Transcription
I'm in the book of St. Matthew, chapter number 14. My subject this morning is "Breaking the Limitations," and the subtopic is "Wealth Management: Breaking the Limitation." Matthew 14, verse 15. I'm reading from the King James. As you're standing, I know that is your custom. Matthew Chapter 14, verse 15.
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, "This is a desert place, and the time is now passed. Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals or resources." But Jesus said to them, "They need not depart; you give them to eat." They say to him, "We have here five loaves and two fishes." He said, "Bring them to me." He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. They did all eat and were filled, and they took up of the fragments that remained, 12 baskets full. And when they had eaten, there were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.
Father, please help me. I don't have any sense. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
It's true, breaking the limitation. Breaking the limitation. A year and a half ago, we started a program for our church and then our extended ministry around the world. And that was: every member of our ministry, it is now mandatory from our little kids to our adults, it is mandatory for them to develop a strategic life plan. If you do not plan your life, it will be planned for you. We have found that a lack of making a decision is a decision. The difference between the rich and the poor is a decision. Indecision is a decision.
I also discovered something that was so key. Chapter number three of Second of First Kings, 3:9. The Bible's very clear there that Solomon did not pray for wisdom. Solomon did not pray for wisdom. The Bible says he was the wisest man in the world, but Solomon did not pray for wisdom. Solomon prayed for understanding. The problems we have in Africa is not a lack of wisdom. Some of the wisest men I've met in my years are Africans. Our problem in Africa is understanding. We do not understand our problems.
The Ethiopian eunuch, in chapter number eight of the book of Acts, a phenomenal man. He was the treasurer of Ethiopia, which was the kingdom of Africa. He served Candace, the Queen. The Bible says he was reading, but he could not understand what he was reading. His problem was not an inability to read. His problem was not illiteracy. His problem was he lacked understanding.
Which brings to note that when Jesus says to his disciples in chapter number 16 of Luke, he says, "Make friends of unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into their habitations." The world: make friends there. Canotes become acquainted with their world. Have an understanding of their world. If you don't have an understanding of a world, you will have incompetence in that world. You will be an agency that lacks the ability to perform well. If you understand a thing, you will be elevated.
Jesus said in chapter number two of the Book of Revelation to the first church, the church of Ephesus, he said, "I have ought against you because you have lost your first love." That word "first love" had nothing to do with their affection. These people loved God. They gave themselves in lion's dens. They were slandered. They were persecuted. And yet they serve the Lord. So when he says, "You have lost your first love," it was not their affection or their appreciation or their love for God that they lost. Their first love was Matthew 13:1. "Understanding unto you is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom." And the time they lost their ability to understand, something else took the place of understanding their world.
Dr. Robert said something out of St. Louis. He said he owns hotels. He said in the United States of America, there are 55,000 hotels. And of the 55,000 hotels, he said 20% of the 55,000 hotels in the USA are owned by Indian Asians who 20 years ago were living in poverty in India, came across with less than $100 in their pocket on an economy class ticket. And today they own 20% of the hotels. African-Americans, who principally have been in this country for 500 years, only own 155 hotels. What is the difference? It's a lack of understanding.
Let me build my case. There are seven levels of revenue. The first one is wisdom. Wisdom is revenue. He says, "If you'll have wisdom, you don't need money." The second level of revenue is vision. "Without a vision, the people perish." The third level of revenue is information and its application. Information. The fourth level of revenue: relationships. Everybody say, "Relationships." Relationship. You need relationships so that God can work through divine hookups. Every time you've ever been promoted in your life, it's mostly been because of an added relationship. The word "relationship" comes from two words: relate and ship. Ship is a cargo carrier. How do you relate to the cargo? You have been introduced to relationships.
The next one is property. Land. Property owner. All the women say, "I am a property owner." I am a property owner. And the last one is money. Money. I missed one. The last one is money. There are seven levels of money. Seven levels of money. I'm nearly there.
The first one is cash. All cash is not the same. You have a penny, you have uh five cents, that's a dime. Five cents, that's a nickel. Ten cents is a dime. Twenty-five cents is a quarter. Dollar. Five, ten, twenty, fifty, Benjamin. Not all cash is the same. Not all currency is the same. The US dollar is different to the English pound, to the Australian dollar, to the Zimbabwe dollar, to the rupee, the kwacha, to the escudo. All cash is not the same. One thing about cash, it comes from the word "currency," which means current, to flow. And a lot of times, if you don't understand how money works, it will pass right by you, and you'll miss it.
Put your hand on your head and say, "Understand." Understand. Come on, say, "Understand." Understand.
Now, when you begin to understand how this works, there are limitations on certain things. There are uh rooftops. There are limits marked on certain issues. And and the reason many of us don't have revenue flowing in our lives is because we lack value. Value. Everybody say, "He loves his wife, Chi-Chi." Everybody say, "He loves Chi-Chi." He loves. Say it again. He loves Chi-Chi. He loves Halle Berry, who is fearfully and wonderfully made. Don't you tell your mother. Halle Berry earns $50 a minute. $3 a minute because of what she is. If you mark that per hour, it's $188,000 an hour. That's $18 million a year because of what she is. Tiger Woods earns $100, $77 a minute because of what he does. Tiger's earnings are $89 million a year because of what he does. Because of what he does. Steven Spielberg earns $635 a minute because of what he gets others to do. Steven Spielberg earns almost $900 million a year because of his value per minute. The the the mogul, Myal in India, he earns $2,111 a minute, bringing his earnings to almost $4 billion a year. Bill Gates earns $6, $750 a minute, capping his earnings at close to $6.5 billion a year. The reason you don't have earnings is because you don't have value for your minute.
[Applause]
I discovered why people in church don't take the pastor's counsel. It's because we give it for free. You'll pay a lawyer so much an hour. You'll pay a doctor so much a minute. And even if they give you incorrect advice, you'll take it because you have valued their minute.
[Applause]
If you don't have a strategic plan for your life, you are saying you don't have any value for your minute. And so anybody can step into your life anytime they feel like it. Family members who are as crazy as crazy as can be will borrow money from you because they don't have any discipline in their life. And if you give them the money you save, you're just as crazy as they are. Come on, say, "My minute is valuable." Is valuable. Don't allow crazy people into your valuable minute. You only. Jesus, please help me.
[Applause]
Here. Put your hand on your head and say, "Increase my value." Increase my value. Come on, shout, "Increase my value." Increase my [Applause] value.
The scripture we read is a very interesting scripture. Scripture because this scripture is positioned. If you read the whole chapter, John lost his head. John was killed. So the old system was done away with. John was beheaded. And and the deal about this is that if you read Matthew chap 11, Jesus gives a testimony of his older cousin, John. He says, "John is the greatest of the old order." He's the greatest. But in the kingdom, the least in the kingdom is greater than John. So he's saying, "John, I know you're bad. I know that you are the greatest in an old order. But now, when you come into this new place, the least on the next level is greater than the best on the preceding level." And what he's saying here is that when you increase the value of your life, you could have been absolutely fantastic over here. But if you've got somebody that's in a world above you, that's least in that world above you, they are more superior than you are. So you can be in church, and you can do the shuffle, and you can wave your hands and shout. But if you don't have a minimal understanding of how property works, the man that is the least in the property world above you will be your master. So the thing is then, we have to now negotiate and move from a lesser world to a superior world. And the the way you do that is when you have an understanding as to how life [Applause] works.
They are found in a city in Zimbabwe called Mutare. They are finding diamonds. Bishop, on the ground. Literally, one of my pastors, Miranda Ferreira, came and see me. She said, "Bishop, we've lost all our workers. All the workers are digging in their backyard. They are finding diamonds literally on the ground." In a place where people knew there were no resources. That town has grown from a few thousand people to hundreds of thousands of people just overnight. People, African people, are finding diamonds. But many of them don't know the value of what they're finding. They are selling diamonds for a penny on the dollar. And what they're doing is they're saying, "Now, oh, I can afford a Coca-Cola." They're missing the mark. They are, they don't have an understanding. See, somebody needs to step in in there and say, "What we need now is to give you value for your diamond." But we are not exporting a raw diamond to Amsterdam or to Antwerp. We are going to have cutting-edge technology here where we are not just going to give people a Coca-Cola. Imagine a whole life. All they want is a Coca-Cola. I don't want you to teach me how to fish. No, do not teach me how to fish. Show me how I can own the pond. Because if you teach me how to fish, the pond owner will say, "No fishing up in here." But if I own the pond, I can fish at midnight with no clothes [Applause] on.
I feel an anointing coming on somebody here to be empowered. Word. Give the Lord a praise, somebody. Everything in this dimension has limitations. And so when you hit a limitation, you have to kick in by faith. Because faith then frames your world. And I've seen many in Africa that have the gift of faith. You know, faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the word of God. So most times, you can confess the word, and you can speak it or decree it, and what you speak comes to pass. But there are moments in your life where all the confessing and all the decreeing and all the words you have in you is not going to be adequate to break a certain place. What you need is a moment of faith where you get to an obstacle and you say, "I realize I'm not equipped to deal with this obstacle, but I see a rooftop." And I'm carrying my problem. Faith says, "Get on top of the rooftop." Faith says, "Tear it up." Faith says, "Do something you have never done before." If you'll make the attempt, God said, "I'll be there."
Now, now look how this works in this parable. In this situation, they are in a desert place. This parable or this story is told in the four Gospels. The scripture says here, Jesus said, "Feed the people." They said, "We don't have anything to give them except five loaves and two fishes." Matthew is the only one that does not tell us it was a little boy's lunch. We know it was. But there's something that Matthew says that others do not say. Matthew says that when they brought the loaves to him, he took it, looked up to heaven, and he brake. Matthew does not say he broke the bread. Let me show you what I believe he broke. Jesus did not break the bread. He broke the limitation on the loaves. Oh my God. I don't know who I'm preaching to up in here. All you have is a little boy's lunch, and you know that that's not enough to feed a little boy. All you need to do is is bring that lunch to him and let him break the limitation on that lunch.
I came to preach. So the devil and his mother-in-law, you have mistrusted us and misunderstood us, but you never met a generation like this. I came to tell somebody, there's no limits on your life. In this service, God's about to break every limitation. God's about to break every inhibition. God's about to open the door that you knew was going to open for you. Clap your hands and praise him for a breaking of limitation. Oh Jesus.
In the molecular world, a thing can do just so much. And most times, people in church, we are underperformers. It's like if you drive a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW, and they tell you there are 450 horses under that engine, you'll be surprised what that car can do. But if you just drive at 60 miles an hour or 45 miles an hour, there are horses in that engine that are sleeping, never ever getting up. But then you put that car, and you give Chi-Chi to drive that car. There are horses under that engine that never thought they could run that way. I came to tell you, most of us, we are racehorses at a pony show. I came to tell the devil, I'm not a racehorse at a pony show. I came to tell someone, it's time for you to run like you've never run. No limit on your life. God's about to snap the limitation on your life.
When the scripture says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me," that word "all that is within me" is not energy. It's not it's not effervescence or vivaciousness. The word "all that is within me." When you bless the Lord, Lord, you are blessing the Lord with the grandchildren in you. You are blessing the Lord with your businesses and your companies that are in you. You might be broke right now, but when you bless the Lord, your company is getting up. Bless him by faith. Bless him by your breakthrough. Bless him in your anointing. Bless. Put your hand right here and say, "Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up." It's time to get up. Put your hand on someone and say, "Get up." Oh yes. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. What is within you is got to get him. Can I preach for two minutes in my crocodile skin shoes?
[Applause] Woo.
The level above currency is savings. The level above cash is savings. This is not rocket science. If you save money, 20% of your salary from the age of 20, by the time you hit 43, you will be a millionaire. The level above savings, the level above savings is investments. Let me share this with you. Singapore in 1970 was a little city that was so poor that the country of Malaysia wanted to buy Singapore. The Prime Minister that was elected as the leader of Singapore made it mandatory that every person that was Singaporean save 23% of their salary. Mandatory save 23% of your salary. If you don't, you go to jail. They moved Singapore from a third world nation to a first world nation in just on 20 years. If you go to Singapore today, as you step in, they have a big sign there in big letters: "All drug crimes punishable by death. All gun crimes punishable by death. All sex violations punishable by death. Spitting in the street, $1,000 fine and caning. 24 canes. Chewing twing gum is punishable with caning and a fine of $500." They are asking you when you get there, "Do you understand this?" If you say no, they bring somebody to teach you or learn you what it means. They ask you again, "Do you understand this?" If you say no, they put your hinek on a plane and send you back to where you came from. Don't tell me people don't know. People can learn. People can be disciplined. You can be on time. You can express excellence. You can't manage money. You can't keep your body in shape. You can't be filled with the spirit. It's just what you value.
Jesus said in chapter number 11 concerning John, he said, "The problem with this generation, they don't understand where they are. They are like children playing in the marketplace." If you go to an African market, you'll find the kids playing hopscotch. What is a lily? A lily is a flower. But above them, there's money being traded. There's money moving. But the children don't know there's money moving. They don't know that there's destiny above their heads. They want to play hopscotch here. And Jesus said the church is just like that. There's stuff moving over our heads, and we're playing hopscotch. I'm sick of ignorance. I'm sick of foolishness. I'm sick of immaturity. I'm sick of it. I want to see somebody that wants to go to a place of value.
There are 280 trading days on the stock exchange. $1.8 trillion is traded a day on the stock exchange. $1.8 trillion a day. That's $54 trillion a year that's traded on the stock exchange. The body of Christ in the year 2005, globally, raised $200 billion. Globally. $100 billion was in the USA alone. Bill Winston told me, he said, "With $1 billion highly invested, tested, you can build over a thousand churches a year in America, fully checked out, to seat 1,500 people." We raised in one year, globally, what the stock exchange does in a year. They raise more in one year than we do collectively in a year. Now, there's something that's highly, there's something missing here.
Now watch this. There, when Jesus died, his body was not given. The body of Christ was not given to the apostles. The body of Christ was given to a [Applause] [Music] millionaire. Joseph of Arimathea was not listed anywhere. But when Jesus died, the system gave him the body of Christ. And I'm discovering a number of things that if we don't generate the kind of revenue, if we don't increase the kind of value to our minute, we are not going to be effective around the world. Our message is not going to be received. The kingdom of God is not church attendance. The kingdom of God is a philosophy. It's a way of living. It's a dogma. It's a behavior. It's a culture. It's a dominant spirit. It's something that's a feature that we take over. I'm telling you, around the world, we're seeing God raise up in the most obscure people, accelerated power and ability. I saw something the other day in prayer. I said, "Lord, why is it that we've been ineffective?" And this is what he showed me in a picture. He showed me our life and our ministry as a cuckoo in a cuckoo clock. That when it was 1:00, even though I had something to say, Bishop, the system said, "You can only say it once. Shut up back in there." But where we are right now, with the system that they have built, it's now 12:00. And when I come out now and I say, "Cuckoo," they can't put me back in because I have to say that thing 12 times. Even if they don't want to hear it, they have to hear me out now. Because they told me, "Don't speak." I came to tell them, it's now time to speak. It's time to address the issues. It's time to deal with the socioeconomic issues. It's time to elevate our people. It's time to put power in their hands. It's time to move in a thing. Shout, "Revenue is coming!"
Let me close this session with this. When Jesus says he's going to break the limit, it's not just to break it for the moment. The Bible says he break and he gave the bread to his disciples. He gave them whole loaves. They then began to distribute it. But in groups of 50, there was order there. Now, after the feeding, and listen, every person has a different capacity. I don't eat very much, you know. Last night, I had a bit, a bit of steak and some mashed potato. Dream, who's doing power weights, he ate everything he wanted to eat. The waitress, something like, "What's wrong with this child?" But what he did, when he broke the limitation in physics and mathematics, he pre-calculated the capacity of everyone in the room. He knew exactly what every person in the room would consume, and he gave in great abundance. So as they began to consume, the Bible says they ate until they were filled. When they were filled, he told his disciples, "Pick up the fragments." The word "fragments" isn't exactly the right word used there because that word "fragments" gives the implication that it was waste. That somebody bit on the bread and they put some saliva on it, fell out their mouth, and fell to the ground. That's not what fragments was. Fragments were the loaves that were allocated to the group that were left over. When they picked up the loaves, there were 12 baskets.
Now, let me mess with you just here. Let me mess with you and show you what I see. They picked up 12 baskets full. The Bible says in John chapter number 12, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." John's uh Matthew in 27 of Matthew, Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces. So he sold the bread for 30 pieces. Mathematically, it's most possible that for every basket that they had, 12 of them, that there were 30 loaves in each basket. 30 loaves * 12 is 360, plus the five original loaves, that makes 365 loaves. So here is a lad that comes to a meeting with not enough food to fill him for one meal. Then Jesus takes this limited meal, this limited revenue, this limited education, and puts a God touch on it and says, "My mercies are new every morning. You'll eat bread today, and you'll eat bread tomorrow. You'll eat bread for a whole year." Now, here's the caveat. Everybody else that that got bread had to go home and work to get bread. This kid didn't have to work. The bread was fresh every day. The bread was fresh every day. I'm metastasizing. I'm getting better with every moment. I'm improving on every occasion. Next year, this time, you will not recognize me. Tomorrow, this time, you won't even know I'm the same person. Because oh Jesus, help me preach to somebody. The limit is being broken on your life. It's not by power. It's not by might. It's by the Spirit of God. Tomorrow, this time, God's about to snap the limitation on your life and increase you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken [Applause] together.
Put your hand on your head and say, "The limit is broken." The limit is broken. Come on, shout, "The limit is broken." The limit is broken. Hallelujah. [Applause]
The Zambian government, Bishop, sold the copper mines in Northern Zambia to an outside consortium for $25 million. The copper mines for $25 million because they couldn't manage to keep them. The company that came in and took over the Zambian copper mines, in three months, made a profit of $75 million. They did not pay the Zambian government upfront in cash for the mines. They were going to pay them over a period of time. Here we have this company that has an understanding of how things work, raised the money at the at the government's expense, took money that the company should have, the government should have been making, and gave it back to the government and said, "We paid our debt in full." And gave them now 0.006% of the proceeds of copper mining. When right outside the door, there's people in poverty, people in uh not eating, people ignorant, people dying, high levels of AIDS. And what's the deal? Churches are full. People are praising God. Africans pray all night. Prayer is not in the success equation. Prayer is in the revelation equation. Decision making isn't the success equation. You have to make a decision and be sound. We have to be disciplined and make sure we go and get what God has called us to get. You can be full of the Holy Ghost, but you can still be ignorant. But as for me and my house, I will get understanding. I will get understanding. I will get understanding.
It's time now for us to rise up and be counted. This year, the country of Ghana turns 50. Ghana was born the same year we were born, in 1957. Ghana and South Korea had their independence dates on the same day, the same year. But look where South Korea is. South Korea is by nature not a Christian nation. South Korea by nature are Buddhists. China, which is the next large world economy, they have stated that in the next 10 years, 20% of the Chinese people will be multi-millionaires. That means almost 450 million Chinese will be millionaires. They are not Christians. They are Buddhists. The Japanese are Shintoists. Those in Indonesia and Malaysia are Muslims. It's not about praising God and Hallelujah and a great "Thank you, Jesus." It's about possessing an understanding as to how things work. I can't be an idiot all my life. Thank God I got the Holy Ghost, but I have to understand how things work. I came to tell the devil, see, Lucifer was not just a praise and worshipper. The Bible says in Ezekiel 28 that he was a merchandiser. In other words, he was a trader. He made the money system. He knows how the money system works. So if you get into his system playing at his rules, he'll always beat you at it. But if you get into his system and you play at God's rules, the least on this level is better than the best in the devil. I want my money, and I want it [Applause] now.
Why is Africa the most endowed nation in terms of continent, in terms of resources, but we are the worst in terms of progression? It's a lack of understanding. It's a lack of understanding. So what you you do is you make friends in the Donald Trump world. You don't make friends with Donald. You understand the real estate world. Because there's one thing we have that they don't have. See, they may have an understanding and they may have a head start, but we've got one component that they don't have. It's called the favor of the Lord. You can walk into a room, and you have a basic understanding of how real estate works, how contracts work, how writing a business plan works, just a basic understanding. But when you get in there, you'll feel this thing rising. It's the "all that is within you" rising. It's your grandchildren. It's your company. It's your million-dollar estates that are in you saying, "Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord." You may not feel like praising God this morning. You may not feel like worshiping. But you can feel this thing. It's not the Holy Ghost in you. It's your future. It's your destiny that God wants to break the limit on your destiny. The devil is a liar, and so is his mother-in-law. I will do everything God has called me to [Applause] do.
Can I preach for two moments, Bishop? Can I preach for two more minutes in my blue socks? [Applause]
How many of you here do not have a passport? Raise your right hand. What's the matter for you? Put up your hand. Come on, put up your hand. I want to break the limitation. Going to Arkansas is not another country, even though it seems like it. [Applause] Live streaming, live streaming, live streaming. Raise your hand if you do not have a passport. Come on, raise your hand. Let's start with some. Stand up if you do not have a passport. Look at all you all. In the year 2007, in a first world nation, the most powerful nation in the world, thus far, and you do not have a passport? Do you know that there are over 22 million people a year that travel around the world, and you're stuck in [Applause] Dallas? See, you have to do something. You have to do something. This year, you are going to get a passport. You are going to take a drive and go to Mexico, just across the border. Oh yes. This year, you will do something. We came to break a limitation. Don't talk about millions. Break this limitation. Get a passport. Go to Jamaica. Go to Cayman Islands. It's just around the corner. Come on, tell three people, "I commit to traveling this year." Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. All the married couples, if you're a married couple, hold hands with your honey. Come on, married couples, hold hands with your honey. Men, tell your wife, "This year, I'm taking you on holiday. We're going to Sandals." My God, I feel like kicking it up in [Applause] here. Now, tell somebody, "Make me accountable." Come on, tell someone, "Make me accountable." I have to go out of the country.
John said in First John, he said, "You cannot say you love God who you cannot see and hate your brother who you can't see." The principle is this: if you can't get a passport and do something now when it's easy, you are never going to be able to manage a billion dollars. You can't see that. So you love what you have right now. You walk from system to system, from faith to faith, from glory to glory. You get some successes behind you. You move from this place to another, from this place to another, from this place to another. I double dare you to get a passport. I double dare you to travel outside of Dallas. Go to another country. Go learn something new. Get on the internet. Learn another language. Read another book. Go on the internet. Surf the web. Find out what other people are doing. Go to Africa. See how churches are growing. [Applause] I was in the Congo last year in Kinshasa. There's a church there pastored by a woman, Mama Ulangi. She's 53 years old this year. It is the most incredible thing I have seen, and I have been to Nigeria. This woman has 100,000 people in her church in Kinshasa. On the other side of the Congo River, in the other, in in Brazzaville, she has 45,000 people there. Just an ordinary lady that got up one day and said, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going." The difference between you and a successful person is that they are doing something that you could do, but you've decided not [Applause] to.
Step one: you are going to develop a life plan for your life. A strategic life plan. In his book, David L. David L. A. N. D. S. David L. in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, says that the Rothschild family in 1865 had a 100-year plan for the family's money. A 100-year plan for the family's money. When his son got married, he made a commitment to keep to the 100-year plan for the family's money. You cannot fly from year to Waco without a flight plan. You can't build a building without an architectural plan. Everything in this molecular world, from a speaker to a microphone to a motor car, has a blueprint, a plan, and steps in the way it is formulated into fruition. You've got to come to church to find people that do not have a [Music] plan. Say after me: "I commit to a plan for my future." I commit to a plan for my future.
Personal testimony. And then I'm going to pray. Chi-Chi and I got married on the 20th of February, 1982. We celebrated 25 years. When we got married, we didn't know anything about anything. I mean, really. I was so poor, and this is not anything new because most of you came from the same kind of background. We were so poor, I couldn't even afford a postage stamp. But we had a plan. We had a plan. And the plan was, we know someday we're going to have children, and we put some prerequisites for what we want to do. And when we started in ministry with literally zero, today in Zimbabwe, God has really blessed us. A quick history to build your faith. Zimbabwe has almost 80% unemployment. Inflation is almost 2,000%. Officially, unofficially over 3,000%. Inflation just a few years ago, the Zimbabwe dollar was equal to the US dollar in old currency terms. When I left home, it's now now 9 million to one. It's unfathomable. But I'll tell you what, Elder, since that time, our ministry has never had a bad month. People come to church and get jobs, are promoted in their businesses, are growing. It's the most freakiest thing. And this is the reason for it. It's not just the anointing on the house. You can have an anointing on the house, and people in the house don't change. What it is, it's systematic plans to move people forward. Luciferianism is a way of thinking. When you break out of Luciferianism, Jesus came and brought a kingdom dogma. It's a way of thinking. It's not black, white, Asian, African. It's a way of thinking. And you can take somebody from here, put them in the middle of Pakistan, infested with Al Qaeda, put them there, they will build a p's house and be successful. It's the way you have been geared to think.
I want you to stand with me as we pray for your capacity to increase. "Increase my capacity." Say that. "Increase my capacity." Say that again. "Increase my capacity." Please say that one more time. "Increase." When your capacity is increased, most times there has to be on a mechanical engine, a rebore. And you have to widen the the shafts where you have the pistons to give that thing more power. Sometimes you have to change the transmission. Instead of being a four-speed shift transmission, you are a seven-speed where you shift, you go faster, further, with less effort. God has to increase your capacity. God wants you to be a property owner. A property owner. He wants you to move in levels of revenue. "Increase my value per minute." "Increase my value per minute." Halle Berry makes more money in one minute than the average rural African makes a month. The average African makes 50 American cents a day. My job as a churchman in Africa is not to get people saved alone. That's not my job. My job is to teach people how to think and become successful. [Applause]
The first thing African people have to know is this: that the name of our continent was never Africa. The name of our continent was Ethiopia, "burnt face," mentioned in Genesis chapter 2. The name Africa comes in the last part of the last millennium when General Africanus, an Italian Roman general, defeated the African army, and it was his privilege and his right to name what he [Music] conquered. In Psalm 68, when the Bible says, "In Ethiopia shall raise forth their hands," God is taking us back to our original mandate of African people and telling us, "You have been designated as wealth managers." Africa is the richest continent, and God put Ethiopians to manage the [Music] wealth. That's our destiny. To manage wealth. Not to be in debt. Not to live in projects. Not to work on minimum wage. Not to be sitting in a crack house, morphed out. Not to be raping our kids. Not to be sitting in a jail cell. Our mandate as human beings, as the burnt face, is to manage wealth. Shout, "I'm a wealth manager." I know you only have five loaves and two fish, but baby, if you bring all of that, God's going to break the [Applause] limitation.
I put your hand here. This is true for every nationality, every race. [Music] There are Hispanic people here. There are Caucasian people here. Some of you come from the Ukraine, some of you are from Russia, from Romania, some of you from just south of the border in Mexico or Nicaragua. It's the same principle. The devil will pour you into a mold to limit you. But when God begins to break the limitation, your bread, your resource, will outperform your craziest dream. Listen, if Jesus had just multiplied those loaves just to feed another person, that would have been a good enough miracle. But he broke the limitation in such a way where the devil couldn't stop this thing for one year. There was a recurrence. Now we pray that by Easter, when this church gathers together, Easter Sunday, there are going to be testimonies of growth, development, expansion, explosion, exponential miracles. It's going to be unbelievable. Money is coming from everywhere. Land is being given to you. Promotion is going to be unprecedented. My God, somebody's even going to start growing [Applause] hair. Now, Lord, increase capacity. Increase. Put your hand here. Increase capacity. I command your capacity to increase a thousand times more. With men, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Clap your hands as Bishop Jakes comes. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. I want you to take a moment and receive the word with gladness. Just receive the word with gladness. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]