Increasing In God's Plan by: Dr. Pete Norris

Today on power in the world Your blessings don't stop by your mistakes your blessings are because of the anointing that's on your life What's on the inside of you tracks the stuff not the outside of you? And if we can ever stand that the blessings in the favor of God's on the inside of us and not the outside of us Favors start following us around I'm telling you you're a magnet for the blessings in the favor of God But you got to speak it you got to look for you got to be expecting it You can't walk around well a poor old pitiful me I've been serving the Lord all these years look where I am You got an anger issue you got a pride issue We need to walk in the blessings the favor of God and watch what he does. He's faithful Welcome to power in the word Sometimes it's difficult to believe that God wants us to be blessed and prosperous in this life Well today dr. Norris shows us in the Bible that material and spiritual blessings are available to those who believe It's a great message that will help you receive all that God has for you, so you stay with us We're gonna talk about increase is his plan how many of you believe increases his plan And that's not just financially that's in every area of your life God wants you to increase amen, but he's you're never going to increase until you change the way you think You got to change the way you think You think about a generation that thinks differently than you younger generation thinks different than we do Increase doesn't come by time it comes by truth guys Increase doesn't come by time it comes by truth How many of you know he's the way the truth in the life. There's no other way to the father except well Through him so where you invest your time and your money is where you think your prosperity comes from Now listen to me where you invest your time and your money is where you think your prosperity comes from You need to listen to me again where you invest your time and your money is where you think your prosperity comes from How many of you believe God wants you to prosper? You know third John 1 and 2 says my beloved brother I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul Prospers turn to somebody say prosper how many of you know that you're gonna prosper financially and physically Based on how you think

If you don't think right you're never gonna act right It's what grace is you know ever whatever man thinks about himself That's the way he's gonna behave if you see yourself righteous and upright and holy and pure and uplifted and upright Then you're gonna walk in that But if you don't see yourself that way because God's plan was all the time was for us to increase and go up Increase and go up increase and go up turn somebody say increase and go up Now a renewed mind attracts increase How many of you know a renewed mind attract attracts increase how many of you believe, and I know you're gonna say well pastor Wait a minute now. What are you talking about? How many of you believe in the law of attraction? What you think about it everybody you hang around is just like you most of the time They think like you they act like you they talk like you they speak like you they say the same things you say You're attracted to people like you Think about it. You know you don't see a lawyer's hanging out on Slocum Street They don't have anything in common because they don't think alike you go hang out with folks Just like you the how you grow those when you hang out up with people that know more than you know See friends will tell you what you want to hear mentors to tell you what you need to hear and Everybody needs a mentor in your life. I mean it turns them I say I need a mentor in my life. I need somebody that can teach me what I don't know you can't do what you don't know So money doesn't mean you're prospering you gotta understand that just because you got money doesn't mean you're prospering There's a whole lot of people got a whole lot of money that are miserable I Believe God wants the church to have blessings in favor and may have peace and have contentment have joy and have love and have good Children have good marriage had happy homes. I think God wants us to have the whole picture. I thought you say you're greedy I'll believe God wants us to have it all Amen, I believe God wants us to have it all. I think we ought to be a showpiece for the things of God Amen, we ought to be a showpiece people ought to look at us. They look man. There's some different about that, dude Not just your weirdness, but you ought to be something different about you Don't you dress funny and look funny, but you ought to do funny I mean you ought to operate whenever the people ain't operating and seeing what other people ain't seeing and doing what other people ain't doing So we prosper because of who we are who we belong to

Turn somebody I prosper because of who I belong to Prosperity of who we are in Christ attracts money and houses and business to us the word prosper in the Greek How many of you know the word prosper in the Greek actually means eulogy? Now how many of you know what eulogy what happens at a funeral? How many ever gone to a funeral and they talk bad about somebody? But how many of you really know eulogy means to say well things about them say good things about them talk blessings about them That's what God has planned it for you. How many of you know he spoke a eulogy over you He planned for you to prosper me and health even as you sold prosper His plan was for you to prosper at every era of your life for you to have a happy marriage He didn't he didn't praying for us to walk around just just barely figuring out every day if we're just gonna be able to get by or not He wants to walk in the blessings in the favor of Lord and all that has to do with how you think. How you think. You get around people that's got more than you, does it intimidate you or you wanna be around them to learn? Bible said he didn't have ears, let him hear what the Spirit's saying to him. Sometimes you need to listen to people that know a little bit more. Things spoken well over us is the word benediction. Think about it. If you're behind in your bills, it's not a lack of money, it's a lack of renewed mind. Because a renewed mind does what? Attracts money. Money comes to a renewed mind. Listen to me guys, listen, listen to me.

You need to listen to me. How many of you know, Peter come to Jesus and he said, look man, I got some, we got a taxes due. But look what he told Peter. He didn't tell you, well here Peter, here's the money bro, just take it and go pay the taxes. He didn't do that. He said, I want you to go and the first fish you catch is gonna be the money in his mouth to pay the taxes. Now was the coin in the fish's mouth before he spoke it? Or after he spoke it, did he put the money in? No, he didn't put the coin in the fish's mouth. Now you gotta understand, Peter didn't fish with a rod and reel, he fished with a net. How you gonna catch one fish? He had to do something different. He had to catch one fish at the time. And in that one fish was everything he needed to pay his and his. Peter had to release his faith. Peter had to do something unordinary. We want God to just pour it into the mailbox. We wanna go to the mailbox and receive it without ever plowing any seed. What did he say in Mark four and 13? He said if you don't understand the parable of sowing and reaping, you're not gonna understand anything in the book.

Do we understand sowing and reaping? How many of you believe in sowing and reaping? How many of you know you sow the word of God and you reap the harvest from it? Jesus sowed a son to get a family. So Jesus, God believed in sowing and reaping. So we gotta understand how sowing and reaping works. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse seven. Then Nathan said to David, you are the man. Hey, what is, Nathan was a prophet. He turned to David and he said, you are the man. Turn to the person beside you and say, you are the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. Look at verse eight. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping. Gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. He said I gave you everything, but if you wanted more, why didn't you just tell me? How many of you ever ask the Lord for more? I mean, seriously. Well, I'm not going to ever do that. I'm just happy just having enough. That's pride. You need to say, Lord, give me more.

The Bible said that he brings so much in, the church would say, stop bringing it. That's what Moses did. He said, don't bring any more stuff. Stop it, I've got enough. How many of you have ever heard that in the church? We got enough around here, we don't need to have no more. They're always begging for it. Turn on TV and watch. He said if what I had given you was too little, brother, if you'd have just asked me, I'd have given you more. If you'd have just asked me. If what I had given you was too little, just ask me and I'd have given you more. But something about religion won't let you ask God for money. He's just as concerned about your money as he is your eternity. Matter of fact, there's more scriptures in the Bible about money than there are about love. Oh, it got real quiet. So we see here that David tried to add to himself. He didn't understand that if he'd have just asked, God would have given. He said, I can make it happen. I ain't gotta ask God for it. Some of you think you can make it happen. You can make it happen because you're smart. But if you would just ask, what would he do?

What do you think he would do? You ask him for everything else. When you go through marital problems, isn't it amazing that God's the last thing we do? We do everything we can do and then here's what you hear people say. I'm, man, I got to where I had to pray about it. What if you just prayed about it and trust God? But see, there's something about finances that people think is greedy because we don't understand it. Go with me to Proverbs 10, 22. Now, if you notice, the blessing of the Lord makes one rich. Now, the word blessing is not plural, it's singular. It's singular. It's an anointing. It's the favor of God on your life that the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it. How many of you know the word sorrow means toiling and laboring? You remember those guys who've been fishing all night, toiling and laboring and Peter said, Lord, we fished all night, we ain't caught anything. He said, but if you'll cast it right over there. Jesus wasn't a fisherman. Peter was an expert fisherman. And Jesus said, if you'll just cast it right there, you'll be blessed. And he cast it right there.

In fact, he only cast one net. He said, cast your nets. They only cast one net. You know why? Because Peter didn't really believe he was gonna catch nothing there because he'd been fishing all night and he hadn't caught anything. So there couldn't be nothing there. He cast his net, what happened? It almost turned the boat over and he had to call people in to help him. Why? Because he was obedient to what the Lord told him. If you would just learn to follow the voice of the Lord, you'd show right up at your destiny. Because there's things in the future calling you to it. He wants you to prosper. He wants you to be blessed. He wants you to have prosperity and finances. He wants you to walk in health. He wants your family to be happy. He wants your children to be happy. He wants your children to grow up. Listen, I don't think children have to grow up and stray away. I think they can grow up right into the things of God and not have to deal with some of the stuff that I deal with because we can change the way they think. Let's go to Galatians chapter three, verse 13 and 14.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on upon the tree. Now look at 14. 14 is my favorite. That the blessing, singular again, of Abraham might come upon, what are you? Him, you know the blessings is gonna come upon you. God's spoken well things over you. God don't want you to struggle. He don't want you to go through the blessings of Abraham come upon. You ever read Deuteronomy 28? One through 15? But if you look at one through 15 is the blessings and then 16 through about 60 is the curses. There's three times more curses than there are blessings and the church loves that because they're gonna preach the curses all the time and tell you how bad you are and how wicked you are and how terrible you are. God wants you to be blessed, man. He wants you to prosper. He wants you to have financial blessings in your life. He wants you to be able to sow to every blessing that comes along. He wants you to help people. Wouldn't it be wonderful to buy somebody a car or a house?

Wouldn't it really be wonderful? I mean, really, wouldn't it be wonderful that somebody was struggling, some old person that you knew was struggling and you go, so let me tell you something. Let's go down and get you a car. Go pick your car up and I'll pay for it. Wouldn't that be a blessing? See, I think that's the way the church is supposed to function, really. I don't think we're supposed to struggle to just get by. I think we have to have favor and blessings all the time. Well, pastor, I just don't need no money. I want Jesus. See how far that gets you? Go down there with Jesus and pay your light bill. Amen, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just saying we gotta have some faith here, guys. We gotta trust the Lord, I understand that. But sometimes you gotta see something that nobody else sees. You gotta hear something nobody else hears. Sometimes you gotta let it all go and believe that it's gonna come back because it's gonna come back. It don't have a choice. If God don't do it, he's a liar. And he said, I'm not a man, I can't lie. Right? Go to Genesis 24 and 35. And the Lord has blessed my master greatly.

Now this is talking about Abraham here, look at this. The Lord has blessed my master greatly and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, male and female servants and camels and donkeys. He's blessed my master. Evidently, this servant conceded his master had been blessed. Who is he talking about? Abraham. Evidently, Abraham walked in the blessing. I can show you where Abraham lied. I can show you where Abraham got an illegitimate child named Ishmael. But that didn't stop the blessings on his life because God had put a blessing on his life. Your blessings don't stop by your mistakes. Your blessings are because of the anointing that's on your life. What's on the inside of you tracks the stuff, not the outside of you. And if we can understand that the blessings and the favor of God's on the inside of us and not the outside of us, favors start following us around. I'm telling you, you're a magnet for the blessings and the favor of God. You gotta speak it. You gotta look for it. You gotta be expecting it. You can't walk around, well, a poor old pitiful me.

I've been serving the Lord all these years and look where I am. You got an anger issue. You got a pride issue. We need to walk in the blessings and favor of God and watch what he does. He's faithful. He's faithful. Look at Genesis 26. And look what his son done. And Isaac sowed in the land and reaped the same year a hundredfold. Now, how many of you know there was a famine in the land and Isaac wanted to leave the land and God told him, said, sow in the middle of a famine and that's what I do. And the Lord blessed him. You see that? The Lord done what? Blessed him. Look at 13. And the man began to prosper and he continued prospering until he became very prosperous. Look, he began to prosper. He continued to prosper until he became very prosperous. How many of you know Isaac was prosperous? Where did he get it from? His daddy. How many of you know his daddy was the first one to ever tithe?

Melchizedek, remember the story? He was the first one to ever tithe. He was the first one to ever give. See, a lot of people give two or three weeks and say, well, you know, I have to give it to the Lord. No, you see, listen, listen, listen to me, listen to me. Tithing is not giving your money. Tithing's giving you. If you begrudge giving it, you might as well keep it. You don't have to give it. God gives you a favor to give it. He said, I'll supply the seed for the sower and I'll give bread to the sower and I'll bless, I'll even give you the seed. You ain't gotta do nothing, but just believe it and trust it. God will bless you. That doesn't mean we ain't gonna have some obstacles in our life, but I'm telling you, man, there's difference in cares and challenges. Watch 14. And he had possessions of. and possessions of herds and a great number of service and the Philistines envied him. How many people envy you? Does the world ride by your house? Man I tell you what I envy that Kenny Fawcett. I envy that Betty Jean Robinson. I envy that one down the road. See there should be something different about our lives. We ought not to be just walking around with bumper stickers on our car. We ought to be walking around with the anointing in the favor of God and blessings in our life and when they see us coming up they see something different about us. They should see something different about us. You

shouldn't have to make it happen. God will make it happen. He'll do his thing. You ain't got to go out and beg for it and go out and worship for it and go out and do all these things to make it happen. Listen God will bless you more than you can stand. He'll bless you more than you can stand. He said I'll pour favor on you that you can't do anything about. Righteous consciousness. Righteous consciousness. Thinking is that I have never missed it. Lots of people are robbed of their spiritual life to add to financial life. Guys you got to see yourself righteous conscious. Why do you not deserve it? See here's what you base it on. Well I don't have the education. I know education opens up opportunities but favor give you more opportunities than you know education will. The favor will give you more. Listen I heard a guy say one night he said you can put me I can take everything I got and get me broke. Put me in the jungle and in six months I'll own the jungle. Guys I believe the word works. Now if the word don't work how you gonna get to heaven? If the word don't work how are you really saved? If there's any part of this thing that doesn't work it's the part that we have revelation of and the part we want to stay away from. Some people don't like talking about money. But you know who the people are that don't like talking about money? People don't have any. I've never had anybody have any conflict with me about healing if they were well. Go to Job chapter 1 and seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Verse 3. Also his possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, a very large household so that this man was the greatest of all the people in the east. Job was the greatest of everybody in the east. How many of you know that when Job lost everything God doubled it the next time? Guys God listen when you go through some obstacles in your life and you go through detriment stand on that word and believe for a double portion of what you lost. I'm telling you need to stand on it and not say well that was just the work of the devil and he stole that. The Bible said if he can be found he's got to restore fourfold back to us guys. He's got to restore back to us everything that the enemies took in your life. You need to look for it, expect it, see the

favor of God coming back in your life and not just walk around say well I'm just happy being me. I'm just happy I survived that thing. Let me tell you it's time to put the devil and hold him on hold and say look you got to give back to what I'm believing for. Guys it's got to show it. You can't tell me there's no way you can fail with God. There's no way you can't go broke. What is broke anyhow? If you got Jesus you ain't never broke. Go to Job 42 and 12. Look what the Lord did. Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. God doubled everything that he had. Guys God wants to double you. God wants to bless you. He wants to give you favor that you don't deserve. Listen to me. God will open up doors you can't open. God will open. Listen if God tells you to do something I'm telling you he's already got a blessing prepared for you before he told you to do it. You just got to trust him. Turn to someone and say I'm gonna trust him. Go to Psalms 115 verse 12. And the Lord have been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He'll bless the house of Aaron. Now watch this. I love this. 13. And he'll bless those who fear the Lord both great and small. Small and great. Go to 14. May the Lord give you increase more and more you and your glory be to God. He said I'll give you more and more and I'll give you children more and more and more. Listen guys you need to speak that over your children. You need to speak the favor and the blessings of God over your children. Listen God wants to give you more and more and more and more but we get content. Look at verse 15. May you be blessed by the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. 16. The heavens even the heavens are the Lord's but the earth he has given to the children of men. How many of you know everything on the earth he's given you? I want you to take a journey with me for a few minutes. Just a little journey. A little short journey. Let's go all the way back to Genesis. And God created everything in the garden and made everything perfect and then he placed man in the garden. He didn't want men to think he had to do anything to make the garden good. God put everything in the garden and then he made the man last so that man couldn't

say I had anything to do with it. God wants to restore you back to the garden. He's given you everything you need on the earth to do exactly what you need to do and supply everything you're ever going to need right here on the earth. It's not going to come out of heaven. If it does, it's counterfeit and you can't spend it. He's given you ideas. He's given you courage. Listen, it ain't going to fall in your lap guys. You got to express yourself by giving and believing and trusting that what you've been promised he's able to do it. Say he's able to do it. He's able to do it. Let me tell you something, God spoke this to me several years ago and I'll never forget it and I wrote it down. I wrote it down in my journal on page 17 and here's what it says. Your faith needs responsibilities. Look at somebody beside you and say your faith needs responsibilities. Does anybody know what I'm saying? Does anybody know what I'm saying? You don't have any faith if you're not believing. I want to ask you something. What have you had faith for today? What have you done today that took faith? If somebody comes to you and they need a thousand dollars, you give them a thousand dollars, they don't take no faith. Most of you don't have to have no faith to pay your lot bill and your water bill and your gas bill and if you got a car payment, you don't need no faith to pay your car payment. You got the money, don't you? Some of you got two or three months setback, four months, five, six months setback to keep

on paying your bills. It don't take no faith for that, does it? What are you doing that's moving your faith? What you doing that's shaking you? God spoke to me one time, I'll never forget it. He said, Pete, I'm not going to let you have a whole lot. I'm going to keep you on the edge most of your life because you need to be on the edge. He said, you'll get content if I don't keep you on the edge. I'm an edge kind of guy. Amen. Turn to someone and say, I'm on the edge. I love living on the edge because it takes faith to live on the edge. Amen. Elon Musk don't have to have no faith to fly to the moon. He's worth billions. You on the edge? Go to Psalms 133 and 1. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. He said, if you'll walk in unity, here's what I'll do. Verse 2, it's like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garments. What were they doing? They were anointing the priest. And upon the priest was running down the oil, which was the anointing of God running down. It was falling upon his garment, which is symbolic of being covered with his anointing. Now look at three. Look what God's going to do. It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. Who's Zion? The church.

There the Lord commanded the blessings, life forevermore. What did he do? He commanded the blessings on the church. How many of you know that God's commanded a blessing on you? He wants you to be blessed and highly favored. Turn to someone and say, I'm highly blessed and deeply loved. Highly favored and deeply loved. Really, you're highly favored and deeply loved. See, some of you don't care anything about money. That's why you ain't got none. You don't need to focus on it all the time. You need to give it to God and walk in it. But we got to understand something. If you don't change the way you think. I read an article this week. And it was about the mind. And here's what it said. Ninety percent of people hear ten percent of what's said to them. Think about it. Ninety percent of the people in this building not have heard ten percent of what I said. And you say, why is that? Because some of you don't care about it. But there'll come a time that you'll pray and try to believe God to get it. Now think about that a minute. Ninety percent of the world hears ten percent of what they hear. Of what's said. How many of you get around folks that know more than you and you just get quiet? Seriously. Do you ever talk to people that's got a good marriage? That's the person you need to be talking to.

Find you somebody that's got what you're looking and what you want to have in your life and spend time with them. Seriously. Guys, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to be nice tonight. I'm telling you, I understand how this works. Favor of the Lord is the most powerful thing on the earth. David was not the greatest man, but he had favor. David had favor with God. He said he's a man after God's own heart, man. And look at all the things David did. He numbered the people and 23,000 died. He went off and killed a man and got his wife. life but God he had favor with God and God had his hand on him and when they tried to when Saul tried to kill David he couldn't kill David because the God would move David and put him in a place to keep him safe because God had a plan God's got a plan for your life the enemies tried to take you out but God's got a plan and he wants you to prosper and be in health and have favor he wants your children you listen listen when I cease to exist I'm gonna live on in other folk they gonna talk the same thing I've said why because I've changed the way they thinking we're leaving ourselves inside of people we don't leave here we just leave this in this presence and we leave ourselves on the inside of folks there's people on the inside of us guys we got to get a hold of that on the inside of us just people screaming to get out we're not an accident we were we were purposely sent here for such listen I'm telling you right now just like Jesus came to earth we were here for us sir we for disappointed time we've been traveling through time a long time to get here today to be with you it's not an accident you're not accident sitting in here tonight look what he said in Leviticus 25 nobody reads Leviticus but it's in there then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year and it

will bring forth produce enough for three years how many of you know the seventh year they did the land lay lay dominant and didn't do anything I remember when the farmers my daddy would let the land lay open in the seventh year he wouldn't plant nothing the seventh year he let it lay open because he would plant that crop in a different field but he wouldn't plant in that crop he let that feel lay all year because it had to get back to nutritious and all the things have been pulled out of it and in this in the eighth year it was ready to roll why because they understood how they work see the Bible has been working for a long time see your minds the most powerful thing on the earth if you can believe it you can have it if you can see it you can talk it if you can talk it it's got to show up it's got to show up guys if you can speak it it's got to show up it ain't got a choice but to show up go to Deuteronomy 28 Nate look what the Lord said Lord said I'll command the blessing on you in your storehouses and all that you set your hand and he'll bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you he said everything you put your hand to I'm gonna bless him you have you believe everything you put listen there's listen listen there's companies that you're working for a blessed because you're there there's people there's people blessed because they know you why do you think they want to hang around you because you're the favorite the blessings of God people can't see the blessing in the favor of God on your life your need has already been seen by God before you ever tell that you got it he's already met it before you ever had it all he wants you to do is take your faith and receive it all he wants you to do is take your faith and receive it take your faith and receive it you know something exists that's what faith is something exists that you can't see but you know it how do you know it exists because your faith is telling you exist if you take your faith and that knows that it exists and go after what you can't see it'll become manifest in your life thank you for joining us today at power in the word all of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you but he loves you so very much and he has a plan for your

life please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website Harvest Fellowship Church net so until next week please remember there's power in the word