore people.

Every one of you can be like that. That is my message. There is no partiality with God.

The Bible tells us never to be partial towards people. You know, the Bible says that we are the younger brothers of Jesus. Do you know that? It says in Romans chapter 8 that God makes everything work together for good for us, Romans 8 28, because he wants to make us like Jesus so that, Romans 8 29, Jesus can be the eldest of many brothers.

So Jesus wants to be the eldest brother and we are his younger brothers. That is God's desire. When God sent his son into the world, it was not just to forgive our sins and die on the cross.

It is so that he can cleanse us in the blood and then anoint us with the Holy Spirit so that finally we become his younger brothers and he becomes the eldest of all the brothers. That's what it says God makes, Romans 8 28 and 29, let me paraphrase it to you, God makes everything in the lives of his children to work for their good. And what is that good Lord? That they might become like Jesus and thus become his younger brothers and sisters.

Wonderful. There's nothing greater than that. Not even being a billionaire or trillionaire or whatever it is.

To be a younger brother of Jesus Christ for all eternity. One day when Jesus comes back, we'll see that is the greatest thing you could ever have on earth. The wise man, the wise woman will understand it now.

I've understood it now. That the greatest thing for all eternity is to be a younger brother or a younger sister of Jesus Christ. Absolutely nothing to equal it.

And God makes everything to work together for that. And I say, Lord, I want to be that. And I can be that if I do what the Bible says in Hebrews 12 verse 2, looking unto Jesus, we run this race.

So I remember once when I was in a very difficult situation where people were troubling me. I said, Lord, what shall I do? The Lord said, look for my footsteps in this difficult situation with these difficult people. What are those footsteps, Lord? He said, footsteps of faith and love.

I was in the military where they taught me left, right, left, right, left, right. Those are the footsteps I was taught in the military. And the Lord taught me like that, like that in the military, in the spiritual life, you learn faith and love and faith and love and faith and love.

And he said, faith in your heavenly father, complete control, sovereign over all the circumstances of your life. That is faith. That your heavenly father is in complete control over every circumstance that comes into your life, every person that comes across you, anyone who tries to harm you or bless you or whatever.

Your heavenly father is in control. That's faith and love. The second step, like left, right.

Second is love, especially towards your enemies. That's what the Lord told me. It's easy to love those who love you.

I want you to go beyond that and love your enemies, those who hate you, love them, do good to them, bless them, pray for those who persecute you. And I've done that. As a servant of the Lord, the devil has prompted many people to harass me, persecute me, trouble me.

God is my witness. I have forgiven every one of them, whatever they did to me. There's not a single soul anywhere on the face of the earth whom I've not forgiven.

God gave me grace to do that. Those are the footsteps of Jesus. Faith and love, faith and love, faith and love.

To me, it is like the left, right, left, right, left, right on the parade ground. Faith and love and faith and love and faith and love. I recommend that to you.

Be a military man in the kingdom of God and walk by faith and love and faith and love. And then I'll tell you, whatever you do, spiritually, you will prosper. And you come to the end of your life and you stand before the Lord one day and all your life is displayed on the screen and say, thank you, Lord.

So many years of my life I wasted. I'm ashamed of that. But from a certain point in my life, when I heard this message, from that day onwards, my life changed.

I took it seriously. You won't have any regret. I guarantee you won't have any regret when Christ comes back.

Whatever you may lose on this earth, you put Jesus first and say, Lord, I want to walk in your footsteps. I want to see you clearly looking unto Jesus and seeking to live as he lived. So let's read Psalm 1 once again and close.

Psalm 1 verses 1 to 3. How blessed, what fantastic blessing comes upon the man who does not take advice from ungodly people. He does not take the advice of ungodly people. He does not stand in the midst of sinful people except to be a witness to them, but he doesn't walk in their path.

And he does not sit with those people who make fun. The world is full of people who make fun of others, make fun of the word of God and make fun of spiritual things and make fun of other people. Don't sit with them.

But he doesn't just read God's word. He delights in God's word. It's like chocolate and ice cream or whatever is your favorite dish.

He delights. God's word is like that. He delights in it.

Like a child says, oh, mama, you made ice cream. Wonderful. That's how a person goes to God's word.

Delights in God's word. Say, Lord, it's wonderful what you give me. And he meditates on it day and night more and more and more and more.

It's like, mama, I'd like another another spoon of ice cream, please. Another spoon. One more spoon, please.

Like the child says, Lord, I want more from your word. He will be like this tree whose roots are always receiving from the river of God's Holy Spirit power coming inwardly all the time. And the result is in this.

You don't see that. You don't see the roots of a tree. You don't see how the tree is sucking up water and you don't see this man's inner life because it's all hidden.

But you've seen the fruit in this person's life. Fruit. Good fruit.

And his leaves, his temperament never ugly, always fresh, cheerful, a leaf that does not wither. And whatever he puts his hand to spiritually, it prospers. Like the Lord told Abraham, you will be a blessing to every family you encounter.

I claim that for myself. I said, Lord, you told me. In Galatians 314, in case you remember that verse, you told me in Galatians 314 that the blessing of Abraham can be mine.

Yeah. What is the blessing of Abraham? God told Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, I'll bless you and everybody you meet will be blessed through you. Galatians 314 says that's for me.

And that is the purpose, it says in Galatians 314, why God gave me the Holy Spirit so that everybody I meet will be blessed in some way. And he says, you know the price I paid for it. Galatians 313.

Christ says, I became a curse on the cross for you that you might be a blessing to others. Thank you, Lord. I knew he died for me.

I knew he shed his blood for me, but it took me many years to discover in Galatians 313 that Jesus also became a curse for me on the cross. Why? He shed his blood that my sins can be forgiven. He became a curse that I can be a blessing to everybody I meet.

This is not reserved for only a few people. It's reserved for you. If you'll fulfill the conditions, change your attitude to God's Word from today, meditate on it, and say, Lord, I'll obey it.

I'll turn away from everything that I know to be sinful in my life. Even if you're a little child listening to me today, you children, if any of you are listening to me, this is for you too. Jesus loves little children.

You can have this blessing. Young people, you can be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Seek God.

Don't be like these believers who have grown old and old and old and old, just made money and go to church just for namesake and never seek God earnestly in their life for the part of the Holy Spirit. Don't be like them. There are some people, all they do is go and sit on Sunday morning in some church and warm the pew in which they sit, the chair in which they sit, and go home.

That's not our calling. Our calling is to be a blessing to everybody, and you cannot make yourself a blessing. If you try to do that, you'll make yourself a nuisance.

Ask God to anoint you with the Holy Spirit, and then you will be a blessing to everyone you meet. This is for everybody. The most ignorant, stupid, foolish person can have this.

Little children can have it. Everyone. Let's pray.

Please bow your heads and whatever the Lord spoke to you today, please respond to the Lord that particular thing. If the Lord told you to set something right in your life, say, Lord, at the first opportunity I'll set it right. If there's somebody you have to ask forgiveness from, please go and ask forgiveness immediately.

The first opportunity, call them up or send them an email or something and ask for forgiveness, and if you have to forgive somebody, please forgive that person right now. Say, Lord, I forgive that person. He's done some harm to me, but I forgive him completely, and I'll never bring it up again.

It's finished. God will forgive you only if you forgive others. Heavenly Father, your word is so rich.

Thank you for everyone here who has heard it, those who took the trouble to join this meeting and to listen. I pray that not one person will miss what you have for them. Remind them again and again, because you love them.

Remind them again and again of what they heard today. We humbly ask in Jesus' name, Amen.