"Brother Jesse," someone said, "I can't find chokehold' in my concordance." You're right, there is no "parable of the chokehold." I discovered it one day while I was reading my favorite chapter in the Bible, Mark 4, which deals with the parable of the sower and the seed.
In that parable, the sower sowed four different times. He didn't get a harvest from the first three times he sowed, but the fourth time, the seed fell on good ground, and it sprang up and increased. Let's look at that parable beginning with verses 3-8:
Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.Too Much
And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred.
(Mark 4:3-8_
I focused on verse eight. The seed planted in good ground sprang up and increased—some by 30, some by 60 and some 100 fold. For the first time, I noticed that the Lord added 30 to it each time. He doubled it!
Some increased by 30.
Some increased by 60.
Some increased by...shouldn't that be 90 instead of 100?
I read it again. Thirty...60...100.
There was no way around it. God seemed to have made a mathematical mistake! Since I know the Lord, I decided to ask Him about it. "Jesus?" I asked.
"What?"
"Did you write Mark, chapter four?"
"I certainly did."
"Did you write verse eight?"
"It's in red?"
"Yeah, it's in red."
"I wrote it."
"Every word?"
"Every word."
"I noticed that you were adding by 30..."
"That's exactly what I did."
"Well, Lord, I'm not trying to correct you, but Cathy wanted to know..."
No, that's what I wanted to say. Instead, I asked, "If you were adding by 30, wouldn't you say 30, 60 and 90?"
"That's correct."
"But you said 30, 60 and 100."
"That's correct."
"Well, why would you say 30, 60 and 100?"
"Too much."
"Too much...?"
"I'm the God of too much."
God, by His own definition, is too much. He's too much! That's why I wrote my book, God Is Not Enough, He's Too Much! He's got too much mercy; too much grace.
Stop The Blessing
The Lord said, "Let me tell you why I said 30, 60 and 100. I wanted to find out where you choke."
"Where I choke?"
"Yes, where do I have to stop blessing you, because you choke?"
The Lord was trying to teach me about chokeholds. For instance, if you gave $1,000 to the Lord today, do you believe God could give you $100,000 by tomorrow morning?
"Well, Brother Jesse, that's a lot of money...auggghh...gagghh."
You choked. But can God do it? He wants to bless you 100 fold, so a 100-fold return on $1,000 is $100,000. What if you gave $1,000? Could God give you $60,000 by tomorrow?
Most of you are still choking, but I want you to notice that God wrote this before any of us were ever born. We didn't ask Him to do it. He is El Shaddai, and He offered. We choked on doubt and unbelief.
I have one daughter, Jodi Walker, who is married. A few years ago, Jodi and her husband, Ed, bought a nice house. Like most people, they spent every penny buying a home, then began saving and believing God for furniture, one piece at a time.
As soon as they bought the house, Jodi called and asked Cathy and me to come see it. They were so excited to show us around. Jodi showed me a picture in a magazine of a needlepoint rug they were going to save up and buy for their living room.
The rug cost somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000. I said, "Jodi, why don't you let your mother and me buy you this rug as a house-warming gift?"
"Oh, Daddy, no! That's too much! We don't want you to do that!"
"Okay," I said. Later, we got in our car and went home. I realized that we're all a lot like Jodi. She didn't ask me for that rug. She wasn't being greedy. I just wanted to bless her, because I'm her father. Why didn't she have that rug in her living room? Because she choked.
Removing The Chokehold
About 10 months later, we were at Ed and Jodi's house again when I started looking around in her kitchen and dining room. "Dad," she said, "Ed and I are saving money to put up drapes in here." She showed me the fabric she had picked out.
"I tell you what, Jodi," I said, "why don't you let your mama and me be a blessing to you? Let us buy those drapes."
"Oh, Daddy, that's too much. We don't know exactly how much they'll cost. It's just too much—we can't."
She wasn't being greedy, she just couldn't receive what her father wanted to give her. She choked.
Two years later, Cathy and I were riding in the back seat of their car. They had had the car for a year or two, but I admired it again. "Jodi, this is a nice car."
"You like it, Daddy?"
"Yeah, I like it."
"Ed and I love it, and we've decided to keep it forever. We think it's kind of a classic."
"Jodi, who owns the mortgage on it?"
She gave me the name of a bank.
"How much do you owe on it?"
"I don't know, about $18,000 or $19,000.
"Why don't you drive over to that bank, and I'll just pay off this car today?"
Would you like to guess what she said?
"Let the Lord lead you, Daddy! Let the Lord lead you!"
What happened? She took the chokehold off. You know, she and Ed never asked me to help them. They make their own money, and they work hard for it. But I wanted to bless them. When she finally took the chokehold off, we drove over there and paid off that car.
My point is this—all those blessings, from the rug to the car, were always available to Jodi, just waiting out there until she could remove the chokehold and receive them.
Thirty-Fold Healing
I'll never forget one woman I prayed for early in my ministry. She said, "Brother Jesse, I have cancer in my body. I need a miracle, or I'll die."
"I'll lay hands on you," I declared, "and God will heal your body right now." She believed; she had faith. In the midst of my prayer, I said, "I rebuke that cancer in Jesus' name!"
Right then, I heard that woman say, "Lord heal me of this cancer! I'll keep the diabetes." Why would she say that? She figured she could live with the diabetes, but she couldn't live with the cancer. She choked and couldn't receive all that God offered. She didn't want to be greedy.
That woman couldn't receive all that God offered her in healing. A lot of folks can't receive all that He offers them in finances.
I was preaching on Mark, chapter four, one time in a university setting when a theologian said to me, "You faith people think that the Lord is talking about finances there, but He's not talking about finances at all." I looked at him and thought, Here's another one educated beyond his intellect.
"Well, Sir, what was He talking about?"
"If you'd read the whole chapter, you'd realize that the Lord was talking about the Word."
"Is there any particular verse where He says that?" I asked.
"Yes, verse 14 says, The sower sows the Word."
I looked at him and asked, "What's in the Word?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused. Since you said that He's talking about the Word, what's in the Word? Tell me what's in the Word that you can receive a 30-, 60- or 100-fold return on."
He cleared his throat.
"For instance, is healing in the Word? If so, can I receive a 30-fold healing? Like, one leg gets healed and you drag the other one around? Bless God, this one is healed, but the other one is thirty fold!"
He cleared his throat again.
"Are finances in the Word?" I pressed.
"Well, yes."
"So, when I sow finances, can I receive 30, 60 or 100 fold since it's in the Word?"
"You know," he said, "I've never thought about it like that."
Exceedingly Abundantly
Whenever God tells me to do something impossible, I'm learning to remove the chokehold. One thing that helps me do that is meditating on Ephesians 3:20-21:
Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.He is able to do exceedingly...abundantly...above...all that we could ask or think. Do you know what that means? If you want to experience the exceedingly abundantly above that God has for you, there's something you need to do.
(Eph. 3:20-21)
Rip off the chokehold of doubt and unbelief. Pin that sucker to the mat. Then, step into your destiny.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Jesse Duplantis is a dynamic evangelist who has traveled throughout the world since 1978 preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries (JDM), which has its International Headquarters in America and additional offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. 
