I hope it won't be boring. I'm told I'm not usually boring, so if I see you yawning, I will know you're bored, and I will slow down. I will speed up.

Hallelujah. One verse only this morning. John chapter 10, verse 10.

The thief comes to do nothing but steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they may continually have Zoe life, and have it in far greater measure, or as the old version says, life abundantly. My message today is planning an abundant life.

How would you describe your life right now? Satisfactory? Average? Semi-normal? Could be a bit better? Somewhat lacking? Or just not worth going on like this? Okay, can you honestly say the following? I'm doing the things I love to do. I'm satisfied that I'm reaching my full potential. Life is worth living.

I greet each new day with excitement and anticipation. I have enough money to do the things I desire to do. If this is you, you don't need my message today.

You may go home. But for the rest of us who are unworthy people, who struggle through life, I would like to share with you what I believe is some of God's answers for these problems that we face in life. Okay, firstly, about all things, you need a plan to succeed.

You need long-range plans? What are you planning to do or reach in the next five years? You, what are you planning in the next year? What about next month? And then you need short-range plans like next week? Tomorrow? How about today? Well, that's a bit late. Today's half gone. No, it's never too late.

Still many hours left in today. Now, if you don't make a plan, then what's going to happen is you're going to drift along without direction. And here's what's going to happen.

You're going to end up in somebody else's plan. You're going to be subject to chance. That good old thing the world calls luck.

See, now, if that's the way you've been living, chances are probably you haven't been planning. Well, God has a plan for you, but sad to say nothing is automatic. See, God's laid out some things like standing, what they call standing orders in the army.

There are standing orders, there are things that always apply. There are orders that you always have to obey. But then there's orders you have to get on the run.

See, so God has laid out standing orders for us, basic principles of life that we should follow. But while we're in the field, we need additional direction. So although God's laid out a general plan for us, our own individual plan is going to vary according to our circumstances and our desires.

And so we need an interaction with the Lord along the way to make sure that we follow ultimately his plan, but also the things that we hope to accomplish in this life. Now, all of our plans tend to revolve around the essentials of life. What are those? Firstly, you must plan how to become and to stay healthy.

Secondly, you must plan how to become wealthy. And lastly, you must plan how to develop and maintain good relationships. These three are the essentials to living an abundant life, a happy life, and ultimately the things that we all desire in life.

So let's look at the first one. I said I'm only going to get through the first two. And even that's going to take us a while to get through.

So we'll save the relationships for another time. Today, we're going to look at health and wealth. So let's look first at making health plans.

Now, when you hear the word health, what's in your mind? You know, people often have different ideas concerning what health is. People who are great sports enthusiasts, they think health is the ability for me to just go out there and win every time. But you know, there are sick people out there who are able to go out there and win.

There are people who are dying of disease who are actually very physically fit and actually even able to perform in sports activities. But their health is bad. So I'd like to give you a better definition of what it means to be healthy.

Being healthy means being an efficient machine. See, you are a machine. You were created to do something.

God made you into a product like a machine that has things to do. And for a machine to do the best, it's got to run efficiently. But what is efficiency? It means doing things to the best of its capability without restrictions.

See, now, if you've got a nice big fancy car and you're always driving at 60 kilometers an hour, and you should be if you're in a speed limit that's only 60 miles an hour. But you know, what was the point in buying the big fancy car if that's all you're planning to do? See, that car's got efficiency built into it to do far, far better than that. And when you can put your foot down and let it take its full power, let that engine roar.

See, that is when that car is reaching its full potential. Well, now, how have you been driving your life? Has it been running on first or second gear? Maybe you've never even made it into top gear. And when you make it into top gear, you're a little bit cautious.

You don't want to let out too much too soon. Because if you do, I've had cars where you put your foot flat and the car goes, and it starts to pull off. See, that's not an efficient machine.

See, if you try to pull out the full throttle in your life and you start hucking, your machine's not very efficient. That means you're unhealthy. Okay, so you're understanding health from a better point of view now? Now, here's the other mistake we make.

We think that health only applies to our body. But you see, God didn't just make us a body. He made us a body and a soul and a spirit.

And so health applies to all three parts of our being. It's no good having a body that is physically fit and a soul that is sick or a spirit that is sick. See, each of these need to run at peak efficiency and the fullness of power that God intended for them.

Now, to get them there, there's various processes we have to go through. I've just written down for you. Feeding, exercising, purging, and healing.

See, now let's look then at physical health first. Feeding. Oh, this is something we love to do.

Usually at least three times a day, some of us more. We love to feed our face, don't we? But what exactly are we feeding ourselves and is the food that we're feeding us producing the ultimate state of energy and physical health? Well, you know, when you're young, you don't think about these things. I used to remember my mom or somebody saying, you shouldn't eat that, it's healthy.

And I used to say, look, I'm not eating it because it's good for me. I'm eating it because I like it. And you can get away with it.

You can eat junk and your body still seems to kind of cope. When you get a little bit older, you find it's not quite as easy. You find that health is no longer automatic.

You now need to start being a little bit careful. But you know, if you'd been careful when you were younger, perhaps by this stage, you wouldn't feel the age so much. See, for those of us that are getting on in years, you know what I'm talking about.

Those of you are young, you think, oh, old fatty daddy, I'm still full of energy. I can eat all my favorite foods. See, it's not a sin to eat good foods.

God made them for us. See, but not everything that we eat is good for us. And unfortunately, in this world of convenience and instant everything, most of the foods that are the cheapest and the easiest to make, they lack essentials that our body needs.

Now, I don't need to preach nutrition to you. I'm sure you've heard it coming from all sides. But we need to eat good foods to maintain health in our bodies.

And then we need to keep active. We need to move around a lot. If you're sitting at your desk all day, you are not creating a very good environment for maintaining good health.

And then you need to avoid taking the lazy way. Oh, the lazy way. You know what? You know, we have a park just up the way.

It's just a couple of blocks. You know, I would rather take the car to get there than walk. Because walking is an effort.

Come on. We are inherently lazy beings. We always find the quickest way.

You go to find a parking at the shopping center, you look for the parking that's the closest. You can never get a parking close to the shops because everybody grabbed it first. Why? Why are those parking so popular? Because nobody wants to walk so far.

They're the shops. You know, I'm getting old and lazy. So I always look for the closest parking.

Days gone by, I used to exercise my faith to say, angels, prepare a parking for me. I got pretty good. You know, as I get in there, somebody pull out right close.

But I think the Lord made it stop working for a reason. People to the shops, now Nadine says, dad, don't park in our usual place. You know how far we got to walk? There's plenty of parkings there.

You know, sure there is. Nobody wants to park there. And I have to keep reminding myself and be reminded, you know what? It'll do you good to walk a little bit further.

Laziness. I would just never admit that we are inherently lazy creatures. Well, if you want to remain healthy, try and get rid of some of that laziness and push yourself a little bit often.

Not just every now and then. Okay. So apart from good feeding, good exercise, we also need to remove poisons from our bodies.

Okay. Because there's always a byproduct of digestion and of the bodily functions that produces a lot of toxins in our body. And actually these are the major causes of most of the diseases that we have.

Now I've done a full study on this. So I'm not going to preach it. If you want to study all that I've taught on physical health, I have a website app called The Way of Health.

Just click on the website's link on any of our pages and you'll find it there near the bottom. Go and read it. I wrote some very good articles to emphasize all these aspects.

The Lord showed me that there are seven factors involved in maintaining our health. And if we follow those carefully, we'll remain healthy. One of the major factors of ill health and disease is the inability of our body to get rid of the poisons that are formed in them.

Okay. Now, God has created us to eliminate a lot of the poisons automatically. And guess how that happens? Movement.

See, so every time you park your car in that long distance parking, you walk to the shops, you need to think, every step I take, I'm getting rid of toxins. See, it's the system in the body. It runs side by side with the blood system.

Okay. And it eliminates, it eliminates all the, what is it called again? My mind's gone blank. Lymph systems.

Okay. The lymph system actually is more extensive than your blood, but it doesn't have a heart to pump it. Okay.

It's moved by movement. And as your body moves, your body actually takes all the poisons out and passes them into the excretory organs, mostly into the bowels, and it goes out of your body. So if you want to get rid of toxins, move more.

Now, a lot of people, they're kind of overboard on what not to eat because some foods produce more poisons. Okay. And that's a good thing.

But if you move a lot, you'll be amazed what you can eat. Some years ago, we spent a little time in a foreign country, Costa Rica. Never been there before.

And our hotel was a couple of kilometers away from town. Now, I was a shopaholic. I've got to go to the shops every day.

If I'm on holiday, was, sorry, that's changed. One thing I love is going shopping. So you know how far we had to walk every day to get to the shops? So, you know, I've been suffering with a lot of different things, and I had a lot of medications that I was taking, and I took all my medications with me.

I've been trying to control my diet and not to eat too much stuff. And the food at that restaurant was good. It was really good.

You know, and I find myself eating a lot more than I usually did. Three full meals a day. But you know what? I lost a couple of kgs while we were there.

In fact, I hardly took any of the pills. I didn't need them. My blood pressure remained good.

My sugar remained down. Everything was awesome. And I thought, must be the nice atmosphere.

No, it was the walking. It was the long walks every day. And sometimes it was steep uphills like this that we had to walk, you know.

And then sometimes you were in a hurry to get somewhere, and so you pushed yourself. See, I don't normally push myself on a steep hill, because I get tired. But when there's an urgency, when there's an emergency, you push yourself harder.

I discovered just the extra exercise that we did while we were there. Helped me to lose weight and improve my health. Even though I ate more than twice as much as I normally do.

Don't underestimate the power of exercise. It really is a very important part, and it helps get rid of all the poisons. Okay, so we need to eat well, we need to exercise, and we need to do our best to eliminate poisons.

Now, one of the ways you can encourage that is to encourage the movement of your bowels. And the best way to do that is to make sure that most of the food that you eat is not concentrated, like starches and meat, but has a lot of high water content like vegetables and salads and that sort of thing. If you have more water content in your diet, your bowels flow more freely, you get rid of the toxins more freely.

Okay, so they're all kind of interlinked, don't they? All of these things together. And then finally, what happens when sickness strikes, you need to deal with it to restore yourself back to health. Well, you can take medication which doesn't heal, but does treat the symptoms.

Ultimately, all healing comes from your spirit, as I've taught elsewhere, but medications do help. It's not easy to go for a walk when you're in pain. So take something to get rid of the pain and still go for your walk.

Okay. And then, you know, just change your eating and your exercise habits. You'll be amazed how sickness can be avoided.

So that's physical health in a nutshell. How about health of the soul? I'm calling this soulical health. Well, you know, there's feeding involved here too, because you feed your soul all the time.

You're feeding your mind. And what are you feeding your mind with? You're feeding your mind, hopefully, with good things. How do you do that? Are the things you watch? Are the things you listen to? Are the things you read? Your mind is like a sponge.

It just soaks up knowledge all the time. And you don't even need to actively make an effort to do that, because you're being exposed to knowledge all the time. You're being exposed to different inputs all the time.

Just try and make sure that, like with your food, you don't live on junk. You don't spend all your time feeding the junk in. Try and feed more good stuff in than bad stuff.

You need to stir your emotions positively. How do we do that? Well, one of the best ways is through interaction with other human beings. Social activities.

Social activities make us feel good and produce good emotions in us. If you haven't got one, learn to develop a sense of humor. Learn to laugh a little bit more.

Now, it's easy to see the expressors. They've got smile lines everywhere. Analyticals are just as easy to see.

You wonder whether they ever smile. But they can be made to smile, and you can make yourself smile. Try and see the funny things in life, and try and be like Peter Pan and think a few happy thoughts.

You're so busy with the work, work. Oh, the driver. The driver's work, work, work.

Take time, as they say in the classics, to smell the roses. Take time to enjoy life. Take time to let your feelings show.

Now, when we're going to get the job done, the job can just wait for a little bit. Take time out. It's going to feed your emotions in a good way.

And your emotions amongst the most powerful force in your soul to really get you out there and accomplishing things. Okay. And then, learn to have some fun.

Learn to let your hair down. Some of us have difficulty doing that in the natural, but we can at least do it in our souls. Let your hair down.

Have a bit of fun. Do stupid things that are irrational and illogical. Act like an idiot sometimes.

Learn to laugh at yourself. Learn to laugh at other people. Learn to laugh at yourself.

It'll do you so good. And then, learn to exercise your willpower a little bit, or sometimes it helps to get around people who have good habits. We pick up some of it from them.

Sometimes the people we hang around have got bad habits, and we pick those up instead. So, watch out who you hang around with. And then, try to develop new abilities.

It's going to take an effort to do something that you couldn't do before. It's going to take a lot of effort to form new habits. And then, deal with those bad habits you have.

Try to overcome them. All of these things are involved in feeding and exercising our soul. And what it's going to do, it's going to produce a healthy soul.

And when you have a healthy soul, it's going to have a greater capability, a greater efficiency. We now have a machine that at least has a healthy body and a healthy soul. That already makes you more than twice as efficient as what you were before.

I don't care how fit you are physically. I don't care whether you can run a marathon and climb a mountain. If your soul is sick, you're inefficient.

Then, we come to the spirit. What should we feed in our spirit, and how should we exercise our spirit? This one is kind of hard, isn't it? How do I actually develop my spirit? Well, here's a simple one. Pray in tongues often.

Scripture says, he that prays and speaks in an unknown tongue, builds up himself. You want to build spiritual muscles? Speak in tongues a lot. You know what? If I'm on my own riding in the car, I usually have to hide my mouth if somebody's next to me, because they think I'm talking to myself.

I'm speaking in tongues. So shut up. I'm singing in tongues.

I'm just letting it rip. Don't make excuses. I never have time to sit and speak in tongues.

You've got plenty of time to speak in tongues. You could do it under your breath while you're at work. How long do you speak in tongues at a time? Have you timed yourself? If I were to ask you for a time, I want you to take a note of that time.

When you go home, I want you to pray in tongues and time yourself, and find out just how long that time really is. If you think you prayed in tongues for five minutes, you'd be amazed how long five minutes is. Most of us don't even pray in tongues for a minute.

30 seconds, maybe. That's a lot. Well, you know, if you're not exercising much, you're not going to build your muscles.

And if you're not speaking in tongues much, you're not going to develop your spiritual muscles. Try and combine it with speaking some scriptures out loud. I like to alternate the two.

I like to walk up and down and just confess scriptures. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish will be done for you. Daughter of Tyre will be there with the gifts.

Rich among the people will ask you for a favor. And I go alternate like that over and over again. You try walking around the yard, or your yard, or even in your house.

Just do it for a bit. You'll be amazed. You'll feel the power begin to build up inside you.

Journal often. Talk to the Lord and listen for his reply. Get wisdom and teaching and direction.

It's a good exercise for your spirit. And then worship and praise often. Listen to some good music and sing with it.

And better still, learn to play an instrument and sing and play. And if you can't do that, just sing in tongues. Practice it.

You make up your own songs. It's wonderful. You don't have to worry about the words because you don't even know what you're saying.

And you can steer the melody any way you want it to go. If you want to rap, you can say. So that's great.

No matter what your music style is, do it. And you need to write down a daily plan on all of these things. You need to list the things that you can do every day.

And you need to start doing them right away. And once those things become a habit, then look for some more. Over time, you'll find you can add new things to the list.

Work first on your health. Give that a priority. Why? Because when you're healthy, it's easier to gain wealth.

When you're healthy, it's easier to develop relationships. It'll give you more energy and power. And you know what we do? You know, the Lord provided for us to get a treadmill.

When we bought it at the shop, the woman looked at me and said, yeah, another clothes hanger. I said, no, no, no, no, no. And the Lord told me to get this so I can keep fit.

And you know, the rest of the team have really made good use of it. But you know, I've got so much to do. I get out of bed and I'm already working.

Sometimes I'm working from bed already. You know, and before I know it, Daphne is saying, what do you want for lunch? And I say, what is lunchtime already? Then after I've eaten lunch, you know, I'm old. I like an afternoon sleep.

And you know, when I'm finished sleeping, it's time for supper. You know, I really meant to get on that treadmill today. Can't you been there? You see, you're going to have to plan it.

And you're going to have to give health a priority over your work. Especially if you're a workaholic, like I can be at times. Your drivers always have a problem with this.

Give your health a priority. You'll get more energy and power. And here's the big thing.

Do not say I'm going to start tomorrow. Because when tomorrow arrives, tomorrow's today. Tomorrow never arrives.

Do it now. Oh, the day's half gone. It's a bit late to start today.

No, there's quite a few hours left. Write down your plan for today and get started. Yeah, you know, I already planned today.

Oh, what were you planning for the rest of today? Well, I was just going to chill. That's not a plan. Yeah, you must plan your chill times.

Important. You must have chill times, otherwise you'll die. See, but plan them and fit them into the right priority level.

Well, you know, I'll chill. And when I'm finished chilling, if I feel like working, I'll work. Here's what you're not going to do.

Right. And so we get on to the main thing I'm going to speak about today, which is making wealth plans. Health is very important, but health doesn't drive us quite the same as wealth, does it? Oh, more money makes it easier.

More money makes it easier for us to have health and relationships. Oh, what I could do if I had more money. I could afford to buy the right food instead of that junk food.

I could afford to go to a gym or buy the right exercise equipment or join that club, play some sports. You know that poverty can destroy a relationship. Somebody said, when poverty comes into the door, love flies out the window.

So many marriages have been destroyed. Some relationships have been destroyed because of lack of money. So let's not underestimate the importance of money.

It's very important. But, you know, creating wealth requires an effort. God always required man to work.

Adam had a job in the garden, but Adam didn't have to work hard. Just had to keep things in order. But since Adam and Eve sinned, what is known as the fall, it doesn't come naturally anymore.

Got to work against it. Because the curse came into the earth. Now, the Lord has redeemed us from the curse.

But in order for us to overcome that curse, we've got to apply the blessing. Again, it's not automatic. He provides the power, but we've got to use it.

Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who does it all for me. No, I don't think it goes that way. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

But you see, it's I who has to do it. Or, you know, I'll just command the angels and they can go work for me and bring my income in. Some people teach that because they're just too lazy.

But I'm living by faith. The Lord told me that I should just sit at home and pray all day and God would provide my needs. God may tell you to do that for a season, but it's never going to be a lifestyle, let me tell you.

Now, I'm afraid that if you want results, you're going to have to apply your whole being. You're going to have to make a physical effort. You're going to have to make a mental and emotional effort.

And you're going to have to exercise your willpower. In other words, we're going to have to do that ugly W work. Oh, I can't wait to retire so I don't have to work anymore.

Are you planning to die? See, a lot of people think, oh, I've worked hard all my life. Now's the time for me to sit back and do nothing. Well, then you've got nothing to live for anymore, do you? And so you want to get poor now because that's what's going to happen.

See, work alone does not produce wealth. You know, most people who work pretty hard at their job and then they wait for payday. You might even live in hope that maybe my boss will give me an increase.

And you'll carry on like that for the rest of your life. Because you have no incentive to work harder or to work better. You'll join the status quo.

The status quo gives no thought to increasing their wealth. They've become complacent. They're satisfied to continue the way they're going.

I get up. I go to work. I do my job.

I come home. We just live according to our budget, according to the income that we have. We're always following a survival vision.

I can just keep my head above water and get enough. See, wealth doesn't look like that. Most of us, we're quite happy to do that.

We want money. We want more wealth. We want somebody else to give it to us.

We want the Lord just to shower it on us. He loves us. I'm afraid if you want wealth, you're going to have to move beyond what is required.

See, being faithful in your job is not enough. You're going to have to do something new and powerful. You're going to have to increase your capacity to gain wealth.

You're going to have to be prepared to pay the price in time and in effort. And you're going to have to make plans to change. Change.

Analyticals hate that word. Expressives thrive on it. Others kind of sit in the middle there somewhere.

Many people change as a swear word. You know, I'm comfortable doing it this way. I'm 68 years.

It's served me well. And so you're wealthy now, right? Could it be that if you changed a bit earlier, you could be in a different situation of finances right now? You're going to have to put an extra effort in. And you're going to have to get some input to give you the capability to do that.

And there's three areas that you can gain input to make you more capable of creating wealth. The first source is your own heart. You have knowledge that is stored that you've accumulated over the years.

All the things that you fed in that stuck, they're still there. Depending on how old you are, you have a wealth, a wealth of data sitting in there, waiting to be tapped. It can be used.

It includes things that you learned from experience. And when you learn from experience, you've got it. You know it.

You've proved it. Sometimes it's dead knowledge sitting there, not being used. You need to get input from the world around you.

And the things that you read, the things that you watch, the things that you listen to, the things that you see. But you're going to have to learn to be observant. Do you notice things? Do you just let them pass by you? You know, when we were in Mexico, the Mexicans speak so fast.

That it's almost impossible to understand what they're saying, no matter how well you've learned the language. It's just, you got one or two words there. Oh, he said something about, we got to the place where we just switched off.

Somebody spoke in Spanish, wouldn't even listen. Okay, what did you say? We kind of got that way in life. We're so busy doing what we're doing, that we don't notice things that are staring us in the face.

Oh Lord, please send me some new things to learn. You get this email that is loaded with good stuff. You think, eh, spam.

You ever read your emails? Well, I know they teach you out there that you shouldn't read emails because it makes you inefficient. I disagree. I read emails 24 hours a day.

I wake up two o'clock in the morning. I usually wake up at least three or four times. The morning I say to John, John, you need to answer that email.

He said, well, what email? I haven't read my email yet. You're slow, man. Keep your eyes open because the Lord is going to send you new things out there, even from the world that can benefit you.

You know, I'm amazed as we've tried to help people get moving in their own ministries to find out how ignorant most people are of things that I tend to take for granted. Oh, you know, I'm not, I'm not very technical. What are you saying to me? I was too lazy to learn.

I just didn't bother noticing what's happening all around me. You know, the Lord taught me a long time ago to keep on the cutting edge. What is happening out there right now? Keep up with it.

We did great overseas with all our websites and everything. Everybody was going Facebook, Facebook, it's worldly. I want nothing to do with it.

And the Lord said, get on Facebook. You're losing an opportunity. But I hate Facebook.

I don't care. You're losing an opportunity. But it's worldly.

I don't care. You're losing an opportunity. Make use of the social media.

We had a seminar two years ago, 2017, which we called the Launch Your Ministry Conference. I don't know if any of you were around it. Very powerful.

In that seminar, we taught those who attended how to do what we do. Well, how do we do what we do? We were sitting there in Mexico, unable to do anything, not understanding the people around about us, not able to work, better find a way of creating income. So you know what we did? We went onto the internet, and we found out how to do things.

We found out how to bind and make our own books, because we couldn't afford to have people publish it for us. We found out how to do things on the internet. We found out how to do graphics with a graphics program.

We found out how to create webpages. You know, I don't have money or time to go on a course. You don't have to go on a course.

Internet is one big course, and it's free. Oh, but that takes time and effort. You're complaining because you're not wealthy.

Because I don't have time to read. I'm not a reader, you know. You know how to spend money.

That seems to come naturally. Maybe if you learn to read more, you may get more money to spend. See? See, we learned.

We didn't have money to hire specialists, so every one of our team took a skill that they had. We only had six in the team originally. Each one took the skill that they had and developed it.

I gave my younger daughter a graphics program. I said, go and learn this and learn how to do graphics. She became a graphics expert.

Eventually, she wanted to do it as a career. She wasn't born with it. See? I taught everybody to write articles, to get in there and make webpages, to produce Bible studies.

John used to make all our tapes and CDs and all of our products, and he was a young guy. Today is the day of the specialist. Don't touch it.

Give it to the specialist and pay him specialist fees. Now, this is what this whole series is all about that I'm trying to teach you, is you have in you all that you will ever need to develop any skill you desire to rise up to accomplish in this world. You need to learn from the Lord by your spirit.

You need to listen to his voice daily by journaling. You don't know how to journal, we'll teach you how. I'm sure most of you now know how to journal.

You need to confess and meditate on scriptures, and you need to learn from your dreams also. These are all different ways that God can give you input from your spirit. Now, if you combine all of these things together, you're going to become more efficient and better.

You're going to have a better chance of creating more wealth. And as you get these things, write them down. Combine them all together and find ways of using them to create wealth.

And sit and bemoan your luck in life, that you were born poor, and born into a poor family, and born into a poor country. Don't make excuses. Some of the big bodybuilder types out there, the guys were born in little weeds, and they said, no, I don't want this, I'm going to do something.

And they built themselves. Some of the wealthiest people out there were people who were born in absolute poverty. Don't have to stay there.

Write it all down, you're going to forget it. Then review what you wrote, so you don't forget it. And then as God gives you further revelation, add that to it and build it up until you've got a wealth of resource to create wealth.

But don't be in too much of a hurry to start using it, because timing is important. Important. You need to think through each plan before you act.

Don't go off as we say, half-cocked. Because if you half-cock the gun and pull the trigger, it's going to go and the bullet's not going off. Make sure you get well prepared.

Test it before you go full out. See if some modifications are needed before you launch your plan. And then don't give up too quickly if it doesn't work the first time.

We were totally reliant on the internet. We did our best to send things out that would bring results. And I spent hours crafting this email to send to people.

And I know it's just going to wow everybody out there. It is so awesome. And you send it out and you wait for the responses.

And you're lucky if somebody writes back and says, Amen. You ever try that on Facebook? Post this awesome article and 10 people say, Amen, Amen. I don't want any amens, rather say nothing.

If you don't have something more than Amen to say, just shut up. Because that doesn't motivate me. It just says, oh, pretty mediocre article.

I'll be nice to you by saying, Amen. I never post Amen on my stuff. Okay.

I'm warning you now. It can be very discouraging. We had to face this for many years before we started to see results.

Sometimes you just oversee that it takes a long time. When I was in sales, I realized that if I saw a customer, they didn't always buy, but they may buy two years from now. You've got to keep at it.

You've got to persevere and then follow it through. Research and test different ways to make it work best. Stick with it and give it time to work.

And if it works, add it to your daily schedule. Daily schedule, you say, what's that? What's that? Lord spoke to me recently about setting a daily schedule and working to a more scheduled life. Now, I hate schedules.

I just get up in the morning and say, let's see what comes. I'm going to be led and just do whatever I feel led to do. Most of the time that is eating, sleeping, and unproductive things.

That's mostly what I find myself being led to do. So I decided to go out and buy one of these daytimer books. I've never ever used one in my life.

It's like a diary where you write down all your plans. Nadine was so excited, she bought it for me. I was going to get my life in order and I was going to get it scheduled.

And the first day I started out with a bang and the second day it went poof and the third day it was gone. Because it was not a habit in my life. Now the Lord's kicking my butt.

But I'm trying and things just not going. I complained to my wife and I said, you know, every time I really want to get going, it's like something side swipes me. And then the Lord said, you didn't do what I told you to do, did you? And I sat down to prepare for today.

See all these things I'm preaching, I'm preaching them at me. It's as much as a juice. I don't think I'm the great hero yet, but I'm going to make it work.

And if you want to succeed, you're going to have to make it work. You need some attitudes that go with making wealth. You need to plan what you're going to do with the increased wealth.

See, wealth helps you to accomplish great things. Do not, oh, this one is so subtle. Do not see wealth as a reward for all the hard work.

Now you can enjoy it. It will be gone faster and you can blink an eye. Wealth should never be your goal.

Wealth only helps you to reach your goals. I don't make getting wealthy your goal. Because you won't maintain that.

It doesn't have the power to excite you. You'll end up just saying, oh, what the heck? Let me just do my job and get paid. At the end of the month, write down all the main reasons that you want more wealth.

Think it through. Why do you want more money? Well, I mean, who wouldn't want more money? If you had more money, how would it change your life? What would you do with it? Oh, I'd buy the car that I've been wanting, I'd buy the house I've been wanting, I'd buy this, I'd get it. Okay, it's a starting point.

You're telling me that you're not planning to accumulate wealth. You're just planning to spend it as fast as when it comes in, you'll stay poor. But always keep in mind the reasons that you want to accumulate wealth and think beyond just accumulating wealth and think about ways of investing the wealth that you get.

And find the best way to invest that which will give you the best returns. So, you know, I'm not a financial consultant type of person. I only think about how much money I'm going to put in the bank at such and such an interest rate.

If you've read The Way of Blessing, which you probably haven't, second book, which definitely you probably haven't even got to yet. I have a whole chapter called Walking in Prosperity, in which I address the subject in some detail. So I'm not going to do it now.

Go and read it. I shared there that every time you spend money, you're investing it. But each investment gets a different return.

Wouldn't it be great to go out for dinner today? Oh, I'm just in the mood for some nice food at that favorite restaurant of ours. We've got enough money came in. Let's go and have a super meal.

That's an investment, isn't it? And it's going to give you a return. An awesome return that's going to last for about an hour. And then it's over.

Isn't it amazing how we agonize over things that could be useful? Oh, you know, I really need a new iPad. I could just do so much more with it. It could really help me in my work and in my ministry.

Do you know what those things cost? Man, that's a lot of money. Oh, but it's lunchtime and my stomach is rumbling. And you don't go there and say, what's the cheapest food you have? You look at your favorite menu item, then you think, oh, what the heck, let's just enjoy it.

The Lord provided the money. Let's do it. Come on, sit down and budget some time how much money you spend on your body.

No food. Shocked. See, there are better ways of investing.

You could invest in an object that can be used over and again for years, and you'll get a return on that for many years. And as I shared in that article, ultimately, your best way, your best investment is something that is a reproducing asset. In the old days, they used to invest in sheep, goats, cattle.

Because if you got some good animals and they reproduce, they produce babies, your flocks would grow. Today, we have investments and other options. Ultimately, the best investment is to invest into people.

Because people, when they invest it in, will take that and they will grow and they will accomplish something in this world. But as I said, I covered that in some detail in that article. Okay, now, here's what you've always got to keep in mind.

Accumulation of wealth and spending of wealth must always be totally independent. It mustn't be tied together. It should come in faster than what it goes out.

If it doesn't, you'll stay poor. If it goes out as fast or faster than what it comes in, you will never be wealthy. Bottom line.

So, how do we make this happen? Well, let's make it come in faster, shall we? That's one way. The other way is to stop how fast it goes out. Slow down the output, decrease it.

And you know what? That's actually the place you should start because it's in your hands right now. Because I'll tell you what's going to happen when it comes in faster. You're going to spend it faster.

You know, we couldn't afford that before. Now, we can. Let's get it.

Eventually, your debts, like a scale, perfectly equal your income. You got them nicely in balance. And you say, well, you know, I don't overcommit myself.

You know, I've only committed myself to what we can afford, you know? So, I get so much in. We put so much out. We got enough to get by.

What would happen if you lost your job tomorrow? Now, the scale looks like this. Let's see. Come on, 99% of us live that way.

I lived that way for years. It was only during the last seminar where the Lord addressed in me my bad habits and my need to spend. For the first time then, I finally started to leave money in the bank long enough that it could stay in savings.

Before that, I felt it was fleshly to save because we're not trusting the Lord. Sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? You save money, you're not trusting the Lord. You're just trusting in yourself.

Oh, the enemy is subtle. You're always in a position where he can put pressure on you and destroy you. So, start working on what goes out.

When more comes in, it'll start to accumulate. You'll get wealthy. Now, we need to deal with the flesh.

If your body is ruling, you will walk in the flesh. And that will stop you from living the abundant life. And it will absolutely stop you from being wealthy.

See, when you walk in the spirit, you hold back the influences that create poverty. Accumulating wealth then becomes just a natural result of everything. Walking in the spirit, how do we do that? Again, I have a whole seminar called The School of Blessing.

If you weren't there, you should get it. I covered walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh in a lot of detail and showed how we can live a life of blessing. Now, let's make some plans of action.

And this is my last point tonight, today. We need to make some plans of action to bring change. Because here's the bad news.

Until you change, nothing will change. We want our circumstances to change, but we want to remain the same person we always were. Sorry, it's not going to happen.

The change has to take place in you. You're going to have to get better. Otherwise, things are not going to get better.

And your starting point is to learn to walk in the spirit. The flesh is always going to rob you of blessing. Sin comes easily.

Overcoming sin needs knowledge and experience. And for God to deal with you, so you can eventually overcome these sinful habit patterns in your life. But you know, getting in the spirit is quite easy.

Again, I taught that. You know how easy it is. All it takes is a decision.

And it happens instantly. I'll make a decision. I'm going to stop listening just to my body.

And I'm going to submit to the Holy Spirit within me. I make that decision. Lord, in the name of Jesus now, I submit myself completely to you.

And I ask you to live your life in me now. Help me to walk in the spirit. You say, I'm in the spirit right now.

Right now, that's how easy it is. Yeah, but I've been struggling with sin for so long. Stop struggling.

Just walk in the spirit. It'll empower you in a new way. Now you can listen.

You can hear your spirit. But how do we hear what's in our spirits? One of the best ways is journaling. Because when you're journaling, you're getting into a flow because you can only listen to one voice at a time.

See, when you're trying to do it with your mind, you've got all these voices coming around you. You've got the voices from within your own heart. And somewhere in the middle is this tiny little voice that's the Lord and you can't hear it.

But when you journal, you focus in. You first submit, get in the spirit. Then you listen to that one simple voice.

And you write as that voice speaks to you. You are walking in the spirit. And you're going to get pure revelation.

And you must learn to do this on the run. So, you know, I don't really have time to journal. You know, I have to get ready quickly in the morning, get to work on time.

Yeah, by the time I'm finished my activities in the evening, I'm so tired, I should collapse in bed. I really don't have time to journal. Good journal right now.

I'll give you a sneak peek. I want mine. How long does it take to journal? You know, these apps you can get on your phone will help you capture your journals.

I built one into my new Bible app. It's right there. When I need anything from the Lord, I just pick up my phone.

And, you know, it's awkward to type on that keyboard. And you know what? I don't have to say a lot. I don't have to say a lot.

And he doesn't have to say a lot back. So, when you're tempted to spend money, journal. While you're standing there in the shop and you're looking at this beautiful piece of clothing, you think, oh, gee, I'm going to look awesome in that.

Who cares how much it costs? I'll find the money somehow. We'll go without food if we have to. That's the flesh talking.

Journal. Lord, do you think I should get this? What do you think, Lord? Be ready to hear what he says. Otherwise, delay the purchase until your emotions calm down a bit.

Otherwise, your emotions are going to speak louder than the Lord. The Lord told me recently that I should get away from my desk. So, I spent all day at the desk.

It's bad for my health. It's frustrating. I end up not having time with the Lord.

I'm not productive because I'm always working. And so, I noticed, you know, all the rest of the team, they've got these little portable laptops that they can carry around with them. I thought, you know, I really, I've had my laptop.

It's a nice, good quality one. The larger MacBook Pro. But it's been sitting on my desk, being used as a desktop for years.

And so, when I finally picked it up, because the batteries continuously be uncharged, the battery was shot. It lasted about an hour. So, it starts to go flat.

And I thought, I can't work like that. I need something better than that. I need a new laptop.

I need these nice new ones. Yeah, not the crummy little one like they've got. That's obsolete.

I want a better one. I need something a bit more powerful. I could see myself sitting with my new laptop.

It's so cute. I went to the shops and I checked out the prices and I looked at them. I said, come and see the laptop I'm going to get.

You see, I couldn't afford it right now. So, I started to put out my faith, my new laptop. Well, I could get it over 24 months at 1,500 rand a month.

And some of my debts is just starting to exit now. So, within the next month or two, I will have enough to buy it. I started to get excited about it.

And I realized I was getting into an old syndrome. But buying things met an inner need in me. And I was starting to get sucked back into that vortex.

Be very, very careful. The flesh is subtle. So, I journaled about it.

And the Lord said, you need a laptop to work. I will provide it for you. But I wasn't going to wait for the Lord to provide.

I was going to wait. Once the debts drop off this month, I was going to get it. Just couldn't wait for the end of the month.

So, the Lord was clever. He said to me, take your existing laptop and just work on it in the meantime. Just so you get the feel of working on the laptop.

Even though it only lasts about an hour or two at the most on the battery. And the keyboard's all stuck. I've been sitting for four years without being used.

Never used the keyboard. Keyboard's, keys were all stuck. So, I started to work with these stuck keys.

Let it run down. Let the battery run down. Now, put it back on charge and let the battery run down.

Something amazing happened. The keys started to lucid. The battery started to last longer.

It's in a week or two. I looked at this and I thought, I don't need a new laptop. This is top of the range.

Maybe old, but it's still top of the range. It's the biggest one. The fastest one.

The biggest screen. And you know, it's working. The Lord delivered me from getting myself into debt again.

Well, you know, I think I wouldn't have had the emotion or the strength of willpower to hold back if I could have got it already. But the Lord knew. It was a learning experience for me.

And so, I don't condemn you if you struggle with these things, but I just want to share my experience with you. Ultimately, I needed a laptop that I could carry around with me to work anywhere. It's wonderful.

I can work in bed now. I can go sit in the lounge and work while everybody else is sitting with their laptops. I can sit there and work with them.

It's just a whole new atmosphere instead of sitting at my desk. It has really liberated me. I'm starting to write and getting a flow in my writing.

There's new things. What I'm preaching right now came on the laptop as I was journaling. It's awesome stuff.

See, I learned to journal, learned to listen, and learned to hold back on that temptation. You're tempted to eat. Is it because you're hungry? Most of the time, not.

Most of the time, it's I'm feeling frustrated. I'm feeling bored. Life is dull.

A nice meal would just make me feel much better right now. Not just any meal. Not ordinary vegetables.

No, something exotic. Something nice. My favorite meal.

That would definitely make me feel better. Yes. And the Lord smiles on us, and he lets us.

But if you want to lose weight, and if you want to be healthier, you're going to have to discipline yourself sometime. I found that as I got in the spirit, began to walk in the spirit and hear his voice, I stopped thinking about food. The restlessness within me ceased, so I didn't need food to satisfy it anymore.

And then I could naturally think, well, I'm feeling a bit hungry now. It's coming up for a meal time. Let's go and have something to eat.

And I wasn't rushing off to get some, my favorite exotic. No, I'm just going to buy some, eat something that's healthy. And after I finished eating it, I felt good.

Now I can get back to being in the spirit and doing what God wanted me to do. Don't underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit in you to overcome all of these things. You can do it.

When you're feeling too lazy to be active, get in the spirit and journal. I find it easy to do something when the Lord tells me, you know, most people who succeed physically never did it on their own. I hired a coach.

A coach should say, this is how you should do it. That's what you should do next. And don't you dare do that.

And do it now. But I don't feel like it. Do it now and do it twice.

Well, the good news is you get a coach for free. He lives inside of you. It's called the Holy Spirit.

He's the counselor and the comforter. If you'll get in the spirit and listen, you'll hear his nudge. He doesn't push you.

He's gentle. He's gentle. He'll nudge you and you'll say, get up and do this.

Do this for me. Do this because you love me. Do this because it's going to benefit you.

Do it because it's going to lead. It's a blessing. I've covered a lot of ground.

So in conclusion, I'd like to just sum it up. Take time each day to find new ideas that will improve your health and your wealth. Step into the spirit and journal it.

And then sometimes in your journals, God gives you a rhyme of words, a word of wisdom, something that you should keep and hold on to. A promise of God. Keep them, record them.

In my Bible, I've made a place to record your rhymes. I can pick up my phone anytime now, go to my app and read some of my latest journals. I've got a place there for you to put in revelations and dreams as well.

Sometimes I read those journals and see the Lord's give me a powerful little thing. I move it into the rhema column. I read those rhemas.

Now, the scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the rhema of God. You know, it doesn't only take scripture to produce faith. The rhema of God that he gives you in your journaling has the power to produce faith in you.

And faith is dynamites. Accomplish great things in your life. Read you these often.

Speak them out loud. Practice these things daily. You'll get better and better all the time.

Your life will take a new meaning. You'll accomplish great things in this life. And for the kingdom of God, you'll come to a place of settledness and contentment.

Ultimately, you'll start to live. Thank you, Father, for your word. I pray that you will take it and challenge each one of us to live the life that you've designed for us, Lord.

The abundant life. I ask now, Lord, that you would move upon each one who's hearing this, both those present and those at a distance, that you'll bring conviction, that you'll encourage each one to step out of the flesh, to walk in the spirit, and to listen to your voice, Lord, and to obey your voice, and to rise up and claim their inheritance. You don't want us to be sick.

You don't want us to be poor. You want us to be abundant in all things, Lord. And I pray that you'll take each one who is struggling financially, and you'll not only break them out of their financial lack, but you'll make them to be in a position where they become a source of blessing to others, because they have such abundance.

Make each one of us kings and queens, to reign with you, Lord, and to live in abundance the way you designed us to. Thank you for it now in Jesus' name. Amen.

Post A Review For This Book