It's Supernatural

Sid:  My guest by way of telephone is Nita Johnson. On yesterday’s broadcast we found out that Nita from a young age, 9 years of age, started having visitations to the throne room of God and seeing the Last Day judgments in America. But recently one of the warnings God that said was the last judgment was going to be war. She received a mandate that unless we pray there will be war on our shores in the very near future. In particular the sin of anti-Semitism… for those that aren’t familiar would you tell me a little bit of the history of this nation, say in particular during World War II in reference to anti-Semitism.

Nita:  In 1935 this is the general mindset of America, there were few white collar jobs available to choose, no top positions in universities, a Jew could not hold any kind of top position in universities. Jewish people could not work in most of our hospitals either as nurses or doctors. Even many blue collared jobs were barred from the Jewish people. For instance if a secretary was discovered to have Jewish family, Jewish bloodline, she could very probably lose her job because of her Jewishness. They were not allowed to join country clubs, they were barred from the elite restaurants across the nation. When I say barred signs were put out in front of the restaurants “No Jews Allowed.” So they were barred from our more elite restaurants.

Sid:  In my lifetime I remember I was raised in Washington D.C. and I remember going to a beach and I couldn’t get over the fact that there was a sign that said “No blacks, or Jews, or dogs allowed.”

Nita:  That’s very sad isn’t it?

Sid:  So those that are thinking “Wait a second, not in the United States of America.” Go on Nita.

Nita:  Yes that was prominent. There was a survey conducted back in 1935 and in that survey they found that 53% of the American public saw Jews as the most troublesome people group in the world. 83% opposed admission of Jewish people in larger numbers as immigrants. So America was very very strongly anti-Semitic. That anti-Semitic spirit came to America from Europe when our ancestors came here from Europe. The common rhetoric of the hour was “Jews want to take over the world and must be stopped.” But the truth was that in 1935 they were one of the more oppressed people groups by in large in the entire world. In 1933 when Hitler was assigned to his office by the then chancellor Paul Von Hindenburg, he immediately began anti-Semitic propaganda in Germany and surrounding nations, the nations surrounding Germany. He established the first prison which is Dachau is a prison camp dealing with Jewish people and other people that were not desirous to the raid. In 1933 Jewish literature began to be destroyed throughout Germany. 1935 they passed what they call the “Nuremburg laws” which stripped all Jews of their rights and privileges. Jews were no longer allowed to intermarry with Gentiles and many other rights and privileges were removed. In Germany, Poland, in Austria, once the Nuremburg laws were passed in 1935 Jews were openly harassed, beaten, imprisoned, their businesses were boycotted, and their lives began to be governed by an ever increasing anti-Semitic laws that were being established in Germany. In 1938 this had increased so much the persecution against the Jewish people murders being a common everyday event of the Jewish people in Europe that they had what was called the Evian Conference. It came to be known as the Evian Conference in Evian France. Thirty two nations came together, this conference was spearheaded by the way by America. Thirty two nations came together to discuss the forced massive deportations of the Jews trying to decide what to do with them. There was only out of the 32 nations that attended this conference there was only 1 nation that was willing to take Jews and that was the Dominican Republic and they offered to open their borders to a hundred thousand Jewish families. Of the hundred thousand that they were willing to open their borders to, and that was at the cost of a tremendous financial settlement by the way. Of the hundred thousand that were supposed to have been accepted only one thousand ultimately were accepted the end of the war in 1945.  The Jewish ambassador, I mean the German ambassador went home and told Hitler “We can do what we want with them no one wants them.” So that opened the floodgates of Hitler’s hatred for the Jewish people across Germany. In November of that same year an event took place that came to be known as “Kristallnacht.” In Kristallnacht the Jewish businesses were desecrated, destroyed I mean windows were… the main thing about that whole thing was the broken that’s why it was called “Kristallnacht,” the “Night of the broken glass.” They broke the windows of Jewish businesses, the Jewish synagogues; they destroyed many Jewish synagogues across Germany and across Austria, and burned Jewish religious books. From the time that Kristallnacht… oh and they picked up 30 thousand men Sid for no reason except the fact that they were Jewish; picked up 30 thousand men and put them in prison camps.  The only men that came out of those prison camps alive were men whose families could prove to the government that they had visas or had landing permits to make a home in another country. If they couldn’t prove that the man was never released and he died in the prison camp. So synagogues were destroyed, businesses were destroyed, men were picked up and imprisoned, Jewish hospitals were destroyed, were looted, schools were looted, Jewish schools were looted and tremendous damage done all the way across Germany and Austria. From that point on Jews began to be barred from theatres, from public parks, Jewish children could no longer go to Gentile schools in fact even the Jewish schools were shut down so the Jewish children couldn’t go to school period. By the end of 1938 almost all Jewish banks had been forcibly put into the hands of Gentiles. Now I’m sharing all of this for 2 reasons:

1. To explain to the listener that there is one thing that has perpetrated every holocaust against the Jewish people, the Lord spoke this to me audibly. In my hours and hours of studying investigation regarding various holocausts I found it to be true and that is greed. The Gentile has risen up in greed desiring what was of the Jew. So they desired their homes, they desired their artwork, they desired their businesses, they desired their money. So the holocaust would begin and Jews would be killed in mass. Their property confiscated even as most listeners know they would even take the gold out of teeth. To the tune of millions and millions of dollars. So greed is at the bottom of every holocaust that has been perpetrated upon the Jewish person. It was no different in Germany.

Sid:  Now of course, and it can never be treated lightly with the 6 million men, Jewish men, women, and children that were murdered just because they were Jews. But what is not known is the sad history of the United States of America while this was going on. Would you tell me some of that?

Nita:  In America we were very aware of what was taking place at least our government leaders were. Roosevelt was, the man Breckinridge Long who headed the immigration, and of the government was well aware of what was going on. In fact he was a known anti-Semite in his day. So our government knew what was taking place in Europe…

Sid:  Nita I’m sorry we’re out of time.

Sid: I have on the telephone Patti Perior and I’m speaking to her at her home in Porter Ranch, California and she was mentored and her spiritual father was Tommy Hicks. And Tommy Hicks is a man that God used to ignite an entire nation Argentina with the Holy Spirit wonderful miracles occurred. The thing that intrigued me so much is Patty told me that she had a prophecy for Tommy Hicks got his number called him up and gave him the prophesy and it obviously was so right on that he said “I want to meet this person.” So he invited her over to his house and her brother came with her and she saw a midst of God’s glory around his face to the point that she couldn’t even make out his features.  And she said to her brother “Did you see that?”  And her brother said “Yes I had that same experience.” And Patti was crying out “God there must be something more and God I need Your love, I need greater intimacy with You, God there must be more!” And she received a baptism of love that…Tommy prayed for her and said that she was one of the first people that had received that beside himself.  And I have to tell you Patti I want that desperately listen we have listeners right now that want that baptism of love desperately.  Describe what that is exactly again in your words.

Patti: It is an overwhelming endearment.  It is the presence of love as He manifests Himself in different ways this is such a manifestation of feeling that it goes so deep in you like a river of life, a river of love that is just overwhelming.  It takes you into that deep deep intimacy with Him and gives you such love for Him and for the Body of Christ.  Such love for the world you understand you understand why Jesus laid His life down on that cross for the world because of the consuming love of God in Him.

Sid: I can sense the best way to describe it is that Jesus said “You shall have rivers of living water flowing continuously from your innermost being.” And those that are open to the Holy Spirit and that’s sensing that river on this entire interview especially is pouring out right now.  Okay Patti.

Patti: Well I just…I would like to pray for those who desire to receive this baptism of His love. I feel the Holy Spirit has been drawing and wooing the Bride of Christ the true believers to Himself because He wants to give us more more of Himself.  He wants us to have more He wants us to desire Him more so that He can fill us with His fullness. And though you have all of the gifts and you have not the love of God they amount to nothing. God wants us to have lasting fruit, fruit that remains as it says in John 15:16.  So I’d like to just pray for you right now.  I just pray for you right now that you’d open your heart just whatever you’re doing just set it aside. Some maybe driving in your cars well God wants you just fully open your heart so I’m going to pray for you right now.  Father God Lord God there are things that have gotten in our way that have cluttered up the river. And Lord I pray that those things will be removed; if there be anything of bitterness, resentfulness in our hearts and lives that causes youth pains that cause displeasure to You Lord we ask You to remove it right now in the name of Jesus. Because we want Your river of life we want that river of love to flow into us to just overflow to so fill every dimension of our being that we can be.  Lord in order to be as You are Lord you told us to be as You are we are as You are. Without that fullness we cannot operate in this life in the Spirit without that fullness of Your love in the name of Jesus. I pray for every person listening to this program that the Holy Spirit of the Living God will come in them from the top of the head down into the souls of their feet to fill their innermost being with that love of God that surpasses understanding that is beyond anything this world could ever give. Pour out that Holy Spirit that river of love, that river of life I thank You dear Jesus anoint them especially this day with that Holy Spirit the Spirit of love in life in Jesus name we pray Amen.

Sid: Amen amen receive receive in Yeshua’s name receive in Jesus name thank You Father, thank You Lord.  Patti there’s such a strong anointing I would like you to continue praying for people to be physically healed right now for miracles to break loose.

Patti: Father God we thank You that You are a God that restores and makes them new and makes life and makes perfect. The Lord is showing me there is somebody that has a condition in the center of their head that has to do with the pituitary gland. Lord God I pray right now the Holy Spirit will touch this one and release them.  I pray the Holy Spirit the Spirit of life that will bring the healing power the healing virtue to this one and that head will be released in the name of Jesus I praise You I thank You dear God.  There is somebody listening that has a spirit of suicide.  In the name of Jesus I come against the spirit of suicide and I curse that spirit in Jesus name and I command that to go in the name of Jesus and by the blood of Jesus I command that spirit of suicide (Praying in the Spirit) and for the Holy Spirit to come upon that person and give them peace and give them the encouragement and give them the hope that You want them to have to raise them up strong to give them peace in their innermost being dear Jesus. I thank You that You are the Prince of Peace establishing Yourself Lord God I pray for all of those listening for those spirits of suicide I believe will thank You Lord. There are going in Jesus name Lord for arthritis I pray the Holy Spirit will heal people with arthritis that are listening.  Those limbs that are stiff and are in pain they will be freed right now in the name of Jesus. Thank You Lord I just pray You’ll move upon these listeners dear God and Lord I pray for that one with this heart condition and I shared how Jesus Christ has healed my heart. I pray Lord God that Your Spirit will come upon those that have heart condition and that You will totally heal in Your precious name Lord Jesus Your precious name thank You Lord.

Sid: While Patti was praying for arthritis I very specifically heard legs being healed, legs being healed and backs being healed in Jesus name. Spines being totally healed thank You Father I really believe that there are people you’re feeling the pain just leave. And Father God I thank You that those that listening that have not made You Lord they might have said a prayer with Billy but to be born again but they have not made You Lord. And this is eternal life that you might know Him not just say a prayer with Billy, not just intellectually believe but have an experience with God.  If you tell God you’re sorry for your sins and believe the blood of Jesus washed away your sins and do this out loud just say “Dear God I’m a sinner please forgive me with Your help and turn from my sins I believe the blood of Jesus has washed away my sins. And now that I am clean I ask Jesus to live inside of me. I make you Lord over every area of my life Amen.”

Sid:  We want everyone everywhere to hear the good news but there is a problem in America. It’s got to do with money, it’s got to do with the lust connected with money, it’s got to do with misunderstanding God’s principles of finance. I have felt for a long time there’s something off there’s something that needs to be corrected having to do with money in the body of Messiah and the approaches for raising money, and the reasons and the motives for giving money. I got ahold of an audio cassette series by an individual a teacher that we’ve had on Messianic Vision before friend of mine Craig Hill he’s founder of the Family Foundation International. They conduct seminars on helping families, teaching seminars they’re based in Littleton, Colorado. I have Craig on the telephone right now and you gave an example in your series I don’t think anyone could ever forget and you call it “Sparrow Faith.” Would you explain this Craig?

Craig:  Sure. That comes Sid from Matthew chapter 6:24 – 26 and of course verse 24 we talked about in the last couple of days “You cannot serve God and mammon.” We’re talking again about the fact that mammon is a spirit it’s not money, but Jesus goes on in verse 25 and He says “Therefore” which of course means because of what I just said you cannot serve God and mammon, “therefore I say to you do not worry about your life.” What we find most Christians doing a spending a lot of time worrying about their life. Jesus said “Don’t do that, not what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing.” And verse 26 is really the interesting one, and of course I’ve read this verse all my life and it was just only a couple of years ago that something new and it came alive to me because verse 26 is Jesus’ example of how provision comes to us. So how are we supposed to be provided for? Every one of us needs provision, every one of us needs food, we clothing, we need shelter, we need these types of things. So how is that meant to come? And Jesus tells us in verse 26 His picture here is “Look at the sparrows,” or some translations say “The birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather in the barns yet Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” The thing that just shocked me Sid when this came alive to me is all my life what I’ve always heard people say is “When you’re in need, when you don’t have enough money the thing that you need to do is you need to give. And the reason you need to do that is because of sowing and reaping because of the principle of sowing and reaping.” The thing I saw in the scripture was that that’s not wrong to give when we’re in need but usually people are doing it for a wrong motive. The motive is they are giving to try to get God to meet their need and the problem with that is that throws God’s provision back on the basis of my works again instead of His grace. Whereas Jesus is actually saying here He says the example of the picture is the sparrows, “Look at the sparrows they don’t sow or reap, or gather in the barns. The reason they’re provided for is their Father in heaven loves them and it’s His good pleasure and delight to give to them, to make provision for them.” Something came alive in my spirit Sid when I saw that I suddenly realized God’s provision for me is not based on anything I do or don’t do. God’s provision for me is as a result of His grace to me…

Sid:  And yet there is a truth in the law of sowing and reaping, and yet what it’s saying there is it’s not based on their sowing and reaping it’s based on God’s care.

Craig:  That’s right sowing and reaping is not for the purpose of getting your need met according to Jesus here. Jesus says “I’m going to meet your need because I love you, or My Father’s going to meet your need because He loves you.” Another picture…

Sid:  Sounds like a good God to me.

Craig:  Oh it’s wonderful to understand who God is. Another picture that would go along parallel with that is a little child in the home of his parents. Most little children that I know of would not be required to sow and reap in order to receive their provision. In other words, how ridiculous would be for a little child to come up to his mother at lunch and say “Mommy if I give you half of my peanut butter sandwich, or if I give away half of my peanut butter sandwich to somebody that’s in need could I please have dinner?” Well no his mother says “I’m going to give you dinner anyway just because I love you.” Not that giving away half your peanut butter sandwich would be a wrong thing to do, but that’s not the reason to do it you give it away because you want to bless that person that has need but I don’t try give away half my peanut butter sandwich as a little child to try to induce my parents to make provision for me. No my parents made provision for me when I was a child because they loved me. Jesus’ point here is “My Father in heaven wants to make provision for you because He loves you.” The powerful scripture that I saw in the Amplified is Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 and 6. It says:

“Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said,”  Now this isn’t your father who said this, or your pastor who said this, or your husband, this is God Himself who said this: “I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?”

Sid:  You know Craig as you’re aware many and many of the Mishpochah are I come from a Jewish background. I had what was known as a classic Jewish mother I had a good father too, but I had what was known as a classic Jewish mother.

Craig:  Right.

Sid:  Whenever I had a need mom would come through.

Craig:  Yep.

Sid:  Whether I was good or bad, stupid or smart I knew unconditionally my mom would come through. Now when I became a believer in the Messiah somehow that picture of my mom coming through was transferred to my heavenly Father. I can’t tell you how but it was it was like a natural step. I have always felt that God would provide and guess what, He has.

Craig:  That’s your experience.

Sid:  But someone may not have had an experience like that and may treat God the way perhaps their mother or father treated them…

Craig:  That’s right.

Sid:  …And have that wrong picture on the inside of them.

Craig:  That’s exactly right. That’s true for an awful lot of people that they have a wrong picture or often times through wrong teaching. They’ve been taught that their provision is dependent upon what they do that they better do this, they better do that and if they don’t God isn’t going to provide for them. That is a wrong picture of God because God loves us. You don’t see sparrows running around having anxiety attacks…

Sid:  (Laughing) You gave a story of a man that didn’t… just had enough money for a bus ride home, the weather was bad, the distance was far…

Craig:  Yeah.

Sid:  …And you did something that some people would say “Shame on you Craig Hill.” What did you do?

Craig:  (Laughing) I felt like when it happened I had a man come for counsel. Our ministry at that time was supported by the offerings people gave. So we always prayed with each person at each time each session and said “Let’s pray and ask the Lord what you’re to give in the offering.” So I did that same with this man and he said “Well we don’t even need to pray I have nothing.” And I felt, it was real strange Sid, I felt the Spirit of God just rise up in me and I said to him something that I would’ve never in my own natural mind wanted to say, but I said “I don’t believe you. Empty your pockets.” He emptied his billfold, and he emptied his pockets, and sure enough he had nothing in his billfold but out fell 50 cents from his pocket.

Sid:  Big deal!

Craig:  Yeah, and I said “I knew you had something.”

Sid:  (Laughing)

Craig:  And he looked at me with terror in his eyes and he said “No that’s my bus fare home. I live 16 miles away I’m going to have to walk home in the snow if you take that away from me.” I felt the Lord just rise up again in me and I said “You know what we’re going to pray and ask God what part of that you’re going to give in the offering.” Terror just struck his heart and that’s when I realized why God was asking me to do that and the reason was… again this spirit of mammon had so gripped this man’s mind that he was trusting in 50 cents he wasn’t trusting in God to get him home he never trusted in God he always trusted in those little coins to get him home. And of course as we said a couple of days ago in reality there’s no power in those coins there’s power in God.

Sid:  There’s some people listening and they’re say “Well that’s not me I have more than 50 cents.” But you know what in principle that’s many people, you’re speaking to many people Craig right now.

Craig:  And I told that man “You’ve got to know I’m not after your money. I mean you could give the whole 50 cents and I don’t think it’s going to change anything in our ministry one way or the other, but what I’m after is faith in your heart to begin to rise up toward God. What I call Sparrow Faith to know that God loves you and he’s going to provide for you. And what we’re going to do right now is break the power of that spirit of mammon…”

Sid:  How do you, that’s a good question, how do you break the power of that spirit?

Craig:  Yeah 2 things:

1. First of all recognize it and repent.
2. You begin to give. You begin to break the power of that spirit by taking money which was designed for buying and selling and you begin to give it, not for the purpose of… here’s the distinction that’s tricky. Not for the purpose of trying to get God to meet my need because of my giving, but what I’m doing is breaking the power of that spirit’s hold over my mind.

Jesus did it for example with a rich young ruler that came to Him. He asked that rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. And of course the disciples I’m sure were thinking “Well we have some stuff do we have to do the same Jesus?” People may be listening today “Well is that what I really need to do? Should I sell everything and give it to the poor?” You know what I’ve told some people Sid “If you have ask the question maybe you do?” Because the issue is not the money or the stuff the issue is “In what is my trust?” and that was the issue for this man.

Sid:  Did the man give his 50 cents?

Craig:  In the end we prayed and he felt like the Lord was speaking to him to give 5 cents.

Sid:  Yeah but he needed 50 cents to get home.

Craig:  That’s right.

Sid:  So 45 doesn’t cut it.

Craig:  That’s and that’s what he was afraid of. So he gave his 5 cents walked… and we prayed over it, walked out of my office came back the next week with a miracle story.  He said “I was still angry when I went down to the bus stop” but he said “It was an amazing thing I found a nickel at the base of the bus stop sign.” He said “It was halfway home before I even acknowledged it was God.” He said “I was still angry and I said to myself ‘Boy that was sure lucky I found this.’” Then halfway home he realized “God that was You, You did that!” When he got home he in addition found an unexpected check for $5 in the mail which he attributed to God. He came back the next week excited he said “I’m ready to pray! Can we pray in advance I want to begin to give in the offering,” and that man’s life turned around and changed as that spirit was broken over him…

Sid:  No matter what is going on in your life things can turn around, and if the good that can be better and if they’re bad allow for the supernatural.

Sid:  We want every one everywhere to get a handle on your finances so that you will really be the head and not the tail, but make sure that the spirit behind it is not a wrong spirit. That’s why I have on the telephone right now I’m speaking to him at his headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, Craig Hill who is the founder of Family Foundations International. They conduct seminars having to do with the family, and I got a hold of his teachings titled “God’s Principals of Finance.” Now my background is finance, I have interviewed many men and women on this subject and this is the freshest approach and the most Biblical approach I have ever seen and that’s why I have him on the air. On yesterday’s broadcast we were talking about a scripture that we’re all familiar with Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 “And you can’t serve God and mammon.” Most people even some Bibles translate mammon as money, but Craig you found out that it has another meaning and actually makes more sense when you realize what Jesus really meant by that meaning of mammon.

Craig:  Yeah that’s right we were talking yesterday about the fact that that word mammon doesn’t actually mean money but it was talking about an idolatrous god worshipped by Philistine people at the time of Jesus. Of course the demonic principality or spirit behind that god that influences people’s minds and influences people’s emotions. We were saying yesterday there are two basic ways that that spirit does that, or there are two primary things just like any spirit. What it wants of course is worship unto itself, and it wants the allegiance of people’s hearts. It wants your heart to give allegiance to it, obviously nobody would do that on purpose so it has to deceive to do that. So what it does is it causes people to greatly fear the lack of money and to make money very very important, or money is the goal, then God becomes the means. So what happens when the spirit of mammon is involved is the master slave relationship is inverted. Money becomes the master and God becomes our servant to get us money.

Sid:  You know I hear what you’re saying and I hear many people seem to say the right words “I want you to give to my ministry so you will have money to give to other ministries.”

Craig:  Right.

Sid:  And that’s a correct stance…

Craig:  That’s right.

Sid:  …but still behind it is the greed principle, or as you put it “A false god by the name of mammon.”

Craig:  That’s right. That actually captures people’s hearts and I think sometimes as Christian leaders we actually can play upon that fear that spirit has created in people’s heart of not having enough money, and cause money to be the end, money to be the goal, and we’re using Biblical principles then to tell people then “If you will just do this or do that we’re going to use God to get money as opposed to just the opposite,” which would be the truth. We’re going to use money to expand the kingdom of God. So money is meant to be our servant not our master. Just when you think about how powerful that really is. If the Holy Spirit were to speak to someone today “I want you to go on a mission trip to China in 3 months’ time.” Do you know that most Christians would immediately say in their own mind “How am I going to get the money?” The governing factor is not the Holy Spirit, the governing factor is the money.

Sid:  So then when you go back to Matthew 6:24 “You can’t serve both you either serve that governing spirit, or you serve God.”

Craig:  That’s right and the issue is to which one has your heart given over an allegiance because the issue is there would be people listening to the broadcast… as a matter of fact Sid I bet you there are people have tuned into the broadcast because they heard we were talking about this today. The reason you tuned into the broadcast is because you wanted to find out “How can solve all of my financial problems? How can I get out of debt? How can I make money?” What we’re saying is God wants to accomplish those purposes but that not’s the goal, the goal is not “How can I get more money?” The goal is “I want to serve God, how can I pursue God?” Money then becomes a tool, or money becomes a… my servant to expand the kingdom of God. You know we’ve found some of the symptoms of this spirit of mammon are really interesting. A lot of things people wouldn’t necessarily think of but how gripping this spirit really is in terms of grabbing ahold of people’s minds and demanding allegiance to it. I thought of 10 different symptoms of this spirit of mammon. You know this is an interesting thing I thought, money actually is impotent. Money has no power God has power, the spirit of mammon has power and your heart is going to go after one of the two of those, but in reality money is impotent. But until a person recognizes how impotent money truly is his heart will never be free from its pursuit. So a person will continue to pursue money as long as he believes that’s where the real power is, whereas in reality the power is with God, or mammon and your heart is going to be given over to one of the two of those. But in terms of talking about the symptoms of mammon here would be some of the symptoms that I’ve found Sid:

1. Simply worry and anxiety over money. People that lie awake at night would worry in anxiety.
2. Mismanagement of money. “I don’t know where it all went.” Or in other words, too much month left at the end of the money.
3. Never having enough. You know I found out what afflicts either rich people or poor people, some people would not recognize that even people that have great sums of money or asset values still never have enough. So in other words you’re consistently spending 120% of the resource that’s available it doesn’t matter what is available you never have enough.
4. A mentality of “I can’t afford it. No matter how much I have I can’t afford it.” I know one man that has probably over $3 million in assets but has great difficulty of letting go of money to purchase clothing for his family because, and he always says “Well we can’t afford it.” Well obviously he CAN but that’s a mentality that that spirit creates.
5. Another symptom would be impulse buying “Can’t turn down the deals.” A lot of times you’ll have… this’ll create tremendous arguments between husbands and wives. One will come home having purchased something and the other one will say “Well what is that for? What do we need that for?” The one who purchased it says “I don’t know but I got a deal. It was cheap.” So an inability to turn down things that we would buy on impulse.
6. Stinginess would be another one. Sort of the thing that goes along with that is a fear of tithing. Many many people have a sense that tithing is the right thing to do but there’s a tremendous fear if “I ever began to do that I would perish.” So I need to hang on to everything I have. A symptom of that spirit’s influence.
7. Greed would be another symptom. I define that as an inordinate desire to acquire or possess.
8. Discontentment would be an 8^th
9. Bondage to debt. Many many people in this nation have a tremendous bondage to debt that’s just overwhelming to them. Then the last one that I noticed is:
10. An exaggerated importance of money and overestimate of its power. When you hear people talk about somebody that has a lot of money they talk as though that were a very valuable person. Somebody who doesn’t have any money is sort of a not valuable person. So there’s an exaggerated importance of money overestimate of its power.

Again Sid I believe if we don’t recognize the spirit behind that and deal with that, that what’s going to happen is many of us know the things to do, we know that we ought to live on a budget. We know ought to tithe, we know we ought to be giving offerings, we know we ought to get out of debt but I find so many people have an absolute inability to do the things they know and the reason that is they’ve never dealt with the spirit that has grabbed ahold of their mind and all the emotions and thoughts that go along with that that they don’t even recognize have been operative in their life for years and years and years.

Sid:  What you point out is this spirit has a name.

Craig:  Yes.

Sid:  His name is mammon.

Craig:  Hmm hm.

Sid:  He’s been around a long time but then you say if you don’t get free of that spirit it links with other spirits.

Craig:  It’ll link with other spirits and it’ll couple with other areas of iniquity. Bitterness it’ll couple with often times. It can couple with greed, it can couple with other types of emotions that sort of thing and really influence people’s lives. We see an example of that in Acts chapter 8 where we find the man Simon the sorcerer who wanted to buy the Holy Spirit with money. Again the issue there was a spirit of mammon operative in his life that had coupled with what Peter described as the gull of bitterness and had really twisted his mind around in thinking that he could buy the power of God with money. Again just the opposite of what Jesus had in mind.

Sid:  Once you recognize it’s a spirit, what do you do about it?

Craig:  I think the first thing to do is to repent for allowing it to grab hold of a person’s mind.  A lot of times I’ve found it’s generational it’s come through several generations of time. So…

Sid:  I’ve noticed most of these curses are generational like an alcoholic you’ll find there’s alcoholics in the family.

Craig:  Yep.

Sid:  But you mean even the poverty and there are problems with money run in generations.

Craig:  I think it does. A lot of times a lot of us are of the age group that our parents went through the depression. So we heard time and time again “You’ve got to be careful. You could lose everything. You’ve got to be very attentive to money, collect all the money you can , save it for a rainy day and be very careful.” Again what it does it directs people’s attention off of God and makes God simply the means to get money, but money is the real answer.

Sid:  Now have you seen people take your seminar and their lives changed by getting rid of this spirit of mammon.

Craig:  We’ve seen so many people changed Sid it’s unbelievable and changed in practical results in terms of practical financial results but also to see the pressure lifted off of somebody, to see the fear come off somebody. To see somebody’s focus really return to be on God…

Sid:  I imagine a lot of marriages are saved just by getting at this spirit.

Craig:  That really is true because that spirit just wreaks havoc in a marriage. If you go to a divorce court you’ll hear probably I think 80% of the divorces have a tremendous influence of money and arguments over money…

Sid:  Give me one specific case that comes to mind of someone that’s applied these principles and had help.

Craig:  You know there was a young woman that came to a seminar in New Zealand. When we began talking she initially came and said “I felt like I had a pretty good handle on my finances.” She wrote me later she said “You know I found out that it wasn’t a handle it was a grip that I had fine finances.” She said “I know idea it was a spirit of mammon” but what she did on one of the evenings we were talking about tithing and that was just intently scary to her and her husband because there was no way she could live on 100% of her income she couldn’t see a way that she could possibly begin to tithe. But to make a long story short she and her husband made a commitment in their heart that they were going to tithe and trust God to be their provider. You know the day they made that commitment they had a supernatural release of finances that came to them that just changed their financial situation…

Sid:  Oh Craig we’re out of time!

Sid:  One of the biggest problems in marriage today, one of the biggest problems among people today, in this one of the most blessed countries the world has ever seen the United States of America is money. One of the most misunderstood areas is money, debt it’s unprecedented.  The little plastic cards that people have managed to get themselves in so much debt and paying so much interest that there appears to be no way of getting free unless you go bankrupt. I have on the telephone the founder of Family Foundation International, Craig Hill. This is a seminar teaching ministry primarily in areas of the family. There are so many misunderstandings to the point where people are turned off on a lot of the appeals by ministries, or approaches if you, will by money.  We did with the area of prophecy we corrected some misunderstandings on the air and this week we are going to correct some misunderstandings on money. I have Craig Hill on the telephone I’m speaking to him at his office in Littleton, Colorado. I just recently listened to a 7 audio cassette series on God’s principles of finances. I’ve got a question for you Craig I want to start out with.

Craig:  Sure Sid.

Sid:  I know an individual that decided to go into business for himself.

Craig:  Hmm hm.

Sid:  He felt God gave him the idea. He’s a strong Spirit filled Christian. A young man and…

Craig:  Hmm hm.

Sid:  …he didn’t have money. So he decided this was such a great idea “I’m going to borrow money on my plastic, on my credit cards.” And he borrowed a large sum of money on a number of credit cards which I think it’s just a crime that credit card companies would just give this amount of money to a young person with no assets starting a new business. The business went under, and now he’s in a position of having to pay so much in interest the interest is growing faster than he can pay the principal.

Craig:  (Laughing)

Sid:  He’s in a first class mess and looking at bankruptcy. If you were counseling this young man what would you say?

Craig:  Well I think that could be any number of a lot of people Sid. I would think that there’d probably be a lot of people listening right now that would be in a similar type of situation. The thing that… first that people need to understand is that this has afflicted many types of people and that we live in a society that is drunk on debt. That usually when people find themselves in that kind of situation it’s certainly no secret to them that they’ve made mistakes…

Sid:  You know I want to interject something. A lot of people don’t know this but before I became a believer I was an account executive at Merrill Lynch…

Craig:  Oh!

Sid:  …in the investment business.  Before that I was in the life insurance business. I used to say to people “We will never have another 1929 because there are laws that have been instituted to not allow people to borrow so much on their stocks,” it was called margin. As a result of these, and this is what I was told to say “we won’t have another 1929.” But you know what? We’ve got worse situations because of plastic credit cards than they ever had in the borrowing on stocks on the margin accounts in 1929.

Craig:  That’s really true. I was reading a newspaper article not too long ago here in our Denver newspaper about several people, young people – college students, several of them who had committed suicide as a result of the pressure of the debt that they had gotten involved in through credit…

Sid:  Hmm.

Craig:  …through the credit cards, plastic cards. One young woman had called her mom up and just weeping on the phone “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” Her mom said “Don’t worry we’ll help you” but that pressure was so intense they found that girl dead a couple of days later having committed suicide with a raft of credit cards spread all over the room and bills and she had just been overwhelmed with the pressure of that and not knowing how to get out of it.

Sid:  Well there is a new marketing strategy of getting credit cards in the hands of college students. So start them in debt before they even get their degree.

Craig:  Sure. That’s really true. You know an interesting thing, I think a lot of times as Christians we haven’t really realized that we have opened the door for that ourselves toward our own children by utilizing credit cards in that same way ourselves as…

Sid:  Monkey see, monkey do.

Craig:  Yeah that’s right. In Proverbs 22:26 says “Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart.” We’ve opened the door and trained a lot of children in that way and they do start very very early.

Sid:  Okay you’re advising this young man. He’s made his mess, now what advice do you give him?

Craig:  Yeah he’s going to have to do 2 things that I know of for sure Sid. First thing that’s he’s going to have to understand is that there is a spiritual aspect to this as well as a practical aspect. So there are things that always needs to be kept in balance in terms of what is happening spiritually as well as what is happening practically. Jesus said you know in John chapter 4 verse 23 “Those who worship the Father will need to worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” So the first thing I’d advise this young man he’s going to have to understand the spiritual side of what’s happening to him. There are a lot of things that he’s feeling, a lot of pressures the things he’s experiencing are absolutely spiritual and need to be dealt with in at realm. Then there’s a practical that he’s going to have to deal with to walk out of this in terms of stepping up to his debt. In terms of stepping up to each one of these creditors he owes and beginning to make agreement with them. What we’ve found that happens an awful lot of times regarding debt is that people are willing many times to eliminate the interest. They’re willing to renegotiate all kinds of prior agreements when a person is honest…

Sid:  But it’s so much easier when it’s overwhelming to just go bankrupt. There’s whole industries that are set up. Is there anything wrong with a Christian going bankrupt?

Craig:  That’s very true that a whole lot of industry is setup to do that. What I think happens Sid is a lot of people are not counting on the supernatural at all. They’re not looking to God at all they’re only looking in the natural and what I find that debt does to people is it is so overwhelming it creates so much shame, so much pressure people feel absolutely overwhelmed , overloaded that many times they choose that option when there’s no need at all for choosing that option when if they would simply step up to their debt, begin to talk to their creditors do what they can do. What I notice you know there’s always a pressure the enemy on all of our lives that cause us to focus on what we don’t have and what we can’t do. I find so many times that when people quit focusing on what they don’t have and can’t do and begin to focus on what they do have and can do, and they begin to do the natural things then God will begin to do the supernatural things.

Sid:  Okay let’s make a shift right now because we’re talking about this whole series on money. There’s something that has disturbed me, it’s been hard for me to even articulate it which is hard to believe because that’s what I do.

Craig:  (Laughing)

Sid:  But it’s hard for me to… there is something about the spirit that is behind a lot of evangelists that ask for money…

Craig:  Right.

Sid: …that say, this isn’t what they’re saying but this is how it’s received by many people. “If you will give to me God will give you a 100 fold back on what you’re giving…”

Craig:  Right.

Sid:  “…and give everyone that gives a $1000 today watch what God is going to do.” Somehow there is a greed motivation…

Craig:  Right.

Sid:  …and I don’t even think God honors that even though there’s a law of sewing and reaping. Somehow we tap into that but there’s something in this greed that causes it to not even work and the only one that makes money is perhaps the evangelist.

Craig:  Yeah I think what you’re saying Sid is absolutely true. Well what a lot of people have not recognized is I think there really is something very powerful operative in the spirit realm that people haven’t recognized. Now first, I saw this in Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 a scripture that would be very familiar to most of us where Jesus said “No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” All my life I’ve heard mammon taught as simply being another word for money, even in some translations of the Bible it translates it directly as money.

Sid:  I’ve seen that.

Craig:  Sure, but the way that Jesus has set this up is these two things are absolute opposites. God and whatever mammon is, and if indeed mammon were money if we were to fully give our hearts over to God and serve God then we should have nothing to do with mammon. If we do have anything to do with mammon then we are not serving God. Well if mammon meant money the obvious point is that we should have nothing to do with money. People in past centuries of course have taken that approach checked themselves into a monastery taken a vow of poverty and had nothing to do with any kind of money or worldly possessions for the rest of their life. But the thing that was startling to me that finally gave me some help in understanding this was when I heard a friend of mine with WYAM in Canada, a man by called Earl Pitts. Had done some research with another founder of school of Biblical studies with WYAM, Ron Smith, into the etymology and origin of that word mammon, and Sid do you know what they found the actual original meaning of that word was, is it didn’t mean money but it was actually an idolatrous god that was worshipped by Philistine people in the days of Jesus.

Sid:  Huh!

Craig:  So when Jesus said “You can’t serve God and mammon” He wasn’t talking about money per se He was actually talking about an idolatrous god that people worshipped. I think that it’s pretty evident to most people that behind every one of those idolatrous gods was a demonic principality or a demonic entity that was working behind that. I really believe that that same… that what that mammon is is actually the proper name of demonic principality that is operative still on planet earth today. The purpose of which is to grip and grab hold of people’s minds and I think that spirit is doing 2 powerful things in the lives of people in this country:

1. Is to cause an intense focus on money and cause people to highly value money and look to money as the answer to all of their problems.
2. To cause people to greatly fear the lack of money.

So if an evangelist as you say, in the example that you were just sharing is motivated by that spirit without realizing it, what can happen is he can indeed use the principle of sewing and reaping as you were suggesting to key in, or tie in, to the fear that is already in people’s hearts that they don’t have enough money and suggest that… the goal of this whole exercise is to get you money and we’re going to use God now to get you money. Of course all of us have heard offerings taken up in that way, or have been in services where that happened and there’s something that just grates on your spirit on the inside. The thing that I finally discovered that was is there’s a wrong spirit behind that.

Sid:  Craig we’re out of time we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow’s broadcast.