craving wisdom, being so stupid? i made so many mistakes, it's unreal. it is just unreal the mistakes -- i can't hardly -- can't wait till tomorrow to see what i did stupid today. you're always doing something stupid. it's just a matter of when you find it out. i hate my mistakes but i make them. i try to avoid them, but they just are there. but proverbs 4:7 says something fascinating. wisdom is a principle thing. hold it, hold it, wait. i need help. no, wisdom is the principle thing. he didn't say faith was. he said wisdom. he didn't say money was. he said wisdom. he didn't even say the power of the holy spirit was. he said, wisdom. what is wisdom? wisdom is the ability to discern

difference. the difference in right and wrong. the difference between a good decision and a wrong decision. the difference in a moment. let me give you an example. t the fharacies got to talk to jesus. imagine talking to jesus, god on the earth, face to face. imagine having a minute to say anything you wanted to, ask him any question. imagine being face to face with jesus and getting to ask him anything you wanted. imagine that privilege of access. and here's what they did with that minute. why did you heal him on the sabba sabbath? is that not unwise? i'm going to try to class this thing up. give me a few minutes.

really stupid, isn't it? a woman who had hemorrhag 12 yea saw an access to him and she just said, if i can touch the hem of his garment, i know i'll be made whole. a blind mand man couldn't see, but he could hear the foot steps. they said, shut up. the bible said he crowd louder. this is my moment. this is my moment. he discerned difference. that's what wisdom is. wisdom is the ability to discern difference in people. who creates loss, who creates gain. who feeds your weakness, who feeds your gift. who belongs in your past, who belongs in your future. that's what wisdom is. the first thing that you need to understand, the first thing you need to understand, is that

nothing has the same value. nothing. jesus didn't even treat everybody the same. one woman said i believe you should treat everybody the same. i said, oh, you cook breakfast for your neighbor's husband? you know, if you just think twice you're almost geneious in our generation. deuteronomy says, this is your wisdom. this is the wisdom of god. the word of god is the wisdom of god. your wisdom is proportion to

your god knowledge. here's my story. my father built seven churches from scratch, built them himself. but the most money he ever made in his whole life was $125 a week. with seven children. he talked or believed -- i can't say taught it. i can't remember him teaching it, but he believed in tithing. you know tithing, giving 10% back to god. we were taught, you better pay your tithe. you better pay your tithe. you know, god would burn your house down, give you cancer, cut your arm off. i imagine a little sing song take it out of your hide if you don't pay your tithe. a little theme song. i was taught you better pay your

tithe. god kill you. he'll scorch you. he'll burn you. to me, god was like the goodfather of the maf kra. you paid him 10% protection money, he laid off of you, you gave him protection money. i had never heard on the scroll i'm going to talk about, i had never heard about seed faith, which means sowing a seed with faith for a harvest. i did not understand that god had a son but he wanted a family, so he planted a son on cavalry to create a family. i did not understand that the law of the seed meant that something i had could create something else i wanted. that i was a walking warehouse of seeds. my time is a seed. my kind science a seed. love is a seed.

money is a seed. forgiveness is a seed. but i'm a walking warehouse of seed, and i can trade it for any future i want. now, i knew that a young husband could plant a seat in the womb of his wife and they would get a kid. i understood that the farmer can put corn in the ground and up comes a crop. but i knew some basic things like you could just confess with your mouth jesus is lord and you're saved just like that, you know. but i didn't understand how it worked in the financial arena. so my first 18 years of my life at home, i do not recall ever having two slices of bologne on the same sandwich. if we wanted a second sandwich, we cut the edges, you know, the little half moons, off and put it on a second sandwich.

now, i can tell right now some of are you so wealthy, you have no idea. let me walk you through. i have mayonnaise sandwiches, tomato sandwiches, onion sandwiches, butter sandwiches, pickle sandwiches. the number one meal at home, i recall, was chicken gumbo. now, i was born and raised with jesse duplant, his father was my sunday school teacher and his mother's brother and his father used to spend nights at our house. we all grew up together. we're still in a state of shock that jesse is born again. but he valley. he's actually -- jesse's saved. he's saved. but the number one meal, and you may not know what gumbo is, but gumbo's like a stew, you know, and you have okra, shrimp f

you're wealthy you have some shrimp. and if not, you have one shrimp. chicken gumbo. that's the one meal i remember, chicken gumbo, chicken gumbo with chicken necks. not legs. not breasts. necks. my mother heard me say this one night and she said, baby, baby, we had wings sometimes. i don't remember the wings. i remember the chicken necks because i remember sucking a chicken neck thinking, we should have tweezers instead of forks. that's the way i was raised. crayola, my craving was a box of 48. you know the crayola, 48. huge, big, fat box. gorgeous. others in my class had them. the lord just mother could afford was 24.

so if you come to my house, i have lots of boxes of 96s and 48s. it's not that i use them. it's just my way of saying, i won. i won. my first year in the ministry -- let me go back to bible school. this is where it helps. i could not afford 1964 to '66, i could not afford tuition. it's southwestern assembly of god college, $555 for 4 1/2 months, could not afford it, went for three. had to leave on february 4, 1966 and entered evangelism. my first year my income was $2,263. was i tithing? always. always. always. tithing does not guarantee prosperity.

tithing with expectations will create prosperity. i did not know that. you only live your persuasion. you can't rise above the moni r monitorship you inhale and internalize in your life. one month my income was $35. another month it was $90. my car cost $300. it was a little '53 chevrolet. this was '66. the door was stripped. sometimes i'd have to hold the door shut for two and three hours on the way to a revival. the seat would fall in the back. i'd be driving down the road ask the seat would fall straight in the back and i'd be left driving on the interstate driving on the edge of the seat, on the steering wheel. i basically operated with a real

popular belief that most christians believe, god's in control. you ever heard that, god's in control? i went to a preacher friend of mine and said, what's he in control of? he said, everything. i said, god's in control of everything? yeah. i say, you tell me that everything that happens was planned by god? yeah. i said, so we can't prosecute a rapist since god was in control. i say, we can't prosecute a child molester if god was in control. you can't put a man in prison for killing somebody if god was in control. he says, hadn't thought about that. i laughed.

i said, well, if you think twice you'll be the genius in your family. 331 times in this book it says "if". i said, 117 says learn to do well. deuteronomy, if, if, if, if, if you do this, this will happen. if everything that happens was planned by god, why pursue wisdom? ♪ whatever will be will be >> is that a beautiful song? stupid but gorgeous. the moment you say god is in control of everything, then what's the purpose of obedience? what's the penalty for rebellion?

why pursue knowledge? why pray? if everything that's going to happen is happening, jesus in matthew 23 looked across jerusalem and said how oft i would have gathered a mother hen her broad but you would not. not willing that any should perish but they're perishing every day. and at the age of 21 years old, in the month of june in 1967 on the fourth row in victoria texas, charles greenaway, an old missionary in the assemblies of god, stood up and he threw out a scripture, lavidicus 9 and 10.

he said the rich were instructed to take the corner of their fields and give it to the poor. he said your field is like your income. your corners are your outgo. and this is what he said. the bigger you make your corners to god, the bigger he'll make your field. i snickered. told a preacher friend next to me, he got it backwards. i knew he had messed up. you know how you do, you're so busy preaching, you just mess up. because i told god if you want more from me, if you'll give me more, i'll give give me more. then he said it again. then he said, malaki is the only book in the bible where god said f you will throw me a seed f you bring tithes and offerings to me and prove me, prove my

existence, and this is what he said -- he's an old missionary preacher -- he says, if you throw god a seed or an offering and more comes back than what you threw up, that's how you know he exists. never heard that before. and then he says, he was going to receive faith promises. i didn't really quite know what faith promises were. because this is what i was accustomed to in hearing offerings, those that have nothing to give, that's all right. i even heard -- i heard ushers pray this prayer, have you ef heard this, i heard ushers pray this prayer, even lord bless those that give and bless that don't give. well, then why give? if you're going to bless me if i

give, if i don't, then why? he said, i dare you to prove god. i dare you! see, i'm an irish boy. the only reason we're still in iraq is they didn't send the irish folks. you put irishmen in -- that was an invitation to me. i like -- i'm a fighter by nature. if you to want fight, we're starting a day late, let's go. it's in me. and he says, i dare you to prove god.

and i stood, shake, and this is why i stood. now, mind you my income that year was $2,263. i lived in a house that my father bought for $150. not a month, the whole house, he bought the whole house for $150. that's what i'm living in. my bedroom suit costs $35. i intout from brother stanley, one of my daddy's rich folks. he said i had a year to bring in a faith promise, a year to trust god. he said, i dare you to do it. i'd never heard that. but i wanted more than $2200 a year.

now, this message is not for everybody. if you've got dreams and goals and plans, this is for you. if you've got dreams of doing great things for god and accomplishing things, this is for you. but if $8 excites you and $10 is a big raise, this is not for you. if prosperity to you is having an extra hamburger, this is not really for you. i stood shaking, and brother david cerullo, i remember it like it was last night. i made $100. i know it don't sound much, it was huge. i was 21. i had no place -- i was struggling. i didn't have anything. shake said -- and i'm driving home on thursday morning -- afternoon and i'm driving home

shaking, where am i going to get $100? where in i going to get $100? where am i going to get $100? sunday morning, merle daley, an old piano player for the quartet, was passing through church, stops at my dad's church, tabernacle, lake charles, he plays the piano, he says, people, god's been so good to me, my pocket's just full of $100 bills. $100 bills. and suddenly he stopped, he says, god just told me to give one of them to mike right now. and he walks over to me on the front seat and gives me $100 bill. no doubt in my mind that man knew god. let me tell sgu about $100

bills. i've been to rome, i've been on mt. kilimanjaro, i've been to the pyramids, there's nothing as gorgeous as a $100. there's not a woman in exist ene as good looking as a $100 bill. $100. next day i deposited in the bank, they sent in my $100 to south district assembly of god headquarters, houston, texas. tuesday, i had head down the road to go to beeville texas, to the first assembly god of church, pastor james brothers. that night at an old upright piano, i'm practicing before service. i'm 21. in comes an old man and a woman. she was a lot younger than him.

his name was -- i didn't know them. his name was w.f. bradford, her name is leah. she walks up and says, god told us to bless you. she hands me a check for $150. now, let me go back -- by the way, it was cranberry and gray. whoever tells you money doesn't make you feel good hasn't had enough. when i was driving through beeville, there was a little luggage trailer i saw for sale, $100. and when i saw that luggage trailer, the devil sort of whispered to me, see what you could have had if you hadn't paid your faith promise? and i was sick because that's exactly what i wanted. that little trailer was perfect for me. now, suddenly a few hours later this woman hands me a check for $150. i'm ecstatic. i said, sister, this is god.

i saw a little luggage trailer for $100 on the way in. it's what what i've been asking god for. now i have more than enough to buy it. i bought the trailer, had $50 left over. so i wrote another check on wednesday, and mailed it to south texas assemblies of god, p.o. box 9714, houston, texas. you're asking, why would you pay another $50 since you already paid your faith promise? i was just 21, but i knew that anything that was going to work this fast, i was going to work the living daylights out of it. so wednesday night i'm playing the piano again. happy. she walks up, again they walk in service ahead of everybody and she says, god wouldn't let us sleep last night. he told us to buy that trailer for you. and gave me another $100. next week i go to leonard

norville's church in san antonio, i'm playing the piano, a man comes up behind me and real gruf says, here! i turn around. he shoves something in my hand. it was a $100 bill. here's my reaction, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, oh, thank you. this is what he said back, real mean, don't thank me. when god tells you to do something, you have to go ahead and do it. and it was the first time that i ever understood luke 6:38. i calls men to give to you. and he did. it was phenomenal. now, here's something fascinating. i had faithed out $100 bills. and now i'm faithed in $100 bills. i didn't give $100 and get

$1,000. i started getting $100 bills. you reproduce what you sow. i can't faith in something higher than i can faith out. well, it was a few months later i begin -- of course, i was working that $100 -- oh, shoot, i was prospering. within a matter of months i had two $100 bills in my wallet. that i didn't have to spend. doesn't money make you feel good when you have it? don't you just feel different? don't you love more people when you've got money? and i went to hear david george, a young preacher in lake charles preach, and while he was preaching, because he preaches a lot in russia, and while he was reaching, god said, i want you to plant those two $100 bills in his ministry. i explained to the lord, really,

that i was going to be buying some clothes. with those t$200. he explained to me that he was the one that gave me the cotton pickin' $200. he didn't say cotton pickin', i did. i gave the $200. did you feel good? not really. i want to say something. i really don't understand all the teaching of giving. i hear these preachers and evidently they've reached a place in god i haven't. when i sow big offerings, i feel sick for days. i really do. it kills -- i mean, my mind goes through, i hope that was god. marngs i hope that was god. i hope that was god. i remember, i'll be next sunday with rod parsley, a long-time friend of mine. i remember the first time i gave a big offering to his service. i couldn't talk for seven days.

i feel like, they've got that music -- you know how they've got that music going. here. i felt sick for days. so i really don't understand that giving, quite frankly. the old testament says if you go weeping he'll come again. so make thereybe there's a sequ. seven nights later the phone rings and a woman says, is this mike murdock? i said, yes, ma'am. 3740 nelson road in my $150 house. she said, you don't know me. my name is pat, pat see ton. my husband bob and i were in your revival, first assembly of church in west memphis, arkansas. she said, my son died four weeks ago. and my husband and i were discussing you tonight. god's impressed us to treat you

like our boy. god told to us buy you some clothes. are you coming through memphis any time soon? shoot. i don't care if i had to go through baghdad, of course i'm going through memphis, tennessee. they brought me to the nicest men's store in memphis, bought me four suits. six months later bought me four more. six months later they bought me four more. six months later they bought me four more. i went to hear done r riley in houston. he stopped the service and says, i see mike murdock. someone told me to stop the service and receive in offering to buy you clothes. wednesday i go to john's church, on a wednesday night bible study, he stops and says, mike

murdock, we've never met, brother, but i've seen you in conferences. god just told me to stop the bible study and receive you in offering to buy you clothes. nancy har mon, who i've known for 35, 38 years. nancy calls me over to her house. she calls me over and there's clothes from one end to the other. i said, nancy, what's all these clothes? she said, god told me to buy you some clothes. one of my closest friends is bob rogers w roge rogers, he leans over and says, what are you doing tomorrow? i said, what would you like to do? he said, god told me to buy you some clothes. i'm in new york with -- preaching for dewy for dell and he leans over on sunday night and said, what are you doing tomorrow night? i said, what would you like to do? he says, god would like me to buy you some clothes. we're in new york, picking out the nicest clothes. i'm a louisiana boy, i don't want to spend a lot on clothes. he's picking up these nice clothes and in walks dr. rob thompson from chicago.

he says, you buying mike some clothes? he said, yes. he says, i might as well buy him some, too. i'm in hong kong, at sammy the tailor, so i have -- by this time i've been blessed, god's good and i'm getting these custom made suits and and shirts and clothes. in walks dr. summerall and dr. rob thompson, side by side. mike, you buying some clothes? uh-huh. we're not going to let you buy those clothes. and they pay every -- let me put it this way. everywhere i go, people stuff business cards in my hand, wanting to buy me clothes. vb wants to take me shopping. i have clothes in my closet with the price tag still on them. wipe the jealousy off your face. i've never seen so much jealousy in one room.