Success God’s Way

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Were you born for greatness? Maybe you were, but you can’t seem to quite get this. Cause you’re so distracted by money and relationships and work and kids, all the things that life requires. Well, I’m going to tell you how to get beyond all that and get greatness, success and prosperity. God’s way in the next More Faith, More Life podcast. Hello everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast. Your voice of revival.

0:00:24 – (Steve Gray): So glad you could be together with us. I hope you’re sharing this and telling other friends about it. We have a new book that’ll be out and you’ll be telling you that right away. Going as fast as we can to get it out because it’s so, so important. It’s called Revival or Ruin. And it kind of places. Where are we in the United States right now, in our country. And you know, both revival, both the spirit of God, the spiritual things is advancing, but so is evil trying to advance.

0:00:53 – (Steve Gray): And so that book helped explain that better. Plus, how to get revival. What Revival is—the history of revival. It’s got whole lot of stuff in it that’s really, really good. Also, the Gideon book’s got some great jewels in it. What’s the name of a guy? Something like Gideon. Yeah. Thank you. Mighty Like Gideon. Isn’t it funny when you get to doing so many books you can’t remember the title of them are. I’ve written so many songs. I’ve had people come to me and play a song. Said, do you know this song? I said, no, I never heard it before. Said, well, you wrote it.

0:01:22 – (Steve Gray): But it’s just I’ve been doing this for a long time. Mighty Like Gideon. It’s got great jewels in it. If I were really hungry for revival, I’d also want to get the book When The Kingdom Comes. It’s got the first sermons that really. And teachings and the story of Smithton that really were the beginning of me trying to figure out what to say, how to preach, what to, you know, all the things about that. So it’s really great.

0:01:45 – (Steve Gray): It’s translated in like eight languages and is used in some. Has been used. I don’t know if it is now. Has been used in some Christian colleges and seminaries as a textbook on revival. So, you know, it’s not expensive, I don’t think. And I don’t know how much it is. But you ought to get that if you’re serious about revival and you’d love to be used in revival. Because remember when God really begins to break out and we’re not There yet we’re seeing signs of it. I call it rumblings of revival.

0:02:16 – (Steve Gray): We’re seeing good signs of a possibility, but we’re not into it. Where the power of God explodes, usually through some leader that leads us. It’s not that that person is something we can’t have, but who has prayed and sought God and prepared his heart or her heart, and then it explodes. And then they’re the leader because they’re more prepared than everybody else. But when that happens, remember people, history shows people who were nobodies, nobody who knew who they were, they didn’t know that who had a heart for God. And just they sort of chased after revival and learned and grew and prayed when nobody knew they were doing it. And then if it really explodes on the scene, those are the people that can all of a sudden step in and step into it and put on the shoes. You know, the prodigal son came home and he gave him a robe, ring and shoes, right?

0:03:18 – (Steve Gray): And so, you know, you just put those things on and crown and all that stuff and you just put on the. Put on what you’ve been preparing for and wear it. The gospel shoes of peace, right? And wear all those things and the crown and the ring and the robe. Now you’re ready. So if you prepare, you’re setting yourself up maybe as a nobody, nobody knows who you are now to step into it. Because if it happens, because people say, okay, who’s going to lead this? Who’s going to teach us? What do we do? What do we do? But God has people prepared. He always has.

0:03:49 – (Steve Gray): And so there you go. Well, we’re going to talk today about success, God’s ways. We haven’t talked about it too much because we’re trying to be the voice of revival and give you roots and foundations and thoughts on what is revival, how do you get it and how do you get into it, like I just explained. But I want to talk about success, God’s way. And the reason is because. Because if you’re going to talk revival, you want to help people get out of any kind of a mess they’re in any kind of situation they’re in, financial, spiritual, emotional, relationships at work and get success going in their life.

0:04:23 – (Steve Gray): So that when it’s time to really step in and really the move of God is exploding across the country and around the world, hopefully it does, then you’re not distracted by the things you’re distracted by. Now the distractions are gone. So that’s why I preach success. I don’t preach it to be one of those that tries to draw a crowd by telling people what the Bible says their itching ears want to hear. So I want to hear about me. I want to hear about how I can make money and be successful.

0:04:50 – (Steve Gray): But it is true. But that’s not the reason I do it. And so it’s the application of it, why we’re doing it anyway. Success, God’s way. First of all, we need to stop apologizing either as leaders or people, that success is something that we shouldn’t have. We shouldn’t be successful, we shouldn’t think about success. But we should, because the Bible’s got lots of scriptures on success. And wanting success is not a bad thing.

0:05:20 – (Steve Gray): And God told Joshua, then you will be prosperous and then you will have success. He told that to Joshua. What? Well, in what context? He said, look, if you can just get your mind on my word, the laws, then God’s law, but on my word and my ways, and you can get your mind on that and keep it on that, then you will have success, you will have prosperity, and you’ll be prosperous and successful. So God is not opposed to success, not just in money, but everything you need to get where you’re believing God to make you prosperous in everything you do.

0:05:58 – (Steve Gray): And the reason why is to free you up from the distractions of what other people are going to. And so Joshua was successful, but he wasn’t self-made. He wasn’t self-made successful. God made him successful, but he made himself successful too, through God, because he followed his ways and the commandments. And. And so if you can just get that desire in you to walk with God, learn God’s word. We were just discussing that. And one of the things I teach about that is the problem is people want to be successful. They’re not against success.

0:06:34 – (Steve Gray): They’re certainly not against prosperity, right? Or success. But if I say, wait a minute, there is something about it in God’s way, if you want God to get successful, God’s way that works, that stays and hits every area of your life. Then I said, you need to get your mind set on heavenly things. You need to get your heart set on the word of God. You have tohave some interest in God, interest in the word of God. And you got to get involved in the things of God and be like, I like to say, be at the front of God’s parade, His victory parade. Be at the front of it, marching at the front. If you go to church, get in the front, get in the front and be the first, you know, the first and the one who lives and breathes and has his being or her being by the spirit of God and get out in front. Well, okay. All great words they say, yeah, well, I’d like to do that, but, you know, I kind of know myself.

0:07:25 – (Steve Gray): I’ve watched myself enough to know. And so here’s the problem is it’s not that you disagree with what I just said, but you don’t have an appetite for it. Now, it doesn’t mean you don’t have an appetite for food or. Or fun or whatever, entertainment or fun or socializing or whatever you like. You’ve got an appetite, all right, but you just don’t have one for God. And so I gave this story the other day about this. Like, I remember.

0:07:54 – (Steve Gray): Let’s see, the first thing I. Oh, yeah, the first story I told was on coffee. I didn’t drink coffee until I was 31 years old, but my wife Kathy, her family drinks, like coffee all day long. And so she likes coffee, and she always wanted to sit down in the morning and have a cup of coffee with her husband, and I never did. And so we got in this terrible ice storm and everything, and we were coming. We went to church, and we were coming back from church in a little Toyota station wagon, one of the little ones they used to have before they were bigger and the defroster quit and windshield started freezing up and that. And we couldn’t see to go anywhere, and they wouldn’t work.

0:08:30 – (Steve Gray): We pulled into a fast little place, like a quick trip or 7 11. I don’t know what it is. We pulled in there and Kathy bought a cup of coffee. When she went and got in the car, the steam from the coffee was coming up, and it was kind of helping the windshield. So I said, well, I’ll get one, too. And you can kind of hold the coffee cups up there and the steam of it, maybe it’ll help us. And we did. We did that and we got home. But when we got there, I still had that cup of coffee, so I thought I would drink it. And I started drinking coffee.

0:08:58 – (Steve Gray): But the first time I took a sip of coffee, years before that, I took one sip of it and said, this is the worst tasting stuff I’ve ever had in my life. And then I got married, and my wife’s drinking it all day long, and it tastes terrible to me. But that night that we needed to do it with the, you know, the steam going up on the windshield, I thought, well. And I drank it. Yeah, it was kind of bitter. I didn’t care for it.

0:09:24 – (Steve Gray): But the next day she said, do you Want a cup of coffee? I go, well, okay. And guess what? I became a coffee drinker. What I hated before, I was able to do now, right? And so then I gave the real big illustration. I said, okay, okay. I know you’re not supposed to talk about beer and stuff on podcasts and things. There’s certain subjects you don’t get much into. But I remember my. I told a story on my dad. My dad did not go to church.

0:09:53 – (Steve Gray): I’m five years old and my dad’s still not going to church. But all four kids went to church, and my mom took us to church, and he didn’t. Well, he ended up going. He got saved and got saved and filled with God, and his life changed. But at that time, when he’s five, we’re going to church, and he’s sitting home smoking a cigarette, drinking Schlitz beer, if you’re old enough to remember that name, Schlitz beer.

0:10:19 – (Steve Gray): But he was watching Oral Roberts on TV do his healing service. Get that? What kind of a conflict was going on inside of him? And so I came home one time from church, and there he is. And he had a beer sitting there, and I just picked it up and took a drink of it. Ugh. It was awful, awful, awful. And you’d think that I’d never be a beer drinker in the rest of my life. But some of you, I told him, I said, well.

0:10:43 – (Steve Gray): Well, some of you, the same thing happened the first time you ever drank a beer, if that’s okay to say. And then. And it was awful. And then what happens after that? You got a beer belly. How’d you get the beer belly from something that tastes so awful? You know what? You got an appetite for it. So how do you get an appetite for anything? Buy more of it. More? I drank coffee. When I drank more, I got an appetite. When I drank beer, I got an appetite. Good thing I got rid of that, huh? But.

0:11:15 – (Steve Gray): And so certain foods that you don’t like or you go to a different country, you go to Korea, and they give you kimchi, and it tastes terrible at first. It’s too spicy and it burns your tongue. But if you stay there a while, they eat kimchi all the time. So you’re going to get kimchi a lot. When you order from a restaurant, you’re going to get it or any place. And, you know, so you dabble in it and that. And you know what?

0:11:36 – (Steve Gray): If you could stay a few weeks or a month or two, you’re going to  come home. And when you get home, you’re Going to crave kimchi. You’re going to go like, hey man, I think I’ll get some kimchi. What happened? The more you do something, the more appetite you get for it. And that works in sin too, right? The more you sin, you get an appetite for it. What you used to think was wrong, you’re comfortable with now, but you get an appetite for it. So here’s the thing. Then you get your children or yourself, Yourself, your children, family.

0:12:02 – (Steve Gray): Let’s take a child, 5 years old, 10 years old, 13 years old, and they’re doing good and all of a sudden they don’t want to go to church anymore. They don’t want to go. Let’s say you got a midweek service, which some churches still do Wednesday night, they don’t want to go to church. They’ve gone to school all day and they’re complaining and complaining and they go. When you get there at church, they complain and you go like, okay, here’s what I’m going to do.

0:12:24 – (Steve Gray): I’ll do this for you. We won’t go to Wednesday church anymore. And then when we take you to Sunday, we’ll try to get our kid more interested in church by just Sunday church. We’ll just kind of make a deal here. Okay, well, it doesn’t work if you wanted to get an appetite. You want your kids to have an appetite for the kingdom of God, for the things of God. Don’t give them less thinking. Oh, they’ll get an appetite if I work with them here, make a deal with them.

0:12:48 – (Steve Gray): No, keep it. The more, Give them more. Go home Apple and read the Bible, tell a Bible story, Show a, you know, a Bible video, kid’s Bible video, sit with them and watch it, talk about it. Show if they’re not, when they get home from school, instead of turning on their phone or whatever, show some kind of a Bible fun show or something. There’s lots of them out there and sit with them. Or as soon as you get home from work, sit with them and do it. And the more you do that and discuss things and talk about God, all of a sudden, maybe worship a little at home or give them a word, you know, if they’re old enough, they’re 13 years old, give em a worship tape.

0:13:22 – (Steve Gray): I notice kids, if they own it, if they own it or a CD or online or whatever, forgot. You can get it online too, but give them some downloads. When they own it, they tend to listen to it. And I’ve seen lots of kids get into Christian music cause that’s what their parents Gave them. Okay, so how do you get an appetite for God, More of God? If you cut back less, you’re going to get less. If you push yourself and work with God, then you’ll get an appetite and read your Bible, read some book on commentary.

0:13:54 – (Steve Gray): And like, for instance, I’m going a different way in my sermon today, guys, or my talk today. But for instance, let’s say you don’t know much. Get a chapter or get a book. Like Mark is the shortest gospel in the Bible, okay? It’s a short one. It’s easier to read. Go in and read it. Make yourself read it, okay? Then go read it again. Then pick out something out of that that you kind of like. What do you like? Let’s say you’re going to study all the healings in the Book of Mark. Cause it’s a shorter one.

0:14:25 – (Steve Gray): All the people that got healed and read it and read and healing, healing, blind eyes open, leprosy or whatever, over and over and over. Read that. Okay? Do that for a while and guess what’s going to happen. You will be like an expert with an appetite for. For God. Because you know, the Book of Mark it really well. And when somebody’s sick, you can say, well, I think I could pray for you. How do you know? Cause I know. I’ve read the script, I’ve read all the healings, and I know almost all of them by heart. Now all of a sudden you’ve got an appetite because you threw yourself into something.

0:14:59 – (Steve Gray): And when you get that appetite, it stays. It can stay really, you know, your lifetime. Okay, so why would I say that to you? Because God said, God, get into my word and into my ways and you will become successful. You will prosperous and be successful in all your ways. So there’s the benefit. If you want success God’s way, then do it God’s way. Get an appetite. Go for God. Put more energy in it. Is it worth it? Yeah. Because God’s going to help you be successful. It takes some years to get successful in everything you do. But it starts.

0:15:33 – (Steve Gray): It starts. And God’s been so good to me. All the things I’ve done, everything you can think of. And God just gave me success in everything I do. And if I get into some kind of a jam or some kind of a situation, I just remember back. Yeah, okay, I just turn to God and get fired up for God because that success is going to come. In psalms, it says, meditate on the word or the laws of God day and night.

0:15:58 – (Steve Gray): And it says, and whatever you do will prosper. Whatever you do will prosper. Did you know that’s in the Bible? That’s in the Bible. So God’s not against prosperity, he’s against what’s your intention? Why are you doing? You want to get rich. The Bible says the desire to be rich holds a snare. You get trapped into that. But the desire to serve God works because you get an appetite for it. And then he begins to give you success in all your ways.

0:16:26 – (Steve Gray): So I studied the. Well, there’s lots of other scriptures by the way. Magnify the Lord and you’ll have prosperity as his servant and all that. And I gave an example then of Joseph in the Bible. And Joseph was a dreamer of success or greatness. Joseph dreamed of greatness. He had two dreams that showed that he was going to be. And his father made him a big fancy robe and his brothers hated him because he’s always talking about greatness and success. And he said, listen, I had a dream that you’re all going to be bowing down to me.

0:16:57 – (Steve Gray): Oh, that didn’t go over too big. And then he told it to his parents and you’re going to be bowing down to me. And that didn’t go over big with them. And he thought, who is this guy? So when he walked up to him, he says, oh, here comes the dreamer. Here comes the dreamer as negative. But you know what? Joseph dreamed of greatness. He said, I have greatness on me through God. And so now he went through some bad times, so his brothers hated him and they threw him down a well and said he died. But then he said, well, maybe we won’t, maybe he won’t die. And then the Midianites came, got him out of the well and made him a slave.

0:17:33 – (Steve Gray): Now he’s a slave, and yet he’s still dreaming for greatness. And so then the slave, they sold him to a guy named Potiphar, a big high up guy in Egypt, okay, high up, probably had a mansion in that day. And so now he’s a slave for Potiphar, but he’s still dreaming of greatness because guess what? But Potiphar cannot pass up. This is the greatest guy I’ve ever been around because he makes things great.

0:18:00 – (Steve Gray): And all of a sudden he said, I’m going to let him. You can just rule my house, you can rule my stuff because you have greatness in you and you dream of being great. And so he does. And then Potiphar’s wife starts making the moves on him, you know, and he refuses. And so she gets angry and then she goes and lies to her Husband says, he made some moves on me like that. So Potiphar said, well, that’s the end of him. I’m going to throw him into prison.

0:18:23 – (Steve Gray): So he throws him into prison. And you think, well, that’s the end of that greatness. What can you do? You’re in prison. What can you do? You know, you thought you were going to be great, like, huh, now you’re in prison. But you know what happened? The jailer, the head jailer, the one that was in charge of all the prisoners, said, this guy’s got something. The Lord is with him and he’s got greatness. Even as a prisoner, he’s thinking of greatness.

0:18:49 – (Steve Gray): He’s doing greatness as the best. And so he says, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to make you. I’m going to give you charge of all the prisoners. You get to be in charge of all the prisoners. Well, time passes and some more, since he’s kind of a dreamer. The Pharaoh had a dream and he didn’t know how to interpret it. He said, there’s a guy in prison, he knows how to interpret it. So he does. And he gets out of prison and he meets the Pharaoh. And all of a sudden, then he starts working for Pharaoh. And no surprise what’s going to happen, because he’s a dreamer. He dreams of being great in everything he does. He looks, in my opinion, he looks at where he is and his circumstances.

0:19:24 – (Steve Gray): How can I show greatness in this? So he does. And all of a sudden, Pharaoh, this shouldn’t be so surprised, says, man, this guy is great. He dreams of greatness. He does greatness. He thinks in greatness. And so he said, I’m going to put you in charge of. Of my entire kingdom. Joseph, who was thrown in a well as a dreamer, became great as the second in command in Egypt. And imagine that God made and prospered him in everything.

0:19:55 – (Steve Gray): Even when he’s in prison, even when he’s a slave, he’s prospering because he’s got greatness on his mind. He serves the Lord. He’s got God on his mind, greatness on his mind. And he never changed his mind. He never changed his mind. So you can have greatness in your life. You can have it. And two ways you can start. This is what I would do. First of all, you have to get some hunger for God. So deal with that appetite that you don’t have. If you don’t have it, even if it’s nominal. I go to church, I’m sort of interested.

0:20:24 – (Steve Gray): Get in, read a Couple of chapters somewhere in the New Testament and just something in the Gospels. Read it and read them a few times and whatever the subject is. And maybe the Beatitudes. Just read the Beatitudes over and over. They’re early on in Matthew and you’ll see them and you know what, read them it up and then you’re in conversation and you’ll be the one that has an expert on what you’re supposed to do, right? Blessed are the meek.

0:20:51 – (Steve Gray): They’ll inherit the earth. You know that. Now you’re the one at the table who knows all the Beatitudes. And all of a sudden your appetite comes out. Because now you’re able to share rather than just take and listen and be all the time taken in. You’re sharing, you’re giving out. Your appetite has grown for the things of God. So two things to do after that is develop faithfulness. Faithfulness. God is faithful and he is determined to recognize faithfulness.

0:21:21 – (Steve Gray): Because we don’t live in a faithful culture. If we had the two things, I’m going to tell you, it would change our whole world. Faithful. Faithful. Faithful obviously to God. Relationships. Faithful at work, be faithful in money, faithful in relationships, faithful in church. Okay? Be faithful and think faithfulness. Cause great people are faithful people. The second thing is integrity. And integrity means keep your word.

0:21:47 – (Steve Gray): Keep your word. If you said you’d do it, do it. Whether it be church, work, home, dad, mom, kids, if you keep your word, if you said I love you, I’m going to be here, I’m going to work hard, then do it. Do it. Keep your word. Now listen to this. If in our country and in our churches, you know, in churches, 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce too. 50%. And so I was saying the other day about that, you know, I go to a wedding and somebody’s getting married. I’m trying to be excited, but there’s a chance, there’s a 50, 50 chance you’re going to hate each other in a few years and so get faithfulness and integrity. But if we had faithfulness and integrity in the kingdom of God and in the churches, we wouldn’t have divorce.

0:22:33 – (Steve Gray): There would be no divorce anymore. We would end divorce if we had faithfulness and integrity. If people were faithful and kept their word, not just one of the partners, both partners. So anyway, I just wanted to plant that in you, that, that you can be successful, but God’s way. God is not against success. He is the one who promised success, right? He promised success. And so you can, but you have to do it God’s way.

0:23:03 – (Steve Gray): Get an appetite and get God involved. And then what I’ve seen in my life, he comes in. And you don’t have to be like a pagan. You know what the Bible says. Jesus said pagan. Pagans run after things. But God’s people, we run after God. So seek first. Seek the kingdom of God first. Put it out there. Be different. Be different than everybody else. Dream greatness. How does a person become great? They become the servant of all Jesus. Jesus didn’t say, oh, man, you’re being egotistical to think that you’d be great. If you want to be great, you’re bad.

0:23:42 – (Steve Gray): No, he says, okay, okay. If you want to be great, do it my way, then be the servant of all. So greatness, success, prosperity is not getting up in front of people and raising an offering or having people giving the offering. It could be part of that. Cause you have to be faithful when you give. You have to be faithful. You have to be generous and faithful. If you say you’re going to give, do it and be faithful to it. Have some integrity. Keep your word. But that’s not what this is.

0:24:08 – (Steve Gray): This is serving the Lord with gladness, putting your heart into it. Getting an appetite for God and God’s word. Become faithful and become. Keeping your word with some integrity. And success will begin in your life. You can start right now. Get success, but get it God’s way. Well, don’t forget to share this and tell other people about it. This is a little off the subject of what I do, but. Cause I really like to talk revival and church things and nation things.

0:24:36 – (Steve Gray): But get this. And boy, we could really have a conversation about revival, right? Because if you get this going in your life, you’re not going to be distracted by bills, living paycheck to paycheck. You’re not going to be distracted. Cause you had an argument. You’re always arguing with your wife. You’re always yelling at the kids. You go to work and there’s so much tension. That’s hard, you know, and competition. You go to church and it seems like it’s so hypocritical and so nominal when we say how much we love God. And there’s no sign that anybody really loves God.

0:25:04 – (Steve Gray): You know, I said that the other day. They say they love God. And I said, yeah, but they say they love pizza, too. And if it’s a contest, pizza’s going to win. So if you see that, so get all that. That doesn’t have to be you dream of greatness and God will give you success in everything you do. Till next time,  bye-bye.