A. GIVE TO THE POOR:
God’s compassionate heart.
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Giving to the poor is the only giving that isn’t given to God, but to mankind.
The rate of reimbursement of alms giving is money💰 to money 💰.
He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back
what he has given (Proverbs 19:17).
Why do you think this type of giving is not multiplied back to you?
Could it be the soil?
God is compassionate, and giving to those less privileged or less fortunate, honors God’s heart for suffering humanity.
When we give to the poor, we are giving for God.
God wants us to give to the poor.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus told us to give to the poor in secret?
Could it be so we don’t become connected to the wrong power? The spirit behind the poor (POVERTY)!
It’s bad soil. Keeping a heart towards the poor is a biblical command. Jesus expects us to give to the poor as our Christian duty and to show mercy, not to receive a harvest. We should always give to the poor in secret.
It’s good to give to the poor when you need healing. The Bible says that when you remember the poor, your health will spring forth speedily. Do give to the poor for your healing. That's Isaiah 58:7-8.
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What not to do when you give to the poor:
1. Don't give your best.
We are instructed to let the poor glean the edges of our fields.
“Do not waste your good seed among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3).
As a business owner, John is constantly asked for donation. He used to give them his best paint. Then one day, he had an epiphany: “They haven’t sown, but they are asking to reap the best. I’m only giving them the edges of my field from now on.” He reserves his best deals for people who are great customers
“Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).
Learn from the birds. They don’t sow, so they have no harvest, and nothing extra. But God is merciful to them. He feeds them. We can follow his example.
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2. Poor doesn’t equal lazy.
Or helpless. The Bible says to leave the edges of your fields for the poor to glean; it doesn’t say to pick it for them and hand it to them. Giving
handouts makes us feel good, but it strips the poor of their dignity.
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3. Don't expect a harvest.
Galatians 6:7 says we reap what we sow; that means the soil determines the harvest, and you do not want what the poor have to give.
It's rocky, thorny, shallow soil.
Alms are not seeds; they are a loan to the Lord. If you don't want to reap
poverty, don't lay your hands on your money and ask God for a harvest from your donations to the poor.
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4. Don't give it publicly.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus told us to give our alms to the poor in secret? Jesus doesn’t even want your left hand to know what your right hand is doing.
Remember: We don’t connect to the person, we connect to the source behind the power they are walking in, and the source behind alms is a curse! It’s bad soil from an investment standpoint.
John and I give to the poor regularly. So I am certainly not saying “don’t
give to the poor.” I am saying, “This is how to give to the poor".
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B. OFFERINGS
“Offerings begin at eleven percent.”
Once you are a tither, the fun begins!
The tithe establishes the covenant; it’s our foundation. And since the tithe doesn’t belong to you in the first place (the tithe is the Lord’s), it’s not an eligible seed. That’s what offerings are for.
There are many different types of offerings:
The Daily Seed,
The Seed of Obedience,
The Widow’s Mite,
Missions
Giving,
Seed-Faith,
Sacrificial Giving,
The Precious Seed, etc.
John and I have fun giving offerings. Hardly a day goes by without us
giving something to someone. That’s our daily seed giving.
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“Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both” (Ecclesiastes 11:6).
Once I put a dress on to go shopping. I looked in the mirror and thought, “This is the last time I will wear this dress.” I went to a clothing store, and the clerk complimented me on my dress. Then she mentioned again how much she liked it.
I bought a new outfit and went into the dressing room, and I changed out of my dress. I walked by her on the way out and handed it to her. I told her Jesus loves her. She was so happy.
A couple weeks later, a friend said she had a dress custom made, and it still somehow didn’t fit her. She gave it to me. It was much nicer than the dress I had given away. And it fit like it was made for me. See? Giving is fun!
John had an extra wedding band I bought him that was a little too big. One day Kevin was over, and mentioned he lost his ring. I gave him John’s extra one, it fit him perfectly. One day later, someone gave me a much nicer ring that fit me perfectly.
Giving is like a boomerang, except it always comes back around bigger and better than when you throw it.
The Seed of Obedience is one of my favorites. This is when God gives you a specific instruction on what to give. When He does this, He already has your harvest on His mind. When God gives me an instruction, I have great expectancy in my giving. I know it’s a done deal! “Whatsoever He says to you, do it" (John 2:5).
The Widow’s Mite Seed is your humble, small beginnings seed. Don’t despise it! Sometimes big isn’t how much you give, but how much you have left. It’s big in the eyes of God, and the ball will start rolling to change your future in a God-sized way.
When Jesus stood by the offering basket, He watched how the people put the money in, not how much they put in. It’s a story we already covered, found in the book of Mark, verses 41-44.
The size of the contribution isn’t what God is looking at. He doesn’t need our money, so how do we establish a valuable offering when the One we give to doesn’t need it?
God thought of everything. He doesn’t look at what we give, but how precious it is to us. God depends on us to establish the value of what we give. If it takes our breath away, it will take His breath away, too.
The Precious Seed happens in the heart of man. That’s where God looks.
Notice what the passage says: It says Jesus observed HOW the people
tossed the money into the offering, not HOW MUCH the people tossed in.
It’s not the amount; it’s the preciousness. If our offering is precious to us, it will be precious to God, too. God gave “the precious” when He gave Jesus to die for us; Jesus was God's BEST.
The widow gave the precious when she fed the man of God with her
and her son’s last cake and water.
Samuel was Hannah’s precious offering. She told God, “Give me a
baby boy, and I will give him back to You.”
Isaac was Abraham’s precious. He offered Isaac up, then God said, “Now I know you see Me as your God!”
Benjamin was the precious. Joseph said, “If you don’t bring
Benjamin…”
What is your “precious?” Will you trust God with it?
Missions Giving is another type of giving that honors God by honoring His command to go unto all the world and preach the good news.
You give to missions when you give an offering to a traveling evangelist, or partner with someone taking a Mission trip. You can give at church and earmark it for Missions. You can even sow your time and take a Mission trip yourself. Even praying for missionaries is a seed.
Friends of ours were sent to the other side of the world as missionaries, and we set up a monthly donation for them. Later that day, I was pushing my three-year-old grandson Asher on the swings, and out of the blue, he said, “Gaga, I want to talk about GOD!” I led him to the Lord on the swings; it will always be remembered as one of the most precious moments of my life. I sowed. I reaped.
Sacrificial Giving is when God asks you to use the money you were saving for something else. Here is my husband John, telling his have i I'll bridge account’, the biggest account we ever bid.
The bridge account was a huge opportunity to paint bridges in the state. In the past, it was given to the big national paint companies, but we miraculously made it to the last round of bidding. It was a toss-up between our regional company and one other huge national company.
Soon we got the news--the national company won the bid. They beat us out.
I was mad at God and my wife. I told her, “This giving thing does not work! We lost the bid.”
Judy said, “It’s not over.” And I snapped back at her, “It is over. It’s over.
They awarded the job to the other company today.”
Judy said again, “I’m telling you, honey, it’s not over until God says it’s over. He has a million ways to get you that job.” But I was determined to pout. In all my years, I’ve never seen a job come back around once it was given to another company.
Three days later, the bridge account called and said the national company was playing fast and loose with the rules. They informed me that they were pulling the bid from them and giving it to us. We got the job after all. It was far and away the biggest account we’ve ever landed.
I excitedly thought, “I have to call Judy!” Then I thought, “Shoot, I have to call Judy…” As you can probably guess, she wasn’t a bit surprised. She has mountain-moving faith!”
God already had John’s harvest in mind when He instructed him how much to sow. That seed covered so many kinds of giving: it was a precious, obedient, sacrificial, faith seed.
It’s important to note that a sower never considers his circumstances before he plants.
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This is a trap!
If you’ll only obey Me and let Me help you, I’ll make you rich!
(Isaiah 1:19).
Notice this verse doesn't say, "I'll make you rich when the economy improves." We have to give first, then God provides the increase.
John and I had a perfect financial storm brewing overhead, and it had the ability to wipe us out in one fell swoop.
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What did we do?
We INCREASED our giving!
We needed some big things to happen, so we had to give big. Even though our income went down, we did not decrease our tithe--we kept giving on the income we had before--and we increased our upward giving by 50%.
Not only did our troubles vanish, the people causing us trouble had to pay
us thousands of dollars for our trouble. And we never stepped foot in court.
God honors faith. He found other ways to prosper us, and we never missed a beat. He confirmed that our job is not our source; God is our source.
God is no respecter of persons. He will honor you, too! He loves you so much. Don't look at the circumstances and let fear cause you to choke off in your giving.
“He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to be favorable] will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4). We aren't tied into the world system; that's for the heathen.
God's seed system is alive and well, and there is no shortage there. It’s our job to stay connected to God’s way of doing things.
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NOTE:
If you are interested in the post and will like to get in touch of such-like daily, please consider following me @revjohno upvote and reblog the post - Thanks.
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DISCLAIMER:
The original author of the post is John and Judy O'Leary, a couple. Extracted from their book titled: Financial Success: God's Way: Millionaire Secrets to Overflowing Wealth which the cover page is shown below:
