Released Into Freedom – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today and we are teaching about release. God wants to release you into freedom. He wants to release you into freedom both physically and financially. And we’re gonna be talking about an example of debt forgiveness, of debt release, a miracle of increase and I believe that you can have that working in your life, too. Friends, it’s great to have you here today. We’re sharing from Aaron’s message, Released Into Freedom. And you’re gonna be talking, Aaron, today from the Old Testament, 2 Kings, chapter 4 about a widow woman who was in a dire situation. And you may feel like you’re in a dire situation today, you may feel like it’s almost hopeless, but I wanna tell you that there is hope through Jesus, there’s hope in the Bible, there’s hope in the word of God, there’s hope through the promise of God, amen.

Awesome, so let’s go to 2 Kings 4. I wanna read here from this account in the Old Testament. 2 Kings 4, verse 1, it says a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying, “Your servant, my husband, is dead and you know “that your servant feared the Lord “and the creditor is coming “to take my two sons to be his slaves.” So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house “but a jar of oil.” So like you said, this woman was in a very dire situation, her husband had died. At this point in history, there wasn’t a social assistance program. Because of the debt, her sons would be taken away as servants or slaves. And she came to Elisha just crying out out of desperation just saying I need help and came to Elisha. And he just said… I like that he didn’t just say what… He looked at her and said, “What do you have in your house?” And there’s a really important principle there, but when you’re going through a tough situation, through a situation where there’s loss and you need to look at what you have. I know God’s spoken that to you during periods of loss. We live in a fallen world and there are gonna be periods of loss. It might be financial loss,

Relational loss. relational loss. People will deal with loss, but when you’re going through a time of loss, I believe that God wants you to look at what you have.

Amen, yeah, I was just in a situation recently with a pastor of a very large church and they had got very discouraged. And we were ministering to them, but I said, you know what, you need to look at what you have. And I realize that you have this challenge, but you have to realize how much you’ve been given. And sometimes with great gifts comes great responsibility. And so we’ve gotta look at what we have and not what we’ve lost, praise God. And that’s helped me move through difficulty, through hard situations, through problems that look like they could overcome, overwhelm me. I know I went through a great loss in the cattle business and lost over a quarter million dollars in a blizzard. I had a lot of cattle and a lot of debt. And the Lord told me, Lawson, don’t look at what you’ve lost, look at what you have. And so I began to thank God at that time, this was years ago, for your mother and for you boys and for every good thing, for my church, every good thing in my life. And I got through that. And I had a lot of friends that were old timers in the cattle business said, “You’re lucky you didn’t go completely broke.” Well, this was a situation where this woman’s husband left her in dire straits. She was in so much debt that her boys had to go be slaves. And so it was a very, very sad thing, but when she went to the prophet of God, he said, “What do you have?” He wanted to get her to looking not at what she lost, at what she had. And God used that to turn my situation around when I began to see what I had and thank him and praise him and glorify him and magnify him. And you know, I got all that loss I had lost, I got it back seven times. Now, it took me a few years. You see, sometimes people think faith is just something that happens really fast, but there’s times that you believe God and something happens real fast, there’s times I’ve believed God for something for over 10 years. But I just keep believing the word of God, amen, because the word of God is true and it will never fail, amen.

Yeah, and looking at what you have is so important because one, I think it’s really the enemy’s maybe number one tactics into just stealing people’s joy, stealing life, stealing health, stealing a destiny and purpose from people is to get them to focus on lack. And he robs relationships that way. He makes people focus on the lack that’s in the person they’re in a relationship with. In marriage, it might be your spouse. Just looking at the lack in the person, rather than what they do have, the good things that God has placed with them within them. And that goes clear back to the Garden of Eden, to the beginning of humanity. When the serpent spoke to Eve, the serpent was trying to get Eve to focus on lack, what you don’t have. You can’t eat from this tree, from this one tree, that’s the one thing that you lack. And to get her to focus on that, that tree was in the middle of the garden. So that means for her to get to that tree to see that tree to focus on that tree, she had to walk by everything else to get there to the middle of the garden. She had to walk by just everything, just complete provision, complete abundance, complete just more than enough and she had to ignore all of that and go to the one thing that she lacked and focus on that.

Right, a lack mentality will lead you into sin. Happened right there.

Yeah, so we need to look at what you have and I love that she said that she had a jar of oil. You know, that jar of oil, that’s symbolic of the presence of God, of the anointing of just the power of God. You know in the Bible, we’re to take oil and to anoint the elders or to anoint sick people and pray the prayer of faith over them and that they’ll recover. In the Old Testament, oil would be used to ordain people as priests, as kings, as prophets to separate people. And you might feel that you’re very empty and in a desperate situation, but Jesus loves you and he wants to pour out his Spirit on you. The oil of the Holy Spirit is available to believers today. And if you have that, you have the power of God in your life and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the oil of the Holy Spirit. Man, if you have that, you have the power of God in your life.

Amen.

And there is hope for you today. So she said, I have nothing but this jar of oil. Verse 3, let’s read here in verse 3, 2 Kings 4, verse 3. Elisha said, “Go borrow vessels from everywhere, “from all your neighbors, empty vessels. “Do not gather just a few. “And when you have come in, you shall shut the door “behind you and your sons and pour it into all those vessels “and set aside the full ones.” So we see another really important point here and it’s that this miracle of overflow, this miracle of just supernatural debt release that that miracle of overflow, it’s gonna take place in your hand. You know, we talked earlier in our broadcast about the Lord’s release and how when you release things, when you forgive things, when you forgive debts, God’s gonna give you this promise that whatever your hand touches will be blessed. So the miracle of the overflow, it takes place in your hand. You know some people get the teaching that God wants to prosper them, help them get out of debt and they say, well, I believe it. I’m just gonna quit my job and sit around and do nothing. That’s incredibly foolish because that miracle in terms of finances, it takes place in your hand. You have to set your hand to do something. You know I’ve met people who were dealing with a tough financial situation and I say you need to just go do something, to do something, set your hand to something that there will be blessing there, amen.

Amen, you know Deuteronomy 28:8 says this. The Lord will command his blessing on you in your storehouses and in all that you set your hand to. So that’s exactly what you’re saying. Storehouses, a lot of people don’t even have a storehouse. You know, what is a storehouse? Well, a savings account, a stock account, a retirement, a house, a real physical house. In a community where it’s growing, houses over time get worth more money. And it’s better to buy a house generally long term than to rent one. And so he says the Lord will command his blessing on you in your storehouses and in all you set your hand to. You know, if you wanna be blessed, you gotta set your hand to. And sometimes it’s work. Work is required. But if you’ll do something, God could bless it. And if you’re not doing quite the right thing, he can redirect it. But if you’re not doing anything, a ship that is sitting in the water is dead. You can’t steer a parked car. And if you’re gonna have a ship get turned in the right direction, it’s gotta be moving. So if you want things to come in, if you want your financial ship to come in, you need to get moving towards it.

And you see this actually in several times in Scripture about the miracle of overflow, miracles that deal with provision, it takes place in your hand. And there’s something about receiving God’s grace, that overflow and you using your hand doing something as an act of faith to tap into that miracle of overflow. And Jesus, I love saying the miracles of Jesus. There’s a lot of healing miracles, but there’s also miracles of provision. And the very first miracle that Jesus performed is actually a miracle of provision, turning the water into wine. There was a need at this wedding in Cana of Galilee where they were running out of wine and he commanded his disciples to fill these pots with water. And then he told them, it’s interesting that he told them to dip out of those vats. And those vats were used for ritual purification according to the Old Testament. They were like large bathtubs almost, 30 gallons apiece. Yeah, and as they took it to the guests, they realized that it turned into wine, but that miracle of provision, that overflow miracle, it took place in their hands. You know you look at the miracle of provision concerning Jesus feeding the 5,000. It’s similar to the account here in 2 Kings 4. He asked his disciples, they needn’t to turn everyone away because they’re hungry.

Jesus didn’t wanna turn them away because they were hungry, so he told them to go buy them something to eat. And it’s interesting what they said in one of the gospels. They said well, Lord, where are we gonna buy, you know they’re out in the wilderness, 200 penny worth of bread and a penny was a day’s labor. So where are we gonna buy $20,000 worth of groceries to feed all these people? And that would be a minimum. It might have been more like $40,000. And Jesus said, “What do you have?”

Very similar to what Elisha said to this widow woman, “What do you have,” and they said, “We have nothing but…”

A pot of oil, well, use what you have.

Nothing but five loaves and two fish.

Right, five little barley loaves, a little boy’s lunch and two small fish. And they took it, Jesus took it, he didn’t curse it. He blessed it. This is the problem with some people. They’re cursing what they have. Don’t curse what you have, use what you have. He blessed it, he broke it, he gave it to them and I believe it multiplied in their hands as they gave it to the multitudes.

Yeah, the miracle of overflow takes place in your hands. So as they took it out, it multiplied and everyone ate till they’re full.

Right.

You know, God’s miraculous power to meet people’s needs, it doesn’t stop. His power is limitless.

Amen.

And it’s gonna keep flowing until your capacity’s full. Their stomachs were full, they were at capacity. And there were 12 baskets left over and each disciple could take a basket home and say, look at what the Lord has done.

Or that little boy took a lot of extra home, praise God. One of the other happened. So we’re gonna talk a little bit more. There’s some great revelation that we have to share about this widow with this pot of oil. And we’re gonna come back right after this break and continue to share with you. So stay tuned, we’ll be back right after the break. Friends, we have a great offer for you today. We’re talking about the Lord’s release. This is my son Aaron’s teaching and it has brought great blessing to myself as I have used this teaching. We actually have hundreds of hours of teaching downloadable audio and video free of charge plus a free children’s curriculum on our website, blessings.

We went to Pastor Lawson and we said we were just needing some guidance, some wisdom on how to believe or whatever. And he said, “I feel like God is telling me “you’re gonna get all this money all in one chunk.” We just started calling that money in. That money came, we got the check before the end of the year and actually it paid enough for it to cover all the medical debt and there was 10,000 left.

Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’ve been talking about a miracle of increase. Aaron, who determined the bounds of their blessing in 2 Kings chapter 4?

Well, we’ll talk about that here in a moment, but we’ll see this here in 2 Kings 4, this woman who came to Elisha just in desperation because her husband was dead, her two sons were gonna be sold into slavery. He told her what to do. She was to take what she had in her house, that jar of oil and to borrow empty vessels and to begin pouring that oil. Her and her sons were to do that. We talked about the miracle of overflow. It takes place in your hand. But here in verse 5, let’s talk about what happens here in verse 5. 2 Kings 4, verse 5, it says, so she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, and brought the vessels to her and she poured it out. Now, it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” She was really excited because she saw what God was doing. “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel,” so the oil ceased. So they determined the limits to that miracle. That miracle would’ve kept going as long as there are empty vessels.

And I mean, the prophet said, don’t get a few, honey. Now, it must have been a pretty big… They must have got quite a few because he said, “Go sell this, pay the debt and live you and your sons “of the rest.” God’s not gonna be held accountable for a widow and her sons going in lack because her husband was a prophet. So I mean, they must of got quite a few, praise God.

But God’s miraculous power for overflow in your life, it’s not… He’s not the one that stops the flow. You’ll be able to receive what you’re able to receive. And they were able to receive until they ran out of vessels to receive it. And the oil then ceased. Verse 7, it says she came and told the man of God and he said, “Go sell the oil, pay your debt “and you and your sons live on the rest.”

Amen, so that was a miracle, a miracle of provision, a miracle that took care of not only this widow but her sons, and it freed them from prison, they paid the debt. And then they had enough to continue to live, praise God. And so I believe that’s God’s will for everybody. And God wants to bless… You know, the Bible actually says in Psalms, the Lord is good to all, his tender mercies are over all of his works. And even when we did not know him, he was good to us.

And I believe that a lot of you can believe God to just tap into that miracle overflow and miracles of provision and help God direct you, just the work of your hands, direct the work of your hands to tap into something that’s gonna help eliminate debt and even have an abundance to provide for you and your loved ones years down the road. God’s done that in my life and I know God has just limitless resources and we’re the ones that determine…

The bounds of our blessing. Amen, and you know sometimes before you can have increase, you gotta take a step of faith. It was work to go out and talk to their neighbors and borrow these vessels and get them and bring them to the house. And you know, so sometimes before you’re gonna receive a harvest, you gotta sow a seed. And that’s just farm talking, but if you’re gonna receive a harvest, you gotta sow a seed. You can’t eat a garden unless you plant it first. And so it takes work, but when you sow and you continually work the field, the Bible actually says the husband who labors, the farmer who works is first partaker of the fruits. So when you go and you sow and you reap, you’re gonna get to partake of that, praise God.

And I loved here too that Elisha tells her, “Go sell the oil, pay your debt “and you and your sons live on the rest.” That means that there was an overflow. God did more than just pay the bare minimum, there is an overflow. God’s will is for people not to live off the bottom of the barrel. America, here in the United States of America, I know we have people that watch us all around the world, but especially here in America, there is a very bottom of the barrel type of mentality. A very large majority of people just live paycheck to paycheck. There’s never an abundance.

We’re in a blessed nation. We’re super blessed and we need to realize it. And actually a lot of people in America should go to some Third World countries and see how much we’ve really been given. And if they saw that, they would quit whining about what they don’t have and start being more thankful. And you talked about how they lived in the overflow. I love it. I think it’s Deuteronomy chapter 28. It says in the Modern English Version about 11, you will overflow in prosperity. In the King James, it says you will have plenty of goods. And you know what, I believe that is God’s will for everyone, for us to have plenty. You know the Bible says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. That means I don’t lack any good thing. That’s Psalm 23 verse 1, Psalm 34, verse 10 says the young lions, they lack and suffer hunger but those who trust in the Lord shall not want any good thing. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 10 that God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater and increases the fruit of our righteousness. You know what, there is provision for us if we’ll believe God.

And I like too in the New Testament it talks about just having an abundance to give unto every good work.

That’s right.

That’s talking about an overflow so you can just live with generosity, just being on the lookout for where can I bless someone, where can I give, where can I sow into the gospel.

Amen, if you get a heart to sow, the Scripture actually says that God gives seed to the sower, this is in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, but the Scripture Aaron was talking about is 2 Corinthians 9:8. And it says that God is able to make all grace abound to us that we always having all sufficiency in all things may be able to abound to every good work. I believe God always wants us to have all sufficiency in all things so that we can abound to every good work, hallelujah. I don’t believe God wants us to lack in any area of life, praise God.

I know our ministry here has tapped into that overflow. We’ve been criticized for it, but God, I know if you make it a point to give and to sow into the gospel… Our ministry, we give at least 10% to outside ministries and missions, often more like closer to 20, 25%. Last year, we were able to give away over 1/2 million dollars to other ministries. Just this year, we’ve paid to build 12 different churches in India. I believe we paid 50% of it. Those congregations, those groups of believers in these remote villages in India, they have to come up with 50% themselves, but we build the other, we finance the other 50%

If you include this gift that we’ve recently given to missionary this year in the first three quarters of this year, we gave over $500,000. If you include that gift, that was forgiveness of a debt of $150,000 plus. So supernaturally God has blessed us so that we have so that we can give. And you know I’ve talked to pastors for years and they say, “Well, if I only had the money, I would give.” Well, if you would start giving, then you’d have the money. And that’s God gives seed to the sower. So I’ve had this sowing mentality since I’ve been a young man. I can still remember when I was about 16 years old, I gave my first $1,000 gift to a missionary. And that’s when I made 3 or $4 an hour. You know that’s like 250 hours of work. That is a huge gift.

This miracle of overflow just being released into freedom, including finances, it’s a very real thing. And I love that we talked about this woman with a jar of oil. She was in a dire situation, we’ve had people here even in our church in very dire situations. There’s a woman here who came here, her and her family as refugees from Congo. They eventually moved here to Colorado. Her husband died. She was left as a widow with six children, very dire situation. And today, she’s trusted God, she’s believed God, she’s kept living in faith. She’s actually adopted another child. She has seven kids, but she started a ministry to people in Congo and today feeds over 1500 single moms and kids every single day in Congo. Talk about overflow and impacting other people with overflow.

And you know I gave her a word when her husband died and I said, Julie, Jesus is gonna take care of you. And she’s told me, “Pastor, thank you for not babying me.” And you know I helped her start her ministry. In the first year, she received 30,000, the next year 40,000, the next year 100,000, the next year 400,000. She travels to Congo as a single mom and feeds over 1500 people, people that she feeds every day. And you know we support a lot of missionary work, we support a lot of different things. And I wanna encourage you if the Lord is speaking to you and I wanna encourage you to pray about becoming a partner with Charis Christian Center and Grace For Today. You know what, this ministry has an anointing of increase on it. And I believe if you get involved with us in the realm of sowing and reaping, that you will reap more than you sow. And you know what, you just can’t beat God giving. You know I’ve given to some very prosperous ministries. I give to over 30 ministries every month, about 35 and we give to about 70 a year at the current time, but God has blessed us and caused great increase to come to us for his kingdom. And do you know what, God is no respecter of persons. So you can give us a call today if you need prayer, if you wanna become a partner, if want product. We offer hundreds of hours of teaching free of charge and we would love to hear from you today, blessings.

All throughout the Bible, we see that God’s heart is to set people free. He wants people to experience complete freedom in the spirit, soul and body. Jesus came to set the captives free. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching, The Lord’s Release, a $5 value free of charge. Download it today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

Save the date for our Women’s Rejoice Conference February 8 through 10th, 2024.

My house and everywhere I walk, there is bright glory and light shining ’cause God is with me. This is gonna be a lot of fun. I’ve also invited you this year.

We’re gonna have our very good friend, Cathy Duplantis, here with us sharing at our Women’s Rejoice Conference.

It’s time to rejoice.

Thanks for watching Grace For Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer or have a question, please call us at 719 418 4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on Grace For Today.