There's a capacity of what you can be filled
with. And then how much can you carry? How much
can you carry? How much can you carry? So can
you carry more responsibility? You want more
responsibility? You want something bigger and
better? How are you handling the responsibility
you have now? God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour
out his spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global
Outpouring, where we contend for that promise
outpouring. We equip for that outpouring so that
we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip
Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast
today. We were so blown away in the last episode
by Pastor Tony. We called it a bombshell. We
were really resonating with what he was talking
about. So this episode, we want to talk about...
our reactions and how God is dealing with us
with regard to the capacity code, like how are
we going to increase our capacity? Thanks so
much for joining us today. We're so glad that
you're with us. Before we get started, we want
to encourage you, if you haven't already done
so, to go to our website and subscribe to our
mailing list, because that is how we can stay
in touch with you. And we can give you more than
what you're already getting just by listening
or watching our podcast. So be sure that you're
on our mailing list and cruise around the website.
There's a lot of good material there. Lots of
things that you can see. There's a wonderful
web store that we've got all kinds of amazing
materials there. founder has written so many
books. I've written some books and there's lots
of things. And make sure also that you've clicked
on the events tab to see what's going on with
Convention 2026. Pastor Tony is going to be one
of our speakers and Dean Braxton and Anna Werner.
Claren McQueen, and I'll be speaking also. And
the worship is going to be out of this world.
It's just glorious. And you'll have an opportunity
to build relationships. That's what we're all
about, is building relationships, building community.
We want to help you to come into the place that
you've always wanted to be. I can't tell you
how many people that I've heard. that have given
the testimony that I finally found my tribe.
I finally fit. So come to this convention. All
of the information is available on our website
under the events tab about the convention. And
there's also a school of translation you might
be interested in coming to right here at our
headquarters. Tune in to what we've got on our
website, globaloutpouring .net. So, Pastor Tony
blew us away. And when we were recording, we
couldn't take notes. So we went back to take
notes. And he's got so much material. So we printed
the transcript. And we've marked it up. And we
want to talk about some of these things that
zinged us about, okay, the Holy Spirit's putting
his finger on some things. And what I love, too,
is that... I could tell that the Holy Spirit
had already been doing some things in my life,
putting his finger on some things, and I was
already starting to make some adjustments, so
that was encouraging. That felt good to really
say amen to things he was saying, and then other
things were ouch. Ouch, hallelujah. Yeah. So
what was his opening statement that caught us?
Because we've been feeling stuck. Yeah. Your
life is not stuck because the Lord has said no
to your prayer. Your life is stuck because you
cannot yet carry what you're asking for right
now. So there are opportunities. There are resources.
There are blessings hovering over you. But they're
not waiting for your prayers to get louder. They're
waiting for your capacity to get stronger. That's
it. So the Father is not testing people's desires.
What the Father is looking at is your personal
infrastructure, church infrastructure, your ministry
infrastructure, business infrastructure. So it's
all about infrastructure. Infrastructure. So
it's all about all of the stuff that you need
to be successful, right? You know, this reminds
me a bit. I work construction for a while. Yeah.
And we put in the walls. I mean, the foundation
was laid. We came in, we put in the walls. And
there's so much infrastructure that goes into
big buildings. Yes. You never know it because
all you see, you walk in and you see paintings
on the wall and building looks nice. But you
have no idea what it looks like underneath your
feet and to hold everything that was put on top
of it and put in it. That's infrastructure. So
the Lord is looking at our structure. He's looking
at how can we handle things? Can you handle what
you're asking for? Can you handle it emotionally?
Can you handle it spiritually? Most importantly,
can you handle it structurally? Are you built
strong enough to do this or are you weak, right?
So the internal architecture. The systems and
the boundaries, they have to be able to sustain
the blessings that you're asking for. So it's
really important that we get a blueprint from
the Lord about how to build our internal structure.
Because what you cannot manage, the Father cannot
multiply. And sometimes you have to go back to
the drawing board. Yeah, that's true. How many
times have we? Had to do that. Yeah. So what
you cannot sustain, the Lord Jesus will not provide.
It's not punishment. It's protection. Increase
without infrastructure is not a blessing because
if it's given to you too early and you're not
ready for it, you will sabotage yourself. Sometimes
people want increase in results without a willingness
to increase in responsibility. Yeah. And sometimes
people want a blessing. without the added burden
that the blessing is going to bring. Some people
want to have added gifting without the growth
required to steward it properly. So when your
prayer is not answered, you question the goodness
of God, or do you examine your capacity? When
you're praying for increase, Jesus looks at your
financial discipline. He sees how you handle
pressure. He looks at your emotional regulation
under stress. You know, he looks at your boundary
management. He looks at your time stewardship.
He looks at your relationship patterns. So based
on what he observes, he calculates exactly how
much you can carry without breaking. That reminds
me a lot when we had our big ice storm back in
2009. Yeah. And when it was raining, you could
hear trees falling over. You could hear freezing
rain. You could hear the limbs breaking off.
And then when the rain would stop, everything
would slow down. And then if it would start raining
and freezing again, you would hear things breaking.
And it's just like it took everything to the
max. of what it could handle. And when it went
over what it can handle, it broke. And, you know,
God is so good that he, you know, he won't give
us more. It says he will not tempt us beyond
being tempted. I think if we look at that. It's
1 Corinthians 10, 13. There's no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is
faithful who will not. suffer you to be tempted
above that you are able. But will with the temptation
make a way of escape that you may be able to
bear it. So you won't give you more than you
can bear with him. That's a tremendous scripture
to hang on to. Absolutely. Especially when things
are not going the way you want it to. It's true.
It's true. So he's looking at our spiritual capacity,
our emotional capacity, our mental energy, our
emotional energy, physical energy. So You stop
praying for the Father to give you more and you
start praying for him to build your capacity.
That's where we need to focus instead of, I want
to get out there and do it now. It's about what
do I need to let you deal with in me so that
I can handle being out there doing something
that's more so. Right. Does that make sense?
Yeah. So he withholds it for our protection.
He doesn't want us to crash and burn. Right.
Yeah. So he says there's three laws. The first
law is the law of vessels. And so it's like the
blessing takes the shape of the container. And
he talks about this, the widow woman that was
told to pour out the oil, borrow lots of vessels.
Yeah, and borrow not a few. Right. That's what
it says in the King James. And then pour. Pour,
yeah. And because that's all she had was just
a little bit of oil. Yeah. And so she borrowed
all the vessels from the neighbors and poured
the oil. It just kept coming and coming, filled
them all up. And she asked for another one. Another
one. And it says that there's no more and the
oil stayed, is what it said. But if she had more
vessels, it would have kept filling up. Right.
And so we always keep our vessel open so we can
always get more. Oh, that's good. Because we
can't. We can't get too much of God. You can
get too much of a lot of other things, but you
cannot get too much of the presence of God. I
mean, it will overwhelm you, which is what we
want anyway. But the thing is, don't stop because
you feel, I've got all I need for right now.
No, you have to keep going, because if you're
not going forward or not going up, you might
be going down. And I love what Pastor Tony said
as the punchline on this. The blessing that this
woman had, the blessing she received, matched
exactly the capacity she prepared. So it's the
preparation that determines the capacity. And
so as we're preparing, that's the big thing.
It's opening up this capacity, okay? So the second
law is the law of weight, and it has to do with
your capacity to hold up the weight. So there's
a capacity of what you can be filled with, and
then how much can you carry? How much can you
carry? How much can you carry? So can you carry
more responsibility? You want more responsibility?
You want something bigger and better? How are
you handling the responsibility you have now?
Right? Wow. Yeah. So the father's going to evaluate
your readiness for increase, not your desire
for it. Because he doesn't want you to fail.
He wants you to succeed. And, you know, it's
kind of like in school, you have these opportunities
to learn something and then take a test. Yeah.
And you find out from the test how well you learned
the thing that you were studying. Right? in a
class that is important for you to pass. If you
don't pass it and you have to have it, you get
the opportunity to take it again. So, you know,
God wants you to learn the stuff you're supposed
to learn. Learn this capacity. Learn this weightiness.
The glory is weighty. You want the glory? How
are you handling the responsibilities you have
now? How am I handling the responsibilities I
have? What's on your plate. Right. Everything
that's on your plate. And how do you respond
to the circumstances that require you to stretch
beyond your comfort zone? What do you know about
stretching? Yeah, that brings up a story. And
I've probably told it before, but it bears repeating.
It bears repeating because it's so good. We had
a word of the Lord that was given in our devotions
one time many years ago, many, many years ago.
And the word of the Lord was, I'm calling you
to stretch. And so in my spirit, I went, yes.
I'm going to stretch. I will do this. Yes, I'm
going to stretch. I received this word. I received
this encouragement to stretch. So the workload
was heavy and the responsibilities were heavy.
And so I just, I kept that word in my spirit.
I'm going to stretch. So I kept going, kept doing
the right thing. And then we, I think it was
probably when we had like a six week road trip.
That was intense. That was intense, but we did
it. Yeah, we did it every year. And we did it
every year. And then we came home and we printed
the next book that Sister Gwen wrote. And reprinted
a few of the others that need to be reprinted.
And then there was... Convention. And then right
after convention, we went to the booksellers
convention and there was no anointing really
to help you with that one. And you're exhausted
from convention. But somehow I had it in my head
that once we got to the month of August, that
the pressure would let up. Right. And, you know,
I'm stretching, I'm stretching. But, you know,
in August, maybe we can kind of take it easy
a little bit. But we didn't. And the pressure
was there. And the pressure was heavy. And it
was getting more and more. And I went to Sister
Gwen one day and I said, I don't think I can
stretch anymore. And she put her finger out at
me and she said, you can stretch limitlessly
if you keep your spirit right. And it went into
me like an arrow. And it gave me this revelation
that, yeah, I can stretch limitlessly. if I'll
keep my spirit right. And of course, keeping
your spirit right is about staying tuned to the
Holy Spirit, walking in the spirit and not in
the flesh. It's huge. When the Lord spoke to
me when I was 18, he said, I want you, I want
you 100 % and I want you right now. And from
time to time through the years, it's been a long
time since I was 18, coming up on 50 years. That
sounds awfully old. 68 doesn't sound old, but
50 years history sounds old. But through those
years, it's like the Lord reminded me of, I want
you 100 % and I want you right now. And it's
kind of like, oh, I guess the 100 % that I gave
when I was 18 is not the 100 % you're demanding
right now. that you're calling for. And that's
where our capacity grows. When we realize that,
okay, the weight is getting heavier, it requires
a new dedication. It requires a new experience
of the grace of God. It's his grace that enables
us to do these things. It's his grace that gives
us what we need to be able to say yes. So you
just have to get under the grace spout. And when
you're really in love with Jesus, it's easier
to say yes. That is the truth, Philip. You've
got it. It's absolutely the truth. And I've been
meditating on this idea of loving the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, with all your strength. And
especially I've been meditating on loving him
with all my mind. That's difficult. Yeah, but
it's something that he's not going to ask us
to do something that is impossible. Yeah, that's
right. But it's only possible. If we soak in
His love, if we recognize we can love Him because
He first loved us, and that increases our capacity.
When we increase our reception of His love, it
increases our capacity to love Him back. Amen.
Amen. So, back to stretching beyond your comfort
zone. Yeah. And thanks to God gives us, too.
Like, you know, financially or, you know, things
we seek after. And, you know, it's just like
a person who cannot manage a thousand cannot
be trusted with a hundred thousand dollar opportunity.
It's true. You know, getting back into integrity,
you know. Oh, yeah. And the person who collapses
under a current relationship demand may not be
ready for marriage. It's true. You know, when
you have the engagement. Some may only after
a month get engaged, maybe after six months.
And Sharon and I, we got engaged. It was in February
under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That's
another story. A love story. We got married in
July. And it was a God thing, how he orchestrated
everything. But it's just like you don't know
how the other person operates until you're married
to them. True. You think you know them, but pressures
happen. Things will happen. And so it's just
like sometimes it's maybe like iron, rubbing
iron a little bit. Iron sharpening iron. Yeah,
iron sharpening iron. And when you work these
things out, and that's what happens when God
gives us these circumstances. He gives us things
to overcome. Right. Because he won't give beyond
what we're tempted. We already told you the scripture
that. but things that will happen that are going
to cause you to stretch. Right. And the more
responsibility you're given, the more, you know,
you have to be able to stretch things. And it's
just like, you know, I've never asked for promotion
ever. You know, that was not my nature. I wasn't
a person that would just be forward. Except when
you were playing clarinet and you wanted to be
first chair. Yeah, and I wanted to be first chair,
you know, wear that armband as a section leader,
you know. Then you were competitive. Then I was
just competitive, you know. But you just got
to do it all for Jesus. Right. But that's how
you grow. So then I'm on the board of directors,
you know, the Ministry of Global Outpouring.
And you didn't ask for it. I didn't ask for it.
And then secretary. And now vice president. I
did not ask for that, but it happened. And it
was something I had to step into. But when you
have to step into something, God gives you the
grace to step into it. And he gives you the confidence.
He doesn't show you everything at one time. On
this walk of life that I have been on for these
44 years myself as a believer, if God showed
me what things were going to be like up ahead,
I don't think I could have handled it. So he
only gives us so much at a time that we step
into. And sometimes it's like that, the story,
or you see the picture with the footprints, why
there's only one set of footprints. That's where
I carry you. And that's where he carries you
through things until, okay, you can walk on your
own through this one. Then sometimes he has to
carry you again a little bit more. It's true.
So it's responsibilities that he gives us for
our... areas of influence and everything that
he has for us, but we don't want to overstep
our boundaries. Yeah. So when we were meditating
on this idea of this law of weight, Pastor Tony
used the example of the talents that the master
of the house gave five to this one and three
to that one and one to another one according
to their abilities. The first two doubled theirs
and the other guy had buried his. And then there's
another story in Luke 19 where the householder
has 10 portions of money. Okay. And he gives
10 servants each one. And one of them gets 10
back. And the master, the Lord says, so you've
been faithful with this little. Yeah. I'm going
to give you 10 cities. You know, he's coming
to his kingdom. I'm going to give you 10 cities.
And the next one says, well, I got five. And
he says, well, I'm going to give you five cities.
And then there's the guy that just, you know,
put it in a handkerchief. Here's what you gave
me. I didn't lose it. But he didn't do anything
with it. God is trying to get us to bear the
weight of what we have, become responsible for
what we have so that he can give us more responsibility.
He can give us those things that we're asking
for, for the outpouring. We want to see the outpouring.
So what happens if a mentor gives someone...
before they're actually ready. Oh, yeah. You
know, we talked about this a little earlier,
like if you're a famous singer or something,
you get saved and you're right on the worship
team. You know, it doesn't work because it's
building integrity. And I remember the facilitator
was Al Warner in Niagara Falls, the facilitator
of a pastor's table that we were attending. And,
you know, he says, I didn't pray for my kids
to have anointing. Because I saw some... Because
he saw a lot of people that had it, but they
had no integrity. They ended up in jail because
they had no integrity. Wow. So he said, I'm not
asking for anointing for my kids. You don't want
to put a novice into the pulpit. Exactly. Even
when you think you're ready. And I remember when
our founder passed away in 2013 in January. We
didn't feel like we were ready to take over.
I mean, a year before our convention, she publicly
handed the ball to us. But were we ready when
that actually happened? It's just like it's a
shock because it happened suddenly when it happened.
And all of a sudden, I'm the vice president and
Sharon's the president. And that's not something
we asked for right away. We didn't ask for it
at all. We weren't ready. 13 years ago is what
it is now. But we are a lot better prepared now
than what we were then. True. And we just had
a unique experience on our last trip. We stopped
at Sweetwater, the big music, the Amazon of the
music industry. They've got a warehouse the size
of five football fields. They have over 600 salespeople.
And you go through a training, intense training
for, I forget how many. Thirteen weeks. Thirteen
weeks of intense training. So when you take the
phone to take an order, you're going to be prepared.
Not like some other music stores, they'll train
you for a couple days or a week and all of a
sudden you're there. But you're not going to
be able to answer questions. So it's a time of
training you have to go for to be the responsibility.
So you will have the integrity of training that
the company wants you to have. So if you take
a short survey after here, you want five stars.
Yeah, exactly. You want to be the best, but they're
not going to release you until you're ready.
And that's the way it should be in the kingdom
of God. God will not release us into a position
if we're not ready. And I remember in Pastor
Jeff John's church in Lafayette, Indiana, he
gave a testimony. Someone came, I want to sing.
So the first thing he did was start to clean
toilets. Yep. You know, start doing this, start
doing this with a good heart. And after a season
of time, when he felt they were ready, they had
him come and be part of the worship team and
said, and there was anointing on it because they
learned to be a servant. And that's what God
wants us to do in training is to be a servant
so we can receive what he has us to receive.
And it'll be one step on the ladder of the ladder
of spiritual success. To get to the next rung
on the ladder and not hit a plateau. We're going
into realms. Realms. Into new realms of expansion.
It's like the rung of the ladder will take you
to realms. Oh, that's good. I like that. I had
to think of that one through a little bit. That's
good. That's good. So the third law that Pastor
Tony brought was the law of expansion. And he
says, the Father increases provision, everything
you need, only to the degree that you expand
your own identity, your discipline, and your
boundaries. In other words, provision follows
preparation. Prayer empowers you through the
Holy Spirit and assists you with your preparation.
It is when you pray according to the Word of
God and you receive the wisdom of the Holy Spirit
that you can come to understand that increase
does not follow good intentions. Increase follows
Holy Spirit, God -given infrastructures that
you have allowed to be built into your life.
So it's God that's building the infrastructures.
I'm remembering a... I think it was this morning
when we were having our prayer for Israel. One
of the ladies brought Deuteronomy 33, 27. And
I felt like this fits right here. The eternal
God is your refuge or dwelling place or habitation.
And underneath are the everlasting arms. His
everlasting arms are underneath us as we dwell
in him, as we live in him. The secret place of
the Most High from Psalm 91. It's living in him
that provides all of that provision. And then
it goes on to say, he drives out the enemy before
you, giving the command, destroy him. So he wants
to work with us. He wants to help us develop
this expansion and this ability to carry the
weight and the vessel, expanding our vessels
so that he gets the glory as we give him the
glory. When we still want a little bit of that
glory for ourselves, it's not going to give him
glory. And that's where if you're working in
a ministry or a church, you stay within your
boundaries. Right. the more you press into God
and the anointing in your life, you will realize
you can bloom where you're planted. You'll know
your boundaries and overstep into somebody else's
territory, because then you get contention. And
of course, there's nothing more the devil likes
to do than bring contention into a work of God,
something that's going on. And if enough contention
gets in and enough of this happens, Things that
you can end up going into a church split or something.
But if everybody keeps their focus on Jesus,
that they keep their boundaries of what the Lord
has put them in, trained to be keeping your boundaries,
that will bring you into further promotion. It's
true. Spiritual promotion. So we all need more
capacity, right? Capacity. That's what this is
all about. So now he's talking about identity.
And this was a zinger for me. So identity expansion
means you see yourself according to the word
of God. Now, we've heard this, but I don't think
we've completely gotten it. I haven't. And one
thing Pastor Tony says is he's still working
on it and it takes time. And if a bishop says
he's still working on it. So identity expansion
means you see yourself according to the word
of God. And this part's very important as well.
And as a person who is already operating in the
level that you're seeking. So a person asking
for wealth while identifying as broke will sabotage
every opportunity for increase. Isn't that clear?
That is so clear. The person requesting respect
while identifying as a victim will unconsciously
maintain patterns that invite disrespect. The
person wanting promotion. Here we go. This is
me. The person want. It's not that I want promotion.
It's just that I want to expand into the things
that God has for me. OK, that's that's my heart.
That's my heart. That's my mindset. But while
identifying as inadequate, we'll find ways to
prove that their inadequacy is a fact, even though
it may not necessarily be true. So think about
it this way. Sometimes we're striving to be humble.
And in our humility, we might identify ourselves
as less than what God says we are. And so I guess
that would be false humility, wouldn't it? So
he says your perceived identity is your internal
thermostat. It will not allow your external results
to exceed your internal personal concept for
long. So discipline expansion means building
systems that can operate at the level you want
to reach. The person wanting financial abundance
must first. build discipline around their current
income, right? The person wanting relational
harmony must first build discipline around emotional
regulation. And that's critical for all of our
relationships, right? So we have to build discipline
around current responsibilities. And the discipline
is the result of following Jesus. This is all
about working with him, cooperating with him.
This is where it's coming home to us. It's good
to preach about it, but God wants to take us
to the next realm, to the next expansion. So
discipline means to say no to the self -life
and yes to the life of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Right? Yeah. In Acts chapter 20, verse 32, Paul
says, I commend you to God and to the word of
his grace, which is able to build you up and
make you strong and enable you to receive your
inheritance among those that the Lord has made
holy. So the word of God builds my personal capacity.
And then Jeremiah says, your words were found
and I did eat them. So I remember our former
vice president, our late vice president, I should
say, Colonel Jim Shaw, before Sister Gwen would
marry him, she said, you have to read through
the whole Bible. You know, he loved the Lord,
but he was still a lot in his worldly mindset
that he had learned in the world. He was a military
man, right? So he's busy trying to read the Word
so he can marry this woman. And so he made up
his mind, I'm not going to eat until I read the
Word, thinking that it'll help him get a good
start in the morning. Well, sometimes he didn't
even eat until suppertime because he hadn't gotten
the Word in because he was still developing discipline,
right? And then he was pretty good discipline.
It was good discipline himself to do that. Yeah.
Yeah. It's just that he still had to discipline
regarding time. So anyway, he told the story
about how he was in Pakistan at one point and
he was out in a little field. He just thought
it was a nice place to sit and read the Bible,
right? Because it was time to read the Bible.
Well, he fell asleep, but there were some goats
in that field. And when he woke up, he found
that a little goat had taken a couple of bites
out of his Bible. And he showed us that one of
the places that this little goat had a bite was
in Jeremiah with this scripture, I found thy
words and did eat them. It wasn't a Waco that's
sleepiest. No, it wasn't. But you could see in
his Bible the little teeth marks, and the part
of the page was missing. So the point is that
as we eat the Word of God, as we digest it, It
becomes part of us. It becomes a part of who
we are. Regular food, ordinary food, you eat
it, you get energy. You eat it, your body can
rebuild cells that have gotten tired and died.
It enables you to increase your health if you're
eating the right kind of food. And so eating
the Word of God is going to build us spiritually.
It's going to give us what we need, and it's
going to fill us with joy. Yeah. So eating the
Word, reading the Word, studying the Word, getting
revelation from the Holy Spirit. You know, the
Holy Spirit was the one who inspired it in the
first place. And when you read the Word and say,
Holy Spirit, give me something I've never seen
before. That's beautiful. He'll give you something
you've never seen before. And sometimes you don't
even have to ask. He'll just all of a sudden.
And I've read the same scriptures over and over
and over again. And I keep getting new things
because he's limitless. And his word is limitless
and his spirit is limitless. So he's expanding
our capacity as we read the word. And praying
in tongues is huge because 1 Corinthians 14 says
that he who speaks in a tongue is edifying himself.
So you're building up yourself on your most holy
faith. It says that in the book of Jude. Building
yourself up in your spirit realm, it'll expand
you as you continue to pray in tongues. It's
just huge. And then Jesus said, every servant
is not greater than his master. But the idea
is that we pursue becoming like the master. So
the more we spend time with him, the more we're
spending time in his word, the more we're spending
time in... letting his spirit flow through us
in prayer, the more we're becoming like him.
And that's the goal. He wants all of us to be
like him. Hallelujah. Amen. So the Holy Spirit
is trying to help us do self -assessment, okay?
Identity expansion is the result of following
Jesus and you become like the one you follow.
So when you exercise the discipline of Jesus
at your current level, It's now proof of your
readiness to reach the next level in Jesus. So
that's what I want. I don't even want to call
it levels. I want to call it expansions. I want
to call it getting into new realms. So it's about
getting into a place where we're letting the
Holy Spirit work with us in discipline. The person
who cannot protect their time cannot be given
more time. Right. Well, yeah. The person who
cannot protect their energy will not be given
more demanding responsibilities. These three
expansions happen in order. OK, number one, identity
creates the framework. And number two, discipline
builds the structure. And number three, boundaries
protect the investment. Yeah. And when all three
expansions are complete, vision flows supernaturally.
Not because the father just suddenly decides
to bless you, but because you've become the kind
of son or daughter that the blessings will now
gravitate towards. Wow. Isn't that beautiful?
It is. The blessings will come to you. I'm seeing
it kind of like a vacuum. Okay. When you've got
this capacity increase, something's going to
flood in to fill it. Yeah. It's like Deuteronomy
28, isn't it? All the blessings will overtake
you. Right. And that's what we want. Right. We
want the blessings. And it's a promise from God.
Right. The blessings will overtake you if. Yes.
There's an if there. There is an if. If you are
in a place to receive it. Amen. And if you're
ready to receive it, if you've got the space
for what he wants to give you. Yeah. Because,
you know, Jesus will not give you something you're
not ready for. It's true. Because at the end
of the day, he does not want you to be crushed
or condemned by it. Amen. He gives you what you
can handle so you can be commended by God. You
know, I think a good example here is people that
have won the, like the Irish sweepstakes or something
like that. The lottery. I mean, big, big amount.
And all of a sudden they get all this money.
And the stories we've heard, how many of them
end up broke because they did not know how to
handle it. They could not handle wealth. So even
it's like a worldly thing, it's a spiritual thing
too. God doesn't want to give you something that's
going to really mess you up. Say you get a big,
maybe you win $60 ,000, so you go out and you
buy a $55 ,000 car. Yep, spent it all. By the
time you pay all the taxes and then you have
insurance and then all of a sudden your insurance
rate goes up. Like I was at the insurance company
today asking them about certain cars. And he
said, if you have an electric, a hybrid. says
your insurance just goes up immensely. Even a
little tiny car, they'll say, this little hybrid,
why is the insurance so much? Because the parts
are so much more expensive. Right. So it's like
things you inquire before you buy. True. And
so all of a sudden you get... get a big wad of
money or something. But if you don't manage it
right, you don't research, you know, learn to
abstain from spending it all. You know, that's
the principle God wants to give you. He doesn't
want to do something that's going to hurt you
in the long run. Right. Well, you'll bite off
something you can't chew. Even at the moment,
it looks like you got the big enough knife and
fork to make it happen. Right. You know, and
it ends up hurting you. It's true. So one of
the things that's so important that I resonated
with is you have to set boundaries around your
own reactions. And I find that I have an issue
with, as Papa Jim used to say, or Colonel Jim.
the perversity of inanimate objects. When something
goes wrong on the computer, when something goes
wrong with this, when something goes wrong with
that, when it doesn't act the way I think it
should act, I'm finding that the Holy Spirit
is putting his finger on my reactions because
I'm finding myself reacting to an inanimate object.
I mean, it's not that they're animate, but, you
know. They can be perverse. And I don't mean
that sexually. I mean that they just don't work
the way you expect them to. You know, you have
to you have to figure out how to talk to a computer.
Right. But the challenge is emotional regulation.
That is so important in ministry. I remember
someone, I asked, how is so -and -so pastor doing?
He says, well, it depends what day of the week
it is. Oh, wow. And I've been with this pastor
before in his early years before he was a pastor,
and I can understand that too, you know? Yeah.
I'll give you a good example of one of the...
Amazing miracle man was Jack Cole back when in
the 50s and the 50s. And he had an amazing, credible
healings in that. But he had a personality that
was rough. Yeah. And he was warned by different
people says you need, you know, in order for
you to continue, you need to learn to not be
rough. Yeah. Regulate your emotions. And don't
treat people badly. Don't treat people badly.
Yeah. But he didn't change. And he died very
young. Yes, he did. His ministry did not last.
And that's sad. So there has to be, like our
beloved Papa Dorn would say, you know, be nice
to Jesus. Right. Be nice to the Jesus in each
other. Right. You know, and even you get someone
that kind of rubs you the wrong way in ministry,
you know, it's just okay. Just learn to iron
sharpen, sharpening iron a little bit. But, you
know, get your rough edges off and just take
it as a learning progress from the Lord because
the Lord may have your work. you know, with someone
else that is like that, and he's preparing you
for maybe your next position of what you have
to do, learning to live or work with difficult
people. It's true. If you can work with them
with the love of Jesus, it will be better for
you, and you will go a step higher of a rung
of a ladder in the success of glory. Yes, and
really, I think you could take 1 Corinthians
13 as a rule book, as a guide for how God wants
us to react to people, how God wants us to think.
Because it's all about us allowing him to cultivate
his love in us. And like I said, it's about receiving
his love so that you can also give it. So what
we're talking about is making some big changes,
but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a
time. Exactly. So Pastor Tony kind of helps us
out with some ideas here. He says the first thing
you have to do is create a boundary and choose
one area where you currently have no limits and
establish a clean boundary. Might be a time boundary,
a money boundary, an energy boundary. And I remember
when Don and Catherine, when our daughter was
young, they gave us some really good advice.
And they said, choose your battles. Don't try
and fix everything all at once. You know, children
are children and they're delicate and they need
to be handled carefully and lovingly. So you
choose one thing you're going to work on. Maybe
two. But focus on one thing and deal with that
until you have success and then find something
else. So choose one area and set a boundary.
And he says the boundary must be specific. It
must be measurable. It must be non -negotiable,
except under extreme, extraordinary circumstances
like an emergency. He gives it examples. I will
not spend more than this amount on entertainment
each month. It's a measurable boundary. It's
a non -negotiable. So once you've set a boundary,
you're going to keep it, right? You're going
to choose to keep it because you want expansion,
right? And he made a statement that my capacity
increases when my chaos decreases. So that's
number two. You're going to eliminate one area
of chaos. Yeah. And so I remember when I first
got saved. So it's a total change of everything.
And sometimes you have to leave friends behind.
You cannot go back to the bar with them or something
like that. You know, you keep friends at a distance
to witness to them, but you cannot partake of
the lifestyle you were. Because I remember when
I mentioned some of this before, when I got saved,
I took all my records that I had, you know, a
lot of records worth a lot of money today. And,
you know, my Led Zeppelin and, you know, my this,
my that, all that, took them out of their jackets,
only been played one time, no scratches, put
on a cassette, never played a record again. took
each one out, bent it over and stomped on it,
make it unplayable, threw it into the dumpster.
And I told my best friend what I did, you know,
later on at the bowling alley where I bowled
and hung out. And he says, why didn't you give
them to me? And out of my mouth came. I don't
want to be responsible for your damnation. I
never would have said that to my best friend,
but that's what came out of my mouth because
I would not want to stuff I had that was demonic
and that give to him, you know, get rid of it.
And so, you know, the Lord will deal with you
to increase capacity, get rid of the things that
are causing chaos. Right. And so one of the things
that he said that struck home for me. was I will
clean up my personal environment. Clutter is
attracted to me. And the Holy Spirit was already
dealing with me. And I've done some of the clutter
cleanup before I even heard Pastor Tony. But
he says that it has to be a permanent thing,
that we don't just clean up temporarily and then
let it... fall back into clutter again. We've
got to have the discipline that enables us to
be able to handle more things that God wants
to give us. Yeah, it's like building a system,
you know, that works for you. Right, that's number
three. And Oral Roberts, I remember reading his
testimony, I think it was his lunch hour a certain
time, you did not disturb the man. I mean, he
turned the phones off. He says, you do not bother
me. quiet time in the middle of the day. I mean,
he probably had his quiet time in the morning
too. But like Smith Wigglesworth, he would read
his Bible or scripture like every 15 minutes
or so. I think it was 20. Or 20 minutes. But
still. I mean, I'm at 20, you know, pull out
a little New Testament or something and read
scripture. I mean, and I just really get convicted,
you know, how much scripture that I read in the
morning. But at night, I discipline myself to
do the Psalms. You know, I'll do five Psalms.
I'll put it on speaker, you know, while I'm brushing
my teeth and getting ready for bed. You know,
like first of the month, you know, it'll be.
Psalm 1, and then I'll go to Psalm 31, Psalm
61, Psalm 91, Psalm 121, and do that for every
psalm. You get through the whole book of psalms
in a month, and then I just repeat it all over
again. It's true. Just getting more scripture
in, and it really works because, you know, thy
word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto
my path. Of course, it takes a while to get through
Psalm 119. Yes, it does. It does. But you're
building a system. And it's a system. A system
will replace willpower. When you develop that
it's non -negotiable, I'm going to do this. I'm
going to do this. It's a fact of life. This is
what I'm going to do. So you can build a learning
system. You can build all kinds of systems. Find
the system that works for you. Like I've said,
I'm a Hebrew scholar wannabe. So I've put myself
into a class where we're learning Hebrew, where
we're learning biblical Hebrew. So I had a little
bit of learning before, but now I'm getting where
I can read the Hebrew of a verse. So when I'm
doing my studying every day, I'm making it a
system that I'm going to actually read through
that in Hebrew, and I'm still learning what it
means. But it's a system. It's something that
I'm doing that is non -negotiable. And when I
have a system, I don't have to rely on motivation
because I've found that there are times when
I just don't have the motivation. Pastor Tony
said that and I agree. So I have to rely on structure
and I have to measure my progress over time.
Okay, so the next thing is measurement. Number
four, measure the system consistently and constantly
and faithfully. And then what gets measured gets
managed. So number five is I will accept responsibility
without complaining. It's so easy to complain.
Yes. Like the phone rings and there's nobody
to answer the phone. I'm going to choose to answer
the phone without complaining. And it gets to
be fun sometimes. to talk to people. But, I mean,
it's a responsibility. I'm accepting it. I'm
accepting it. I'm not going to make excuses.
I'm going to take ownership of this. Yeah, and
it's practicing delayed gratification. That's
number six. Intentionally, a number six. It's
like you see something you want, you know, and
it's a management thing. You know, if you get
a lot of money or something and all of a sudden
you're spending it, but... I will deliberately
wait before getting it, not because I can't afford
it, but because I'm training myself. Even though
I desire it, I prefer it, but I'm going to say
no to it just to practice the D -line. So that's
really good. You got the money. I just got all
this money. I'm going to splurge shopping. Go
to the big city. I remember a worker we had,
someone not part of our staff, came down. Working
on, got something, you know, got paid, says,
all right, going to Branson. You know, it's going
to spend all this money in Branson. And a lot
of alcoholics, they'll get their paycheck and
they'll gamble it away within like a day or two.
You know, you can't give a person like that a
responsibility of a lot of money because they'll
just blow it. So it's training. It's just really
God training because these are kingdom principles.
Right. Because it's all about kingdom. And delayed
ratification is dying to self. Yeah. You want
the thing. But I'm going to say no. Yeah. And
it builds this strength in you. You know, it
builds a strength in you not doing because once
you overcome that, it's all overcoming. Keep
overcoming and it just gets easier. Yes. And
number seven is do one action daily that my future
can inherit. I want to inherit this future. I
want to inherit this thing. So I'm going to do
one thing every day. that's going to help me
in my future. And I guess really doing that thing
about studying the Hebrew, that's going to help
me every day. Every day I'm going to do this.
It's going to help me grow. It's going to help
me understand more every day. Before long, I'm
going to learn the grammar and the spellings
and all of these things. So it's a structure.
And I'm going to do that one thing every day
that's going to help me inherit the kingdom of
God. It's going to help me inherit this new place
in him that I really want to go to. So Pastor
Tony finished up with, there's three objections
that we might have. One objection is, I'm already
ready. Your readiness is not measured by desire.
It's measured by demonstrated capacity under
current conditions. So if you can't handle what
you have, you're not ready for more. You're really
not. You might think you are. Objection number
two is, once I have more, I'll be more disciplined.
Doesn't work. Objection number three is, I'm
overwhelmed. Guilty. Guilty as charged. You know,
when you're overwhelmed, you're just kind of
saying, I can't do this. I don't know how I'm
going to do this. I'm overwhelmed. And this logic
ensures that your current limitations become
permanent. We have to let go of this overwhelmed
feeling. Capacity building happens during difficult
seasons, not after them. Yeah, that's good. So
the father funds stewardship, not your desire.
The Father invests in demonstrated capacity,
not in declared intention. So preparation is
proof of readiness. Your current circumstances
are not punishment for past mistakes. Your current
circumstances are training for future opportunities.
So Father, we just thank you for this training
that you're giving us, Lord. We're signing up
for new, new training. We're ready to go to school
in this new thing that you are releasing to us
so that we can come into the fullness of what
you have for us in the next season. And we bless
our listeners to say amen in their spirits to
get with your program so that we can all move
forward equipped. And ready for you to flow through
us in the outpouring that you want to do in all
the earth. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Your review
helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast
to other listeners who are also looking for a
great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our
website at globaloutpouring .org to find out
more information, read our blogs, connect with
us, and donate. You can also browse our web store
for life -changing anointed books. Until next
time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.