El Shaddai: My Total Supply

El Shaddai: My Total Supply

by Al Houghton

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Father, we give You praise and honor and glory right now for this day that You have made. And Lord, I thank You for the freedom in the Spirit that is in this place. Father, I ask You now to knit our hearts together and let us flow in one Spirit. And Jesus, we promise to give You all the praise and all the glory, for it’s in Your mighty name that we ask it. Amen and amen. Amen. Praise God. Well, I’m ready today, I want you to know. This is going to be the day. We’re going to get in some word today.

Hallelujah. God’s covenant. The most exciting thing that I think God has ever dealt with me about. And as you begin to put into motion what you’re going to learn today, you don’t find out it’s going to be one of the most exciting things that God’s ever revealed to you too. Because it works, saints. God’s covenant is an everlasting covenant. Started out with Abraham. And praise God, it’s still in motion today. About, oh, let’s see, I guess about two months ago. You know, I told you last night that I was from Missouri. And from Missouri, we’re a little hard-headed sometimes. And so, God usually, when He wants to talk to me and get something across, He has to catch me when my mind’s down. And that’s about 2:30 or 3 o’clock in the morning. And He wakes me up. And one morning, sure as the world, here it came. And I thought, I was instantly awake. And usually, I know that when that happens, God has something He wants to speak to me about. And I thought, well, alright, I guess I might as well get up because I know I can’t go back to sleep. And I got up and got before the Lord and started praying a while. And it just didn’t seem to break through.

I wasn’t quite receiving what… I knew God had something. So I’d been there about an hour. And I finally got up and started to go back to bed. And the Lord said, “I’m not through with you yet.” And I said, “Well, Lord, I’m tired. What do You got for me? I’ve been trying to hear Your voice. Come on, lay it on me. I’m ready.” And He said, “Get in the Word.” And I said, “What do you mean, get in the Word? There are only about a thousand pages of Word here. Where do You want me to get in?” And He said, “Go to Psalms.” So I went to Psalms. And I just, you know, kind of went through Psalms like that. And all of a sudden, I ended up in Psalm 25. It just happened to me that I’d probably read through it before. But suddenly, I started reading at verse 12. Well, and I looked at Psalm 25, verse 12. And I had been praying about covenant. God had been teaching me some things about covenant. I’d wanted to do my thesis on healing, on faith. That’s the area of my ministry, is faith. We’re going to be learning about faith. And then the Lord said, “No, you can’t do your thesis on faith.”

And I said, “Lord, I want to.” And He says, “No, you can’t.” And I said, “Lord, I want to do it on faith.” And He says, “No, I want you to do it on covenant.” And I said, “All right, then You’re going to have to teach me a few things if I’m going to write this thesis on covenant.” So that morning, I looked down at Psalm 25, and I started reading in verse 12. And if this is a little strange to you, this is the New American Standard. Now, this is the version that Paul would have used if he’d had it.

But he didn’t. Praise God. Verse 12. I love the King James. I really do. And by the way, I do most of my studying in the King James. I memorize out of the King James. But I find that a lot of times, the New American Standard, to me, says it more clearly in some areas. But still in the Greek, the King James is pretty close. It’s a fantastic version. All right. Verse 12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity. Glory to God, I got down to there, and I thought, well, I’m just going to meditate on that. I wonder if that’s what You’ve got for me this morning. His soul will abide in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land. Man, that’s nice. Prosperity. You know, it’s God’s desire to prosper His people. He gets glory out of prospering you and I. Now, Satan has been running rampant in the church for about 1,900 years. No, I’ll take that back. The first 300 years. Man, the church absolutely won the empire. They won the Roman Empire. By 317 A.D., the Emperor Constantine came in, and the church had literally conquered the then-known world with the gospel of Jesus Christ because they knew what the will of God was.

They knew it was His will to prosper them in everything that they did. Now, they were persecuted, but, brother, I want you to know, they prayed through that persecution and brought the whole government, the whole Roman Empire, into the gospel of Jesus Christ in the most fascinating time in church history. As a matter of fact, the parallels between then and now are unbelievable because the same move of God’s Holy Spirit, the same freshness that permeated that early church, is here today. As a matter of fact, God is giving visions for whole cities to pastors, to congregations throughout the world right now. In Calgary, there’s a man who has a vision for that city. In St. Louis, Missouri, there is a man who God has given a vision for that city. In Chicago, throughout the world, saints, this is our hour before the coming of Jesus. And we’re going to bring Him back as we move into God’s covenant. As we realize what He has for us. That’s the exciting thing. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s the power that’s involved in what we’re discussing today. Glory to God. Alright? Verse 14. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant. I just about came unglued when I read that verse.

It was about 3:30 in the morning, and I thought, “My wife’s going to get up for sure. I’m going to wake her up.” He will make them know His covenant. Now, that’s the promise that I want you to meditate on today. That God will make us know His covenant. That’s His promise to us. He wants you and I to enter in, to know it completely and totally, and to walk in it. Alright? Let’s go back now and take the covenant of God from the beginning. We’re going to follow that thread through the Scripture, and then we’re going to see how it applies to you and I, and how to function and operate in it today. Let’s go back to Genesis. Genesis. The book of beginnings. We want to go to Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis chapter 17. Praise the Lord. Alright? Genesis 17, 1-7. Now, here is God coming to Abraham. And He’s saying, “Abraham, such a deal I have for you. Such a deal that, as you have never received before.” Alright? Verse 1. Now then, Abraham was 99 years old. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am El Shaddai. I am God Almighty. Now, that word in Hebrew, when the Hebrew ear hears that word, El Shaddai, here’s what he sees. He sees someone saying to him, “I will be all that you ever need.” It means bread provider. It means everything that you ever need. “I’ll provide health. I’ll provide your prosperity. I’ll provide you a place to stay, a place to live. Anything that you ever need, I will provide.” Now, that’s how God revealed Himself to Abraham in the beginning. And that’s how He started this whole thing of covenant. I will be your total supply.

Now, that’s what God wants to be for us. Praise God. There it is. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. Verse 2. And I will establish my covenant between me and you. Now, God’s the one that’s saying He is going to establish the covenant. And I will multiply you exceedingly. Verse 3. And Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, Now, some of you have wondered about this being slain in the Spirit.

I wondered about it when I first saw it. I said, “Oh, now, I don’t know about that, man.” That never happened in the denomination I grew up in. And we’ve already done some things here that didn’t happen in the denomination I grew up in. And glory to God, I appreciated what Bob had to say. We’ve been delivered from religion. And we’re walking in Christianity where the love of God absolutely transcends the fences. That’s a beautiful thing. You know, you might be sitting next to somebody in a denomination other than yours that a few years ago you would have considered a real heretic. It might be on your right now. You never know. It might be on your left.

Hallelujah. You see what God’s love can do? It absolutely transcends every barrier. Some of you are looking around wondering about that right now. See, God’s love transcends every barrier in the world. Now, my wife, I remember Jane’s having that question. You know, this charismatic move, they get into some things that are a little bit unusual. This power of the Holy Spirit, how does this thing operate? And she went to Kathryn Kuhlman meeting and about 15 kids, she was in school in San Diego. And this one, you know, there’s always a fanatic in the crowd. I mean, there’s got to be one every single time. And sure enough, there was one, I mean, he was bold. This guy was bold. He said, we’re going to get in to see Kathryn Kuhlman. And the whole group laughed at him. He said, you kidding me? I mean, there were about 10,000 people at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. There’s no way you’re going to get in to see Kathryn Kuhlman. He says, we’re going to get in. And as soon as the meeting was over, he said, all right, come on. And they were standing there kind of, this guy can’t be for real. And he says, come on, we’re going backstage. And you know, they’ve got ushers there, big guys, boy.

They know how to take care of people. Because you get some weirdos in L.A., I want you to know. And so they said, we’re going. And they followed him. And sure enough, he got back there and he says, we’re from San Diego State and we want to, just want to talk to Kathryn Kuhlman. Now, several, well, a good majority of those kids had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They didn’t know what this thing was all about. And many of them had questions. What is this? They saw people go down under the power of the Holy Spirit. They didn’t quite understand it. And my wife was standing and there was just, they were kind of lined up, you know, in a line. So, Kathryn Kuhlman comes out. Sure enough, they got to talk to her. And she started praying for the first person in line. Now, Janie was about three or four people down. And she was thinking, boy, I’m going to get to talk to Kathryn Kuhlman. And that was about the last thing she thought about. The next thing, she was laying on the floor. Nobody laid a hand on her. It just, there she was. The power of the Holy Spirit moves as He wills. As He wills. Now, when we come into the presence of God, many times, you will experience this.

You’ll experience exactly what Abram, Abraham, experienced right here. The power of God in its fullness many times causes us simply to be released. And God does a work in our hearts and in our spirits. Now, many of those kids were baptized in the Holy Spirit right then. The sovereignty of God is a beautiful thing. So, if you see somebody go down under the power of the Holy Spirit, realize that there is a scriptural precedent for it that God many times has moved in the book of Revelation, the Apostle John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. It’s probably flat on His face. And you’ll see there about 13 times, I believe, in the Word of God that it mentions the power of the Holy Spirit and how it works. Okay. Abram was in God’s presence. God promised him that He would establish His covenant. Verse 4, For as for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham. For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. Verse 6, And I will make you exceedingly fruitful. And I will make nations of you and kings shall come forth from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. Now here goes back to that word El Shaddai. God wants to be God to you. He wants to be God to me. But we’ve got to let Him do it. Now God has done everything He can possibly do for you and I right now. God has done everything He can do toward healing us already. He’s done it already. Now that’s surprising to most of us. It was surprising to me the first time that I heard it. I said, “Now that can’t be right. You go to miracle services, you see people healed.” Now, it’s surely God is moving right then. Alright? But now let’s look at something. When a person gets saved, does Jesus have to go back to the cross again?

You see, the price for our salvation was paid 1,943 years ago. It was paid 44 years ago. 3380. It was paid then. Alright? To get healed. Does Jesus have to go back on the cross? By His stripes, we are healed. No. No. He doesn’t have to go back on the cross again. Does He? You see, the price is already paid. It’s already done, saints. It’s already accomplished. Alright? What are we talking about? We are talking about receiving what God has already done. And that’s what happens in the gifts of the Spirit, in a miracle service. The gifts of the Spirit are poured out. Healings and miracles take place. We’re receiving what God has already done. Alright? There’s another part of this, too. We not only can receive supernaturally in a meeting, but now we can walk in the covenant and walk in an area where we are in health continually. Now, I’m not saying that Satan doesn’t come along and throw things at us. Now, he certainly does. What I’m saying is God is our deliverer. You see? When Satan comes along with his sickness, praise God, we have a deliverer. El Shaddai. God Almighty, our deliverer. Praise the Lord. Alright? Let’s continue in this covenant a little bit. Let’s see what God has for us.

Now, he talks about cutting the covenant. Cutting the covenant. This word covenant right here in chapter 17, verse 2, I will establish my covenant. That means to cut a covenant. And blood flows. Blood has to flow. Alright? God established this. Do you remember what the seal of that covenant was? In Abraham? What was it? Saints. Circumcision. That’s right. It means to cut and blood will flow. You know, one of the most fantastic things today, when you look around in this area of covenant, all over the world, we see that there is a precedent of blood covenant that exists today. To this very day. And Abraham is considered the father of every nation. They all go back to Abraham. Jews go back to Abraham. The Arabs go back to Abraham. Everybody goes back to Abraham. Now, do they have cowboys and Indians up here? Huh? The best. I thought so. I thought you had a lot of them. Alright? I remember when I was a little kid watching those cowboy and Indian shows, that the Indians would cut a covenant and they would become blood brothers. Remember that? And many times, that was one of the things. You know, we’d go to school and we’d say, “Hey, I want to be a blood brother with you.”

And we’d watch that TV show and we wanted to do that. Alright? This is a heritage from God’s beginning covenant with Abraham. And you see it in Africa. Livingstone and Stanley. As a matter of fact, in order to survive, Stanley cut over 50 blood covenants with different chiefs. That’s how he survived in Africa as a missionary. See, this thing is worldwide that blood will flow and what happens is they mix their blood together. And this has specific meaning. Specific meaning. When you cut a blood covenant with a man and you become a blood brother with that man, here’s what you’re promising him. “Everything that I have now belongs to you. Everything that I have. If it costs me my wife, if it costs me my son, if it costs me everything I have financially, when you’re in need, then I’ll give it to you.” That’s what this covenant means.

It’s that strong. And you would never, in a blood covenant, come unless you had a need. You’d never come unless you had a need. But when you had a need, rest assured that that person you cut that covenant with will provide that need. Alright? That’s what God is saying to Abraham. Abraham. That’s what He’s saying to Abraham. I will surely bless you. Everything that I have belongs to you. You know, if there’s one thing that the church absolutely is suffering from today is simply not knowing who God created us to be in the beginning and what we really were. Praise God when I look back at man when he was created, I see something that is so different that is so much higher than the level that you and I think of ourselves as today. Come on back with me. We’re going to make a slight digression here, but praise God the Holy Spirit’s been known to make digressions before. Come on back to Genesis verse 1. We might as well get in on the beginning of this thing and really see what God’s doing. I may even have to switch Bibles here. Praise God. Genesis verse… No, chapter 1 of Genesis. Alright? What did God create man to be in the beginning? What did He give us?

What is this thing all about? Now, when you look at what God gave us in the beginning, you begin to see God’s plan for you and I and what we’re to walk in today. When He created Adam, there was no sickness. Adam was created to live forever. He was absolutely created to live forever and then God gave him… Alright? Look at verse 26.

Now we’re going to… Verse 24. I want you to see in God’s creation the place that man had. This is the place that you and I have in this creation, this very earth that we’re standing on. I want you to see it. I want you to get a hold of it because your whole image of yourself is going to rise about a thousand percent. Mine did and I know yours will too. Then God said, verse 24, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things, and the beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. Over all the earth. And over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Alright? There is total dominion. There wasn’t anything on this earth that man didn’t have dominion over. Not a thing. Not a thing, saints. Everything that was here, Adam ruled. As a matter of fact, The Word says that God brought him the animals.

He brought him things. Do you know what Adam’s first mental test was? To name the animals. He named everything on the earth. If you read in Psalms, you’ll find out that he named the stars. Now, you and I are operating with about one-third, doctors tell us, of our mental capacity right now. But Adam operated with 100%. And he ruled everything. You know how he ruled it? The same way that Jesus ruled it by the Word of His power. Hebrews chapter 1. And all things are ruled, upheld by the Word of His power. We’re made in the likeness of God. Adam ruled the same way. And God’s designed us to rule and operate that way too. In His covenant. By the words that we speak. What a test that was for Adam. To name everything on the earth. There are over 500,000 species of bugs. How would you like to have to name all those? It would take you a lifetime just to memorize them. But Adam named every single one of them. Now, do you see the capacity that he had? That God created him with? Let me ask you another question. How long did it take Adam to die?

Approximately. Over 900 years. Alright? You know what? It took 900 years for Satan to teach him how to die. He didn’t know how to die. He absolutely was not programmed to die. He was programmed to live forever. God created him that way. Satan had to convince him that death was inevitable. He did not know how to die. Glory to God. You see what God created in us? He created man to be in fellowship with Him. We were to walk with Him. We were to be in covenant perfect relationship. We were to be so totally engrossed in God that we absolutely looked to Him for every single need. Now before the fall, Adam was so engrossed in God as his provider, he didn’t even realize that he was naked. How’d it be for you some morning? If you got up and you were so totally engrossed in God that you’re praising the Lord, you went in town and forgot to put your clothes on.

That’s the way Adam walked around. Man, he was totally engrossed in the Lord. There was that kind of fellowship. It was total and complete. 100%. And that’s what God has for us. We’re not going to go any place without our clothes on, but I mean, He’s got us in that position. That’s what moving in the area of the Spirit is all about. Alright, come with me to Psalm verse 8.

Psalm 8. I mean, Psalm 8. Not verse 8. Psalm 8. Psalm 8. Find out a little bit more about this creation. Psalm 8. Verse 3. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou dost take thought of him? Alright, what is man? And the son of man that Thou dost care for him. Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, and dost crown him with glory and majesty. Verse 6. Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. All things. All things. That’s what God is giving. Everything. I want you to see that the sun and the moon, the earth, everything that God created, He created for us. The whole reason for the creation is sitting right here. And it’s you and me. Now, brother, that’s how important you are to God. He created the heavens for one reason. And the sun and the moon for one reason. So that it would give light to the earth. He created the earth for one reason. Us. For us.

Glory to God. God. Next time you walk outside at night, and you look up at the stars, think back to Adam naming those stars. And then think back to the fact… Those stars are there for one reason. For us. They’re there for us. God created it for you and me. It’s that simple. That’s how important we are. And the world is telling us by television, by radio, by newspaper, how unworthy and how worthless and how defeated we are. And yet God says, “I have made everything that you see, the whole earth, for you and for my glory.” Now that’s where we stand in God’s eyes. As a matter of fact, just pick your hand up right now and look at your fingers. There is not one other set of fingerprints like those in the world. You’re unique to God. You’re unique to God. Is it any wonder that when God came to Abraham, He said, “I’m willing to be everything that you ever need”?

And He put the whole throne of heaven behind that promise. Praise God. Now Abraham didn’t write that down. He didn’t write it down. It came to Moses to write it down. Alright? Come with me. Now, we’re going… Well, let’s go to Galatians. We’re going to go to Galatians. I want to look at Galatians. Then we’re going to come back to Deuteronomy 28. How many of you have been meditating in Deuteronomy 28? Praise the Lord. Did you like the first half of it?

You mean you didn’t like the last half? Hallelujah. Well, after we read Galatians, you can like the last half as well as you do the first. Of course, you’ve got to put Galatians with it. Praise God. Galatians chapter 3, verse 8.

Galatians chapter 3, verse 8. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, All the nations shall be blessed in you. Abraham knew of Jesus. He knew of the promise of the covenant. And he was blessed in that. And the Bible says that he was accounted to him righteous. He believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Same way it is today. Abraham was justified by faith, and so are we. A lot of times we think, Oh, in the Old Testament now, those saints absolutely lived by the law, but they lived by faith. Faith in God and His ability to justify them. We live the same way today. We live by faith. We’re under a new covenant. We’ve been redeemed from the curses of the law, and there is the difference. See, nobody in the Old Covenant could keep that law. It was impossible. They couldn’t keep it. Now, today, we’ve been redeemed from the effects. That’s what we’re going to find out right here. That’s the good news. Verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In order that, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Now, somebody said, “Wait a minute. Isn’t he talking about the promise of the Holy Spirit there?” Well, yes, he is. But in the King James… Here’s one area where my good old New American Standard doesn’t quite come through as good as the King James. For this reason, in the Greek, there’s a word there that says, hina, in order that. And then after the first clause, there’s a comma, and it says, hina, again, in order that. There are two things here. There are two distinct promises here. Who has a King James? Praise the Lord. Stand up and read that for us, will you? So ever… You don’t want to stand… Who’s got a booming voice, guys, with a King James? I want somebody to stand up and read this. I want somebody to stand up and read this. Read verse 14 in the King James. Now, I want you to listen to this in the King James because these two promises come out distinctly in the King James. Yeah, read verse 14 so everybody can hear. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Okay, do you notice the two that’s in there? That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through faith, comma, that the Holy Spirit might come.

The blessing of the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Spirit might come. Two distinct promises in this verse. All right, let’s look at the first one. We know a little bit about that Holy Spirit. Let’s find out about this law that we’re redeemed from. Redeemed from the curse of the law. Glory to God. Come on back here with me. Good old Deuteronomy 28. Praise God, I’m telling you. If there’s one page in your Bible that ought to fall out, it’s Deuteronomy 28. As a matter of fact, we just might check Bibles after this thing’s over and see if it’s ready to fall out or not. Now somebody said, “Why in the world would you spend so much time in Deuteronomy 28?” Well, first of all, you find out the blessings that belong to you. Now you farmers and you businessmen that are in here today, well, everybody here. Everything you need is promised in here. It’s promised in here. And there was one thing I should have read to you to make this a little more real out of Galatians 3. And it’s the very last verse. It’s verse 29. It’s verse 29. And it tells us that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. When you’re in Christ, the blessing that God gave to Abraham, that Moses recorded, right here in Deuteronomy 28, belongs to you.

That’s the first half. That’s good news. Alright? The second half is good news too. You know why? Because when you read through there and you find something that you’ve got that’s under the curse, then bless God, it doesn’t belong to you. You’ve been redeemed from it. That belongs to Slewfoot.

And we’re going to send it right back over into his arena where it belongs. Now that’s how you use the curses of the law. You go through there and read and find out something that you’ve got that doesn’t belong to you. Okay? A lot of times we read down to verse 15, we get all the blessings, glory to God, that sounds good. Then we cross over and we notice that there’s two and a half pages more and it’s all curse. That doesn’t sound so good. But the good news is we’re redeemed from everything that’s under that curse. So when you read through there, if you find there’s anything in there that you have right now, anything that’s mentioned in there, then I want to tell you it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to Slewfoot and we’re going to get rid of it. We’re going to send it back to him. It’s under the curse. You do not have to put up with it. You’re redeemed from the curse of the law. And these are the curses. Alright? Well, first of all, every kind of sickness and every kind of disease is under the curse of the law. We’ll just kind of ramble through here. We’re going to start with… I like to get the one… The bad news out of the way first, then we go to the good news, right? It’s not really bad news but look at this. In verse… We’ll just kind of run through some of these. Verse 22. Consumption, fever, inflammation, fiery heat, black… mildew. Do you know you’re redeemed from mildew?

Praise God. That’s what it says. I’m redeemed from it. He says, terror and fear. You’ll be an example of terror. Now fear is one area where a lot of us need to realize we’re redeemed from it. We’re redeemed from fear. We’re redeemed from fear. This afternoon, we’re going to find out how to operate in that. Alright? Everything in the world that’s bewilderment of heart, oppressed continually, everything you can imagine is in here. Now come over to verse 59 with me. Every severe and lasting plague, miserable and chronic sicknesses, they’re in here, you’re redeemed from it. It’s under the curse. Christ bore that for you and I. Okay? Look at verse 60. The diseases of Egypt, every sickness and every plague, 61 is one of my favorite verses right there. Also, every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. Alright? Every sickness and every disease not covered, not specifically mentioned. That means everything in the world. You know, one of the most interesting things is that there are 39 major categories of sickness and disease. Guess how many stripes Jesus took? 30. By His stripes, you were healed. Glory to God. I’m going to tell you now how God originally got me into this thing of covenant.

Being redeemed from the curse of the law. I’ve been thinking about it, been meditating on it a little bit, and all of a sudden, my wife and I got up one morning, went into our closet to change clothes, and these little ants were running around in our closet. And I thought, “Oh, ants normally come in the kitchen. What in the world are they doing in the closet?” So, we took out everything in that closet. Now, that took about an hour and 45 minutes, and I had to go down and buy some Raid, and I came back and I sprayed the closet. You can imagine what the bedroom smelled like. It smelled like Raid, too, and that bug spray is bad news. It is just plain gross. We had some companies staying with us, so we couldn’t move into the other bedroom. So we were stuck in our own bedroom. Well, that night, we opened all the windows and I put all the clothes back in. Still smelled like bug spray in there. And it was pretty bad. And I started thinking about this. Ants in our apartment. And, of course, we killed all of them that day. The very next day, they were all gone in the closet. Suddenly, they appeared in the kitchen.

And I thought, what in the world? Here they’re in the kitchen. That means I’ve got to take all the food. Now, this was taking about two or three hours out of my time. And I’ve got, my time is precious. Need to be in the Word, either ministering, doing something, studying. You know, all of us, our time is precious, isn’t it? And I thought, now, God, surely, I remember reading back there in Deuteronomy about some of these things under the curse. Now, surely, I’m redeemed from this. I started thinking about the plagues of Egypt.

Flies, right? Lice, one version says. Bugs. And I thought, wow, I’m going to dig in it. So, after I got all the food out, I just got about half mad, right there. And it wasn’t half mad, I was plain mad. Because I kind of figured where this was coming from. And I looked back here, and I thought, yeah, verse 59, every severe and lasting plague. Alright? And then I came to verse 61. And it doesn’t say only sickness, but it says, and every plague, every plague, not written in this book. And I said, “Glory to God, that includes ants.” Now, they’re not written in here, but praise God, it says, every plague. Now, folks, listen. You get excited about the things that are in your newspaper because you believe they’re happening to you. When it comes to the Word of God, when you get to the point you can get more excited about what’s in this Word than what’s in your newspaper, it’ll go to working for you. It will go to working for you. Praise God. So I got out my Bible in the middle of the ants, and I said, “Father, in the name of Jesus, I am redeemed from this plague. And ants, I’m going to tell you right now, in Jesus’ name, get out of my house.”

You can imagine what somebody thought who’s walking by, you know. That guy’s really… I don’t know about him. Hallelujah. So, I put all the stuff back, you know, cleaned it off, we got rid of the ants, and the very next day, walked into the john, guess what I saw?

This is a little ant running across the top of the john. And right then, Satan has pretty good timing. He said, “See, it don’t work. It doesn’t work. You’re just making a fool out of yourself. It doesn’t work.” And I said, “No, the word says that I’m redeemed from the curse of the law. Now, little ant, you’re a straggler, you get out of here. In Jesus’ name.”

Okay. Now what? Well, you just kind of leave it and God said, Remember what I said last night about rolling things over on God? Not picking them up again? Alright? Satan will put the pressure on you, saints. You see, once you pray a prayer of faith and believe God, then there comes the abiding in the word. You know what John 15, 7 says? If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask what you will and it shall be done for you. It shall. But there’s an abiding that has to take place. Now, after you pray the prayer, that’s when the battle comes. But glory to God, 2 Chronicles chapter 20 says, the battle is not yours, but God’s. So don’t pick it up again. Leave it in His hands. I said, “God, You got it. You take care of these ants. I’m not messing with them anymore.” I got up the next morning, praise God, and I went in to make a phone call. Guess what was crawling across the top of the wall? Little ant. Satan says, “See, it don’t work. It don’t work. It doesn’t work.” And I just prayed the same prayer again. I said, “God, it’s the last one. This is a little straggler. You get out of here.”

In Jesus’ name, we’re redeemed. And I want to tell you, we haven’t had ants since. And I was driving by one day and I looked over that and I thought, it didn’t hit me right at first and then about halfway down the street, suddenly I realized, praise God, I’m even redeemed from termites. There isn’t anything that comes at my house that I am not redeemed from. In the area of bugs. I began to remember my days on the farm. And I thought, God, do you know how much money we spent on bug spray? And you spend a lot when you’re putting in a crop. Now some of you are going to think, oh, I don’t know about this. I don’t know about this now. Some of you farmers, I’m going to, we’re getting close to home here. But I began to think about that. And God says, over here in the blessing, He says, the fruit of your ground will be blessed. The fruit of your ground will be blessed. And I said, glory to God, I’d like to get back on that farm again. I know, I know exactly how I’d plant and how I’d pray. And I wouldn’t plant, but what I prayed. And I would claim that field completely and totally free.

And I’d speak the word right there. I am redeemed from every plague. The field, the produce of this field will be blessed. Now if you’re in business, whatever you’re in, this blessing is for you too. Blessed will you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. There’s nowhere that you can go and get out from underneath the blessing of God unless you absolutely move out on your own and get out from under His umbrella. Because it’s a blanket. And then about a month later, I started talking to one of my friends who had just been home to Minnesota. And there’s a… Wouldn’t you know there’s a fanatic in Minnesota too. And he started telling me about this guy who’s a fanatic. Now he just has… He works for the phone company and he has a little farm on the side. And he put in 40 acres of corn. Now last year, I mean in the Midwest, it was dry. Was it dry here last year? Okay, in the Midwest, it was drought conditions. It was drought conditions up there in Minnesota. And he said, you know, I talked to this guy, a friend of my dad’s, and he’s unbelievable. He said, he’s about as crazy as you are. I said, I’d like to meet him.

He said, this guy planted his field and every time he’d finish a row, he’d turn around and he prayed for that row and blessed it. Said, he only had 40 acres and, you know, he was one of these guys that witnesses to everybody, praises the Lord. He said, you know what his yield was? All around him, the yield was about 40 bushel of corn to the acre because of the drought conditions. You know what he made?

125 bushels to the acre. 125 bushel to the acre. Hallelujah. You know who’s got the last laugh? They can call me a fanatic all day if they want to, praise God, but I’m redeemed from these things. And I don’t have to put up with them. And neither do you. Neither do you. You men that are farmers in here, I’m telling you, before you go home, we’re going to believe God for your crops. I get excited about this because I grew up on a farm and I’ve worked hard on a farm and I know the work that’s involved and I know how sad it can be when you reach the end of a crop period and the production’s not there. I’ve been through some awfully lean years with my parents when I was growing up in cattle country and I mean it was tough. It was tough. But the good news, you see, we didn’t know. Nobody taught us these things. We didn’t know that we were redeemed. We didn’t know that you could take the Word of God and use it the way God intended it to be used and expect His blessing. Believe Him for it and see Him pour it out and He’s the one that gets all the glory. It’s His great desire that He bless us.

Beloved, that thou mayest prosper and be in health, prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. 3 John, verse 2. See? This is… The thread of God’s Word, it’s all the way through. It’s continuous. Glory to God. Stand up with me. We’re going to receive what we’ve learned today on the cover. Where does the time go when you get in the Word?

Hallelujah. It flies. Literally. Alright. Raise your hands with me and we’re going to receive what we’ve learned today. Father, in the name of Jesus, right now, we receive Your Word and Lord, we’re going to walk in it. Father, we promise this day we’re going to be diligent in Your Word. Lord, we’re going to walk in it and Father, I pray that You will seal right now everything that You have taught us by Your Spirit this morning. Lord, help us put it to use because, Father, that’s what Your Word’s for. It’s to go to work for us. It’s to operate for us. It’s to function for us. Lord, teach us how to use it. Oh, Father, we thank You right now. We give You praise and honor and glory for Thou art worthy to be praised. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. And all God’s people say Amen. Amen.