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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/414546
I’ll never forget the meetings we had there! Before they began, Brother Begishe filled me in about what to expect—particularly at offering time. “Brother Copeland,” he said, “our people have been taught never to come before The LORD empty-handed, so they always bring an offering. But it isn’t always money. Sometimes they give little polished stones they’ve found on the ground, a favorite shirt that’s been washed and ironed, or a favorite piece of jewelry.” I thought that was great. But what really thrilled me was what he said next. “When our church first got started, no one who attended owned a car or a pickup truck. Everyone walked, rode a horse, or traveled by horse and wagon. But I began to teach them The WORD of God, and now every member of my church has either a car or a pickup. We’re prospering.” I knew when I heard that, it was nothing short of supernatural. The area was famous for being one of the most scarcely populated, poverty-stricken places in the nation. Yet this church was not only flourishing, the people in it were too—even though they had nothing to put in the offering but rocks! What made such a thing possible? Where did the resources come from? I’ll tell you this, the government didn’t provide them. Neither did the bank. They didn’t come from the thriving local economy because there wasn’t one. In fact, the resources for White Post Church and its congregation didn’t come from this natural world at all. They came from The WORD of God through people who dared to believe that what Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 is the absolute truth: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Their faith brought prosperity to the Navajo Nation. The nation did not bring prosperity to them. Part of the Problem or Part of the Answer? “Brother Copeland, that’s great,” you might say, “but not all of us are called to do what Kenneth Begishe did.” Sure we are. God might not tell us to start a church like he did, but we’re all called to do the works of Jesus in one form or another. We’re all called to hear what God is saying to us, “receive it, and bring forth fruit” (Mark 4:20). That’s how God’s will gets done on earth as it is in heaven. God says it, we believe His WORD and speak it, then the Father within us does the work and brings it to pass. That’s the process God used all the way through the Bible. It’s what He did at Creation and recorded in Genesis. It’s what Jesus did throughout the Gospels; and it’s what God intends us to be doing every day to manifest His BLESSING in and through our lives. He doesn’t want us depending on the world and its systems. He doesn’t want us looking on the outside to people and governments and economies for the resources we need to carry out His will. He created us to live from the inside out. He desires us to be dependent on no one but Him! Instead of being subject to the problems in this world, we’re supposed to draw on The WORD and the Spirit of God within us and bring forth the answers! BVOV : 5