9.10.06

You cannot out-give God

Here's a testimony I knew I would be able to give. Why? Because I took God at his word.

At the Elders and Leaders' conference a couple of weeks ago we took up not just one offering but two, and the second was in response to a prophetic word from the Lord. This word was that we were to try to be like God in his generosity, but that we would never be able to attain such a target because no matter how much we gave, God would always give more. Taking up an offering in response to such a word was fairly obvious, even though we had already just given, but another word came, through a proven prophetic ministry I know and trust: "Whatever you give, you will have back within the week."

This then presented me with a challenge. Not whether I should give; that was obvious. But how much? If I really believed that was the word of God then a "generous" amount would be very different from one where I could only give what I could spare. I took a deliberate decision to receive the prophetic word as the word of God, and stepped out in faith giving a lot more than I would have otherwise, believing that I would get it all back.

One week came and went, but both Jacqueline (who wasn't there when I gave) and I still held on to the word. If you examine prophetic time periods in the Scriptures, you will see that they are very rarely exact.

Today we received a cheque from the Inland Revenue, covering everything we had given to the Lord, plus another £80! Praise God.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris
Praise God that through faith He has met you.

There is a basic principle that runs throughout the bible (one to which I'm sure your know), which we as Christians need to learn and understand, and is so evident from your post. One person that we can learn from is Moses, Exodus 7:19-20 it says

The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'-and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars." Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood.

Point 1 - God spoke – When God speaks it will happen, no matter what (God spoke to Moses)
Point 2 - the spoken word needs to become the acted word (Moses took an act of faith and stretch out his hand over the water)
Point 3 - the acted word becomes the fulfilled spoken word (God said that the water would turn to blood and it did).

As in a recent post of yours from James 1:22

Don't just listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Can I Also add one from John 2:5
whatever he tells you to do, do it.

Praise God that you have acted on the spoken word and He has met you.

I trust and pray that we all become obedient to the spoken word

Richard

Gavin White said...

Praise God - Great Testimony, Rachel and Myself have had exactly the same testimony from the same conference following the word about receiving the money back given in the offering.....about 5 days after offering, we received an amount of money that was more than we had given to God in the offering..you are right, you cannot never outgive God - PRAISE GOD!!

Anna Sacha said...

praise God!!
he does indeed return the same and more to us and the creativity of his returns are amazing!!