Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the seven commitments of a forerunner, particularly focusing on leading diligently and engaging in financial power encounters. He encourages young believers to take initiative in ministry and to be diligent in their leadership, stressing that God desires to entrust them with wealth for the advancement of the gospel. Bickle shares personal stories of how radical giving has led to miraculous financial returns, illustrating the joy and faith that come from trusting God with our finances. He challenges listeners to adopt a lifestyle of extravagant giving, highlighting that true wealth is found in generosity and partnership with God.

Now, I'm going to take the first couple moments, continue on the seven commitments of the forerunner in those, in that teaching set of notes. I'm going to talk about leading diligently just about five minutes. It's important, but I want to spend the majority of the time about what I call power encounters in the realm of finance. Now, we know about power encounters when we pray for the sick and they get healed. It's like, wow, the Lord moved in power. But there, God means desires to wow our heart in the realm of money, too. And He wants the right people to have money for the right reasons. And I believe that many of you, the Lord's desire is that He would entrust you with an increase of money beyond anything that you're thinking right now. Some of you will have tremendous wealth, but the Lord wants to give it to you if you will partner with Him in establishing the increase of the gospel in the earth with that wealth. Right now, when you're in your 20s, that's when the cement is dry, so to speak, and the Lord wants to write these values on the cement, and He wants it to dry in the right way, because many believers, once they get in their 30s and 40s and 50s, not all, the cement has dried, and they've already abandoned this idea of giving their money to God in a radical way. They'll give Him the surplus, but they won't give Him money in challenging ways on a regular basis. But young people, teenagers in the 20-somethings, they're still fresh and ready to go, and I've watched over the years, many 20 year olds become 30, and they lose that abandonment because the cement did not dry, so to speak, in the right way in this arena. While I'm getting ahead of myself, let's talk about leading diligently first. That's one of the seven commitments of a forerunner. Being a forerunner involves leading today, taking initiative in ministry now. Not just preparing for the future, but actually today's ministry, it touches people and glorifies God while it prepares you for even greater ministry in the days to come. Romans 12, verse 6 to 8, Paul said, having gifts that differ according to the grace of God, let us use them. Let's use the gifts. Use them. Don't bury them. Don't put them on the back burner. Use them. If prophecy, start prophesying. He who leads, let him lead with diligence. That's the key word. Leading with diligence. Many people lead with skill. They have a great ability, but they lack diligence. Diligence is the issue the Holy Spirit focuses on in the realm of leadership. Humility, of course. That's a, that's a given. But not only being diligent when people are watching, but being diligent when no one's watching because we know God's watching. B, the definition of diligence, making constant effort to accomplish what's undertaken with persistent exertion. That's the dictionary definition of diligence. You're going for it. Diligence involves investing time, investing energy. You can't be diligent if you don't invest time and energy. It takes risks. It takes a servant spirit. It takes developing your God-given gifts. Musicians practice. Many other different arenas in the body of Christ. Paragraph C. Here's what I want to challenge you. Again, I'm just a couple minutes on this one. Then we're going to move over to the finances. I want to tell you a bunch of stories. I think will encourage you. Ask the Lord, not once, but regularly. Lord, give, paragraph C, give me insight into your plan to win my campus. What is your plan to win my high school, my college, my city, my nation? Tell me what your plan, a little bit of it, and show me a little bit of my role in your plan. If you ask that question regularly, you'll begin to get divine ideas, creative ideas. I meet people all the time. I mean, 35 years being a pastor. One of the biggest pains in their life is condemnation and failure, but let's put that aside. That's the big one. Then one of the next big ones, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I've heard that 10,000 times. I mean, maybe not that many, but maybe. That is the major pain besides condemnation. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. The 20-year-olds say it. The 30-year-olds say it. The 40-year-olds say it. The 50-year-olds say it. The 60-year-olds say it. I don't know what to do. They don't, many of them never actually ask the Lord on a consistent basis. What do you want me to do? What they do, they wait for the leadership to call them out and to tell them what to do. Don't wait on leaders to tell you what to do. Ask God and then do it. It's a really different perspective. I was blessed in being raised in a Presbyterian church that was really connected to Campus Crusade for Christ. I was a part of that church for five years in a really committed way. Campus Crusade for Christ was my early beginnings. That whole ministry was all through our Presbyterian church. And our leaders, and I so honor them, they told us, we would say, I was 16 years old and I was part of the youth group. The leader came to me. He said, what are you doing? I'm only six months old in the Lord. I go, wait a minute, what am I doing? He goes, who are you ministering to? I go, I don't know. He goes, are you leading a Bible study? I said, no. I said, no. They said, why not? Why not? No one told me to. They said, who's supposed to tell you to? You got a Bible? Got a Holy Spirit? A lot of people need help? That's good enough. Go do it. I was six months old in the Lord, 16 years old. I went, how? They said, you'll figure it out. I said, just call a night. Tell five or ten kids. Half of them will show up. Stay with it. Start with five. Grow to eight. Grow back down to four. Grow back up to ten. Stay with it for a year or two. You're in the ministry. I said, is that it? They said, you're in the ministry. I went, wow. And we all did it. I mean, we had many of us in our Presbyterian church. We had a big youth group, about a thousand young people that got saved. Many of them were leading Bible studies. Nobody told us when, where, how. We just started them. Because the leader said, start them. Don't wait on me. I'm not going to tell you what to do. Just start them. You want to start outreaches? Get three friends and pick up Saturday and go somewhere and just start it. I'm not going to tell you where. You do it. OK. I'll start. Well, I did that and had a dynamic junior high ministry of eight people. Wasn't very dynamic, I promise you. I had to buy their dairy queen to talk them into showing up. I thought it was a great idea. I go, if I pick you up and buy ice cream for you afterwards, will you come? I realized I was buying them, bribing them. Hey, I liked it. They came. It grew to eight. Ten some days. The next year I stayed with it. Grew to 30. I mean, I was in the ministry as a senior in high school. Man, I was so burdened by the ministry. I had the saints I had to care for. You know, I was on the football team and I was on this team and that team and all these things. But I took care of the flock. I was only a believer about a year and a half then. But I had this weight of responsibility because my leaders told me just to take it. They didn't tell me when, where, or what school. They go, go pick a junior high school. Just pick one. I go, which one? Anyone! I said, I'll pick the closest one. They go, good idea. So that's what I did. Beloved, it's that easy. Go get two or three friends and get them to help you. And if it gets to eight, cool. And if it grows to four, that's how it really goes. Then I went to the University of Missouri. In Columbia, Missouri. I'm 18 years old. 19. Go Tigers. Anyway, played on the football team there. So I talked to a few of the football players. I go, I'm the rookie, rookie. I mean, I'm the smallest guy on the team. Not being humble. The least gifted. These guys are big and fast and I'm the smallest and the slowest. I go, what am I doing on this team? So I figured, hmm, obviously I'm not going to be a star here. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start inviting them to a Bible study. I call it a Bible study. I said, I did it with the junior high. I'll do it with these. See if they come. And five or six guys started coming. Shocked me. Then I made a little pamphlet. Thursday night Bible study. I didn't put my name. No one ever heard of me. Nine o'clock. Tiger Towers apartment. I went to a Xerox machine. Made 1,000 copies. I passed them out randomly all over the college. Then the next week I made another 1,000. I packed up. I didn't tell anybody I was passing them up. I was the leader. I was too embarrassed. I go, you little whippersnapper. I'm not coming if you're leading. They said, who's leading? I said, well, you know, just every week. You never know who might lead. I was way too embarrassed. Well, a few football players came. A few of the people, I didn't know, I mean, there's people I randomly gave that little thing, you know, this little flyer. Handwritten. I mean, not cool, state of the art. It was like, I wrote, Bible study. 9 p.m. Come. You know, like, what a weird nothing handout. But I made thousands of them. Found a guy who played a guitar. I go, have you ever led worship songs? He goes, no. I go, are you willing to learn some? He goes, yeah. I go, what do you mean? He's like, holy, holy, hallelujah. Yeah, I'll learn them. He was my worship leader, my first worship leader. Never led worship ever. Scared to death. 30 people came. I gave thousands of flyers out. 30 came. I was so nervous, I was sick to my stomach. Five or six football players came. About 25 of the others. And the next week, we had 40. Then the next week, 20. Then the next week, 30. Then the next week, 40. Then 50. Then 20. It went up. And whatever, whatever, whatever. Who cares what the number is? It ended up growing over a year or two to about 200 came every single Thursday night. 200. So, what my Presbyterian leaders told me to do, start small groups. So, I had three little discipleship groups. I told everybody, disciple anybody you can get in a group of three, just start it. I told them what my leaders told me, just go start discipleship groups. These guys go, I don't know nothing about the Bible. I said, take a book. A Christian book, whatever book you like. Buy a copy for three more people. Give it to them. Study the book through the week and then have a discussion group. You don't have to be a Bible teacher. Discuss the book together and the Bible teaching's already done for you. So, I had lots of them starting small groups of disciple people. Beloved, I was in the ministry. I didn't even know it. That was the view of ministry that I was taught to engage in. Ask God, what is your plan to reach my campus? Give me one idea of something I can do. Now, everyone's not a Bible teacher. But you can be a discussion group leader with three people reading a book. You can meet and encourage them. You can go help the Bible study guy. We had a guy then, we got big to 200. We needed a sound guy. Then we needed an overhead projector to put the music up. Then we needed an usher to set the chairs up. I mean, we had a full on ministry. I mean, we had ushers in everything. I was so excited. But I was so nervous because I didn't know the Bible at all. And I didn't like studying the Bible. Remember, I didn't like the Bible. I believed it, valued it, but I didn't like to read it. But I was in a jam because I had to prepare a message. So I would take everybody's teachings, memorize them. Not exactly because I wasn't smart enough to memorize it exactly. I would word for word get up with 20 pages of notes. I mean, my notes are truly like this. Welcome. My name is Mike Bickle. I'm not kidding. I really am glad you're here. You think I'm kidding. I had 30 pages of notes for a 30-minute message. And I took it straight out of books. I mean, I didn't have an original thought in my mind. That's why I tell people hard copyrights, right to copy. Because I was so grateful to steal everybody's everything. But the only problem, and so I felt guilty about it. Not guilty enough to stop. Because I was desperate. So I have this many years, copyrights, right to copy. I don't want you feeling guilty. Take it. Run with it. Put your name on it. Put your mother's name on it. I don't care. It's yours. Some guy said, oh, a bunch of those college students, they're just using you. They're taking your notes word for word and putting your name on it. I said, using me? Sounds like God's using them. That's what it sounds like to me. I go, I think we got them. Again, I felt bad about stealing everything, but not bad enough to stop. But here was the problem. After the meeting, I'm 18, 19 years old, you know, University of Missouri. And the guy would say, hey, that one point you made, what did you mean? I said, I don't know. They go, well, what do you mean you don't know? I go, I don't know what that means. They go, but you said it. I go, I'll get back next week with the answer. That's how I began. I was sick to my stomach to talk to 30 people. I mean, when Thursday night was coming, Tuesday, I was more nervous about my Bible study than the football games. Well, for a reason. I was sitting on the bench anyways. It didn't matter. But I mean, I was, it was so risky. What if they don't come? And sometimes they didn't. Then I started a Bible study at Warrensburg, because University of Missouri is two hours from my home in Kansas City. Warrensburg's only one hour. And when I would come home on the weekends from the university, I would go by this other college campus. So I stopped there as a stranger, made my little handouts. No one knew I didn't go to school there. Passed them out. Got a room and had 30 people every single week. They didn't even know I didn't go to the school there. They said, what do you major in? I said, well, you know, I'm just trying to figure out my major. Which is true. I didn't know what I was going to major in. But I was so nervous. And people said, oh man, it was scary. What if they didn't come? What if I fumbled the ball? What if I tripped and it was bad? It was. My teaching was terrible. I learned so much. And every now and then a spark would encourage somebody. And I just kept staying with it. That's how you get in the ministry. Ask God, paragraph C, where is your harvest field at? Don't wait for somebody to tell you, ask God, where is the harvest field? Maybe you're going to help some girl or guy in a home group in your campus. That's the beginning of your harvest field. Maybe you're going to start a prayer furnace. And you're going to get up there, open the door, be the first one to pray. Set up a few chairs. That's the beginning of where you start. Don't wait for them to ask you. Make yourself indispensable by serving and by being diligent. Don't ask for the key spots up front. Serve in the back and just do it. Do what nobody else will do. I tell people, ask two questions. Where is this at? Ask two questions. Paragraph D. Ask two questions. What needs to be done and what do you want to do? So when you're at your campus, say, Lord, what needs to be done? Oh, they need you to set up chairs, open the door, get the things set up, clean up afterwards, do what needs to be done. Then later, God will let you do what you want to be done. Meaning, everyone's got a desire of what they would like, but don't wait until you get what you like. Do what needs to be done. That's the key. Make yourself indispensable because you will do the task nobody else wants to do. Just do it. And then over time, God will let you do what He put in your heart that you want to be done. But don't start with what do I want to do. Start with what needs to be done. Paragraph E. Some people wait for years. I mean, I've watched this for 35 years of ministry. Ten, 20, 30 years. Bro, what are you doing? Waiting on the will of God. Like, dude, it's 30 years later. Waiting. On what? He's waiting for somebody to invite him to the public platform to give him a microphone. I go, forget that. Just go get three people, disciple them in your home. Don't ask anybody's permission. Those three will lead three more. Just do it for a few years, and guess what? You'll have a teaching ministry. You may never get on a platform, but you'll change many lives. And you may be on a platform. Forget the platform. Do what needs to be done. Be helpful. The thing that separates real leaders from lazy dreamers is real leaders do stuff. They just do it. They don't wait until it's big. They don't wait until it's famous. They do it when it's little, and they do it when nobody's watching. They go help other people. That's what real leaders do. There's so many lazy dreamers in the body of Christ. I'm gonna be able to change the nation. They got all these visions. They don't do anything. They'll do it three weeks in a row, but you can't count on them for six months in a row. They won't show up. They always gotta, I'm sick. The Lord said no. The Lord showed me. Oh, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. You're just lazy. Show up not an hour late. Show up on time. Five minutes early is better. And show up prepared. Prepared. They didn't ask me to teach. No. Prepared. Know where the vacuum cleaner is so you can clean the room before the meeting starts. Come prepared. Come prepared to help. Show up on time. Stay the whole time. Don't leave an hour, a half hour early when no one's looking. Give yourself to serving. Get three people. Have a meet in your home. Meet in a restaurant. Read a book together and discuss it. Do it for 12 weeks in a row. Guess what? You're discipling the younger believers. Lead diligently. Let's move on to the next one. I went too long on that, but I got a lot of energy about that. I still think, I still think Mizzou missed it. I would have been a good football player. They let me sit on that bench. Never mind, never mind. Okay, page 57. Giving extravagantly. Why? Giving extravagantly. The joy of what I call financial power encounters. And here's what a power encounter is. When we give money and the Lord returns that money in the amount and the timing that makes you sure He's giving it back to you simply because you gave it first. Meaning, I would give an exact amount of money and within a week, the exact amount would come back to me. And that never happened before. I said, how did that happen? And the Lord would be saying, I'm giving you the amount and the timing because I want to wow your heart. And when that happened, that maybe happened 20 or 30 times in my first five or six years of being a believer. Where I would give money away and the Lord would give it back in a very specific way because my leaders, my Presbyterian leaders, my Campus Crusade Presbyterian leaders, they told me, start discipling people and give money to missions. I didn't know any better, so I just did what they told me. And all of us had stories of God giving us money back. I thought everybody lived that way. And when I went to different places, I found out that Presbyterian church was not so common. Other places did that. But I had some dynamic leaders that taught us these fundamental principles. Well, we give extravagantly. That implies giving beyond your tithe, which is the 10% of your income. Now a lot of believers don't even tithe. They don't give the 10%. I want to say this kindly, but I want to say this as a shepherd. That is unthinkable to me, to not tithe. Unthinkable. I don't mean because God will be mad. Because tithing, the giving the 10% of your money, which I've, by the grace of God, have done all the years. But in our early marriage, me and Diane, we decided when we first got married, we would double tithe. And we would never back away from that ever. I would never be content with tithing. I'm not content with double tithing. I want to give much more than 20% of my income. And the reason I'm, I'm not, I'm saddened that so many believers don't buy into this, not because they're sinful and God's mad at them. No, not that. Because they're missing the exhilaration of power encounters in the realm of money. They don't have any stories. And the reason they don't have any stories, they never get out of the boat and step out on the water. They don't ever do their part, and the stories never happen. My leaders told me back then, build a history in God with your money. You start giving money faithfully and sacrificially, and God will return it, and you will build a history. Meaning you and God will have a story that will build your faith all the days of your life. I remember when I first met my wife. I was 22, she's 21. I'd been a believer six years. She had been a believer about six months. And so we're engaged. I mean, she's amazing. I'm gonna have her come up at the end and pray for you, and so let her even say a few statements about this. Brand new believer. I remember, here we are. We're engaged. Excited. Now, she was taught to save money, and by the way, saving money is biblical. I read a bunch of biographies of these great missionaries who gave everything away. I read maybe ten of them by then. My heroes were all these guys and gals from history who did, who gave everything away and went to the hardest and the darkest places of the earth. That's what I wanted to be. I would read these stories and I'd go, that's me. So I had no thought of saving money, though it is a biblical principle. I don't want to go off on that right now. I just want to tell some stories. She was trained to save money. Her dad, very frugal. So, six months in the Lord. I'm six years in the Lord. I'm pastoring a little church out in the country. Little hundred-member church out in the St. Louis area, out in the country. So, I meet her and we're telling our story. She goes, just curious. She goes, well, how much money have you saved? Like, what do you mean? She had, 21, already had $5,000 saved from working at age 16 and 17 at a little restaurant. She goes, I'm taught to save. She goes, you know, it's real value. How much have you saved? I went, I go, nothing. I go, why would you save money? Again, I'm not saying the theology of this is great. I would say it different now. She goes, why wouldn't you save money? I said, well, I give it, almost all of it away. And then God gives me money back, like, in miraculous ways. She goes, what? I go, I have about 30 stories. Not that I've counted them, but, she goes, what do you mean? Like, I gave $500 away and mysteriously God provided $1,000 back. She goes, no way. I go, you mean to tell me, a little arrogant, but I said, you have never had God give you money. She goes, you mean to tell me you've never saved money? I go, whoa, we got a ways to go here. Because both are biblical principles. So, I went, hmm. Well, I have six years in the Lord, she's six months. That's cheating. I had the upper hand. I had stories. So, and she can defend herself when she comes up. But she agreed. That's the point I'm saying strong. We're going to get married next month. I said, here's what I want to do. I'm going to take the whole $5,000 and give it away to missions. All of it. I go, I want us to have stories. The stories will be awesome. She goes, okay. She said, okay. She said, here's the only deal I ask. You don't like overemphasize it to my father just yet. So, we got married the next month. Got a short engagement. So, we come back from the honeymoon. We take the $5,000. We give it all away to missions. I am so excited. She's in. She goes, I'm for it. It's new, but it's a lot of money. I mean, 21 years old, back 35 years ago. I mean, that was like a million dollars today. Exaggerated. What happens, 18 months go by. 18 months go, nothing happens. And she's not being negative. She's going like, how does this work? I said, I don't know. The timing is always strange. I said, I've never had an 18-month delay. And she goes, you've never given $5,000 away either. Well, no. I mean, I'm more like a 50. 18 months later. A man knocks on our door. I don't go to him. He comes to me. He says, I'd like to buy your property. I go, okay. And he gave me a number. I said, yes. Way more than what I spent for. We'd owned the house 18 months. We made $55,000 profit on the house. Because he wanted it for construction, and he knew he was going to change the zoning. I didn't know any of that. $55,000. Now, I have to tell the bad part. I'm walking in the house. There's what the man of God was talking about. I know I had to repent. It was so exciting. She went, wow. $55,000. We took that money. We sowed it again. The Lord returned it. And I'm not going to tell all the stories, but he has been returning money to us for our 33 years of marriage. We have astounding stories together of large amounts of money that have come our way. Huge. But it began because my leaders told me to read these books, and they told me it could happen. I didn't know it would happen. I didn't read it in the Bible. They told me that I found it in the Bible. They told me, and I said, I want this. I want this to happen in my life. Tithing is essential. It's the beginning place. It's not a law. I'm not saying if you don't tithe, you're evil. I'm saying if you don't tithe, that's the beginning point. We began to commit to double tithe from that time forward, from the very first year of our marriage. I said, I'm not going to live with a double. I don't care how. We only made $12,000 a year. A thousand a month was our salary. I said, we're going to give 20%. We couldn't hardly make it. We had to get help to make it. That's why we were, we were waiting on that $5,000 return. The Lord kept giving and breaking in, and I tell you, it is, it is remarkable. I remember I was 18 years old. I'll tell you my first one. It's the summer when I'm 18 years old, and many of you are 18, and I want you to try this. I went out, we were leading a bunch of people to the Lord. And so I decided, none of them had Bibles. So I said, I'm going to buy Bibles. So I bought 500 paperback Bibles. I've been reading these books. Do exploits for God, and trust God, and He'll surprise you. Okay. I ordered them. $301.24. I'll never forget. I had never had $300 in my possession that I owned, to my knowledge, to that time. $300. I was like $3,000. I bought, I said, yes. The day, I mean, a few months go by, the Bibles are coming, or a few weeks, I can't remember. Some time goes by, the Bibles come. They call, and they say, your Bibles are in tomorrow, Saturday at noon. I have no money. I've already given the Bibles away. I've always told these unbelievers and these guys, discipling people, you can have 20, you can have 50, you can have 20. We'll take it this high school, this junior high. You know, I was just excited. I gave them all away. Hadn't paid for them and had no money. One guy said, where are you going to get $300? $301.24. I go, I don't know. Because I had this thing, because the biographies, I wouldn't tell one person besides my main partner. I go, don't tell nobody. We want to see if God hears us. The guy calls and says, your Bibles are ready tomorrow, Saturday at noon. Saturday morning we wake up, nothing. I am paralyzed with fear. The strangest thing happened. Somebody handed me a check. I won't go into the details. I couldn't believe it. Handed me a check. I open it up. Mike Bickle. $301.25. One penny more than the exact amount. Nobody knew the number besides my one partner. This is a complete bizarre secular situation. Had my name on it. I went to my guy, my partner. He goes, what are we going to do? We have to go down in an hour. I go, look. $301.24. I got a check for $301.25. We made a penny. Let's do it. Let's do it. But here was the exciting. I mean, the pressure was intense. I mean, that seemed like a huge amount, you know, 35 years ago. But the exciting thing, I go, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You, Genesis 1 God, you actually know me. You know I bought those Bibles. I mean, I know you're supposed to know. You really do know. It's way different when you're supposed to know and you really do. I was so excited. I mean, I drove there kind of surreal. Pick it up, give the money. I'm in like a bubble kind of. For three days I'm going, he actually knows me. I know that I'm supposed to believe that, but I think he really does. That's terrifying in a good way. Oh, my gosh. I look up at the sky and I go, do you like really know what I'm doing? I mean, really, really, really? I was so excited. So now, six months goes. That story put so much energy in me. I am man of God. Well, boy of God. I'm boy of God of going for it. So I, someone said they had a ski trip. So I had my little 10 junior high kids coming. I think we had 30, because it was my senior year. 30 junior high kids coming. So I heard from some other guy from some other school, have a junior high ski retreat. I've never been skiing. I've never had a retreat. I said, I'll try it. We're going to have a ski retreat. I never knew how to do one, but I figured, I figured that couldn't be that hard. So I announced it. These two brand new believers from poor families. These two girls, 14. Poor families. Can we go? Well, it's $250 a piece. Again, 35 years ago, it was a lot of money. More than it is today. And they said, oh, we could never get $250, never. Our family's, you know, a welfare type thing. They said, not a chance. I had that burst from the six months earlier, that $301 thing. I go, I'll pay for it. My guy, you know, junior high leader. And where are you going to get that money? We'll figure it out. I'll pay for it, girls. Have no fear. The man of God's here. It's the day of the ski retreat. We're driving out in a van, six, seven, eight of us. No money. None. Zero out of 500. Zero for 500. Wake up. My guy says, anything from heaven yet? I go, no, not yet. But, you know, we don't leave until tonight. First time this ever happens. In the mail. Again, nobody knows the story. The two girls I said it to, I said, don't tell anybody. I really don't want you to tell anybody. Because our big thing was not telling anybody. Never happened in my life before this. I'm 18 years old still. Get a check in the mail. Mike Bickle. Random. God told me to give you $250. God told you? I didn't know God told people stuff. About me? $250. I mean, to get a check in the mail, this blew my mind. This was like the $300. It was a different situation. But I was so excited. Oh, man, halfway there. Halfway there. We're packing up. 7 o'clock at night. They're at my house. We leave at 9. Something like that. All the 6 or 8 or 10 kids, whatever, 6 or 8 of them are there. We're getting in the van. I'm $250 short. I don't know what to do. Because if we get there and don't have it, it's going to be embarrassing. I figure I'll do dishes. I don't know what I'll do. I'll do something. I'll figure out something. I'll sell the van. It wasn't my van anyway. I'll give it to the guy. I didn't, not really, but I didn't know what I was going to do. I'm very nervous. Very nervous. That exciting check in the morning was good. But it's kind of worn off a little bit. It's 9 hours later or whatever. A man comes over to my house, an elderly man, family friend. Hey, how are you doing? Come over to visit my mom. How are you doing? Guy about 70 or something or 80 years old. He goes, looks like you're going to have a lot of fun. Where are you going? I said, Colorado ski trip. He goes, good. Have a great time. An unbeliever. In there drinking coffee and comes out a few minutes later and says, Hey, young man, here. He gave me $250. We leave in 10 minutes. I'm in the car. I am so excited. Yes, that I'm not going to be embarrassed. That's true. But more than that, he knows me. I go, God, you, this is like real this time. I know that $301 is real. This is double real. How did you know I needed $500? I know you did Genesis 1 and all that stuff. You're real smart. But how did you really know this? I'm in the car. I'm driving for an hour. You know, we're going 10 or 12 hours to Colorado somewhere. I can't hardly talk for an hour, meaning I'm lost. It's just a conversation with, not a really deep one, just how did you know? I can't even talk to the girls and these little junior high girls crack jokes and stuff, you know. Oh, this is so cool if it's true. You really know me. And the answer was, yeah, but you stepped out of the boat. You believed me. Now, I'm not into people randomly trying risky things. I mean, I didn't know that I was led by the Lord. I was 18 years old. I didn't really, nobody in my world said God told me. We didn't have a God told me kind of ministry. Nobody used that word. You know, when I met the Charismatics years later, they went, God told me. I go, whatever. We were just into, gee, it would be neat if I did. That's kind of how we went forward. So, I believe you need some kind of inspiration. So, I don't really remember. I'm just assuming I felt inspired. I don't know how it worked, but I know it worked. My point being, I don't want people to be reckless. I'm not trying to empower people to be reckless. Well, some years go by. Diane, the 5,000, we get 55,000. I mean, that was so exciting. And a number of things happened. And again, I can't go into all the details. We took that money. We sold it back. And we made a commitment that we were going to live a simple lifestyle. Look at paragraph D. We were going to live a simple lifestyle to give extravagantly to the kingdom. When I was 22, Diane and I, we said we're going to tithe, double tithe. Here was our commitment. I want to challenge you with this. We decided we were going to increase the percentage of our giving from 10% to 20, then 20 to 30, we were going to increase the percentage of our giving before, before we would increase our lifestyle. We committed. We said we will reduce our lifestyle before we reduce our giving to the kingdom. Meaning, we're going to keep giving more, but now we can't afford a bigger house. We can't afford a nicer car. We said we will reduce our lifestyle before we reduce our giving for the rest of our life. For the rest of our life. We made that decision. We determined to have a smaller house before we would give smaller amounts away. I do not accept then, and I don't accept now the American dream that says I'm supposed to have more while I give less. No! I'm supposed to give more, and if I take less, that's fine. But I want this in your DNA. I want you to buy into it in your 20s, because if you wait until your 30s and 40s and 50s, my 35 years tells me if you don't do it now, it's very rare that somebody changes that view in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, because too many good opportunities come their way. They were always going to, but they never actually followed through. This is the hour of your life to make critical decisions. Critical decisions. Paragraph E, the verse that God put in my heart, be content with food and covering. And I added, and air-conditioned. I always did. Be content with food and covering, and air-conditioned. Kingdom simplicity, read this, is not about lacking financially, but it's about giving extravagantly. Meaning for 35 years, I've had leaders, friends, say, Mike, you've got to take more. I said, no, I don't need to take more. We've lived in a simple little duplex, I'm guessing 30 years. I don't know the exact number of times. We live in a duplex now. It's a debt-free little duplex. We bought it for $75,000. It's very simple. We're debt-free, and I plan to give all my increase, more and more of it away. I have no intention of ever increasing my lifestyle. Ever. Ever. And I'm, I'm excited about that. That's not sacrificial. I want to give a billion dollars to the kingdom, and never take a dollar of it in my own personal life. So I've had leaders over the years, and they say, Mike, you know, God wants to bless you. I go, He is. I'm just not keeping it. Well, no, you don't understand. God wants to bless you. He is. I'm getting lots of money. Well, you know what I mean. No, I just don't want to keep it, and you're not going to talk me into it. I'm not going to keep it. I don't even want it. I want the kingdom to go forth in the earth. And I only have a little bit. Maybe some millions over the years. I don't know how much. It's not much when you can't count the need of the earth, but it's whatever I have. I'm giving it all away. And maybe not all. That's exaggerated. But I'm going to live simple. I'm going to give more and more away. God's going to bring the wealth of the nations to the church, to the people of God. And He's looking for people to give that wealth to, but He's looking for people who won't take it and keep it. And everybody says they will give it to God, but they only give the overflow to God that doesn't ever cramp their lifestyle. Many of them, that's what they call giving to God. And technically it is, but that's not my vision. I want to give in a spirit of generosity. And many of my friends have told me over the years, you're into poverty. I said, no, no, I'm not into poverty. I'm into prosperity and generosity. I'm going to give it away in large numbers. I love to give money to the gospel. And I'm going to all my days. So I've been teaching on this for years. So I'll tell you a story. Some years ago, called a woman. A woman called me on the phone. She goes, oh, I'm in a crisis. I need $550. $550 is, you know, over 20 years ago, 20, 25 years ago, something like that. I'm pastoring here in Kansas City. She goes, I need $550. And she told me it was a crisis. She goes, I need it like now, now. I said, OK. I said, I can help you. So I took out my MasterCard. And I've never done this before or since. I don't recommend giving on credit. That's not the way. Give money you have, not money you don't have. This one time, put my MasterCard out. I kind of just did it. $550. Again, I don't recommend that. I don't think that's, I've never done that since. I don't teach that. I've got $550. Gave it to her. Week or so later, I'm at the church service. Guy comes up to me. I'm on the front row, like right there, worshiping. Comes up and goes, Mike, it's kind of weird. I hate to interrupt you. I know you're getting ready to minister. God told me to give you $550. I know it's weird. I said, no, it's not. No, it's not. It's great. And he had it rolled up, like with a rubber band, all tight. He goes, there's $550 in here. He goes, it is. Sorry. I go, no need to apologize. I got $550. I go, that was so cool. I gave the lady $550, and I got it back. By this time, I've got a number of stories. I've probably got 30, 40 stories. I'm not, I'm never just 100% sure it will always work fine. But I just have a whole lot more confidence over the years. And sometimes it doesn't work like I think it will, and I leave that to the Lord, because so many times he answers in such profound ways. But not always. I don't want to give a false story. So I put the $550 in my pocket. It's rolled up. I haven't counted it. I go, Lord, I love you. You are so fun to serve. You are just so fun to be close to. Thank you. I love you. You love me. We've got a real good thing going forever. This is going to be really, this is going to work out really good. For real. So we have a ministry time. You know, during the worship, they call it the ministry time. So I go up and pray for a guy. A couple pray for him. And the guy goes, oh, I'm just in a great need. I said, what's that? He goes, something happened. He goes, we need $550 tonight. I said, really? I said, yeah. He goes, I just said, God, it's not a chance. Take the $550. I go, here, $550. We're in the worship. Everybody is worshiping. It's ministry. We're laying hands on the sick. He goes, do you always care if $550 rolled up in a rubber band? I go, just when I need to. He goes, really? I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. So the meeting is over. Walking out the door. Right when I'm walking out the door, some guy comes up to me real fast. He goes, Mike, stop. You know, we're the very last ones out of the meeting. The building is empty. He's, you know, cleaning up the children's ministry and he's the last one out and me and I'm locking the door. He goes, this is weird. We have an old car and we sold it. And the Lord told us to give you the money. Here's $550. Handed it to him. I said, God, you're not going to let this thing go, are you? I drove home. I go, this is cool. Again, don't give people on your MasterCard if you don't have the money. That was weird. But the guy gives it to me. And the worship, I give it away. The end of the meeting, it comes again. I end up, it's uneven. It's unwashed. But I am excited and I've got a story in my spirit. My personal history in God is building in the realm of money. So some time goes by, talking to a lady on the phone. Pastoring. As a pastor, one of the ladies in the church and she's crying. What's wrong? She goes, $2,000. Big deal going on. I said, you need $2,000? She goes, by 5 o'clock today. Maybe it's 11 o'clock in the morning. I said, whoa. I said, I'll pray with you. I said, the Lord used me in faith in the realm of money. I'll pray with you. I might have faith. I'm not going to tell you my stories, but I believe this. He listens. Not to me. In a special way, he listens to anybody who will believe him in this realm. He will listen to them in this thing. I said, here's what I want to ask you. Do you tithe? She goes, oh, no. Are you kidding? I can't afford to tithe. I said, you can't afford not to tithe. I would tithe immediately and get my way to double tithing as soon as you can. You position yourself to release the miracle working power of God in the realm of money in your life. She goes, what on earth are you talking about? I go, it's a huge reality. She goes, tithe, like 10% every week? That's intense. I go, no, it's not intense. It's the Genesis 1 God. He's real smart and he's got a lot of money. You're in good hands. Don't worry. He's got way more money than you need and he really likes you and he's real smart. That's not a big risk. Yeah, but he's invisible. Yeah, but he does a lot of things. She goes, I don't know. I go, I'm not going to be mean. I said, I'm only going to pray for you. I said, I don't mean to be mean. This might offend you. If you will commit to obey God in your money. I said, you can still pray yourself, but I'm not going to, I just feel, I feel wrong about it. I don't feel like, I feel like I'm lying to you. You have to obey God in your money. And I don't mean some sacrificial obedience. You have to believe that the invisible God is watching you and loves you and he wants to be a part of your money life, not just your other part of your life. So I talked for a few minutes. She goes, okay, okay, I'll do it. I said, well, I know you think about it. She goes, no, no, no, I will. I said, okay, I'll pray with you then. I said, I'm going to stand with you for real. And I go, that means more than you think. Meaning I'm really going to engage with you. What I meant was, I was not going to rest until I got this money for her. I didn't quite say it that way, but I meant I was really going to help her. If she was going to obey God, because I knew for the next 30, 40 years of her life, this would change her whole life. I hang the phone up, a few minutes go by or whatever, and a guy knocks on the door. Yeah, it's this young couple. Young business leader. He says, I've been at your church the last two or three Sundays. I go, okay, cool. Come on in. What's your name? Tells me his name. He goes, we're just in the area, and we're thinking about leaving our old church and joining here. We just wanted to say hi. I go, okay, good. My name's Mike. I've been here for, you know, da-da-da-da. I go, tell me about yourself, and why we lead a business, and da-da-da-da. You know, we're in a church that doesn't believe in the gifts of the Spirit, the power of God, et cetera, et cetera. And I said, well, okay. Then the wife interrupts us. She goes, Mike, we hear you pray for people, and you pray for healings, and there's prophecies. Is this really true? I go, well, you know, yeah. Doesn't work always, but yeah, yeah, we do that stuff. She goes, well, my husband has nightmares. And he looks at her like, I'm trying to meet maybe our new pastor, and here are you. She goes, well, you pray for him, and he's annoyed. He looks at her like, we're going to say hi. Like, you got nightmares? I go, yeah. I go, I'll pray for a minute. You want me to? He goes, well, yeah. I mean, what am I going to do? No. So he sits down, lay hands on him. In a second, I go, Lord, in the name of Jesus, I just take authority over this tormenting spirit. I don't hear from God. It's just a nightmare, this tormenting spirit. It adds up to me. I just said, in the name of Jesus, I just take authority over this tormenting spirit. This guy goes. He starts coughing, choking. His eyes are doing funny things. And the wife goes, honey, what's wrong? Are you okay? I go, he's okay. He's okay. She goes, what's happening? He goes. I go, you're going to like him a lot better when I send him back to you. It's going to be way better for you. Way better. She goes, I'm sorry. Are you okay? I said, just give me a minute. In the name of Jesus. We take a few minutes. He goes, whoa. I go, what was that? I go, well, demon came out of you. I go, we'll talk about that later. He goes, demon? Are they real? I go, yeah, yeah. You've been feeding your pet demon pretty healthy for quite a while here. But your pet demon's gone. You've got to quit feeding him. Because he'll come back. Demons are really expensive to get. Really expensive to maintain. And really expensive to get rid of. Demons are really expensive. You don't want to go there. Turn off the pornography. Say no to the drunkenness. To the drugs. You don't want to feed a demon. It costs a lot to get them. Costs a lot to maintain them. And costs a lot to get rid of them. They don't go away because you want them to. Well, that was a little side moment. That was for free. The guy is so excited. He goes, I feel great. He goes, what happened? I go, let's talk later. He goes, you know what? I'm so thankful. He writes a check. $2,000. Just the lady. Two or three hours earlier. I need $2,000. I'll tithe. He goes, here. He goes, he's going to put our church's name. He goes, no. He goes, I don't even want the tax credit. I want this to be totally for God. I want nothing back. He goes, put any name in it you want. So he leaves. So, called the lady. It's 4 o'clock. She has a miracle. Needs my father. I go, hey, how you doing on that commitment to tithe? She goes, I am committed. I don't care what it costs me. I'm going to obey God. I says, come over. I got your check. I wrote her name in it. Gave her her $2,000 check that day. One more story. I can just go on and on. No, I'll tell you two or three. I'll make them short. Lady calls up. Single mom. In our church. Mike, my car broke. I only make a little bit of money. I have no money. I'm in a. Oh, please help. Please help. I go, good friend. I go, do you tithe? She goes, I can't afford it. I said, you can't afford not to. She goes, I know. I go, no, you don't. This is real. God's not a joke. He really wants to intervene in your life. But on his terms. Not on your terms. And those are the terms. He says, you have to step out a little bit. And 10% is the beginning of the step out. Don't stay at 10%. Go way beyond that. That's the beginning for everybody. Because he has so much to give. But he gives it on his terms. She goes, oh, I can't afford it. So she says, okay, well. I go to the church service that night. She stays home. She's so burdened. Her car broke. She can't go to work the next day. She's going to lose her job. She's got one more warning. You know, your job's over. Crying. Lady comes up to me. She goes, Mike. She goes, can I talk to you before you leave? I go, yes. She goes, Lord told me. She goes, I have a car. She goes, I've notarized it. The title. Put any name in it you want. She says, here, it's yours. The car's in the parking lot. Take it. It's yours. Put any name. The title's there. I drive home. I go, Lord, this is so cool. I call the girl, the lady up. I go, friend. Last five or six hours you've been praying about. She goes, I'm going to tithe. I don't care what it costs me. I'm going to. I wasn't going to give her the car. I really wasn't. I wanted her to step out of the boat. I said, guess what. I have a car, title, and keys. Not a great car. A car worth about $10,000 in today's market. I mean, not great, but good. Better than the one she had that broke. She came over. She goes, I have a title of a car that's notarized. It's in my name. I have the keys. That happened in five hours without you telling anybody? She goes, how did that happen? I said, he knows us. It's outrageous. But he does. He knows us. It's outrageous. It's awesome. I didn't do this all the time, but every couple years, I didn't have a timing for this, but in our 20s and 30s, we made about $1,000 a paycheck every two weeks, $500 a week. We could live simple with that. We had no money at the end of the month. I'm not against having money at the end of the month. I'm not against saving it. But the Lord wanted me to get way out. He wanted me to push it. And there's others that push it more than I do. I'm not saying I'm the premier example. I have a long history. There's others that have more history than I have. So I want to say that. I want to push it, at least in the simple lifestyle here in America. And in America, that's weird in America to commit to a simple lifestyle instead of praying fast to get out of one. I'm committed to it until the end because I want a really big pad in the age to come. For real now. I'll invite you over. It would take me a couple hundred years to get all of you, but I will invite you over. So I would take the $1,000. We had no money at the end of the month. And I would feel stirred. I'd go to Diane. I'd always give her permission. I'd say, I feel stirred. Let's just give it away. Sow it into missions. I did that a number of times. I mean, two, three, four, five times. Not a hundred. Gave everything away. We had no money to pay our bills this month. I go, are you in with me? And by then now we've got a lot of stories together. I go, I feel a stirring. We give it away. One time I did it. I'm talking the next day or two. A guy called me on the phone and says, the Lord just told me, a guy from the north side of Kansas City, he drove down. He goes, he just told me to drive down here, give you $1,000 today. I know that's weird, but here. I go, yes. I mean, it was a break-even deal, but it's exciting that he knew me. You know, a year or two later, whenever, I did it again. Same salary, $1,000, gave it away. A guy from Oklahoma sent us a check the next day. The Lord told me to give you $2,000. I've never met you. He just told me to give it to you. I went, unbelievable. But it's not unbelievable. It's how it works. How it works. One more funny story. And I'm going to have my wife, Diane, come up, wherever she's at. Oh, she's there. Good. She's the head usher over here. So, I'm looking for her in her little green coat, you know. But we would have family devotions. And I would tell our two sons, Luke and Paul. They're 30 and 31 right now, 30 and 32. And so, they were little guys, you know, 8, 9, 10. We'd tell them these stories. And just dads, moms, whenever I got a $1,000 check, I would give money to God. I would always give 10% to my boys, even when they're 8, 9, 10. So, they would go, whoa, like a hundred bucks. Like, oh, my gosh. And, you know, when I got that $2,000 check, I would give them 200. It would blow their minds. I wanted them a part of the storyline. They'd go, whoa, dad's talking to God again. It's working. You know, whoa, money's coming. How does he give us this money? You know, it was exciting. They're little 9, 10, 12-year-old minds, you know. So, my son, Luke, he's got a little bit of money saved up because he's been getting all these little deposits. And he decides there's this need comes. He says, dad, I want to give my money to it. I want to get my own story, not just yours. I want to give it away. Okay. Gave it away. So, the next day at our family devotions, I said, Luke, I want you to ask for something. You're giving money away. He goes, I don't want nothing. I go, no, that's a good answer. But, I mean, I want your heart blown away. He goes, I don't care. I don't even want nothing. I go, I know, but God and you, he wants to, like, wow you. We've been traveling a bit with John Wimber. I was at that time, so I brought my family with me. John would pay the way. So, Luke says, okay. He's 10, 12, 11, something like that. He goes, I'll pray that God will, when we travel, something cool will happen. That's good enough. Something cool will happen. I don't know what that means. God's smart. He can figure it out. Lord, Luke has given money. Make something cool happen. A week later, get in the mail from one of the major airlines. I can't believe it. Luke Bickle, you have now earned your gold card. You will have full upgrades on all of your flights. It's impossible. You have to go 100,000 miles for that. I don't want to blow the miracle, but I tell Luke. I go, Luke, this is weird. This can't be. He goes, well, you said to ask and it happened. Cool. Because to him, the upgrades was like the real expensive chocolates, free Cokes, good desserts. He could see those people up there, you know, the big fancy chocolates. Like, whoa, that'd be awesome. Movies, everything. We're talking about in the 80s and 90s, you know. They didn't have movies in the same way. I call the guy, the airlines. I go, sir, I'm just checking. I don't want to blow the miracle. And the guy goes, you know what? There's so many people involved in this. It's more complicated to undo it. Just, just take it. So we travel. The three of us, me, Diane, and our son, Paul, and coach. Luke up there, 11 years old, feet up. Ma'am, bring me another chocolate. Chocolate over his mouth. Ice cream, movies, Cokes. You know, I said, Lord, what is this? He goes, I'm, I'm touching him in the language of his little heart. Diane, come on up here. Does she have a microphone? Good. Great stories. They're real. They're real. They're really real. Okay, just for, let's just take a couple minutes. We just got a few minutes. We got maybe five minutes, so we got to quit. Let's go to the one. And then any other comments you want to make? Which one? The 5,000. Okay. I really didn't make you do that. No. No, he kind of scared me into the reality that God really was real. And when he told me some stories about how God had provided for him. Wait a second. I want this camera real big. She is so cute. I want the camera gigantic. I want everyone to see what I see. Go ahead. Head usher. Wait, you're head usher. I like it. I see her out there running around. I go, what are you doing? She goes, I want to be the head usher. I want to be head usher right in the front so I can see all of you guys. It's really good. Anyway, I didn't have any stories of God's faithfulness in my life because I was a new believer. I didn't know that God was that intimate and that personal and that involved in our lives. All I knew was that a responsible person saved their money because my dad drilled that into me. Save, save, save. He didn't read biographies. No. And so I wanted to be responsible. And when Mike shared the philosophy of giving and that God would, you know, see it and come back and respond to you, it was a new concept to me. So I was willing to try it out. And I made him swear to me that he would not tell my dad. That was the key. Like, okay, let's do this. Do not tell my dad. I go, how about when we get the answer? And so that began my journey of an adventure, a true adventure that was so exciting to me. You know, and again, I was sheepish at first. I was kind of just timidly like, you know, okay, let's try that. Okay, let's try that. But $5,000 is not that sheepish for your first time. And then the double tithing we committed to the next month after we got married and you said, let's go for it. He goes, let's do it. And then it kind of escalated. Like then I understood, okay, so God is my provider financially. He's proving himself to me again and again and again. Then I realized, oh, my gosh, this applies to my stuff too, not just to my money. It applies to my stuff, you know, my stuff that I'm protective over, my new pots and pans that I got, you know, as a newly new bride. And my new couches that disappeared out of our living room when one of our tenants moved out. I picked up a guy on the street, led him to the Lord. He stayed at our house. He took the couch with him one day when we went to church. How was I supposed to know he would take the couch? So I got to learn another lesson, that this concept of giving and giving from a cheerful heart, it applies to my stuff, not just my money. It applies to every earthly possession that I have. And I have to say that 33 years later, I don't miss any pots and pans or couches or cars. We've had cars taken and given to us. We've had property taken and given to us, furniture taken and given to us. It has been such a joyful journey and one that I've so enjoyed even watching my sons grow up and come into this understanding themselves. They're both givers. They both have a heart for the poor and the underprivileged. I want to say to you, parents, that anytime you have an opportunity to put your children in front of a poor class of people, I mean, send them on those short-term mission trips when they're in junior high and high school. Let them see how someone who's not American lives their lives and let the Lord pull upon their hearts. And this verse that Mike had in the notes with 2 Corinthians 8 about living with the quality in our minds that our abundance would make up for their lack and their abundance would feed into our lack. I had the opportunity to go to Haiti in February after the earthquake. I stood in front of a sea of about 5,000 patients in a worship service. They were standing in a dirt gully because their church had been flattened by the earthquake. They had lost 25 of their Bible students. They lost their lives in the Bible school. And I'm looking at this sea of people. They are worshiping the Lord with all their might. I'm close enough to them. I can see big tears rolling down some of their faces. The pastor stands next to me, and he starts telling me the story of some of these people in front of me. He's saying, you see that lady in the purple dress? She lost her husband, her house, and her oldest son. You see that guy over there in the red shirt? He lost 21 people in his family. He's been on a seven-day drunk. We're just glad to see him here this morning. You see that person over there? He did this three or four times, and I said, I was weeping. I said, you have to stop. You have to stop. I can't even take this in. And I stood there in front of that sea of people that were worshiping the Lord with their whole heart, most of whom had lost all of their earthly possessions. And trust me, their earthly possessions would be about that high by comparison to ours. They'd lost it all and their loved ones, and they were telling Jesus by their worship, I love you, I trust you, I give you my life. And I said to him, Lord, if I could stand in my hour of shaking, half as strong in my faith as these people are standing before me. And it just so moved my heart. I wanted to empty out my bank account, but I had to get a hold of Mike first because he wasn't with me. Before I did that, I highly encourage you, husband and wives, to get on the same page when it comes to giving, because that's really important that you do. It's not that you give to every need, because there are many, many needs out there, but the Lord does direct your heart and he does lead you in the correct way of giving and the who and the when and the how much. He is delighted to reveal that to your hearts and to help us as husband and wives to get in sync and to get on the same page in that. Real quick questions. Okay, you give the $5,000. When the $55,000 comes 18 months later, how do you feel? I'm walking around like this. I am so amazed. My jaw is just hanging open, and I'm like, wow, this God is so real and so personal, and he's so generous, like so amazingly generous. That's who God is. He is so generous. And who gives 1,000% interest? Nobody. There is no investment that you can make in this lifetime that gives that kind of return. Some banks give 5% or 10% interest. Maybe somebody gives 15%. Who gives 1,000% interest? He's so rich. One more thing. When Luke got the gold card, I would talk to you about this year. How did you feel about it? I mean, I know you were excited. It was very exciting. It was so fun. It was so fun, because his faith just catapulted forward. And we just loved it. I mean, he was being a little bratty up there in first class with us sitting back in coach. He did invite me up to eat a shrimp cocktail, because he didn't like shrimp cocktail. So I got to go up and eat a shrimp cocktail. And then he sent me back to the peon section in coach. With me and Paul. Yeah. That's fun. Oh, I love it. That was so good. And I just got touched again. I want to say to some of you that are out here, and you say, well, I don't make that much. Or maybe even you're a missionary, or you're in the ministry, and the Lord has just really touched my heart a few years ago. I think it was four years ago now, about the fact that even in the midst of living a simplified lifestyle as a missionary, the Lord was saying, Shelley, I want you to be able to have faith, to give extravagantly, even in the midst of that. And so our IHOP leadership team is backstage right now. I'm just springing this on you here. But our leadership team has been back there, and three or four of us, all of us just being touched by the Lord, even as you're sharing. We want to give you a chance to respond right now. We're going to take an offering up tonight, but we want to just give you a chance to actually respond before the Lord, even this afternoon, in your heart, as you give. Why don't we not take one tonight? Okay. And just take one now. Good. And here's the thing is, what I've learned over the years, and I've seen this in my own life, and I know you'll see it, there's a moment when the Lord is speaking to you. And in that moment when the Lord is touching you, when you're stirred in your faith, that's the moment to make the move and to step out in that place in obedience and not let the moment go by. And so it's not a pressure thing. It's giving you an opportunity to respond. So I'm going to call the ushers forward at this time. We kind of scrambled and got them ready. You guys are all back there, and you want to change it and do it right now. Because we're taking an offering for the conference expenses tonight, but we can't do two. That's right. Is that fair? I'm putting it down and saying we need to do it right now. How about the old guys back there? Daniel Lim and Alan Hood is back there. They're faith guys. Sarah Sun Kim is back there. They're faith guys. Brian Kim is back there, and everybody is saying we've got to respond. And I'm going to go back and do my own offering on the Internet website when I go back as well. Okay, then we'll do it tonight. I mean right now. Here's what I really care about more than you responding this second by giving, although we'll just take the conference offering now instead of tonight. What I am concerned about, I want to invite you all to stand for just a moment. I'm concerned that you would talk to God like those ladies did, that were in need, and you would make a commitment, 10% of my money is my beginning point. Then you're going to go the next step, some of you. Lord, I can't do it yet, but soon I want to grow to 20%. Then the third thing, some of you are going to say what me and Diane said, the Lord promised that He would give us literally a billion dollars, and I know it's a true promise. That if the Lord gives you millions or hundreds of millions or whatever, it doesn't matter. Some of you, the Lord speaking, you will say of that extreme increase, I will give it all to you if you give it to me. So three commitments. Christianity 101, I want to pray first before we even talk about the offering. I will do the 10%, the beginning point. Back in your ministry, back home. Number two, no. I'm a young person, maybe a new marriage, we're going to do what Mike and Diane did, we're going to start our marriage or maybe have been married a year or two, we're going to start now, we're going to get into that 20% dimension of sowing into the kingdom, wherever God tells you back in your home. We're going to get into this, we're going to get power encounters. I tell you, it will test you, but it will be 10, 20, 30 years later, you will have so many stories if you stick with it. And third, if the Lord gives you those big numbers, it's all His. You're not going to give Him 90%, give Him all of that big stuff, 100%. I made a commitment, I won't take one dollar for a cup of coffee from this increase. And I can, here's the exciting thing, I can see it in the natural, a few things happening right now, it's real. Like, not by faith, in the natural. There's huge increase coming to the prayer movement. I know in my little world I can see it, I mean, huge amounts. And I've promised the Lord years ago I'd never take one dollar of it. So I want to pray for a minute, and then we're going to shift over and talk about the conference for two minutes, and then I'll let you respond to that. But I want you to pray and talk to the Lord for a minute right here. Father, I say yes to you. I say yes to you. One group of you, 10%, yes. I'm going to sow a seed, I'm going to start. And I don't care if you sow the seed here or wait until you get back home. You're going to give it to the kingdom. Not just to a friend in need who will, you know, applaud you and think you're the greatest thing. Give it to the kingdom in a way they don't even know it's you. The next group. Lord, we're going to do the 20% thing. We're a new married couple. I'm going to be married maybe in the next five years, I don't know. I'm going to do that. We're going for it. It may take us a while to get there. We're going for it. Beloved, we only made 12,000 a year, 1,000 a month. And given 20%, really cut into us when we did that. But I said, I can't live less than that. I'm not going to. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit MikeBickle.org.