How to Prosper in Famine: Part One

I'm 1000% sure that if I did not obey God when He quickened in my spirit to give, I never would have been able to walk in the blessing. But my obedience unlocked favor and blessing. And He goes, I'm looking to give everywhere. How can I give more? Because I want to be even more blessed. I'm going to tell you your obedience is getting ready to unlock things you could not imagine. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you. Put your hands together for Nathaniel St. Deloitte. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Well, I just wanted to say, hello, champions. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about, but I haven't been here. Yeah. I haven't been here since the Knicks won. So every person who is a New York Knicks fan, I call you a champion. You all deserve this. 53 years. Knicks in five. But you know what? I got better news for you. Jesus in three. What? If you knew what I was talking about, you would shout at that moment. Some people rejoicing. Nixon, five. I'm rejoicing. Jesus did it in three. He rose from the dead. He gave you new life. He gave you power. Come on, somebody. All right. Y'all ready to get into the word? You sure? The first service was like lit. I don't know what's going on second service. Y'all should have had more time. Y'all woke up later. Coffee. All right, let's get into it. We're going to read from Genesis chapter 12. I want to say something. I'm going to be back in a couple of weeks. This is going to be like a two-part series. The title of the sermon that I'm going to talk about today is How to Prosper in Famine. And I think it's very imperative, it's apropos to speak about this, especially in the climate of the nation and in the climate of New York City in particular and just the region. I feel like there's many people who feel like they're in a famine and I do believe there is some aspects of the nation being in a famine. You know, famine just means... You know, kind of being without, you know, deprived of certain things. And I believe that because of what's happening in the war in Iran and what's happening politically in New York City and what's happening politically in the nation, I believe that many of you feel like you're in an economic famine. But I have good news for you, that even though the world may be in famine, even though the world may be in lack, as a kingdom believer, you're not subjugated, you're not subject to the system of this world. Because the kingdom of God dwells in the inside of you and you are God's child. By faith, you're not part of the system of this age. You're not part of the system of this world. You're not part of Egypt's system. You're part of the system of the child and the children of God. And you can walk in divine victory. Because you're no longer part of this world, you are in this world, but you are not of this world. So what this world goes through, you don't have to go through because you're a son and daughter of the most high God. I need someone to shout like they really believe that I'm a son, I'm a daughter of the most high God. All right. There's going to be a two-part series. This first part's good, but I feel like the second part's even better, so make sure you come back in two weeks. And if you got vacation, cancel your vacation. No, I'm just kidding. But cancel it. Genesis chapter 12. We're going to look at Genesis chapter 12. The reason why I think Genesis chapter 12 is so important because I'm talking about famine. And this is the first place in the Bible that talks about, actually uses the terminology famine. It uses the word famine. And there's something in the scripture called the law of first mention. That means anytime something's mentioned for the first time in scripture, it has a relevance and a significance. If you know anything about theology, you'd understand that. Genesis is the book of beginnings. Genesis is the first book. It's the book that every major theological theme is talked about in the book of Genesis. And what happens is that Genesis introduces it and the rest of the Bible expounds on it. So every theme is... Every important concept that God wants to bring up, he brings it up in the book of Genesis. And I believe understanding how to prosper in the midst of famine is something that every patriarch of faith had to go through. Abraham had his experience in Genesis chapter 12. Isaac had his experience in Genesis chapter 26. And even Jacob had his experience in Genesis chapter 43. So I believe this is very imperative for us to learn how to prosper in the midst of famine. And I believe... And for me, I'm only going to be here for two weeks. I wish I could be here for three weeks because then I would talk about Jacob as well. But next week, I'm going to talk about Isaac and how he prospered in the midst of famine. Are y'all ready? Yes. All right, let's dance. You got your seatbelts on? Yes. We're going to dive in, right? All right, let's go. Genesis chapter 12, verse 1. Let's read this, but this is not where I want to get to, but it's going to get us to where I want to get to. All right, let's read it. Genesis 12, verse 1. Here's what it says. Now the Lord said to Abraham, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. Look what he says to him. He said, I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you. Look at all the great things God's making a promise to Abraham. When you get to the land of Canaan, this is all the stuff I'm going to do for you, Abraham. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. And I will make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. Look what it says in verse 3. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. I said this in the first service. I never understood that. Because I always thought it should say I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse those who curse you. But it says him. And that's when the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation and said this is not a person he's talking about here. He's talking about one particular person whose sole intention is to curse the people of God. And that's the devil. And the Lord said, it does not matter what curse the devil tries to bring against you, what spell, what incantation, what witch, what warlock, what lie, what device, what scheme. There's nothing the enemy can do to curse the children of God. So I don't care where that curse. curse came from the root comes from satan and it has no power over you has no power over your family it has no i don't care if they done santa maria voodoo witchcraft i don't care how far it's going in your bloodline because of the power of the blood of jesus no curse will be able to stick to you you are blessed In the city, you are blessed. In the field, you are blessed. When you come, the blessing's not only on you, the blessing is overtaking you. I dare you to slap your neighbor, high five, and say, I'm blessed. I'm too blessed for the curse to stick to me. And the blessing has nothing to do with my goodness, my ability, my strength. The blessing has everything to do with what he did 2,000 years ago on the cross. Somebody say, I'm blessed. All right. I will curse him who curses you. And in all the families and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Look at those amazing promises to Abraham. You know. Those promises are no joke. No. They're life changing. You know, it's like when you go to a service and the service is just, oh, man, God did something. You prayed in tongues for the first time or you received something from the Holy Spirit or you got a prophetic word that shifted your life. And then you go home and then you're like, man, I'm about to fly high. Then all hell breaks loose. See, this is kind of what Abraham went through. Because this is speaking of all the promises that God has for Abraham. I'm going to bless you, Abraham. I'm going to do amazing things in your life, Abraham. I'm going to do great things in you. And then Abraham leaves his mother and father's house. He gets to the land of Canaan. Let's go to verse 7. I want you to see something here. He finally gets to the land of Canaan. With all these promises he's sitting on. Sitting on, I'm going to bless you. Your inheritance is going to be blessed. Your family is going to be blessed. Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. It's so much blessing. That's why this idea that God doesn't bless is crazy. You know, I got to work hard to do it. No, it's the blessing of God. He will tag team with your work ethic and bless you. Look what it says. Then the Lord appeared to Abraham. This is Abraham finally gets to the land of Canaan, the land that God promised him. And here's what God said to him. He says, he appeared to Abraham and said, to your descendants, I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. So right at the place he was, he was in Canaan. And right when at Canaan, God gave him a promise. Abraham, I'm going to... to bless you this land that you're at i'm giving it to you and your entire family your descendants is going to be blessed now let's go down to verse 10 he's in the land of canaan he gets the promise of god this land is yours you're blessed your children's blessed your inheritance is blessed through you all the families of the earth will be blessed just blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing then verse 10 now there was a famine Hold on, God. That's not the package I signed up for. You gave me the slow internet. This is not what I signed up for. I signed up for the blessing. You told me you would bless me. You told me through me the families of the earth would be blessed. You told me that everything I touch is going to be blessed. And this land that I'm on is going to be given to me as an inheritance. And then a famine comes. What happens right in the middle of the promise of God? There's a famine. Right when God says he's going to do the miracle, he's going to bring a promotion on your job. He's going to bring financial increase. He's going to bring salvation to your family. He's going to do a miracle in your body. There comes a famine. Man, it doesn't seem right. Because I'm sitting on all the promises of God that say, I'm supposed to walk in this and walk in that. And you're anointed and you're called. And I got this prophetic word over my life and prophetic destiny. And every time I come around, people are like, God's going to use you. And then every time you go home, depression hits you. Every time you go home, there's a famine. But you're sitting on all these promises. This is way different than the first service. Right? That's not what I expected. It's the Holy Ghost though. Everyone who had the first ever, was it like this? No. What happens when you get a word from God and then right in the middle of the word from God, there's a famine in the land? And you know, Abraham does something really interesting. It actually makes sense in the natural, but it actually is a backwards spiritual principle. Y'all ready to hear what it is? The Bible says Abraham goes down to Egypt and dwells in Egypt. Abraham gets a promise about a land called Canaan. If you know anything about the land in Canaan, the land was a desert land. When there's a famine happening, where do you want to go to? I'm a chill in the desert. There's a famine. Seems pretty foolish, right? The best place for Abraham to go was the place where there was sustenance, the place where there was water, the place where there was provision, the place where every time there's a famine, it seems like they have more than enough. Egypt. Let me go to Egypt. Egypt has something called the Nile River. Egypt. So even while the rest of the world's in famine, a lot of the times Egypt is still doing pretty good because Egypt has all this stuff and God didn't call him to Egypt. He went down to Egypt. God didn't put the blessing on the land of Egypt. God told him you're going to be blessed in Canaan. I'm going to bless you in this land. Amen. He decides because Egypt symbolizes the system of the world, the system of this age that tells you if you come down here, you'll be blessed. If you go to the south, you'll be blessed. If you go down to the south, you'll have a bigger house. If you go down to the south, but God's blessing is not in the south. God's blessing is where he puts you. God's blessing is not moving further and further to the south. And I'm not talking about an actual location. I'm talking about us people. trusting the system of this world more than we trust the God who created the world I'm not putting my faith in the system of this age in the Egyptian system that tells me that I can't make it I need to be on food stamps I need government assistance I need to move to a better location I'm not blessed based off my location I'm blessed based off my revelation So I may not be where everyone else is, but I'm blessed because I'm where God wants me to be. That's where the blessing is. It's not in Egypt. It's being where God called you to be. He called you to Canaan. Canaan is going to be your place of blessing and provision. You don't need Egypt. You don't need the system of this world. Because the system of this world, what it does, it's good for a moment, and then it dies out. The system of this world has temporary blessing, and then, look at the children of Israel. They go down to Egypt, right? Genesis chapter 43, after a famine hits the land. They go down to Egypt, they end up staying in Egypt, and become slaves. That's the way the Egyptian system works. It's temporary and good for a moment, and then it turns you into a slave to it. This is good preaching right here. Amen. That was good. You didn't say that in the first sermon. That was... I don't want to be married to the Egyptian system. I don't want to be married to the system of this world. Abraham... Gets a word about Canaan and decides, I'm going to leave Canaan and I'm going to go down to Egypt. Can I tell you something? The blessing wasn't on the land. The blessing was on the man. I'm going to say it again. The blessing wasn't on the land. The blessing was on the man. When God promised Abraham, he said, Abraham, you're blessed. Abraham, you're blessed. Abraham, you're blessed. But it would take Abraham's obedience to walk into the fullness of the blessing that God spoke over his life. There's limited blessing that you can walk into without obedience. Obedience unlocks doors of favor that you could never imagine. Before the service, he didn't even know what I was preaching about. Kelly. This is my first time meeting him. I've seen him like 50 times. And we've never spoke. Him and his wife, Gigi, we've never spoken. You know I come here all the time. I've seen him so many times. He serves downstairs. I wave to him. He waves to me. I've never spoken to him. I didn't know his name. I didn't know his wife's name. They are the nicest people. My goodness, I was like, how come y'all never said hi to me before? I like you guys. I said, make sure when I come through, say hi to me every time. No, I like them. They're nice. And he was sharing a testimony. He said, you were preaching about a year and a half ago on finances, and you said 10% is obedience, 11% is generosity. He said, when you said that, something hit me in my spirit. And I was like... He said, I just started tithing maybe a few weeks before. And he said, the Lord told me you have to start giving offerings. So you know what he said? He said, I'm going to double what I give. I give 10% in tithe and I'm going to start giving 10% offerings. And he said that day he committed with his wife that they were going to give 20% of their income. He said the next day he gets a phone call from someone he used to work with. And they said, hey, I wanted to see if you were available for something. It's a job. And when they told him what the salary was, it was nearly double what he was making. And he said, he said... He said, man of God, I want to tell you something. I'm 1000% sure that if I did not obey God when he quickened in my spirit to give the 20%, I never would have been able to walk in the blessing. But my obedience unlocked favor and blessing. And he goes, I'm looking to give everywhere. How can I give more? Because I want to be even more blessed. I'm going to tell you your obedience is getting ready to unlock things you could not imagine. There is favor and blessing on the other side. You may be in a famine right now, but I've come with good news. The famine is over. No more famine for the people of God. You will live in a land of abundance. A land flowing with milk and honey. A land of goodness. A land of his favor. A land of his grace. Somebody make some noise and shout. Amen. You were called to be broke, busted, and disgusted. You were called to live in the reality of God's power, presence, through the faith you have in Jesus. Come on, somebody. Come on. He ends up in Egypt, and Egypt becomes the worst mistake of Abraham's life. I mean, he had a couple of things. Egypt was a bad one. The other one was when God told him, hey, leave your family. And then he decided he wanted to take a lot with him. Can I tell y'all something? Not everyone's going to accept the message that God wants to bless them and the message that God wants to prosper them and the message that God wants to heal them and the message that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we need the gifts of the Spirit. You will go back to your family and some of them will tell you you're crazy. And some of you are trying to persuade people who can't be persuaded. God never called Lot to go on the journey with Abraham. Abraham dragged him along and then Lot became a headache for Abraham. Stop trying to drag along people to a revelation that God gave you. To a word that God gave you. To something that the Holy Spirit's placed inside of you. They won't understand it. They'll be like, why do you give 10% an offering to that church? You don't think they're going to steal your money? They don't understand my giving has nothing to do with a church. My giving has to do with obedience to God. The church is just the conduit. God is the one that I'm giving to and I'm believing that if I am a cheerful giver, God's going to bless me. Because the scripture says it's better to give than it is to give. But kingdom people don't have that mindset. Kingdom people think, oh, let me hoard. Let me save. Let me get as much money in my bank account. They don't even realize that the more you do that, the more you hoard. And I'm not saying, of course you should have savings. I don't want anyone to think that. That's what I'm not. I'm not advocating giving every cent to the church. But I'm advocating giving what God has placed in you. And seeing God bring multiplication as you give. Trust me, it's going to happen. Abraham decides to go to the south. It was the worst possible thing. Bigger house. Man, you see them houses in Texas? You know your algorithm changes when you look at one of those. See them houses in Florida? Your whole algorithm changes. Texas is even better. Texas? Texas? Tennessee? Texas? Tennessee? Tennessee? I like 10IC. And I love it. I be looking at him like, Jesus. This is what I paid for my house. And there's a pool in the background. And there's a nice marble everywhere. I only got a little bit of marble. This is marble everywhere. But God can't bless you where you feel comfortable. God can only bless you where you are called. God won't bless you where you feel the most convenient. God can only bless you where he's called you to. And that's why people will try to run to green. You know, the grass isn't greener on the other side. The grass is greener where the Holy Spirit called you to. Some of you trying to go to places and the grass is not greener. You go, oh, this is a beautiful pasture. And you end up like a lot. Lot tried to go to Sodom and Gomorrah. This is, look how beautiful this land is. And it got him in a whole world of trouble. Don't go to places God didn't call you to go to. It leads to destruction and chaos. Your life will end up in misery. Be where God's called you to be. That's the place of blessing. It's the place the Holy Spirit called you to stop running after everything and say, God, if you call me to be in this city, I'm going to be blessed in the city. I'll be blessed in the city. I'll be blessed in the field. I'll be blessed when I come. I'll be blessed when I go. If you call me to a specific region, that region has to experience the blessing of God just because I'm there and you call me to be there. And if I'm there, I have to be blessed in that city. Everyone else may be in lack. Everyone else may be in debt. Everyone else may be in struggling. But I'm a child of the living God. Egypt becomes one of Abraham's worst situations. He goes down to Egypt. And when he goes down, can I say it like this? Abraham's wife was a baddie. For some of you who don't know what that means, it means she was the most beautiful woman that the eye could behold. I'm using some urban colloquial terms. She was bad, shorty was bad. Shorty was a 10, shorty was a 10. She was a 10 I see. You didn't see how I put that in there, but it's okay. So Abraham looked at his wife. It was like, when we go down to Egypt, I know how these people are here in Egypt. Tell them you're my sister. Because if you don't, they're going to try to kill me and take you. And there'll be a whole drama. And I ain't trying to fight no one. He said, just tell them you're my sister. So they get into Egypt. And exactly what Abraham said would happen. The men would be attracted to his wife. They were like... there's no women like that in Egypt. That's a foreign chick right there. Well, she's different. And they all were trying to back her to the point where the scripture says that the assistants of Pharaoh came and were like, hey, you're so beautiful. We got to bring you straight to Pharaoh. I'm not even going to be, you know, that's some good wingmen right there. They saw the most beautiful woman. They was like, yo, yo, Pharaoh, got the perfect one for you, bro. Oh, God, send wingmen to these single men like that. I'm not single. I don't need no wingmen. I can be a wingman. I love doing that in church. We're like, yeah, so what's going on? Come closer. We can all have a conversation and not just go like this. Let's just dip. Let's do the dip and then let the Holy Ghost do the rest. I'm bad. I'm bad in church. Y'all don't know me. But it's good, right? So they see her. They bring her to Pharaoh. Pharaoh's like, all right, cool. Pharaoh's chilling with her, getting to know her. And then at night, Pharaoh has a dream. Or a plague starts hitting the entire nation. A plague hits the nation and God speaks to Pharaoh. This is not his sister. This is his wife. Leave her alone. Pharaoh gets angry at Abraham. He's like, Abraham, why are you bringing trouble to my country? I don't want you here anymore. Abraham gets kicked out of a whole entire country. No, I'm not talking about like kicked out of a store. He got kicked out of a country. You know how hard it is to get kicked out of a country? For the pharaoh of the country, the leader of the country, the president, prime minister, king, whatever. Looks at you and like, yeah, you can't stay here anymore. You create too much trouble. Bye. Kicks him out the country. He goes back to Canaan. Now we're at Genesis chapter 13. All this trouble is around Abraham because he goes to a place God didn't call him to go to. Finally, he gets back to Canaan. In Genesis chapter 13, the Bible says, Abraham... went up from Egypt, and he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him to the south. They left Egypt, they go up, and then they end up in a place called Canaan. And look what happens once Abraham gets to the place where God wants him to be. Look at what happens when Abraham stops complaining about where he was and complaining about the market and complaining about the economy and trying to go down to Egypt to find the easy solution. But he's exactly perfectly spot on in the will of God. When he's locked into what God wants him to do, look what happens in chapter 13, verse 2. It says, Abraham was very rich in livestock. Hold on. Abraham wasn't very rich before, but something happened once Abraham got to the place he was supposed to be. Once Abraham got to the place of obedience of saying, yes, God, I'll be here where you've called me to. The blessing of God came on Abraham and he became very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. I want to let you know something, people of God. You don't try to have to go anywhere else for the blessing. Stay where God's called you. Be obedient to the word. Be obedient to what God says. And the blessing of God will overtake you. The blessing of God will find you where you're at. The blessing of God will find you right in the middle of your obedience to the word of God. I come with the good news and a message. Your famine is over. I come with a prophetic word for every person who feels discouraged. The gates of finances are opening for you. The portal of blessing is opening for you. The opportunities are getting ready to come your way. Supernatural promotions are coming. Divine inheritances are being released. Supernatural pay increases are coming your way. In the name of Jesus, you will get calls about new things, new ideas, new concepts. You will wake up from dreams and God will download million dollar ideas to you. He will open up your eyes and say, invest in this one place. And it will be the place of blessing and favor and prosperity for you. If you believe it, say yes. You're blessed. You're blessed. See, I'm preaching two sermons about this, so I'm basically done. See how good I did? Y'all are usually complaining. You see, you're gonna get more. You see, I gotta leave. That's why I can't give you everything right now. Usually I'm trying to squeeze everything in one sermon. Oh, let me try to get every point in. Ha ha. Gotta come back in two weeks. You'll be blessed in famine. He goes back to the land. Famine's still happening. Abraham's blessed. Because he's exactly where God wants him to be. Some of you in and out of church. One month you're here. Next month you're not here. Six months you're here. Three months you're not here. Be where God wants you to be. If he's called you to this church, be faithful, be loyal, serve, go to life groups. The blessing is when you're where God wants you to be. Stop picking up shifts every Sunday. Oh, they pay double on Sundays. Oh, they give me time and a half on Sundays. Well, let me tell you, your time and a half still got you living in a one-bedroom apartment. You know what obedience of God does? It brings blessing that you can't even work for. It brings doors that you can't even imagine. You can try to work as hard, as hard, as hard as you want. It won't open. It opens through obedience. The Bible says if you're willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land. God don't want you to have just the worst stuff. He wants you to have the best stuff. He wants you to give you the good of the land. He wants to give you supernatural blessing that you won't even have room to receive. Because there's just so much overflow. And Abraham's blessing, it wasn't just for him to be blessed. It was to bless others. God bringing you into this place where he's about to favor you and bless you isn't just for you. It's for everyone connected with you. It's for your church, City Light Church. It's for the pastors in your church. It's for all the people who are connected with you. You're going to be blessed to be a blessing. Amen. I believe it. I believe your famine is over. Can I just read one more verse? It's in the book of Psalms, chapter 37. And I want to read this. And then we'll come back in two weeks and we'll do the second part. The second part I'm talking about, Isaac, is even better than this. Trust me, if you like this, if you're like, ah, man, it was a high, it should be better. If you're like, yo, this was really good. It's about to get even better. For some of you gave me the, meh, meh, you could do better. by the help of the Holy Ghost, I'll do better. Can we put up that scripture, the psalm scripture? Let's look at verse 18 and 19. Look at this. The Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance should be, shall be for a few days. I see if y'all was listening. Yeah. Their inheritance should be when they get their tax return. Nope, you have a promise over your life. Your inheritance is forever. Look at what verse 19 says. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time. Things could be getting worse around us. God's not going to put us to shame as his people. It says, and in the days of famine... They shall be satisfied. I want that to be your confession this week. I might be in famine, but in the midst of famine, God's going to allow me to be satisfied while everyone else is looking and searching. And God will satisfy me. That means I will have more than enough. Not just enough. More than enough. Lift up your hands. Father, thank you. For the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow. That you're releasing your people into new doors, new opportunities, new dimensions. There are things that, Lord, eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered the hearts of man, the things you have in store for your people. So I pray right now you begin to unlock those things right now. You begin to unlock doors. You begin to unlock revelation. You begin to unlock truth. You begin to unlock million dollar ideas that you would give your people new ideas of design and new ideas on their workplace and new ideas in their businesses. Father, I thank you now that, Lord, we are not susceptible to the system of this world. Lord, while this world may be experiencing famine, we're going to experience the rain, supernatural rain and abundance of God. In Jesus name. Amen and amen. Can I say one thing? I was reading a first Kings chapter 17 this morning. I actually read it this morning and it was talking about a woman who the scripture says ends up in a place of famine. She was a widow in Zarephath and she The prophet Elijah comes to her house. This is after he declares a whole entire famine over the entire nation, right? This is 1 Kings chapter 17. He declares a famine over the entire nation. And the next place he goes to is he goes to a widow's house. It doesn't make sense, right? Why do I go to a widow's house? There's a famine. Why am I going to a widow's house? And when he meets the widow... she's making her last meal for her and her kid. And she says, I got a little bit of flour. I got a little bit of water. I'm going to mix it all up. And when I mix it up, it's going to be our last meal before we die. We have no other food after this. There's a famine that's hit the land and the prophet does something so audacious and bold. It seems just like he's disrespectful in a way. He goes, make me the meal first. Hold on. Make you the meal first. I told you, this is my last meal before me and my kids die. Give me first. And when you do that, for the whole three and a half years of this famine, your bin will never run dry. You will never be without if you give me first. Don't give me the after. Don't give me when everything is good. Don't just break me off a piece of the bread and be like, here, cool, we can share it. No, no, no. God's not asking for a sharing. God's asking, put me first. And if you put me first, watch, while in the midst of famine, God supernaturally bring abundance to your life. Supernaturally open doors for you. Supernaturally bring you into increase. I believe God's gonna do it for you. Do you believe it? I believe just like that widow, you know what the scripture says? She gave the prophet first. And when she gave the prophet first, it says for the whole three and a half years of the famine, her bin never ran dry. God blessed her and her family, blessed her and her children. And I believe God's going to do the same for you. Give in famine and watch God bring increase. You're like, man, things are tight right now. You're looking at the administration. Whether it's president, whether it's mayor, and you're like, man, things look different than it did before. My economy looks different. I feel like I'm in a kind of a famine. I feel like I'm in a kind of place of lack. And God says, that's not the place you hold on. That's the place where you give. And you watch God bring increase. So I'm going to encourage some people, just like Kelly did. when something quickened in his spirit, he didn't go, okay, thank you, Lord, for that feeling. Thank you, Lord, for that. He did an investigation. He's like, God, what are you trying to say to me? You're trying to tell me to give more? All right, I'm going to do it today. He did it that day. And then the next day, the blessing came. I'm not telling you it's going to happen that quick, but I'm telling you, with God, it can happen that quick. It can happen so fast, it'll make your head swim. It will happen so fast, you won't even imagine, like, how did you do this so quickly? How did I get qualified for this so quickly? How did I get the scholarship so quickly? How did I buy the house so quickly? How did I get the miracle so quickly? You obey quickly. God brings increase quickly. And some of you, you've been stuck on 10% and God's saying, it's time to give more. Some of you have been stuck at one level of giving and God's saying, I want you to sacrifice. Because you're going to be at this place where I'm going to bring you into increase. How people feel like that word is for me. That word was for me. That word was for me. The Holy Spirit is quickening me and speaking to me and telling me, if you give me more, I'll bless you. And it's not only just with material things. He's going to bless you with opportunities that you could not do anything. He's going to put your name in rooms that you couldn't even qualify for your name to be in. He will open up doors and give you scholarships and do things that you're like, man, how did this happen? And it's going to be all traced back to you being obedient to God and giving. All right. So we have three ways to give online, the offering basket and through the app. You can you can scan the QR code if you want to give. But I'm going to challenge some of you guys, because some of you guys, you do the automatic giving. I'm going to challenge you today to say, Lord, I know what I usually give, but I'm going to give even more on top of it because I believe there's abundance getting ready to hit my house. And I don't want you to give under compulsion or emotion, but I do want you to give by faith. And what the word does is the word activates your faith so that you can give. So we're going to give everyone a few minutes to fill out the envelope. If you're doing it that way or if you're giving online, give everyone a few minutes. And then we're going to stand to our feet and we're going to pray a blessing over your seed and ask the Lord to bring increase to your home. I believe that God's going to do it for many of you in this room. By faith, by faith. And we just want to say thank you to all the people who faithfully give. Thank you. This is for those who are like on the edge. Man, should I really give? I'm not sure. It's for those people. Watch how God works when you decide to give. You know how it says the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you said that's like part of his resume? Yeah. What about the God of Kelly? Woo! Right? That's on God's resume now. That's on his LinkedIn page now. Right? The same God who did it for Kelly when he decided to be a tither and a giver of offerings, he's going to do it for you. You see, God is not giving you some example of someone who's dead in the grave. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they're not here anymore. But you have a perfect example of someone who said, by faith, I'm going to do this and watch God bring increase. He's right here in front of you. And he's like, I'm looking for more ways. And he says, every time I give, it's just like, we're more blessed. I'm like, you got it. You got it. You got it. And I love it. So if you have given, stand to your feet. We're going to just pray. Do everyone have a chance to sow? Tie this 10%. Everything above 10% is generosity. Can you just lift up your hands? Lord, I just release a supernatural tsunami of blessing over these people. Man, let it so consume and overwhelm them like a bulldozer in the realm of the spirit. Break through every spirit of lack and poverty in the name of Jesus and unload water. A warehouse of blessing, favor, open doors and opportunities. Let wealth be released now. And I decree and declare that the famine is over. And that they're stepping in divine abundance. In Jesus name. Amen. So we're going to do one last thing. But you can leave if you need to. But I want you to just come into agreement with me. This pastor, Pastor Sean, this man of God, I said in the first service, he's super consistent with his worship. Every time I come here, it's like his energy's high. He's ready to worship. His voice always sounds good. He got it. Right? I can tell when he's playing, it's not even for you guys. He's in the river. He's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. He'd be trying not to speak in tongues. I'd be seeing him. He'd be like, I'm trying not to speak in tongues because I don't want to speak in tongues too much. I can see it. He's in his own place. He's in his own river. But you know what I see so many times when I come here? Is that y'all don't like to jump in the river with him. Y'all be leaving him high and dry. You be doing one of these. Thank you, Jesus. He'd be in the zone. He'd be like, oh, thank you, Lord. Can we jump in the river with Sean today? Can we lift up our hands and go so hard after God? Show how hungry we are, that we're really God chasers, and we're hungry for the things of the spirit. Come on, can we lift up our hands, everyone in this room, lift up your hands. I know it might be uncomfortable for some, but it's like when you lift up your hand, it's like your antenna's going up and saying, I got the service, I got the connection, God. Speak to me, encounter me, move in my life. Do what you want, speak to me, move in me. Do what you want. Holy Spirit, have your way, have your way, have your way, have your way. Break the old out of me. Break the dross out of me. Break the sin out of me. Break the stuff that I've held on to. Every burden, every weight, everything that I've held on to, Holy Spirit. Today is my day of victory. and freedom in Jesus' name. Amen. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jancic and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.