Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well, God bless you. It's always a joy to come into your homes. We love you, We know God has great things in store for each one of you, and we pray for you every single day. If you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop by and be a part of one of our services. We give you a personal invitation. But thanks for tuning in today. I'd like to start with something funny each week. Of course, these are just jokes. I don't mean to offend anybody. But I heard about this lady. She was speeding down the freeway. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention she was blonde. She was feeding down the freeway and she got pulled over by a female police officer who also happened to be blonde. She said, I need to see your driver's license, and the lady dug and dug through a purse, got more and more agitated. Finally, she said to the officer, what does it look like. She said, well, it's just a little square and it's got your picture on it. The lady found a mirror and looked at it and saw a picture, so she said oh and handed it to the officer. The officer looked at it and saw her picture. She handed it back and said, Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a police officer. All right, I might need to ride home today. Y'all say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says. I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about living the abund didn't life. God's dream is that you not only be blessed, but you be blessed in such a way that you're a blessing everywhere you go. We should have so much peace, so much joy, so much victory. When other people get around us, it spills over onto them. David put it this way. My cup runs over. I call it the overflow annointing. But too many people have a barely get by mentality, barely able to pay my bills, got an okay job and okay marriage. No Jesus came so we could live an abundant life. That means an abundance of joy, an abundance of peace, and abundance of health, and abundance in our finances. You may not be seeing it right now, maybe you haven't experienced it in the past. But don't get complacent and just settle where you are. Keep a big vision in front of you. I know sometimes people ask me, Joel, are you a prosperity minister. No, I don't consider myself a prosperity minister, but I can tell you this, I am not a poverty minister. I can't find anywhere in the scripture where we're supposed to drag around defeated, depressed, barely getting by. I want you to have a big dream for your life. You have not reached your limits. You have not seen your best days in your health, in your finances, in your relationships. God wants to take you to new levels, but you've got to do your part and enlarge your thinking, make room for it in your mind. Settle it right now. This is where I am, but this is not where I'm staying. I'm coming up higher. I'm gonna step into that overflow anointing. I'm gonna live the abundant life. The scripture says here in Some thirty five seven, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his children. Notice they were supposed to go around saying this, Let God be magnified, He has pleasure in prospering us. I believe one reason they were supposed to say it all the time was so it would get down on the inside. God knows when we hear something long enough, will eventually start believing it. All day long, they could hear them declaring this over their life. God is prospering me. God has taken me to new levels. God has great things in store. They were saying, in effect, new doors are opening, my health is getting better, my marriage is being restored, my children are gonna do great things. Friends, God takes great joy in prospering. You get that down on the inside. Some of you have been stuck in a rut. You've come from generations of lack and defeat and mediocrity, and now you've just about accepted that that's all you're going to see. But God is saying, this is a new day. You're entering into new levels. You to get supernatural opportunities. People are gonna go out of their way to be good to you. It's because number one, you've been obedient, and number two, you've released your faith in this area. And I know this is what my father did. Daddy grew up in extreme poverty. But at the age of seventeen, when he gave his life to the Lord, something rose up on the inside of him and he said, my children will never be raised in the lack and defeat that I'm in. Right now, he drew the line in the sand and said, this is where I am, but this is not where I'm staying. Back in those days, as a young minister, he was taught you had to be poor in order to be holy, and the churches he pastored, he did his part and stayed holy, and they did their part and kept him poor. My mother and father were raising five children, making a hundred and twenty dollars a week, barely able to survive. And I remember my father telling how nineteen fifty nine, when they open Lakewood in the little feed store, one of his main men came up and said, we need to buy a water fountain. It's gonna cost seventy dollars. My father thought he had lost his mind. He said, are you kidding? Where do you think we'll get that kind of money. He had a poverty mentality. That's all he had ever known, and it was setting the limits for his life. We will never rise any higher than our own thinking. You've got to be fully convinced that God not only takes pleasure in prospering you, but he has new levels in store. He wants you to go further than you are right now. The scripture says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. That means we're supposed to leave something to our grandchildren. And that's not just talking about good memories. And understand, God would not ask us to do something if he had not already provided away. You may not see how it can happen. But if you'll stay in aid and keep a big vision, God will make away. You can fulfill that promise. Now I can hear a word down on the inside so strongly acceleration. Things are gonna happen faster than you thought. Supernatural breaks, supernatural opportunities. Doors are going to open for you that at one time you thought were impossible. God is going to move people around to get you into the right position. Keep believing and keep being your best, be a person of excellence. Get to work on time, give it a dent, whether anyone's watching or not. Learn to work under God and not under people. When you sow these kinds of seeds, that's when you're gonna come into this overflow annointing. And I don't say this bragging in any way, but God is blessed victorian I beyond our wildest dreams. It talks about in Psalm one thirty three. The annointing that's on the head flows down to the rest of the bye in. You may not have seen it yet, but get ready, it's on its way. We've experienced that, and if you will stay in faith, it's just a matter of time. You're coming into new seasons of increase, new seasons of favor. Doors are gonna open for you that will boggle your mind. You're gonna get breaks where you look back and say that had to be the hand of God. What happened you stepped into that overflow annointing Well, you say, Joel, my family and I we've always struggled. I don't see how it could happened for me. No, you can be the first. But you've got to get rid of that defeated mindset and develop a prosperous mentality. I heard somebody say this, package yourself for where you're going, not for where you are. In other words, you got to look the part, put your shoulders back, put a smile on your face, and dress your best. Don't just run out of the house looking sloppy. Didn't have time to iron my shirt, hadn't bought myself anything new in five years. Now, you gotta take care of yourself. If you feel sloppy on the outside, before long, it's gonna get on the inside. Just the opposite is true. If you'll take the time to look your best each day and package yourself for where you're going, not for where you are, that too, will get on the inside, and you'll begin to develop this prosperous mindset. I love the story of the prodigal Son. When the young man came back home after wasting all of his money and living a wild life. The father was so excited. He said, go kill the fatted calf. Go get the best robe. Notice he didn't say, go get me a week six straggly looking calf. Go get me that old robe that I never wear anymore, that's torn, that's all beat up looking. Now, he said, go get the best robe and put it on him. Go kill the fatted calf. That's the way God thinks abundance. The older brother, who had been there the whole time, he got kind of jealous. He said that I don't understand it. I've been here all this time, but you've never even given me. One translation says a skinny goat. That's the way a lot of people are. They're limited in their thinking. I'll never rise any higher, I'll never get out of this mess. I've gone as far as I can go. You know what their problem is, They have a skinny goat mentality. The fact is there are other people in that same situation, but their attitude is I'm coming out. I know God takes pleasure in prospering me. I may not see how it's gonna happen, but I know God's a supernatural god and I'm coming into new seasons of increase. What's the difference. They have a fatted calf mentality. If you're gonna experience God's best, if you're gonna come into this overflow anointing, you have to keep a big vision in front of you. I was at the mall one time years ago with a friend of mine and we were just killing time, looking at things and every other phrase. He said, I can't afford it. Looking at sporting equipment, I can't afford it, Looking at some shirts, I can't afford it, looking at shoes, I can't afford it. Finally, I said, will you quit saying I can't afford it? If you keep saying that, you're never going to be able to afford anything, he was setting the limits for his life with his own words. The truth is, most of the things we were looking at I couldn't afford either. But I've learned I don't have to announce it to the world. And if you can't afford something, I'm not saying the liar to have some kind of fantasy land in your head. I'm simply saying, if you're gonna say that, you need to at least add two more words. I can't afford it right now. It's just a matter of time. I know, because I'm faithful, God will give me the desires of my heart. But friends, if you have a poor mouth, you're gonna have a poor life. If you go around saying way, I'll probably never get out of debt. Joel, I don't see how I could send my kids to college. Now, can I say two words to your very respectfully skinny goat. You need to switch over into this fatted calf mentality. Why don't you believe that God could open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out blessings you can't contain. Why don't you believe that goodness, mercy, favor follow you all the days of your life. Why don't you believe, like David, your cup is running over. Instead of going around with that poor mouth, you need to start declaring. God takes pleasure in prospering me. I have not reached my limits. I know that overflow annointing is coming my way. When we were drawing plans to renovate this facility, the first instructions I gave to the design team was to do it as cheap as possible. I had no idea how we were gonna pay for it. And one day we were walking through the lobbies with the whole architectural team and they said, Joel, we're planning on putting carpet over all this time. I said, no, we don't need to do that. This tile is fine. It was thirty years old, had big cracks in it. There were these large stains where they had moved the concession stands, but in my mind it was fine. We went into the restroom areas they said we were planning on replacing the stalls and replacing the sinks and changing out this tile. Again, I said, no, no, no, this is just fine. Well, my brother in law, Kevin was with me. He's our administrator and in charge of all of our construction. He said, Joel, we are not going to let people go into these restrooms. They are terrible. And I thought to myself, where did he get such a fatted calf mentality? Then I remembered he was raised on a farm in Iowa. No wonder, but I had this skinny goat mentality. My first idea was to use portable buildings to have our children's services, and to just do the minimal amount of lighting and sound and They said, if we did just that, we could probably get in here for million dollars. So we went and met with our bankers. We've known these people for ever. We had excellent credit at that time, we didn't have one penny of debt, millions and millions of dollars worth of assets, and we simply asked if we could borrow twenty five million dollars. Man, it was like pulling teeth. They told me how we were such a big risk, and how we might not be able to pay them back, and how we just shouldn't do that. I left there so discouraged. I thought, man alive, I may have a skinny goat mentality, but their goat is starving. Their goat hadn't even in six months. I was so down. I didn't know what we were gonna do. But about two weeks later, we met with another bank, Bank of America. We've never dealt with them before, but it was a night and day difference. They were excited for us, they wanted to help. We weren't in the meeting. Five minutes before they pulled out a letter and said, we're prepared to loan your twenty million dollars today. They hadn't even seen our finances. They didn't know anything about us. I was so excited. I thought to myself, if they'll loan us twenty five million that quickly, maybe they'll loan us the sixty that we really need to do it right. I laughed and said, great, but how about sixty? They came back a couple of weeks later and said, you got a deal. Friends. God has the right people, the right opportunities, the right breaks already lined up for. You don't have a skinny goat mentality, dare to believe. You may not see how it could happen, but that doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. People may have told you know a thousand times. Now, you're kind of discouraged and tempted to just settle where you are, but you've got to get your fireback. God is in control and he still has a way to bring your dreams to pass. Every time you walk out in those lobbies, every time you look at this beautiful facility, it should remind us that our God has a fatted calf mentality. God wants to do more than we can even ask her. Think. It says in Deuteronomy, if you will fully obey the Lord your God and follow his commands. These blessings will come up on you. That means they will overtake you. And it goes on to list blessing after blessing. It says you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. Your seed will be blessed. That's your children and grandchildren. Your business and career will be blessed. Everything you put your hands to will prosper. You will be the head and not the tail. Verse eleven sums it up. God will fill your life with an abundance of good things. But here's the key. All these blessings are dependent on the very first phrase, if you fully obey the Lord your God. Obedience is a key to see in God's blessings. You have to lay aside any weights that are holding you back. When God brings to light issues and attitudes that you know are not right, be quick to change. The longer you put it off, the more you delay God's blessings. When God asks you to do something hard, maybe he ask you to forgive somebody this really hurts you, or he asked you to give up a relationship that you know is not healthy. God's never trying to take anything away. He's trying to get more to you. The more obedience you are, the more of his blessings. You will see. God rewards people that fully obey. A lot of times, partial obedience is what's keeping people in mediocrity. And some of you are holding onto things that you know are not God's best. Let me tell you it's not worth it. Be willing to change now. Realize the pain of change can be difficult, but the pain of staining the same is even more difficult. Don't miss this abundant life because you refuse to deal with issues. And this is between you and God. Nobody can make you treat people right. Nobody can make you stay pure in your thought life or pure in your marriage. It's totally up to you. I want you to experience this overflow annointing, and I know when you walk in obedience, when you live a life that honors God, his blessings will chase you down and overtake you. You You will not be able to outrun the good things of God. It says in Deuteronomy there was a law that God gave Moses for the people of Israel, and it said that every seventh year, you had to release any Hebrew slaves. And the way it worked was if you were Hebrew and you owed someone money but you couldn't pay, that person had a right to take you in as a slave and force you to work full time for them until you paid them back. But God did not want his people to remain slaves forever. So every seventh year this law said, no matter how much you owed, no matter how in debt you were, if you were a part of God's chosen people, you had a special advantage and you got released. This tells me that God does not want his people to remain permanent slaves to anything. You may be in debt today, but God doesn't want that to last forever. You may be facing sickness, but that's only temporary. You may be bound by some kind of addiction, but God doesn't want you to stay in bondage. You need to see that it's temporary. This had to do with their finances. Every seventh year they were released, all the debt, the lack, the struggling. In one moment they walked away from it total freedom. You may be struggling today, maybe you haven't seen a lot of increase, but I can sense in my spirit we're entering into one of those seventh years. The seventh year begins new seasons of increase. It's a time where God's gonna break bondages off of you that have held you back, bondages of debt, lack, sicknesses, addictions, depression, mediocrity. The seventh year is a time of release. It's a time of freedom. You've got to do your part and get this on the inside. Believe this is my seventh year, this is my time to be free. I'm being released into increase. It talks about in Exodus fifteen that even though some people had a legal right to be free from that slavery, they could have walked away from the debt and the bondage, but they chose not to. You know why. They were comfortable, They were satisfied. They didn't want to rock the boat. Here. They had all that freedom in front of them. They had an abundance of joy, peace and victory, but they chose to remain as slaves. Don't let that be you. You have been released into increase. This is your seventh year, but you've gotta rise up and take hold of it. And the scripture tells how all of God's promises are yes and amen. A lot of times people hear this and they think, yes, God wants to prosper me. Yes, God wants to bless me. Yes God wants to heal me. But yes alone is not enough. You've got to add the amen to it. Amen means be it under me. In other words, I received this by faith. I let this take root in my spirit. See, it's one thing to know that God wants to heal you. It's another thing to rise up and say, God is my healer. He's restoring health and to me. It's one thing to know God wants you to be free. It's another thing to rise up and say, I am free. This addiction cannot control me. It's one thing to know God wants you to be blessed. It's another thing to rise up and say, God is supplying all of my needs. I'm coming into the seventh year. This is my season of increase. You have to mix faith with it. You add the amen by making it personal. I am blessed, I am prosperous. I am the head and not the tail. One time there was a great famine in the land. The prophet Elijah was at a brook and every day, once in the morning and once in the evening. God caused a raven to bring him bread and bring him meat. This went on for three and a half years. And you think about during a time of famine, there was nowhere to get food, the people didn't have it. How much less likely would this bird be able to do it? But God calls that raven to supernaturally fine food. He would come with bread in one claw and meet in the other claw, and just like clockwork, at breakfast and at dinner, he would swoop in and just drop it on Elijah's plate. Isn't it funny God thought of home delivery before pizza hut. But some of you are wondering how God can supply your needs? How can I ever get out of debt? Joel? How can I be well? How can I rise higher? Odd is a supernatural god. He supersedes the laws of nature. He supersedes the laws of medicine, the laws of finance. What's interesting is the raven that brought Elijah food every day was called a foul of the air. It was an unclean bird. You remember in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talked about when the seed was sown on a certain kind of soil. The fouls of the air came immediately to try to steal it. The foul represented the enemy, and what God was saying to Elijah by having this raven, this foul bring him food every day. After all, God could have chosen a dove that represents the Holy Spirit. But God was saying, Elijah, if you will be obedient and go where I tell you to go, I'll cause even your enemies to bless you. I'll cause your enemies to supply your knees. Friends, God controls it all. He can cause your against enemy to be your biggest blessing. He can cause the people that are trying to push you down to be the very ones that lift you up. He can take that sickness that's meant for your harm and turn it around and use it to make you stronger. When you stay in faith, God will use your enemies to increase you well. Eventually, the brook dried up and the ravens quit coming. God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to a widow's home and she would take care of him. He did, and when he got there he asked her for something to eat. She agreed, but she said, this is my last little bit of meal. She was planning on making him dinner, and then she and her baby would probably die, probably just starved to death. So she reached down into that big barrel and scooped out the last cupful of meal. But then she just looked down in passing and she saw some more. She thought, well, I must have missed some. She reached down and scooped up another cupful. Look back down, she saw more meal. This happened again, in and again. God caused that neal to supernaturally keep multiplying, and instead of going through seven years of famine, she went through seven years of increase. What happened she hit one of those seventh years where she was released into increase. I believe God is saying that to each one of you, it's your seventh year. It's your time to be released from debt into increase, from sickness into hell, from bondages into freedom. Why don't you get this down into your spirit have the attitude, Yes, this is my seventh year. I am coming out of debt. I'm gonna break this addiction. I'm gonna defeat this sickness. I'm gonna overcome these obstacles, the chains of lack, defeat, mediocrity, or broken off of me. I'm coming into new seasons of increase. I know some of you, like that widow, you kind of feel like you've been in a famine. You haven't seen a lot of increase in the nap or the future doesn't look very bright. But God is saying to us, if you'll stay in faith, that famine is going to come to an end, and you're going to come in to supernatural increase, supernatural blessings, supernatural opportunities. If God can cause a bird to take care of Elijah for three and a half years, he can surely take care of you and me. Why don't you get rid of that skinny goat mentality and start thinking fatted calf. God wants you to live his abundant life. He's already paid the price. When you walk in obedience, you have a big vision. He's promised His blessings are gonna chase you down and overtake you. And that's my prayer for each one of you, that you will come into this overflow annointing, that you will see God pour out blessings that you can't even contain. I believe something supernatural happens when it's spoken over us. So I speak over you an abundance of health, an abundance of joy, and of abundance in your finances. You are being released into increase. The tide of the battle is turning. God is accelerating his blessings in your life. The chains that have tried to hold you back in your mind, in your health, in your relationships, in your business, they are being broken off of you. God is releasing favor into your future. The right people, the right opportunities are coming across your path. You will be blessed in the city, blessed in the country, blessed when you come in, blessed when you go out. Your seed will be mighty on the land. And abundance of good things are coming your way. I declare it in the name of Jesus, and if you receive it, can you saut amen? But we never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my lord and savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer. We believe you got born again. Get into good Bible based church, Keep God in first place. He's gonna take your places that you've never dreamed of. Thank you for listening to the joel Oustein podcast. Help us continue to share the message of hope with those all over the world. Visit joel Oustein dot com slash give Hope to give a gift today. Thanks so much for listening to today's message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep you inspired all through the week. We're praying for you. I know God's best to steal ahead. We'll see you next time.

Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend. We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Well, God bless you. It's always a joy to come into your homes. We love you, We know God has great things in store for each one of you, and we pray for you every single day. If you're ever in our area, I hope you'll stop by and be a part of one of our services. We give you a personal invitation. But thanks for tuning in today. I'd like to start with something funny each week. Of course, these are just jokes. I don't mean to offend anybody. But I heard about this lady. She was speeding down the freeway. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention she was blonde. She was feeding down the freeway and she got pulled over by a female police officer who also happened to be blonde. She said, I need to see your driver's license, and the lady dug and dug through a purse, got more and more agitated. Finally, she said to the officer, what does it look like. She said, well, it's just a little square and it's got your picture on it. The lady found a mirror and looked at it and saw a picture, so she said oh and handed it to the officer. The officer looked at it and saw her picture. She handed it back and said, Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a police officer. All right, I might need to ride home today. Y'all say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says. I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about living the abund didn't life. God's dream is that you not only be blessed, but you be blessed in such a way that you're a blessing everywhere you go. We should have so much peace, so much joy, so much victory. When other people get around us, it spills over onto them. David put it this way. My cup runs over. I call it the overflow annointing. But too many people have a barely get by mentality, barely able to pay my bills, got an okay job and okay marriage. No Jesus came so we could live an abundant life. That means an abundance of joy, an abundance of peace, and abundance of health, and abundance in our finances. You may not be seeing it right now, maybe you haven't experienced it in the past. But don't get complacent and just settle where you are. Keep a big vision in front of you. I know sometimes people ask me, Joel, are you a prosperity minister. No, I don't consider myself a prosperity minister, but I can tell you this, I am not a poverty minister. I can't find anywhere in the scripture where we're supposed to drag around defeated, depressed, barely getting by. I want you to have a big dream for your life. You have not reached your limits. You have not seen your best days in your health, in your finances, in your relationships. God wants to take you to new levels, but you've got to do your part and enlarge your thinking, make room for it in your mind. Settle it right now. This is where I am, but this is not where I'm staying. I'm coming up higher. I'm gonna step into that overflow anointing. I'm gonna live the abundant life. The scripture says here in Some thirty five seven, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his children. Notice they were supposed to go around saying this, Let God be magnified, He has pleasure in prospering us. I believe one reason they were supposed to say it all the time was so it would get down on the inside. God knows when we hear something long enough, will eventually start believing it. All day long, they could hear them declaring this over their life. God is prospering me. God has taken me to new levels. God has great things in store. They were saying, in effect, new doors are opening, my health is getting better, my marriage is being restored, my children are gonna do great things. Friends, God takes great joy in prospering. You get that down on the inside. Some of you have been stuck in a rut. You've come from generations of lack and defeat and mediocrity, and now you've just about accepted that that's all you're going to see. But God is saying, this is a new day. You're entering into new levels. You to get supernatural opportunities. People are gonna go out of their way to be good to you. It's because number one, you've been obedient, and number two, you've released your faith in this area. And I know this is what my father did. Daddy grew up in extreme poverty. But at the age of seventeen, when he gave his life to the Lord, something rose up on the inside of him and he said, my children will never be raised in the lack and defeat that I'm in. Right now, he drew the line in the sand and said, this is where I am, but this is not where I'm staying. Back in those days, as a young minister, he was taught you had to be poor in order to be holy, and the churches he pastored, he did his part and stayed holy, and they did their part and kept him poor. My mother and father were raising five children, making a hundred and twenty dollars a week, barely able to survive. And I remember my father telling how nineteen fifty nine, when they open Lakewood in the little feed store, one of his main men came up and said, we need to buy a water fountain. It's gonna cost seventy dollars. My father thought he had lost his mind. He said, are you kidding? Where do you think we'll get that kind of money. He had a poverty mentality. That's all he had ever known, and it was setting the limits for his life. We will never rise any higher than our own thinking. You've got to be fully convinced that God not only takes pleasure in prospering you, but he has new levels in store. He wants you to go further than you are right now. The scripture says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. That means we're supposed to leave something to our grandchildren. And that's not just talking about good memories. And understand, God would not ask us to do something if he had not already provided away. You may not see how it can happen. But if you'll stay in aid and keep a big vision, God will make away. You can fulfill that promise. Now I can hear a word down on the inside so strongly acceleration. Things are gonna happen faster than you thought. Supernatural breaks, supernatural opportunities. Doors are going to open for you that at one time you thought were impossible. God is going to move people around to get you into the right position. Keep believing and keep being your best, be a person of excellence. Get to work on time, give it a dent, whether anyone's watching or not. Learn to work under God and not under people. When you sow these kinds of seeds, that's when you're gonna come into this overflow annointing. And I don't say this bragging in any way, but God is blessed victorian I beyond our wildest dreams. It talks about in Psalm one thirty three. The annointing that's on the head flows down to the rest of the bye in. You may not have seen it yet, but get ready, it's on its way. We've experienced that, and if you will stay in faith, it's just a matter of time. You're coming into new seasons of increase, new seasons of favor. Doors are gonna open for you that will boggle your mind. You're gonna get breaks where you look back and say that had to be the hand of God. What happened you stepped into that overflow annointing Well, you say, Joel, my family and I we've always struggled. I don't see how it could happened for me. No, you can be the first. But you've got to get rid of that defeated mindset and develop a prosperous mentality. I heard somebody say this, package yourself for where you're going, not for where you are. In other words, you got to look the part, put your shoulders back, put a smile on your face, and dress your best. Don't just run out of the house looking sloppy. Didn't have time to iron my shirt, hadn't bought myself anything new in five years. Now, you gotta take care of yourself. If you feel sloppy on the outside, before long, it's gonna get on the inside. Just the opposite is true. If you'll take the time to look your best each day and package yourself for where you're going, not for where you are, that too, will get on the inside, and you'll begin to develop this prosperous mindset. I love the story of the prodigal Son. When the young man came back home after wasting all of his money and living a wild life. The father was so excited. He said, go kill the fatted calf. Go get the best robe. Notice he didn't say, go get me a week six straggly looking calf. Go get me that old robe that I never wear anymore, that's torn, that's all beat up looking. Now, he said, go get the best robe and put it on him. Go kill the fatted calf. That's the way God thinks abundance. The older brother, who had been there the whole time, he got kind of jealous. He said that I don't understand it. I've been here all this time, but you've never even given me. One translation says a skinny goat. That's the way a lot of people are. They're limited in their thinking. I'll never rise any higher, I'll never get out of this mess. I've gone as far as I can go. You know what their problem is, They have a skinny goat mentality. The fact is there are other people in that same situation, but their attitude is I'm coming out. I know God takes pleasure in prospering me. I may not see how it's gonna happen, but I know God's a supernatural god and I'm coming into new seasons of increase. What's the difference. They have a fatted calf mentality. If you're gonna experience God's best, if you're gonna come into this overflow anointing, you have to keep a big vision in front of you. I was at the mall one time years ago with a friend of mine and we were just killing time, looking at things and every other phrase. He said, I can't afford it. Looking at sporting equipment, I can't afford it, Looking at some shirts, I can't afford it, looking at shoes, I can't afford it. Finally, I said, will you quit saying I can't afford it? If you keep saying that, you're never going to be able to afford anything, he was setting the limits for his life with his own words. The truth is, most of the things we were looking at I couldn't afford either. But I've learned I don't have to announce it to the world. And if you can't afford something, I'm not saying the liar to have some kind of fantasy land in your head. I'm simply saying, if you're gonna say that, you need to at least add two more words. I can't afford it right now. It's just a matter of time. I know, because I'm faithful, God will give me the desires of my heart. But friends, if you have a poor mouth, you're gonna have a poor life. If you go around saying way, I'll probably never get out of debt. Joel, I don't see how I could send my kids to college. Now, can I say two words to your very respectfully skinny goat. You need to switch over into this fatted calf mentality. Why don't you believe that God could open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out blessings you can't contain. Why don't you believe that goodness, mercy, favor follow you all the days of your life. Why don't you believe, like David, your cup is running over. Instead of going around with that poor mouth, you need to start declaring. God takes pleasure in prospering me. I have not reached my limits. I know that overflow annointing is coming my way. When we were drawing plans to renovate this facility, the first instructions I gave to the design team was to do it as cheap as possible. I had no idea how we were gonna pay for it. And one day we were walking through the lobbies with the whole architectural team and they said, Joel, we're planning on putting carpet over all this time. I said, no, we don't need to do that. This tile is fine. It was thirty years old, had big cracks in it. There were these large stains where they had moved the concession stands, but in my mind it was fine. We went into the restroom areas they said we were planning on replacing the stalls and replacing the sinks and changing out this tile. Again, I said, no, no, no, this is just fine. Well, my brother in law, Kevin was with me. He's our administrator and in charge of all of our construction. He said, Joel, we are not going to let people go into these restrooms. They are terrible. And I thought to myself, where did he get such a fatted calf mentality? Then I remembered he was raised on a farm in Iowa. No wonder, but I had this skinny goat mentality. My first idea was to use portable buildings to have our children's services, and to just do the minimal amount of lighting and sound and They said, if we did just that, we could probably get in here for million dollars. So we went and met with our bankers. We've known these people for ever. We had excellent credit at that time, we didn't have one penny of debt, millions and millions of dollars worth of assets, and we simply asked if we could borrow twenty five million dollars. Man, it was like pulling teeth. They told me how we were such a big risk, and how we might not be able to pay them back, and how we just shouldn't do that. I left there so discouraged. I thought, man alive, I may have a skinny goat mentality, but their goat is starving. Their goat hadn't even in six months. I was so down. I didn't know what we were gonna do. But about two weeks later, we met with another bank, Bank of America. We've never dealt with them before, but it was a night and day difference. They were excited for us, they wanted to help. We weren't in the meeting. Five minutes before they pulled out a letter and said, we're prepared to loan your twenty million dollars today. They hadn't even seen our finances. They didn't know anything about us. I was so excited. I thought to myself, if they'll loan us twenty five million that quickly, maybe they'll loan us the sixty that we really need to do it right. I laughed and said, great, but how about sixty? They came back a couple of weeks later and said, you got a deal. Friends. God has the right people, the right opportunities, the right breaks already lined up for. You don't have a skinny goat mentality, dare to believe. You may not see how it could happen, but that doesn't mean it's not gonna happen. People may have told you know a thousand times. Now, you're kind of discouraged and tempted to just settle where you are, but you've got to get your fireback. God is in control and he still has a way to bring your dreams to pass. Every time you walk out in those lobbies, every time you look at this beautiful facility, it should remind us that our God has a fatted calf mentality. God wants to do more than we can even ask her. Think. It says in Deuteronomy, if you will fully obey the Lord your God and follow his commands. These blessings will come up on you. That means they will overtake you. And it goes on to list blessing after blessing. It says you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. Your seed will be blessed. That's your children and grandchildren. Your business and career will be blessed. Everything you put your hands to will prosper. You will be the head and not the tail. Verse eleven sums it up. God will fill your life with an abundance of good things. But here's the key. All these blessings are dependent on the very first phrase, if you fully obey the Lord your God. Obedience is a key to see in God's blessings. You have to lay aside any weights that are holding you back. When God brings to light issues and attitudes that you know are not right, be quick to change. The longer you put it off, the more you delay God's blessings. When God asks you to do something hard, maybe he ask you to forgive somebody this really hurts you, or he asked you to give up a relationship that you know is not healthy. God's never trying to take anything away. He's trying to get more to you. The more obedience you are, the more of his blessings. You will see. God rewards people that fully obey. A lot of times, partial obedience is what's keeping people in mediocrity. And some of you are holding onto things that you know are not God's best. Let me tell you it's not worth it. Be willing to change now. Realize the pain of change can be difficult, but the pain of staining the same is even more difficult. Don't miss this abundant life because you refuse to deal with issues. And this is between you and God. Nobody can make you treat people right. Nobody can make you stay pure in your thought life or pure in your marriage. It's totally up to you. I want you to experience this overflow annointing, and I know when you walk in obedience, when you live a life that honors God, his blessings will chase you down and overtake you. You You will not be able to outrun the good things of God. It says in Deuteronomy there was a law that God gave Moses for the people of Israel, and it said that every seventh year, you had to release any Hebrew slaves. And the way it worked was if you were Hebrew and you owed someone money but you couldn't pay, that person had a right to take you in as a slave and force you to work full time for them until you paid them back. But God did not want his people to remain slaves forever. So every seventh year this law said, no matter how much you owed, no matter how in debt you were, if you were a part of God's chosen people, you had a special advantage and you got released. This tells me that God does not want his people to remain permanent slaves to anything. You may be in debt today, but God doesn't want that to last forever. You may be facing sickness, but that's only temporary. You may be bound by some kind of addiction, but God doesn't want you to stay in bondage. You need to see that it's temporary. This had to do with their finances. Every seventh year they were released, all the debt, the lack, the struggling. In one moment they walked away from it total freedom. You may be struggling today, maybe you haven't seen a lot of increase, but I can sense in my spirit we're entering into one of those seventh years. The seventh year begins new seasons of increase. It's a time where God's gonna break bondages off of you that have held you back, bondages of debt, lack, sicknesses, addictions, depression, mediocrity. The seventh year is a time of release. It's a time of freedom. You've got to do your part and get this on the inside. Believe this is my seventh year, this is my time to be free. I'm being released into increase. It talks about in Exodus fifteen that even though some people had a legal right to be free from that slavery, they could have walked away from the debt and the bondage, but they chose not to. You know why. They were comfortable, They were satisfied. They didn't want to rock the boat. Here. They had all that freedom in front of them. They had an abundance of joy, peace and victory, but they chose to remain as slaves. Don't let that be you. You have been released into increase. This is your seventh year, but you've gotta rise up and take hold of it. And the scripture tells how all of God's promises are yes and amen. A lot of times people hear this and they think, yes, God wants to prosper me. Yes, God wants to bless me. Yes God wants to heal me. But yes alone is not enough. You've got to add the amen to it. Amen means be it under me. In other words, I received this by faith. I let this take root in my spirit. See, it's one thing to know that God wants to heal you. It's another thing to rise up and say, God is my healer. He's restoring health and to me. It's one thing to know God wants you to be free. It's another thing to rise up and say, I am free. This addiction cannot control me. It's one thing to know God wants you to be blessed. It's another thing to rise up and say, God is supplying all of my needs. I'm coming into the seventh year. This is my season of increase. You have to mix faith with it. You add the amen by making it personal. I am blessed, I am prosperous. I am the head and not the tail. One time there was a great famine in the land. The prophet Elijah was at a brook and every day, once in the morning and once in the evening. God caused a raven to bring him bread and bring him meat. This went on for three and a half years. And you think about during a time of famine, there was nowhere to get food, the people didn't have it. How much less likely would this bird be able to do it? But God calls that raven to supernaturally fine food. He would come with bread in one claw and meet in the other claw, and just like clockwork, at breakfast and at dinner, he would swoop in and just drop it on Elijah's plate. Isn't it funny God thought of home delivery before pizza hut. But some of you are wondering how God can supply your needs? How can I ever get out of debt? Joel? How can I be well? How can I rise higher? Odd is a supernatural god. He supersedes the laws of nature. He supersedes the laws of medicine, the laws of finance. What's interesting is the raven that brought Elijah food every day was called a foul of the air. It was an unclean bird. You remember in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talked about when the seed was sown on a certain kind of soil. The fouls of the air came immediately to try to steal it. The foul represented the enemy, and what God was saying to Elijah by having this raven, this foul bring him food every day. After all, God could have chosen a dove that represents the Holy Spirit. But God was saying, Elijah, if you will be obedient and go where I tell you to go, I'll cause even your enemies to bless you. I'll cause your enemies to supply your knees. Friends, God controls it all. He can cause your against enemy to be your biggest blessing. He can cause the people that are trying to push you down to be the very ones that lift you up. He can take that sickness that's meant for your harm and turn it around and use it to make you stronger. When you stay in faith, God will use your enemies to increase you well. Eventually, the brook dried up and the ravens quit coming. God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to a widow's home and she would take care of him. He did, and when he got there he asked her for something to eat. She agreed, but she said, this is my last little bit of meal. She was planning on making him dinner, and then she and her baby would probably die, probably just starved to death. So she reached down into that big barrel and scooped out the last cupful of meal. But then she just looked down in passing and she saw some more. She thought, well, I must have missed some. She reached down and scooped up another cupful. Look back down, she saw more meal. This happened again, in and again. God caused that neal to supernaturally keep multiplying, and instead of going through seven years of famine, she went through seven years of increase. What happened she hit one of those seventh years where she was released into increase. I believe God is saying that to each one of you, it's your seventh year. It's your time to be released from debt into increase, from sickness into hell, from bondages into freedom. Why don't you get this down into your spirit have the attitude, Yes, this is my seventh year. I am coming out of debt. I'm gonna break this addiction. I'm gonna defeat this sickness. I'm gonna overcome these obstacles, the chains of lack, defeat, mediocrity, or broken off of me. I'm coming into new seasons of increase. I know some of you, like that widow, you kind of feel like you've been in a famine. You haven't seen a lot of increase in the nap or the future doesn't look very bright. But God is saying to us, if you'll stay in faith, that famine is going to come to an end, and you're going to come in to supernatural increase, supernatural blessings, supernatural opportunities. If God can cause a bird to take care of Elijah for three and a half years, he can surely take care of you and me. Why don't you get rid of that skinny goat mentality and start thinking fatted calf. God wants you to live his abundant life. He's already paid the price. When you walk in obedience, you have a big vision. He's promised His blessings are gonna chase you down and overtake you. And that's my prayer for each one of you, that you will come into this overflow annointing, that you will see God pour out blessings that you can't even contain. I believe something supernatural happens when it's spoken over us. So I speak over you an abundance of health, an abundance of joy, and of abundance in your finances. You are being released into increase. The tide of the battle is turning. God is accelerating his blessings in your life. The chains that have tried to hold you back in your mind, in your health, in your relationships, in your business, they are being broken off of you. God is releasing favor into your future. The right people, the right opportunities are coming across your path. You will be blessed in the city, blessed in the country, blessed when you come in, blessed when you go out. Your seed will be mighty on the land. And abundance of good things are coming your way. I declare it in the name of Jesus, and if you receive it, can you saut amen? But we never like to close our broadcast without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my lord and savior. Friends, if you prayed that simple prayer. We believe you got born again. Get into good Bible based church, Keep God in first place. He's gonna take your places that you've never dreamed of. Thank you for listening to the joel Oustein podcast. Help us continue to share the message of hope with those all over the world. Visit joel Oustein dot com slash give Hope to give a gift today. Thanks so much for listening to today's message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep you inspired all through the week. We're praying for you. I know God's best to steal ahead. We'll see you next time.