Jesus' Most Misunderstood Parable

Yeah. 20 years of speaking the leadership teams, I've never once heard a leader say to me, one of the most important definitions of faithful, and that is multiplication. Jesus defines faithful as multiplication. The parable of the talents. Yeah. Now, Larry maintains this gift. He doesn't multiply it. He maintains it. He doesn't lose it. Yeah. He just maintains it. But his Lord answered and said to him, "You wicked and lazy servant." Jesus, you just use the word wicked and servant in the same sentence. God views those who multiply as- Hey everybody, welcome to the Jambavir podcast. I am joined by my son, Arden. It's great to see you. It's good to be here. I'm so excited about today. Yeah. Because we're going to talk about a topic that's very, very dear to my heart. I know. Continuing on your new book. Yes. The new book you are called and discovering your God-given gifts. You know, Arden, this is some of the most watched courses on Messenger X. And so I'm so excited. Just be touching on this because everybody knows innately we've got a call of God on our life.

You know, it used to be when I was your age, if somebody said, "Oh, that person's got a call in their life." Immediately, I thought, okay, missionary, worship leader, pastor. What we talked about is all ministry. Yes. Yeah. But now we understand that every child of God has a calling on their life. Yeah. And the understanding that every single one of your days has purpose to it. So that you're not just seen into the sacred or the sacred or the secular. And it's like, "Oh, I've got my sacred on Sunday." And then I got my secular all throughout the week, because God wrote out every moment of our life in a book before our life even began. Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, if you haven't read it, it's Psalm 139. You got to read it. Yes. Every moment of our life was written in his book before a single day began. I believe with all my heart, when he opens up those books at the judgment, he's going to say, "This is the story I wrote about your life. Now let's compare it to how you live." Yeah. Which shows us the importance of seeking God. And so we know that there is a divine calling. And with that divine calling comes these supernatural gifts. They're actually His abilities. They give us the ability to function and to fulfill what we've been called to do, because our calling is greater than our natural ability. It's impossible to fulfill it without the supernatural gifts He's placed on His.

And those supernatural gifts don't work unless it's done by faith. The grace of God has to be received by faith in order for it to operate. And so I look at 1 Peter 4, 10, and it's amazing verse. As each one has received a gift, the Greek word is charisma. So you take grace, chorus, and you put an M and an A on it. You get the specific gift of grace that God has placed on our life to accomplish what we've been called to do. For me, it's speaking. For me, it's writing. For you, it's leading. For you, it's probably speaking in the near future, because I really see the hand of God on your life to do that. Minister it to one another as good stewards. So there's that word steward of the manifold grace of God. So you put all of our gifts together. Manifold means many-sided. It covers all the gifts. If you look at my body, my body has many different members, and all my members can do things really well. My fingers can do things. My mouth can't do. My mouth can do things. My stomach can't do. And I can go on and on and on. And I like to say, happy is the man or woman who knows their gift and operates in it. Miserable is the man or woman who tries to operate in somebody else's gift. And so I want to bring us now to 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. And this is so powerful. Paul said, "Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ. If you love Jesus with all of your heart, you see yourself as a servant of Christ and stewards."

Now remember, what do we made stewards of? Gifts. The supernatural gifts. Yeah, what we talked about. The gifts that God's given us. And the gifts that we also, you don't even know about. Yeah. That we have to seek God on. Yes. But yes, so the supernatural gifts. Okay, so my ability to write is not my ability. Yeah. It's actually his ability. Yeah. It's a gift. It's a divine supernatural gift. My ability to speak is not my ability. It's his ability. Moreover, this is amazing. This is, and I'm skipping Paul talking about his specific gift. Yeah. All right. He says, "Moreover, it is required in a steward that one be found faithful." Now, Arden, God requires many things, but one thing he lists because it's so important in a steward that we're faithful. Yeah. Now, I have asked leadership teams this all over the world. I've said, "Give me your definitions of faithful." Steadfast, consistent, loyal, I don't know, I'm gonna go to the ones that I know, you're good,

but you're nailing it. Yeah, kind of going through there. We go to the thesaurus, we go to Webster dictionary, thesaurus, your name in them. Steadfast, consistent, dependable, reliable, loyal, true, trustworthy, devoted, and truthful. Now there's been outliers, I've had some leaders say other things, but these are the these are the ones that most leadership teams have said. Yeah. And I'm so proud of them. Because if you go to Webster's, these are all the words that are listed, right? Most people who know me well know that I am extremely passionate about eating clean. Do you know what's sitting in my refrigerator right now? A New York strip from Good Ranchers. Now what I love about Good Ranchers is the founder and felt like God called him to get food into the hands of people, but he did something. He connected small farms with people. We're getting so much of our meat from overseas places that we don't know what is being put into our meat every single 37 minutes. An American farm family farm closes down. So I love what Ben and Corley did and they came alongside this podcast. They're just saying we love what you guys are doing and we want to be able to share this about them. So you can even find out more by going to good ranchers.com and they've done a special promo for us. So all you need to do is type in the promo code john so J O H N and you'll save immediately $40 off your order. Plus they have a lot of additional things. It's the best offer that they've ever done before. And so I want to encourage everyone, please know your meat source, know your food source and take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, so head over to good ranchers.com to receive an exclusive box and make sure that you get signed up for this special offer. Remember it's good ranchers.com American me delivered. What I have found to be tragic is that in 20 years of speaking the leadership teams, I've never once heard a leader say to me one of the most important definitions of faithful. And that is multiplication. Yeah. Yeah. Why is that? Why do we miss that? Because Webster's didn't put it in the dictionary. Yeah. And it's a tragedy that he didn't because no Webster was a born again man. Yeah. And Jesus defines defines. I'm using my words carefully. Yeah. He defines faithful as multiplication. Okay. Show me. Okay. The parable of the talents. Yeah. Now, I know we've all read this parable. If you're a believer, you've been a Christian for more than six months, you've read the parable of the talents, which by the way, I find interesting because it's at the very end of Matthew 24 when Jesus talks about a second planning coming, getting back to what we did for a year on second Peter. Yeah. And what we just talked about, I mean, a couple like four podcasts ago is all talking about even with all this is understanding our

gifts and our calling. Like when we're talking about living for an end time perspective and living for the second coming, it's good to know these things. So, it's good to know what that faithfulness actually looks like with multiplication. It's part of our preparation. Remember, to her, it was a raid to be a raid with fine linen. And a fine limb was the righteous acts of the saints. I can't do anything, anything that has eternal value outside of the grace of God. Yeah. So, her doing her righteous acts was her operating in her calling. This is Revelations 19. We're talking. I say, this is Revelation 19. We're talking about that. I always say Revelations, Lisa laughs at me when I say it. But yeah, that's her operating in what God had called her to do on this earth. That's why it's so important that we seek. So, let's go to Matthew 25 verse 14. Now, I'll read parts of this. I'll share parts of it. "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country." That man, of course, would be Jesus. Who called his own servant? So, we are definitely talking about the people of God and delivered his goods to them. Now, stop right there. What did he entrust to them? His goods. Your ability to speak is not your ability, Arden. It's actually a gift that God has placed on your life. My ability to write is not my ability. It's his goods, right? All right. Now, what's really interesting is Jesus isolates three servants. Of course, there's millions of servants, but he's isolating three because he's wanting to make a very powerful point to us. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to give these servants names to personalize it because if I just say servant one, servant two, servant three, it's not, it's not personal. So, let's make them personal. I'm going to call Ashley. Ashley gets one. Five talents. Now, what's that? It's good to be Ashley. Yeah, it is good to be Ashley. Five talents. What's a talent? Do you know what a talent is? So a talent is roughly about 75 pounds. Yeah, so in this case It's normally referred to as a silver sometimes gold. Yeah, so it's a 75 pound bag of silver But we all know that Jesus is never really talking about what he's talking about when he tells parables. Yeah Like wheat is people tears as evil people We seed is the word of God Reapers or angels I could go on and on and on. So Jesus really isn't talking about bags of money here He's actually talking about our gifts because gifts are what he has made us stewards of and he is he's going on this long journey And he's giving what is his to these guys and saying you're gonna be a steward Ashley gets five I'm gonna call the second guy Dave

He gets two talents or bags of silver or I'm gonna. I'm gonna actually say it bluntly Dave gets two charisma's Yeah, and Larry if your name's Larry, I'm not meaning to identify you Larry gets one Talent or charisma. Mm-hmm now He goes on this long journey. What is he telling before he leaves? I'm coming back. Yes, but what else did he say? I don't know Occupied occupy until I return until I return. What does the word occupy mean if you go back to the original Greek? It means do business Yeah, work labor now I want to say this because we've talked about the second coming of Jesus anybody who becomes idle Paul actually rebukes in the Thessalonians church Hey, your idol a man doesn't work. He doesn't eat right So Jesus's command to us is don't sit around and wait until I come back He's saying you are to be busy about the kingdom business occupy until I return now What does he mean by occupy? He goes on to tell us all right? What we see happen is that these guys begin to labor while he's gone and twice in this parable Jesus said it's a long trip 2,000 years is a long trip. Mm-hmm. So now when he returns, he calls his servants to himself and he says give an account of your stewardship Ashley and Dave Okay, what they do while he's gone is they multiplied yeah Ashley made her five into ten and Dave made his two into four Yeah, Larry maintained so when they come before this wealthy man or this king Ashley and Dave both say we multiplied. Mm-hmm. We doubled what you gave us He gives the exact same reward to both of them. Yeah, okay. Well, and and and this is actually two verses I'm reading from this is Ashley's reward and Dave's reward well done good and faithful servant Now if that's all he says I cannot say that the word faithful means to multiply All right, but that's not what he's all he says. Yeah, well done good and faithful servant now listen to these next three words You were faithful. Mm-hmm. Now wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I want everybody. I want to encourage you go to Matthew chapter 25 Go read it yourself. There is no other action or Behavior that is done by these two other than the fact that they multiplied And I believe that's done on purpose because Jesus is directly equating Faithfulness with multiplication. Yeah, another words when you hear the word faithful You should hear in your brain not just steadfast dependable reliable faithful true loyal just all that you should hear

Multiplication. Yeah, if you look at me art and you say jump and believe me, which is the first commandment that God gives mankind Yeah, be fruitful and multiply which wait a minute wasn't he just saying had babies? No He's just everything that I give you multiply it take it and multiply it do good work with it Do work with it don't just bury it and sit on it and then when I come back It's like I've done nothing with this and I think that's that's the challenge for a lot of people because I do think you have a lot of people who Are one like as we've had this conversation. They've had a hard time identifying their gifts But maybe when they've identified their gifts and just being honest they have not They've not acted upon it and they've maybe been a little bit lazy to fully Use it because they haven't and lazy might be the wrong word But like they haven't connected the dots and I think sometimes you're like well It doesn't make sense like maybe I'm very gifted in this But how does that connect the dots and we're like well? I don't know and I can't connect the dots and I'm not really getting a clear thing on it So I'm just gonna sit on it because I don't I don't really know how I'm supposed to use it But I feel like you know, you need to see people the activity that actually happens from Ashley and they invested it, they done business with it, they actually used it in some degree or manner rather than just sitting on it and I think you've got to have more people that are just trying to interact with it. What happens when we use our gifts that God gave us? People's lives get affected. Yeah. That's the bottom line. That's why God gave us these gifts, is to impact. This is why Paul said, woe to me if I don't operate in the gift that God's placed on my life, because that means that the people God intended to get what he entrusted to Paul won't get it. That's why he'll have to bring somebody else. So if I don't actively use, do business, multiply the gifts that God's put on my life, the people that he intended to receive through me, they don't, they don't, they don't receive. They don't receive from you. They don't receive from me. God will see another one. God will raise somebody else up to get it to him. But I'll have to give an account of why I didn't use it. Yeah. And so he says, you were faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. So you can see right now in the millennial reign of Christ, things are being set up. These guys were faithful, what was entrusted to now in the millennial reign, because Jesus, we're going to rule and reign with him. They're going to have positions of authority. Now, if you go over to the minus, Jesus tells the parable, the minus,

and he tells it in a different way, each, there's 10 servants, each are given one. And the first one multiplies it by 10. And he says, you're going to be over 10 cities. And I believe that's in the millennium. Then the other guy multiplies five, he says, you're going to be over five cities. So this directly correlates with our positions, we're going to hold in that thousand year millennial reign of Christ. That's what's amazing. Okay. And he said, I'll make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord. Now, Larry maintains his gift. Yeah. He doesn't multiply it. He maintains. He doesn't lose it. Yeah. He just maintains it. Yeah. And Larry, who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man. What caused him to maintain his gift? Didn't understand. He didn't understand what didn't understand the character of his master. Yes. We don't know the character of Jesus Christ. Yeah. It will cause us not to multiply. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And I was afraid. Here's the number one reason why people don't multiply. Yeah. Fear and intimidation. Yeah. Paul said to Timothy twice, the gift of God is in you, but it's in operative. Yeah. Because you have a spirit of intimidation. That's what he said in Second Timothy one, six. Amazing. Yeah. So fear causes the gift to go dormant. Yeah. And fear, I mean, fear controls. I've always heard this idea of like, you know, courage, it's that old quote, courage is not the absence of fear, but it's standing in the face of fear and still doing it anyways, basically. And that's not the full quote. But I love that idea and that understanding that the giftings of God that you have, the enemy will send intimidation, they'll send fear. And that could be the fear of man. That could be the fear of failure. That could be the fear of stepping out. And these fears on the other side of them is an opportunity for you to greater greater experience with the giftings that God has placed on your life and actually see those giftings come in one step where anointing meets giftings. Because I think that's always something that I've actually even looked at my life and I'm like, okay, God, I feel like you've given me giftings. But I'm just now actually seeing as when the anointing hits the gifting and it's completely different. And I think if you see more children of God that are in that place where we're seeing, yes, my gifting is aligned. That's again, that's not just, that's not just speaking the word of God. That's not just communication. That's not just being a pastor. But that is in your areas and spheres where God has you and thank God I have my gift. Yeah. Yeah. Like what we talked about with the businessman has got to have my giftings. But now here's your Holy Spirit. Here's the anointing. And now I'm going to operate in both of those two things.

The anointing enhances those gifts. Yeah. Hey, everybody, we'll get back to the episode in just a moment. But first, I want to thank the patrons, make this podcast possible. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages. So thank you. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to Jambavir.com/patreon. Now, let's get back to the show. All right. So here's Larry. He's fearful. Yeah. He doesn't understand if it's master's character. He said, I went and hid your talent in the ground. I didn't use the gift, right? Listen to what Jesus says, the master says to this guy. But his Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant. Now, Arden, this really bugged me for so many years. I looked and servant in the same sentence. - I mean, we gotta have an explanation on this. Well, let's go to the easy one. Lazy means when we shrink from or hesitate to engage in something worthwhile. We all understand laziness, okay, that's an easy one. What does this word wicked mean? In the original, this is what it means. It means possessing a serious fault and consequently being worthless, and I'm gonna add in in regard to our labor. So possessing a fault, being worthless, in regard to our labor. That's the word wicked means twisted. We've twisted in the way we think, looking at his character this, it's caused us to not multiply. Remember, you're the one that said it. God's first command, be fruitful and multiply. Jesus is amplifying the first command that God gives the mankind out, all right? What does this tell us?

God views those who multiply as being faithful. God views those who maintain as wicked and lazy. Okay, that's crazy. - Yeah, and I mean, that sets it up 'cause that gets you out of your comfort zone. I think everything we're talking about is even with the second coming of Christ, we talked about it like not being in this place of comfort and like where it's like, or well, sitting around and waiting, just sitting and waiting, around waiting, but actually being going about the Lord's work. And I love that as that understanding of us being faithful in our callings means that we need to actively be acting them out, actively be asking God to be involved into them. And I think the big thing that people need to realize is that comes through a partnership and God wants to reveal that to you. Kind of even what we talked about in the last podcast, we talked about it's not so much that God's just gonna give you the destination, but he's going to give you kind of that compass model where it's like, God, I know I'm going this way, I know I'm going the correct direction, but now how does this play out? But I know what I'm doing is I'm continuing to be faithful, I'm continuing to put my hand to the plow and continuing to work, continue to keep doing the things that I know you call me to do.

- Which, where does retirement come in on all this? Do you know there's not a word retirement in the Hebrew language now? Because I don't believe God ever intended us to retire. - Yeah. - I'm not saying that we work as diligently at 65 as we did, and I know I am, I'm probably working more diligent now than ever, and I'm 66 years old, okay? So, I just don't understand retirement. I'm energized, Jesus said my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Food energizes me. - Well, look at your mom, it's like your mom at the later parts of her life and for a good long while. Yeah, sure, she was retired, she was not working a job, but what was she constantly doing? - Painting, making necklaces, watches. - But then also, she was constantly telling everyone about your books and was like, you need to read these books and she would see so many people get saved and so many people would come and understand it because what, she understood like, okay, wherever I'm at, wherever I find myself, whether it's assisting living home or in a full-time job, I'm not gonna be retired in my mind. I'm gonna be actively tired. - And she lived in '96, well, she was three days away from '96, but she watched her father and her father wrote two books after '65. He brought condominiums into the state of Florida. I mean, the man was active.

I remember his last two years of his life. He said, the whole reason I'm in this adult living community is to tell all 200 people about Jesus. I mean, I'm like, he's constantly got a mission. - He loves that. - He loved it and so this gets interesting. In this parable, this first will blow you away. So take the talent from Larry. This is the lazy one. Take the talent from Larry and give it to Ashley, who has 10 talents. Now, I remember the day I wrote this down on paper and I'm gonna show it on the screen so everybody sees it. Larry starts out with one, ends up with zero. Ashley starts out with five and ends up with 11. Now, why did I write this down on paper? I'm gonna give you the back story. The back story is this happened in 2016. I remember the year I came in from prayer. One morning, I'm sitting in front of my Bible and the Holy Spirit speaks so clearly to me. He said, son, the way I think. Now, I'm gonna be very careful here. The way I think, remember God says my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your ways, your thoughts. He said, the way I think lines up more with capitalism, not socialism. And I remember going, no, no, no, no. I'm never saying that publicly. 'Cause I knew that would incite a riot, right?

And to be honest with you, I kind of thought the way he thought lined up. And I remember I said to him, I am not believing that unless you give me a scripture. And he didn't mind that. He said, read the parable of the town. So I go over there and I read it, I hadn't read it for several months and I get to this scripture and I go, wait a minute, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I wrote down a paper and I go, Larry starts over one, ends up with zero. As she starts out with five, ends up with 11, I thought, hold on. So then the Holy Spirit, after I wrote that down on paper, speaks to me again. He said, can I show you with the hypothetical socialistic thinking God would have done. I said, yes. He said, I would have given him all three. Not five, two, and one. I would have given Ashley three, day three, Larry three. What would have happened? Ashley and Dave are faithful. What does the word faithful mean? They would have multiplied. They would have ended up with six. Larry would have maintained. He would have stayed with this three. The hypothetical socialistic thinking God would have taken one from Ashley, one from Dave,

and they all would have ended up with five. I'll show it to you on the screen. You'll see it so clearly. So I'm seeing they're going, oh my goodness. Ashley ends up with 11, Larry ends up with zero. And this is what I want to say to everybody. God never told us, take care of the lazy. He said, take care of the poor and needy, and there is a huge difference. Yes, yeah, that's so good. Which, I mean, I think that's always challenging because you don't, like, can I say this from a standpoint of even looking around is sometimes you don't know the difference between the needy versus the lazy. And I think that's important for us because I think sometimes we could look at our life situation and those two things have almost blended in so much that we're like, no, I'm actually in the needy. And God's like, no, I've given you one talent, but you think you're needy, but whatever you have, you are supposed to multiply. Even if it's little, you're supposed to multiply because I think sometimes people can look at this and be like, well, my calling's not that great. I don't have a lot of giftings. I don't have a lot of things to multiply. And I love that he didn't give them three, three, and three to start out, but he gave them five, two, and one, showing that sometimes, yes, people might have more to give but what he's looking for is not what like the end result

of what you have, but what did you do with what you were given. And so it was really important for us to make sure that we're not just looking at it and say, well, I am the needy. I am the needy. I don't know what this is. I don't know what this looks like. God, you've not, I've not seen this blessing come on small life, but no, we look at it and say, no, am I being lazy? Am I, can I be honest with myself? And can I look at my life and say, you know what? There's been a lot of things that God's given me that are small things that I have not been, I'd not have been good as steward in it. - You know, I love how I was up in Gary, Indiana at this church and the pastor was buying up homes all over the neighborhood and creating jobs for people that were living on the streets. And literally it was mechanics, it was art, it was trades that he was actually having people teach them and they were getting enough money where they could move out of the housing he provided into their own houses, eventually, and he was just sharing that with me. And the sad thing is, there were people that he offered to teach trades to, that they wouldn't do it, they wanted to keep living in the bushes or in the streets. And that's a lazy person, the person that were needy where the person said, I'd love to learn a trade. And so that's where the difference is. And I like what you said, sometimes it takes a little bit of discernment to understand the difference between the two.

Now let me say this, I wanna say this. Do not walk away from this podcast saying that I said that God is a capitalistic God. That is not what I said. The way he thinks, remember, his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are not our ways. Lines up more with capitalism is what I said. And I wanna emphasize that point because I have no way saying that God is a capitalist. - And then also that we're not for helping the homeless 'cause I wanna make sure people don't think that. It's like don't take care of the lazy when we're saying that. It's understanding no, we're called to take care of those who want to multiply what God, anything that they've been given. And any opportunity that they have. - Now the next verse of scripture is the one that just blows me away because I don't think we ever really think a lot about this one. So he's just said, take the talent from Ashley. Or take the talent from Larry and give it to Ashley. Ashley ends up with 11, Larry ends up with zero. This is the next verse. For everyone who has, I'm gonna read it just as the parable shows it, okay? For to everyone who multiplies, more will be given and he or she will have an abundance. But from him who does not multiply but maintains even what he or she has will be taken away.

more is gonna be given, they're gonna have an abundance. - And I love that going back to what we were saying about doesn't matter how small of an amount you've been given. - Yes, you'll have God saying you multiply, you'll have an abundance. - So I'm gonna share a story that I tell in the book. I have a friend, his name is Mike. And I called Mike three times on the phone to make sure I had the story right. I said, Mike, I heard you share your story one time in front of a crowd of people. Would you share it with me? He said, absolutely. And so he said, John, I got saved 11 years old. He said, when I was 35, so think about it, 35. - Yeah, 14 years. - 24 years later. - Wow, I can't do that. - Okay? No, it's okay. - 24 years later, that's correct. - 24 years later. - You just edit that out. - No, it's fine. He said, I got fed up with being a fruitless Christian. That's his words out of his mouth. I said, Mike, what'd you do? He said, I memorized 2,000 scriptures in six months. Smart man, sharp in the axe, says in ecclesiastic, you're gonna chop down more trees with the same amount of strength. So he's sharpening the wisdom of God in his life.

He's memorizing these 2,000 scriptures in the midst of that six months. He goes to a conference in Phoenix, Arizona where there's like 5,000 people at this conference. Very well known pastors conducting the conference. And the pastor says, hey, just pray. Ask God what he wants you to give as an offering in the conference. Mike said to me, I went outside, I got underneath the cactus, I prayed. I said, okay, he said, and God spoke to me really clearly. I said, what'd he say? He said, God said, I want you to give $200. And Mike got really quiet on the phone. He said, my reply to God was, that's all I have. That's every penny to my name. And he said, the Holy Spirit whispered back in my heart, that's all I'm asking for. I'm not asking you for anymore. I started laughing on the phone. And so Mike said, I gave every penny to my name in that offering. He said, I had to bum gas money just to get back home. He said, while I'm driving home, God's giving me ideas, business ideas. He said, I started implementing them. See, this is the way multiplication always begins. Ideas, strategic ideas from heaven. He starts implementing. He said, John, I started making money.

And he said, God put it in my heart. I want you to give $100 above your tithe every single month. So he said, that year I did it, $100 above my tithe every month. The next year God said, I want you to give $400 above your tithe, he did it. The next year it was $1,000 every single month above his tithe. He did it. The next year it went to 2,500. Every single year, every single month above his tithe. He did it. The next year it went to $5,000. Every single month above his tithe, he did it. Then it went to $10,000. And then he says to me on the phone, he says, then it kicked in. I said, Mike, I remember laughing. I said, Mike, it's already kicked in in my book. He said, then it went to $16,600 every single month above my time. Then it went to $25,000 every single month above my tithe. Then it went to $35,000, then it went to $50,000. Then he said to $100,000. Then $150,000 every single month above his tithe. I remember out of exasperation, I said, Mike, how much of your income do you live off of? He said, it's interesting you ask that my accountants just told me this recently. He said, I live on anywhere from 10% to 15% of my income. I said, so you give every year to the kingdom of God.

You give 85% to 90% of your income. He said, yes I do. Not only that, he has gone around and shared his testimony with churches and conferences all over, inspiring other people to multiply. What's his gift? His gift is obvious. It's giving. My gift is preaching and writing. Your gift is leadership and probably preaching and God hasn't actually unfolded all your gifts. He found out my gift is giving and see what he's done as he said, everything I give will affect people because God causes all of us to work together. Here we are. We didn't set up this studio. We didn't set up this studio for free. I mean, we had to invest finances to get the cameras, the lights, we have staff members that we need to pay their salaries. Here's Mike going out and he's realizing every penny I make I can give it to missions. I can give it to ministries and they're gonna cause the finances that I've given to multiply into impacting souls forever. So to him who has more will be given and they'll have an abundance. Jesus is saying the reason It's because I know they'll be faithful. I know they'll multiply in lives

what I've entrusted to them. The happiest I ever became is when we started giving books to pastors overseas. As you know, we've given over 62 million resources to pastors, leaders, and believers all over the world. It's been the happiest 14 years, in the last 14 years we've done it, it's been the happiest 14 years of my life. Because we have been able to give, I'm talking about our partners, I'm talking about our partners who have given millions of dollars in this, our ministry team who's done all the grunt work, our teams that have gone to all these different nations, Rob and Vanessa who's gone to 192 nations in the world. We've been able to give away these millions of resources to pastors and leaders that have nothing. I mean, four million resources in Iran alone. And why have we been able to do it? Because the people with the giving gifts, the people with the serving gifts, the people with the speaking and the writing gifts, all got together and we said, let's join together to multiply what we've been able to do. I never would have been able to reach hardly anyone, let alone 62 million people, 62 million resources I should say. I don't know how many people, millions and millions of people, but we never would have been able to do that by ourselves. But we joined together and through unity and through faith.

We've been able to multiply what God is in trust to us to impact millions of people's lives. - I think about going back to what you've been said of what with Mike is God gave him business ideas. I remember one of, I still think one of the more crucial prayers that I prayed back in 2017 was the start of the year. And I remember I wrote out this big board and I was like, I'm thinking through my year, God, what do I want to see? And I remember I just said, God, give me an idea. And I thought about this whole process of like, I think the greatest thing that God has given us as human beings is an idea. And I think oftentimes as we continue to sow and whatever things that it looks like, whether that's our investment, 'cause there's people out there who are like, I would love to give, but I have no money. And it's like, well, you have other ways to give. You have your time, which is for most of us, the most precious thing that you have, you have your time, you have the ability of encouragement. Like there's ways that you can give, but as you continue to sow and that could be your gifting as well, I remember just praying and I said, God, give me an idea. And that was the idea that I remember God kind of started downloading some thoughts into my mind about the actually the ministry we did with sons and daughters, but that was the beginning of a lot of things

that would unfold in my life was just God, give me the idea. And I look at like, even with everything that's happened with our translations of resources, is you had just continued to be faithful with what you were doing. And what God spoke to you was you have been faithful to the English speaking world. Now I want you to get your hands or your resources in the hands of pastors and leaders around the world. So God's key in there of faithful to what you have right there. And then God gives you the idea of here's this thought. And I love it because it wasn't, here's this thought, here's how it's gonna happen. Here's the thousands of translators gonna raise up. Here's the thousands of partners I'm gonna raise up. Here's this, it was, give these resources into the hands of pastors and leaders around the world. And I think it's amazing is that God gives you this idea. And like I've always seen it as this, as God might say, I want you to build a chair. And you're like, okay, that means God's gonna get me a chair. And let's say you didn't know what a chair looked like. And you're like, God, I'm waiting for this chair. But yet there's a tree right here, sitting right here. And you're just like waiting for God to give me a chair. And God's like, I've given you everything that you need. - You gotta saw. - To actually go cut down that tree and start working.

And that's, I think a lot of times where it's like the trusting and actually making sure of that transition from the lazy to the faithful, where it's okay, God, I don't fully know how this is gonna plan out, but you told me to do this. And I'm just gonna be faithful with what I've got. I'm just gonna start working. And you'll tie on those things. It was not all those things downloaded to you. It began a process of discovery of you just continuing to be like, okay, well, we could do this. We could do a golf tournament. And then that would do this, and then this, and then this, and then this. - Do you know what I'm really excited to say? - Do you know what really spurred the great multiplication is the frustration? Because I remember the first year we gave away 270,000 books to pastors and leaders in 48 nations, 44 languages. That year I was in the nation of Lebanon. I was in Beirut, preaching to pastors from all over the Middle East. And young pastor, 36 years old from Arabella, Iraq, said, "Pastor, can I meet with you?" And I remember he sat down with me, and he said, "Pastor, I look at you as a pastor." Arden checking out, I hardly heard anything else he said. And I remember, I couldn't, I can't wait to get to my room. And out of huge frustration, I went to my room and I screamed out, "God, you got to show me how to do this." And that's when God gave the inspired idea that caused our giving to go from hundreds of thousands of resources a year to millions a year. And that

that one frustrating moment of frustration led to that inspired idea. And so when you run up against frustrating moments, I want you to remember that God often is calling you to come in and cry out for the grace, which is the wisdom. That's what James means when he says, "If you lack wisdom, ask of God and ask in faith." I went up to my hotel room and I didn't care what the rooms around me thought, "I don't always do this." As a matter of fact, I've done it very rarely. And I screamed out, I said, "God, you got to show me how to reach these pastors." And that's when the idea came that brought our giving to hundreds of thousands of resources a year to millions. And I want to say this, that when I was 50 years old, that's when God came in to our basement and said, "You have been faithful with the English speaking community. I want you to get your resource in the hands of every pastor in the world who can't afford him." I didn't even know at that time that the word "faith" will meant to multiply. Out of that encounter with God came this entire message, that not only are we called, not only are we gifted, but we are called to multiply. And that's what this book is all about. And they can go to YouAreCall.com and they can access even more resources around that book as well. Yeah, we've got the courses. They can get the book. It's going to bring them to Amazon or other retailers to get it. I just want you to get this book. And the reason I'm saying this is, there are some people that have read this book that came back to me and they said, "John, this book is a life changer." I know the senior editor at HarperCollins, one of their top editors, did this book, and he called me and he said, "John, I think this book might actually even outperform the of God." Now, that's saying a lot because this book has blown us all away. Well, and can I encourage people why you really need to get a message like this? I think you look at the world right now and the reality of it is the world is not like, yes, we are desperate to see more sons and daughters of God, but we're not lacking sons and daughters of God. If you look at the population of people who are born again Christians, it's actually pretty significant. It's like 2.5 billion around there. What the world is lacking right now, what the world desperately needs is more sons and daughters of God who are walking in the fullness of what God has called them to. And understanding is like, yes, part of the Great Commission is actually walking in what God is calling you to do, not just making more more converts, but making true disciples of God who are walking in their calling, walking in what it means to look like. And that's a huge part of this message. I love it. So, please take advantage of it. And I want to say this that

starting our next podcast, we may be embarking on a new book of the New Testament. Second Peter, just three little chapters took us a whole year. Let's see where the Holy Spirit leads us. I don't want to give any more away other than that, but I have had some promptings and I don't want to say anything unless I'm 100% for sure. So, you've got something to look forward to in the next John Bevere podcast. We will see you then. [BLANK_AUDIO]