What is the Cost of Gospel?
Excerpt from Sunday Chat Line 04/14/02
Many have accused me of charging for prophecy tapes. I do not charge for prophecy tapes. I receive donations so that I can do the prophecy tapes but the Word is not for sale. You cannot put a price on the Word. How can you do that?
When I was advertising in Charisma magazine for five years, it was a battle! Many pastors thought that I was getting rich off of the prophecy tapes. Little did they know that my wife is cleaning houses so that we can provide prophecy tapes to those who wanted the prophecies. A lot of times we could not even pay for the advertising that Charisma charged us. Many of the complaints came from pastors who thought we were making tons of money. They did not want us to charge for the tape or even to ask for love offerings. They felt we should do it for free. But Jesus spoke to me one day that stuck. He said, “Son, the gospel is not cheap. It cost me my life. If you do not put something into it, you are not going to get anything out of it because it will be worthless to you.”
In a lot of ways we have watered down Christianity to the place where it has no value. If you say it doesn’t cost you anything then you know what it is worth? Nothing. We cannot do that much longer because what Jesus wants from us is not our money, not our filthy loot. He wants our whole life! Do not worry about the bucks, He wants more than that! He wants our flesh and blood! He wants our mind and our soul! He wants all of our deeds. He wants our children. He wants our job, our business. He wants everything!
I have gotten accused many times regarding this issue:
“Brother, you cannot merchandise the anointing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You can not sell the anointing.”
“What are you saying?”
“Well, you cannot charge for these tapes.”
“I am not charging for the tapes.”
“But you are asking people to give money.”
“Yes, I am so that I can keep doing this.”
“Brother, you can’t do that. You cannot merchandise the anointing.”
“OK, let me ask you a question. You sell teaching tapes. How much do you charge for your teaching tapes? Are they not anointed? Charisma magazine and all these things you put on print, is it not anointed? You mean, if it is not anointed, I can charge for it? Who then would want it?”
Speak about stigmas we get into. It is remarkable that not too many years ago we had a real paranoia in the church about computers. Many thought it was the mark of the beast and that it would gobble us up and take us to hell. It is amazing how funny we can be. When the ministry had the 900 number, it did not work because everybody was afraid of the 900 number. It is just a tool for the ministry but everybody paralleled it with the psychics or with the porno commercials. There was a stigma on the 900 numbers and it could not be removed yet it was just a simple tool. We have to look beyond our limited ways and start focusing on what God wants us to do so then we will be able to accomplish what God has put us here to do.