In Your Bible Read This
Out Loud: Proverbs 19:17
Memorise This Verse:
Matthew 25:40 'Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me'
Afterwards Talk About
This: What are the implications of God viewing a gift to one
of his children, as a gift to him personally.
Something To Do Before
Next Time: In prayer, ask God to show you further benefits to
giving.
Written Diploma Work:
Write one side on the earthly benefits of giving.
Meditate Word By Word On
This Verse: Matthew 10:42
The previous section
regarding money being God's yardstick with which he judges our Christian
lives should in itself give anyone enough reasons to be dedicated to
giving their money into the work of God. However this section will seek
to list even more reasons and benefits to giving such that if you are
not already a giver your heart will be won over to want to give to God
and the extension of his Kingdom. In the area of giving you are either
faithfully giving on all your income all the time or you are not the
bible has nothing to do with part-time givers. Consequently as you read
the reasons and benefits to be a giver let God speak to your heart to
see if you are being obedient in your giving, or if you need to commit
to be a systematic, diligent, full-time giver.
The biggest benefit to
giving is that as we give, we start to activate the laws that will
release the many forms of God's blessing, such that we will be in an
even better position to give in the future. For example, you could take
a single apple seed and plant it and produce an apple tree with 8 apples
on - each apple would have 5 seeds so from planting the initial seed you
will produce 40 more seeds. These 40 seeds could then also be planted
and they too could produce trees with 5 apples with 4 seeds in them
giving a total of 800 more seeds. These 800 seeds could then be planted
and they too could produce trees with 5 apples with 4 seeds in them
giving a total of 16,000 more seeds to plant.
The eternal laws of sowing
and reaping are there for our benefit and to release the many different
blessings of God in our lives by giving we expose ourselves to allow the
law of sowing and reaping to work in our benefit. Through giving we sow
seeds that will eventually come back to us in a wave of many forms of
blessings, our giving is an investment in our financial futures and as
we are diligent, consistent, righteous and faithful we have every right
to confidently look for the blessing of God in our lives. If a farmer
never sowed seed he would not get a harvest as in the natural realm
there are no surprise harvests in the spiritual realm we also will not
get a harvest unless we sow financial seeds into the work of God.
A further reason to be a
giver is that giving our money is a method by which God can see who is
mature and capable of being entrusted with leadership anointings and
giftings it would appear that giving is the gateway to maturity and
leadership in the Christian life. In Luke 16:1-13 Jesus tells a parable
about money and at the end of the parable in verse 11 he says, 'So if
you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust
you with true riches?'. Consequently, unless we have shown leadership,
stewardship and diligence with all our financial dealings we disqualify
ourselves from entering into our full potential, our true anointing and
our ultimate destiny in the Kingdom of God.
This is a solemn fact that
if it was applied to many Pastors, Elders, Evangelists and Worship
Leaders it would expose them as being spiritually unfit for the
positions they hold in the church. Fortunately, many churches do
not allow people into membership (let alone leadership) unless they
commit to be tithers and this is a very good rule for any Pastor to
implement in a church. Perhaps God has given you have dreams of knowing
your true potential in God and fulfilling the destiny he has for you in
order to do so you must enter through the gateway to your destiny and
this gateway is your financial dealings. Unless your finances and your
giving is right before God you cannot be released into your ultimate
destiny by being givers we progress to maturity, anointing and
leadership in the Kingdom of God.
One major reason to give is
that the bible reveals that as we give to the work of the Kingdom and in
particular the people of God, it seems that God takes it as a personal
favour such that whatever we do for his children, we do it also unto the
Lord. For example if you have children and some one went out of their
way to help them, you would esteem and thank them for it - and do you
think our heavenly Father is any different! Just look at these
scriptures below whenever we give, God considers it an act of love and
kindness not only to the person who receives, but also towards him as
well.
We can't give our money to
God personally, but when we give our money in his name to those around
us in order to draw them into the Kingdom of God, it would appear to be
as good as giving to God himself.
Proverbs
19:17 'He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward
him for what he has done'
Matthew
25:40 'Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me'
Matthew
10:40 'He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives
the one who sent me'
Hebrews 6:10
'God is not unjust he will not forget your work and the love you have
shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them'
Hebrews
13:16 'And do not forget to do good and to share with others for with
such sacrifices God is pleased'
One of the most exciting
reasons to give is that we can experience in a very real and sometimes
dramatic way the intervention of God in our lives. The bible says in
Deuteronomy 6:16 that we should not put God to the test, however, the
one exception to this is found in Malachi 3:10 where the Lord himself
dares his people to test his faithfulness by being tithers and seeing if
he doesn't shower them with blessing.
Perhaps you have never
stepped out in faith and received wonderful answers to prayer? why not
put the God of abundance to the test and prepare for a surprise!. When
you see God intervene in your life and the blessings start to flow
towards you, it makes God so big and so real and it will strengthen your
faith and you can rest and be at peace in the knowledge of his goodness.
Furthermore, 2 Peter 1:3
shows that God intends us to share in his divine nature and to
increasingly reveal the nature of Christ in our lives would any of us
dare to say that God is a selfish and tight-fisted person - surely not!
For God so loved the world that he GAVE! Jesus so love us that he gave
himself for us the divine nature is a giving, unselfish nature - through
generous giving we conform ourselves to the nature of Jesus. Perhaps it
is fitting to conclude with the words of Jesus whatever he said we
should believe and put into practice in the sure knowledge that he knows
what is best for us. Acts 20:35 says, 'It is more blessed to give than
receive' if for no other reason, we should be givers because Jesus said
that we should and we will be blessed if we do so. We can therefore see
that Jesus confirms that life will be much, much better for the giving
Christian, rather than the non-giving Christian.
A House of
Prayer for the Poorer Nations
Pray for Ecuador
12,646,068 people,
declining Catholic majority
Tremendous church growth but infighting by
Catholics and Protestants.
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