And I want you to look carefully, think about 2 Samuel, the 17th chapter.  You don’t have to go there.  But in 2 Samuel, the 17th chapter, everybody knows the story of David and Goliath, right?  What’s Goliath’s older brother’s name?  Oh, got you, don’t I?  His name is S-a-p-h, and in the story of Saph in the Bible, it actually means the container, the containment.

And a friend of mine—wherever you are, Frank.  I know I saw you in here a minute ago—Frank Hultgren gave me an idea on this.  And he said, “I want you to go study the word S-a-p-h.  It means container, containment.”

And I began to think on that.  And the more I began to think on that, God spoke a word in my heart and He said, “What’s in your container?”

And I said, “What?”

And He said, “What’s in your container?  What are you connecting yourself with?  What are you putting in your container?”

And I began to think.  I began to think about the people in my container.  And I began to think about the dreams in my container and the junk in my container that had no business being in my container.

And the Lord gave me a vision on the things in my container, and He showed me a rope.  And I thought, A rope?  What do I need a rope in my container for?

And He was filling things in my box.  He showed me a box, a container.  He showed me the box God wanted me to have, and He showed me an identical twin, the box satan wanted me to have.  Satan can’t create, but he can counterfeit, and he counterfeits good.

And I’m sitting there looking at these two containers, and God said, “The world will want you to put the counterfeit in the container,” and God wants you to have the real in the container, but it’s up to you to know the difference.

And He said, “Examine your container.  Examine what’s in your container.  Is it fake, or is it real?”

And I remembered that silly song that God always reminds me of, “I didn’t know the devil would have blue eyes and blue jeans.”  Everything is going to look so good, but is it God?  Everything may look so appealing, but is it God?  Everything may look like it’s peachy, the building may look perfect, the girl may look perfect, but is it God?

Same way with our substance.  There is a substance, an essence—the word is anointing—but it’s individual.  It’s not corporate.  There is a substance, the essence of God that God has placed in each and every one of us that only you can step into.  I can’t step into Billy Joe’s anointing.  I can’t step into Richard’s.  I can’t step in my mom’s.

God has given me an anointing.  And when I step over into that anointing, then I am fulfilled in what the Bible calls the glory of God.

Now if you look very carefully—and I’m not going to make you turn there—but the reference of John 17 talks about Jesus in all of His glory.  And then He talks about going on, and this is the night that He knows, “My time has come.”  He’s going to be crucified.

And as He’s about to be crucified, He said, “God, the glory that you placed in me, the glory in me, now I transfer to them.”

There is a glory.  And we think of that word, and we think it’s only just of God.  But when Jesus went to the cross, that same glory that was in Jesus got transferred into us for our own individual anointing.  And that word is the essence of God, and it translates substance.

Now think about that.  He said right here, “These women ministered to Jesus out of their substance.”  Now I could try and sing like Adrian.  It wouldn’t work.  He could try and sing like me.  Jesus, help him!

But you know what?  It’s like when we see a baseball player hit a ball out of the ballpark.  He’s in his glory.

It’s like when we see this young man sing.  He’s in his glory.

What happens when you step into that realm that is your substance and you take that substance and you begin to minister?  Two things will happen.  You’ll either minister to the world and be of the world, or you will begin to minister to God and be of God.  But doesn’t He say, “You are of God, little children.”

Everybody has a substance, but how do they use it?  Realistically speaking, how did Elvis use his?  Realistically speaking, how do some famous basketball players use theirs?  They’re in their glory, but are they glorifying God with what God put in them to glorify Him?  Maybe, maybe not.

And I want to look at the way we fill ourselves and take our substance and give it back to God.  When God fills us with a certain amount of substance, what do you do with it?  You know, if you look at your neighbor—I want you to turn to your neighbor, and it’s a saying I do all the time—turn to your neighbor and say, “You’re full of it.”  Now turn to your other neighbor, and very passionately tell them, “And you’re full of it too.”

Now whether or not that’s a compliment simply depends on what they’re full of, because what you’re full of will eventually manifest.  So what you’re full of depends on what you put in on the inside.

RR: That’s this university.  Turn to the person next to you and say, “ORU is ours.”  Turn to them and say, “ORU is ours.”  (Response)  ORU is becoming the university of choice for the Christian charismatic community.

And I want to say something to you, you ministers, what I say to parents every year at the beginning of the school year.  Send me your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren, your nieces, your nephews.  I will send them back to you better than you sent them to me.  That’s a promise that Lindsay and I make to parents every year.

Tonight is ORU night.  The offering tonight is designated for Oral Roberts University.  The Lord has been talking to me about what He wants to do tonight.  I’m going to ask Pastor Charles Green to come back up because when I shared with him what the Lord laid on my heart, he said, “I have a word about that,” and so does Billye Brim.  Billye, would you come back up for just a moment.

And as they’re coming, I want to remind you of Luke, chapter 10, verse 2.  Everybody say, Luke 10, verse 2.  The Bible says on that day, Jesus said, that “The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.  Pray ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into His harvest.”

I was having a conversation sometime ago with my father, and he and I were studying that scripture.  And he said something to me that changed my life.  He said, “Jesus said, ‘The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’”  He said, “Richard, the church has learned how to sow.” 

And it was my father many years ago who brought that principle of sowing like never before, so people did not give as a debt.  But because Jesus paid the debt—we sang about it tonight.  He paid the debt in full.  It can never be paid again.

He brought that sowing principle, he called it “the principles of Seed-Faith,” of God is your source, plant your seed, expect a miracle.  But he said, “Richard, many Christians have not understood that there is to be a harvest, and you have to labor for it.”  Now labor in the sense that you have to use your faith to believe for the harvest.

It will not be a division for there is no division.  . . . in the spirit of grace, and they will go and they will move.  And you will go and you will move.  And there will not be music that sounds right for youth and music that sounds right for old, but there will be new sounds . . . with the street of gold.  And you will sing by the spirit.  And your spirit will hear it, and you will move with heaven’s own song. 

GUY STUDENT: (Tongues)

BILLYE: So get yourselves together in this camp or that, but move in the power of My Spirit that man may see at last that the body of Christ is indeed young.  And we’re not divided as old and as young, but you will move (tongues) in the gifts of power.  And you will walk and move in this hour.  You will (tongues) even raise the dead, and . . . he said.  (Inaudible)  The body is one, the body is one.  Now both of you speak in tongues together.  (Tongues) 

For there is a voice that I want to give.  I have a voice that when it speaks, men shall live.  And that voice shall come through you, the body of Christ.  (Tongues)  And they will see too that you move in grace and you move in power.

Now link with these young people in this hour.  Young people, you link with those who have walked and tread longer and be even stronger.  But look for the power that is released this day as my servant did indeed say.  Something is falling on you right now.  It’s something new, and you’ll see how.  It is the old and the new together. 

The Word of God has said, it’s the latter and former together.  And you will be Spirit-led, Spirit-led into grace, Spirit-led into power, and the world will see that manifested   touch of God in this hour.  (Applause) 

RR: Well, come on, give a shout of praise to the Lord.  (Applause)  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  This is a spontaneous move of the Holy Ghost.  Come on, cut loose.  (Response)  This is a spontaneous move of the Holy Ghost.  Come on.  (Repeats)  Hallelujah!  This is a move of the Holy Ghost.  

Some of you are right where he was.  And he put out a fleece before the Lord.  I don’t recommend this, unless the Lord impresses you.  He said, “I’m going to quit the ministry, Lord.  I’m going to get a job at the S&Q Men’s Clothiers.  I’m quitting, unless You answer three fleeces.” 

He said, “I’m going to rent the auditorium in Enid,” which seated a little more than a thousand.  He said, “I want one thousand people there when I announce there’s going to be a healing rally.”  Now you have to know what kind of miracles that was.  He was running 75 in his church.      

The second fleece was that the offering would be received without the use of a stomach pump and that the offering would be enough to take care of all the expenses.

And the third fleece was, somebody would get healed.  They’d know it, and he would know it.  And if God did not answer those three fleeces, on the Monday morning he was resigning from the church and taking a job as a clothing salesman at the S&Q Clothiers.  You notice all the ribbons have been red, white, and blue.  Hallelujah!

My father, as I grew up, told me this story.  He said, “That Sunday morning in church, it was like a funeral because everyone knew the three o’clock hour was coming.  And everyone knew there was no way that a thousand people could show up.

But when he walked into that Enid auditorium that afternoon, the janitor met him at the back door and said, “Brother Roberts, would you like to know how many people are here?”

 “Yes.”

“There are more than a thousand.”

And then when the offering was raised, in typical Oral Roberts’ fashion, he said, “Go back and count it right now.  I’m going to wait on you,” and found that the offering was three dollars more than the expenses. 

And then when he preached a message on healing, “If You Need Healing, Do These Things,” he laid his hands on a woman, a German woman, who could not open and close her hand for 38 years.  And all of a sudden when he touched her, her hand loosed and she screamed.  And everyone saw that she was healed.