INTRODUCTION

What if God told you to buy a lottery ticket? What if God told you that he was going to ensure that you won the lottery? What if you were or are a Christian and know what the Bible says about Gambling, would you do it? Well, that is exactly what happened to me and here is what happened.

GOD AND THE LOTTERY

On Wednesday June 20th, 2007, while driving home, I saw a billboard for the Texas Lottery and it jumped off of the sign and glowed and just screamed at me. Well, I knew that there was no way that God wanted me to play the lottery so I rebuked that in Jesus name. However, it would not leave my thoughts. It kept constantly coming back up in my mind and pushing itself to the front. The strange thing was that it had the same sense and feeling of when I receive something that I know is from God, but I knew it couldn’t be and kept rebuking it. It got so strong at one point that I enlisted my wife to pray with me against this obvious thing from the devil. My wife had an interesting comment in her prayer after I had rebuked the devil and told him to flee and get that lottery thought out of my mind. She said in prayer, “God, if somehow this is from you, forgive us and clearly give us the numbers.”

Well, I was a bit shocked, but often my wife is wiser then I am and I agreed with her certain in my mind that God did not want me to play the lottery. That very night in prayer, as I prayed before me in large numbers that glowed, I saw six numbers. The numbers were given in a specific order. Immediately, I remembered what my wife had prayed even though I was still convinced that it must not be from God. In fact, I was so convinced that somehow the enemy had gotten intermixed with my attempts to pray that I opened my eyes to not see the numbers. But every time I closed my eyes to focus in on prayer, the numbers were there. After a bit of going back and forth, I just told God that if this was him, then he would have to make it clear, and he did. The numbers glowed brighter and resonated in my spirit. I wrote them down and decided that I had better play the lottery still unsure of what that meant.

The next morning was Friday. I mention this because I woke up with an overwhelming sense that I had to buy the lottery ticket today. I was not really sure why because the lottery was drawn on Saturday, but I could not shake it and decided that God knew better what he was doing then I was. So, I went into a convenience store and bought the ticket. At this point, I am still feeling uneasy about this because I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I bought the ticket.

I get out in the car, and I get an overwhelming sense that something is wrong. To be clear, I did not get a sense that buying the ticket was wrong, but that I had the wrong ticket. This was supported by two facts. First, the Texas Lottery is not dependant on the order of the numbers because you color in the six blocks on one game panel and I knew that the order was important. Second, the billboard for the lottery had a specific number on it as to what the jackpot was and this ticket’s listed jackpot did not match that number. I would have shaken this off, but it was clear and strong that this was the wrong ticket.

To determine what was wrong, I decided to drive to work in a manner that would have me pass the very same billboard. When I did, I had my wife read it (because it was facing the other side of traffic) and discovered to my surprise that there were two Texas Lotteries (actually there are more, I just thought that there was one). As my wife read off which lottery it was, I realized that I had bought the wrong ticket as God was telling me.

So, I found another convenience store. When I got to the lottery station, I pulled out the appropriate ticket. This lottery was one of those that had you pick five of the six numbers and then select the special number for your last pick. Since God had already told me that the order was important, I then selected my numbers placing the last number given as the special number.

Here is where things really start to get interesting. As I looked at the card, the remaining six numbers filled in and made a pattern that was the number seven. I took this as an odd occurrence and possible sign that I was doing what God really wanted me to do because it still seemed odd to me. Furthermore, the original ticket I bought was to be drawn on Saturday as I understood the lottery to be, but this one was to be drawn Friday night. In other words, if I had waited until Saturday like I thought I had the time to do, I would have missed this drawing. This is why God impressed upon me that it was important that I buy the ticket on Friday.

I bought the right ticket and went back to the car. My wife was quick to point out that God must really want to do something with us because the enemy attacked and made us buy the wrong ticket to begin with. I agreed, but still had an issue with the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I did it and I was obedient and I prayed to God that if somehow I was missing this, that he forgive me.

Now, during this time, I had been listening to a series on CD by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland about the power of Faith (Victory Campaign 2003). I am a Word of Faith Holy Spirit filled believer, but I have not walked in great victory because I had not believed and cut off the Holy Spirit from sending it to me. I knew the scriptures, but it was still something I was struggling with. Well, during this series, they were speaking about believing God and having your faith out there for God to perform his word and prosper you. I knew that God was speaking to me and I went to him in repentance and prayer. During this prayer, God clearly showed me (and to be honest he had showed me the night before, but I had not believed it) that I had to believe that I was going to win the lottery because God was going to make it happen. All I had to do was believe.

Well, I struggled all day long and the enemy did his share to keep me having to press into God. I was praying almost all day that God would prosper me, bless me, fill me, give me to the overflow and every other scripture that I knew about prosperity. I was pressing in with all that I had and still had to struggle against the unbelief that kept trying to find its way back into me. My wife joined me in this prayer and believed with me. Actually, it was easier for her to believe then for me, but then that is why I have a great wife.

Now, before I tell you what happened, I need to explain a misconception that I had. I had put my faith in God having me win the lottery, but I had inadvertently believed the lottery to be my source. I saw God as the one that was going to have me win, and then saw the lottery as the way I was going to get out of debt. This was not right and I had to get myself correct in my thinking. That came from another gift from the Copeland’s in the “From Faith to Faith” daily devotional. As God would have it, the subject for that day was that we should give and expect a harvest a concept that I believed in. But one of the points they made was that God was our source and that we should always look to him. It was then that I realized my mistake about seeing the lottery as my source and repented and felt the presence of God come over me. And he spoke to me, but before I tell you what he told me, let me tell you the outcome of the lottery.

When I checked the numbers of the lottery, I discovered that I did not win the jackpot prize. I was bummed. I felt like a failure because I knew that God was well able to have me win the lottery and I really thought I heard him tell me that I would win. This then did not connect with my understanding of scripture and that God could carry out his promises. Because remember, I believed that God told me that I would win the lottery and I did not win the jackpot. This was not that I asked to win the lottery at least not before God told me that I would win and that I had to believe on him that he would make me win. He told me first. So, I was struggling as I looked to the book I mentioned earlier by the Copelands. That is when I received revelation.

Now, I did in fact win the lottery. As it happens, on this particular lottery game, if you match the special number, you win a prize. I did match the special number and won four times the cost of the ticket as a prize. I didn’t win the jackpot, but God never promised me that I would. However, God did have me win the lottery just as he told me I would.

Back to my revelation about God being my source. When I got that and prayed to him, he spoke to me. What he said is powerful. He told me the following. “I had you buy the ticket and win the lottery so that I could show you that just as I had you win the lottery I can and will prosper you. Just believe in me and I will see to you.”

I now know that God will always provide for me and will prosper me as his word declares because he loves me.

SCRIPTURE

I am God’s, Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s. I am not my own but am Christ’s. I am one of his sheep and I hear his voice and I follow what he tells me to do even if it does not make sense to me.

Jesus told me to pray and ask for the lottery to be mine and I did. This was because I was in Jesus and standing on his word that was in me and therefore I saw what I asked for happen.

God is my source and I am his. My life is his, and he is my source for all things. Furthermore, if I remain in him, I can ask for whatever I want and he will give it to me. This is what God was teaching me and I am grateful for it.

CONCLUSION

God’s ways are not our ways, but he does have a plan and a purpose for each of us because he loves us and wants to bless us, prosper us, heal us and grow us into maturity. Follow him when he speaks to you and do not doubt no matter how odd it may sound.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Testimonies, Miracles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.