BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Just think for a moment about the grace that was on the Apostle Paul! It enabled him to operate in the power of God at a very high level. One time when he and Silas were locked up in the bottom of a dungeon, it exploded into manifestation and, as they were praying and singing praises to God, an earthquake hit. It rattled the foundations of the prison so hard that all the doors in the place came open. Where did that earthquake come from? It came out of Paul and Silas. It was produced by the power of God that equipped Paul to be an apostle and assisted him in “his bonds.” The grace that worked in him for the “defence and confirmation of the gospel” manifested in the form of signs, wonders and miracles. It produced the remarkable healings that marked his ministry—the anointing that flowed into the handkerchiefs that, after they touched his body, healed and drove demons out of anyone who came into contact with them, and the kind of lightning-like power that temporarily blinded a sorcerer named Elymas in Acts 13 when he tried to stop Paul from preaching to a political leader. Talk about an exponential increase in the anointing! That’s the kind of divine power the Philippians tapped into when they became partners in Paul’s ministry and grace. Starting Out With Nothing but a Pencil I’ll never forget the first time I understood this. I was a student at Oral Roberts University, just getting started in ministry. I was working for Brother Roberts as co-pilot on his airplane and I’d flown him to a meeting in Georgia. He preached on the principle of partnership and at the end of the service he invited the people to become partners in his ministry. Thrilled at the opportunity to become a partner, I filled out the partnership envelope. I didn’t have any money. (I don’t mean I didn’t have any money with me, I mean I didn’t have any money, at all. None.) But I put the little pencil they’d given us inside the envelope and said, “LORD, this represents my $10 partner offering.” After the meeting I started to leave and a woman in the congregation hollered at me. (This was Georgia, remember. So, yes, she did holler.) “Hey you!” she said. “The LORD has been worrywarting me this whole meeting to give you $10.” “God bless you, lady!” I said, and grabbing the money I chased down the usher. He gave me my envelope back and I replaced the pencil with my $10. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. Praise God! I said to myself. I’m a partner with Oral Roberts! Almost immediately, his anointing began to manifest in my ministry. It came on me so clearly that Brother Roberts’ wife, Evelyn, actually commented on it. After watching me minister to people in a prayer line she said, “Kenneth, it’s the strangest thing. You and Oral don’t look anything alike but when you’re praying for people, somehow it’s like I see glimpses of him in you.” These days, people who partner with Gloria and me in our ministry experience the same kind of thing. If they believe and act on the partnership principle, they find they have available to them every gift that manifests in our lives. They become partakers of our anointing and grace, and as they put that grace to work, we all increase! This is what I mean when I say that partnership isn’t just about money. Finances are included in the increase we all experience, but money is the lowest form of power in the kingdom of God. The highest kind is prayer power. So in this ministry prayer is front and center. Gloria and I, as well as members of our staff, pray for our Partners every single day. We also treasure their prayers for us, because we know prayer can do things finances cannot. It can release additional supplies of God’s power into our lives and ministry. It can turn situations the devil meant for evil and cause them to work for our good. The prayers of the Apostle Paul’s partners certainly did that for him. When he wrote them he was in prison facing a possible death sentence, yet he had such confidence in the power of their partnership he wrote, “I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:19). Of course, at the end of his letter he also thanked them for their financial support. “No church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving,” he said, “but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:15-19). Look again at how Paul put that. He said, “My God shall supply all your need.” Why did he say my God? Because he wanted his partners to know their needs would be divinely supplied, not on their level, but on his level as an apostle. Unlike Paul, the Philippian believers, as individuals, didn’t have international ministries. Personally, they couldn’t take the gospel to that whole part of the world like he did. Yet because they partnered with him, Paul said God would BLESS them financially at a worldwide level! If you’re a Partner with Gloria and me, I can say the same about you. Our God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. As Partners in the seed we sow, He’ll give you an equal share in the harvest. That’s the power of partnership! V * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PRAYER IS OUR PRIORITY. +1-817-852-6000 7 days a week BVOV : 9

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